Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1793.12.--] [New Year Celebrations]
Push! Wait… Release! Zeph counted in his head while trying to time his attacks properly this time.
Sadly, the electrical current did minimal damage because he withdrew his spear too early. Not even one muscle spasmed.
He was in the middle of the street and at the helm of their formation, training. There was no better world to describe what he was doing, as the risk to his life was minimal. That didn’t mean he couldn’t get grievously injured, though.
The morning sun was shyly peeping over the horizon, but because of the persistent mist, the visibility hadn’t changed much just yet.
The Zombies came into this desolate side street as a horde, but there just wasn’t enough space to accommodate so many bodies. While the Hannyajins around him were rotating to equalize the Soul fragments each of them would get, easily decimating the enemies, he was dodging, whirling, and overall trying to properly use the enchantments in his gear for once. As he was the least efficient in killing the creatures, no one had an issue with him occupying the frontlines constantly.
He thrusted again at the moving body of Chiropterida, preparing to use the electrical shock once again.
Push! Wait… Release!
The fast-vibrating spear easily penetrated the scull, chipping the beak at its base, but his timing with the Discharge was off, again. He used it too early and most of the charge dispersed on the wet skin instead of the brain inside. The horde was pushing forward once again, so he decided to finish this one off.
He fought to keep the unliving body at bay, keeping the spearhead inside the skull until, suddenly, the head exploded in a gore mess – the courtesy of his Spatial enchantment accumulating forces inside.
That didn’t kill the undead just yet, but it was close enough to its demise to not pose a challenge anymore. He jumped back, using the slight recoil from the explosion to pull the heavy spear back and whirl it into a vertical position overhead while still airborne. His momentum decreased, transferred to the weapon’s own. Then, he fully straightened his arms, loosening his grip for a moment to allow the weapon to slide up, and after reaching the maximum leverage, he forced a powerful downward slash that lifted his body higher into the air. The tip connected with Chiropterida’s shoulder joint. He managed to cut through it – freeing the arm from the headless body – and dug deeply into its side. Their ligaments were no joke, resisting even the scalpel-class vibrating edge for a moment. More through the friction on the sides of the blade than anything, but still.
The body of the undead lost its balance and fell right on its severed wing. It was still moving, though.
“Hell, why are they so hard to finish off?!” he shouted after landing on the cobbled street. The Tier 2 Anchoring enchantments in the soles of his boots were already active, causing his feet to stick to the hard stone under the snow. After regaining his balance, he switched to the Air-thinning counter-enchantment to break free as he jumped forward to skewer another enemy.
He didn’t fumble the maneuver this time and, to his surprise, shot forward with much more speed than he expected.
It was the same enchantment as on Aisha’s boots – a combination of channeled Force and Hardening Magicules. But the enchantment wasn’t just for anyone. It was designed by an offshoot group of the Tower’s multi-institutional research team that studied EE granted by the System at PE milestones. Someone got the same idea as Zeph a long time ago, it seemed. In any case, the enchantment cooperated closely with the second Power EE and its force-spreading properties. However, from what Zeph heard, the discovery was more a matter of chance and tedious testing than knowledge and engineering.
The Anchoring enchantment was used to get a better purchase on almost any surface (if it was made of compatible materials – mainly wood and solid stone of any kind), often resulting in property damage because of the forces that people like Aisha were able to generate, or to cover the foot in a layer of soil, which helped in all kinds of hazardous environments. It was a standard affair for higher-level mercenaries, really, but after trying to use it a few times, he had to pay respect to people who were able to master its usability. The gripping-release timing was just too complicated! The Power EE was trying to disperse the forces over a vast area at all times, making it much more difficult to use on uneven terrain. One mistake in choosing your foothold and you were doing rolls instead of bracing for an attack.
Shooting forward, he decided to activate the Discharge enchantment late this time. The blade was stopped midway in another’s Zombie skull as he cut off the Spatial Flux enchantment – just where he wanted it to be. He allowed himself to fall to the ground, keeping the tip inside the monster’s brain. It started spasming just as he landed.
With an aggressive move, he pulled the spear back and jumped up slightly while whirling his weapon vertically. The sphere on the shaft’s back hit the already-cracked skull and it exploded violently thanks to the force-rebounding enchantment.
But he made a mistake. He attacked a creature that was directly behind his first victim, thus landing partially inside the crowd. As he was now hovering above the ground slightly, wasn’t able to easily dodge the attacks that were coming from the sides.
