Author’s Corner: Dear god… the poll from the last chapter. At the ti of writing this, the results are so close. 247 for Deus Ex, and 246 for Elf. If it was possible to do both, I would xD“I think I’ll try a Deus Ex for a while. If I decide in the future I want sothing else, I can let you know, right?” My mom looked at with a slight smile on her robotic face.I nodded, and looked to the others. “I’m going to go ahead and do the transformations for them, then.”Suddenly, Talia cleared her throat. Had… we forgotten about the fact that we were still in the throne room? I think we had… “If it’s all the sa with you, could you do so sowhere else? We’ve got an important eting coming up.”“Ah… right.. Sorry.” I said with a dry chuckle, leading my parents away. I wasn’t sure where the girls were going to go, but this area is safe enough for now. There shouldn’t be any danger to them, even though we aren’t in our clone bodies.Once we got to another room, I went ahead and began the procedure. Really, although I gave them the choice, I had to make them both Deus Ex anyways as a transition point, before other races beca an option. The room we arrived at appeared to be their temporary bedroom, so it was not likely that we would be disturbed.First, I started with my mom, since she was going to need just one transformation. Thankfully I fard quite a bit on the way here, so it wasn’t hard for to sacrifice a level in order to Awaken her. All I had to do was grab roughly a level’s worth of aura, and rge it with her own inert aura. With that done, the process was complete and she was now a Deus Ex.After changing her race, my mother seed a bit surprised by sothing, likely a window appearing in front of her. I know that they had to have been able to see the system windows before, because otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to call on the friends list, but maybe it had been restricted in so ways?“Did it work, dear?” My dad looked over, not seeing any obvious visual changes on my mom.However, she simply nodded her head, still using that sa small smile. “It worked, Jordan. John, do you need to take a rest before we do the next one?”I shook my head before answering. “It doesn’t take a lot of energy to make you a Deus Ex. Changing dad into a human afterwards will be more draining.”“Oh?” The manbot in question looked to , before nodding. “Alright, then I guess we can start whenever you are ready.”Just like with my mom, I took another level from my buffer aura and used it to turn my dad into a Deus Ex. However, I didn’t stop there, and almost imdiately activated a mix of Technomancy and Nature Magic, slowly reshaping his aura into what was stored in my mory for psychic humans. I think, without using mory implants or so kind of external recording system, it would normally be impossible for a Xeno-Shifter to record a large number of races.I know it had been a while since I saw my father as a human, but I was still fairly sure that this was not what he used to look like… I an, before he was a man in his forties. Now, he looked to be the sa age as , physically. From appearances, he was a twenty year old male with short blonde hair(it used to be brown), and a completely different face than he had before. Well, I guess that was the result of transforming him into a human from a new body?I could at least be thankful that both of them had been wearing clothes in their robot bodies, especially when my mom started buying the upgrades that made her look more human. I an, seeing people naked is nothing really new. But seeing your parents naked is sothing nobody wants to experience.Seeing that the two of them were safely transford into their new bodies, I gave a small smile of relief and left the room. No doubt they would have many things to do now that they were like this. While walking around the castle, I began to think about what I wanted to do next. Naturally, I wanted to see about recruiting so of the people from the humans that wanted to join a crew, but I had to be careful about it.There would need to be so kind of screening process… I didn’t want to bring in any of the supremacists. If I did, they were more likely to try and start a mutiny. Maybe I could have one of the Ha’vosh sit in and serve as a lie detector to make sure that it all worked out?I nodded to myself at that idea, and sent the plan to Celeste so that she could transmit it up to the ship. In the anti, I walked around the castle, using my Cybernetic eye to peer through the walls, trying to find soone. When I found Tessa’s mom, I saw that she was watching Tessa and Yo playing together in the courtyard. To my surprise, there appeared to be a small unicorn running around the little girl’s feet as she spoke, a trail of sparkling light following behind it.Making my way to their location, I kept an eye on the developnts. Soon, a miniature dragon ca in and did battle with the palm-sized unicorn, who shot out beams of light in response. anwhile, Tessa just continued happily talking while Yo watched in awe. It didn’t take long before I arrived where they were at, and as soon as I did, Tessa whipped her head in my direction. Now that she had stopped talking, the battling creatures vanished into thin air, much to the dismay of a certain sli girl.“And? What happened? Did the unicorn princess slay the evil dragon? Did they all live happily ever after?” Yo held her hands together, looking at Tessa in desperation, wanting to know what ca next in the story. However, the little girl didn’t seem to pay attention to her.