It was almost a full-mark before I managed to crawl away from the burned corpse. It felt like I had twisted and strained every muscle in my body as I dragged myself to a nearby tree.
I couldn’t lift the branches necessary to build a proper shelter, but I was able to pull some broad leaves over myself. Painfully, I dug through my rain soaked pack to find my clay. To my dismay, I found a handful of broken shards. One of my jars had shattered when I had fallen through the branches above. I was left with only barely enough usable clay in my other jar to draw a single sigil.
Even tracing out one sigil on the underside of the leaves proved extremely challenging. My shaking hands refused to cooperate as I struggled to weave the mana through the clay correctly. The ache in my fingers grew the longer I painted, but I didn't permit myself to stop. The entire time I was drawing, a small purple symbol flashed at the edge of my vision. I had enough distractions as it was, and I needed to get at least some protection put up before I could spare time for my interface.
With one last shuddering stroke, I finished the sigil. It was one of the crudest concealment sigils I had ever drawn, but it was the best I could do.
Laying back with a groan, I turned my attention to my interface.
Name: Kyo —-----
Class: System Initiate
(7/10, 100%)
Mana Pool: 1/100
Codex: 99.99%
Boons: 7
New boon unavailable during emergency augmentation (23%)
Environmental Conditions: life threatening injury detected
MR:237
TPEL:2
I blinked in surprise. That message was new.
Environmental Conditions:
Mana level detected by System's mana accumulator. Boon integration speed increased by higher ambient mana levels.
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User has recently perceived entities known to be hostile. Boon integration speed increased to increase odds of survival.
User has recently perceived a lack of necessary resources. Boon integration speed increased to increase odds of survival.
User has suffered debilitating injury while in mortal danger. Boon integration halted. Mana redirected to emergency physical augmentation to increase odds of survival.
Emergency Physical Augmentation (Improved Regeneration): 23% complete
Avoid mana usage during integration to limit mana poisoning.
Once again, the system seemed to be doing its best to keep me alive. If I was already suffering mana poisoning, that would go a long way towards explaining why I still felt like I had been trampled by a herd of grunes.
Grimacing, I recalled something that had been bothering me since the fight. How had I been able to act through that unbelievable pain? Did the system do something to help me? Summoned by my thoughts a new message appeared on my interface.
Automatic Trauma Mitigation: Enabled
System automatically regulates brain function during traumatic situations to increase odds of survival. Enabled by default.
I stared at the message blankly. Had the system been messing with my head every time I had gotten into trouble? Thinking back over the past few days, I realized that must have been the case.
I shuddered at the realization of just how much the system must have been altering my behavior. The results were arguably beneficial, considering how nothing had managed to kill me yet, but that didn’t change the fact that I was deeply disturbed. After all I had lost, my identity was one of the few things I had left to call my own.
I almost turned off the feature, but hesitated at the last moment. None of the actions I had taken while being influenced by the system had been something I wouldn’t have eventually chosen to do. I probably would have hesitated longer before taking action, but the action would have likely been the same in the end.
Looking at what happened when I was under the effects of my returned spell, I would have certainly died if the system hadn’t intervened. Unless I was prepared to make the journey to the land of shades, I couldn’t afford to cast aside such a useful tool.
That didn’t mean that I would have to like it.
As I curled up to try and sleep, I almost questioned what else the system was doing that I didn’t know about. I mentally halted my interface from answering that question. Between my wet, aching body and my thoroughly perturbed mind, I was already well past my limit for the evening. I wasn’t sure what other unpleasant surprises I might find if I went looking for them.
After a miserably long time, I finally fell asleep.
----------------------------------------
Opening my eyes the following morning, I had to look back upon my most recent nightmare with a bit of sardonic mirth. Tiny, fire breathing monkeys raining from the sky was an odd dream even by my standards.
Jokingly, I wondered if the system could do anything about my nightmares.
Codex Dream Study: Disabled
In place of regular dreams, the user will be presented with sensations and information drawn from the codex. Subject matter may be selected prior to sleep. Disabled by default.
I must have stared at the unexpected message for almost a quarter-mark in disbelief.
Evidently, the system really could do something about my nightmares.