Author’s Corner: Hey guys, and sorry for the long delay. Can’t guarantee that the hiatus is entirely over yet, but I wanted to give you all something to read. Also, a small announcement.

I plan to start a new story, which I will be writing alongside World Seed. Once I have the first chapter up and posted, I’ll post a link in this thread. Don’t worry, I am still not dropping World Seed. Aside from RL, one of the reasons I hadn’t been able to write here is because I couldn’t get the ideas for this new story out of my head. With any luck, writing this story will actually help me do better with World Seed.

Now, with that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

After the wedding, the three of us retired to the ship for the night. What, you thought I was going to get straight back to work right after getting married? Hell no! Though, I wasn’t completely irresponsible. Since Ackbar said that he sensed a New Human Empire reading from the planet, I let him and the Nathan’s team fly around it in one of the shuttles to locate them. Meanwhile, my wives and I enjoyed our honeymoon, however brief it was.

In the morning, before the two of them woke up, I decided to take a look at their status windows. I had to say that I was impressed with what I saw. Although they were lower level than myself, that was completely expected. After all, they didn’t have the cheat items I had that slowly raised my power without me having to do anything.

NameYin HulettRaceStormbird(Evolved)TitlesFully EvolvedFame10,000Level 18021%ClassMageAdvanced ClassStorm QueenDeityThullHealth1500/1500Health Regen2.5Mana4560/4560Mana Regen22.42Strength50Wisdom150Agility200Intelligence456Dexterity40Charisma34Vitality150Luck10Points Remaining0Wind 60%Water 50%Lightning 65%

NameSharon HulettRaceWood ElfTitlesAnimal CollectorFame20,500Level 15895%ClassDruidAdvanced ClassColony DruidDeityKrisaHealth1600/1600Health Regen2.66Mana1000/1000Mana Regen9.22Strength350Wisdom110Agility150Intelligence100Dexterity60Charisma65Vitality160Luck10Points Remaining0Earth 34%Fire 43%Wind 38%Water 50%Lightning 50%Light 35%Dark 38%Animal 65%Void 25%Metal 25%Fur 50%Blood 30%Muscle 32%Plant 20%Bone 48%Plasma 20%

Is it weird for someone to have as many titles as I do? I questioned mentally.

Duh! Titles are only granted to people who make actual achievements. Though two of your own titles are questionable, most of them are a result of your own stupidity!

Well…. That’s a bit harsh.

Is it, Amateur Brain Surgeon?

Okay… I deserved that one. Anyways, why are you suddenly so talkative now? I thought my life had become too boring for you or something?

Well, you have two hot, naked women sleeping next to you. That’s pretty interesting. What’s that face for? You know you can’t actually hurt this window, right?

I really wish he was wrong… The thought of him peeping on my wives… I may have tried burning the message window he was using to talk to me. Unfortunately, it didn’t work…

Now, are you ready to get going, or not? There’s an empire out there to crush!

Yeah, yeah, I get it. So you just came back because you thought this war would be fun, basically. Well, can you make yourself useful before you run off and disappear again?

I’m not sure what you mean, Johnny boy. I’m always useful.

Whatever… Anyways- I didn’t manage to get half my thought out before the next blue screen appeared, followed by one immediately after it.

Can’t tell you what will happen when your grove evolves, no. Rules, you see. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen to your wife.

Gah! Got the timing on that last post off by a few seconds, just ignore it until you finish your question. Go ahead, I’ll be right here.

...I honestly don’t know what to think about this. So, I decided to ignore it, and accept that nothing bad would happen to Sharon. Shaking my head, I waited for a few minutes before the girls began waking up. First was Yin, who slowly rolled over and gave me a very warm smile. “Morning.”

I leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Morning. Ready to get back to work?”

Suddenly, there was a groggy voice from my other side. “Unless work is a new slang for sleep, can I take a raincheck?” Unlike Yin, Sharon had a serious case of pillow hair when she rolled over, but she still gave me a small smile. “Not working, is it?”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “Come on, sleepyhead. Time to get things done. Busy day and all that.”

She groaned, slowly sitting up. I admit, I admired the view when the blanket fell down. “Fine… But you better give us a proper honeymoon when this is all over, deal? I mean the whole nine yards. Romantic dinners, a nice hotel room, and the best scenery money can’t buy.”

