I woke up, which was my first mistake. Letting out a groan, I tried to sit up but failed because most of my torso was missing. While I started a [Regrowth] cycle, I wondered how I kept doing this to myself. I shouldn’t even be sleeping with this new body, but this is the second time I’ve been rendered unconscious in the past day. I looked over my Core’s log for the first time in a while. While skimming through regular diagnostics and warning messages about having low Mana, I noticed a set of messages that kept appearing over and over again.
Soul attachment instability detected attempting correctionCorrection failed
That doesn't look good. What’s going on with my soul? Did an imp fuck up my Core when it was being altered? Why is the message showing up more frequently over time? It appeared a dozen times in the past ten minutes, did [Mana Conduit] cause some kind of permanent damage?“You’re awake?” Autumn asked, interrupting my panic spiral just as it started to pick up speed. I turned my head to face them and noticed they were looking less cooked cabbage coloured, and more spinach coloured, which was closer to their usual tone. Blood-like highlights aside.
“Unfortunately, I really did myself a number dealing the finishing blow to the Maliform,” I replied over the communication artifact I had given them. My head was still growing back from the damage it had sustained when the Maliform learned it could change its hands into cleavers. “If it hadn’t decided to focus on you for a moment there I don’t think I could have killed it. But I may have overdone it a bit.”“I'm Glad to be of service,” Autumn said. An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment before they continued, “Were we going to discuss the ongoing situation regarding this facility?”
“Right, yes, that reminds me I should let Dave know he needs to come over so that we can figure out how to shut this ritual off safely. Basically, what the system told me before we entered the room was that we needed to shut down the rituals in both facilities simultaneously in order to close the Planar rift. That changed the moment we entered,” I said, my face finally operational. I then sat up and began testing the functionality of my body to make sure everything grew back fine.
“I assume you mean the native you insisted I shouldn’t consume. I’m beginning to regret agreeing to that, by the way. These people do not deserve to live after their infraction upon reality itself.” Autumn grumbled.
“Yeah, well, let me see if he’s still useful. Give me a moment.”
I opened up my connection to the device I had planted in Dave's ear and switched back to speaking English. “Hey buddy, looks like the ritual went sideways. The room you sent me to was completely filled with that black gunk you were collecting for some reason. One question, do you know the specifics about how these Plane joining rituals, that you guys made, work?”
“No… that wasn't really my area of expertise. I only knew our emergency shutdown procedure. I was part of the extraplanar zoology department,” he replied. His voice sounded tired over the connection, like he hadn’t slept in days. I supposed I should've helped him out a little.
“Alright. Good talk. I’ll see you in the actual Hell later ‘kay? Kisses,” I said, then activated the Bloodroot seed planted within the artifact in his ear. Listening to his dying screams was unexpectedly cathartic, even though I knew my hatred towards him was artificially created, I didn’t really care. I let out a giggle at that thought.
I’m pretty sure something is wrong with me.
“Okay! Dave was useless, and now he’s dead. Let’s see if I can figure out what the fuck they were trying to do here and where it went wrong.”
Autumn gave me an affronted look, then pouted. “So I could have eaten him, and it wouldn’t have made a difference. You’re so mean! Why did you stop me…” They were quiet for a couple seconds then sighed, "Never mind, at least you killed him. I don’t think I could have forgiven you if you left someone who consorted with the Maleficarum alive.” Their words carried genuine hurt within their undermeanings. Or whatever the extra layers past the literal definitions of words in Mana-based languages like Rootspeech are called. I’m gonna go with undermeanings, even if somebody corrects me.
I placed a hand on Autumn’s shoulder and looked them in the eye. “I’m very sorry, you can have the next one. I thought he was going to be more useful in closing the rift. Right now, we need to focus on that, or at least that’s what the voice in the back of my mind that Your Lady included with this body is screaming at me to do. Otherwise, I would have put him down earlier for being part of the people who opened it in the first place.”
Autumn’s expression finally grew serious, “As she wills.”
“Mhmm.” Don’t remind me how much of a sycophant you are, please!
Rising to my feet, I checked my notifications while heading over to the circle. Given how difficult it was, I was pretty sure that fight had to be worth something.
[Killed Maliform (Basal) Lvl 78]
That’s weird. Normally, creatures don’t have a Tier listed in the kill message… Do they? I can’t remember seeing that before, but maybe I just missed it.
[Killed Error(Nonentity:Designation(Dave))]
Oops looks like Dave wasn’t supposed to exist. No wonder I haven’t found anyone else here, the place was probably cleared out before it was moved to this Plane but someone missed the one guy. That explains why the quest is so janky as well.
[Completed Sub-Quest]
Malefic Residue: 37/37
Maliform: 1/1
Rewarded: [Survival]
Insufficient reward for difficulty assigned and growth seen during quest progress
…
Granted Three (3) free levels to assign in lieu of proper reward
That seems more generous than expected. But that fight was also harder than I thought it would be. I guess this balances it out. If I ever find myself a few levels short of when I’d get a Skill, I'll use them.
