Tom's Pov
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I had decided to teach Lilly the food conjuration, but I only have a vague idea of how it works myself. I have a cheat though, using [Manipulate] on a cast of [Conjure food] and shunting the insight towards Lilly instead of me. First I'd probably have to get the basics of [Manipulate] to Lilly though. So I have to [Manipulate] a cast of [Manipulate]'s insight.
We were inside our shelter, base, hut, whichever you prefer. There was a small stone sitting on the stone table. Lilly was sitting opposite to me, looking excited before we even started anything.
"Ready?"
"As ready as i can be."
"Okay, focus on shaping the stone into a cube," I say as I start to [Manipulate] the stone, Then I Try to cast a second [Manipulate] on the insight i'm gaining from the skill.
It takes a while to get the hang of manipulating something so abstract and lacking limits. I couldn't define all of the information the skill would feed me, so I'd have to focus on the information flow itself.
After a solid 20 wasted Mana Lilly started to look excited. Then the stone shaped itself without me giving it directions. First an amorphous blob, and slowly into a cube with rounded edges. Then suddenly it snapped into a sharp lined cube.
You've gained a Skill: Spellcraft.
Manipulate gained a level. Now level 4.
I promptly inspected my new skill.
Spellcraft: A skill for manipulating and creating Spells. Makes gaining and sharing knowledge of spells easier.
Lilly shouted, "Hell yeah!" and jumped in excitement, hugged me while still jumping, and then picked up the cube and shoved it into my face.
"Look! Look! I did it!" Lilly said still shouting.
"I could probably see it better, if it wasn't shoved inside of my eyes," I chuckle at her.
"Sorry! I got excited, and a system message saying I gained the spell manipulate," she rapid fired, still not even slightly calmer.
"I could extrapolate that from all the jumping," I said.
"Aw come on. Order tell him it's exciting," Lilly pouted.
"Yes milady. Lord Tom, it has come to my attention that there is something exciting happening in your vicinity." Order replied with an accent.
"I've noticed, one of our colony members has regained their youth and lost their mind. In an unfair trade as far as I can tell," I reply, nodding slightly to the air next to me.
Lilly just collapsed on a chair dramatically and sighed, "Spare me your judgement, and my sanity for magic is as fair a trade as any."
"I'll be taking the rest of you sanity for the other spell then" I tell her.
"But it's all i have left!" she protests.
"I'll take even more if you don't get ready," I threaten.
Lilly mock saluted and sat straight, giggled twice, tried to sit straight again, and crumpled into a fit of giggles in the chair. I let her have her moment preparing to do the same sort of weird cast with [Conjure food] I first conjured an apple on the opposite side of the table from Lilly.
When she finally got better from insanity I told her to imagine an apple appearing from thin air, then shunted the spell insight to her.
"Ew, what the fuck?" Lilly said and looked at me, then the brown goop slapped on the table, gesturing at it.
"That's not an apple," I state with mock disappointment, shaking my head.
Then I get curious, and use [Manipulate] to turn the mush into an apple.
"How much mana did you spend?" I ask Lilly, who then looks a bit to the side and responds with 8. Manipulating the goop into an apple took 2. Which was, in total, more expensive, than just me conjuring the apple myself. Except it wasn't conjured, it was [manipulate]:ed, Manipulating an apple out of thin air was more expensive than using [Conjure food].
"Ok let's retry," I say, then get ready and Lilly summons another pile of brown goop.
"What even is that? A bad apple?" Lilly asks curious, looking at the mush.
I then cast a [Conjure food] at the pile of mush, with [Manipulate] mixed in. This time the total cost is 8+1 mana but the important part is that the mush was gone. Meaning if I just found something "Food enough" I could turn it into food for a cheaper cost. I told this all to Lilly, who looked at me and spoke.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Ok, sure, but I want to learn the spell before the tricks. I can't say 'no' to cheaper food though."
"Fine, Fine. Next mush pile you might want to think of conjure as 'manipulate substance' it into food. Which it is. I think." I tell her and start casting again.
Another pile of mush. But this time, I push the extra [Manipulate]:ed version of the spell to turn the pile of mush into an apple to her. Then the mush pile turns into an apple-ish, a horrible eldritch apple, but still distinctly apple-like. Then the eldritch apple turns into the object we wanted, without weird growths in it.
"Second spell!" she whoops.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she jumps a hug at me, and I smirk a little at her excitement, but get distracted by my thoughts.
I just absent-mindedly look at the apple. Happy at the result but still somewhat worried about whether the spell was teachable to, or by, anyone without my cheats.
"Tom?" Lilly asks me slightly worried.
"Hm? Sorry I was thinking, did you say something?"
"Oh, no. Just, what were you thinking about? You seemed serious," Lilly asks, now less excited and more worried.
"Ah, it's not really a current problem but teaching this to someone is a somewhat involved problem, it's not impossible but I have to write down the process somewhere so it doesn't get lost, I'm unsure if anyone would be able to get this without outside help" I explained, still thinking about how to solve it.
