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Flame of Desire
Many Questions, not as Many Answers (Prologue 3)

Many Questions, not as Many Answers (Prologue 3)

Fuck this shit, the system, or whatever Ajay made. It wanted me to build the body literally from scratch. The Muscular System, the Nervous System, the Circulatory System, and every other bodily system required for human bodily functions made me make a mental image of it to complete to a tea and then confirm. Then it would keep the body system I had just done and move on to the next one until an entire human body template was complete. Thankfully it told me where I had made a mistake, but much like programming, even if you know where to fix it, it doesn't mean you know how or why you need to fix it.

So, after a little bit of trying to remember my long-forgotten high school knowledge, I just straight up complained to bed hair, who was laying down to make me an auto-fill button, to which he did. I wasn't too worried about getting erased or something anymore, since he wanted some from me, and he went through all of this to get it. Meaning even if my existence went poof, it would be a massive waste on his part. After a short while, I was able to get all of the human body systems done, or at least I thought so because I could see a complete human body template. However, when I finally thought I could customize a new physical appearance, a pop-up ad appeared the system read.

[Before continuing, please fill out the mana system.]

It was called the mana system, so naturally, I was curious about what it did and how it worked. After all, it's not like I have ever heard of such a thing existing.

And so I call upon good ol reliable. "So this mana system, how does it work?"

The question was meant for Ajay but, another tab popped up in the middle of the screen.

[The Mana System consists of Mana Pours that let Mana secrete in and out of the body, as well as Mana Circuits which help Mana flow throughout the body to accomplish the product called: Magic.]

[Note: Having too few Mana pours open will result in an inconclusive amount of Mana to use magic. While having too many mana circuits will result in the body cycling through Mana too fast and caucusing in the condition called Mana Poisoning.]

The message to auto-fill soon eclipsed the screen, but, this time, I denied it because this time, I was invested in this entirely new knowledge after all.

"So then, how does magic work?"

[Magic works by Mana pours opening and mana circuits taking in Mana and moving it throughout the body to be excreted out through the Mana pours to whichever specific part of the body the owner desires, with a part of the users own soul as a unique mixture within the Mana.]

Wait, if it's their mixture each time, does that mean it changes person to person, like how people talk? The same windpipe, but everyone exhales air out of it in different ways? Better ask that before a forget.

''So do spells change from person to person?"

[Yes, it is entirely dependent on one's soul and imagination.]

I understood what it was saying for the most part. I still had to ask about mana circuits, and Mana pours as they seemed pretty important.

"You said Mana could only go in and out through Mana pours. What are Mana pours, and how do you open them?"

[When an organism is born, all mana pores will slowly open over 24 hours to ensure that if the host intakes a significant amount of Mana later, the host won't go into cardiac arrest due to shock. After 24 hours, only 7% of the host's Mana pours will remain to be opened forcefully by an intake and outtake of Mana. Mana pours are opened passively as a reaction to large intakes of Mana willing or unwilling, and if too much Mana is forced out of the pours, the host will suffer from loss of consciousness to refrain from internal and permanently damaging the host]

I took it as Mana pours were similar to lungs that in you need to exercise them to breathe larger breaths to hold in more air just replacing air with Mana. But I still had to ask about mana circuits because they seemed pretty crucial in this process.

"So system, what do magic circuits do?"

[Magic circuits pull in Mana through the pours and distribute it to other pours throughout the body, the strength of the pull directly correlates to the number of circuits in the body.]

"That's it?"

The system went silent for a moment as if contemplating, and then finally; I got a response.

[Yes.]

I sighed in natural relief that a simple one-sentence explanation makes sense and not an entire chapter out of a textbook that even after you read it, you have no idea what the hell it is talking about.

After the little lesson on how magic works, the system let me choose how many circuits I wanted. However, I let it auto-fill that stuff. I never know If I would mess something up.

Afterward, it finally let me customize my new physical appearance. I made it the same as all of my custom characters in video games. A muscular build, no abs tho I want to earn those. After that, I made a thin body, long crimson red hair, same with the eyes, and a light tan skin tone, although after finishing everything, I realized I had a huge problem on my hands.

The fact that it didn't come with clothes concerned me, so I yelled to wake up a sleeping Ajay. He looked reasonably annoyed, but I didn't care too much; it was his fault for going to sleep after all.

"So, are clothes included in the wish to make a new body?"

