A few hours later, I could somewhat accurately manifest targeted effects with my ‘Authority Core’, the name I had given to it. Since I couldn’t produce Authority naturally, no matter what I tried to do, I might as well create a new Core that could.The room was now absolutely covered in small puddles of rotting plant matter, as I had found that throwing balls and then targeting them with a circuit imbued with [Verdant Corruption] was great practice. Especially with my increased Might stat, now I could throw the balls with strength close to that of a slingshot. Obviously, my aim wasn’t perfect, as the ground was also covered in balls that were completely unaffected. Still, I was confident that any organic creatures around my level would have a bad time meeting me in an alleyway. Non-organic beings, please stay away until I develop sufficient countermeasures. I had even gained a level for my trouble, something about acting in conjunction with one of the tags associated with my Class. Apparently, this is how Hazel had gained all her levels. Her class benefits from gaining knowledge, and having centuries of information shoved into her head was somewhat beneficial.Class Level (Neophyte Conduit) Increased +1 (11)
+2 Wit, +3 Spirit, +2 Fortitude, +3 ArcanaI also found I was only really good at doing two things with Nature Mana: growing things or altering them in some way, usually for the worse if my practice was any indication. The same practice with Kinetic Mana technically worked, but it was so much harder. Likely my attunement was fucking something up along the way there. There also seemed to be some kind of rules Mana liked to follow. For example, Kinetic Mana was easier to use if I was already following the momentum of an object by speeding it up or slowing it down along the direction it was already moving. Nature Mana was a little weirder, so I hadn’t figured out the complexities behind how it liked to move quite yet.Either way, it was time for me to brave the corridors again. The desks and cupboards had very little of interest, and I’d already read through all the data in the room worth looking at—which wasn’t much, mind you. The pod in the center of the room wasn’t even labelled. I’d like to have a harsh word with whoever managed the asset logistics here. This was clearly inadequate.
I tapped the keyplate to the door, ensuring I remained slightly off to the side so whatever defence mechanism I had activated couldn’t reach me. Then I stretched one of my eyes out and around the corner. The plate in the wall that had opened when I failed the combo was still open. It seemed to be stuck on something. Every second or so, it would try to close and then fail as something was in the way, before trying again. Behind the panel was what appeared to be a turret, made out of the same metal as the walls.Waving a hand in front of the door, I saw no response. Holding a keyplate to my chest, I stepped out from behind the cover and into the hallway. Still nothing, so I began to walk away down the corridor. I thanked my luck that the thing wasn’t just set to blast anything that moved after being activated. However, I suppose that may be a safety hazard for any living employees in the vicinity. I wasn’t going to risk touching the damn thing, though; I didn’t think I was that lucky.Walking down the corridor, I encountered more rooms, though most of them seemed to be dormitories, cafeterias, or lounges. There were also a large number of corpses in this area, all of them similarly mummified. It didn’t make sense if the Wretches killed them, as I doubt those things leave corpses. My original keyplate had worked on every door so far, but I noticed some people in slightly different outfits, which implied a different rank, so I took their keyplates as well. Might as well collect the whole set, or maybe I can find a master key somewhere.The dormitory section was a bit of a maze, but I followed my rule of sticking to the left wall and eventually exited exactly where I came from, with very little to show for it. I was fine with that because it’s not like I was on a timer or anything. I might as well search every inch of this place for goodies, and I had already found a really cool hat. It looked like something out of the set of a sci-fi film, something one of the named characters would wear to give themselves a bit of personality. It had sleek, trimmed metal edges and a small brim, yet still sat softly on my head due to being lined with some kind of fabric. Without using my hands, I used Kinetic Mana to flip my cloak’s hood back over my head after putting the hat on. That’s definitely the coolest feature I built into my body.Reaching the end of the corridor, I finally hit a door that my original keyplate wouldn’t open, so I just started trying all of them. Failures didn’t register as someone trying to hack the door open, luckily, since it was just an incorrect set of credentials error, not a completely invalid entry. Eventually, the keyplate from the guy with the cool hat I took opened the door. I knew it, only someone really important would be allowed to have a hat this cool.Inside the room was a large flat piece of stone with several panels surrounding it. Inscribed on the stone was a large circle, which I assume was some kind of ritual. Surrounding the stone were a bunch of half-melted skeletons, which means the deaths that happened in here were unique compared to the ones outside. Examining the ritual circle closely, there were no proper binding inscriptions that I recognized, and given the knowledge package I was given, that probably meant there were none at all.That seemed like a bad idea to me, but I wasn’t going to judge.
