“Okay, I think I’m ready for the first practical lesson.” Lilith said, setting down the paper she had been reading. “How are we going about this?”
“Already?” Jerry asked, raising an eyebrow. “It’s only been half an hour or so.”
“Yeah?” Lilith said, slightly confused. “Is that surprising? It didn’t seem particularly complicated, just introductory stuff.”
“Most people take an hour and a half or more to get to this point.” Jerry replied. “If you truly are ready, you have an unusual knack for this, though…I suppose it would be more surprising if you didn’t.”
“I mean, I haven’t really had any trouble learning anything new since I became able to speak all languages, as long as someone is trying to communicate something to me it just…clicks. It’s why having Mae as a biological supercomputer even works at all, really, since math is technically a language.”
Jerry shook his head. “I don’t think ‘speak all languages’ is the most apt description for that particular ability.” He said. “It may have been what you originally desired, but what you have is far, far greater.
“There are many abilities that provide what most would think of when they hear ‘speak all languages’, but they tap into the system or the collective unconscious of a society. You…do not. I don’t know how what you have works, but it seems to tap into something on a much more fundamental level than anything I know how to work with, getting to the meaning and intent of what is being said precisely. But…that’s irrelevant to us at this particular juncture. For now, come over here and we’ll practice reading something’s Mana to see how it’s being used.”
He manifested another table, this one containing a small green slime. “This is my training dummy equivalent.” He said, motioning at the slime. “It’s not sentient at all, or capable of any sort of locomotion, it’s just a blob with Mana. This is a pretty simple one, with the Mana channeled into only one passive effect. Go ahead and give it a go, see if you can tell me what the effect does.”
Lilith walked over to the slime, then sent a questing tendril of Mana into it, following the instructions that had been set out in the papers. As she did, the metaphorical landscape of the slime’s Mana spread out before her. “It seems to be related to absorbing physical trauma of some kind.” She mused. “Were this to be in a system, I would peg it as a flat reduction to physical damage, say…fifty percent? Something large but not overpowering. The Mana doesn’t seem to be altering the thing’s physical or magical traits otherwise, just the one ability.”
Jerry snapped his head up, starting at Lilith intently. “You haven’t seen this before, right?”
Lilith shook her head. “It’s my first time trying to do this, and I’ve never seen nor heard of your training dummies. Why?”
“That was…eerily spot on.” Jerry said. “Exactly how I constructed it in my planes, a single fifty percent reduction to physical damage and nothing else, no stats or anything. For you to recognize it that quickly, with that level of accuracy is…unheard of. For first times reading Mana, most people take somewhere in the realm of five minutes to realize that this has a physical damage reduction at all, and don’t get any numbers on it or touch the stats.”
Lilith scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. “Well, I’m kind of cheating here.” She said. “I’m sure it’s not that great.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Jerry said emphatically. “This, by all rights, should be impossible, ability or no. Even Amelia took longer when she was learning, and she’s far and away the most talented person I’ve ever seen with regards to Mana constructs.”
Amelia looked up from the paper she was reading. “I also didn’t have a precise guide.” She said. “If I did, I would have been faster.”
“Amelia, you took one minute your first time consciously looking, I went back and timed it.” Jerry said flatly. “That was a record for anyone, guide or no. Even now you generally take ten or twenty seconds to get a full read of something, not…instantaneous like this. Lilith, what did this feel like to you?”
“Um…kind of like reading a book?” Lilith ventured. “It’s not an exact comparison or anything, but it all seemed pretty plain to me. I just figured it was so easy because this is for training.”
Jerry frowned, stowing away the slime before taking out another. “Try this.” He instructed.
Lilith complied, and once again the slime’s Mana spread out before her. This time, it was significantly more complicated, like she had jumped from reading a picture book to reading Shakespeare. The Mana twisted and turned in on itself in obtuse ways, but she was able to nonetheless decipher it with relative ease.
