‘Sure, I’ll do the interview, but what do you get from it?’
[System] [The information may be used to choose summoning targets in system-assisted rituals or sold to gods to help them choose a hero.]
‘So how does the interview work? Do I answer questions or just talk about my experience freely?’
[System] [You can talk freely. The system will ask its questions if there are any after.]
‘Ok. Let me think where to start from. I’ll go with material things. For me, those just offer comfort so while the change is significant and my previous environment was undoubtedly more comfortable, I don’t think my current cat self can feel discomfort. On one side I give up, probably temporarily, sweets and all the other good things my body could feel for immortality and the best sleep ever. The choice wasn’t so hard here.’
‘From the spiritual perspective, most things don’t change. Even if I had some big dream it would most likely be achievable here too even if the difficulty would be changed. My biggest loss here is my hobbies, the only thing I enjoyed was reading novels, gaming, and listening to music and those became impossible after moving here. Okay, maybe add anime, movies, and serials to the list, but my point still stands. My opinion will probably change when I get something else to distract me from my problems and help me relax beside a fox but right now it’s at about a sad What can you do? level.’
‘Now, that I kind of finished the internal factors, let's move to the external ones. For friends, I didn’t have any that were close. Maybe some coworkers that I got a beer with or talked with from time to time. The true loss here was actually my online friends. I didn’t really know them, or they me, but the late night talks about old cartoons, ancient games, and different fun topics will definitely be remembered. Overall, I got over the loss pretty quickly.’
‘For lovers things were even easier. I was single so my feelings on the matter didn’t change when crossing over. Actually, things might be worse here as the people here will probably have a different worldview from me. Well, it’s not like I was boyfriend material before so let’s hope the view on sex is more liberal.’
‘Family is a hard one. On one hand, I feel bad that I can’t see them, but on the other hand, they are alive and well and probably sad for me. But from my perspective, it’s like the rest of the world died and I’m annoyed that I don’t feel worse from never getting the chance to see them again. When I search for my emotions on the matter I come up empty but I can tell that it affected me as I become easily irritable when I think about them. Actually, this thing reminds me how much I hate my emotional capabilities. Overall I don’t know what to say besides that time will probably fix this one and that I would probably take immortality over my ability to talk with my family but it would be a hard choice.’
‘I finally finished with the old so let’s move on to the new. My new body is amazing when it comes to control and senses. The world is beautiful and mana makes it even better. I have a friend who helps me not go insane from loneliness. Winter also helps distract me from my boredom with training so double points from him. I’m also pretty free here as I don’t see any chains that bind me down, ok the need to eat shadow mana is technically a minus for this one but I don’t care about this so meh. Anyway, overall I like it here a lot.’
‘Well, I’m done so… Any questions?’
[System] [The System has all the information that was needed.]
‘That seemed easy then.’
‘Most of the information was read from your mind. The interview was only needed so that you reexamine it in your mind and redo the thought process. That will also make your emotions on the matter easier to find.’
‘Good to know I guess.’
‘Now that this questionless Q&A is done I can finally show you this.’
[New] Trait [Access Level I]
-You have access to free knowledge from the System.
-You can buy knowledge from the System based on your access level.
-You gain access to the [Task List].
-Current System Points (SP): 1
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
-Earn 100 SP (Cumulative) for the next access level: 1/100
‘Weird that it is a trait for it but it makes sense somewhat. It’s easy to understand but the one thing that I don’t get is selling only knowledge.’
‘It technically sells only mental power, so you could buy a system cast Fireball, but its power to value conversion is so bad it’s sad.’
‘That’s good to know. Now, I probably have a good idea of what the task list is but ⌈Task List⌉.’
‘You almost got that mental command on the first try. I’ll do it for you.’
[Task List] Transform the Shadow Realm into a true realm. Variable (0 - 2.000.000) Create a ritual for cleansing the Green Shine. Split (3000) Cleanse one of the subdimensions of the Demon Realm. 2000 Improve the Ritual of the Impersonator Variable(100) ... ...
‘I have a guess about what the pay terminology means but I would like the official explanation.’
‘Straight-up numbers are a fixed payout. Split means that you will have to split your reward with someone and that your payout will be negotiated with them. Variable means that it is based on contribution. Also, the table shows only that task you could currently do.’
‘Then why is the Shadow Realm not considered a true realm?’
