World Seed: Game Start (16 page)

“
Don’t
worry, I can tell the differences.” Celeste spoke up from my
wrist again, and I looked down to see that holographic face smirking
slightly.

That
didn’t take much thought, so I immediately declined the option.
I knew what I wanted, and it wasn’t to have a bunch of animals
living inside of me. Extending my hand out, I urged Yin mentally to
perch on it. She looked carefully at me, before squawking her
acceptance and moving to my hand. Yang, seeming to think this meant
that she was getting special attention, prodded the side of my head
with her curved beak, which was particularly annoying. I could only
try to assure her that she’d get the same treatment when I was
done.

Once
Yin was on my hand, I began circulating my mana through her body. The
first things I wanted to analyze were her feathers, so that I could
quickly learn the ability to disguise myself. Yin twitched a bit, and
I could feel an uncomfortable sensation coming from her, but she
endured. As if somewhat understanding what I wanted, her feathers
began to change color, from deep red to black.

The
pulse of mana throughout her feathers was almost too fast for me to
notice. However, she quickly reverted back to her original coloring.
The second time she changed, I was much more accurately able to feel
the disturbances in one of her feathers I was focusing on. Seeing
that I was pleased, she began flaunting her ability, changing her
colors like a rainbow.

Given
how eagerly she was demonstrating helped me to understand the changes
in the mana signature of the feather. It was like there were two
different signatures, the outer one and inner one. The outer
signature changed every time she shifted colors, and seemed to
correspond with the color she took, while the inner one was the true
signature. Still, all I needed was the outer one, and information on
how it was done. Following the mana pathways, I found that in the
shaft of the feather was a mirror-like tube, carrying the color along
through the feather and spreading it out.

Going
further, I found that on Yin’s skin was where the actual
pigmentation shifted. The feathers merely reflected the color of
wherever they were embedded. Again, I spent some time analyzing this
while Yin happily showed off, noting each time I showed a pleased
reaction. Yang again began prodding me for equal attention, but I was
almost done with this step.

Next,
I had Yin get back on my shoulder, and had to stop Yang from suddenly
jumping into my hands for her turn. These birds were already turning
into a real handful. Next, I closed my eyes and did my best to focus,
trying to ignore the birds cuddling against me. I had spent over an
hour simply memorizing the subtle shifts in Yin’s mana whenever
she changed colors, and was confident in being able to replicate it.

Unfortunately,
it’s never really that easy. The slight shifts in Yin’s
mana required a very fine control that I wasn’t sure I was
capable of, even though I knew it inside and out. It was like
watching someone draw the number 9 on a piece of paper for an hour,
and then try to do the same only to realize, you don’t have
fingers. At least my practice in mana signatures managed to pay off,
but it took me over twice as long to change colors for the first time
than it took to memorize the patterns.

I
smiled slightly as the prompt appeared, and began working to shift
colors again. Even if this was exhausting, I had managed to grind 3
points of Wisdom by trying to control my mana like this for my first
shift. Sadly, my mana was being spent faster than it was coming back,
so I had to take a break after 40 minutes, during which time I
reluctantly pet the two birds.

Once
my break was over, and my mana returned, I got back to work. This
time, I managed to turn my arm green before the 40 minutes had
passed, which I considered a great success. Another break, another
attempt, this time it took 20 minutes to turn my other arm red. This
continued for a while, and by the time I was able to change colors at
a whim, the sun had long since set.

One
thing I was happy to discover was that the 30 mana per minute cost
only applied if I covered my whole body. Just doing a smaller part
cost less, though I didn’t have enough control to do complex
patterns or anything like that. Still, being able to copy the ability
to change my color after a few hours of practice made me happy.

Tomorrow..
I can try to grow wings, I guess… I thought to myself as I
leaned back and drifted off to sleep, a small weight pressing on
either of my arms from my new companions.

Chapter 14: Let’s
Go Fly an Elf

You
know, even without the game being as realistic as they are, the Seeds
would still be a popular investment. If for no other reason than you
can sleep in them, and only require a fifth of the sleep. Other games
with a time dilation, you either sleep for the equivalent of eight
real hours, or you can’t sleep in game at all.

When
I woke up in the morning, I was feeling particularly refreshed,
feeling a slight weight pinning down either of my arms. I’d
like to say that I looked over to my sides and found beautiful women
lying naked again me, but really it was just two annoying birds that
refuse to leave me alone. Part of me had held some sliver of hope
that they got bored of me and left in the night, but nope, still
there.

Either
way, they woke up as soon as I started sitting up. I didn’t
bother to log out for breakfast this time, choosing just to satisfy
myself with some stale bread. I was saving my home cooked meal today
for lunch, which should occur around dinner time? It’s all
wibbly wobbly, timey wimey. Anyways, back to my magic training,
woohoo…

I
can’t help but feel like I got ripped off again. While I’ve
been here spending days cultivating earth mana, or learning how to
change my skin tone, both my father and Jacobs have already passed me
in levels again. My father had apparently decided to take up life as
a rogue, to best use his psychic talents, well Jacobs naturally went
for a mage. My mom also managed to get a class somehow, as a Shadow
Stalker. Not sure if that meant she found civilization or just that
she managed to train the skills on her own.

