World Seed: Game Start (15 page)

“
Can
do.” She gave me that sweet smile again before the display
vanished. Well, at least my AI companion was an energetic young girl,
instead of something more abusive. And since she called this her
initial awakening, she might still mature more later on.

Bidding
farewell to Jarl, I went off into the forest, being very careful
about where I stepped. This deep in, it was far too likely that I
would encounter an enemy. Not to mention, I was completely lost. I
wasn’t too worried about not knowing where I was, though, since
I could ask Celeste to help guide me back. Speaking of which, a
couple minutes after I started walking, there was a buzz at my wrist.

Looking
down, there was a small arrow pointing up. Following it, I found a
few fruits hanging from the tree above. Great… now how do I
get them down? Shoot them down? No, I’m more likely to miss and
accidentally hit a wild animal…. Guess that leaves just one
option…

I
sighed in resignation, knowing I was going to regret this. Looking at
the tree, there were no shortage of handholds to grab onto and climb
the few meters I needed to reach the fruit. I wasn’t afraid of
heights, more afraid of what might be hiding in them. Nonetheless, I
soldiered on and climbed up, step by step until I was crawling along
the branch. It was at this time that I looked down to my wrist again,
and felt like crying.

The
arrow that had appeared to have been pointing at the fruit just out
of my reach was now pointing in every direction at once. Don’t
tell me… I looked around, and one by one the ‘leaves’
of this great tree shifted, changing from green to red as wings
unfurled.

“
Uhm…Grab
the fruit… and run… fast…” The little
voice at my wrist sounded out meekly, no more eager to be in this
situation than I was. They may be herbivores, but in this number they
were still easily a threat to me.

Reaching
forward, I quickly grabbed two of the fruit from the branch I was
hugging to chuck them into my inventory, and jumped off. Whether
through luck or my stats, I landed without a hitch, and was able to
immediately begin running. It wasn’t the sound of thousands of
wings flapping at once, or the feeling of the wind buffeting the
ground from the sheer number of birds flying through at a low
altitude that worried me. It was the other sound coming from them.

“
Mine.
Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine!” Hundreds of high pitched voices saying
the same thing, like a swarm of tiny children. They can talk?! And
they’re going to alert the whole forest at this rate!

I
ran, as hard and fast as I could, I ran. Past startled wolves, and
sleeping bears, I ran. But they flew faster. Thankfully, their
numbers managed to scare off the normal predators that would have
been more than happy to eat me for lunch. Even casting a Gust spell
behind me only gave me a brief respite as dozens of birds were
knocked back.

Less
than a minute later, my vision had turned completely black, and I
stood there awaiting death’s embrace, constantly hearing that
one word repeated over and over again. And then I felt feathers all
over my body, and was worried that they might be omnivores, not
purely herbivores. Were they landing on me to go in for the kill?

Minutes
passed, and nothing happened. Every now and then, I would still hear
that single word echoing around me, but otherwise I was simply
wrapped within the strangest feather blanket the world has ever
knock.

Mine..
wait, don’t tell me they weren’t referring to those
fruits… I slowly tried to move one arm, and was surprised to
find that there was no resistance. The birds were clinging to my
body, but there talons did not dig into my skin. The long feather
tails that Celeste had noted seemed to help them in hugging my body
to stop themselves from falling off without hurting. When I opened my
eyes, I saw that all of the birds that weren’t able to find
purchase on my body had instead landed in front of me.

“
Mine.”
“Mine.” “Mine!”

Since
I was able to freely move, I sighed in relief. I seriously thought
they were going to kill me there for a bit. Looking around, I pulled
out those two fruits from my inventory. All at once, the eyes of the
birds lit up, and I thought they might attack for real.

“
Mine!”
“Mine!” “Mine!”

Moving
the fruits around, I saw that all of the birds had their eyes glued
to them, but were not making any moves to attack. At random, I chose
two of the birds to feed, ones which were greedily clinging to my
shoulders. The two happily accepted the fruits, making a cooing sound
as they did. The others, including the rest that had latched onto me,
looked at the ground with a depressed atmosphere.

“
Aww….”
They seemed to say at once before flying off again, leaving a
confused half-elf alone with two happy birds perched on his
shoulders.

Chapter 13: The
Lovebirds

After
taking a moment to think about what happened, I looked to the two
birds that were happily rubbing their heads against me as if I were
an old friend. Then, something occurred to me… The flock of
birds which had managed to scare away everything with sheer numbers
had just left… it wouldn’t be long before everything
came back!

“
Celeste,
I need directions back to the grove, now!” Since she’s
been recording everything so far, she has to know which way to go for
things, so long as I don’t keep my eyes closed when I run.

“
Sir,
yes, sir!!” She said, appearing in a military dress up, and
doing a silly salute. Then, as I began running for dear life for the
second time today, she began guiding me back to where I had been
cultivating. On the way there, I naturally caught sight of several
animals returning back to their homes now that it appeared safe. A
few of them recognized me and cringed away, as if fearing the swarm
was right behind me again.

Of
course, there were several that chose to attack on sight out of
frustration as well, including a pair of rather angry looking wolves.
I was about three minutes away from the grove at a dead run, and with
no way to kill the wolves. The two birds were still uselessly sitting
on my shoulders, as if the wolves or the run were of no concern to
them.