“Hello, Mr. Hulett!” She said with a wide smile while giving a big wave in my direction. I could only chuckle and nod, waving back to her as I walked over towards her mother.“Do you have a minute to talk?” I asked curiously, wanting to fill her in on my plan.She nodded, and I told her what I had co up with. I was including her for this part because I needed soone that ca with the colony ship to spread the word, and my parents were a bit busy at the mont. Thankfully, she accepted, on the condition that her and Tessa be allowed to go with us.“Our daughters seem to have grown quite fond of one another.” She smirked as she looked towards the two of them, where Yo was tossing Tessa into the air, and using her own body as a trampoline so that the other girl could bounce on top of her. “And I don’t think she’d forgive so easily if I didn’t ask.”I nodded my head again. I really had no reason not to accept them. After all, I knew that she was not a supremacist, so what harm would having an extra druid do for ? “Out of curiosity, have you gotten your advanced class yet?”Beth looked at for a mont, before shaking her head. “I haven’t. I managed to get a sub-class before we had to get ready to leave, and my instructor told how I should train, but I haven’t had many chances to do so yet.”“What sub-class did you get?” Given that we were talking about druids, I naturally beca more interested. Her class might hold a secret for future developnt after all!“Elent Druid. It’s the Sub-class of the Elent Avatar path. According to my trainer, after I get 25% in all of the base elents, I’ll have the chance to advance. I’m still a bit away from that, though.”I furrowed my brows slightly, not knowing anything about this class. When I asked her, she said that the Elent Avatar was a master of manipulating the elents. Just like how a Xeno-Shifter focuses on transforming, or a Colony Druid focuses on gathering animal companions, an Elent Avatar gathers affinities. Honestly, this was sounding like it matched my current abilities fairly well. Especially when she said that communicating with elental entities was a typical class ability of the Elent Avatar.Does that make a cross between a Xeno-Shifter and that class? Though really, I’ve been neglecting my own class abilities a bit in favor of that. Would be nice to have a guide I could reference at tis like this!Apparently, Beth chose this path because she believed it would be the easiest one to advance her grove enough to allow more people inside of it. And with that being the case, it would improve her chances of being able to choose the colony ship she wanted to get on. If she knew about the Colony Druid’s abilities to have their animal companions expand their grove, no doubt she would have chosen that one instead.Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!Anyways, with her agreent we would begin the recruitnt process! The interviews were scheduled to start after three days, and last one week. After that, we would be leaving Gerin again to return to Hydra. That gave us ten days to enjoy this planet. Also, I would never have enough ti to interview all those people by myself, so Celeste and Sharon are also each taking a Ha’vosh to run so interviews. Between the three of us, we should be able to get plenty of people.Or so I hoped. “Nya, what is it that your crew does?” In one of my first interviews, a woman with cat ears, fur, and a long tail was sitting on a chair across from . Though, rather than sitting, she was more crouched down on top of it. She said that she gained a few habits after changing her race.“In short, we explore other worlds, and help races adapt to the new system for now.” I had prepared a list of responses to questions people might have, and that was naturally on the list. Maybe I could print this out as a brochure, and pass it to people as they co in?“Eh? But what about after all that? You can’t get to every world before they either learn to take care of themselves or die, right?” She tilted her head curiously as she asked that.“Well… I’m hoping that those who manage to persevere would begin to grow outside of their own world and help others. Once that starts, we will be able to focus on exploration more.” I nodded my head to the catgirl. “But anyways, what is your specialty?”“I’m a hunter, level thirty eight.” She said, puffing out her flat chest in pride. “Strong, nya? I fight with my beasts all the ti so that we can improve our abilities. I’d be great as a bodyguard or tracker.”I nodded again, satisfied with the answer. Honestly, a level approaching forty was pretty average, since people from Earth had access to NeoLife, giving them five tis the ability to level up. “And what’s your view on other races, aside from humans?”“They’re neat!” She said with a wide grin. “I an, we thought we were alone for so long, and then boom, here’s the neighbors!” As she said that last part, she punched the palm of her hand with a fist. “And being like this is fun.” She looked down at herself, and let out a happy purr. I glanced back to Bob, the Ha’vosh I brought with . She nodded towards , indicating that Delilah, the catgirl, was being honest. “One last question. Do you have any training that would be of benefit on the ship, or will you be requiring so.”