That wasn't so bad, after all was said and done the skill seemed useful enough, even if she would have liked something else in place of it, she didn't want to go that far into the dragon theme, to be honest. Mostly because it did seem to have serious implications on how she would develop.

But this skill? It was nice, she could feel her body being nourished in real time, her sore muscles seemed to relax, and her stress was washing away as the mana coursed her body. She could feel parts of her body where mana was waiting for her prompt, a poke at those clumps told her all she needed to know.

Those were spots where the mana wanted her permission to start creating new organs or muscles. Even some places wanted to create new veins and mana circuits. One above her chest, it wanted to increase the size of her [Heart] to link it to her mortal one.

One on her lungs, the mana wanted to create some type of...gland? She wasn't sure what to call it, it was some weird organ that would be in her lungs and was basically a kickstart to turn the air in her lungs into elemental mana.

And that was something else, her lungs were turning sturdier, they were a far cry from what they had been before, now they were sturdier and it looked as if they could even double the amount of air that they could hold. And between her lungs in the middle of her chest was something else now.

Just a little below of her heart, it was... A gem, it was weirdly similar to the [Soul Gems] she had seen before, but also different, while the others she could detect their connection to the [Heroes], the one in her chest didn't seem to hold any aspect of her [Soul], nor there seemed to be memories waiting for her at it. She got the impression that she could even take it off if she wished... Not that she would. The idea of having her chest insides exposed wasn't something to look forward to.

Focusing her mana and [Senses] on that little gem brought her the answer she needed about the identity of the little gem in her chest, it was her [Heart]. What had been before something merely metaphysical aspect of her powers had leaked into reality and cemented itself on her body as a new part of it.

Her Mother had told her that some [Magical Girls] liked to bring part of their mana pool into reality and make a [Mana Core] in their physical bodies, so they could use their magic more easily. It was the whole idea behind the [Shift] spell too, to create a temporary Mana Core and facilitate the use of magic.

Also, to make sure every magical girl was pretty of course, but there had been logical reasons behind the creation of the spell. Even if she was sure at least 70% of the reason was because her Mother wanted to stare at cute girls in miniskirts.

She hadn't even thought of making one of these, and yet. Here she was, with a core stuck in her body, or well, not a core per se. The thing didn't feel like how her Mother described them, she didn't feel any ache in her mana circuits nor was feeling bloated, if anything her mana felt calmer than ever.

As if this was how she was supposed to be from the start, "You seem relaxed, are you finished Eli-Eli?" Rossie asked her while stroking her hair, maybe she didn't feel better and less stressed because her girlfriend was pampering? And not because of one of her new skills was taking away the extra toll from her mana coursing her body.

Yeah, that seemed more correct. "Almost there, now I just need to add some new skills to my repertoire. Any advice?" Elizabeth asked Rossie if anyone knew what the best course of action was her lovely girlfriend!

"Hmm....let me see," Rossie said and she felt her girlfriend's mana pulse and while her body seemed to want and react to that, she squashed that feeling soon enough. "You have been cleaning huh, well. Don't forget to upgrade your [Appraisal] and [Privacy] skills, since you seem to have gotten the knack to fuse skills already."

Right, she needed to fix those too...

"Thank you, Rossie, I knew I could count on you!" Elizabeth said smiling at the pink-haired girl, then let herself sink back into her [Soulscape] she manifested herself a body in the spire, at the top floor of the building where she had been before.

Where there had been a trashed and almost ruined office, now stood a clean office with a station ready for her to sit, and a display with all the skills she had available and her current status.

3 [Job Skill] slots open, and 7 [General Skills] slots open, but she was going to either upgrade or fuse two of those general skills, so it was more like she had 9 General Skill slots open. Now...how to go about it.

She had liked the old [Identify], but if the complaint that she got from [The World] was something to go by... she had the feeling that she could get the skill back, but she also got the feeling that somehow [The World] wasn't very good with her [Words]. So, for now...

"Let's see if we can fuse [Appraisal] and [Privacy] with something nice," Elizabeth said while sitting herself on the chair and... not feeling the usual comfort that came from such comfy chairs. "Huh?"

It was at that moment that she looked at herself more closely, her hand while seemingly normal had something very different, it shone with a metallic glint. As if she was wearing a very gorgeous scale mail armor. Even at this moment, her skin was turning into shining black scales.

"Nope, not going that way," Elizabeth said as she summoned a mirror and examined her face, sure enough, her face was taking a more draconic appearance, her eyes were way beyond the point of looking human and seemed closer to those of a dragon. Her mouth was on its way to turning closer to a maw, she was looking more and more like a draconian than a [Human]. "[Nope, no. Stop, return to HUMAN.]"