I tried to say that in the nicest tone I could muster, but then his half-asleep face turned into a smug smirk, and I knew it was a no.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Nope."

If I had a body with would have fallen to its hands and knees.

"Well, then I would like for a second wish." I guess, for now, I have to accept this defeat and move on.

"Is it clothes?" The cocky bastard replied.

"No, but If you could include it in it, that would be great."

I was fine to be naked if I got this anyways. I sighed then continued.

"Anyways, my second wish is to have an RPG system that shows me a level and status window in front of me with all the point stuff too. You know what I am talking about. Those systems protagonists get that help them grow!"

Practical immortality along with infinite growth potential? Ahhh, the thought is almost orgasmic.

"I can't do that." He says again, destroying my plans.

"Uh, why!?" I cry in protest, lamenting against this mistreatment of fate.

He laughed and laughed and then said, "What do you think? That I am an idiot? Something that holds that amount of power threatens not only me but other gods; no way hell they would just let that slide."

He stretched his head a let out a nervous laugh.

"But I'll tell you what I'll give you a toned-down version of in the form of a book. It will write out the name, magic, and titles of whoever you think of at the moment, it will still tell you the strength of your opponents, but it will have to be a tad vaguer."

"Can you make it so it will describe the magic and titles too?" The hell is the point of knowing something without knowing what it means.

"Sure thing," he responds plainly.

"Is it flammable and or waterproof" Got to make sure it cant be destroyed, you know, can't be having it go bye-bye because I fall into a river?

"It will be impossible to be completely destroyed," he answers.

The hell does that mean. Eh, I guess I'll ask whether or not it will always be functional.

"And before you ask, yes, it will always be in a functional state." He continues smugly like he's smart or something.

Could it be that he is actually reading my mind? No, that probably isn't the case; he wouldn't be so proud of himself guessing if it was.

Well, that's all of the wishes I was planning to make, and I already don't know how much it has cost me. Guess I'll try grasping at straws to try to milk as many benefits as I possibly can. Wait! I forgot! Clothes!

"Will you perhaps give me compensation for not being able to complete a full wish?" I said hopefully.

Sensing my intent, he sighed and responded.

"Fine. I'll give you clothes b-"

"YES!"

My cheers seemed to annoy him as he pointed up his index finger with a slightly annoyed look.

"BUT, I get to design them."

With the honestly perverse look on his face, I felt the need to ask him if they would be clothes at all, but if they weren't, I could probably make up an excuse or something.

After all, some clothes are better than nothing!

Thinking a tiny bit, I ask a follow-up question. "Can you keep the theme of black and red, though?"

"Why?" he inquires, curiosity.

"It looks cool!" I explain honestly.

"..."

He looks as disappointed as my parents when I got a D in calculus.

Silence once again overtook this desolate place, so I spoke up.

Looking stylish is as good a reason as any, I say. Though, since I've milked all of the wishes, I could try to milk all of the info I can as well.

So I make sure to ask my questions in a friendly tone while making sure he doesn't feel pressured in any way to answer them. To get what I want in this situation, it would be best not to be aggravating.

"Can I ask you some questions?"

"I mean, If I can answer them," he responds, bored, and then continues. "It's not like I got any better to do."

I wasn't sure if I was happy, sad, or just scared; I was about to ask a god questions that philosophers have been asking for centuries. But hey, I'll never know until I try.

"Okay, then let's start with the basics; what happens when people die?"

He sighed and questioned.

"Do you want to know?"

"Why, should I not?" Like is it an info hazard or something? If so, I really don't want to know.

"It will almost completely invalidate your mean for life and existence."

He answers.

Oh, it was that small of something.

"Then let's hear it." I, for one, don't really if my existence meant nothing, as long as I have fun and am not a failure.

He then burst out laughing like a maniac, he said some words while laughing, but all I could make out was the sentence, "Are you humans just brave, stupid, or foolish."

"I'm serious, you know." I replied.

He started to tense up, the laughter dying down.

"Ha-ha-hew Yea, I know, so I'll tell you."

He then stood up, seeming for no reason, and began speaking of the topic of conversation.

"So let's start it off with this. Technically speaking, there is no heaven or hell, or any afterlife at all for that matter. It all depends on what you truly believe within your very soul."

"And that means necessarily what?" I questioned back, perplexed.

