Author’s Corner: Hey guys! Finally the last chapter of this annoyingly long arc! Yes, that’s right, it was annoying long for me as well! However, it was necessary to show him doing these things in order to establish the setting for the next arc.

Now, a small announcement. As many of you might have read if you read my Author’s Corner notes, I recently had a long battle with sickness. This has, unfortunately, temporarily withered my imagination. As such, I plan to take a brief hiatus from World Seed so that I can make plans for the next arc and get my creativity back! Hopefully this hiatus will not be a long one, but after the last chapter, I think we can all agree that it is needed.

Well, at least the meeting was not a complete waste of my time, since I managed to learn some more about the Qu’Lopti world. Though, most of this was done by using Celeste to search their internet while they yelled back and forth. So, I’ll summarize a bit here.

“You peons of the fifteenth realm, you think you have the capital to sit at the same table as I, Dareon, wielder of the pale flame and master of the shadows?” One of the Qu’Lopti diplomats yelled at another as they conducted their ‘play’.

According to Celeste’s information, each realm was a different country, and there were almost two hundred countries in all. Though, the number of the realm was inconsequential, as each realm also had a name. They just often prefered calling the countries by their number in which they were established.

“Like a mere eighth realm has the right to question me. Why are you even here? Aren’t you said to be working on your new ultimate skill?” Another one questioned the first.

“Hah! As if I would have any difficulties with that. My Eyes of True Desolation have already reached their perfect stage.” The first yelled out proudly. Surprisingly, the other nine all clapped approvingly when he said this.

“Ahem, excuse me, but could we get back on track with why we are all here?” I shook my head with a sigh as I was forced to speak up. “My crew is interested in establishing a… mutually… beneficial… relationship…” The words, they felt like I had to force each one out. I was really starting to hate Malthan for making me do this.

“Ah, yes, the people of the Outer Realm.” One of the Qu’Lopti, who had previously been part of the play from before, spoke up. “We have heard your offer from Tordaedron. You offer information that would help us reach the Outer Realm ourselves, in exchange for our knowledge on magic.”

Several others nodded at that, but their faces froze when he continued. “However, my Network Integration has revealed a foreign presence on the net. After tracing it back, I found it originated from the Outer Realm. So, I ask of you, what is it you truly wish to gain from us?”

Wait… Celeste, you were caught? “Uhm… maybe? I don’t know!” I heard the AI answer in my head, so I shook my head again.

“It is true, I have already learned much from accessing your net. As I said, my crew wishes to set up a lasting relationship, so even if we do not learn much from this meeting, there is still a benefit to be gained. I plan to have a base constructed in orbit around your planet to use in the near future, as well.”

As they heard me, a few of them frowned slightly. “You seem to be willing to give, but not take. Is there truly nothing else you are attempting to acquire from the Qu’Lopti people?”

I thought about whether I should answer that honestly, but knowing this race, one of them was likely to have a means of telling whether or not I was lying. So, I could only respond with a sigh before telling them. “I have been sent by a god known as Malthan, for the purpose of acting as a diplomatic liaison between the Qu’Lopti and… pretty much everyone else.”

When I said that, the holograms suddenly jumped to their face, looks of excitement spread across all ten faces. “The father of chaos has sent you?!” The one that had just been questioning me… I think he introduced himself as being from the second realm. “Why didn’t you say so before!? You appeared to simply be a boring man of no talent, but this changes everything! If the father of chaos has personally spoken to you, then of course we shall abide by his wish.”

“...” I have never spoken in ellipses before, but I felt like that is the only way to describe my reaction. Seriously, all I had to do was drop Malthan’s name? “Yes… he speaks to me… You could definitely say that.”

Nine of the people looked towards the tenth, who had introduced himself as being of the one hundred and ninth realm. “My Eye of True Discernment can’t detect any falsehood in his statement.”

The made the other nine even more excited, and they even seemed like they might be on the verge of dropping their overly dramatic performance. “We of the first realm support Captain Hulett’s offer to become diplomatic envoy to the Qu’Lopti!”

“The fifteenth realm supports as well!”

One by one, the ten Qu’Lopti voiced their support, leaving me truly surprised. Celeste… they have an almost fanatical worship of Malthan, don’t they?

“Yes.” She answered in my mind. “There is a religion dedicated entirely to him, which has spread over the last two years to over half the planet. Though… I didn’t think they were this serious about it.”

“Well… that will make this easier.” I spoke quietly to myself while the representatives of the Qu’Lopti all sat down and resumed their former play. Though, this time their topics were not about who belonged at the negotiations, but who I would be reporting to. “Or not.”

They did not even seem to notice when I left the call, and continued to debate among themselves. “You can go ahead and send the information down, Celeste.”

The Deus Ex chuckled knowingly, before nodding and doing just that. “Captain, if you don’t mind, I would like to begin work on the station as soon as possible.”

Naturally, I agreed, and she left the bridge. I stayed behind just in case one of the Qu’Lopti called again, since only myself and Celeste could speak their language right now. However, that turned out not to be an issue, as there was no more contact from the planet for several hours. What was even more surprising was, when the leader of third realm, Tordaedron, called me again, he was speaking in elven. Broken elven, admittedly, but it was elven nonetheless.

Were they just naturally better at learning languages, because they would often invent their own for their play acting? Or had they used another means to quickly learn an alien tongue. I wasn’t sure either way, but he informed me that he would be my primary contact with the Qu’Lopti. That had apparently been decided because he was the one I had first called when arriving here.