Her voice had started to sound more like a growl, but she still infused her will into the world, not into her mana or her [Idea], but she directly followed her [Instincts] and roared at her own [Heart].

She felt as if the stupid thing in her chest growled back at her but she kept pushing her [Will] at it, and at least in the [Shadow Haven] of her [Soulscape] she was the one that directed the rules. So, in the end the transformation started to reverse, the changes seemed to not disappear entirely, but it was more as if they had [Shifted].

It was similar to how her [Shift] acted as she got embraced in bright light, only this time she returned to her normal form. "You didn't hide it behind a [Shift] right?" Elizabeth mumbled as she opened her [Shift] menu, it still had both [Shadow Empress] and [Elemental Weaver] greyed out. Only having [Stardust Weaver] open for use. And she still had two open slots glaring at her, she had thought of using them before, but every time she thought of that the faces of her former shifts stared at her. She would pick one to use at level four.

For now, she was happy that her form was normal once more, so sitting herself and feeling the comfortable chair was all she needed to confirm that her decision had been the right one. You don't take a comfortable chair from a girl, that is just plain out rude.

"Now...What do we have here..." Elizabeth mumbled as she started reading the list she had seen after returning from her coma. The same list that included a veritable amount of skills. With some new ones thrown here and there.

Available Skills:

-Run

-Jump

-CatWalk

-Graceful Walk

-Tracking

-Acting

-Performance

-Cute

-Adorable

-Nonverbal Communication

-Quick change

-Recovery

-Bribery

-Extortion

-Steal

-Instigation

-Dominatrix

-Submissive.

-Swordsmanship

-Light Armor

-Magic Armor

-Necromancy

-Wind Magic

-Healing Magic

-Stealth

-Disguise

-Deception

-Blacksmithing

-Regeneration.

-Magic Stockpile.

-Spearmanship

-Monarch’s Aura

-Empress’s Might

-Open Secret

-Secrecy

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-Advanced OS creation.

-Advanced Skill Creation

-Advanced Core Creation

-Advanced Knowledge

-Advanced Engineering

-Advanced Magic

-Advanced Engineering

-Arcane Knowledge

-Ancient Knowledge

-Forbidden Knowledge

-Hacking

-Advanced Computer Programming

-Possession

-Assimilate

-Archery

-Artillery

-Gun Kata

-Hand-to-hand combat

-Creation

-Artificer.

At least she didn't have all the baby skills anymore, so that was good progress. She would, however, ignore (And file for later use) the last two skills in her [Normal] skill tree options.

Now, onto serious business, what could she need for her [Appraisal] type skill, first it would be [Tracking], so she moved the skill out of the screen into the open. Having the small blue screen manifest in her [Shadow Haven] was easy enough, and while she was at it she also moved the [Appraisal] to have it hover at the side. She wasn't sure if the skills were a representation of the actual thing, or if this was some weird technology stuck here by the former owner.

It could be either at this point, so Elizabeth did the reasonable thing and just went with the flow, "Next..." already looking for the next ingredient to add. "[Extortion] and [Steal] would be the obvious choices, if I don't want my skill to be found out then also [Stealth] would go into the mix..."

Three new blue boxes joined the other two, "And [Secrecy].... No, I may need that one for [Privacy] later." Elizabeth said while leaving that one alone, she didn't even touch it lest it join the fusion by accident. She did have a few other options available, but for now, this would do.

She did want to save some stuff for later, but before moving forward "[Dragon's Eye]" She summoned mana into her eyes as the last ingredient she would use manifested. She wouldn't offer the skill to the fusion but would allow whatever came from it to benefit from this part of her skillset, same with her [Instincts].

All it took was more mana than she had ever used, and some forceful shoves from her part to create this fusion, perhaps she also heard some cracks as the skills joined one another, maybe it had been a bad idea to fuse so many skills?

Well, nothing from it, not like she had knowledge about skill creation and fusion. Totally not forgetting there was a skill with that name on her skill list waiting for her. No sir.

Besides, the skill fused in the end, so Elizabeth was quite happy with that. She hadn't needed the [Deus Ex Machina] that Alexanders left for her!

...She would take that one after this, honestly, Elizabeth didn't think the fusions could fail, or crack when doing them, nothing had gone wrong while doing these things before after all.

Appraisal: Peer into the secrets recorded within the world and steal that information into your hoard, do it secretly or boldly, the choice is yours alone. This will only open the gate, while before your work was to record the information to the benefit of many. Now you will tap into what could have been yours and wrestle that information for yourself. This skill will use any opening in the [Infosec] defenses of your target to take the information that you want. But do beware, if your [Stealth] or approach isn't the right one, they may find of your intrusion.

