《~*~Mana Seeds~*~ Julie and Romie》 Chapter 1 – A midday walk. ¡°Hey Penny, time for your midday walk. Go get my cane for me please.¡± Julie said happily to her Seeing eye dog. ¡°Woof, woof!¡± Penny happily barked while getting Julies walking cane. ¡°Thank you, Penny, okay let¡¯s go.¡± Julie cheerfully exclaimed, opening the front door to her small cottage. ¡°One or two laps around the block today?¡± ¡°Woof, Woof!¡± ¡°Two it is!¡± Julie giggled aloud as she turned around and locked the door. Holding on to Penny¡¯s lead in her right and her cane in her left they proceeded down the path to the main sidewalk. ¡°Right or Left Penny? You¡¯re choice today!¡± Penny pulled her to the right, leading her down the sidewalk past a couple of other small cottages, happily guiding her best friend along. Julie lost her sight when she was 6 years old. As well as her parents. There was a car accident, and the only remaining family she had lived in a ridiculously small village was her grandma Georgina. Her grandma passed almost 5 years ago. About a month after finally getting Penny to help her maneuver the small village. Penny has been her best friend and helped her through all the tough times. The entire village helped her out when necessary, always watching out for her and making her feel safe. Only 2 other people her age lived in the village, most of the population were old retirees, or long-time natives. But Julie liked it. She was teased relentlessly, but with kindness by the old coots about her and the boy her age named Romie. ¡°Romeo and Juliet how lovely¡± they teased even though that wasn¡¯t their names. But Romie took it with pride saying he would always be there for her. His younger sister had moved to the city when she turned 18. And Shortly after their parents died of the same thing her grandma passed away from. As well as half the village. It was much too quiet now. But she had Penny, and that¡¯s all that mattered. Penny, started whining and so they stopped. ¡°What is it, Penny?¡± Suddenly brightness assaulted Julie, a brightness she had not experienced since before she lost her eyes. What in the world?!? Suddenly pain made her collapse to the floor, her body, her eyes, everything hurt. Colors Colorful lights and shadows but how, she couldn¡¯t scream, suddenly Penny¡¯s barking and whining and her cry stopped. And a voice, heard over the silence and the pain made its way into Julie¡¯s mind. A haptic buzzing, something you don¡¯t hear in a village like this. Something like an electronics store. The Voice was like the voice her phone used to read her texts. ¡°HELLO, and welcome to the system Aridari, Reading and hearing this means you have survived the initial spark! Congratulations! Those that couldn¡¯t adapt have degenerated. Roughly 20% of the apex species on the planet have been reclaimed and fed into the system! Other creatures close to the apex species have had their intelligence upped, so to have a fighting chance in this new world! Around 5 years ago, mana seeds were scattered across your world, absorbing into many things, Radiating and infecting the world with the programing required to save your world! Other worlds will be able to visit yours to help you grow stronger! The introduction to mana seeds will help keep the universe safe from a looming virus that will, if no mana is introduced, wipe the entire planet of all life! I have been tasked as AI 2348920483202034 or Steve for short, to find worlds teaming with life and no mana to help keep the virus from spreading! Some of the apex species, Humans, have perished but sacrificing a few to save the whole is the way to go! Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. We have been introducing things to your planet for over 5000 years, trying to get you prepared to accept the mana seeds, and the way the technology will work. Over the last five years, you have been upgraded. You may have noticed more storms, violence, unrest, mass extinctions of other creatures, etc. during this time because not everything will take to the mana seeds. You have developed mana sense, and thus will have status screens, and all your life experience, of any kind has been quantified into an easy to follow and upgrade list. I as a benevolent AI, will be handing out achievements to everyone who achieves something interesting to help you survive the evil life wiping virus! We all need to become strong to fight the virus. Though Most of you probably won¡¯t survive the beginning, those that do will be able to hopefully find the virus and destroy it! Isn¡¯t that just heroic. The world will be fully converted right after this message ends. Tutorial guilds are found in every city. They will be glowing; they are a safe room that monsters cannot enter. Yes monsters, like in those video games you all play. That was me by the way, sneaking all the ideas into the ¡°humans¡± heads to get them to create as close as possible ideas that would let you all adapt! And I had an 80% success rate too! That means I did well, some AI¡¯s only have maybe 40% success rate! So, your world is already above and beyond some other newly seeded worlds. Dungeons have now started spawning, and changing, any indoor space can become a dungeon. Any building, any cave. Even outside areas with a boundary, as long as they have enough mana seeds to have sparked the dungeon core! So be ready to fight when the message ends if you seem to find yourself in uncanny areas, that don¡¯t quite look the same. My job is to observe and provide insights when necessary. But it¡¯s important to fight against the virus with your own will and power, and to develop well rounded heroes! And this is my 5,000,938,3839,292 world, So This time I¡¯m just going to see what you guys come up with on your own! I will provide more details when you reach a tutorial guild. Like that line famous book, you all have loved so much that you even made into movies, ¡°May the odds be ever in your favor.