She began to narrate her findings, stopping and starting as she changed effects and had to trace the Mana back to its origin so she didn’t repeat herself. It was relatively slow going due to the sheer density and complexity of the dummy’s Mana, but she was able to get through the whole thing in ten or fifteen minutes, much to Jerry’s delight.
“Excellent work.” He said. “That was my final exam, so to speak, and you did it faster than even I could. I think we can safely say that you have reading Mana down pat, how about constructing it?”
“That…I don’t know.” Lilith replied. “I can remember exactly what the circuits you made look like, but I have no clue how to actually copy them over, much less how to invent my own.”
“Well, at least my ego remains somewhat intact.” Jerry said, giving her a smirk. “If you had known how to do even that, then I wouldn’t have anything to teach you. Give me a second, I’ll get the relevant papers and we can get you practicing.”
“I want to practice too.” Amelia said. “I already know everything in these papers and it’s boring.”
“I’ll get you a training dummy too.” Jerry replied. “I would advise trying something new with it, instead of sticking to system constructs you know. You’ll learn more that way.”
“Fine, fine.” Amelia said. “It can’t be that hard, right?”
----------------------------------------
Amelia frowned, magically prodding at the slime in front of her. As it turned out, it could be that hard, not that she would let Jerry have the satisfaction of knowing that. Making something without the aid of a system was just…hard. Amelia hadn’t realized how much she relied on the structure her system provided until now; without that structure, Mana tended to spill out and do things she really didn’t want it to do.
Even making a simple effect such as increasing the slime’s stats was hard. The moment she stopped focusing on sculpting the Mana, all her progress was undone as the Mana collapsed in on itself, and that was less than ideal, to say the least. If she wanted any effect to stick, she would have to create some construct that would either make use of the movement of the Mana to reapply the effect, make something that would force Mana to stay in place, like a system, or provide a channel with which the Mana could be reset into a channel at a whim.
Each of those had upsides and downsides, and it got her thinking about what she could combine with what she already knew. Making use of the movement of the Mana’s collapse to reapply the effect was an intriguing thought, as it would result in something she really hadn’t seen before. The strength of the effect would ebb and flow as the Mana fell apart and reapplied itself, but if she added something that would slow the collapse of the Mana, then she could create some really unique abilities.
The constructs needed to channel the Mana required relatively little Mana to construct, meaning the peak of each effect was stronger than what she would get if she used something like a system to keep the effect constant, but they were also a lot more difficult to construct. Without a feel for how Mana wanted to move, the constructs would be horribly inefficient, and though she hated to admit it, she could see why Jerry might not have noticed that Mana had ways it wanted to move; the effect was normally so slight that it was nearly imperceptible to even Amelia, but in a situation like this it just didn’t seem to happen, or, at least not in a capacity that Amelia could see. It seemed that there needed to be time for the Mana to set or…something.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Regardless, while she wasn’t particularly interested in making abilities that increased and decreased in strength, what she could do with it was create constructs that would create entirely different effects when Mana collapsed, and create a circle of those. Then she could have abilities that changed every so often, trading consistency for more powerful and varied effects.
But that wasn’t something she wanted to make as a basis of a system, it was only something she would use supplementally. For one, creating something that would automatically create those constructs for each soul would be a nightmare, centuries of work to get something that actually worked well for everyone, as Mana worked slightly differently for each soul, and that slight difference could have a huge difference when repeated over and over again for each ability on a soul.
She filed it away as something to try back at home on an individual basis, and got back to thinking about the other ways. The system was still likely her favorite way of doing things, as it provided a solid, consistent way of keeping power up that required little in the way of complex Mana management or decision making from the user; they didn’t have to worry about their abilities not being active or something on a regular basis, and could just use them.
Yes, sometimes that did happen, but it was an exception, not the way everything worked on a fundamental level. And, while the Mana to power ratio of a system was, technically, the worst of the three, it made up for it in ease of use and the fact that effects that really needed to be consistently active were. It was simple but elegant, and everything she was looking for in this regard.