Because his spear was now in a weightless state after rebounding, he used his right arm to deflect a clumsy, but surprisingly strong, open-palm punch from a humanoid Zombie to his right, while his body instinctively bent in an impossible arch to avoid a beak bite from Chiropterida to his left. His left elbow landed on its head and he tried to leverage, but he didn’t have enough friction to do so.
Before his conscious mind could even register what was happening, his arms bent down, hugging his torso while keeping the spear parallel to his body. As the monster raised its head to try another bite, he was thrown back by the movement and started to roll on the back of the Zombie’s body.
After his brain finally reoriented, he immediately bent his knees and he gripped his spear tighter. After another roll, he pushed with both legs as much as he could, jumping away back-first while dragging his spear limply behind.
It wasn’t even a somersault he wanted to perform – he just needed to make distance.
Before he landed head-first on the hard ground, someone caught him by the shoulders and fiercely pulled his torso up, then down.
He landed on slightly bent legs, fighting for balance and breathing heavily.
“Tch…” Aisha clicked her tongue in the relative silence of the second line. “And here I thought I would be able to save the damsel from distress…”
“fuck you…” he managed to whisper.
“Oho, is that a proposition?” she said, leaning down and speaking almost directly to his ear. Thankfully, his helmet forbade such intimacy.
Zeph rolled his eyes, quickly regaining his breath. “If you are trying to flirt with me, you are late. Late by a few beat-ups and causing complications like this one,” he said, pushing her away with disgust.
“Ohoho, don’t be so full of yourself,” she laughed. “There is no way I will try to court my student. Anyway, your training is lacking. I thought we should speed up things a little.” She turned her eyes back to the horde, now much more serious.
Merely a student, eh? A mage with Advanced Mana Manipulation? He sighed internally. It seemed that no amount of training would satisfy this woman. She was a monster on this stratum, but that didn’t mean she should treat him the same. For gods’ sake, my level is under ten!
“Then, maybe instead of placing me in the most uncomfortable and difficult positions on the battlefield, you could explain how those fleshy remnants are still moving after I destroyed their brains? My oh-so-venerable teacher?” he spat despite himself, pointing at the frontlines.
“Heh. Finally showing fangs, I see. And here I thought you would just accept the abuse.” She slapped his back, using enough force to unbalance him. “But am I the right person to search for answers? Shouldn’t you first try to read or read about that yourself? That knowledge isn’t exactly forbidden, but there is a reason I am trying to not spread it too much.”
He looked at her with deadpan eyes.
“Right now? Sure! Give me a day or two,” he nodded and turned to leave, waving his hand in a farewell.
Aisha grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hey, don’t be like that! I was just teas— testing your resolve!”
He sighed, feeling an overwhelming urge to massage his temples. She was having way too much fun today.
“Just explain already. We all are going to fight those guys for the whole day, aren’t we?” he said, turning back towards her. “The other should know what’s happening, too. Also, can I finally start testing my new Spell?”
“Yes, yes,” she said placatingly. “The pack, for sure, already recognized you as its enemy, so you should be able to get the full share of Soul fragments from a distance.” She started slowly walking through the lines, allowing the warriors around to fill the gap left behind. “Let’s move to the back and I will explain.”
As he followed Aisha, he checked the summary of the fight.
You have killed [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 66].
You have killed [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 62].
You have killed [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 70].
You have killed [Human (Type: 3444) Zombie – lvl equivalent: 52].
You are partially responsible for killing [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 75]
You are partially responsible for killing [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 69]
You are partially responsible for killing [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 82]
You are partially responsible for killing [Chiropterida Zombie – lvl equivalent: 70]
You are partially responsible for killing [Human (Type: 3444) Zombie – lvl equivalent: 65]
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
You have earned 33 [Universal Points]!
Congratulations! [Spear (style: E2M1)] is now [T2][L49]! (+3)
No level-up yet… At least my Skill is now at the border of level 50. I wonder if it will generate something interesting like the others did. Although the notification showed a whole 3 level-ups in the Skill, he only increased it by one during the current fight. The rest of the levels he earned before, in the night – counting the fight with the invading avian animals. Also, it wasn’t the only General Skill that gained some levels in that period of time. Survival, Earth’s methodology, Explosives, Mima, and even Life Energy General Skills all raised by at least one level, most by three or four. The progression wasn’t bad, but he was much more concerned with the levels of his Class and Profession. With Mana Generation of 121 per second, he could read comfortably only from General Skills under Tier 2 level 8, which made a whole lot of them useless if he wanted to access Tier 2 knowledge. He would also have to find time to do it, but that was another problem.
