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  Sharon hesitated, but ended up nodding her head. Taking a few steps forward, she reached the door we had chosen. “Alright. But you picked our two powerhouses to go off on their own. This is going to get a bit harder with just the two of us.” She admitted with a light smile. While her words may have sounded like she was worried, the expression on her face showed that she enjoyed the challenge.

  “I know.” I nodded. “You worry about the doors, leave the fighting to me. I want to test something.” I glanced down towards the slime sword in my hand as I said that, and she seemed to understand.

  “Alright. One door, coming right up.” She said with a grin, metallic blades forming along her wrists. She stabbed those blades into the door and let out a shout as she spread her arms wide, forcing it open. Once again, I was forced to accept the results of her spending so many of her stat points in strength and dexterity.

  However, once the door was open, it was my turn. To make this work, I converted my entire arm into slime, before splitting it into countless threads. Using my Spatial Comprehension skill, I was able to accurately send all of the slime threads through the door, bypassing Sharon. Once inside, each one turned into the same sword that I had been wielding moments before.

  There was a brief cry of alarm from within the room as it was turned into a sea of green blades. I could feel each one that made contact, and knew that there had been two guards within the room. Seeing as I was safely able to use the past tense to describe that, Sharon and I both walked into the room after I returned my arm to normal.

  “Huh, nice.” She said with a nod. “Might want to wait till we scout a room out first, but it seems pretty effective.” While she was saying that, I swayed on my feet slightly. While controlling the threads wasn’t too hard, the act of pushing enough mass into them to create all those swords was something that left me momentarily drained.

  “Yeah, no… I’ll figure something else out.” I decided. If it was the last room, and our only goal was to kill, then this would be an okay tactic. But with the sudden loss of strength that came after it, it was not worth it to use repeatedly, especially when we were looking to eventually capture some people.

  Sharon looked to me with concern before the two of us went forward again. Once more, there were two doors within this room that we could choose. However, this time we had no intention of splitting up, so we simply chose the door that was facing opposite of the base’s original entrance. It was safe to assume that the actual research would be conducted near the core of the facility, while the outer areas would be for things such as guard stations.

  In the next room, Sharon and I charged in together. This time, there were three human guards, along with another of the humanoid robots. Now that I was able to see it before it was being destroyed, I was finally able to confirm their appearance.

  Tall, over seven feet, with four white arms. Each of the top arms ended with a four-fingered hand, while the bottom arms both ended with a gun barrel-like shape. Though, that same shape could also be found in its stomach, head, and both sides of its chest. Wait, did that mean…

  “Hahah! Seriously!? I got shot by nipple lasers!?” Sharon laughed strangely as she walked into the room, and I felt a shiver going down my spine. This time, the robot was looking at a door to the left when we entered, so it didn’t blast us the moment the door opened. That was… probably a mistake on its part.

  Still, I couldn’t help but see the resemblance between these robots and the aliens that had served as grunts in the previous bases. If not for the fact that I had seen the robot’s insides while Yo was ripping the last one to shreds, then I might have had some rather morbid ideas about where they came from. I considered securing one of these robots to take back for Celeste to study, but I quickly gave up the idea of it being this particular one.

  Almost the instant that Sharon stepped through the door, the robot turned to face her. In a flurry of motion that I wasn’t sure she was capable of without Priscilla’s help, she appeared in front of the robot with the angriest smile I had ever seen on a woman. Her arms seemed to dance through the air as crisp sounds of metal striking metal filled the room.

  By that time, even the three human guards had begun acting, and turned their rifles towards Sharon. However, what kind of man would I be if I let someone shoot my wife? I mean, seriously? Pointing a finger at each guard, I sent them stabbing forward as slime blades to skewer each of them. While filling the room with slime blades may be something I can’t easily repeat, creating three blades like this is a much different story.

  By the time that I was able to look over at Sharon, her arms were still moving wildly. With each slice, sections of the robot would fall off of its frame. While it looked like she had already disabled it, as it was no longer showing any signs of movement, she simply continued slashing it apart until I cleared my throat.

  “Short on time, remember?” I reminded her gently, before pointing my hand towards the next door. She let out a small huff as she kicked the robot down to the floor, moving to the door.

  “Alright, fine. But I reserve the right to vent my frustrations.” She said with a wicked grin.

  I could only chuckle at that, nodding my head. However, soon Celeste’s voice spoke up over our comms. “We’ve captured the warp gate, guys. Give us a few minutes to an hour, and we should have a direct link to every gate the Empire controls.” She reported happily, before her voice turned seriously. “Also, be warned, I estimate you have two minutes before the reactor explodes down there. If you have any intentions of saving those bodies, make sure you are outside the base within that time limit. I’ll be ready to teleport you guys up if you exit.”

  After hearing that, Sharon and I looked at each other and nodded our head. We had two minutes left, and this whole trip was a waste if we did not at least capture someone. Though, it did felt nice to get to stretch my legs like this, but it somewhat lost its appeal since it wasn’t really that long since I was fighting in order to clear up the planets in the Gerin system.

