Chapter 109 The Costly Mistake
On the other side of the wall, overwhelming waves of mana assaulted the stunned girl lying on the hard stone floor. Within a second, her fangs descended, attracted by the delicious mana radiating throughout the room. Holy shit, what is this place! The mana here is off the charts! The only time I felt anything close to this was with the tree spirit. Is there another mythic era being here?
While shaking like an addict in front of their vice, Evernya climbed to her feet and surveyed the room. With wide eyes and fanged mouth, Evernya took in the fortune of valuables stored in the several hundred square meter room. All kinds of weapons, all glowing with powerful enchantments, line the left wall while armor and clothes of similarly powerful enchantments line the right. On the far wall, there were crates and barrels on shelves labeled with various names that Evernya didn’t recognize. What truly drew her attention was the center of the room filled with dozens of podiums containing jewelry, books, and magical items, all radiating almost visible waves of mana. One-piece, in particular, captivated Evernya’s attention, a brightly glowing blue mana core radiating mana at levels that made even the tree spirit feel like a sapling in comparison. Her eyes widened at the name on the plaque. The father, Evernha Draor.
Holy shit! Is this what an old one feels like? How could anyone this powerful die!? Evernya exclaimed mentally, unable to tear her eyes away.
After only a second, any futile resistance dissolved, drawing Evernya toward the mana core, ignoring everything else. A few seconds’ trot later, Evernya arrived in front of the chest height, black with green veins podium. Evernya set her artifacts on the podium to the right containing a think book before reaching up with trembling hands toward the clear protective case surrounding the melon-sized mana core. Her hands passed through the case as they wrap around the hot but comforting mana core. Overcome by an overwhelming urge to hug the surprisingly light mana core, she lifted the core off its base.
Outside of the case, unnoticed by the entranced girl, the core doubled in strength, giving out waves of mana that caused the room to shake. Unbeknownst to her, tears reined down her cheeks as she hugged the mana core against her chest.
A warm feeling encompassed her body as if the core hugged her back before it suddenly disappeared, causing the room’s mana density to drop by over half.
Broken from her trance, Evernya scanned her surroundings with confusion for a moment before her body seized up. Paralyzed, she collapsed onto the floor as pain worse than ever before assaulted every cell of her body. It’s as if red-hot lava was flowing through her mana system, burning away everything in its path. Unable to make even a sound, Evernya lied on the floor at the base of the podium, twitching in pain.
A moment later, a familiar ancient man appeared out of thin air in her blurry range of sight, “You foolish girl! You just couldn’t help yourself, could you!?”
The man touched her pale, sweat-slick forehead before everything went black.
Groggily, she awoke an unknown time later to find herself strapped facedown to an operating table with her head immobilized. What happened? Evernya thought in a dazed, half-awake state.
She tried to pull against the straps, but her body refused to respond, numb and paralyzed. After realizing her predicament, her sluggish mind snapped into focus. With her eyes, she attempted to survey her surroundings, but her blurry vision couldn’t make out much detail aside from what appeared to be some sort of medical equipment surrounding her bed.
A few minutes later, she heard something approaching at the very edge of her field of view. She spotted a robot, like the ones from the lab. In a panic, she tried to shoot a force blade but found, like her body, her mana system was unresponsive.
She focused inward to find out what was wrong, only to cause her to panic even more. All her mana veins were gone, not broken or damaged, just gone. Her mana core was the opposite. The stable, gracefully flowing blue orb was now violently churning, just barely held at bay by an unknown multi-layered barrier.
What the hell? When did this happen? Where did my mana veins go? How the hell did my mana core turn into a bomb!? Evernya panicked, interrupted by a distant buzzing sounding similar to a razor.
A second later, she felt the razor against her scalp, shearing away her beautiful hair. Tears formed in her eyes, but all she could do was endure it. Once the robots finished shaving her bald, she heard what sounded like a drill starting up. Numb from pain, all she felt was an uncomfortable drilling sensation as the drill bore a hole into the base of her skull. Mercifully, a few moments later, she fell unconscious, as if a switch turned off her brain.
“Initializing…” stated an unknown feminine voice awakening the unconscious shifter.
As she became aware of her surroundings, she found herself suspended naked in a giant tank filled with some glowing blue liquid. She attempted to move, but found her body still paralyzed. Even if she weren’t, she wouldn’t be able to move much with her wrists, ankles and waist anchored to the tank in a spread-eagle position with thick dark gray shackles of an unknown metal. Despite her stretched positioning, her body basked in the comforting warmth of the thick, warm liquid supporting most of her weight.
“Greetings, my lady, Princess Evernya Draor Draxia Draorxia.” The voice greeted formally.
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Evernya’s eyes widened in surprise, exclaiming, “Who are you!?”
“Good, you are responsive, as for who I am. I suppose I am your own personal babysitter, also known as a companion AI.”
“AI? How the hell did I get an AI!? I don’t think AIs exist! how do I know you aren’t some telepath?” Evernya questioned in rapid succession.
Programed to deal with handling new hosts, the AI explained. “We most certainly exist, my lady, well, maybe not in the world scratch that worlds you are from well at least not anymore as for if I am a telepath or not, my limited knowledge on the subject states a telepath should sound distant not directly in the hosts head. Also, before you ask no, I cannot read your mind nor control you in any way. Your thoughts and actions are your own. I can only provide guidance, diagnostics, and a few other benefits we will have to explore together.”
