Author’s Corner: Behold, a chapter released before midnight! My writer’s spirit can not be stopped by such things as holidays(this time at least). Enjoy the chapter, and as always, have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Although I had to sit and wait for a few hours, it wasn’t a total waste. It gave me time to refine another elemental seed, this one being a Seed of Lightning. I had a theory that I wanted to test out regarding these seeds, so once I had time I wanted to refine one of each element again.

By the time that the shuttle arrived, I was more than ready to depart. Sam had already sent a report up to the station to let me get a job once I arrived, so all I would have to do is show my ID and I’d be fine. As such, getting on the shuttle was easy. Once inside, I saw that there were three rows of seats, each having about two dozen chairs along the inner wall.

I did not have to wait very long before most of the seats were filled and the shuttle door closed. A voice like a flight attendant spoke out as various engine noises started up. “Please remain in your seats for the duration of this journey. We will soon be arriving at station X-23, and you will be able to disembark at that time. When going through security, please keep in mind the safety of those around you.”

So the security checkpoint is at the station, rather than on the planet, then? After the voice faded, there was a slight pressure on our bodies as the shuttle launched into the air. However, the dampeners seemed to be working pretty well, because the sensation lasted barely a moment before it faded. Looking out one of the windows on the outer wall, I could see the ground rapidly vanishing from view. Soon, all I could see was the boundless sky, and a minute after that we were out of the planet’s atmosphere, and all I could see were stars dotting the endless void.

The date was now 12/27/3015, but there was no celebration of Christmas like there would have been in the real world. I had actually asked Joseph about this matter, and he explained that things worked a bit differently. Now, the year had twelve months, each month having exactly thirty days. This was the universal method of tracking the date. However, each planet also had their own seasons, and even differences in the duration of a day, so naturally one standard would not apply everywhere.

Instead, they had their ‘Christmas’ celebration on the last day of the year, Month Twelve, Day Thirty. There were also a lot of services that closed on that day, such as the shuttle I was currently riding. Although the holiday was not mandatory, many welcomed it with open arms.

Sadly, the shape of this shuttle did not allow a passenger to see where they were going, or the areas they had already been. By the time we arrived at the station, it was simply as if a giant metal mouth had surrounded the shuttle and consumed it. Shortly after, the shuttle came to a slow stop as it docked, and the voice sounded out again. “Thank you for flying with us today. Please proceed through the security checkpoint in an orderly fashion. X-23 offers a wide variety of service stations unavailable at Hascion, so enjoy your stay.”

When the voice finished speaking this time, the door slowly opened, and people began calmly walking out. It was at this point I learned another rather interesting fact about the natives of this world, during the security check. Each person ahead of me pulled a series of items seemingly out of thin air and placed them on a table. After that, the security officer, an elf by the looks of him, held up a device to scan him. At the same time, a blue light shined out from the table itself to scan the items.

Once that was done, the guard nodded and let him recollect his things, placing them back in that mysterious pocket space that resembled an inventory far too much. This was only further verified when it got to be my turn, and the guard spoke to me. “Sir, please empty your inventory onto the table.”

Ah… so everyone has an inventory… I nodded, and did as requested, hoping that the weapons would not raise a red flag. When he saw the weapons being brought out, he raised an eyebrow slightly and looked to me. “Is there a reason you do not wear these on your person?”

“Ah… I just got them from a scrapyard, so I don’t have straps or holsters for any of them…” He was a bit confused with my answer, but after scanning me with the same device, shrugged his shoulders slightly.

“There is an energy dampening field in the station, so they won’t function while you are here, except in special zones.”

I nodded my head, collecting my items again after he finished his scan, determining that I wasn’t carrying any illegal goods. Maybe some of the poisonous herbs in my grove would have raised red flags, if I didn’t already transfer them over? With this, I was relieved that Jarl was right about them having no method of detecting or investigating my grove, and moved on.

“So, Celeste, any suggestions on where to go next?” I looked down to the bracelet, where the holographic girl soon appeared.