Gru, how much are they giving? he sent to his companion.
Gruu! Graa, came a very excited answer, along with a small flood of impressions and words. They weren’t detailed because of the lack of a vocal component, but both of them were getting better at silent communication.
Oh, not bad! That would be, what? Two times more than an animal of the same level?
Gra!
Zeph nodded in satisfaction. Actually, the Undead were giving less Soul fragments than living beings. In normal circumstances, that is. Most Soul fragments came from broken Soul links that connected it to the body, and the Undead had them weak and less numerous. On the other hand, the conglomeration of Soul parts that formed their Soul liked to shatter and disperse after losing the connection to physicality. The Soul fragments created that way, though, were treated by the System just like every remnant from a Soul-wound – if they would never naturally reach the people who killed the entity, the System wouldn’t assist in gathering them. Or maybe it would gather them, but for itself instead.
But for Gru, it was an open buffet. The parts of the conglomeration were seldom coherent enough to even be considered a Soul by themselves so he just gathered everything that seemed acceptable from the vicinity. Wild animals, the mature ones at least, tended to send a ‘positive’ Soul-wound fragment every second kill. Even if Undead left less Soul fragments overall, they always shattered into harvestable parts, resulting in around double the overall amount that Gru could collect.
But, of course, there were problems. First, getting Soul fragments from the kills of others was even more difficult than it would normally be. The animated bodies were somehow connected and communicating with each other, thus behaving similarly to hive animals, but their Souls were entirely separate. Also, their Mana was strange. According to Zeph’s insight on the matter, by having contact with an entity’s Mana, one could try to glance at that entity’s Soul – Mana was produced in, and directly connected to the Soul, after all. In other words, such medium was necessary to navigate the Soulscape. That; a contact with physical body; or the killer-pray pseudo Soul-bond.
But as soon as a Zombie died, their Mana was just… taken over by others around. The fact that their Souls were basically mismatched mixes of Soul fragments was probably the reason they could so… easily and naturally… take over Mana that belonged to others of their kind.
Secondly, the killer-pray Soul-bond with them was also weird. The way those creatures perceived the Soulscape, reality, and other living things was just… alien. At least according to Gru. The bond that was forming was not only misshapen and difficult to navigate, but it often led to only one part of the conglomerated Soul. That Soul-bond also wasn’t shared by the whole pack. Not until he managed to be recognized by their… collective awareness, or something. Or maybe by the big, bad boss, but he was already put down by Aisha when she lured the rest to the side street.
As they stepped behind the last line of the active fighters, Aisha called someone to bring her something to stand on. She wasn’t going to stop observing, but from this distance, she needed a platform even despite her domineering height.
The place, small as it was, was used as a temporary camp. A few bonfires were lit using the wood from damaged houses for people to cook, warm up, and rest. They also helped to illuminate the street, even if the light couldn’t travel far through the dense mist. People were either meditating, eating, or doing rough repairs on their gear.
“Arhen! Report,” she called shortly after someone brought her a wooden crate.
“Yes!” the man almost teleported to her side. Zeph wasn’t sure from where Arhen managed to creep out so fast, but was slightly impressed nonetheless. “No trespassers near the laboratory. Five lightly wounded from our two squads as of now. Woongar and all the workers successfully reached their destination.”
“Did we find a good drop point?” she asked, using her flashlight to see better through the mist as she observed the frontlines.
“We are still waiting for confirmation from our specialists, but two promising points were found. The first is up the river, near the main entry of the canal system. The second is three blocks down the river, by the old part of the port. Those buildings would have to be demolished either way.”
Aisha glanced at him, one eyebrow raised questioningly. “And whose was the bright idea of throwing body parts into the canal system? Do they want even more of our marine guests in the valley?”
“The locals actually. They hope that would help get rid of the waste blockages in the system…”
Aisha shook her head. “The canals will be cleaned as much as they are every year. Workers would have to deal with the rest. I don’t want to be responsible for even more damage to the infrastructure.” She turned her head forward once again. “And tell those idiots that they can try to drink directly from the river if they think that was a good idea. Set the second point as the default. Right now. We need to clean the streets as fast as possible, and the aquatic gaggle should follow the trail of blood back into the sea.”
“As you command!” he bowed and ran in the direction of the inn.