‘The Shadow Realm started as someone’s attempt to gain practically infinite mana. The Shadow Realm was meant as a storage and absorber. As you can see, that someone wasn't so good at mana management and the creation of something with that many dimensions is exponentially more expensive with each one. In the end, when he cast the spell he practically sacrificed himself to bring his spell to life. Now the Shadow Realm is still spreading and connecting with all the corners of the universe. That is why it is so mana scarce. It is using it all to keep itself alive and expanding.’
‘Now to answer your question, it isn’t considered a true realm because it isn’t connected with the other realms and if all the shadow mana in the material worlds would disappear it would disappear too.’
‘And how could I help with that?’
‘You could give a call to that old cat that you just got the number of and convince it to help.’
‘That makes sense but no thanks. That’s enough for today. I'll go play with the fox and then do some training. It’s a little past noon so it’s the perfect time for chicken.’
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I didn’t find any chicken on the way, but I caught a snake. The fox ate it so I guess it's fine. I also can’t keep calling it the fox so congrats your name is now Red. Anyway, Little Red is now accustomed to my presence. It doesn’t even try to attack me or run away. We even play together.
Ok, fine, he just ignores my presence and lets me amuse myself, but that’s fine too. He will come around later. In his attempts to get rid of me, I also found out what his fire affinity does. He can get a burst of strength for about 3 minutes if he uses it continuously, he can also heat up the area around him, and he can produce enough fire to light a campfire.
Now I’m lying on his back. From the direction he’s walking in, he’s probably going to the river. I resume my attempts to touch his ears, but it's like he has eyes at the back of his head as he avoids my every try to get my paws on those ears.
I didn’t get to touch those ears once, but we are back from the river and it’s time for the cleansing ritual. I modified it a little after the first one. Now, it comes with a hairbrush and it cleanses only what the brush touches. The fox seems to enjoy the grooming so now things are better. The only hard part is that it doesn’t let me touch its belly so for the last part I just activate the ritual full power.
I also noticed my improved affinity when creating the brush. It didn’t have the old problem of having just one brightness and looking like a badly photoshopped object under the sun. Red also loved the head massager. I think I’m spoiling him too much, but it makes me happy to see him enjoy himself so I won’t change anything.
After I had enough boops, it was time to do something productive with my time.
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Winter made me try again all my mana related exercises. The difference was easy to feel. Now I could feel what concept shadow mana was related to and it was easier to control. The affinity also had a downside. If I controlled neutral mana for long enough it would turn into shadow mana by itself. I couldn’t control other elements so I directly asked Winter what would happen to them.
‘All mana that you try to control would be slowly tainted by your mental energy turning into shadow mana. That also makes any mana with a shadow opposed affinity harder to control. Also, your mental power gained the power to corrupt and pollute other mental power. The power is very low so you can only see it in mana.’
‘Any way to control it?’
‘Practice and understanding the concept that your mental power is tainted with would help you in controlling your powers better. Also, your mental power may have some changes so you should try running those exercises again.’
There weren’t many changes to my mental power. I was just better at detecting shadow related mental power and identifying it. Winter also gave me a new exercise. I send some mana to the Shadow Realm and then get it back and decipher the mental power in it.
I decided to train my shadow bind to work on other shadows and also ask Winter about the movement spell it talked about. Having mental power that affects mana means that I can probably advance further into the flower field without feeling its effects so I should train myself to be ready for the inner area.
So with this, I have movement, attack, and control. I don’t need a heal, but defense would be good to have. Utility should be covered by rituals. Improving my senses would also be a good idea so I don’t get ambushed by invisible spiders or something similar.
Oh yeah now that I remember I need a better way to transport things and rituals don’t cover this so ‘Winter help please’.
‘The closest thing you could make to help you with transporting stuff without having to drag them around is by creating and maintaining a shadow space. It doesn’t have anything to do with space laws, you just make your shadow deeper and keep it that way. You are years away from making one. It would also take you at least a couple decades to make one that can transport Red.’
‘I plan to leave the forest before your ten years are up so I guess Red will stay here. What’s the human profession that deals with rituals?’
‘First, it isn’t a human profession. The profession is available to anything with a mind. Second, there is more than one profession that deals with rituals but if you want the pure ones then you have witches that only do rituals and ritualists that walk the path of magic but dabble in rituals. You also have the combined ones like monks, shamans, and most god-related professions.’
‘How did the movement spell work?’
‘Try to merge your shadow with the shadows in the surroundings and use your power through them. You should also start trying to convert water into shadow mana. The movement spell works by making yourself shadow mana and then traveling through the linked shadows.’
‘Then I’ll go have fun with that and train my shadow bind later.’