“Why do I have an AI then? You mentioned no AIs exist in the worlds I am from. Where am I? What’s wrong with me?” Evernya barraged.
Before her host could ask any more questions, the AI interrupts, “Calm down, my lady, one question at a time. I may be a computer, but I can only answer one thing at a time. As for the first question, my files tell me, the facility had plans to implant an AI, but you made a jailbreak before my implantation.”
“Wait, I’m back in the accursed lab!?” Evernya exclaimed mentally.
“I don’t know what this lab you speak of this, but yes, you are back where you first woke up.” Replied the AI.
Sensing her host’s growing panic, the AI quickly clarified. “My lady, this facility’s primary purpose is to help you adjust to your new life before releasing you out into the world. Unfortunately, some unforeseen events occurred, cutting the staff down to robots only. I can understand your negative opinion about this place from your experiences in your memories. The robots aren’t the best at social interactions, as their programing focuses on maintenance or performing menial tasks. They aren’t like me. They can only follow certain orders and guidelines. One order was to keep you within the facility until you were ready to leave, hence the rather aggressive methods. However, as you learned firsthand, you were not ready when you escaped, though you are fortunate the elf named Meira found you. The original plan was for your training to start after my implantation, which couldn’t happen until your body and soul fully joined. The living staff’s job was to keep you healthy and occupied until then, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
This life is just full of surprises. Who would’ve thought an advanced implanted AI exists. Actually, is the AI really implanted? I find it hard to believe that my little head can hold such an intelligent AI. I wonder what this Princess and my lady thing is all about, though the titles feel natural, similar to how I spontaneously took to my name. So I’m some Princess then? How cliché, but oh well, I can’t change it for now. As long as an army of servants and protectors doesn’t show up stifling everything I want to do, I don’t really care. Evernya thought before stating, “I don’t know if I can trust you yet, but I don’t seem to have much of a choice in my current state.”
“I understand. I must earn trust. I expected you to be more combative than this.” The AI replied with badly veiled happiness.
With a mental sigh, Evernya said, “I have little energy to freak out at the moment. As it is, I can barely think straight. So, what is wrong with me?”
Eager to please her new host, the AI quickly explained, “As you wish, my lady, as you already noticed, you burned away your entire mana system. If it weren’t for your savior’s quick actions, you would’ve exploded, taking the entire room and then some with you. I don’t know what you were thinking trying to absorb the mana core of someone so powerful. Evernha Draor was one of the strongest warriors of his era, right beside his mate. There is a reason no one dared to attack their city directly, despite residing between multiple powerful nations with populations dwarfing them. Evernha, on his own, took down over 200,000 people before he finally fell from a betrayal from one of his trusted friends. His core is yours by birthright, but not until you were much stronger, though with how weak and impure the mana of your prior mana system was, you never would have gotten powerful enough to absorb his core. Because of this, your impulsive actions may have helped you in the long run by giving you a fresh start, but you will regret your decision shortly.”
Despite her paralyzed state, Evernya shivered at the last sentence, but focused on one question at a time, “What do you mean, birthright?”
The AI broke from its formal protocol rambled, “Oh come on! You have to have figured it out by now! Not just anyone could enter the vault, which is a good thing. Some items in there could cause a lot of damage. I’m sure many of the ancient families have a similar stockpile. Many had bigger ones, though most probably don’t exist after so many years.”
“I mean, I had a pretty good idea after seeing Evernya on the list of the lost, but didn’t she die?” Evernya questioned.
“Yes, Evernya Draor died, but in an unusual way, allowing your mother to take advantage of a loophole in the reincarnation cycle. Fortunately, when the disgusting commander commanded you to die, he didn’t specify how causing your soul to leave your body causing no damage to either. When your mother realized this, she preserved your body in suspended animation until your soul returned to its original body. It isn’t as simple as that, but she knew the cycle would have a hang-up, sending you back to this body. Of course, you are not the same person as you were back then after going through the reincarnation cycle hundreds of times, but it doesn’t change the fact this is your body and always has been.” The AI explained.
Wow, I didn’t see that coming. As crazy as it sounds, it explains so much. Evernya thought before commenting, “Funky, so I died, then bypassed the cycle and memory wipe to land back here?”
The AI returned to her formal speaking protocols as she answered, “Yes, my lady, however, I don’t know how you died or what changed to cause you to land here.”
“So, I am 19 going on 50,000?” Evernya questioned skeptically.
“62,021, but no, you are physically 19, almost 20 because your body was in stasis until your soul returned.” The AI corrected.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Evernya asked, “So if you know all this, do you know what happened to everyone at the end of the mythic era?”
With a voice filled with disappointment and shame, the AI replied, “No, I do not. They created me during what Sespina calls the mythic era, but I didn’t activate until you woke up in this tank. I only have essential health and diagnostic knowledge. They meant for me to download the rest from the servers, but I cannot connect to the servers. The only reason I know as much as I do is because during my activation, I receive a summarized version of your memories.”
Before Evernya could ask another question or question the fact the AI looked through her memories, Evernya felt an uptick in the churning of her mana core.
“Brace yourself! It’s starting!” The AI warned.