“Any particular reason for the rush?” Zeph asked worriedly, unsure if throwing body parts of ex-Zombies into the best Undead-propagation medium they had on hand was a good idea.
“You are worried about what I have told you about propagating Soul conglomeration seeds? Ignore that. It’s not something we can stop, so we can as well escalate the problem to force our visitors to do some work themselves. It would also be a good lesson for some of them. Anyway, Kwan is already on her wits end because of the attack.” She sighed in irritation. “We won’t earn even half of what we planned if things continue like that…”
Ugh… I somehow forgot the whole entertainment endeavor… Yea, things look bad. Especially my cut from the games and ‘arcade’ machines… A cold shiver ran down his spine. He would rather not be indebted to Ghrughah for another year.
“Okay,” he said with renewed vigor. “We need to speed this up a little.” He put his spear on the ground and took off his small backpack. After securing the spear’s tip in its scabbard, he took out a sack with unenchanted metal beads from his backpack. The fact that he had w good few kilograms of ‘properly’ – as P’pfel tended to call them – enchanted beads didn’t mean he would be left without a backup to enchant with his own methods. They would be used for something else this time, though.
Finishing with preparations, Zeph gathered everything and stood up. After looking around for a moment, he quickly found a promising spot on a building’s wall with a damaged rooftop. If he got there, he would be directly over the frontline and around 6 meters above the ground.
“I will start testing my Spell now, then go up there to attack with the mid-distance enchantment on my spear and the Spell,” he declared.
“Heh, motivated much? Should I even start my explanations?” Aisha asked, smirking.
“Of course, you should!” he said immediately, looking at her in disbelief. “Just give me a moment to start my Spell.”
“Haaa, sure, sure…”
Not waiting any longer, he started constructing his Lesser Telekinesis Spell. But this time, he not only Stabilized the Space-Mana pipe-like structure, covering it with Mana-L and allowing it to condensate around the Mana flow, but he also made the Spell structure forming the ‘pipe’ much denser. Like a spring, he formed as many dense spirals as he could without compromising the Spell’s functionality. He continued until he had a 3-meter-long telekinetic arm, coiled like a snake and hovering inside his Veil.
Then he put a single empty bead on the top of the ‘pipe and started a lengthy process of infusing it with Mana-L. It was the only Mana type that was ‘stretchable’ – as in, it actually pulled over other Magicules of the same type when moved – and during his tests a few hours back, in the laboratory room, he found a use for that property. Its true potential would come into play later, But the first important function was that because the Mana inside the bead would pull the rest of the Stabilized Spell construct behind itself, the risk of losing the bead would be minimal. And he needed that physical, dense sphere of physical matter to cut through the Ambient Mana and, later, through the Zombie pack’s Veil. Mana-L was also a perfect conductor for his Magicules. His Beam Spell would find no obstacle if he used that Stabilized construct as a literal pipe. That was the first part of his idea and it worked wondrously, even if the preparations were lengthy and the flexibility of his telekinetic Spell was somewhat compromised.
“I am good, we have a few minutes,” he said to Aisha.
She looked at him skeptically. He already wasted around three minutes, so he was sure that in her eyes it looked like a waste of time in comparison to melee. “If you say so…” she looked back at the horde. “The Undead Heart they used was of an advanced variant. That means, it has an information-processing structure inside its Soul, not only inside that part of dead flesh—”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Zeph interjected, confounded. “How can you even have something like that in your Soul? Wouldn’t that mean you are basically immortal until you lose ALL contact with physicality?” It was a ridiculous notion.
“Yes and no.” She smirked. “They are a pain to kill, true, but their body dictates which parts of their Soul would stay intact. You just need to force it to disperse enough times. Or, you can try to directly destroy the Soul links, the Soul itself, or grind their first body down until there either isn’t enough Life Energy left, or the physical parts are unrecognizable for the Soul conglomeration. The last one is especially difficult if there is a lot of freshly deceased around – the conglomeration would just fragment and connect to new bodies, although a certain threshold of Life Energy is required for that to happen. By the way, that’s why our visitors are so problematic in this situation – they generate enough Life Energy to spread the resulting conglomerations. But going back to the Soul processing formation – first of all, such a structure can’t really produce emotions as we know them, it can only re-process Soul memories. Secondly, the Will it produces is vastly limited in the physical world, as it is much more attuned to work in the Soulscape. And lastly, the more they process information of the Soulscape, the less likely they are to connect to physical matter of any kind. That would be all we know about them, at least if we want to stay on the topic.”