“Well… I don’t have much information about the station, and I don’t think we should spend any more money to get a guide program like last time. Let’s just find a map, and see what there is.” I nodded to her suggestion, and went to a nearby wall where a map was positioned. Taking a snapshot of it with my Cybernetic eye, I immediately knew the layout of this station. I love that ability… Maybe I should convert it into a mini-map program?

“Let’s get something to eat first, then we can look into getting a job on a ship. As for the destination…” I pulled up my contacts list and sent a call to Jacobs.

“Hey, Falenel, long time no see. Everything alright?” His voice came back over the connection, and from how calm he was, it was clear he wasn’t in a fight.

“Yeah, I’m at X-23 now, and need a suggestion on where to go next. Since you’ve already been at this point, figured I’d ask you where you went next.”

“Hmm… I went to void elf territories in order to further my magic. Not sure how useful that would be for you, since you didn’t have any abilities that would help you out here last time I saw you.”

It didn’t take long for me to remember the information I had read about void elves, the race capable of breathing and flying in outer space. “True… There a nearby planet good for a low level explorer?”

“Let me ask.” There was a short pause on his end, presumably so that he could ask around for recommendations. “Not one nearby, unfortunately. However, I’ve got a friend of a friend who started on a different wood elf world about twenty parsecs from Hascion. According to him, there’s a jungle planet called Crailor, where the local civilization is still getting settled in. The mobs aren’t too high leveled, and there is plenty of room for people to hunt. He’s on his way there now, but it’ll take a couple days to arrive.”

I thought about it for a bit. I still needed to do a lot of work with my alchemy and druid skills in order to finish becoming a Xeno-Shifter. A natural jungle planet would be a great spot to practice. Though, at the same time, it didn’t seem like I’d be able to earn much money there. “What about low level dungeons? Any word on those?”

Another pause, and Jacobs spoke up again. “Apparently Crailor has one, but it hasn’t been fully explored yet. There are various planets with dungeons around, but once a planet is fully settled and colonized, all but the toughest dungeons are wiped out.”

I nodded my head, and decided I’d head to Crailor then. “Alright, thanks. Hope we get the chance to meet up again.”

“Same, later man.”

With that, the connection was cut, and Celeste appeared again. “So, Crailor then? Sounds interesting. Why were you so eager to find a dungeon?”

I thought about whether or not to tell her, but ultimately shrugged and decided to. “Dungeons are places where powerful magic items can spawn. In my ‘homeworld’, I don’t exactly have a stable income, so I need to find some things from here to supplement it. Just in case the world isn’t overrun with monsters.” And if it is, having the ability to fight said monsters would make me a rich man anyways.

“I see… If that is the case, I can understand. However, your current course of action doesn’t seem like it will bring you money very quickly, so you likely have a considerable amount of time before it is necessary. Likely, the most valuable items will be those that anyone can use, correct? In that case, I would recommend paying special attention to the flora of Crailor, and experimenting with potions. While it would be best to have the guide to help, we do not currently have the funds to procure it. If by chance, you earn enough money on the ship to pay for the program, it will greatly increase your earning speed.”

I nodded my head, moving to the food district of the station as we spoke. “Yeah, a guide would have been nice. But it’s not that bad, since I can do everything I need to while I wait to get there. Once we get to the planet, I can let the birds out, as well. It seems like they’ve started practicing magic on their own for a while now.” Even without me doing anything, the heart’s apple tree had now fully matured thanks to one of the birds using magic on it.

Unfortunately, I had to pull them out of my grove for a few minutes while I was on Hascion, because I noticed it had actually decreased slightly in size. I discovered that this was because of a sudden imbalance, due to a lack of wind mana. Naturally, this was caused by the bird that was cultivating Wind Affinity. Thanks to Celeste, I learned that the one cultivating wind was Yin, and the one practicing Nature Magic was Yang. That wasn’t too much of a surprise, given how the two had reacted when I first probed them with magic.

After I sent them back to the grove, Yin started being more careful with her cultivation, never taking more mana into herself than she was letting out. With that, the grove was able to return to normal after gathering a bit more wind mana. I wasn’t sure why, but they seemed more able to follow my instructions now, so they were likely becoming more intelligent. The mere fact that they were using magic showed that they had advanced from being normal animals into magical beasts.

