Author’s Corner: Second chapter, as promised!

Sharon and I looked at each other. Honestly, there didn’t seem to be any downside to this. While it might not have been as big of a solution as I had initially hoped for, wasn’t this still pretty good? “Is there anything else we need to know?” I looked at Priscilla and asked, curious about this.

“Yes. The Essence of the World has to be made using medium grade seeds. The process would always fail if we tried with one made using low quality element seeds.”

Listening to her explanation, I nodded my head. Although it would still take me a few hours to refine all seven elemental seeds if I did it normally, I was able to do so in just a few moments using the mana from my grove. One by one, small pellets of different colors dropped down onto my hand. Each was a medium quality seed of the various primary elements. Although it burned up a bit of my grove to make them, it should still be worth it.

Sharon, seeing that I had instantly decided to do this, smiled gently at me. This was a decision that could only be made once, so it was probably reassuring to her that I didn’t hesitate. Instead, she simply waited for me to sit down next to her, and the two of us began making the essence together.

Once the essence was formed, Priscilla walked us through the combined refining process. For this, both of us had to carefully control our Nature Magic, and balance the amount of energy we used. Though this wasn’t exactly easy, it wasn’t really that hard either. Since we could each sense the amount of power the other was using, balancing it wasn’t a problem.

After about five minutes of refining, the small essence faded away into nothing. In its place, I felt a strange energy flowing into my grove. Similar to the feeling of adding a new type of mana, this experience let me know that the procedure was a success. Immediately, I closed my eyes and sent my mind into the grove, feeling the strange energy.

Inside the grove, I noticed that there were actually three small planetoids that did not used to be there. Going by their rough, cracked appearance, they were likely formed by multiple meteors colliding together after they flew into my grove. But that wasn’t important right now. What was important was finding the new energy.

It seemed to be everywhere at once, and something I could move around as I would any other mana. However, once I focused on it, I was able to clearly see the dozens of large land masses within another isolated space. Recognizing a few of the creatures on those floating bodies of rock, I understood that I was seeing directly into Sharon’s grove.

Next… I pulled my mind back to my grove, and gathered all of the strange energy together. Raising up a large arch on my largest planet, I condensed the energy inside of it. Surprisingly, the invisible energy actually turned into a purple swirl of light within the arch. After pulling out from my grove, I let the two of them know that I made it.

“Alright, my turn then.” Sharon nodded with a smile, closing her own eyes as well. This time, I was not able to feel anything different while I waited. However, a few moments later she opened her eyes, and nodded. “My side’s set up too, now. How do you want to test it?”

Shrugging my shoulders, I went into my grove and wrote a message on a small stone, saying ‘It works’. Then, I just tossed the stone into the portal. “Did you get that?”

Sharon blinked in surprise, before checking what I meant. Then, she began laughing. “Okay… yes, it works. Still, what is the point of connecting our groves like this? It’s not like our power is directly related to how large our groves are.”

“True…” I nodded my head, before I explained. “However, I wanted to let your people have access to my grove so that they could learn Alchemy. At the same time, they could cultivate in my grove to learn elements that don’t exist in yours, while also expanding my grove. Since I’m in the Stellar stage, I want to see how far I can take it.”

Priscilla nodded, smiling happily. “We will be more than happy to help you expand your grove, in exchange for that knowledge. We have already started making progress with Enchanting, so the addition of a new skill would be quite nice for us.”

Hearing this, Sharon just sighed, shaking her head. “Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Just watch out. If they start mining up your grove, and I end up with an army of armored beasts… I’m blaming you in advance.”

“Oh, it won’t be that bad… I think.” I tried to smile reassuringly at her, but I could see how excited Priscilla had gotten when Sharon mentioned that. Well, at least if they mine my grove, they’ll replace whatever they take. “By the way, you have the metal affinity too. Why don’t they mine in yours?”

“Ah… I don’t let them.” Sharon said as she looked to the side. “I want to save the metal, in case we need it again for an emergency.”

I wasn’t sure why she would think we’d need that much metal for an emergency so soon, but it wasn’t really hurting anything so I didn’t question it. Instead, I was looking forward to the possibility of my grove expanding. I wanted to add in more solar systems, see if I could upgrade it again from Stellar by doing so. But that would take a lot of mana, especially the plasma mana I needed in order to establish the second star.

Anyways, with this, Sharon’s animals began visiting my grove, slowly learning more about alchemy, and the medicinal plants I had scattered around. Some of them even took plants back to Sharon’s grove to plant there, so that they would be able to grow their own. Though, the plants would not grow as well in her grove, since she lacked the affinity.

On the way back to Hydra, I took the chance to get to know the people that we had brought on board this time. Of them, there were five people I found particularly interesting, and decided to assign them as the ‘backup’ assault team. The first was Clara the Nekotane. She was one of my first interviews, a catgirl hunter that loved adventure. Among her pets were a sabertooth tiger and a three eyed lion. I really didn’t see why the lion needed three eyes, but apparently it did.

Next was Nathan, the talisman caster. With his Origin Magic, he could create small objects with relative ease, as long as he studied them enough. Then, with his knowledge of runes he would inscribe the talismans with various spells. I could see him as a good support character for this group, whereas Clara would be one of the attackers.