But that didn’t mean she should disregard everything else entirely. The last method was something she had actually been thinking about for a while, and had tried to implement with the swarm, but had failed due to the limitations of the system already in place. It boasted the greatest Mana to power ratio of the three methods, but traded that for ease of use.
To be able to use the constructs she would make, a person would have to have some knowledge of their internal Mana, how to circulate it, and how to activate the constructs that would be engraved upon their souls. In essence, each ability would require the user to train with it before it could be properly used, but it would come out more powerful than an equivalent ability provided by either of the other methods she was considering.
She suspected that this was the way in which most people who used magic without external aid did it; over long periods of time, repeated activations of Mana in a particular fashion would condition the person’s Mana to expect to be used in that way, and it would become quicker and easier to use. In essence, practice would form a “natural” version of these circuits, and they would likely be more efficient than most “artificial” versions, since they would be tailored to that person’s soul.
Of course, the flaw with that was immediately obvious; it took time. To develop a single ability would take years of effort, years in which someone with a system could develop dozens of abilities. Those dozens of abilities would be weaker, yes, but they could also build upon themselves, becoming greater than the sum of their parts.
Satisfied with her experimentation, Amelia pushed the slime away from her and looked over at Lilith. Lilith was studiously reading the papers Jerry had given her, a slime not dissimilar to Amelia’s waiting by her side. A quick inspection revealed that some work had been done on the slime already, but it was amateurish at best. The pathways she had carved into the creature were shaky and of inconsistent strength, leading a great deal of Mana to spill out before the ability was “complete”.
“Don’t judge her too harshly.” Jerry said, placing a hand on Amelia’s shoulder. “She’s doing better than a great many Administrators do their first time. Even you had a time when you were at similar levels of skill.”
“If there was such a time, I don’t remember it.” Amelia whispered dismissively.
“You were barely older than three, and you were unconsciously experimenting with it. You don’t remember learning to talk or walk, but there was a time when you struggled nonetheless.”
“Well, if she’s so great, then why isn’t she so good at this already?” Amelia asked sulkily. “I’m gifted, and I could do it as a toddler, so certainly an adult should be better.”
Jerry sighed. “Amelia, your world hasn’t done research on it yet, but it’s well documented that children learn languages much quicker than adults. I imagine this would apply to Mana manipulation as well; it is learned quite similarly to how languages are learned.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Amelia replied. “And if you’re so worried about her feelings, why aren’t you being quiet? I’m at least making an attempt.”
“I’m not being quiet because there’s no point.” Jerry said, giving Amelia a quizzical look. “Surely you know that, right?”
Amelia frowned. “What?”
Jerry frowned back at her. “Surely you examined her Mana.” He said. “You do that to everyone.”
“I did, and?”
Jerry’s frown deepened. “Then you should know full well that she can hear and see us.” He said, then lowered his voice to a nearly inaudible whisper. “Isn’t that right, Lilith?”
“That’s right, Jerry.” Lilith said, not looking up from her papers. “I was wondering why Amelia was whispering myself.”
“That can’t be true!” Amelia protested, an odd twinge of guilt running through her. “I looked you over, you don’t have anything that would let you do that!”
Lilith laid down her papers, looking at Amelia and giving her a puzzled glance. “I have at least five different things that would let me hear you, and more that let me see you?” She said quizzically. “You’re supposed to be one of the best at this, surely you would have picked that up early on? I have a lot of organs that normal people don’t, that doesn’t just work without Mana.”
“You’re not transformed, though, and you don’t have any Mana constructs that would facilitate that.” Amelia said matter-of-factly. “I don’t buy it.”
Lilith raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t exactly my base form.” She said. “In fact, most of my body isn’t what I would consider my base form, it’s almost all been transformed in some way.”
“Look, I’ll prove it.” Amelia said. “I’m going to throw my best dispel at you, and when you don’t change, that’ll settle things.”
Curiosity filled Lilith’s eyes. “Shoot.” She said. “I can redo this all pretty easily.”