¡± Good luck and STARTO!¡± Chapter 2 Absolute visionary Chaos As the last word was spoken the pain stopped, but the brightness was too much causing Julie to cover her eyes with her hands, letting go of Penny and her cane. ¡°Ow omg, ow penny get help, I think I¡¯m losing my mind. Get help Penny!¡± She cried out. Not quite understanding what was going on. ¡°I¡¯ll get help hold on Julie! Hold on I don¡¯t know what¡¯s wrong I¡¯ll get help, bark¡± Penny said frantically. Running off, leaving Julie sitting alone on the sidewalk, Julie swore she heard her dog Penny say words. ¡°Great I think I¡¯m having a psychotic break. Dogs do not talk, ai voices don¡¯t sound inside your head. Get a grip, is anyone there? HELP!¡± ¡°Julie, Julie Romie is coming! Romie is gonna help, I¡¯m sure he knows what''s going on! Penny is here Julie. Penny is always here for her best friend. Please be okay, Can I lead you to the tree? Romie is coming.¡± Penny said with a small whining noise. ¡°Are, are you talking Penny?¡± Shuddered Julie. ¡°I think I¡¯m hallucinating, maybe those mushrooms were bad. I should have had you check for me Penny ha-ha¡­¡± ¡°Mushrooms? No those were normal mushrooms, the ones you always buy, the ones that smell and taste like dirt. I don¡¯t know why you like them I knew mushrooms were gross.¡± Nuzzling Julie, she spoke confidently. ¡°OH, he¡¯s here!¡± ¡°JULIE! Where are you? Are you okay. Let¡¯s move you to the bench over here by the tree, up you go. I got you.¡± Romie said, giving a sideways glance at Penny. ¡°Oh my god Romie, what¡¯s going on, suddenly everything went bright, I haven¡¯t seen bright in a long time, and then pain so much pain, then a message, then Penny started speaking, am I losing my mind? Please I¡¯m so scared.¡± ¡°Penny has always talked you can just understand me now! But enough about me, why were you crying why are you feeling pain, what¡¯s wrong Julie.¡± Penny paced back and forth, causing both of them to pause. ¡°Ya you¡¯re not losing your mind, Penny is talking, the Ai voice was real, and there was a bright flash of rainbow lights, Mr. Kennidy evaporated in front of me, while helping him with his garden. I have no idea what¡¯s happening, but I¡¯m here Let me see your eyes.¡± Romie tried to sound confident, but his voice kept cracking and getting higher and higher. ¡°Romie I don¡¯t have eyes remember I lost them in the accident. How can you check my eyes. Wait.. are those tears? I haven¡¯t had tears since before¡­ OMG.¡± Poking the area her eyes used to be, she felt, eyelids! And they moved. And something soft behind them, that hurt to press too hard. ¡°My eyes, my eyes grew back!¡± ¡°Let me see!¡± Romie gently removed her hands, and saw her eyes scrunched closed. SCRUNCHED! ¡°Slowly try opening your eyes, your face is totally different. I think whatever is going on healed you!¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°YOUR EYES GREW BACK! OH, HAPPY DAY FOR MY BESTFRIEND!¡± Barked Penny jumping around like a puppy again. Slowly Julie opened her eyes, expecting it to not work, be blurry, or she didn¡¯t know, but it was like opening her eyes, as a kid, the morning light streaming into her window, Like She had never lost her eyes at all. The Pain was gone, the brightness was there but darker, because of shade! ¡°Suddenly everything is vibrant then blurry again, why is it going away?¡± ¡°No Julie, you¡¯re crying, and so am I!¡± Romie said, happy tears streaming down his face. Looking to her friend, she saw him for the first time ever. A Tan muscular man, wearing a dirty white shirt, and blue overalls. His hair was cut short, shaved, and was a beautiful red color much like her mother¡¯s hair was from her memories. He had some freckles, and his face was kind with bright green eyes, his cheeks were flushed. ¡°Holy Hanna, you are beautiful Romie!¡± She cried. Reaching out and touching his face, yup that¡¯s him.¡± Romie was at a loss for words, everything happening so fast could just stare, his friend had the most beautiful golden eyes. He had never seen anyone with eyes that color. It matched her brown hair¡¯s golden sun kissed highlights. And the blush from crying just made her even more beautiful than he thought she was before whatever this was, happened. ¡°You¡¯re pretty beautiful yourself. Were your eyes golden before the accident?¡± he asked, his voice barely a whisper. ¡°Um I don¡¯t know, I can¡¯t remember.¡± ¡°YOU HAVE EYES! OH MY GOD! Bark Bark, Yap Yap Whine!¡± Penny yelled. They both turned to look at Penny, Julie seeing her for the first time, her coat was long and blonde. With her ears and tail being a shiny brown color. She was a labrador mix Her harness and collar fluorescent green. A pink nose. And one gold eye and one blue eye. ¡°Penny you are so pretty! I never imagined; I didn¡¯t know how pretty your colors were! And now you can talk to me! I¡¯m so happy! Signaling Penny to come penny straightened up, like a proper service dog and hopped on the bench next to Julie so she could let Julie hug her. And Julie did, she snuggled her and breathed her in. Happy to have her. After a few moments, Romie cleared his throat. ¡°Okay this is weird and wonderful, but that message was concerning. What do you make of Julie? I don¡¯t think you saw it more than heard it but if you think of the interface, I think you can see it. Julie nodded and thought about seeing an interface, and just like that an interface showed up with letters, some words she recognized, but, ¡°I cant read this Romie, I never learned to read more than a few words as a child before I lost my eyes.¡± Suddenly a blinding pain shot into her head making her gasp and both Romie and Penny reach out to her in concern. ¡°OW... wait, wait¡­ I understand this. I can see it. I can read it! Whatever this system is it¡¯s amazing!¡± Penny started wagging her tail noticing her best friend happy, and Romie, well, just had no idea what to think about everything that is going on.