Third, was Brian, a mage from an orc race. His schools of magic were Fire and Life, giving him quite a bit of potential in both offense and healing. He was a tall, seven foot man with dark green skin. I had a hard time calling someone that looked so unusual by such a mundane name as ‘Brian’, but still… Behold, the great and terrible orc, the lord of life and flame, the infamous Brian! It just doesn’t work, does it?

Anyways, the fourth person on the list was Sam, and he was… well… he was a skeleton. A living(figuratively), breathing(again, figuratively), skeleton. His race was Bone Knight, and he was a fairly strong vanguard. I even tested his defense myself, and was quite impressed. Although he’d be weak against blunt attacks, his class abilities helped to cover that weakness with armor.

Finally, we had Amy, a halfling who was perhaps a bit too excited about… everything. Her and Sam seemed to know each other, so he explained that it was a halfling trait. Basically ADHD on steroids. Halflings were terrible at staying still for more than two minutes, and were always looking for something to do. Her class was a rogue, and although she had not unlocked her advanced class yet, she was still extremely capable at stealth. Even using my Cybernetic eye and ears, I could easily lose track of her.

This team seemed to have the perfect combination, in my eyes. There was a healer, a support caster, a vanguard, a melee fighter, and a rogue. Even my own team wasn’t that well balanced. I was the only healer, and my healing spells were not quite as good as Brian’s. Then again, he specializes in that department, so it’s no wonder. And I still have the monopoly on resurrection.

I kind of wanted to see how good they would do together in an actual fight, but I wouldn’t get that chance until after I was done with my time monster quest. Well, I made sure to tell them that people were expected to give reports for significant events. That way, even if I can’t see it myself, I should be able to read what happens.

About halfway through the trip to Hydra, I had a… rather strange dream. In it, I found myself completely aware, sitting within a pure white world at a small table. Across from me, sipping some tea was a blue skinned man about four feet tall, with a black gem embedded in his forehead. Looking at me, the man gave a cheeky grin, and waved with one hand. “Yo, John.” The man was wearing a white suit with a striped black and white bowtie.

“Okay… not used to my dreams talking to me. Can I wake up now?” I looked around the room curiously, though I really would like to wake up before things get weird. I’ve read enough stories to know that dream sequences like this never end well.

“Nah, maybe in a bit. It took me quite a bit to set up this meeting.” The blue man waved off my question as if it was nothing. “Come on, John. Don’t you recognize me? I mean, we haven’t really met face to face, yet, but you should know my award winning personality by now, right?”

I swear, if he turns out to be my subconscious alter ego, awakened by some misfire with my psychic abilities… “Afraid not..”

He set down his cup of tea, covering his face with one small hand. “Fine, fine.” He waved a hand, and a nametag appeared on his shirt. On it was written ‘Hello, my name is…’

I felt my breath catch in my throat as I read the last word. “M-Malthan?”

“T-that’s right.” He replied, somewhat jokingly imitating my stutter. “Look on the bright side. I’m not your alter ego trying to take over your body. I’m just your lord and savior, who came by for a sip of dream tea and a chat.”

I tried to force myself to calm down, quickly discovering that simply shouting ‘wake up’ in my head did not help anything. “And… what do you want?” Gods don’t show up in dreams just to chat, do they?

“I want you to give me your body.” He said, winking to me. Suddenly, I felt chills running down my spine before he started laughing. “I’m kidding. I’m not into guys. I just wanted to let you know that I have another mission for you coming up. There’s a particular planet I want you to do your ‘hero routine’ at. From what I can tell, if you don’t visit them within the next three years, they’ll be wiped out.”

I stared blankly at him, not sure what to think of this sudden request. “And… why are you telling me this? There have to be dozens of planets out there that could be destroyed even sooner than that.”

“Hmm?” The blue god of chaos looked to me, and shrugged. “Well, let’s just say that they’re a fun race. You definitely won’t regret it.”

New Quest AcceptedSave the Qu'Lopti

Rank ★★★★★★★ Rescue

The great god Malthan has bestowed upon you a quest to save a species of his choice, the Qu'Lopti. For reasons unknown, their survival could change the very fate of the galaxy.

Time Limit: Three years

Reward: Depends on my mood

Failure: Do you really want to know?

“But… I don’t even know where the… Qu’Lopti? Where they are. I mean, I could ask Celeste, she might know.”

Without even saying anything, Malthan just pointed at my head. Suddenly, information rushed into my mind, and I immediately knew exactly where the Qu’Lopti homeworld was. But there was a bit of a problem… I only had three years to complete this quest, and the planet was over five hundred parsecs away! “Do I need to stop the other quest to do this, then?” I asked, somewhat worriedly. I mean, I could make that journey in a year and a half, maybe just one year if I focused on upgrading my engines.

“Nah, you can stick with that one first. I’m really looking forward to what you end up making. Once you’re done, you should still have time to make it to that planet. Don’t disappoint me now, Johnny boy. I’ve placed a good amount of trust in you for this. You don’t know how hard it is to convince the goddess of dreams to do this kind of thing. Usually, she just ignores people and sleeps all the time. I even had to promise to invent a new kind of super soft pillow just for her.”

Suddenly, as he was talking, the table began to shake. Large, black cracks began appearing in the air around us. “Ah… speak of the devil, and she wakes up. Looks like that’s all the time we have here. Be seeing you, Johnny boy.”

Before I had the chance to respond, the world shattered around us, and I found myself in my bed, covered in a cold sweat. Just what did I get myself into this time.