At the side of the room was a desk covered in a stack of papers and a bookshelf. I was torn between checking the bookshelf first or the papers on the desk, eventually deciding to peruse the bookshelf. I had to assume the papers on the desk would be like diving into the deep end, as they clearly went past the line where someone should have stopped and checked if they really knew what the fuck they were doing.Skimming the shelf I had to wonder why this wasn’t all on a tablet, was the knowledge such that it would burn the eyes of mortals who laid eyes upon it. Forbidden from reaching Mana-based objects lest they be taken over completely and subsumed into an eldritch will. Or was somebody too lazy to digitize all the old volumes.
I ended up with three different books, each containing a different facet of ritual summoning. That’s the only subject they had sitting around here. They did have some obscure-sounding texts that might touch on other fields, but really, they were kind of offsets of summoning, like a book on physical enhancement magic that only applied to summoned beings.
While looking over the shelf, I heard for the first time since I had entered this place, a noise that didn’t originate from something I did. Or at least I think I heard something, an electrical whirring from near the door. Glancing over, I saw nothing, which didn’t really surprise me, honestly. If something was going to sneak up on me, it was clearly not just going to be standing in the doorway looking at me.
Scanning the room, I saw nothing, not even trace movements of the Raw Mana in the air seemed to change in any noticeable way. So I did the one thing I shouldn’t do in this situation and just went back to browsing the bookshelf.
A few moments later, something drove a sharp stake-like implement into my neck, which was very rude of it. Not sparing a moment, I blasted my Authority in a semi-circle behind me and guzzled Mana to change whatever was there into black gunk.
As soon as my neck circuits reattached, I spun to look at whatever the hell had just hit me, but there was nothing there. I groaned, it’s one of those kinds of creatures. Just fight me, don't do all this invisible bullshit.
There was no gunk on the floor either, so it was possible I hadn’t put enough juice into overpowering its internal protective Authority. But I also didn’t feel my own Authority contesting anything. Am I supposed to be able to feel that?I wish I had taken more lessons from Hazel. I sent her a quick hello, just to see if she could help out but received no response.
I sighed and began building up a large amount of Mana into my arm, filling it with the idea of rot that reproduces at a rate faster than it can be removed. Rot that overwhelms a being in moments. Rot that clings, that spreads, that devours.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Nothing appeared in the minute of waiting, so I held my hand up and fired the cloud of Nature Mana into the room, which steadily filled with the gaseous rot. I was glad I was covered in non-conductive material, though whatever I had just produced was eating that away, too. This meant I was now burning Mana, regenerating my skin, and moulting the rotted bits before they could spread.
Nothing changed in the room, so I turned back to the books and made a sound halfway between a whimper and a startled squeak. Fuck the books I forgot about—they’re fine?!
The books seemed completely unaffected by my Mana, the only change being a shimmer that seemed to echo across the surface of the tomes. Picking one up I opened it and tried to examine what the hell was happening, it was like there was some kind of protective field covering the book. I didn’t even know magic could do that. How does it do that? There are no circuits built into the book, instead it’s like Mana contained within the book is doing something on its own.
Shrugging, I put that down as another mystery that may remain unsolved for now.
At that moment, something directly behind me let out a warbling screech, and I smiled to myself. Apparently, the creature wasn’t quite smart enough to realize I had flooded the air with Mana, or maybe it didn’t have Mana sight. Gotcha!
Spinning around, I saw a hunched-over anthropoid with a purple exoskeleton and insectoid features, almost mantis-like, scythe arms and all. It looked like it was trying to flicker out of existence, but the rotted material wasn’t allowing it to.
Unfortunately, I could see the rot being fought back against by the being’s vitality, slowly returning to healthy chitin. This was presumably the Phase Reaver, as one of its scythe arms was clipped at the top. I was unsure why Vital Energy wasn’t doing anything to restore that damage. Maybe because the injury is from before Eternia was created? Did Vital Energy exist before Eternia did?
Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, I aimed at its head and fired a second shot. I missed by a fraction of an inch as the creature dodged to the side, barely avoiding being turned into carrion slurry.
The creature seemed to realize it wouldn't be able to turn invisible any time soon and pounced on me. Evading out of the way, I tried to aim my Authority at it and managed to hit it this time. It felt like I had slammed into a steel wall where the skin began, which meant more creative solutions were required.
The creature swung its intact claw at me and opened a gouge on my side, which I quickly sealed by moving material around. That seemed to stump it for a moment as it paused. Apparently, the fact that I didn’t react like the fleshies it had been killing was confusing. The lack of ability to detect Mana would make my Core really hard to find as well.
