Author’s Corner: Sorry for the delay. Been dealing with health issues lately. Good news is that I finally seem to be getting back to normal, so our irregularly scheduled chapters may resume!

As we agreed with our previous deal, we began preparing information for the Qu’Lopti. Of course… there were some conditions that I gave Celeste when she was getting the information ready.

“We don’t want them leaving the planet too quickly… give them just enough that they can start their own space program, and maybe get out into space on their own in a couple years. Naturally, we want to let them earn it for themselves, right?”

Celeste just chuckled knowingly, nodding her head in agreement. While I did feel a bit bad for always wanting to cause a disaster of some kind for this species, I quickly got over it as soon as I remembered their personalities. That made it a bit hard to feel too bad, even though I wouldn’t actually go through with it and do anything to them.

To be fair, we didn’t actually even need to do the trade in the first place if we didn’t help them out. Yes, they do have knowledge on magic we are lacking, but Celeste could easily have just stolen that information from their network. Once you learn how to decrypt their ‘drama speech’, they actually keep quite comprehensive reports on things.

Also, I soon came to learn that this planet is called Kithorun, which vaguely translates to mean ‘Almighty’ in their language. Their star was also referred to as ‘God’s Eye’, though for the purpose of identifying their system, let’s just call it Qu’Lesh. Yes… their race’s name also means ‘God’s Chosen Sword’. I couldn’t agree with their naming sense…

Now, as for their magic knowledge… yes, I went ahead and had Celeste check it out before the meeting. The more I can tune out the Qu’Lopti during the deals, the better. Besides, I didn’t feel like waiting until unnecessarily long diplomatic meetings were over before we actually learned the stuff we could find out at any time. Yes, it’s cheating, and no I don’t care that much.

As I was saying… they currently know of only arcane casting, and element manipulation. While a few of their written words have caused magical accidents, they aren’t sure why. However, they label the types of magic differently than most. To them, arcane casting is ‘concept magic’, where you can do anything with the type of magic you can imagine. On the other hand, manipulation is referred to as ‘principle magic’, where you have to understand the various truths about a given element in order to properly wield it.

And… it seems they really have experimented with it more than I have. Under their ‘Laws of Darkness’, there existed a realm of shadows directly linked with our own world. The matter in this second world is in a mostly fluid state, but always trapped in darkness. It is only possible to open the gateway between the two worlds using Darkness Manipulation, either by pulling some of the ‘dark material’ into our world, or by sending creatures into the world of darkness.

Recalling the various abilities of Darkness Manipulation I had used, including the shadow prison, this made sense. I had never really considered an entire linked world, but it was apparently true. Furthermore, several of the Qu’Lopti used the darkness in a way I had never imagined.

By dropping an item into the world of darkness, anyone else with the Darkness Manipulation skill can find and retrieve that item, as long as there is uninterrupted darkness between them. For instance, if their shadows are connected, or at night when the darkness extends everywhere. Likewise, they could transport themselves through that shadow world in the same way.

While this was an interesting concept, it wasn’t particularly useful to me. Maybe if we needed another way to quickly transport items, but that’s not really necessary for us right now. At most, it is nice to learn the basic principle behind the Dark Affinity. It was the one that had been confusing me for the longest, after all. If it followed the same rules as the other affinities, then I would only be able to move shadows around with it, and not be able to use any other effects.

From what I can tell, they have focused their research almost entirely on magic, ever since it first appeared after Genesis. Their insights into it are almost approaching what NeoLife had, almost three thousand years in the future… Okay, so apparently there was a reason for them to need to survive. If the Qu’Lopti survive, then magic research can advance even faster, and new possibilities may be unlocked in the future.

Now, there was also one section I was particularly interested in, regarding their magical knowledge. And that was how to develop unique abilities. One such ability listed was the ‘Devil’s Eye’, which was just their name for Aura Sight. This was the most common ‘unique’ ability. Another was the ‘Ultimate Protector of Unity’. From what I could tell, this ability was what the Qu’Lopti pair had used in the previous recording to summon an iron golem.

In order to call the protector, the two people have to merge their auras together, and form a clear, identical picture of what they want to summon. They have to both imagine its form, its strength, and any special abilities it has. If the two images match, and the combined mana is sufficient, the merged auras will come together to form the protector.

This particular ability seemed rather interesting to me. I couldn’t help but consider, what if more than two people formed a protector? What if it was five? Or ten? Or even fifty… All pooling their mana together to imagine a single terrifying creature.

Oh… that happens. I saw another ability listed, and was surprised to see that it was labeled a separate ability, even though it had the same concept. ‘God’s Warriors’, an ability used by large adventuring groups to subdue giant monsters. The suggested configuration is at least twenty people with at least a thousand mana each, and they all have to focus on the same image. With twenty such people, the monster formed has the equivalent of level 150. With fifty, it is a level 300 monster.