Zeph frowned. “So what? It’s unusable by truly sapient beings? And the Undead we face are moving after losing a brain because they have… those thinking structures in their Souls? Isn’t that bad?”
“Eh, don’t worry about it.” she waved her hand dismissingly. “Every time they connect to a new body, they are using some part of their Soul to form links. This way, we can milk more experience from them, while their information-processing part disperses more and more. After enough repeats, those parts will revert to normal Soul parts of a conglomeration. Also, you really shouldn’t think about it as a mind, especially a sapient one. It’s a loooong loooong way for any form or sapience to form through Soul information processing, and such cases are known as cataclysms, from what I know. Like… how was their name again?” she hummed a few times to herself before snapping her fingers. “Right! Draugr Lords… or something. But yes, it’s not something a truly living being would be ever inclined to form. The discrepancy is just too much.”
Zeph blinked a few times at the strange term. He couldn’t even put a dialect to it, but after analyzing the words for a moment, he decided it basically meant a ‘Lich’. Or maybe an Arch Lich? He shook his head, that was unimportant right now.
“That still leaves us with a horde of immortal, propagating Soul conglomeration, though…” he pointed out.
“You would have to be in a truly screwed world for that situation to escalate instead of dying down,” she said with a sigh. “Also, what you see is the ‘first batch’. The others won’t be that hard to kill. I don’t expect more than four generations, anyway.”
“Didn’t you forget about the normal Soul conglomeration seeds?” he reminded skeptically.
“I didn’t. That’s why I want our visitors to learn,” she looked up. “The toxicity of fresh bodies shouldn’t be enough to kill anything at this point. But if a few of their young eat the parts still connected to a conglomeration, there is a high chance they will die in the process. From what I know, it’s the same effect as when someone tries to attack a Soul directly…”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Will clash? Yeah, I need to talk about it with her. Preferably, after getting paid by her goddess…
“Anyway, the small organisms getting sick and dying isn’t a problem. The problem is with the big ones whose Souls can strengthen the Soul conglomerations. If their young start to die, they should quickly learn that the meal isn’t worth it, no matter how high the Soul contamination inside of said meal is. They should be able to distinguish a conglomeration from an intact Soul, too. If they stop fueling the propagation, we will just have to deal with the vestiges.”
Zeph scrapped the back of his helmet. He could think only of one question right now. “So… with that Soul processing unit… moving skeletons are a thing…?” he forced himself to not say ‘here’ at the end of the sentence. They were in public.
Aisha snorted. “Yes, they are. Good luck finding one. I’ve heard they are quite strong, though…”
Zeph rolled his eyes at her dreamful voice and concentrated back on his Spell. It was ready to launch.
It was time to start the hunt…
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Interface (pictures):
[https://i.imgur.com/jdvuOj4.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/AZu2nIw.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/k9drA69.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/m5C7aM1.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/yvCnW8Z.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/baE7a2Q.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/akRBSrb.jpg][https://i.imgur.com/tPZCnq0.jpg]
Interface (Tables; WARNING! It's quite painful to read. I pasted it directly from excel without making modifications - the automation is under testing. I refuse to do it by hand! It's just stupid...):