"You see, humans, or all things for that have a soul that matter have the ability to change destiny it's self. Say you catch a pen that was about to fall onto the floor, let's say it was destined to fall and land onto the ground, you just changed its destiny, and therefore every action you take, every breath you breath changes the course of time and space. So then you may ask, "what allows me to do such things?" that my friend is your soul; your soul affects and changes reality, even if passively. Now let's address the question at hand, what happens after the vessel of a soul dies? Well, it all comes down to how much you can consciously affect reality, or in other words, how much will and desire you have. If you have a weak will, you will be erased, completely, decent wills will be reincarnated with no memory, decent strong will reincarnate with memory, and strong wills make an entire afterlife for themselves." Ajay explained quite joyfully.

"So what your saying is that things like the Christian god don't exist?" I ask, not that I beviled in him or anything, just wanted to know if millions of people believed in a lie.

"O, that guy? Yhea, he exists but is fairly weak." He responded.

"What, he's weak? Why?" I ask.

Apparently, "that guy" made an entire universe. How the hell is that weak?

"Well, he's not weak by your standards; however, he isn't his own functioning soul. He is more of a construct forced to exist by the will of others' souls. If belief in him faded, then he would fade the same. Therefore he will never be above a low-ranked god unless someone believes in him himself, and not what he represents. You see, anything can have a soul, living things are born with one, but if an inanimate object received some rubbed off will of living things, it too could have a soul."

He paused for a moment, then continued.

"For example, if a crew of a ship named the Mary existed and the crew believed in the Mary as 'Mary' rather than 'our ship called the Mary', then Mary over the course of a few years would gain a soul. Although it would be feeble and barely able to change anything, it would still be its own soul, albeit made from the rubbed-off will of others. Although there is another give an object a soul but..."

He went silent for a moment, debating whether or not to tell me. Seeing this was going nowhere, I picked the conversation back up again with another question.

"Wait, so normally gods have souls?"

"When did I ever say they didn't?" He replied.

"....."

Well, he was right, but you didn't have to say it like that. I was just trying to confirm whether or not I had the right Idea, man.

"Okay, then what is the difference between normal souls and god souls?" I ask.

"There is no difference. A normal soul can become a god. However, to even be considered one, you have to infringe upon the basis of reality." He answers.

"Didn't you just say every soul could so?" I questioned, confused.

"Well, every soul affects reality, and strong ones can bend the laws of physics. It takes quite the ridiculously strong soul to think, "I want a cup to appear in my hands," and then the cup appears." He responds

So that's what he means; it was getting confusing with all of the reality-bending shenanigans.

"You said that the Christian god was a lower-tier god, then are there different ranks of gods?"

"Yes actually, there are Lower rank, Mid rank, and Higher rank gods, but there is a rank higher calle-"

As he was about to finish his sentence, the entire dimensional plane we were in shook violently; looking over at Ajay's face, I saw a look of concern, but not fear. As if he saw the possibility of this happening but didn't expect it.

We once again stayed in silence for about a minute before he spoke up.

"So I'm guessing you don't have any other wishes, right?" He said, looking slightly annoyed.

"Yea, why else would be silent doing absolutely nothing?" I answered back.

"Thinking, and if you were done, why didn't you just tell me you were ready to be reincarnated?" He said, mildly annoyed.

"I have no idea maybe you were doing something; I still haven't seen the book you were meant to give me yet!" I responded, annoyed at him being annoyed with my annoyance.

"O, for that, just think of a book and give it a name, then say the name that will summon it in your hands." He said, getting rid of all traces f annoyance, returning to his everso happy smile.

"How on earth was I supposed to know that?" I asked.

"Thought you would catch on." He remarked blandly.

"..."

"..."

I...just can't with this man.

"You have been doing pretty good at that so far." He exclaimed as if to cheer me up.

"Just reincarnate me already." I requested, dead and tired of all of this.

"Alright." He replied.

Once again, everything shook as if we were a soccer ball being kicked around on a field.

.

He snapped his fingers, and a beam of yellow light surrounded me.

Wait, I forgot to ask where the hell I was going to be reincarnated! Shit! that was the most critical question I had.

Thinking fast, I attempted to spit out the question out of my mouth.

"By the way, where are you dropping m-"

He snapped again.

Suddenly everything went black, and I felt the motion of falling. Then I felt my eyes forcefully closing again as an impact hit my back.