The strongest ‘God’s Warrior’ ability ever used was by a hundred people, but it only lasted for ten seconds. During that time, they had no suitable means to judge its level, because the boss monster was defeated after the first two seconds. By my guess, it should have been a level 450 to 500 summon. And, the stronger the monster, the faster it drains the mana from each individual. So, after that ten seconds, all one hundred people were unconscious from severe mana drain.

According to their information, anyone has the ability to create a new unique ability, if they have sufficient patience and imagination. Each one is essentially a new type of magic. Although this new magic can be powerful, it has to be developed manually, each new aspect to it added one at a time. That is what sets it apart from conceptual magic, where you can easily come up with new spells following the same concept.

I sat down for a little while, thinking about this information. Tokemi was currently playing with Kismet and Yo, so I had some time to myself. Should I make my own ability? If so, what should it be?

Obviously, I wanted something that could combine all of my major abilities. Nature Magic and my element manipulation would have to be my two biggest magic-related abilities, by far. Toybox doesn’t interact well with magic, and Soul Arts aren’t too good for offense, at least not how I’ve been practicing them.

Another question, why were these abilities not widespread in the future, even without the Qu’Lopti? Was it just that there weren’t enough people willing to go outside the norm when they thought there was nothing to be gained?

Suddenly, I had an idea for my own unique power, but I wasn’t sure how I would create it. Well, actually there were two ideas… and I wasn’t sure which was cooler. Either way, I’d have to practice for a while to get them right.

The first ability combined my affinities with my marksmanship. My idea was to make a gun with my magic that could shoot out condensed elemental mana, which I could ‘solidify’ at will. So, for example, if I used it with metal mana, and waited until the mana impacted against the target before solidifying it, the target would be locked in a metal cage. Alternatively, I could solidify it in midair before reaching the target, and they would be struck by a metal bullet. This power would continue to grow with my Mana Manipulation and my affinities.

The second ability combined Nature Magic with my affinities. The idea behind this was living elemental pets. I actually had an idea on how to practice this one, though I wasn’t sure it’d work. Basically, I would form an animal or monster’s aura with elemental mana, and use Nature Magic to make it real. If my theory worked, it could create a monster made out of the element. So, a fire goblin for instance. There was a major flaw behind this ability, though. It was unlikely that monsters I made in this way would be loyal to me by default. Although I should be able to forcibly control their bodies like a puppet, it would likely take too much of my concentration.

Out of the two ideas, I decided to focus on the former. While elemental guns might not seem as cool as elemental minions, it is more reliable in the long run. So, I took another look through their information about creating new abilities.

From their information, you need to be completely familiar with the physical form of the object you are creating when your ability involves that. For the Qu’Lopti, they generally use their VR devices to create a test world, and create the physical form they want to mimic in there. Then, they slowly study it, take it apart, put it back together, and so on.

Once they completely knew the form of their object, to the point where they could imagine it in its entirety in a split second, then they would be able to create it with their mana. The exact process to do so… is vague. I’d have to figure that one out on my own.

I was starting to think that maybe we should get some VR devices of our own. If nothing else, there would be a good entertainment value with them. Though… I really wasn’t looking to play any new games. It’s hard to get excited for a game when the real world itself has become one, you know? Well… maybe not that hard for the Qu’Lopti.

Speaking of… I noticed something that was missing from their knowledge on magic. And that was the knowledge about groves. They hadn’t yet discovered how to properly merge the five elements necessary to create a basic grove, so they are completely lacking in that area. However, they have created their own alternative among the unique abilities, ‘Perfect World’.

Perfect World is the ability to create your own personal pocket dimension, complete with any plants or animals you can think of. However, the things created by the pocket dimension aren’t real, and can’t be taken outside. They only exist while they are in that dimension.

This was probably the most powerful ability listed in the information I received. After all, you could create medicines while in the Perfect World, and as long as you wait until they have finished their work on your body, you would be able to receive the full effect. Though, thankfully it’s not as easy as imagining up a potion to double your strength, and you actually have to understand how to make what you want.

“You’re procrastinating again.” Suddenly, a voice spoke up from beside me, Celeste standing there with her arms crossed, looking at me with an amused smile. “I’ve already prepared the data to send down. We can contact them at any time to conclude the trade. And before you try to think of a way out of it, I already scheduled the mining operation, and contacted the druids on the crew to see who would be willing to donate for the station.”

“Yeah… but… do I have to?” I let out a soft groan as I got up, not looking forward to the meeting.

“Yup~! Tell ya what. If you can go through the whole meeting without wanting to blow up the planet, I’ll let you see my own unique ability, once I finish making it.” She grinned a bit at that, before turning to walk for the door.

“Dammit… well, I guess it was inevitable that you saw me looking at it. Let’s get this over with.” I said with a sigh as we made our way to the bridge.

For the record, I failed to restrain myself from wanting to blow up the planet. One Qu’Lopti is bad, but manageable. Two or more… and they just fuel each other. Ten in one hologram call… I had to struggle very hard not to press any big red buttons.

Author’s Basement: Sorry for the chapter being a bit shorter today, wrote as much as I could manage while still under the weather xD