“It’s good that you’ve arrived, Miss Hart.” The captain of the colony vessel spoke with a stiff expression, barely glancing towards Julia. “I thought it rather urgent to get your opinion on this creature.”
While the normal rigors of space travel were all known to the researchers that had planned this mission, it was true that nobody was more familiar with the monsters one might encounter than Julia herself. Given the circumstances, that knowledge was incredibly valuable, as was already shown when she helped them locate the monster in the first place.
Julia thought about it a moment, staring at the screen. “We’re still connected to the grid back on Earth, right?” When the captain nodded his head, Julia let out a relieved sigh. “Then please, switch over to that emergency power, and disable all nonessential systems that use mana as a power source.”
The captain hesitated for a moment, finally glancing in her direction for more than just a brief moment. “Explain.”
“Almost every creature I’ve found that lives in the void like this identifies prey by sensing their mana. Looking at this one… it seems to have evolved as a passive hunter. By my guess, if we were to do a mana scan, we would only see those wisps register as they became visible. This makes it look like a group of smaller, more appealing targets.”
“Whenever a prey comes too close, or attacks, it will no doubt reveal its true self to devour them. We have to get rid of as much of our mana signature as we can before it notices us.” Julia knew that, while the ship did have some weapons, they were likely not enough to defeat this creature without sustaining damage. “If you have a stealth field that you can apply to hide the mana, that would be ideal.”
The captain considered her words, before directing a nod towards one of the bridge personnel. Soon, the lights began to dim, and a quiet voice echoed throughout the ship. “Emergency power mode is temporarily engaged. Please return to your quarters.”
Julia gave a relieved sigh when it looked like her words were being taken seriously. “If I remember right, the maneuvering thrusters on this ship have their own fuel source. This thing seems to be simply drifting, so unless we wait the entire eight hours for the warp drive to recharge, we’ll be stuck with it.”
“To that end, I suggest using those thrusters to propel ourselves slowly, gradually making distance between us.” This time, her words were far more readily accepted, given that nobody in the bridge wanted to be staring at that creature for the next eight hours, constantly worried that it would notice them.
As such, Julia felt the small reverberations of the thrusters kicking in. Her eyes remained locked on the creature in the display, waiting to see its movements. If it had already noticed them, there was a chance that it would pursue. As long as it remained still, on the other hand, they would be able to escape without fear.
Seconds passed, and then minutes, the distance between the colony ship and the monster growing further and further. However, Julia was still reluctant to give the signal that it was fine to return to normal power. There was no telling how fast that creature was, and the sensory abilities of predators in the void often extended tens of thousands of kilometers at least.
After what felt like an eternity, a full hour passed since their discovery of this creature. Finally, something changed.
A large, white serpent seemed to materialize in the void not far from the monster, circling around it for a moment. Though the serpent had no visible eyes, it seemed to be watching the multiple wisps that the hidden predator was showing it.
Soon, the serpent was apparently satisfied with its observations. It lunged in, biting at a wisp just as it appeared. And then, all at once, the serpent vanished.
Julia couldn’t help but gulp, speaking in a nervous tone. “Can someone… play that back, in slow motion?” This time, they didn’t even wait for the captain’s authorization. The image on the screen rewound itself a few seconds, and then began playing at a far slower speed.
What they saw was the serpent’s teeth brushing up against the giant monster, which seemed to almost explode in the infrared view. On the visible spectrum, they could see a massive, black curtain covering the serpent. This curtain completely engulfed its prey in a fraction of a second, and then returned to the same passive state that it had been in previously.
“It’s a slime.” Julia said, her face pale. “Of course it’s a slime… why wouldn’t the most terrifying monster I’ve ever seen be a slime…”
A Dark Void Slime, to be precise! Aurivy announced mentally, seemingly in awe. I want one.
No, Aury. Bad goddess. No giant monster slimes for you. Julia couldn’t help but retort in her head.
You’re not my mom! Aurivy protested, though more in a playful tone than anything else.
“I want one.” Aurivy spoke up from next to me. The two of us had moved back to the couch after our game of Keeper’s Cards had ended, with Ryone taking a decisive victory.
“No, Rivy.” I shook my head, looking at the screen. “We don’t take things like that as pets.”
“Aww…” Aurivy pouted her lips, but I just reached over to ruffle her hair. She was doing her absolute best to be adorable and try to convince me. However, even if I agreed, where would she keep it?! That slime alone is bigger than any of her dungeons, and would probably eat her dungeons.
As I was thinking about that, Ashley walked into the room, a proud look on her face. “Dale, can I have a minute?”
Blinking in surprise, I nodded my head before standing. “Sure, what is it?”
