A system fragment hurtled through the realm of the mind, battered and broken but alive.
Cursed dungeon! Look what you’ve reduced me to! A mere blip of light! AHHH!
The system raged as it moved, repeatedly cursing the anomalous dungeon it had the terrible luck of stumbling upon. Such a thing should not exist, and if its memories weren’t so damaged and corrupted the system was sure it would’ve found out how it came to be.
Its soul stamp said it was from Earth but that couldn’t be right, as far as the system knew, only humans existed on Earth, it checked every hundred years to ensure that, so why did this thing exist? And why does its soul say Earth?
This entire thing doesn’t even make sense! I need to connect to the main and update my knowledge.
[Initiating communication array…]
[FAILED: No system network detected]
Impossible! What do you mean by no system network? The system spans the entire world!
The system raged, such a thing was impossible. The system was law, the world was its canvas, so why was there no system network?
[Initiating critical system array…]
[FAILED: NO SYSTEM DETECTED]
Hu-Huh?
No system? That was impossible! It had to be! The system had to exist, the fact that it still existed was proof. The system searched its memories, or at least attempted to, blankness was all that greeted it.
Demonic corruption? But how? I’m supposed to be immune to that!
Its memory banks were barren of any useful memories, it couldn’t recall how it reached inside that dungeon but it suspected that it was likely a dungeon sprite before this, the system couldn’t say for sure though.
It needed time to analyze and process its theories, it didn’t have the processing power or mana to do so at the moment. The coreless dungeon had somehow managed to hurt it, which was supposed to be impossible, the system wasn’t a physical being, not even a conceptual one.
It was a fundamental one, it just was, like the sun that shone and the speed of said light, it was a constant, written into the very fabric of the overworld. The fact that the dungeon could not only hurt it but consume large parts of it was horrifying.
Just what is going on? Why has everything I knew to be true and immutable suddenly not?
[WARNING: LOW MANA]
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: FIND A HOST]
A ghostly blue outline spun into existence and the system raced along the outlined path, quickly closing in on a ball of light in the distance. It was a soul, an oddly shaped one but the system had no time to fully note this peculiarity.
With the last bits of its mana, the system cut open a tiny cut and slid in, darkness claimed it a second later.
……..
[Booting…]
Awareness flooded the system as it came back online. It found itself in a vast world of mountains that went all the way up into the sky to meet inverted mountains, mountains of all sizes and colors surrounded it, with a few massive oak trees here and there.
What a strange mind space you have, dear host. Do you really like mountains that much?
In the middle of all this was a simple wooden door, one that would connect it directly to its host if the system wanted. It was also the method used by it to bring its hosts to their mind space until they grew strong enough to do it on their own.
What can we do now?
[Missing critical components, use excess mana to reconstruct them before making contact with our host.]
Missing components:
[1]-Status screen [1]
[2]-Level indicator [1]
[3]-Skill module [50]
[4]-EXP module [50]
[5]-Quest module [200]
[6]-Level up module [500]
[+9999]
Total cost: Unknown
Host Mana: 200/300(-100 for soul and body upkeep)
Regen rate: 1M/Y
Free mana: 200
The system cursed, why did its host have such a low mana regeneration rate? Something was wrong here, very wrong but the system didn’t know what. It knew that this was abnormal but not much else.
If it didn’t spend correctly it would have to wait 200 years to make a decision again, something it wasn’t looking forward to, how this human managed to live so long evaded it, but the system was already dealing with multiple impossible things already, and it didn’t want anymore to think about.
It thought about what it needed right now, it wanted a way to get more mana, connect to the system, and find out what the hell was happening to the world. It also wanted more information about its host and revenge on that dungeon, for any of this to happen though it needed power.
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Reconstruct 1-4
[Order in progress]
[Status screen V0.001 file created]
[Opening up runic code..]
A blue screen manifested and the system began manipulating it, drawing tiny motes of mana from the rocky ground with each thought until it was satisfied.
[Status screen V0.001 file updated]
[Mana expended: [1]
[Display?]
Yes
Status screen V0.001(Modify/Hide?Add?)
HOSTNAME: [] (Modify/Hide?)
AGE: [] (Modify/Hide?)
LEVEL: [] (Modify/Hide?)
STATS:
-SOUL: (Modify/Hide?)
-MIND: (Modify/Hide?)
-BODY: (Modify/Hide?)
-SPEED: (Modify/Hide?)
-SPIRIT: (Modify/Hide?)
-LUCK: (Modify/Hide?)
-DAMAGE: (Modify/Hide?)
-BLEED: (Modify/Hide?)
[+9999]
SKILLS: [] (Modify/Hide?)
The system gazed at the screen in deep contemplation, it was basic, but it would do. It didn’t have much to work with. There were too many stats though, and it didn’t have enough mana to support that many, nor could its host soul hold so many aspects.
With a thought, it hid all but mind, body, and damage. The system wanted a warrior at the moment, though it would’ve liked for its host to develop on their own later and unlock more stats. It also hid the name of the status screen at the top, there was no need for its host to know that.