Name: Zeph Einar Perk: Precise Soul and Mana perception t. a. Race: Human (type 6671: 'Earthling') Passive Enhancements: Power 60 Intuition 192 Flexibility 24 Memory 66 Regeneration 50 Greater Willpower 67 Basic properties: Resource: Total: Available: Reserved: Matrix Space: 185 24 161 Mana Capacity: 731 719 12 Mana Generation [/s]: 121 93 28 Class: Level: Unallocated points: Matrix space taken: Force Generalist [Seeded] 5 0 141 Profession: Level: Unallocated points: Matrix space taken: Shaman 33 0 9 Soul contamination: Details: Space (type: B5001) 5.22%, slightly increases [Matrix space] Will (type: H1) 8.71%, enhances interaction between Will and Mana Iron Isotope Alloy (type: ZW1) [Synhronization] detected! [Soul contamination] is shrinking! 5.10%, stabilizes I.I.A. ZW1 in Mana environments
Universal Points available: 1.240.102 Total: 21.602.769
Class Skill Matrices (CSM): Skill: Tier: Level: Activation Reserved resources Time: Cost: Channel: Matrix: Electrify 0 1 1 s 63 M 10 M/s 1 Lesser Ignite 1 60 0.52 s 4 M 1 M/s 2 Lesser Condense water 1 50 1.75 s 2 M 4 M/s 2 Lesser Humidity detect 1 50 3.5 s 4 M 8 M/s 2 Lesser Sound detect 1 51 1.24 s 1 M 1 M/s 2 Lesser Harden 1 53 1.23 s 4 M 2 M/s 2 Lesser Telekinesis 1 75 3.25 s 6 M varies 3 Lesser Grinding 1 56 1.47 s 2 M varies 2 Stabilize 1 37 1.23 s 50 M varies 3 Lesser Life ward [P.S.S.] 1 61 8.1 s 5 M - 3 Primitive life detection 1 53 0.5 s 4 M - 2 Lesser Life detection 2 12 1.13 s 6 M - 4 Lesser Air sphere 1 1 3 s varies varies 12 Lesser Tremor detect. 1 1 1 min 1500 M 100 M/s 14 Lesser Magnetic scan 1 37 2 min 1200 M 50 M/s 32 Lesser Force weave 1 2 0.5 s 300 M varies 25 Lesser Mana beam 1 82 15 [11] s 120 M - 13 Lesser Mana bomb 1 1 5 s 150 M varies 17 Profession Skill Matrices (PSM): Skill: Tier: Level: Activation Reserved resources Time: Cost: Channel: Matrix: Mana Highlight [Spell] 1 51 44 s 957 M - 2 Lesser Light [P.S.S.] 1 52 0.75 s 1 M 1 M/s 2 Flashlight [Spell] 1 61 0.27 s 3 M 3 M/s 3 Flash [Spell] 1 68 0.32 s 10 M - 2 Passive Skills [Streamlined]: Skill: Tier: Reserved Matrix: Reserved Mana: Primitive enchanting 1 5 0
Class Skill Matrices (CSM): Skill: Tier: Level: Activation Reserved resources Time: Cost: Channel: Matrix: Electrify 0 1 1 s 63 M 10 M/s 1 Lesser Ignite 1 60 0.52 s 4 M 1 M/s 2 Lesser Condense water 1 50 1.75 s 2 M 4 M/s 2 Lesser Humidity detect 1 50 3.5 s 4 M 8 M/s 2 Lesser Sound detect 1 51 1.24 s 1 M 1 M/s 2 Lesser Harden 1 53 1.23 s 4 M 2 M/s 2 Lesser Telekinesis 1 75 3.25 s 6 M varies 3 Lesser Grinding 1 56 1.47 s 2 M varies 2 Stabilize 1 37 1.23 s 50 M varies 3 Lesser Life ward [P.S.S.] 1 61 8.1 s 5 M - 3 Primitive life detection 1 53 0.5 s 4 M - 2 Lesser Life detection 2 12 1.13 s 6 M - 4 Lesser Air sphere 1 1 3 s varies varies 12 Lesser Tremor detect. 1 1 1 min 1500 M 100 M/s 14 Lesser Magnetic scan 1 37 2 min 1200 M 50 M/s 32 Lesser Force weave 1 2 0.5 s 300 M varies 25 Lesser Mana beam 1 82 15 [11] s 120 M - 13 Lesser Mana bomb 1 1 5 s 150 M varies 17 Profession Skill Matrices (PSM): Skill: Tier: Level: Activation Reserved resources Time: Cost: Channel: Matrix: Mana Highlight [Spell] 1 51 44 s 957 M - 2 Lesser Light [P.S.S.] 1 52 0.75 s 1 M 1 M/s 2 Flashlight [Spell] 1 61 0.27 s 3 M 3 M/s 3 Flash [Spell] 1 68 0.32 s 10 M - 2 Passive Skills [Streamlined]: Skill: Tier: Reserved Matrix: Reserved Mana: Primitive enchanting 1 5 0 NOTEBOOK General Skills: Skill: Tier: Level: Type: Resource taken: Unusable or Level-irrelevant Interface 1 50 Inactive None Tabu 1 100 Inactive None Memories of the Earth N/A N/A Internal [variable] Mana, Will Position of materials N/A N/A Knowledge [10] Mana/s Knowledge Ancient Civilizations 3 13 Knowledge [523] Mana /s Universal Cir language 1 91 Knowledge [92] Mana/s Corora lifeforms 1 23 Knowledge [24] Mana/s Corora herbarium 1 13 Knowledge [14] Mana/s Survival 1 99 Knowledge [100] Mana/s Leatherworking 1 32 Knowledge [33] Mana/s Exotic Metallurgy 1 6 Knowledge [7] Mana/s Knowledge of Physical Actions Mixed Enchanting Arts 2 31 Crafting [316.6] Mana/s Earth’s methodology 1 34 Science arts [35] Mana/s Explosives 1 98 Crafting [99] Mana/s Wood carving 1 12 Crafting [13] Mana/s Javelin and atlatl 1 76 Martial arts [77] Mana/s Spear (style: E2M1) 2 49 Martial arts [471.4] Mana/s Close combat (Mima) 1 52 Martial arts [53] Mana/s Mixed arts Willforce 2 49 Technique [471.4] Mana/s Resonation Suppression 2 5 Technique [93] Mana/s Extended Empathy: Feedback stimuli 2 10 Martial arts [136] Mana/s Related to Will and Greater Willpower Will contamination 1 61 Mixed [unknown] Mana, Will Will 2 70 Knowledge [652] Mana/s Will manipulation 2 84 Knowledge [772.4] Mana/s W.P. Mana manip. 2 76 Knowledge [703.6] Mana/s W.P. Soul manipulation 2 15 Knowledge [179] Mana/s W.P. Soul perception 2 65 Knowledge [609] Mana/s W.P. Soul whack 2 48 Technique [462.8] Mana/s W.P. Soul Memory access sharing 3 13 Technique [462.8] Mana/s Related to Mana Soul 1 66 Knowledge [67] Mana/s Ambient Mana 1 67 Knowledge [68] Mana/s A. Mana channeling 1 99 Knowledge [100] Mana/s Mana manipulation 1 48 Knowledge [49] Mana/s Mana perception 2 15 Knowledge [179] Mana/s Mana rapture 1 16 Technique [17] Mana/s Mana masking 2 3 Technique [75.8] Mana/s Life Energy 1 32 Knowledge [33] Mana/s
Traits: Mana incompatibility
[Race] You were born in a world without Mana. Your body is able to operate normally without Mana. On the other hand, Mana is toxic to your cells. Weaker suboptimal irregular Prana Metabolism
[Race] Allows you to live in Prana environment, giving a miniscule boost to your metabolism.
External Energy Dependency: None.
Reserved Energy Regeneration: None. Greater Will
[Race] Your Will can energetically interact with Mana and Soul.
Effects: Enhanced Mana Generation; Enhanced Manipulation; Enhanced Resistances; Specialized Soul Contamination; Greater Willpower; Greatly decreased Will dissipation; Ability to contamine Soul with [Will, type: H1]! Grants alternative method of sharing [Soul Memories]. Soul dissipation resistance
[Race] Powered by Will. Instinctual reaction when exposed to Soul damage. Hard Trained (HT) Intuition [Completed Achievement] You have spent your whole life without Mana. Even without an intermediary, Mana being one of them, you managed to connect with your Soul. You trained your intuition almost to its natural limit. Multiplies Intuition enhancement effectiveness by 2 until the next milestone. Soul fragmentation (10.00%)
[Diagnostics] You are lucky! Normally, at around 15% a cascade effect destroys a Soul! You managed to slow down this process significantly, but it was stopped only after you entered this world! You.Are.Welcome! You were right
[Reward] MS calculated that another mutagen had 94% chance of successfully implementing desirable changes to the [Garuan]. It Failed. The probability of your choice working was less than 5%. You were right, you have permanent access to Ancient Civilizations Database. Well-informed
[Reward] The Mighty System (MS) decided you are worthy communicating with. For some time, at least, and mostly because you will die prematurely otherwise. Second life
[Reward] You should be dead. Two times over, actually. Yet, you are still the first of your race to come. You have one reviving option (MS sends its regards), assuming prerequisites are met.
Advanced and independent improvements: Energy Enhancements: Details: Willforce
[Extended Will shielding] Basic [Energy component] of [Willforce Morphon], the complex [Modification]. This [Micro-structure] allows for advanced applications of [Will] and is acting as an intermediary in [Energy exchange]. It is permeating the [Body] and [Soul] and possesses [Unknown] manipulation applications.