“Hmm… I wasn’t on any ships in the future, and they wouldn’t let civilians look at the controls on the way here. Does it work like in other gas?” When she tilted her head curiously, I had to shake my head. Naturally, there would be differences between things that were only gas and reality. “Then I’ll need so training, nya. I could be a security officer or sothing.”Seeing her give a confident nod, I smiled slightly. Well, at least she was soone who matched what we wanted. After dismissing her, the next person ca in. This one was a human male, who looked roughly fifty years old, with the color of his hair just starting to fade. When he ca in, he looked at Bob behind , and snarled slightly. “What’s that thing doing here?”“You can leave now.” I said with a sigh, catching the man off guard.“What? I ca here for an interview, dammit.”“Yeah.” I replied, nodding my head. “And you failed. Get out.”Before he could say anything else, I ‘nudged’ him with a gust of wind, throwing him head first out of the small tent we had set up for these interviews. Unfortunately, responses like his were not uncommon. About half of the people I interviewed on the first day seed to hold either myself or Bob in contempt. Each one was asked just as politely to leave, before being helped to do so.Starting on the second day, less people began showing up. Thankfully, that also ant less racist remarks, so I was not bothered. There was one interview, on the third day, which was particularly interesting.“So what’s your specialty?” I asked the sa question I had dozens of tis to the man across from . He was thin, wearing glasses on his head that seed to radiate so kind of magic. No doubt that ant he was so kind of enchanter, or knew soone that was.“Ah… well… it’d be easier to show you.” He said, before closing his eyes and holding up a hand. I watched as mana began condensing, to the point where it was visible with the naked eye. It wove together above his fingers, becoming a sheet of white paper. “I’m a talisman caster. Though my class is actually Rune Scholar, I prefer that instead.”To demonstrate, he pulled out a thick, leather bound book and opened it up. To my surprise, there was actually not a single trace of magic from the book. I had expected his ‘grimoire’ to be heavily warded. “Hmm, here we go.” He began drawing patterns on the paper, using his book as a reference. After that, he handed it to .The slip of paper was about four inches wide, and a foot long. At the top and bottom were circles, each one broken in four different places. Within the circles were runes, and by reading the runes I was able to tell that they were the design for a gust of wind. “Just put so mana into that to activate it.”Following his instruction, I put in so mana, causing the ink on the paper to glow brightly. In an instant, the paper crumbled to dust, while a strong burst of wind spread out in front of , nearly toppling the other person over.“Hah… stronger than I expected…” He said with an awkward smile. “I use Origin Magic to make the paper and ink, specialty materials that are highly mana-conductive. Though they are one-use items, I can put almost any spell I want on them… within reason, of course.” As he said that, he patted the leather book with a proud smile.I had to admit, it was impressive. It only took a small amount of mana to activate the talisman, as if I were working with a scroll. That could have also been because the effect was weaker, but still.. “What other kinds of talismans have you experinted with?” I could see him joining the main team, with this level of ability.“Hmm… I’ve done so barriers and sealing talismans, but most of them are one-use attack spells. I actually got the skill ‘Throwing Weapon Mastery’ because of them.” As if to demonstrate, he pulled out four more pieces of paper from his inventory, and placed them on the corners of the table. Activating them with so mana, the table was covered by a blue, cubic barrier that was being emitted from the four talismans. Though, as the barrier faded, so did the talismans.I’d have to talk with Sharon and the others, but I could definitely see this guy being a useful addition in an advanced party. “Just curious… but what is the book for?” I asked as I looked towards his book. It was definitely not small, and had at least a thousand pages.“Ah, this?” He smiled wide again, opening the book up and showing . “This is my rune guide. I basically spent the entire ti in NeoLife trying to morize these runes, so that I could add them to my journal. I even had to make sure that the journal was made out of a material that blocked out mana so that they don’t activate by mistake.”Indeed, in the book, written in a small font, were runes, followed by their aning. This… suddenly, I had a strange feeling. Is this what people feel like when I do sothing that has a much easier answer? I an… he can’t even have half of the rune language here, and it already took him so much ti to get it.“Uhm… you never considered getting an implant, or buying the language from the Skill Master’s Guild or sothing?”“The who?” He looked at , obviously having no idea what I ant.“Ah… in NeoLife, there was a group of people that sold skills. You should have been able to buy the whole language from them, and they would give it to you in a way that you would directly be able to understand everything.”“....But… wait… seriously?! I spent months going back and forth to make this guide!” He dejectedly slamd his head into the table, covering it with his hands. “I could have learned it all myself and just had to pay so gold? Why didn’t anyone tell that before we left?”
“Uhm… sorry?” I chuckled, knowing exactly how he felt.
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