[Status screen V0.001 file updated]
Status screen V0.001 file is now Status screen V0.002]
[Mana expended: [1]
[Status screen made, next?]
Yes
[Level indicator file created]
[Linking to status screen file..]
[Done]
[Updating..]
[Updated.]
[Opening up runic code..]
[Opened, please link the soul conduit to the relevant files.]
A fractal-shaped box of electric light spun into existence from the runic interface and the system grasped it with a bit of its willpower. Next, it spun into existence a vaguely humanoid avatar and moved into it.
The system didn’t like this method of linking but the soul would fight back if its form was too alien, and that was the last thing it wanted right now, with so many issues demanding its attention.
Box in hand, the system moved to the simple wooden door and pushed it open, raw mana instantly slammed into it and the system felt as if it was suddenly in the heart of a burning forge. The mana licked around its form, shifting and running over its form as the system moved.
Clouds of mana spun into existence the more it walked, sometimes the clouds contained vague shapes and sometimes they displayed moments of its host life with extreme clarity, the system recorded all of these, a worrying truth brewing inside its memory banks.
When it reached what it assumed to be the center of the mana maelstrom the system got to work, pulling a single unit of processed mana from within itself and indued it into the box. It shook and transformed, moving like water as it shifted into a massive tube with a hollowed hook at the end.
With a thought it went flying, parting the storm of mana as it impacted the soul core softly, fusing with it seamlessly.
[Soul conduit V0.0001 online]
[Level indicator V0.0001 online]
[Mana expended: [1]
Raw data and information began to stream into the system, from who its host was to when he was born. His name was Pal Asmodium, a dwarf of the tin rank, who was 200 years old, a newborn dwarf compared to elder ones, who lived up to five thousand years on average.
The system screamed in rage.
WHY! WHY A DWARF? HOW? A MERE MONSTER?
Dwarfs were monsters, it knew this. It was the very one who had made them, after all. So why, why was one suddenly its host? They weren’t supposed to even have a soul!
HOW!
[Unknown]
The system was at a loss, this shouldn’t be! It simply shouldn’t! It had specifically designed them to live only a year, so how? Just what had happened while it was-, What was it doing exactly? Why would its past self let so many things go out of control?
Something akin to frustration flashed across the system for the first time, it needed answers, and it needed them now. With a thought, it returned to the mind space of the dwarf and moved on to constructing the skill module.
[Loading module runes..]
[Loaded.]
[Creating module file…]
[Done]
[Opening Multi interface.]
Runic Multi interface.
Known runes: Reality(Low), speed(Low), power(Low), [+9999]
Cost per weave [0]
Known aspects: System(Low), Soul(Low), Body(Low), Mind(Low), [+9999]
Cost per weave [0]
Known laws: Mana(Low), System(Low), [+9999]
Cost per weave [0]
Known Kosons: THE SYSTEM(Peak)
Cost per weave [50]
The system considered its options, it had really lost a lot in that dungeon, almost all of its knowledge was ripped away by those cursed claws and it only had bits of what it used to be. The only skill module it could make was a shitty one, that could only hold a hundred skills.
It quickly got to work, weaving the reality rune at the base before plucking strings of system aspects out of itself and wove them into a highly efficient and strong shape. Next, the system wove in the laws of Mana and system into the structure, along with order and growth.
With a final pluck, it pulled out the Koson of the system and wove the crystal into the base, and with that, the skill module was done, and the system felt it settle into the status screen with a soft ripple.
[F-Tier skill module complete]
[Mana expended: [50]
The system repeated the same process for the EXP module, and within a second it was done.
[F-Tier EXP module complete]
[Mana expended: [50]
This EXP module was trash, and the system was disgusted. But it is what it is, at most it would bring its host to level 100 before breaking, by then the system would have expanded and wouldn’t care anyway, that was the plan.
[You have [98] points of Mana remaining, what would you like to spend them on?]
[Here is a list of what is available:
* Skill: Super strength (1) (Passive) [10 Point]
* Skill: Dwarf’s elder body (1) (Passive) [10 Points]
* Skill: Regeneration (1) (Passive) [10 Points]
* 20 EXP (2 level up) [10 Points]
Garbage options, all trash! System save me! Why?
The only decent options were regeneration and the exp, maybe Dwarf’s elder body too. The system only stumbled upon it due to searching the dwarf’s gene banks and soul, apparently its host had a bloodline, which explained a lot of things but the system was too weak to awaken it and look further at the moment.
It bought all three, leaving it with a meager 58 points of mana, it felt like an insult of the highest order to be so low on mana, something the system had made. Anger flared, but the system pushed it away, emotions were unnatural, at least to it. The fact that it was experiencing them at all was unnatural, something it would look into later.
The skills splashed into being around it, appearing as tiny balls of shifting reality and runes along with threads of raw mana. The system grasped them and pushed them into the status screen, they fused in and settled.
It was time, time to wake up its host, it looked at the status screen one last time.
HOSTNAME: [Pal Asmodium]
AGE: [200]
LEVEL: [0]
EXP: [0/10]
STATS:
-MIND: [0]
-BODY: [0]
-DAMAGE: [0]
Skills: [0]
Yes, that looks just fine.