Now,
since I gave Yin so much ‘attention’ yesterday with
training, today I had promised to do so with Yang…

“
Celeste…
which one is Yang?” At my question, both birds perked up and
squawked their usual declaration, while Celeste simply giggled,
making an arrow to point to the one on my right shoulder. The one on
my left shoulder, apparently Yin, looked down dejectedly at that
while Yang happily jumped into my hand. Using her tail feathers to
wrap around my arm, she ensured, much to my dismay, that she was not
going anywhere.

Now,
today I wanted to learn how to make wings, so first thing I did was
place my other hand on Yang’s back, which she seemed to like a
little too well. Then, using the age-old mana circuit technique, I
began searching through her mana signature, focusing on her wings.
Unlike ‘normal’ birds, lovebirds possess four wings of
equal size. Two wings in the front and two in the back. As I
discovered when I ‘found’ these two earlier, the front
wings can be folded forward to hide the face as well as aid in
flight.

Now,
this was not the same at all as simply memorizing the mana
fluctuations when an ability was used. It was closer to analyzing the
mana signature of an herb, just on a far more complicated level. I
could feel every organ, bone, and blood vessel as I attempted to
focus my senses on her wings. Unlike Yin, she seemed all too pleased
by the feeling of mana coursing through her, and relaxed into my
hands.

After
a while, I managed to isolate the mana pattern for her wings. Now the
trouble was memorizing it. I mean, this was like memorizing a nerve
map. If I got it wrong, then at best the wings would not work. At
worst, the nerves might attach wrong and bring immense pain. I don’t
like immense pain, I find I am allergic to it.

It
would help if there was a noticeable pattern to the mana channels, so
that I could simply memorize that, but unfortunately it was not the
case. So, I spent nearly three hours just going over every detail of
Yang’s wings before I was satisfied enough to try it on my own.
Naturally, the first thing I did was remove my shirt, so that the
wings would not rip through it. The two birds let out whistles after
that, which I promptly ignored.

Closing
my eyes, I kept the feeling I learned from Yang’s wings in my
mind, and focused on my own back. Trying to match the placement, I
then began emitting my mana out behind me in an attempt to match what
I felt from her. There was an extremely uncomfortable feeling as
bones grew out of my back, but I could slowly feel that it was
working. Finally, something going right on the first try!

…

Yeah,
right. Once I was done, I turned my head to look, and found that I
could not see my supposed wings. Then I looked further down, and
discovered that I did indeed have wings… I just hadn’t
scaled them up to be my size. Sighing, I dismissed the change in my
mana, letting it return to its normal flow, before I tried again.

This
time, my goal was to copy the feeling, but make it BIGGER. Of course,
bigger meant a much greater sense of discomfort, and I was prepared
for that! I hope… Either way, after a few minutes of nervous
procrastination, I got to work. Yup.. there’s the pain..

Unlike
the minor uncomfortable feeling from before, this was full on
nerve-wracking pain. I’d like to say I muscled through it and
achieved perfect results like some online protagonist, but let’s
be honest? Pain hurts! It is one of the best things in the world to
break focus, and break it did. I had not managed to make my wings
grow out by more than two inches before the pain was too much and I
lost control of it, making the new wings vanish.

My
third try, I managed to hold on until I was out four inches. Then,
nine inches. On my fifth try, I got all the way to the halfway mark
before the pain kicked in. Each time, I was able to better integrate
it with my own mana signature to cause as little backlash as
possible, until finally on my tenth try, I reached the end of the
wings. For some reason, once I did so, I didn’t feel like I had
to maintain it, rather I just needed to remember to undo it when I
was ready.

The
mana cost for this new spell scared me a bit, but then I remembered
what I had just discovered. This was basically a passive spell, and I
didn’t have to pay a mana upkeep for it. I just had to pay the
initial cost to shift, and then I’d be done. Looking back, I
was somewhat surprised to see that my wings were pure white, rather
than red like Yin and Yang’s standard colors. In a way, they
gave me the appearance of a four-winged angel.

I
was a bit surprised by the other two messages as well, since this was
the first skill I had trained up past the beginner levels. Maybe
doing something difficult like this was needed to push it through. So
far, I knew that skill levels were arranged into Beginner, Basic,
Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. Nobody had acquired a higher
skill level than that yet. Even a top surgeon in the net community
only had an Advanced in First Aid, according to what was online.

In
a moment of unrestrained recklessness, I quickly stood up to try and
fly with these new limbs. I could clearly feel and move each one
independently, so it should be easy right? With a beat of my wings, I
found myself launched about five feet into the air… and
falling back down on my face before I could give a second flap.