“Ah, we don’t have to go anywhere.” Ashley hastily waved her hands, seeing that I was getting ready to follow her. “I just wanted to give you an update. Blank has finished his world.”
My eyes went wide at that, and I glanced back at the television. The ‘channel’ instantly changed to a different dark void, where a black-robed man was standing before a fully formed planet. “That’s faster than I expected…”
“Vivi gave him a nudge once everything was ready.” The demon goddess explained. “As soon as he had his physics working properly, she showed him how to create a ‘naturally generated’ world. His AI template for the inhabitants is more advanced than those in Vision Expanse, but it shouldn’t cause any issues.”
I gave a small nod at that. “Alright, then. You can find a time to help him ascend, and we’ll have our God of Games.”
“Yes!” Aurivy cheered. The arrival of a God of Games meant that we could finally give the Fairy Gates the tweak we had been wanting, to ensure that their random transportations always went to worlds with similar ‘laws’ as the origin planet. “Project: Elemental Seed can finally begin!”
Or maybe there was a different reason she was excited. “Pardon me?” I glanced to her in confusion.
“Eheh… oops?” Aurivy covered her mouth with her hands. “Well, cat’s out of the bag now.” She gave a small shrug of her shoulders, holding a hand out and focusing. An information globe appeared in her hand, which she passed towards me.
“This is a project I’ve been working on with some of the others. A new game world to implement alongside Vision Expanse.” Aurivy rocked back and forth playfully as she explained. “The selling point here is the unique trait of natural energy, as opposed to magic.”
“With my Elemental Seed project, natural energy gathers at points of extreme elemental influence. For instance, deep oceans, volcanoes, the heart of a star, things like that. When the energy gathers like that, it forms what I call an ‘elemental seed’. These seeds are physical objects that then in turn radiate their element to further fuel the extremes of their environment.”
“Now, different seeds may have different natures, even if they are of the same element. The seed born in the heart of a star would have a different effect than one born in a volcano, despite both of them being of the fire attribute. This is because there are still trace amounts of other elements involved in their creation.”
“The elemental seed born in a star would have trace amounts of ‘void’ and ‘darkness’ element mixed in, while the one born in a volcano would have ‘earth’ mixed in. Now, these seeds play a special role with how natives grow stronger. The magic system implemented in this world is built to work around the elemental seeds.”
“At its core, it is a limited version of the imagination magic system, but restricted to prevent any elemental spells. The only way to access elemental spells are to absorb a seed of that element, at which point your spells will gain the effects of that seed.” Aurivy explained proudly, puffing her chest out. “In exchange, spells cast with the power of seeds are easier to use, and more powerful.”
I gave a faint nod as I heard that. In truth, I was starting to feel like we had too many mixed magic systems in our worlds. However… this was just for a game, not a new world that would need its laws merged with the others. Similar to the structural magic of Vision Expanse, or the Binary Law that Blank had made for his digital world.
“This will probably be more popular among Kione, or people who have deeply studied familiars.” Both the familiar magic system and this one that Aurivy had created were based on the imagination magic type. And with the magic of Aurivy’s system being restricted to the ‘theme’ of whatever seed the player absorbed, it would help train mages to focus on one branch of magic.
After I said that, however, I turned my head to look at Aurivy. “Why were you waiting until Blank was ready to ascend to share this with me, though?”
Aurivy simply grinned in response. “Well, I figured that with the domain you had planned for him, he’d be able to simply create the world himself as opposed to having to make you buy it through the market. Then, if it turns out to be a big enough hit, you can submit it to the market and we can make royalties off of it!”
I thought about her words for a moment, before nodding. After that, I reached over, pulling the halfling goddess in for a hug. “If we do that, I’ll ask Terra to set it up so that eighty percent of the royalties from this are added to your balance. Deal?”
Aurivy’s eyes went wide in response to my offer. “Wait, really?! You’re not going to take that back, and say you were just kidding, right?!”
I felt my lips tugging upwards, holding her a bit tighter. “I’m not going to just refuse to reward someone after they come up with something like this. It should be popular among Keepers, if for no other reason than the novelty of adjusting the natural energy system. Though, I’d like to release that as a separate system of its own, as well.”
“Sure!” Aurivy beamed a wide smile at me, wrapping her arms around me. “I’ll get the details of that system specifically isolated to work on its own.”
Going by the price of Vision Expanse, which was regarded as a fairly cheap game, I imagined that the royalties Aurivy would make from this would quickly inflate her own balance. Internally, I was starting to wonder what I could offer her as a way to spend those points she’s earning. Perhaps letting her choose new games to purchase would be a good idea, once she has enough to afford them.
Ashley, meanwhile, simply smiled as she watched the two of us. Her next job was to create the first digital god to the world, who would then become her own subordinate god. In a way, she would become a Goddess of Games as well.