Hastily,
I thought through my list of spells, and realized there was only a
couple of things that I could do to get them off my trail, but I had
to act fast. Those teeth were starting to look very vivid whenever I
turned my head back to look. In the same manner as I had fused my
Alchemic Poison with Wind Magic, I started fusing Wind Magic and
Alchemic Sleep. There was a ding in my head from a notification, but
I was a bit too busy to take notice.

Stretching
my hands out to the side, I worked the makeshift spell to spread the
sleep spores behind me. Even if it didn’t knock the wolves out,
it should at least make them slow down for a bit! I kept casting the
spell again and again, not daring to look back in case I was met with
more teeth.

By
the time I was nearing the grove, my mana had almost completely run
out. However, I had finally mustered up the courage to look back,
seeing that there were apparently no longer any wolves chasing after
me. I let out a sigh of relief, and dragged myself over to the small
pond while my legs felt like they were ready to give out. I’ve
never run so desperately in my life… and now I did it twice in
one day. This can’t be good for my heart..

Looking
at the notification that had appeared during my run, I wasn’t
surprised to see that it was just another spell notification, letting
me know about the new spell Sleep Spores. However, I was a bit
surprised when I heard a young voice speak up from nearby, in a
rather amused tone. “What’s this? A couple of young
lovebirds, huh?”

Looking
over, I saw Jarl smirking in my direction, and quickly looked around
as if to find the couple he was talking about. I surely would have
noticed people here on a date, right? This is too far out of town for
there to be just anyone enjoying a stroll. Seeing my reaction my Jarl
laugh earnestly. “The birds, they’re called lovebirds. A
pretty common species in the forest, though many people tend to
dislike them due to their clingy nature.”

“
Yeah…
I noticed that too.” I turned to look at each of the birds on
my shoulders, who seemed happy for even that little bit of attention.
“What can you tell me about them…?” Asking him was
a far safer option than trying to figure it out on my own, no matter
how rewarding the latter experience is supposed to be.

“
Well,
male lovebirds are quite rare, roughly one percent of the species.
Thus, they are able to take any mate they want. The males also have
decent combat abilities, on par with a full grown wolf, as their
talons and beaks are sharper than the females. On the other hand, the
females have the ability to camouflage themselves by altering the
pigmentation in their feathers. They use this ability to try to
attract a male, and hide from predators.

“
Females
not chose as a male’s mate will often hide out in trees near
their favorite fruit, earning it the name Heart’s Apple.
Whenever someone comes by and picks the fruit, all of the surrounding
females will swarm that person until they choose to feed one of them.
After that, well… I think you get the picture.” He
smirked slightly towards the two birds on my shoulders.

“
So…
aside from their stealth ability…” Before I could even
finish asking, he nodded his head.

“
Completely
useless in a fight. Their talons are dull, and their beaks too curved
to use as a weapon. Some tried to train them to use their tails as
whips, but that never ended well.”

Great…
so I got two useless birds… Well, from the looks of it,
nothing short of killing them will make them go away, and I wasn’t
exactly looking for a combat pet. Being able to fly and gaining their
stealth power is already good enough of a reason to keep them.

I
sat down, or sprawled out on the ground, depending on how delicate
you want to be about it. Once I recovered my mana, I sent a bit into
each bird, hoping to establish the animal companion link as Jarl had
described it. The birds seemed more than willing to allow it, and
even guided the mana to make it happen more quickly. Once it was
established, they both squawked out a resounding “Mine!”

Hearing
this reminded me of the swarm, and I cast a depressed look to Jarl.
“Can they at least be trained to talk?”

He
smirked again at my misfortune, the bastard! “If you practice
your Nature Magic with them enough, they may glean enough information
to project a voice. That all depends on how quickly they learn,
though.”

I
shook my head helplessly, and propped myself up to sit in a
meditative stance. Okay…. gameplan, train Nature Magic for a
little while until they show signs of being able to learn. Then,
start cultivating Wind Affinity. Maybe these birds can pick that up
and make themselves useful. In the meantime, I can try to copy their
traits. Being able to fly and hide like that would certainly come in
handy no matter where I was.

“
So…
how exactly do I practice the bestial aspects of Nature Magic? Rita
taught me how to do the plant side, but this doesn’t really
seem similar at all.”

Hearing
my sudden question, Jarl looked up at me, and tilted his head before
realization dawned on him. “Well, it’s actually quite
similar. Just like with the plants, you need to analyze a beast with
your mana, identify how they use their ability, and replicate the
mana signature. For gaining body parts like wings, you have to
carefully analyze the appropriate body part, in as much detail as you
can, and then try to guide your mana within your body to match.”

To
demonstrate, he lifted one of his hands up, which quickly turned into
an oversized bear paw, lengthening and widening with brown fur
sprouting out. The fingers became indistinct as the paw form settled
in. A moment later, it started the shift back to a normal hand.
“Mastering either the plant or animal sides of Nature Magic
will each grant extraordinary gifts. For instance, a master of the
beast path can grant themselves eternal youth by simply shifting into
a younger form. Likewise, a master of the plant path can use
medicinal effects to achieve the same result.”

I
nodded my head, and extended one hand in front of me. Only now did I
notice a blinking icon in the corner of my vision, and had to wonder
how long it had been there. Once I focused on it, it enlarged into a
notification.

I
blinked a bit, but this wasn’t surprising. I couldn’t
really expect the birds to come with names. Though, looking at them,
I couldn’t really tell the two apart. I ended up choosing at
random, naming the one on my left shoulder Yin, and the other Yang.