Avianna [north lands of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1793.11.32]
Zeph was hunting Rakes, but the more he killed, the more were running to his location. It was becoming overwhelming, wave after wave of rats… He tried everything he could, yet no clever solution showed itself and he knew the end was near.
They were easy to smash with his Mana alone, but he could only concentrate on so many at one time. Placing a spell inside of them was causing a visceral explosion, so he abused that fact. He was “enchanting” them and whatever he used, always ended up in their deaths. Yet, as time flew by, more and more of his spells started to fail.
They are adapting! he realized. As he was at the end of his ropes…
The forest changed to grassland and he was retreating slowly. This time, he used his martial arts to save Mana, making strange moves. His punches were weak, but fast, possible only thanks to his enhanced body. He was sure his joints shouldn’t be able to bend at such angles.
They shouldn’t, a single conscious thought surfaced as he concentrated more on techniques than his strength. His mind was scrambling to make sense of the chaotic battle and events, but quickly succumbed to the sensations coming from all around. The exhaustion was building up more and more, until he could barely evade…
Furious, he used his Enchanting on his own fists, damaging his bones but setting his skin on fire. That worked much better against the furry opponents! Actually, he felt like he could easily set his whole body on fire…
Although, my flesh should have melted some time ago… the thought flashed, but it was too late. The background changed to mountains, full of burrows of the rats. He focused again on the hordes charging down from them. His will to fight instantly evaporated, there was no way he could fight them all if…
Instead of surrendering, though, he enchanted his sword, packing it full of Force-Mana. He could feel as his weapon became a part of his body. If I can do that with a sword… He concentrated the power emanating from his body. His armor infused itself with his skin, creating a monstrosity never seen before…
When did I get a sword? And I didn’t have an armor a moment ago… he noticed, and this time the thought persisted.
He looked around. Something was wrong.
But big rats started to attack him at that moment. He fought back against the bear-sized creatures and couldn’t concentrate on his own thoughts anymore. The animals were studier, faster, and more resilient than their smaller brethren. Using his Mana directly on them was useless. It’s time to go all out, he thought before pumping his body full of Mana. Space-, Force-, Heat-, Electric-… you name it! His Enhanced body started to bulge, Mana glowing all around his inflated flesh, the weapons integrated—
Another rat bit him on his naked calf. The sensation was so sudden, he lost his balance and fell backwards. He never felt the pain during this encounter, but—
That realization has broken the focus of the illusion. The rats started to slow down in their charge, even as he saw that they were still running with the same vigor.
What is.. oh!... No, wait! But it was too late. Or rather, because he realized that he was dreaming, he wouldn’t be able to stay here anymore.
No matter how much he wanted to continue, his neurons finally started to shoot signals to the proper, physical targets. The five senses he used until now, mixed unintelligently with emotional charge, were being overwritten by real, physical sensations.
The world around paused entirely and started to dissolve, a chaotic set of images engraved itself in his mind as the memory of it all slowly faded away…
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Meanwhile, in the structure of Zeph’s Soul.
[Spell] [Primitive Enchanting] chosen for [Transformation]. Target form: [Passive Skill].
Starti— interrupted!
[Safety protocol] [Designation: “ZEH1”] [version 2.35.1] is active!
Preemptively mapping the [Skill]… successful.
Checking [Unstructured] [Soul-space]… sufficient!
Recalculating the risks… adequate!
[Safety protocol] requirements met! [Stage 1] permitted!
Creating the [Primitive Enchanting] [Skill] backup… Error! Insufficient Mana input!
Sending a request for [System] supervi—interrupted by [Safety protocol]!
Scanning...
[Willforce] component interrupting the procedure!
Calculating… finished!
Overcharging the [Willforce Morphon] enchantment…
…
…
…
Overcharging finished!
[Safety protocol] engages [Self-update]… successful. [version 2.35.2] available!