The name didn't change on this one, which had been interesting, was part of the secrecy skills she stuck into it? Or was it because the function didn't change too much?

Either way, the next step was obvious, "Now it's time for the [Privacy] update!" Elizabeth said hyping herself, only to feel the glare from the right side of the monitor, where the skills that could probably help her to make things right stood. "After I take these of course."

She pulled all the skills with fancy names on them that seemed to be about knowledge, [Advanced OS creation], [Advanced Skill Creation], [Advanced Core Creation], [Advanced Knowledge], [Advanced Engineering], [Advanced Magic], [Advanced Engineering], [Arcane Knowledge], [Ancient Knowledge], [Forbidden Knowledge], [Advanced Computer Programing].

They all flew out of the screen and seamlessly weaved themselves into a new skill, without waiting for her to make the fusion happen. "Cheeky skills..." Elizabeth grumbled, her original plan had been to take the [Advanced Skill Creation] and with input from that one to fuse all the knowledge skills.

Instead, in the middle of the fusion stood a new skill alone. One that had connected itself to her [Instincts] without waiting for her input and was there staring at her, as if daring her to not grab it.

"...I miss my bimbo brain, I could ignore you if I had it," Elizabeth grumbled while extending her hand and grabbing the skill that resulted from that fusion. All the results from probably untold years from Alexanders condensed into a single skill.

Dragon's Knowledge Vault: X

You don't know how to open a jar of pickles without bringing industrial machinery? Do you want to know how to program a virus that can empty the wallets of the billionaires around you? Do you want to know why Mana behaves weirdly in a vacuum? Do you want to know why a [Core] is round? Why does the spell work weirdly if spoken in another language? How can your wings help you fly even though they shouldn't work? Well, all of these questions have answers!

And most of those come from the knowledge of those that came before you, those people that studied these questions and left them for those that would come after them... Or because they liked to know stuff and keep their bookcases neatly and their books cataloged. And you merely inherited those libraries, who cares right about the reason? You wanted answers and we have them here.

[Grants innate knowledge about skills.]

[Grants innate knowledge about mana behavior.]

[Grants innate knowledge about artifact crafting.]

[Grants innate knowledge about mana flesh.]

[Grants innate knowledge about mana types.]

[You may access the vault and store knowledge within.]

[Amount of knowledge accessible only limited by the intelligence and wisdom of the user.]

.... well that one had been underwhelming. To be honest, she had expected for the skill to either give her a brain freeze or one killer headache, she didn't feel smarter or more intelligent. She prodded at the thing and... got nothing from it.

She wondered if it was malfunctioning... Only to get this weird sense that the skill was working as intended and that she was being dumb. She wasn't sure from where the feeling got, but a quick prod at the skill gave her a list of tests that could make sure the skill was functioning as intended, and also opened a few diagnosis tabs in the system that she hadn't been aware were there.

"Initiate Diagnosis of skill, target Elizabeth Starbright. Check for skill integrity and malfunctioning skills." Elizabeth said and felt the response almost instantly, as the blue screen shifted giving her more information than she ever had seen. And weirdly enough, she understood everything. If anything, the readout implied that the skill was working well beyond the expected limits, and she felt dumb.

And annoyed, mostly because the stupid skill also gave her confirmation that she was indeed being dumb, the skill only granted her the information that she asked for, and while it passively helped her, it wasn't a library open to her perusal, it could evolve into that. And if she was reading the information right, at one point it may even evolve into an actual [Vault]. If she has the correct skills that is.

But at the moment it was closer to a search engine that could feed information into her mind than a helpful skill, she could use it to help her endeavors, but that was about it. She wasn't smarter for it, she only had the know-how about certain topics. She could probably create programs and maybe even start a company, but that would still depend on how she went about it. She couldn't make a good program just because she instantly knew how to program, she didn't have the experience needed, even if she knew how to do it.

Just as how even though part of the materials had been [Skill creation], she couldn't make skills from nothing like Alexanders had done for her, she, however. Knew that her [Privacy] skill could evolve into something sturdier and harder to pierce, and knew what skills would be better for that goal.

[Privacy], [Acting], [Disguise], [Deception], [Secrecy], [Creation].

Unlike before with her [Appraisal], this one had more components thrown into it. But her skills told her this would work, and her [Instincts] seemed to agree on it. So, she plucked the skills needed and had them float above her, and so with a prompt from her mana they merged.

Layered Safeguard: X

Secrets, they can make, they can destroy. One poorly guarded secret could start a war if found, a well-disguised secret could be in the open and no one would know. But what makes a good secret? Is it the place where one hides it? No

Is it the defenses they put? No

A good secret is hidden behind layers upon layers of deceit. Did you find the information you wanted? Are you sure it's reliable? Oh, there was something hidden behind this heavily warded defense, surely this was the right one.

