Chapter 654: Planting the Seed

I felt my eye twitch when I saw what Aurivy had given to her friend. I was not aware that she had managed to replicate the elemental seeds from the game in the real world. Of course, I knew that she was working on something along those lines ever since a while back, because she wanted to be prepared to counter abilities similar to it.

Something you forgot to mention, Aurivy? I asked mentally, receiving an almost sheepish giggle in response.

Heheh, you saw that, huh? She spoke back after a moment, though I could see that her happiness with her friend had not dipped.

I did. Figured that would be something you would want to bring to me when you had it finished.

I saw the Aurivy within the world give a faint shrug at that, unnoticed by Julia. If it was viable for mass production, or something that would really improve your powers, maybe. But it seemed kind of unimportant for you as a Keeper, and it isn’t at all easy to make these. At least, not the good ones.

That caught me by surprise. Given her enthusiasm for creating new items like this, I thought she would have found a way to create them en masse. What makes it so difficult? Couldn’t you bring it to James as a new research project?

He’s been working on that Perfect Soul machine, and then this new issue with the Gears. There hasn’t been a chance to bring it up. Give me just a second, and I’ll go show you what’s special about this stuff.

I gave a small nod, deciding to wait. It was only a few minutes later when Aurivy walked into the living room to sit down next to me, lightly stretching. “Sorry, easier to talk about it like this.” She said with a grin.

“Understandable. You said that you wanted to show me something?”

Aurivy nodded at that, looking towards the television in focus. “Right… Let me just turn back the clock a little bit to show you the creation process. The Pearl of the Deep should be a proper demonstration, I think. It’s one of the easier ones to make, because the environment it requires is just a deep seabed.”

The television flickered, soon showing an image of Aurivy sitting cross-legged at the bottom of a dark ocean. Unsurprisingly, there did not seem to be any underwater monsters that were willing to approach the goddess, giving her ample time to do her work.

“Now… in the game, these things form on their own, they’re just a natural way for energy to take shape. Even if we replicate the environment perfectly, the seeds won’t appear in the real world. It took me a while to study the difference between our energy systems to find the cause, and I even had to get the help of the world spirits for the first few tests.”

Sitting next to her, I patiently waited while she continued her explanation. “See, the problem is the natural energy itself. In Natural Seed, the natural energy of the world has a very faint resonance with spiritual energy. This resonance makes the strands of natural energy bind together in the right environments.”

“I had to slightly modify the natural energy around me, and gradually control it to come together to form the seed I wanted.” The view on the television fast-forwarded, the fish swimming in the distance the only real indicator of how fast things were moving. Eventually, blue strands of light began to emerge in the water around Aurivy, coming together in front of her.

After a while, these strands intertwined to form a shining pearl, one that gave off a faint blue glow. This energy appeared to draw the attention of several monsters, who decided that it was worth offending such a powerful existence if it meant getting that pearl. However, before they were able to close in on her, she had snatched the item and disappeared.

“Once the seed’s formed, it becomes a solid object that actively draws in the necessary energy to sustain itself. Sort of like an external energy core. It doesn’t have any real significance beyond that until someone absorbs it. For someone like you… this thing might as well be a poison.” Aurivy shook her head when she said that.

“Each person can only absorb one seed at a time, and doing so overrides their elemental ki. Unless you found a single seed that contained the elements of fire, water, earth, and wind, you would lose access to most of your powers from your Ki of Beginning. That’s why I never brought it up to you, because it wouldn’t be able to help you improve.”

“For those that do absorb it, however, it is able to grant their mana and ki the properties of the seed itself. The pearl is simple, it is your basic water-element seed containing the power of the ocean. It’ll amplify water-based effects, but won’t otherwise be much help.”

“The seed I gave Julia’s different.” Aurivy said with a small smile. “It has the property of Eternal Wood. This is a type of spiritual wood that has exceptional hardness and self-healing powers. A tree containing the Eternal Wood Seed is almost impossible to cut down, because it regenerates faster than most weapons can damage it.”

Thinking about that, I nodded my head. “For someone training to be the Goddess of Wood, that will definitely come in handy.” While it was disappointing that I couldn’t use these seeds myself, there wasn’t much that could be done about it for the moment.

“Right?” Aurivy grinned playfully. “And I want to see if I can help her unlock a two-word domain. Wouldn’t that be interesting?”

I blinked at that, glancing at the halfling. “What do you mean?”

“Well, all domains so far are just one word, right? But now, she has Eternal Wood as an innate property while going into the Wood domain. I was just thinking… maybe the combination would let her awaken a domain like Eternal Wood. If it does, she’ll be even stronger, and if it doesn’t, she’ll still have the benefits of the seed I gave her. Either way, it’s a win, right?”