Amelia quickly whipped up a powerful dispel, stuffing it full of Mana and even a little Worship for good measure, then hurled it at Lilith. And, as expected, it just fizzled out, leaving Lilith looking exactly the same as she had before. “See?” Amelia said. “Base form.”
“Uh, no?” Lilith said. “Amelia, most of my insides aren’t even technically mine.”
Amelia gave Lilith a blank look. “What?”
“This body is two bodies merged into one.” Lilith replied, flexing an arm. “After getting eldritch abilities, most bodily functions became pretty obsolete, so Mae used her body and effectively turned it into a symbiotic organism, replacing most of my organs with things like brain tissue or organs that give me senses I shouldn’t have. Theoretically, that spell should have split us back into two bodies. You have to have something wrong with however you’re doing things.”
“This always works!” Amelia protested. “You’re the first person it’s failed on!”
Lilith’s body twitched, writhing for a moment before shifting completely; her wings became insectoid scythes, and a thick black carapace covered her skin. “Look again.” She said.
Amelia shrugged, and prodded at Lilith’s Mana. She stared at it for a moment, a frown deepening as she did. “That’s not right.” She said. “It says this is your base form.”
“It is her base form.” Jerry said. “So was her previous.”
“Huh?” Lilith and Amelia said in unison, turning to look at Jerry.
“My Skill descriptions mention my base form as something separate from the transformations.” Lilith pointed out, returning to her normal appearance.
“Then your Skill description lied.” Jerry replied calmly. “The fact that you had one for an eldritch ability is unusual in and of itself. Likely, you were subconsciously trying to display the information in a way that made sense and didn’t interfere too much with the way you understood the world.
“I think it would be more proper to say that you don’t really have a base form, not in the way normal people do. If you did, the transformations you just did would have taken significantly more effort, and likely some Worship. As Connie can attest to, it is rather expensive to change the base form of a Higher Being, and you did so without a thought. Did it even cost you anything to do that?”
Lilith frowned. “I haven’t put much thought into it, it’s always been inconsequential enough that the numbers haven’t really mattered.” She rapidly shifted parts of her body into all sorts of different things, then shook her head. “If it is costing me anything, I regenerate Mana fast enough that I can’t notice it.” She said, once again shifting back to how she usually looked.
“I thought so.” Jerry said. “As far as I can tell, the Elder Gods, and by extension you, operate on a different axis than regular people. What they do can’t be explained by anything we have yet to understand, though I hope that in the aftermath of this ‘game’ we will be better equipped to understand it.
“Amelia, take this as a lesson.” Jerry continued, turning his eyes towards her. “With the eldritch involved, you cannot rely on the tools you would use normally. And, with that being the case, remember that there is always something you will not know. With each passing day we can endeavor to learn more, but I believe that to completely and fully understand this universe is beyond the capabilities we have. If one was capable of doing so, they would be next to omniscient, and I’m not sure one mind can handle that amount of knowledge.”
“Not and remain…the same as we are now.” Lilith said. “They would be completely divorced from the experience we’ve come to know.”
“They would be eldritch.” Jerry said, giving a nod. “But…that is reaching too far into the theoretical for today, I think. We really should focus on you, and you learning how to weave Mana. Amelia, you can return home for the day, you’re just sort of messing around anyway and it seems you’ve reached a bit of a stopping point in that. Lilith, if you’re alright with it, I’d like to continue here for a while longer.”
“I’m more than happy to keep going.” Lilith said. “I was just getting into the good stuff anyway.”
“And I’m more than happy to leave.” Amelia replied. “I have wives to love and planes to conquer.”
She began mustering the Worship to leave, then stopped, that odd sense of guilt from earlier rearing its head once again. “Bye. And…um, sorry for calling you bad at this, I think?”
“It’s fine.” Lilith said reassuringly. “I really am much worse than this at you. I’ll do my best to catch up so I’m not holding you back, okay?”
“I…yeah.” Amelia replied, finishing gathering the Worship and fleeing back home to her wives.