Author’s Corner: Author-sama has been bad lately with getting chapters out early, so have an extra chapter today as an apology!

With the Void Affinity training complete, and even the new addition of my water slime, I decided to head into the game. However, first, there were a few things I needed to take care of. Looking down at Yo, I sent him a command with my water mana to not resist what I was about to do. He blinked his eyes(popped his bubbles?) confusedly at me, but when I wrapped my mana around him, he did not resist. I noticed that it took roughly five times as much mana to send him into my grove as it took to do the same with either bird, but that was to be expected given that he was a monster.

Next, I left an instruction with the house AI to send me a message in the game if I get a call, and then sent Celeste back into the grove. Finally, I went back up to my Seed, cancelled my Aspect of the Bird spell, and climbed in. Been awhile since I logged in, wonder what’s happened with the Klax…

Soon, darkness surrounded me, and then I found myself lying on a small bed, a strange device strapped to my arm. It kept beeping at a fairly regular interval, which made me think it was measuring my heartbeat, and I slowly sat up.

“Ah, he’s awake!” Someone called out, and a woman in a white uniform with a red cross on the chest came over. “Sir, are you alright? Do you need anything?”

I blinked, a bit surprised at the situation, and then it hit me. I logged out on a bench… and it’s been several days since then… I coughed a bit, looking to the woman who seemed to be a nurse. “How long was I out?”

“We found you shortly after the rescue summon, and that was seventeen days ago.” She answered simply, a bit relieved that I seemed to be okay after checking whatever it was strapped to my arm. “There were a number of cases similar to yours around the same time on other planets, and we found that they were all travelers. Though, you seem to be missing your companion.” She looked down to my wrist, but blinked in surprise when the metal bracelet appeared in a strand of blue light. “Ahh, right.. we were told you were a druid.”

I looked myself over once, and checked my inventory. Thankfully, nothing was missing from my inventory, but… “I was wearing armor when I… ‘fell asleep’. Do you know what happened to it?”

“Hmm?” The nurse tilted her head curiously, and then got up to go talk to one of the doctors. After a few minutes, she came back, shaking her head. “You weren’t wearing any armor when you were found. Before we heard reports of other cases like this, we thought you might have been mugged.”

No… My armor… was stolen… Nooo!! I clenched my fists tightly, I liked that armor! It was awesome! Though, if I wanted to, I could easily go kill another Great Boa with my current strength most likely. But, I wasn’t even sure if there were any on this planet, which made that I difficult challenge. “I see… do you happen to know somewhere I could get a replacement..? Would rather not wander around without any protection.”

And note to self, from now on stick all important gear in inventory or grove before logging out.

The woman nodded her head. “There are a few different shops you could visit to get gear in the city. Once you are discharged, you can find a terminal to view the map.”

I nodded my head slightly. “Alright, and do you know anywhere I could access the online network? There’s some information I need to look up.”

“If it’s just to look up information, any terminal would do. However, you should visit a software library if you’re wanting to download something for your companion.” The nurse smiled at me.

“Thanks.. and, when can I get discharged?” I honestly didn’t want to look up new software for right now, but I did want to look up more information on slimes and elementals.

“Normally, if someone was unconscious for over two weeks, we’d ask them to stay for a couple of days to monitor their recovery. However, it was almost like your body didn’t require any food or water, and is still in perfect condition. We couldn’t find the trace of any particular blessing on you, but it was still remarkable. Given that, I think the doctors will agree to go ahead and let you out.”

I smiled and thanked her again, and she went to speak with the doctors. Within another half hour, I had been released from the hospital, and was even given a basic set of clothes to wear since my initial set had been practically ruined by combat, and my armor was missing. For the first time, I noticed that I was actually in shape now, and had entirely worked off the gut I had when I first started playing the game. Small miracles do happen..

Once I was out of the hospital, Celeste appeared at my wrist, giggling slightly. “Well, should have expected something like this to happen. Though, now we know for the future, right?” She smiled up at me innocently, and all I could do was sigh in response.

Moving over towards the nearest terminal, I did several searches to get information. I was tempted to use my eye and just record everything relevant, but trusting the terminal to decide what was relevant without asking for my input would be a bit much. And every second wasted trying to tell the terminal what to pull up would be precious mana wasted.

First of all, I pulled up information regarding wind elementals so that I could help Tessa, in case it was impossible for her to change her race back the normal way. Aside from what I had already known, there were a few important bits of information.

Wind elementals, like most, were incredibly difficult to kill because they could freely move their core around within their body and hide it from view. This meant that, at the very least, nobody should easily be able to hurt her. That part put me at ease a little bit while I continued looking for information.

The next tidbit was about her creating a human body. Like my mom had said, at level thirty they are able to create a semi-solid form, like a mirage body. Aside from solids like earth elementals, I suspected that that was a universal trait. Once they reached level fifty, they could start practicing with making a fully solid body.