[Safety protocol] requirements met! [Stage 1.1] permitted!
Creating the [Primitive Enchanting] [Skill] backup… successful!
[Safety protocol] requirements met! [Stage 2] permitted!
Forming the [Passive Skill] [Soul cluster]… interrupted!
[Warning] from [Safety protocol]! Brain structure requires [Will] component!
Reversing changes…
Forming [Willforce-enforced] [Soul cluster]… interrupted!
[Warning] from [Safety protocol]! [Willforce] component requires [Metabolic] [Spell] component!
Reversing changes…
Forming new [Energy Enhancement]… interrupted!
[Warning] from [Safety protocol]! Overhaul impossible in the [Energy Enhancement] system! Risk of [Positive Feedback Loop] detected!
Reversing changes…
Sending a request for [System] supervi—interrupted by [Safety protocol]!
Consolidating data…
…
…Alternative found!
[Safety protocol] engages [Self-update]… successful. [version 2.36.1] available!
[Safety protocol] requirements met! [Stage 2.1] permitted!
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Expanding [Willforce Morphon]: creating [Sub-class] framework, components 1 to 3…
Warning! Available [Soul-space] insufficient to assure construct’s stability!
[Warning] revoked by [Safety protocol]. Permission to proceed granted.
…finished. Testing…
[Willforce] stabilization engaged automatically; stability assured!
[Willforce Morphon] expanded successfully!
Reassigning the partially-formed [Sub-class] as [Passive Skill] [Soul cluster] storage… successful!
Initiating…
Transferring [Soul data] to the storage… successful!
Testing…
No problems found! [Transformation] complete!
Sending [Backlogs] of the procedure to the closest node…
Cleaning the backup…
That day, the System was especially generous to people.
Some high-level entities even claimed that they could perceive smugness emanating from the Interface, but such claims were blasphemous at best, so no one took them seriously…
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Zeph opened his eyes suddenly, sucking in the air in a loud wheeze.
The visual stimulus instantly shook out the last vestiges of the nightmare, but provided little explanation to his confused mind.
His body shot up, panicked eyes scanning the environment in but a few seconds.
Wood, shelf, wood, more wood, table, wooden half-wall, closet, wood… Ship… I am on the ship…
The loud sound of quick, shallow breaths started to die down as he slowly oriented himself mentally.
Losing the strength in his arms, keeping him up in a sitting position until now, he fell back onto his bed.
Shielding his eyes with a forearm, he just laid there, panting heavily.
What the fuck…
Sweet was covering his naked body. A body that was so weak that his muscles trembled from the unintended exercise from a moment ago. His bed was damp, his head dizzy.
Shouldn’t this… WASN’T this procedure described as safe?!
“I feel like shit,” he grumbled weakly.
“Grrrumm,” it jokingly vibrated.
“I hope not. I already have enough bad habits, and this one would be especially irritating…”
He heard the sound of doors opening, so he looked to the side. He was met with two luminescent-green eyes peeking into the room from behind a slit.
“Oh, you are finally awake!” a girl exclaimed in a high voice, hurriedly entering inside. “I was worried you would start to starve if this continued!”
She was beside his bed in a few quick steps. Her shoulder-length, brown hair was in disarray, in contrast with her light-green nurse dress that covered her whole body with its dense fabric. As she was checking his pulse and body, his mind was trying to process what she just indicated.
He frowned. “How long was I unconscious?”
“Three nights. It’s the fourth day of the flight,” she said straightening up. “I will bring some food. The liquid meals were definitely not enough! I will be right back!” she explained in a burst of words, already moving to the doors.
The situation was a little strange for him. Starving? After… what? 72 hours? He didn’t even feel hungry, just impossibly weak. Are my nutrition requirements this big now? No… in the first place, why did the process took so long?
He sighed. “The System had to intervene again? That would—"
“Gre…” Gru denied. “Graar!”