  “Next guy we see?” Sharon asked, getting another nod from me. Most of the guards we had seen so far had the exact same face, meaning that they were likely all purchased through the markets as disposable characters. Adding onto that the fact that there were no alien slaves in this base, and it seemed like something was fishy. At the very least, I wanted to get someone who might know what this base was researching before we left.

  “If only I could use the elements, I could dig us through straight to the research areas.” I groaned in regret. Sharon sent a small smile my way as she proceeded to demolish the next door.

  Behind it were not the guards that we had expected, but a long and empty hallway lined with more doors. Though, given the fact that these doors were all opened, I felt like it was a safe bet that there were guards stationed inside, ready for ambush. “Please let there be someone that has their own face... “ I sighed as I walked forward with Sharon.

  As expected, the moment we began moving forward, dozens of laser blasts were aimed at us from people poking out through the open doorways. Notices of minor damage continued to appear in front of me, though I simply ignored them as I continued walking, letting Sharon take up position behind me. It wasn’t often that I got to play the role of the tank, so I was going to do the best that I could.

  However, it seemed that our hopes were for naught. For the last two minutes while we slaughtered our way through the base, we did not see a single person that had a unique face. While I did manage to capture a robot for Celeste to study, I wasn’t able to find any researchers. I could only hope that Yo had more luck than we did. Still, we continued going on until a blinding white light filled our vision.

  You have died. Good job.

  That message was never one that I enjoyed seeing, but after it passed I found myself waking up in my true body aboard the ship. Nearby, I heard several gasps as the girls woke up at the same time. Looking around, I found that Yo still had an annoyed expression on her face, though it had calm
ed considerably since when we split up.

  “Any luck?” I asked her, hoping that the two of them had been able to force their way deeper in than we had.

  Thankfully, she nodded her head, making a somewhat difficult expression as she spoke. “Two researchers.” She answered. “Kept their memories, though they are getting annoying. Hope you can find what you need quickly.” Yeah, I hope so too...

  Chapter 50: Author-sama’s Depression

  After getting back to the ship, I had Yo report to Celeste in order to have those memories extracted and searched for relevant information. While I could probably do so myself, Celeste is a better obvious choice for this, given that she would be able to better understand any technical information uncovered. As for myself, after ‘dying’, I made my way to the bridge.

  “Damage report.” I said as I arrived, looking at the crew members who were busily looking at their terminals.

  “Three shield emitters were damaged in the fight, captain. We have the materials to repair them, but it will take time.”

  After hearing the report, I nodded my head. “How long?” We were on a rather tight schedule as things were, if I wanted to have this all wrapped up before my grove underwent its next evolution.

  “If we get the Deus Ex to help us with converting the raw materials into the proper components and have them help with installation… three days, maybe.” I felt my eyes twitch slightly when I heard that.

  “Alright… Do it.” I said with a low groan. We didn’t know when we would be finding their true main base, but any base that we went to through their warp gate would likely be heavily defended. We couldn’t afford to go in without all of our systems working at their top performance, especially not our shields.

  Receiving the order, they began placing calls to the various nearby ships to ask for help in expediting the repairs. As for me, I gave a slight glance to the countdown for my grove. I wanted to be sure to know just how close we were cutting it.

  8:12:34:21 Remaining until Grove Evolution

  I was just about to breathe out a sigh of relief when another window appeared, which almost literally made me cough up blood.

  Oh great, the God of Writing got depressed again, so any time-based notifications may be a bit screwy. Sorry everyone, we’re sending out the correct information now!

  What… how does that even happen?! I thought the system was automated. Don’t tell me that one god in particular is responsible for managing the entire timeline for every system notification. That would be ridiculous.

  Of course not, John, that would be silly. He does, however, have to keep track of the different variables that alter major plot points-- I mean, major events in history. And when he forgets one… well, things can get a bit wonky. You can’t really blame him, it’s your own fault this time! That ring and staff combination was an unseen variable that he completely forgot about because you never do anything special with them!

  My ring and staff? Well, obviously he wasn’t talking about Lex. So, I looked down to my finger, and remembered the ring that Yin had given me from her first patron mission. I had really had it for so long that even I had forgotten about it. Not to mention the staff that combined with it to allow me to cultivate mana at a constant rate without needing to meditate.

  Shaking my head, I checked the countdown once again. Given the amount of mana being pulled from the staff and ring into my grove, that notification from before was obviously meant for me. I didn’t know how much time it shaved off, so it was better to check it myself.

  0:02:31:18 Remaining until Grove Evolution

  Honestly, I felt like crying at this point… From over a week remaining, I now had barely two and a half hours!? “Sharon, meet me at Airlock B as quickly as possible.” I sent the message over comms, before turning and running out of the bridge, leaving more than a few surprised gazes behind.

  “John, what’s going… oh, my…” I heard Celeste’s voice in my mind, no doubt she either overheard my transmission or felt my mental distress. “Be safe, John.” She said in a softer tone, likely knowing what I was about to do.