Unfortunately, I had no intention of waiting for Tessa to level up to fifty. Who knew how long that might take? Weeks, months? If she wasn’t able to change her race, I’d train until I was able to do it for her.

With my research on Tessa taken care of, I moved on to researching slimes, in particular advanced water slimes like Yo. From what the terminal told me, advanced water slimes were stronger, smarter, and pretty much better in every way compared to their normal version. They had a higher chance to evolve into a sentient race known as slime people, and even other cool evolutions. However, the only way to get an advanced slime was to have it take in the essence of a living creature as it is being born. I was rather surprised the drop of blood I used had such an effect.

For example, the highest form of a water slime was known as an ocean slime. This was a rather terrifying thought, honestly, because a single slime could potentially control the entire ocean! Once in the water, they’d be able to control it as if it were their own body. I couldn’t imagine trying to take on something like that with anything short of planetary destruction. Apparently, when I had been fighting the water slime before, it had taken in the dark mana I was using to attack it, and forced an evolution in an attempt to save itself.

On the path to sentience, they are able to turn into ‘mimic’ slimes, which can copy the physical shapes of objects or creatures. I asked, and they don’t make very good weapons. Can you imagine trying to hit someone with a sword made of jello? It’d be about the same thing. They do make great armor, though! And after they gain enough intelligence, they get their evolution to slime people.

Finally, when looking up the special abilities of water slimes, I found something rather interesting. Similar to plant slimes, it is possible to create various potions by feeding the ingredients to a water slime, and having it secrete the finished potion. The amount of potion depends on the size and strength of the slime, but generally will not exceed medium quality. That means I could feed it some blood weed and fireflower petals, and have a walking(rolling) health potion!

With that taken care of, I moved on to looking for information about my birds, and the evolution paths they could end up taking. For Yin, my ideal evolution would be achieved if she kept focusing on training her Wind Affinity before leveling up, because then she could evolve into a Windslayer. From what the terminal said, a windslayer is a powerful magical beast able to control the wind. However, it required Wind Affinity to reach 30% before level 20 in order for it to evolve that way.

If it did evolve into a Windslayer, then it would gain other evolutions for either focusing on Wind Affinity, or branching out into other elements. I was really hoping to get this path, but I didn’t want to look up the information in case I wasn’t able to get it. That would just be teasing myself, which I have already done enough of.

Now, if they got to level twenty before getting the required amount of Wind Affinity, but it was still their main ability, they would turn into a Gustwing instead. A gustwing was not as powerful when it came to manipulating the wind, but they were listed as a ‘low ranked’ monster, instead of a ‘medium ranked’ magical beast. Although their wind powers were lacking, they had a stronger overall combat power thanks to an enhanced body.

With the information for Yin taken care of, I moved on to Yang. Her evolution path was pretty much set in stone, and she would immediately become a sentient creature when she hits level twenty. As long as she kept practicing Nature Magic, this was not something likely to change. The type of species she will turn into is known as a demi, which I guess is what they call evolved creatures. Specifically, a winged demi.

A winged demi is a bird that has used magic, or had magic used on it, to bridge the gap between sentient and animal. Their exact form depends on the form they are based on, so they could become demi-human, demi-elf, or demi-dwarf, for example. In terms of potential, they possess all of their innate traits they had as an animal, but are capable of intelligent thought on a level of a sentient creature. If they trained to become a demi on their own, they will likely possess an innate talent for arcane magic. It would be really nice if this was the case, because another caster would help quite a bit.

Finally, I decided to end my little study session by looking up information on element seeds. I still didn’t know how to refine higher quality ones, or why the slime’s core seemed to have two elements. The first question I had answered pretty easily. I just had to refine an element seed with a higher elemental purity. So.. the ones I was making right now should be around 25% pure, but I need 50% pure for it to be a medium quality seed. As for my last question, the terminal informed me rather bluntly that an element seed, or the slime core created from it, can only have one element. This element can be a mix of other elements, but must still be an element of its own.

So what element is water/darkness, then? I debated whether to ask the terminal, but decided against it. Instead, I walked off to find the armor shop that had been indicated on the map. Now I knew how I could evolve all of my animal companions, and what they could evolve into. I’d need to check what level the birds were at already before doing I went fighting again, but having a winged demi, a Windslayer, and a mimic slime would make for not only an epic fighting group, but also a wide range of traits to study for my Xeno-Shifter class!

Author’s Basement: No real action this chapter, but information! Information is good. Action will be coming eventually as well, but he did just get out of the hospital after all and lost his only armor! If anyone spots any errors or has any questions, as always leave a reply. I'm going to try to pass out earlier tonight, so I will get them tomorrow, but this also means that tomorrow's chapter should come out a bit earlier!