He blinked. “Is that so?... I have no idea what it was all about, then. I really need to speak with the System. This is getting ridiculous, fast.”
“Gra!” it vibrated with determination. It seemed Gru had his own complaints to share with the System.
Zeph didn’t move for a minute, slowly gathering strength. Then, in a burst of motion, he tried to sit up again, immediately feeling the drain on his Will increasing drastically, just as his muscles momentarily regained some of their original strength. He quickly shuffled his body to be supported by the bed’s low walls, feeling exhausted by doing even this much.
His muscles felt strange, almost numb, like the rest of his body. As if they were cooled down to the point that he lost all feeling. But that wasn’t what caught his attention.
Finally, after his Will dropped below his ‘maximum capacity’ from the movement, he noticed that his Soul was constantly draining it. The added burden of physical exertion only caused the drain to overwhelm his regeneration.
Better to not move too much, he decided. It’s definitely the ‘energetical resource exchange’ the description of Willforce Morphon mentioned… It certainly feels… different.
He leaned against the wall by his bed. In slow movements, he rotated and made himself as comfortable as possible, covering his lower body with the quilt. He was trembling all over when he finished.
After catching his breath again, he took a whiff of his upper arm and grimaced. It was obvious he sweated a lot in the past few days. Thankfully, it seemed that his caretaker was toweling him down regularly. His body still stank, though, even if the brunt of the smell was removed.
His bedsheets were clean enough to indicate that they were changed daily. At least daily. He wondered how they dealt with more… unsavory technicalities surrounding a bedridden and unconscious person. He wasn’t eating anything during this period of time, but a digestive system isn’t working that fast.
Something like this wasn’t unfamiliar to him – he was a part of the medical team, if you could call it that, of his para-military organization, after all – but he felt like it was so long ago. And thinking about the girl that showed up a few moments ago, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed a little.
For the next minutes, he reminisced his time on Earth. He had… neglected those memories for quite some time. Even if he had an excuse, as there always was more to do, it was important to ground oneself, to put his current life in the context of his past. To remember why he was here, in the first place.
But before he dived too deep into his own memories and thoughts, the bright-eyed girl returned with a trolley full of food. He decided to leave himself some time for self-reflection during this flight, though.
“I have brought something light, you will have to start slowly,” she said, placing a plate full of cooked vegetables on a bed table and setting it before him.
Zeph thanked her genuinely and slowly reached for the two-pronged fork. “Are you a healer of some kind?”
She beamed at him. “I am a Doctor, actually. Well, I am trying to incorporate some Mana techniques in the art, but the prospects don’t look good, haha,” she said with an uncertain smile.
“Oh, that’s interesting!” Zeph spoke between bites. He was inhaling the food with increasing speed. His hunger has been awakened by the first touch of nutriments on his tongue, and now it was raging. “I am… actually… hoping to achieve the same… in the future…”
Hearing that, the energy returned to her face and she started to eagerly share some of her ideas while he was packing his mouth full of food.
He was surprised that his stomach was able to contain all five meals. Even if Gru was helping slightly with the digesting speed, it felt like he was losing track of his own body. Although, he didn’t have much time to ponder on it.
Pavail, his caretaker, was very talkative. He soon learned why, too. She rarely met like-minded people. The society at large viewed the ‘magical healing’ as impossibility or a thing of legends. He already heard enough from Aisha – to operate on biological tissue, one would have to possess an inhuman control over Mana, or be proficient enough in modifying Spells to actually prepare each one specifically for the patient. Not to mention, Spells capable of such detailed machinations started at Tier 4. At the time, he shuddered at the thought of modifying something two Tiers above his best Spell, but the more he learned about Matrix versions, the more sure he was that they were supposed to teach them the means to do just that.
After all, the Spells he created were vastly simpler and cheaper than the Matrix versions. Most of them, at least. And enchanting was the most eye-opening art in this regard, teaching him multiple methods of modifying a Spell to fit in an object – for the price of functionality or efficiency. On the other hand, the Matrix versions of Spells were optimized in all respects.