Cost: Reserved 15% of [Mana Generation], Reserved [??%] of [Will Regeneration]. Enhanced structurized force transfer
[Power Milestone] Skin [Energy Enhancement]. Forms external Mana of the user into energy-transferring structures, spreading the force used in a wider area. Burns external Mana. Compatible with Spells. Incompatible with external Mana manipulation. Effectiveness depends on the amount of Mana around the user. Homeostasis defense
[Regeneration Milestone] Body/Soul [Energy Enhancement]. Passively prevents extreme metabolic reactions. Strengthens homeostasis in a body by negating macroscopic effects. Those functions can be negated. [Spell] Energy Enhancements: Body/Soul [Energy Enhancement], details: Heat Tier 0 Reserved: 2 Mana capacity, 1 Matrix space. Fog Tier 0 Reserved: 2 Mana capacity, 1 Matrix space. Air bubble Tier 0 Reserved: 2 Mana capacity, 1 Matrix space. Stiffen Tier 0 Reserved: 2 Mana capacity, 1 Matrix space. Space lens Tier 0 Reserved: 2 Mana capacity, 1 Matrix space. Scrubbing Tier 0 Reserved: 2 Mana capacity, 1 Matrix space.
Implants and symbionts: Details: Phleya (type: 3.07)
[By Grumgurg the Fast Falling Yellow Rock; modified by the Mighty System]
[Soul-linked] A type of Slime Mould maintaining a chosen alloy environment to acquire a safe structure to live in. Genetically modified to be able to live inside [Garuan]. Genetically modified to support
Traits: Living, Sentience potential, Soul-linked, Symbiotic, Genetically enhanced, Functional duality, Armor modification. Modified cardiovascular micro-plating
[mixed sources; no prototype] Strengthening mechanical micro-implant. Material used: Planaria Ferrium Fullerene CON8795-XA65 [redition by Ghrughah]. Core improvements to the cardiovascular system: internal Mana manipulation (+72%), internal perception (+76%), functionality (+216% on average), shielding (+24%). Modified Neural implant
[mixed sources; no prototype] Mechanical coating framework, applied in accordance to the [Kehayah Medical Academy: 'Brainworks' project]. Material used: Planaria Ferrium Fullerene CON8795-XA65 [redition by Ghrughah]. Core improvements to the nervous system: shielding (+136%); regeneration (+29.8%); functionality (+492%). Compatible with [Willforce Morphon]. Garuan (type: M1)
[by an Unknown Ancient Civilization TRA404]
[Soul-bonded] Able to crystallize surplus Mana of the host. Integrated with all circulatory systems and the digestive system.
Traits: Modified, Mutated, Growing, Living, Basic Sentience, Soul-bonded, Symbiotic Parasite, Lowered efficiency [69%].
Reserved: 10 Mana regeneration when not oversaturated "Cellular Energy Subsystem", Mitochondrion-like v.501
[by Maddening Aurenus]
[Soul-linked] Allows cells to metabolize Mana. An outstanding efficiency and a final creation of Aurenus.
Traits: Modifiable, Living, Soul-linked, Symbiotic. Mutagenic Bacteria B652H81
[by Maddening Aurenus]
[Soul-linked] Host-dependent microorganism specialized in enhancing and assisting the immune system in energy-enhanced environments.
Traits: Modifiable, Living, Soul-linked, Symbiotic. Modified "Source Net v.21.31",
[Imperial University of S&T: IG, IC, IMG, Kendroleiskie] The newest version of the funneling system, integrated within a body. A little stiff.
Traits: Best choice, Modifiable, Mana Siphoning, Self-maintenance, Lowered efficiency [60%]. Enhanced symbiotic microbes
[Soul-linked] You are in a symbiotic relationship with a number of microbes. Your organism is not able to operate normally without them. They were already enhanced to be able to operate normally in Mana environments. Further upgrades are possible.
Traits: First batch, Modifiable, Living, Soul-linked, Symbiotic. Mutations and structural modifications: Details: Modified Metabolism
[Symbiotic Parasite] Expanded toxin resistance, extended intestinal digestibility, lowered blood metal levels, click here to expand. Willforce Morphon
[Extended Will shielding]
[Growing] Will/Soul/Body [Enhancement] integrated into Soul-Body metabolism and ‘information cloud’ of [Will]. Powered by [Willforce], applications can be further strengthened by spending [Will]. Shields [Body], [Soul], and [Will] by linking their [Energetical Resources] in new exchange pathways.
click here to expand Other sources: Details: Living armor
[Prototype; Unique; by
[Soul-linked] An armor based on a high-tech blueprint from Earth, fashioned from Planaria Ferrium Fullerene CON8795-XA65 (Ghrughah creation). Contains Phley (type 3).
Traits: Living, Soul-linked, Genetically enhanced, Self-maintenance, Functional duality, Symbiotic.