Herb Garden

"Level one herb garden, successfully activated" a female disembodied voice echoed through the room.

"Level one?" Jayde thought to herself she hadn't realized that these upgrades came with different levels. Turning to Isha she asked.

"Isha what does it mean by level one?"

"Some of the upgrades to the Protoss artifact come with additional upgrades, with the herb garden that you have just purchased, you can increase the size of it, create different habitats and even change the space/time distortion."

After a moment's reflection, Jayde asked "Space/Time Distortion?"

"Surely you have realized that the time here runs differently from outside? When you were busy with White's assessment, you were in his test for months, by only two days went by outside, same with Green you spent a year training with Green but it's only been three months in Doha, time generally runs four times faster here in the Pavilion" Isha explained patiently.

Space/Time Distortion wasn't a new concept to Jayde, as it was something that happened to any spaceship traveling at warp speed in the Federation in the past, they found that spaceships traveling faster than the speed of light, experienced time differently, it took over a hundred years of research before the scientists of the Federation had been able to fix the problem.

It had been quite a problem with the early expansion of the Federation, as a spaceship would leave for a colony, while for the people of the spaceship only a couple of months had gone past, to the rest of universe it had been years. It had led to many tragic events, where one spouse would travel only to find out when they arrived that their partner had died, or a mother traveled to visit her young children, only to arrive and find out that her children were already old and had grandchildren.

Thinking of those past events, bought up a problem that Jayde hadn't thought about.

"Isha, doesn't that mean I am aging faster here then?"

"Um, yes" Isha confirmed.

Isha had forgotten that Jayde wasn't from Doha initially so he was pretty surprised that Jayde wasn't shocked about the difference in time and immediately understood the ramifications of the space/time distortion. The previous contractors had all been flabbergasted when they had found out.

Questioning Isha further about this difference in the space/time field, and if the Protoss artifacts in the other dimensions experienced the same time difference. Jayde found that each artifact was different. The Protoss Divine System had been designed to be upgraded by their contractors, the upgrade itself depended on various factors, it was tied to how much their contractors contributed to the growth of their dimension, what impact they played in the history of the planet, their cultivation and what missions they completed via the mercenary board.

The Protoss had also wanted their chosen contractors to contribute to the universe, so as an added incentive to reward the contractors that explored and contributed to other planets and races, they had also left behind hidden treasures that could be used to upgrade the Protoss Divine System.

Curiously Jayde asked: "So what level is this artifact?"

Looking a bit sad at the question Isha answered: "Currently the Doha Pavilion is a Class Three artifacts, we used to be Class Six — just as the Protoss Divine System can be upgraded as a reward for a contractors contribution, it can also be penalized should the contractor abuse their power."

Surprised at Isha answer, Jayde thought about it for a bit, but it made sense, there should always be check and balances to any power. Curious about what had happened in the past, she asked Isha, but Isha would not go into details, saying that it was something that Jayde will know later, that too much information now would be detrimental to her growth.

Seeing that Isha wouldn't explain any further, Jayde changed the subject.

"So the duration of the space/time distortion is tied to the artifact's class level?"

"Hmm, the class level of Protoss Divine System is one of the few inheritances past from one contractor to another, if you upgrade the artifact enough, there will be a time when the time here could pass a hundred times faster than outside, and as an added benefit your physical age wouldn't be affected" Isha said.

"One of the inheritances, what are the others that are passed on?" Jayde was happy to know that one day she could spend her time here and not age, but considering how expensive upgrades were that was something for the future her to worry about, right now she was really curious about the other inheritances.

"Come I will show you" and with that Isha walked to a half-moon archway that had appeared in the wall, Jayde had been so busy concentrating on the conversation with Isha that she hadn't noticed that there was now a half-moon archway.

Following Isha through the archway, Jayde was pleasantly surprised when they walked out into a beautiful herb garden.

The grass was trimmed short between rectangular beds. The air was scented by the aromatic leaves and flowers of the various herbs growing. Tiny green leaves of the Kappeseed, Fire Lavender with dark purple leaves and Moon Thyme growing on woody stems dotted the landscape, one of the beds contained Red Blossom Lotus with its spicy pungent smell, rare Demon Vanilla grew in large clay pots reaching over eight feet in height, while Vubigrass was growing like grass with their round blue flowers on tall stems, Dragon Grass swayed gently in the warm breeze right next to the Wolf Nigella.

"These are herbal plants planted by previous contractors, as you increase the size of the herb garden, more herbs will become available, and I can tell you that there are numerous rare and even extinct herbs that have been cultivated over the millenniums. While the dimension space is reset back to default with each new contractor, what previous contractors grew or contributed to the artifacts is never lost, it is just put into hibernation mode until a new contractor activates it" Isha explained.

"Right now you have about two acres of land" reaching down Isha lightly ran his finger down one of the leaves, smiling happily he continued "I will help you maintain this garden, but later on when it gets too big you will have to purchase a worker to help you."

Jayde had a feeling that Isha was really happy that she had purchased this herb garden, Isha seemed really content standing there in the sun, surrounded by a rainbow of colors.

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