Firstly, they had to operate in every Mana density. Or, at least, in Mana density difference of a few strata.
Secondly, ambient Magicules shouldn’t have much effect on the Spell. At least not enough to render them totally useless.
Thirdly, all of the Matrix Spells were ready to work in liquids. Yes, it wasn’t an optimal environment by any means, but he confirmed as much before his experiment with the mercury – every Spell could be constructed underwater and it didn’t lose its primary functionality. Even if the process was difficult because of the medium density and internal currents in such environment, if the water was still, the effect would be produced. That was also connected to the second property of Matrix Spells – ambient Water-Mana Magicules were produced in overabundance in the water, after all.
And finally, for every active Spell, it was possible to find a shape of a solid object that could allow its activation after enchanting. P’pfel confirmed it was true for every one of them.
But he kept his thoughts about modifying Spells to himself. This knowledge was worth too much to even mention it. At least according to Aisha. Pavail wouldn’t be interested in the topic that much, anyway. She was talking from a more… practical point of view.
She was sure that certain Energy Enhancements, or even body enhancements, could be shared with other people. She just had to learn how to apply them. Either by Soul bonding, extending the influence of her Soul onto another's body, or just forcing the construct inside. For her, the first and most important step was to find and claim related modifications and General Skills. Only then, she would look for ways to implement those, like a doctor would do with tools.
This didn’t change the fact that Zeph admired her ideas and efforts. She stood firm in the storm of opinions that the public threw at her, never losing her hope. He could relate to that. Not to mention, she was very intelligent. Not knowledgeable, talented, or wise, but intelligent and creative. She has made connections where he would be clueless, theorized on possibilities way out of the common sense or logic. She held such enormous amounts of inspiration, he could only be left speechless.
As they talked, he could feel the strength slowly return to his body. He no longer felt like he could faint at a moment's notice, or deplete his Will by just trying to stand up. He wasn’t sure how long they spent discussing healing, though. It certainly was at least a few hours.
Feeling better, he decided to change the topic to more pressuring matters.
“Are you going to stay in Lurona city?” he asked finally, after trying for a few minutes to find a good moment but finding none. He interrupted her lecture on different tissue-handling methods, as he already knew most of them, just not in the context of Mana and Soul.
“Ummm, do I even have a choice? Kwan decided to stay there, and I can’t really… pursue my research without her…” she said, somewhat deflated.
“But if you could, you would definitely visit countries, wouldn’t you?” he more stated than asked. “The ones more dedicated to improving healing methods?”
“Of course! But even if I moved there, it’s not like they would give me that knowledge without tying me down… Not to mention, the methods I would like to try aren’t really working right now…” she lost all her enthusiasm explaining this to him, slouching dramatically.
“I think… that we could manage to work something out.” She perked at it, but he was uncertain if he could really help. One thing was sure, though – it would be a hell of easier to pursue the magical healing if he had someone working with him. But his financial situation was… “I cannot guarantee anything right now, but if my plans go as intended… would you be willing to work with me? I will travel a lot, so we can at least—”
“Of course!” she exclaimed with stars in her eyes, shoving her face so close to his that it almost looked like she wanted to kiss him. After noticing it, she straightened up quickly but didn’t seem abashed at all. “It would be enough for me to just exchange our findings! Oh, well, if you agree? I don’t think my research is worth much…”
He smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I am trying to touch the topic from the opposite direction, so your findings will surely be of value. Actually… let’s leave the details for later. We are not even sure how Kwan will deal with the new city and there are some other circumstances to take care of first… But I will surely have a room in your base of operation, and a workshop. You can use part of it if you want.”
She looked like she wanted to hug him, but he preemptively reached with his hand for a shake, to which she obliged instantly, smiling brightly and shaking the hell out of it.