With that taken care of, the next few days were rather interesting. Sometimes, I would receive a call from one of the leaders wishing to meet me. Other times, someone would call hoping to receive a divine message from Malthan. Did he not talk to other people as often as he did me?

If I did that, would I have any time to myself? You’re just interesting, is all.

Well.. that is true, too. Anyways, my days continued like this for a while, and I even kept track of their space program. To my surprise, rather than using purely technology for their prototypes, they would mix in both magic and science. Although, they still did not have knowledge of runes, so they were more limited in their usage of magic with this.

Within two weeks, they had a design laid out for their first orbital launch, though the construction of it would take at least two months. Normally, it would be far longer, but they had magic capable of speeding up construction by directly controlling the materials. At the same time, Celeste had released a swarm of station construction drones into an area of space around the Qu’Lopti world. According to her, within two months, if they can gather enough metal, she should have the station at a level where it can function.

Of course, she can’t complete the entire thing in two months, but she designed it so that she could add on to it over time until it was finished. So, until then, we began our mining operation on Qu’Lopti’s moon. Every time we made a trip back and deposited the metal we had acquired with the drones. And every time, they quickly got to work, flying around and building wide rooms and halls that floated in orbit around the planet. When they weren’t busy building, they would latch onto the sides of the current construction in order to perform any orbit corrections to keep it in place.

As promised, the station gradually grew, until Celeste had to release more drones inside of it to handle the machinery construction for things such as life support and power. At the end of the two months, the station was almost as big as the Ariadne, but it was still far from done. However, this was the day when we could officially open it, and we had planned a grand event for this occasion.

For this event, the shuttle had been running all day to ferry groups of people up to the station, in order to have a sufficient audience. And with that audience standing in front of me, I found myself in on a stage in one of the largest rooms of the station, easily able to hold over a thousand people.

“Thank you all for coming today. For some of you, this has been a long journey, and for others the journey is still just beginning. But for everyone, today is an important day. Today, I am announcing the opening of the space station X-1, the first official space station in Qu’Lopti territory. At the same time, I am announcing the start of the new guild which will be stationed here.”

Taking a deep breath, I tried my best to keep a straight face as I said the next part. Really, I just couldn’t come up with a good name, so I went with one of the names for an old gaming guild. “As of today, the LEET NEETs will be acting as diplomatic envoys of the Qu’Lopti.”

Silently, I navigated the game menus, and chose to establish my guild with that name.

Are you SURE you wish to establish a guild with this name? Y/N

I shook my head, selecting yes, and streams of golden light shot out from my body, flowing through the entire room. Everyone looked on in shock as windows appeared in front of them asking to join the LEET NEETs. By the time the scene was over, a screen appeared in front of me as well.

The LEET NEETs guild has been established by John Hulett, and 1,337 members have chosen to join the guild.

New Guild Options are now available.

I decided to check those options later, and continued speaking. “I would like to thank everyone that joined. And now, I would like to welcome two special guests up to the stage for their own little celebration. Two girls that I’ve known since the very beginning. Please give a hand for Celeste and Yang.”

I smiled back to the stage before walking off the side. The Qu’Lopti, not knowing what to do, all raised one hand in the air, while the rest of the audience clapped. Meanwhile, the two girls walked out on stage.

Celeste was wearing her magical girl outfit, with her metal wings fully extended and her microphone in hand. Yang had apparently been dressed to match her, with a similar tight fitting green outfit on her own body. In her hand was another microphone.

“Alright, Chelsea, let’s get this started!” Celeste called out, lifting her microphone to the sky. Suddenly, a soothing music began to play out of it, while the lights dimmed around the room. Two spotlights appeared on the stage, one focused on each girl.

Celeste stepped up to the front of the stage, bringing the microphone to her mouth. As she sang, her light voice resounded throughout the entire room. “Moving on, is the hardest thing. Is the hardest choice, you’ll ever make.”

Looking over, she winked at me, then turned back to Yang, holding an arm out for her. “Keep yourself in line, find a cause to live… Find a reason to stay, and a reason to leave.” As Celeste sang, Yang walked up next to her with a smile, before singing her own part.

“Looking past the loss, looking past the sorrow. Find yourself an answer to your biggest doubts.” The two girls took each other’s hand and began singing in unison.

“Healing all the shock, all the pain. Making yourself whole again. Have you ever wondered, why am I the one? Why am I the one to suffer this.” Their voices harmonized as the lights gently spun around them. “Just look right around you, look at every face. They’re all standing, ready to help you.”

“Fight your way right through all the doubt, thought, and fear as you carve a path of your own, towards your happiness.” The two girls separated, one walking to either end of the stage, before turning to look at each other again. This time, it was Yang that sang the next part first.

“Make it so that you make use of everything you got from this, as you build a dream, of your own today.” After singing those lines, she extended an arm out for Celeste, who picked up the next part.

“Move along, make sure to live your life like a song. Call upon your friends, and we’re here for you.” Now, the two girls began slowly walking towards each other at the center of the stage, both singing the final parts of the song.

“Walk your path, just never forget. You’re not alone, and those beside you, walk with you every day.” When they reached the center, they stood side by side, leaning against each other and wrapping an arm around the other’s waist. The music slowed down as the last lines were sung. “We walk with you every day. We stand with you every day. We stand with you… every day.”

Author’s Basement: I would like to thank PKill for the song lyrics, and composing the associated music below.

[soundcloud]264113358[/soundcloud]