  “I will. You keep the ship safe while we’re gone.” I said aloud as I ran, not caring at this point if anyone heard me talking to myself. By the time I got to the airlock, which I chose because it was the closest one to the bridge, Sharon was already there waiting for me. Judging by her rough breathing, and the slight sweat on her forehead, she had ran straight here as soon as she got my message.

  “What’s going on, John?” She asked hurriedly, while I pulled her forward with me into the airlock. “You know I can’t breathe in space, right?!”

  “I’ll explain on the way.” I said quickly, activating my aura sight to temporarily change Sharon’s race, and my own, to a void elf, in order to allow her to survive in the vacuum that we were about to enter. Only once that was taken care of, and the airlock was opened did I begin explaining what had happened to Sharon.

  “Malthan fucked up my grove timer.” I told her, speaking through void mana so that she could hear me. “My grove evolution is coming now, not next week.”

  Hey, it wasn’t me! It was Author-sama’s fault! He forgot about your extra absorption passive!

  When I said that, ignoring the complaining window that appeared, I saw her face visibly pale, realizing the implications behind it. “Why’d you pull me along, then? I thought you had to do this alone, like all your other evolutions?” She sent back, her tone panicked.

  “Malthan told me before that it would be best if you were with me when this happened.” Though how much I wanted to believe him, I wasn’t sure. So far, he hadn’t strictly lied to me as far as I could tell, but he never really told me the whole truth either. “He said that it wouldn’t hurt you, but we need to get as far away from the fleet as possible.”

  When she heard that, Sharon’s face grew calmer, and she nodded her head. With her assistance, we increased the speed that we were flying away from the fleet. If possible, I would have liked to take us through subspace to get farther away, but Sharon did not have a way to protect herself in there like I did.

  As we flew, the ship gradually became smaller and smaller behind us, though even after two hours we could still easily see our fleet in the distance. When two and a half hours passed, the countdown finally hit zero. While feeling a surge of mana from within me, I saw another message appear in front of me.

  0:00:00:00 Remaining until Grove Evolution. Please stand by while the big bang commences.

  Unable to tell just how much of that was serious, I soon felt another surge of mana. This one, however, was not coming from me. Instead, it was coming from Sharon, and seemed to resonate perfectly with my own energy. Light began to warp around us as the mana distorted everything.

  This is the best part. Go watch your grove, you two lovebirds.

  When I saw that message, my eye once again twitched. Glancing off to the side, I saw that Sharon had a surprised reaction on her face, likely meaning that the window had appeared for her to. She looked up to me, giving a faint nod as she closed her eyes. For some reason, I could almost feel her looking into my grove, so I decided to join her.

  What we saw when we looked in was… beautiful, to say the least. The black hole that had condensed the entire grove into a single ball of matter had erupted. In its wake was stardust, scattered as far as the eye could see. And seeing as we could see everything in the grove, that was quite a distance. A distance which was constantly expanding, moving outwards at a speed we could barely even comprehend.

  Within that mass of stardust, we could still sense the mana of the universe, but there was so much more than normal. I could sense mana types that I had never felt before. Not only of Order and Chaos, of Light and Dark, but there were other mana types hidden within the streams of glittering dust. Yet, that was far from the end of the show.

  The last mana type that I felt released from the black hole, the one that had been pulled to its very core, was time mana. And when it washed out to cover t
his new universe, everything changed. Sharon and I could see as whirlpools of light seemed to pull the stardust together, condensing it into spheres of fire and stone. It was like watching the creation of the universe in fast forward, as more and more rocks collided with one another to form planets.

  But that wasn’t all. The mana of the universe kept expanding outwards, further and further. It didn’t stop at one solar system, or even one galaxy. The entire scene was captured within mine and Sharon’s view, as we watched the cosmos itself taking shape. Galaxies formed and collapsed, planets burned, and life took root.

  I couldn’t even count the number of planets within our grove that contained life, but not just because there were too many. Time was still moving forward, faster and faster. Species were born and went extinct in the next second. Billions of years seemed to pass as we watched, before finally everything settled down. Time slowed to a crawl, and we were finally able to get a good look at our grove.

  Even counting the number of galaxies seemed impossible, as they dotted the vast expanse. Each galaxy holding over tens of billions of stars, many of which had their own planets revolving around them. “Wow…” I heard off from my side, surprising me. I had never heard Sharon’s voice like this when we were both looking into our groves before.

  Floating next to me in the emptiness above the center of creation, was an ethereal, and very naked Sharon. She was looking down at a nearby galaxy, which seemed just so small from our perspective. When she looked up, and found me next to her, her eyes were as wide as saucers. “Does this mean… both of us?” She seemed to ask, before a message as large as a dwarf star appeared some distance away from us, a hanging blue panel in the sky.

  Congratulations! Sharon and John Hulett, you are now the proud owners of your own universe. Due to your connected groves, both of you are treated as equal owners of this new universe, and are able to control all that exists within it. But that’s not all! With great power, comes even more great powers.