"Couldn't Order just give it to someone if it's needed?" Lilly asks.
"I guess but that just seems like saving a sinking ship by having a finger in all the holes. True, Order might have infinite fingers, but it still sounds like a hassle." I opine.
"Honestly I wouldn't even notice it but I'll figure something out, a class or role system or something." Order says.
"Or an Akashic records everyone has access to?" Lilly asks.
"That would end horribly, probably, everyone having unrestricted access to all information. I can just imagine some poor deprived soul magi-nuking the planet again." I ponder out loud.
"The internet wasn't that bad," Lilly states. Then changes her mind, "Okay, sure it was bad. But it had no filtering between fact and false. And everyone could shout their opinion out loud. But the records wouldn't have such a problem because we could filter for truth."
"I would have to manually filter everything, which again, I could do. But i like the idea of delegation as much as anyone else. The problem is that there's no real algorithm for truth. Although with the ability to read minds it could at least filter intentional lies, and misunderstandings. I guess that'll have to be enough. Though since the mind is Sacred, anyone using the records would have to submit to their mind being read. Maybe that'll be a deterrent for the nefarious," Order just rambles at us.
"Ah, the algorithm for truth doesn't exist because everyone's experiences are subjective." Order states, "Which a concept could fix. I might as well define my experiences as objective since I can see and process everything."
"Order, you're still talking." Lilly says, "Also you can read my mind?" she says and squints at the air, "You really need an avatar so that I can squint at you."
I Chuckle and just say, "The mind is Sacred, He can't sift through yours without your permission, neither can the system."
"Actually, I can since I'm in essence the first omnipotent, at least to our knowledge, I can't really map the whole universe since it seems to be infinite, even going faster than the speed of light is fuck all to infinity." Order just rambles again.
Lilly just whispers at me conspiratorially, "He really likes to ramble", then giggles a little.
"I know, I'm trying to figure out a sentence that would keep him going infinitely, then I could just grab popcorn and listen to the show." I reply with a smirk.
"Ooh the god podcast," Lilly says and giggles to herself.
"I can still hear you, cretins," Order booms at us. "Punishment for blasphemy is long over due!"
Lilly starts twitching and falls to the floor in a fit of giggles.
"Order are you tickling her?" I ask somewhat incredulous.
"Divine punishment," Order states.
I just shake my head and leave the room, leaving Lilly at the mercy of Order. Then peek back in the door way and say, "Make sure she regains her sanity," and walk away. I hear a "Tom! Help! I'm Sane!" from the hut.
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I had built the first in the set of housing for the future colonists when Lilly walks to me looking slightly ragged.
"Are you ok? Should I punish Order for going too far?" I ask her. She starts combing her hair into shape with her hand, then looks at her hand, shapes a comb from the stone, and continues with that.
"No, no. I'm-" She looks angry at the comb, or the hair, pulls with agression, and continues, "FINE. But you should still punish Order because I want to see it," then she glares at me, "And next time don't just leave me at that horrid thing's mercy!"
"Fine, fine, I'll kill the omnipotent god next time it delivers divine punishment to you." I state and chuckle.
She giggles and continues "But I'm fine though really, and we talked a little," She allows, then starts conjuring walls with me, according to the drawings.
A few hours of just conjuring walls, making ditches and rain drainage and other small things for comfortable living pass. I slowly taught Lilly some [Manipulate] tricks, like forming a stone and air foam into the wall. No need to make it our of keratin since it was just more expensive and the only upside was flexibility. The floors of the building was raised from ground level and had the same stone foam beneath it, making it surprisingly warm feeling.
"We could add heating to this so easily, if we revive a construction worker he'll probably have a fit, or choke due to the absurdity," Lilly states while feeling the floor with her hands.
"We also really need to work on the heat source- I'm stupid! The sun!" she yells, and I just raise an eyebrow.
"We could make a solar collector, reflect a large area of the sun to heat up some pipes with water flowing through them!" She beams proudly.
"Hmm, sure, you'd have to show me the basic design and explain more in depth how that works though," I reply, a bit in thought.
"What about the amount of water needed, and how would you make the water flow?"
"I'll do a rain dance for Order," she says and giggles, "Oh and I remembered something about coffee machines having a heat based water pump. Though i have zero clue how one of those work. Worst comes to worst and I'll just have to pray to Order for enlightenment"
"Seems you're willing to just delegate all your work to god. Why not just ask him to build us a city and call it good," I ask her.
"A fantastic idea! Order, gimme city!" She states staring and pointing at the sky.
"Sure!" Order shouts back and a city appears where she points, in the sky.
"Order can we have transport to that city?" she asks with puppy eyes.
"Ah. No can do, i'm out of god points for the moment." Order says.
Lilly just looks at me.
"What?" I ask.
She points at the city, then me.
"I can't help you lady, you're over your credit limit." I tell the strange mute woman.
Lilly pouts and throws a stone at the sky. "Damn you, you mysterious god!"