Maybe it looked like a rushed decision, but he knew what power a passion could bring to the table. He always dreamed of working with people with the same goal as himself, and it was the first step to do so. Something he wasn’t able to find on Earth – he was going to try and achieve it here, in the new world. Pavail seemed like a good choice for his first research partner. She was eager, persistent, and open. Open to the point he thought he could read her. That gave him at least some sense of security…
She was now skipping from foot to foot, evidently imagining a bright future. He smiled at the cute scene, hoping to help her in keeping that passion of hers aflame.
“Okay. Now that we have that sorted out, can you tell me why I was so weak earlier?” He was sure this sensation shouldn’t take place, new body enhancements or not. The Doctor was probably the person to ask, he really didn’t have an idea what his previous state amounted for. “I understand that my metabolism is faster now, but to being on the brink of starvation after a few days… it’s definitely new to me. Not to mention I shouldn’t be this weak…”
“Ah, that!” she vigorously exclaimed. “You have too many metabolic modifications. Ah, actually, I already know you are not a human, so don’t worry. Miss Zora already made a contract with me.”
Shit! I totally forgot about that part! he thought, as she moved the sliding chair closer and sat on it.
“But even ignoring our anatomic differences, whatever you modified is too much. Your cells don’t want to give away any nutrition. Like, at all. It destabilized your natural body functionality. You have something strange in place that prevented your body from ceasing to function, though, so it’s not life-threatening at least. Umm, I think you should test it more profoundly, I think.”
She stopped and gave him the time to think it through, for which he was truly grateful. After thinking about what she said for a moment, he started to come up with his own conclusions.
Autophagy isn’t working? He guessed. That’s not good… or maybe it is? If I can substitute the energy with Will and Soul... energy? Then, I won’t lose muscle mass. Although, my Souls seems to suck my Will dry at the moment…
“Umm, can you tell me what’s the major factor in this… disturbance?” he asked hopefully. He had five metabolic modifiers: Gru, Willforce Morphon, Homeostasis defense, Regeneration, and his contaminations. Actually, Willforce Morphon should count as at least three different modifications, but he assumed she wouldn’t be able to perceive the Willforce metabolism in its entirety.
“No. Your body is too strange for me to even try to discern such details. But I am sure you have at least three different sources influencing that aspect,” she stated with confidence, crossing her arms and nodding to herself.
Ugh, if it is what I am thinking it is… “Are you counting my Regeneration or contamination?”
“Of course not! They are quite natural!”
Doom… I am doomed… Modifying all of them is impossible… So this is now my body? He looked at his hands like he would at an alien specimen.
“But don’t worry! I heard you didn’t buy anything from the Exchange yet! I am sure you will be able to find something to alleviate the side effects. Just remember to test your current capabilities thoroughly!” she tried to comfort him.
Aisha, stop spreading information about me! he screamed internally. It’s time for some admonishment! She is getting out of hand!
“Where is Zora, by the way? I would like to talk to her…” Like, right now, he added in his head, smiling coldly.
“Sorry, but she is resting now and no one is permitted to see her,” Pavail said seriously.
He tilted his head. “Why? Is she shy? Or just hiding?” From me, for example...
Pavail shook her head solemnly. “No. She has eight bones broken and eleven bone fractures. Not to mention, her internal organs are all bruised or abused. We put her on house arrest. Kwan had to threaten her to do that, though…” she mused at the end.
That actually shocked him a little. “Huh? How was she able to move yesterday?”
Pavail shrugged. “You would have to ask her about her body enhancements if you want to know. But even if she would be fine, the faster she regenerates, the better. I actually have to give her some sleeping herbals regularly because she wouldn’t stop moving around otherwise! Can you imagine that? She is soooo stro… Ahem, strange,” she said the last part in an almost fangirl tone.
Zeph could already feel a headache.
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Interface: (not yet, my friend!)