Afterlife 2.0 Chapter 24 — Designing and building a new body
I breathed a sigh of relief as my Mana hit full capacity and my regeneration returned to normal. They both fully recovered at the same time, which has to mean something. It probably was related to purging that…influence from my soul. Autumn said souls are what produce Mana, so maybe part of my soul was removed and had to regrow? My soul would be sort of like a balloon then, as Mana poured in, and my soul inflated, it became easier for more Mana to pour in as it grew until it reached a certain maximum size dictated by my Arcane stat. My Spirit, then, is the source of that Mana. Neither Autumn nor I knew the answer to any of those questions, and it’s just a pet theory. At least it’s fixed now so I don’t have to worry about being effectively crippled.
I really should look over the log messages from when I was unconscious at some point. Not now, though. We’ve wasted enough time. I've got to get back in shape. I definitely haven’t been avoiding checking this whole time.
From what I’d sensed inside my body while waiting for my soul to heal, whatever took control of me didn’t care for fine-tuning and just destroyed half the wires in my shell by overloading them. Must be nice just pulling all the Mana you want from thin air.
A true creature taken over by it must be a beast to fight. Or at least it would in my body, as it would have effectively infinite stamina as long as there was Mana in the environment.
I sighed in frustration. I was procrastinating for some reason. I wish a Willpower stat existed. I’d love to be able to... No wait, I'm doing it again.
“Hey Autumn, I’m back to full Mana. I'm going to do some extensive repairs, and I may not respond to outside stimuli while working. Just shake me if you need something,” I said, waiting for them to nod in response before starting. It was time to do a bunch of thinking about magic.
I lay down flat on the ground and leaned very heavily into [Friend of the Forest]’s plant sensing ability to feel my entire body at once. I could feel every tiny flow of Mana running through my shell, including ones disconnected from my Core that [Arcane Interface] would fail to pick up on.
As I focused even harder, I realized I could sense the Mana that made up my physical structure, the plant matter of which my shell was made, which made sense. I did grow it out of Mana, after all.
What I saw was a huge mess. Alongside the issue with my wiring, bits of random plant material were scattered throughout my shell, likely caused by my use of [Regrowth] to patch damage rapidly in the middle of combat without focusing on getting it exactly correct. This shell was garbage, and at this point, I was going to have to build a new one from scratch. I would have sighed yet again if I were using this shell as a body at the moment, but I wasn’t going to ever again. It was a broken tool.
I slid my Core out of the side of my chest and felt myself bounce and roll across the ground. The bounce didn’t hurt like the initial test flick from before I stepped into Eternia, which is likely my Fortitude in action.
What did I want out of this new shell? I could become whatever I wanted. My first course of action was going to be trying to get around my biomass limit. I tried to think back on every material available to me, and after ruminating for a couple of seconds, my Core spit some information out for me.
[Listing all available materials]
[Consumed Materials]

[Klyven Dew]
[Wondersprout Fibre]
[Groveheart Root]
[Ashenflare Stem]
[Ashenflare Leaf]
[Bloodroot Seed]
[Bloodroot Vine]
[Bloodroot Root]
[Bloodroot Blood]

[Inherited Materials]

[Runaspriggan Flesh]
[Runaspriggan Wiring]

[Personally Created]

[Energy Absorbent Blood Dew]

[Learned by Teachings]

[Various Non-Magical Plants — Unaffected by Soul Refinement]

