Author’s Corner: Reading through the comments of the last chapter, the animal companion has been decided! Rejoice, for it is not a bunny!

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The process of growing my Earth Affinity was extremely slow, given that I had to pause every now and then to recover my mana. That’s not even taking into account the occasions when I lost focus and the connection faltered. Though, once it increased from 2% to 3%, I noticed it was slightly easier to maintain the link. If I had to guess, I’d be able to maintain it without worry about my mana costs at 5%, and be able to maintain it with little to no effort at 10%.

Still, just that 1% increase took three hours. I ended up staying there the entire night, focusing on that connection with earth mana. Every now and then, I would talk to my parents or Jacobs while waiting for my mana to recover, but for the most part that time was spent entirely focused. From 3% to 4% took another six hours, after which I was too tired to focus anymore and could only pass out on the ground.

When I awoke, I was too hungry to focus on cultivating mana right away. Remembering what had happened before, I decided to log off to eat. With my Seed opening, I noticed that it was no longer dark outside, meaning that I had played until morning. Of course, with the time dilation, that was still over two full days in the game.

Getting up, I did a quick set of stretches, because I had basically laid in a bed for the last ten hours. Surprisingly, my body wasn’t tense at all. I pretty much felt exactly as I had before logging out. “Damn, that game is almost too realistic…”

I shook my head, heading down to the kitchen. Even in the most vivid of VR games, there was always this feeling that let you know the world around you wasn’t real, no matter how much your mind tried to tell you it was. You could get stuck in an illusion of your real life and still easily know you were in the game. But with NeoLife, it was the opposite. Despite the bloodthirsty horned rabbits, the magic, and everything else pointing towards it being a fantasy, it felt real.

Making myself an omelette, I took the chance to enjoy a full breakfast for once. Food synthesizers were commonplace, where all you had to have was the ingredients and the recipe, and the machine would cook for you almost instantly. However, to me, food just always tasted better when it was made manually. Probably my mom’s influence, as she had always insisted we never use such devices except for emergencies. Such emergencies included Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays when there were too many people coming over to properly cook for everyone.

Once I had eaten my fill, I cleaned my dishes and got onto the internet. I wasn’t in a hurry to get back into NeoLife right away, knowing that I’d spend hours just cultivating earth mana once I did so. Instead, I looked to see if there was any new information posted on the game. Since I managed to get to level 10 through luck, with my lack of skill, others should have easily surpassed me. The question was whether or not they had posted the information.

Looking through various forums, I ran a search for information related to Sub-Classes and deities. As expected, there wasn’t much information on either, at least not definitive. From the posts I found, there were at least dozens of different deities, and it was impossible to tell how they were assigned to people. Two people, both fighters wielding two-handed weapons, could have two completely different deities assigned to them.

As for Sub-Classes, from what I could piece together, a Sub-Class was a step below Advanced Classes. Basically, you choose your Sub-Class to gain the skills needed to unlock an Advanced Class. Like with regular classes, you could still gain the skills without taking the Sub-Class, but they were more difficult. The most common examples on the forums were different kinds of Mage Sub-Classes, such as Necromancers, Evokers, or Summoners. There wasn’t any information how to obtain a Sub-Class, just that when you met the requirements, you would get the option to get it, and you could only have one.

Shaking my head, I went back to my Seed to get back into the game. There was practically no information on Druids, since people preferred more tech-oriented classes in the game. So naturally, there was no information about what Sub-Class I needed to get the Xeno-Shifter Advanced Class, or how to obtain it. I could only obediently follow Jarl’s instructions. However, once I was back ingame, a window appeared in front of me that made my eye twitch reflexively.

New Skill Acquired!Cooking - Basic Level 3

Exp: 52%

The art of cooking is an important survival skill for any in the wild. While modern technology can make the skill obsolete, it is still important to understand for when the technology is unavailable.

It’s even giving me skills for things I do outside of the game… I took a few moments to calm down after realizing that. There were a number of different ways such things were possible. A simple memory scan upon login would reveal the information, for example. Since the game was linked directly to my mind, it was entirely possible. It was just odd if that was the case, because games that use memory scans to identify skill usage in the real world typically grant the user any of their known skills when they make their character.