But how sure are you about that?

[You are able to place false information atop your status sheet.]

[The information displayed by INFOSEC skills will attempt to read the default layer you decide.]

[You decide in which layer is located your actual information. Be it top or bottom of the layers.]

[Number of layers tied to your Heart.]

[Current number of layers: 2]

Well, that was one interesting skill to have if nothing else, this meant that what someone would see when using an [Identify] type skill would be either be fake or fabricated by her. This however had more implications about what she needed to show. How much information was safe?

She needed some that could be believable, granted she could edit her name, her job, and even her level. Faking her status wasn't that hard either, but if you saw a girl with level 10 go ahead and use A-Tier spells... No one would believe that. So, she needed to think something believable to work with, especially while on her [Shift], but that would be for later. Now she needed to keep working on her skills.

So, she started picking up from her old list, this way she wouldn't need to look at it later, first... She grabbed a skill that should synergy well with what she had, [Regeneration].

Skill acquired: Regeneration: 66

...And somehow the skill jumped to level 66 in one go.

She wasn't sure if she even needed the skill, but nothing could go wrong if she took it right? What was the worst thing that could happen...So she grabbed the [Soulscape] skill. And since she was on this trend Elizabeth took a close look at the things she had available...

And there wasn't a [Oracle] nor [Prayer] or [Communion] skill. She didn't want to take more skills, to be honest, she didn't have a need for them, most of her fighting was using free manipulation of the elements, and the parts that weren't like that... Well, she had the skills for those already.

If anything, the only one that maybe could work with her skill set was [Close-quarter-combat] skill, and when thinking about that, sure enough, the skill popped in front of her. So, she took it in.

The skill started at level 5, so that was more normal than the others that started at weird numbers. She was okay with that, as for her last spot in the [Job] section though, that was harder to pick. She could either go for what felt correct or what she should have and didn't. So, she picked the second.

She was a magical girl after all, or part of her was anyway. And while she did have the skills a [Hero] could use, she didn't have one of the most important skills for a magical girl.

[Spell Manipulation].

Alas, that one also wasn't available to her, what she did find was [Spell Crafting], so it was close enough. Picking that one, however, made...other things change.

Nothing too important.

Spell Crafting: 100

Mana Manipulation: 66>100

Magic Circle Manipulation: 77>100

It seemed that this one pulled the other two up with it. As for the rest? Well, for now, she moved two of her [Banked Skills] to the general tab. She wasn't quite sure what to think about the [Banked Skills], she could use them, but her new [Knowledge] skill told her to move them to the tab before someone complained and restricted her use.

So, she did as told, she did, however, leave the [Draconic Eyes] and [Seven Series Heart] skills there, since they were...weird skills.

Somehow, they seemed to work under different rules, and she wasn't sure they would even fit in the [General skill] tab, so instead she moved skills that seemed that could work under the [General] tab instead.

That left her with three slots in [General] to work with but for now? For now, that was good enough, she would find more stuff to shove in there. As of this moment, Elizabeth had everything she could ever need!

What more she could need at the moment? Surely, she would be fine with these right? If not, she could always try her hand at acquiring skills, as far as she was aware, perhaps [Acting] would be a good one to get, but she didn't want it at the moment. She didn't need to act like someone or pretend to be someone.

She was Elizabeth Starbright, and while the world knew her as an orphaned girl. She didn't care what the people thought of her, she was happy with who she was. And would strike down anyone who wanted her to become something else. Her [Skills] reflect this. And unless not even her parents would have any input on who she was, they had branded her a [Hero] yes. But that hadn't come with anything that would force her to do anything.

So, if two honest to god [Gods] hadn't tried to make her something, what right had these [Puny Humans] on this plane to brand and make her act like something she wasn't?

No, she would think later about what other skills to stick in her remaining slots, for now?

"And done, care to take a peek?" Elizabeth said to her girlfriend as she opened her eyes and smiled at the other girl.

"Eli-Eli? While I find this very cute...What did you do?" Rossie said as she looked at her bewildered by the status screen she was seeing.

It was these moments that made everything worth it.

Status

Name: Elizabeth Starbright

Active Title: [Rossie’s Girlfriend]

Passive Titles:

[Magical Girl]

[Orphan]

[Luckiest Girlfriend]

Level: 40

Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Age: 17 years old

Strength: 50

Constitution: 50

Agility: 50

Dexterity: 50

Intelligence: 212

Wisdom: 212

Charisma: 50

Job: Magical Girl

Job Skills: 10

General skills: 10