Looking through the list, I saw one I had completely forgotten about. Groveheart Root had been picked up in the middle of a fight, and I never really got a chance to try it out.
The ‘Personally Created’ section was interesting. I wish I’d known about this feature earlier. It meant that I wouldn’t have to put whatever I made into my Inventory to check it out. Now, thinking back, I really wish I had done it for Blood Dew when I first made it instead of assuming it would either work or do nothing. Energy absorbent—does that just mean the metal pulls in every type of energy? As I thought that, my Core sent another notification.
[Energy Absorbent Blood Dew]
A liquid created through the combination of effects carried by Bloodroot vines and Klyven Dew was created through a corruptive evolutionary process. Somewhat conductive to all Energy forms, higher Energy levels stored increase the bond strength of Mana-formed lattices within the material as long as the Energy does not inherently oppose cohesion. Certain Energy types interact with the material in specialized ways: Nature Mana brings a natural order, increasing the harmonic construction of lattices. Life Force weaves responsive flexibility into the fabric of the bonds. Can be triggered to absorb Energy in contact with Dew.
I widened my eyes spiritually. This material sounded, well, almost too good to be true. I’ve also been using it completely wrong this whole time. The only problem I see is the ‘Can be triggered to absorb local Energy’ portion of the description, which I would like to avoid ever happening again. I need to remove that bit if I ever want it in my body. The question is how to do that.When I made this material, I channelled the intent to make the Klyven Dew take on the absorbent properties of Bloodroot, while holding the Nature Mana inside the Dew. Klyven Dew naturally absorbs Mana contained within it over time to remain in its solid form, which is the reason I hadn’t been creating pockets of the stuff inside myself to act as Mana batteries. I also used that absorbent property to absorb the Mana holding the intent to change the material.
Oh fuck that’s why it can absorb Mana now too! It always could! What I’d done was add a function that allowed it to absorb external energy without setting a limit on the type. I had just assumed it would only take Vital Energy, or Life Force, as my Core calls it, because it didn’t carry any external absorbent properties naturally. Maybe the threat on the surface is getting to my nerves or something because I wouldn’t normally skip out on ensuring I knew everything about the assets I was working with.
Also, I feel like Life Energy would be a better name, just combine the better parts of the two.
Cursing my earlier brashness, I had thought of the whole Bloodroot as the same material but in slightly different forms. Except that isn’t how the Ashenflare worked, so why wouldn’t I assume the same was true for this plant? There are four different listings for the plant after all. Knowing I could check a list of all my materials earlier would have been useful. I need to figure out how my Core works somehow. Why is there no help feature or command line? All I can see in my mind is a log of actions.
I needed to rectify my lack of information, so I queried the Bloodroot Blood listing to see if I could find out how the two materials had interacted. An instant later, before the result had even been processed, I also queried Bloodroot Vine and Bloodroot Root because it might give me some insight into how the plant operates.
[Bloodroot Blood]
This material comes from the inside of a predatory vine that drains Life Energy from its prey and stores it in its root. This ‘blood’ acts as the muscle of the plant and is manipulated by the consciousness present in the root to seek out prey. The ‘blood’ is conductive to all forms of Mana and is highly conductive to Life Energy. It can be triggered to pull Life Energy from nearby.[Bloodroot Vine]
This material comes from the skin of a predatory vine that drains Life Energy from its prey and stores it in its root. It acts as the vine's skin and is made of a material that is anti-conductive to Mana but highly conductive to Life Energy. The material is highly elastic when carrying Life Energy.
[Bloodroot Root]
This material comes from the root of a predatory vine that drains Life Energy from its prey and stores it in its root. It is capable of storing a large amount of Blood Mana. When carefully nurtured, it fills with leech-aligned Blood Mana, which is used to catch prey and is eventually made into seeds. When tended to poorly, it withers almost immediately.
It seems my Core agreed with the name change to Life Energy? That was odd. Is it listening to me, or am I subconsciously controlling it? I genuinely can’t tell, but I also don’t know if there’s a difference between those two things. I am the Core, and the Core is me after all. There really should be a command line for this thing.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Either way, I learned a few things from my examination of the three materials and can make a few educated guesses from the descriptions. For one, the hypothesis I came up with earlier, that when my Core uses the term ‘When carefully nurtured,’ it means ‘When the plant is filled with Life Energy,’ seems to be slightly more likely. This hypothesis is only an assumption I made, because the Wondersprout had that same wording in its description. It’s entirely possible that just feeding it living creatures counts as carefully nurturing a Bloodroot plant.
Next, it’s likely that Bloodroot, if it is a real plant that wasn’t just created on the spot for me as a prize, potentially suffered from the same issue I had when trying to absorb a creature’s Life Energy. Because the skin of the vine evolved to be very hard to tear and very resistant to external Mana, I’ve never seen the descriptor anti-conductive and don’t even know what that would imply other than that it would be a very good protective cover against spells. I should wrap my Core in both it and the Ashenflare Stem, with the Bloodroot on the inside. I did that as my first burst of [Regrowth], only leaving holes for connection ports.