I had a few thoughts about logging out and doing some hacking to get that skill, but I quickly cast that thought aside. Even if computers worked the same here as in the real world, it wasn’t worth the risk of getting caught. I’d just do some quick hacking work when I got to a computer I could practice on in the game.

Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled episode of cultivating mana! Today we have… well, me, cultivating earth mana again. As expected, it took over six hours to get Earth Affinity to 5%, but after I did so, I was happy to see that I could pull mana from the earth just as fast as the mana was spent. It effectively created the same kind of circuit pattern that I would do between my hands when preparing magic.

New Ability Unlocked!Earth Manipulation - Earth Affinity - ☆

Through focus and the appropriate use of mana, the user is able to manipulate the ground around them.

Only half a star rank? But more importantly, this is an ability, not a skill… I thought about it for a moment, and then pulled up my windows. As expected, there was an Ability Window separate from my Skill Window.

BaseAbilitiesNature MagicNature's Grasp ★

Alchemic Heal ★

Alchemic Poison ★☆

Alchemic Antidote ★☆

Alchemic Sleep ★Wind MagicGust ★

Wind Bullet ★Nature Magic + Wind MagicPoison Spores ★★Earth AffinityEarth Manipulation ☆

So abilities level up based on the relevant skills or affinities, rather than grinding them. Then is Earth Manipulation only half a star rank because Earth Affinity is at 5%? How many stars would it be if I managed to get it to 100%? I thought to myself as I maintained the cycling of earth mana. Like I had planned initially, it was time to go looking for an animal companion.

I had given a bit of thought to what kind of companion I wanted while doing my cultivation, and ultimately I decided that the best thing for me would be a bird. While a wolf could track an animal through smells, a bird was able to fly and get a good view of the situation. And, if I was eventually able to copy the qualities of my animal companion, I’d much rather have the ability to fly than to sniff things really well.

At this time, a sweet voice entered into my ear. “Ah, finally done?” Taking a quick look around, I found nobody in sight that would have caused the voice which seemed to belong to a little girl. The action did, however, earn a giggle from the voice. “Down here, down here!”

Following the voice, I looked down to my wrist. Suddenly, a holographic display of a girl in her late teens appeared. She seemed extremely energetic, and the appearance she had taken was a girl still growing. Though, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t already exceptionally cute. It took several seconds for me to piece together the hologram’s identity.

“...Celeste?”

“That’s right! You were so busy before, I didn’t want to disturb you and ruin your efforts. It got really boring waiting, you know?” The little hologram puffed up her cheeks in a pouting expression, causing me to laugh. I hadn’t realized that Celeste would finish developing her personality while I was still cultivating, but really I should have. The store owner did say it would take no more than a day, and that was almost a full day ago.

“Sorry, sorry. I see you ‘woke up’, though?” I was also a bit surprised by her personality. Since most of her time had been spent observing me cultivate earth mana, I had naturally assumed that she would have a more professional attitude like the main character of a Xianxia novel.

“Yup. I completed my initial awakening cycle roughly five hours ago.” Celeste nodded her virtual head with a wide smile. “So, what are you going to do now? Not practice another element, right?”

“No, I’m going to look for an animal companion. Hoping to get a bird of some kind.”

After I said that, Celeste paused for a few moments before nodding her head in a decisive manner. “During your walk on the way here, I noted five different species of birds. From their reactions in the presence of you and the other girl, two seemed to be predatory, two were confirmed herbivores, and one was indifferent.”

I thought about that for a moment, trying to decide what I wanted in my animal companion. An herbivore could just grab the fruits from nearby trees, rather than relying on itself or me to hunt for it. “Can you tell me about the two herbivores?”

She nodded her head a fraction again. “Alright! The first one was roughly two feet tall, with a green coloring. Its beak was three inches long, and curved at the tip. When you passed it was eating some type of nut, but immediately dropped it and flew away. The other was a bit smaller, just one foot tall, with an unusual defense mechanism. As soon as it noticed you, it dropped the fruit it was eating and altered its coloration to blend into the tree behind it. This species possessed four thin wings and three long feathers in its tail.”

Certainly not small birds… I had expected her to find some that were only a few inches tall, not two feet. “Alright, can you keep an eye out for the second one, and let me know if you see another one? Also, see if you can find any of the fruits it was eating, since we’ll need something to bribe it with.”

“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.