Taking advantage of the freeze, I finished with a quick side connection to the remote Mana application circuit, sending Raw Mana through a Fire rune and letting it build up until I couldn’t compress it anymore. By the time it decided on its next move, I unleashed the payload right in front of its eyes. A fireball exploded at the chosen point, and when the smoke cleared, the creature stood there, slightly singed and steaming but otherwise unharmed. Its mandibles clicked in what I guessed was irritation. Then again, I’m no bug expression expert—maybe it liked being bathed in flame.Its rapid advance made it clear that, no, it did not, in fact, have a good time, and neither was I for anyone who was asking. Finally forced to use [Natural Enhancement], I barely dodged a swing aiming to take my head off, but I didn’t expect the next move. A proboscis fired from its mouth as it moved its head towards me, piercing deeply into my chest. This explains what had staked my neck earlier. Eww, bug tongue is inside me.Since it didn’t immediately extract its proboscis, I grabbed it with one hand and used the other to fire a shot of corruptive Mana into its face. This time, I landed a direct hit, earning me an ear-piercing screech as the creature’s face began to sprout mould that spread rapidly over its upper torso. Taking a sharp turn with my newly enhanced Might, I managed to rip the proboscis from its already weakened head and jammed the sharpened tip into its abdomen. This move cost me the arm I had used to shoot off the Nature Mana as it lashed out with one of its scythe arms. The other one jammed deeply into my right ‘lung’, skewering me in place.
Realizing it had no real way of knowing how to kill me, not with my Core securely nestled in my lower torso, I lunged forward, driving the proboscis deeper into its chest. With a burst of momentum, I slammed my forehead against its chitinous skull. The mould had done its work already, rotting away the base foundations faster than its regeneration could put it back together, and my final bash caved in its head. [Killed Phase Reaver Lvl 40]My eyes narrowed at the notification. This seemed a little too easy for something supposedly that much stronger than me. Ignoring the rest of the notifications, I picked up the body and examined it in my Inventory.[Phase Reaver Corpse]
A lesser-known species originating from The Shattered Realms, a collection of pocket dimensions that used to exist as a single Plane prior to the 3rd Blood War. Named after their ability to phase out of reality at will, these creatures are astoundingly rare to encounter. Known sightings are usually of starved Phase Reavers, as they only become desperate enough to attack in ways that make them vulnerable when on the brink of death. Due to their habit of draining the life force from other beings to regenerate their own, they’ve earned the nickname ‘Phasic Vampire.’
More like ‘Phasic Mosquito.’
That explains what it was trying to do. I had no Vital Energy, so it couldn’t pull anything from me, but since it already ate everyone around here, it was desperate. I hard countered its life force sucking ability.I took a moment to check over the last of the notifications.
Class Level (Neophyte Conduit) Increased +2 (13)
+4 Wit, +6 Spirit, +4 Fortitude, +6 Arcana
Oh, now I gain levels, but the Wretchspawn I killed didn’t count for some reason? Also, this seems low compared to the humans I killed. Do sentient beings give more experience?
Burying my head in my hands, I added the levelling system as another thing I had to ask Hazel about. I really wished I had access to the bug report system because I was fairly sure something wasn't working as intended here, but it was what it was.Onto more interesting pursuits! For example, which book should I pick first? I was debating between ‘Balat’s All-in-One Encyclopedia of The Planes’ in order to figure out what my options were, or ‘Summoning Circles’ to start dipping my toes into how rituals actually worked. Apparently, the author had a very blunt naming scheme for the latter one.A few minutes later I was sitting down on a newly grown desk, made to my size, completely piled with books.
After having picked the first thing I wanted to summon, a real spriggan from the Plane of Grass, I was nose deep in ‘Summoning Circles’, absorbing information at a rate I didn’t even realize was possible. Almost just seemed to click the moment I read it, the few things that didn’t just felt off for some reason.
For example, why was it considered best practice to add containment glyphs to the circle itself when they could just be added as a secondary ritual tied to activation with the first? It seemed like a far safer way to go about things. If your original ritual burned out, that would mean your containment immediately failed. Flipping through several texts, I couldn’t find an answer. Maybe they just didn’t think about doing it like that? Seems obvious to me, though. It’s not like tying two circles to activate simultaneously seems hard.
In fact, their entire system seems so rigid. Why would an opening glyph have to be represented as a bridge every time? I can see several scenarios where either a door or even something simple like a hole would work fine.
The less said about their binding system, the better. They never even thought of trying to bind summons to their spirits; it's like the idea was taboo to them or something. Instead, they relied on brute force contract fulfillment summons, where the instructions on what to do were laid out explicitly in the ritual. So the moment the ritual burned out, the summon would be freed. Given the state of the surface right now, I really shouldn’t have expected anything different.
In the midst of reading, I felt Mana beginning to move inside me. A yawn echoed through my head before a familiar voice came through: "Hey Ellie, are you still alive?" I couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across my face. There were so many questions I needed answers to.