Now, back to my situation at the station. After a little bit of walking, I found myself standing outside a row of fast food restaurants. Unlike the technology in the real world, they appeared to be making everything by hand, which left me confused as so many other things had advanced far beyond what man was currently capable of. Maybe it is just because the taste is better?

Most of the signs were written in the local elven language, but a few were written with strange characters I couldn’t read. However, all of those also had subtitles written in the local language. There were stores for every kind of food I could think of, and several that were likely alien delicacies. For me, though, I went to a store run by a human family. I knew what they were right away, because although the symbols on the sign looked strange at first, I was able to read them. Aside from the elven language, there should only be one other that I can read so easily.

Also… This was a family pizzeria. I could see aliens of every shape and color sitting at the tables, enjoying the greasy food. It had been so long since I had a real pizza, I couldn’t help myself but walk in and order one. The meat choices were strange, since most likely most of the same animals from the real world weren’t as common here. But it was still easy to decide, because my choice was always the same. “One meat lover’s, please.” I said to the man behind the register with a smile, moving to take a seat at an unoccupied table.

It’s good to know, that even at the edge of the universe, the finer things in life will always survive. About ten minutes later, I had a delicious pizza sitting in front of me, full of various meats I had never tasted before. Many of them tasted similar to normal meats from the real world, but a few stood out. Not in a bad way, as they only made the pizza even better.

After I finished up, I paid for the meal and went back out. When I got to a nearby terminal, I pulled up the information and found out which ships were leaving for Crailor. The journey information was listed as well, stating that it was a hundred and fifty parsecs from X-23, and would take three full days of travel to arrive. This seemed a bit strange to me, since there were some destinations listed farther away with travel time of only a few hours. When I asked the terminal’s AI about this, it responded that those destinations made use of interstellar gate technology to shorten the travel time. Since Crailor was not a major world, it did not have such a luxury.

Nodding my head slightly at the information, I went to the docking area for the Nostromo, the cruiser that was leaving for Crailor tomorrow. Since it was a pretty long journey, there tended to only be one or two ships heading in that direction a week, and even less that came back. I had my suspicions about that, but kept quiet for now.

Once I got in the docking bay, I found that the cruiser was infinitely larger than the shuttle I had flown up here on. If the shuttle was the size of a public bus, then this cruiser must be the size of an entire city! Only now did I fully realize how big the station I was in must have been to support all of this. Likely, it was the size of a small moon. Of course, most of that space would be taken by docking bays, to accommodate all of the large ships.

It didn’t take too long to find the ship’s maintenance crew, as they were the ones running around handling machinery. Seeing that, I approached the man in charge, who was yelling orders to everyone. He was a blue humanoid, with two rows of slanted yellow eyes on his head. “Excuse me, sir. I am here about joining the Nostromo as a mechanic for this journey.”

The man looked down to me, as he was a full head and shoulders taller, before speaking. “Show me your ID.” After I did so, he let out a sigh. “So you’re the one, huh? Oh well, not like it matters much, we need all the help we can get. Not many want to join this route.”

It was now that I decided to voice my suspicion from earlier. “Possibility of raiders?”

He nodded his head slightly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “That’s right. Journeys without gate support are more dangerous, because of the risk of raiding parties. Even more, we’re going off into the edge of locally colonized space, which is popular pirate country. If you’re going to be on the engineering team for this trip, you need to be on call in case we get attacked or a part fails at a moment’s notice. Understood?”

“Understood, sir.” Even with that condition, I would still have plenty of time to cultivate.

The chief engineer nodded his head again. “Good. You’ll get paid based on your performance, but as you are becoming a temporary member of the crew, you won’t be required to pay for lodging and meals. However, naturally if the trip goes smoothly and you aren’t needed, you won’t be getting paid either. Of course, some people think that means they can sabotage the ship in order to get a commission, but there is still constant security. If you are discovered to have done so, we will not hesitate to jettison you.”

I gulped slightly, nodding my head. “Understood.”