Finally, I think I know how to solve the trigger problem present in Energy Absorbent Blood Dew. The reason I believe that it’s possible to fix is that the trigger description changed from ‘It can be triggered to pull Life Energy from nearby’ to ‘Can be triggered to absorb Energy in contact with the Dew’, meaning the effective range was reduced when I combined the two materials. If I do it right, I can reduce the absorption range to only Mana within the material, like how Klyven Dew works. In that case, I can prevent that from ever happening again while maintaining the benefits of the metal. The only issue is I’m not sure which material to combine with it to make the best substance I can, so I might as well just try a couple of them.I have a couple of contenders in mind, mixing Runaspriggan Wiring with Energy Absorbent Blood Dew might make something interesting, as long as the Wiring wasn’t fucked up enough by whoever nerfed my species, to just wreck the Dew. Ashenflare Leaf and Dew together might make something unique as well, but I’d have to be careful with it and integrate a lot more of the Stem into my body. Then there’s Runaspriggan Flesh…I actually haven’t checked that material yet. I queried the System in my Core, and then my mind froze at the result.
[Runaspriggan Flesh]
The vast majority of the shell of a Runaspriggan consists of this material. Designed by Syladine to be extremely adaptable to alterations. Only conducts Mana when the user applies an intent to do so. Slightly absorbs Nature Mana contained within itself over time to repair damage. On its own, the material is a poor conductor of Mana, and Soul Refinement is less effective when applied to it.
“Sorry darling”
-Syladine
Why is she apologizing? Did she know I’d read this right after I was told who she was?
I wanted to shiver, but I couldn’t really move at the moment, so I just sat there, my mind moving at speeds no naturally born human could reach with my Wit stat as high as it was, trying to figure out what she was talking about, unless she meant something that hadn’t happened yet. My mind turned to Autumn. Why did they have that reaction to me? There were barely any memories, but they were out for an hour? Were all spriggans given an order to protect me from The Lady, or was it just Autumn? If it were just Autumn, did she know I would summon Autumn? Can I trust Autumn? Is this some kind of five-dimensional chess move that I couldn’t possibly comprehend by gods using me as a piece on the board? Or was there some kind of future sight or divination that the gods have access to, which she used? What am I supposed to do? Why is she doing this to me? Why can’t things be simple? I felt twitchy, my Mana was doing that thing it did before the Hurnathi hit me like truck-kun, where it wasn’t distributing itself properly.Something picked me up and held me gently. It was probably Autumn trying to calm me down after noticing the Mana fluctuations going weird again. They picked up on it the first time, too. I needed to stop thinking, being in this empty void, where all I had were my thoughts, wasn’t good for me. I just need to choose something and use that as a focus.After growing a small pocket that I designated as my stomach to absorb knowledge about what I create, I decided it was time to start experimenting and figure out what works.Inside the pocket, I grew a bulb of Runaspriggan Flesh, then filled it with the strongest pulse of [Verdant Corruption] that I could, instilling the material with everything I knew about how Ashenflare Stem worked, brewing that knowledge into the material. I had considered checking the properties of Wondersprout fibres, but that material costs way too much Mana to make. Besides, I wanted it to take on the rock-solid properties of the Stem, while also removing whatever the hell “Soul Refinements are less effective” was doing to the Runaspriggan Flesh. I had a guess, but if I was correct, then I had accidentally found a way to break what the system wanted me to be. But Syladine set the entire thing up for me, so it wasn’t an accident. Why else would she leave a message there?
The Mana within me felt like it was boiling. The incredible amount of Mana I had packed into a small piece of Runaspriggan Flesh shone like a beacon to [Friend of the Forest] as it slowly absorbed the Mana. “To repair itself,” yeah right okay Syladine, that’s definitely why you added an absorption function slash ‘S’. You definitely didn’t make the Flesh have a terrible sounding modifier like what it has to dodge any nerf. Eryx had respect for his craft, but you just wanted to get the job done.Once the Flesh had finished absorbing the Mana, which took way too long, the rate of absorption was way slower than the Dew by a large margin. I consumed it immediately. The structure of this new material formed in my head, and I knew how to make it. Now I just had to check what it was. I pulled up the material list and opened the new entry.[Scorchbranch Husk]
A chitinous, organic material created through the combination of effects carried by physical Runaspriggan Flesh and the conceptual identity of Ashenflare Stem. It was created through a corruptive evolutionary process. Material is naturally anti-conductive to Mana. However, it becomes moderately conductive to Mana when the user applies an intent to do so. Change aspect carried within the evolutionary process caused Soul Refinement to be more effective by a minuscule amount. Heat resistant up to but not including Wyvern Fire.