Looking back towards the screen, I couldn’t help but think about that. A two word domain… it seemed like it would limit the scope of a god’s power more than enhance it. After all, a Goddess of Wood could still tap into the power of Eternal Wood, as long as they understood it as a concept related to their domain.

Which meant… “You are hoping that a two-word domain would count as two domains… Eternal, and Wood.” As long as I assume she didn’t want to restrict her friend like that, this was the only thing I could think of.

“It’d be nice, at least!” Aurivy didn’t refute my claim, though I highly doubted that it would work like that. In order to cultivate multiple domains, you typically had to cultivate to godhood with different systems. Though, that made me think… what would cultivating divinity in a technology civilization be like, if they didn’t go the route of energy cultivation?

I knew that divinity for an artificial intelligence meant finding the ‘divine code’, so was there perhaps a divine gene or medicine that could be used for a technology-based civilization? “I doubt it will work like that, but it’s at least worth the attempt.”

As I said that, I opened the market. There were still a lot of points left over from my recent invasion, so I was curious to see if what I wanted was available. Opening up the information section, I narrowed my search and found three items.

These three items were ‘guides to divine ascension’, and were priced at five thousand points, fifty thousand points, and five hundred thousand points. There were naturally other guides as well, but those only covered specific types of ascension.

That’s right, these three guides were set to cover a wide range, depending on their prices. For the first one at five thousand points, it described all of the ‘common’ types of divine ascension available in the purchaser’s world. However, it specified in its product description that it did not include any detailed steps to achieve the ascension.

The second type, which was ten times as expensive, had far more information. Not only did it include descriptions for ‘uncommon’ ascension types, but it also included the detailed steps for the types present in the first tier. Clearly, this would be the most popular product for those that could afford it.

However, the third type was still far more attractive. Looking at the pattern, it was rather easy to guess what it included. ‘Rare’ ascension types were described in this item, and the detailed steps for the first two tiers were included as well. I didn’t know if there would be a fourth tier that included detailed steps for the rare ascension types available after I ranked up further as a Keeper, but this was still already a lot.

Honestly, I was tempted to buy the fifty-thousand variety. If I did, I’d be able to learn new ways of ascending that I likely never thought of. For instance… how does a monster receive their divinity normally? Certainly, most monster gods don’t go step-by-step through the standard ascension process, do they?

Shaking my head, I decided that that was too much of an expenditure for something I would likely not disseminate to the masses. They already had a solid foundation for how to build their divinity, so it was unlikely that they would care much for the ‘unorthodox’ methods.

As such, I purchased the five-thousand point variant. While it may not include detailed steps, it would serve as a suitable starting point for me to base my conjecture on. Who knows, there might be a method I decide to investigate further later on?

Not wanting to disturb Aurivy, I directed the new product to be sent straight towards my room. Then, I looked over at a smiling halfling. “You totally just bought something.” She said in a knowing tone. “Come on, tell me? Was it the mass-production methods for the seeds?”

“Huh? Oh, no…” Though, that would be nice to learn as well. Still, I’d rather leave that to the researchers of my world to figure out. “I was thinking about different types of divinity, so I bought a small guide listing common types.”

“Aww… still, that’s pretty neat!” Aurivy perked up after hearing what I had to say. “But yeah, I can give you a list of the seeds I’ve learned how to make. I’ve figured out the tricks for most different types of elements. The ones I’m failing with right now are light, darkness, and poison. Aside from that, I can make pretty much any type of seed, as long as I can find an environment able to support it.”

“Sure.” I nodded with a smile, reaching over to stroke her hair. “Even if I can’t use them, I could try giving some to trustworthy people. Though, I imagine you have still been working on a way to counter them as well, right?”

Aurivy nodded her head quickly. “Of course! Actually, countering them isn’t all that much of a problem. Aside from some really rare cases, normal magic or ki restraints work on them. Only some special seeds like the ‘Restriction Burning Flame’, or the ‘Millenium Frost’ are able to disrupt magical bindings.”

“…There are a lot of seeds you’ve studied, aren’t there?” I blinked, looking at the halfling. Aurivy stuck her chest out proudly, her head nodding.

“That’s right! I take my work really seriously, you know! I have over ninety thousand hours in Natural Seed!” When I heard that, my eyes went wide, and I couldn’t help but exclaim.

“What, did you stay logged in for a year straight?!” At my accusation, Aurivy had a somewhat sheepish smile, glancing off to the side.

“Ten, actually…”