The more Charlie the Cherub (his boss' nickname for him had spread) dug through God's records, the more secrets he found. He couldn’t tell if God had been aggressively incompetent or enacting some sort of devilish scheme, but things were so broken it had to be one or the other.
Earth should have been far more developed than it currently was, yet, for the last century, technological progress consistently veered to inefficiency. Instead of concentrating on AI, renewable energy, or nanotechnology, the majority of Earth’s research and development capital had been focused on “social media,” which, so far as Charlie could tell, served no purpose but to make people angry and waste billions of otherwise productive hours. Everyone was so distracted that, even at social media’s infancy, no one noticed when God sent an actual homunculus to found a leading network.
Even worse, not content to just fuck with the planet’s development, God had also been cutting corners on his heavenly responsibilities. Charlie’s most recent discovery was that instead of selecting a new soul each day, God would pop down to earth whenever he felt like it and collect thousands of souls at once. He would then place those souls in stasis, falsify records, and slowly release them.
This breach of protocol had been well hidden. In fact, Charlie would not have discovered it at all without God's abrupt departure. The consequence of God's inability to cover his own tracks was that Charlie stumbled across thousands of souls stashed in the angelic equivalent of a closet.
And, since they had already been removed from the cycle of reincarnation, this wasn’t something Charlie had the authority to fix. Kantos needed to return to make the appropriate corrections. Charlie sighed and prepared his report.
‘I just hope I don’t get another nickname.”
*****************************************
For the last week, I had done nothing but devour book after book. It was all fascinating: seeing how the pieces of this world fit together, learning the theory of the soul, and discovering the systems interactions with the body.
I was so enthralled that I broke my own rule and, with careful monitoring, leveled Speed Reading. Now, I was able to tear through dozens of books a day. No sooner did I finish one then it was (sometimes literally) thrown aside for another. I would have forgotten to eat if Lydia hadn’t been bringing me meals and forcing breaks by snatching the books out of my hands.
At a basic level, essence was an energy that was generated by the system that powered transformations of the human body. As a skill increased, essence would manifest into this reality and forcefully inject itself into the opening of the recipient's essence channels. Each skill had a unique pattern that varied from species to species: sword essence differed from spear essence, and Elf spear essence differed from Human spear essence.
The mechanism behind its ability was simple in theory but incredibly complex in implementation. As essence entered the body, it interacted with a person on a cellular level. Depending on the skill, it affected different body parts. For example, while combat skills did impart knowledge, they primarily generated muscle memory, allowing techniques to be performed as though they had been practiced for years.
Higher level skills (which I could identify as requiring more EXP) required more essence because the effects were more drastic. For example, The text memory skill altered the structure of the brain to store information more efficiently, which required massive energy influxes of essence. This contrasted with the speed reading skill, which was merely training my brain and eyes to do something that any human could already do with practice.
As I further immersed myself in the analysis, I learned more and more nuances. Generations of research were at my fingertips. I was obsessed.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Eventually, I realized that I was falling into a trap. I was absorbing what the text said without regard to whether it was correct. If I had done this on earth, I could have developed some… curious ideas about the world. This doubly applied here, where I lacked sufficient context to have developed a bullshit radar. In a week's time, I had cheated through years of study. What I needed to do was think, synthesize and experiment.
So, I put the books down, and turned to another skill that I had recently acquired, Meditation. Even though I had gained it by trying to calm myself, its prompt read “skill governing the ability to think deeply or focus one's mind for a period of time.” By now, I had grown less wary of leveling my skills. The sources agreed that leveling up naturally enhanced the strength of essence channels and the body's speed in processing energy. I had just massively overdone it during the training spree. The problem there was that Lydia and I had mixed huge quantities of different types of essences together over the course of hours, rather than days or weeks. The conflicting essences amplified the overdose and wreaked havoc on our bodies.
However, since it had been about a week since I leveled Speed Reading, I felt safe maxing Meditation. Being able to think clearly and control myself in times of stress felt important.
I took it one level at a time, using Meditation to reflect upon what I was experiencing at each level. Until level 7, I felt nothing other than the usual jolt of energy in my brain. However, upon leveling to 8, I could focus on the sensations of my body so deeply that I felt an almost imperceptible tingle work its way through me. An ineffable feeling that slowly flowed down minuscule paths through my body. Some diverted to channels heading to my limbs, but the majority flowed directly to my brain. It pooled there, building and building, until the rush hit me.
‘What the fuck, how did I do that much thinking before the headrush? Isn’t that normally instantaneous?’
Did meditation allow me to increase my cognitive speed on such a fundamental level that I could alter my perception of time? Was it a trait of mana beings? Was it my Intelligence stat? I had previously experienced this during combat, but to nowhere near such a degree. Perhaps it was a combination of factors. That seemed most likely.
‘It would appear Einstein was correct: the more I learn, the less I know.’
When the skill reached ten, with my increased focus and prior experience, I was able to trace the exact route the energy was taking. I could feel the essence saturate me and infiltrate my cells.
Congratulations, You have unlocked the Cosmic Mana Entity Ability: Ephemeral Sense.
Ephemeral Sense: Upon activation, you can perceive the flow and state of mana and essence energy in a manner suitable for a given species brain to process. Warning this state drains significant magical energy when in effect. (1/10).
Skill detected, “Autodidact,” would you like to transfer 2000 experience points to level Ephemeral Sense? Y/N.
I experienced revelation. I opened my eyes and stared. The world turned dark, with only the outlines of solid objects visible. In the place of my normal vision, I saw colored trails of light streaking across the room. Intuitively, I understood that different colors represented different types of energy. I looked at my hand. There were lines of shifting yellow, some brighter than others. This was essence energy dispersing itself through my body. My channels were full, but not yet straining under the pressure.
Every part of my body that was not yellow was an electric blue of indescribable intensity. Had I been using my actual eyes, it might have been blinding. There were no gaps, just a sea of blue. I could see it swirl in patterns. It was beautiful. I lost myself watching it, savoring the sight...
I began to feel a light thumping on my back. Gentle, but persistent. My thoughts drifted to it, and I was suddenly snapped out of my trance. I turned and discovered that Lydia was beating me with a mace.
“NOAH! WAKE UP! PLEASE!” She shouted, sniffling and red eyed.
I reached out and caught the mace before it hit me again. “Lydia, what the hell are you doing!?!?”
She grabbed me and pulled me for a bear hug. It lasted long enough that I understood something was terribly wrong. Lydia collected herself.
“What am I doing! You have been sitting motionless for DAYS! I couldn’t wake you! Are you okay?!?!”
“Oh.” I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. “I’ve been meditating.”
Lydia looked at me fiercely. “You were thinking so hard that you couldn’t hear me screaming in your ear, begging you to wake up?”
“Well… umm… let me start from the beginning.”