I smiled slightly, nodding. “Alright, deal. Besides, we still have some downtime whenever we’re traveling.”

She slowly began to grin at that. “This is true. Now, let’s go see if they found anything, yeah?”

After we all got dressed and went out, I met up with Celeste to get a status report. She spoke in a happy tone when she replied, and I wasn’t entirely sure why. Maybe she was glad that I finally got married. “Ackbar and the B-Team gave the system a quick pass. The only Empire readings came from this planet, and there were only two of them, according to him. We managed to track one down, and found an elf woman hiding outside of the capital.”

“When we tried to interrogate her, she wouldn’t tell us anything, even though we did confirm that the signal Ackbar was receiving was coming from her. So, I decided to resort to drastic measures. When I tried to scan her soul, she used some strange technique, not really sure what it was. All I know is that her soul practically burst into black flames before exploding. Took out all of us that were there, and made a nice crater in the cave she was hiding in.”

Cold sweat began to form at my back as I heard that. Loyalty like that isn’t easy to come by, so the elf was most likely an NPC purchased from the market. As for that final technique, it vaguely reminded me of the Cerberus breath weapon from the demon dungeon, the black flames that drained experience. Except, in this case it was the person’s soul being converted into the flames.

Could they have known that we used this kind of technique to get information? Or were they already designed to self-detonate if they were captured? I wasn’t sure what to think. Either way, the New Human Empire was treating these NPCs as nothing more than disposable pawns. And in some ways, that made sense. The longer that one stuck around, the more they would cost. Why pay for a minion that is in the enemy’s custody?

Still, I couldn’t approve of these kinds of methods. “What about the other signal, did you find anything?”

There was a brief wait, before Celeste shook her head, frowning slightly. “Ackbar said it vanished about an hour after the first one detonated. We found the site that the person was most likely staying, but there wasn’t any trace of where they had gone. I have two theories. Either they used a long distance teleport ability, or they activated a cloaking ability that is able to hide from Ackbar’s scan. He hasn’t refined the spell to be exceptionally powerful yet, so it is possible that the person is just hidden from detection.”

I nodded slightly, agreeing with her assessment. When she mentioned a long distance teleport, I activated my Toybox, just to see if there was anything weird in the Toy Chest. This got a laugh out of Celeste. “I doubt they’d be using the Toybox for this. The whole reason that power is unpopular is because its normal form has no long distance teleporting. If they were buying NPCs with custom psychic powers, they most likely bought more specialized ones, like Worldwalking or Nexus Gate.”

Like she said, I couldn’t sense anything inside of the Toy Chest when I probed it with my power. “Well, was worth a shot. Just think how awkward it would be if we went through this entire war and found out that we had access to their supply lines all along?”

That brought a bitter smile to her face. “True, better safe than sorry. But, next time we find one of them, I want to take either you or Tokemi with us. The ability to stop time should be able to prevent the self-detonation this last one used long enough for a soul scan.”

I nodded at that, understanding. Not like I’d let Tokemi head to the front lines or anything. “I’ll go.”

“Alright.” She responded. “Now, Ackbar said that he doesn’t sense any more signals from this system after we did a full circle around it. That means that we are ready to leave as soon as you give the order. I’ve already started recalling people who went to visit families.”

I thought over what should be done next. While it is important to go after the New Human Empire, they are showing a disturbing amount of new abilities that we’ve never heard of. Going after them alone would practically be suicide, if they were making as many advances in their space technology as they were in these new powers. “Let’s meet up with the Deus Ex, and see if we can form an allied fleet. If their ships are anything like they used to be, that will be a big help to us in this war.”

Celeste smiled slightly as she heard that. “Alright. I’ll set the course when I get back to the bridge.” I could imagine that she rather liked the Deus Ex race, since she was one herself. Not only that, but if she ever created bodies and souls for her AI children, they would also be Deus Ex.

But for the most part, the Deus Ex were the best choice for a war alliance, if they accepted a deal. They are the least likely to be infiltrated, and at the same time have the most abundant force to fight with. Even their middle-grade ships would be a match for the Ariadne.

I just hoped that they didn’t hold a grudge for us causing a civil war on their planet...