Oh, that’s right. The Skill description of [Verdant Corruption] said it applied a ‘Change’ aspect to my Nature Mana. I had no idea what that meant and still don’t, but I guess it followed my will and changed the material to increase Soul Refinement. If that means what I think it does, it’s amazing that happened. It all depends on the idea I have about how the system of this world works. Because The Weaver of Souls created my Core System, there’s obviously going to be jargon used by the Core. Based on what Autumn said about this place being designed to “let his fruit ripen before the harvest,” I’m betting there’s a good chance that if you translated the spriggan slang and the jargon, they’re the same thing, Stat increases. That was the only kind of refinement that was even happening here, and it was happening on a level I couldn’t comprehend or see, which really only left my soul as the affected object when I gained Stats.
Syladine handed this to me on a golden platter, so it isn’t really my accomplishment.At least the next one is all on me, trial and error, fuckup turned into potential opportunity. I began filling the pocket stomach with Energy Absorbent Blood Dew. Then, I started the process of changing the material again. This time went a lot faster because the Dew just absorbs Mana faster, or at least it did at the start. Once it began taking on properties of Runaspriggan Wiring, the absorption slowed down until there was barely any Mana being soaked up, but the Mana inside was doing something strange. It was flowing through the liquid as if creating small currents, and the movement was ramping up in speed, whipping through the liquid incredibly fast. It was also beginning to absorb the Mana again. I waited until it had finished the rapid absorption during the high-speed movement and pulled up what it was. I wanted to know what the hell it was doing at the end there.
[Latticedew Veins]
An organic semifluid material created through the combination of effects carried by Energy Absorbent Blood Dew and Runaspriggan wiring. Highly conductive to Nature Mana, and somewhat conductive to all other Energy forms. Nature Mana interacts with the material in specialized ways, causing acceleration while flowing through the material due to uniform paths that generate constructive resonance patterns. Durability increases in proportion to the velocity of Mana flowing through it, as the material's internal lattice structure tightens under rapid energetic stress.
Now that’s what I’m talking about. Wires that won’t burn out any time I need to get serious. I detached the pocket I was using as a false stomach, and after a moment, Autumn put me down on the ground. They probably noticed I had calmed down and was ready to begin building my shell.I was ready, but the problem was I wasn’t happy with the wiring of my previous shell. The patchwork patterning of circuit quality caused certain parts of my body to feel weaker than others. I don’t know how, but I kind of understood the way Nature Mana wanted to move now, just like I could suddenly understand a language based entirely on Nature Mana. This was completely opposed to how I felt about Raw Mana now, which felt chaotic and random, so unfortunately, certain pathways wouldn’t change like my Mana senses. Something about it made me feel unsafe as well, as if it wanted to consume me but was held back by the fact that it is held under my will when in my body and connected to my soul.
I activated [Mana Simulations] and began drafting my circuitry, just going by the flow that I felt the way Nature wanted to exist, it followed patterns, constructing a mimicry of organic systems inside my shell. I built a vascular and nervous system out of Latticedew, the nervous system sending the Mana signals through thin, high-pressure wires to fine-tune movement, and the thick vascular system able to hold a large amount of Mana to add sustained energy to movements. My body surrounding that system used Scorchbranch.I let myself flow into the simulation, feeling the simulated body as if it were mine. It’s my simulation inside my Core, and I decide how it functions, even if doing this burns Nature Mana. In the simulated environment, I took a step and accidentally flung myself into the air. My simulated self growled, and I reset the simulation, this time applying less force than a normal step. It was somehow incredibly easy to hold back my strength. I just had to do what felt like relaxing my body, but was actually a complex set of pulses of Mana being sent to specific wires designed to allow normal, non-high-energy function. I might burn a tenth of a percent of Mana per minute walking, going up to two percent per minute if I wanted to move quickly.Focusing on the simulation environment, I changed it so that I was standing on top of a high rise, then added another building with a gap exactly fifty metres away. Activating [Natural Enhancement], I leapt across the gap to the next building, landing exactly where and how I predicted I would. The Skill’s precision increased with the upgrade to my body, and now I know how I’m supposed to move to get to whatever position I want. I smiled. This will do nicely.
After adding some finishing touches to allow spell channelling and setting an Authority Core in my head, I deactivated the simulation. I began growing the body with the exact specifications I had memorized. As my head finished growing and my new eyes activated, I blinked a few times, trying to clear my vision. But it was like the room was too bright. I lowered the sensitivity,, noting that I probably had pretty good dark vision now,, and then sat up, looking over at Autumn.
Something wasn’t right. I frowned and looked down at myself. “Oh, come on, I wasn’t this short in the simulation. Did I not set it to scale properly? Gods damn it,” I pulled my hood over my head and crossed my arms. “Fucking heavy materials,” I am increasing my Biomass limit as soon as possible because I’m not happy being two and a half feet tall.
As I sat there smouldering, I realized the notification light had been blinking this whole time, but now there were even more notifications piled up. “Hey Autumn, I'm going to check my notifications, then we can clear the ritual room, alright?”Autumn was staring into space unresponsive, but I’m pretty sure they heard me. One of their vines twitched slightly in response.