Class Level (Neophyte Conduit) Increased +2 (22)
+4 Wit, +6 Spirit, +4 Fortitude, +6 Arcana
Class Level (Neophyte Conduit) Increased +7 (29)
+14 Wit, +21 Spirit, +14 Fortitude, +21 ArcanaLove this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Well, speak of the devil.
 
Hmm, actually, at that moment, I felt like I shouldn't have crossed that line and gotten the next Skill yet. I should probably have saved up more achievements so the Skill selection would give me better options. Though I probably should just use the level and gain a Skill if I think I’m going to see a fight. I wouldn’t have survived that last fight without [Evasive Reflex System], especially after I split my mind. There was no way I could have dodged most of those blows without that Skill. The thing was moving so fast after it ate my arm that I couldn’t even track its movement half the time. The next fight I’m in might require a Skill I don't have yet, and getting killed by being stingy seems like a dumb way to die.
I had finished reviewing my notifications by the time I stood over the ritual circle, which glowed in the eerie grey light bathing the room. I just stood there over the circle, examining all the little details.
This ritual was obviously designed to be something like a cord on a lawnmower. It was supposed to transfer a bunch of energy to another circle where the activation would happen, then the other circle would handle most of the load, and this one would handle the runoff energy. That’s why the original questline had me destroy both circles at once, because if I didn’t, then the runoff energy would be routed into the rift, likely making it a permanent fixture of this Zone. So the problem was, that the energy from the other Plane back loaded through the ritual chain into this circle and fucked the whole composition up. But I didn’t know what that extraplanar energy had even changed about how this ritual worked in the first place.
But wait, did it even matter? This was being used to handle runoff energy anyway, so it was already built to receive energy being sent to it. Couldn’t I just reconfigure the other circle, which was holding open the Planar rift, to dump all its energy into this one, cutting off the supply of power to the rift completely? Obviously, this facility would be completely destroyed, but I didn’t give a fuck if that happened; I just wanted the rift closed.
“Alright, I’ve got it. We just have to go to the other circle and close it from that end.” I said, standing up and heading for the door.
“That’s it? Why did we even come to this room then?” Autumn asked while they trailed along behind me.
“Had to figure out what the hell they were doing,” I said as we stepped back into the hallway out of the dark room. Taking a moment, I also manually adjusted my eyes to the new lighting condition and made another mental note to fix that. “Also, the quest I got from Dave said I needed to destroy both circles at once. That would barely have worked even before, but with this room completely corrupted already, it would have been a complete failure. The runoff buildup from the other ritual would have nowhere to go if we did that. Which… Let’s just say that’s a bad outcome. The quest update said the solution he gave wouldn’t have worked anymore.”
I thought for a moment about whether there was anything else I should mention. “I hope you like ladders.”
Autumn gave me an odd look when I said that, but otherwise didn’t comment.
I opened my puzzle ring out of habit and began making an attempt at the last level I’d been stuck at. The one involving Space Mana. When I saw the level in my mind, a thought struck me. No way it couldn’t be that easy, could it? Was this the solution the whole time?
I began my usual start by creating a gate to channel the Space Mana through to an output. But instead of filling it and just passing the output through an array like usual, I began inscribing a ritual circle on the outside of the storage container for the Space Mana. Instead of anything fancy, I just hard-coded the answer I wanted, exactly five metres and twenty-six centimetres directly in front of the output, grabbed a solid object, then moved that object two metres to the side.
I was writing in Rootspeech, which wasn’t really related to Spatial Manipulation, so I wasn’t going to be winning any medals for efficiency—but still. This should work. I activated it and watched the Mana flow through the artifact and pool at the output, waiting until enough density built up like usual. Then suddenly, with a pop, the fruit in the box was lying on the ground next to it.
I won’t lie, I let out a whoop at my success. Then, like I always had, I tried to send myself to the next puzzle. The ring stuttered for a moment, then instead of going to the next puzzle, it showed me something I didn’t expect. A screen indicating I had completed the ring.
You've finished all the puzzles! Congratulations!
Wait, no, there’s gotta be more levels. What the hell am I gonna do when bored now?!
I took a calming breath. There was supposed to be some feature I unlocked once I reached the end of the ring. Also, wasn’t I supposed to unlock a profession from this?
Checking my notifications, I did indeed have one, which should mean...
[Profession Offer]
Name: [Eryx’s Mekanist]
Criteria Met: You have passed through Eryx’s trial, completing the requirement to become an apprentice at one of his many training facilities. Congratulations, this is a great honour.
Tier: [Basal]
Description: [One who is on the path to becoming a Mekanist under the direct tutelage of Eryx. Only one of Eryx’s Mekanists will be chosen to become his mentee, but you have met the qualifications to walk this path.]
Stats: +4 Wit, +2 Arcana, +2 Spirit
Accept?
[I humbly accept/Throw my away only chance at greatness]
Well, that’s not quite the vibe I was expecting. Who the hell wrote the acceptance options? Also, he was dead, wasn’t he? I couldn’t be chosen to receive his direct tutelage then. Unless purged meant something different for the gods. This felt so barebones as well, like they didn’t even put that much thought into it.
The fuck is this whole thing? Did I do something wrong…
You Should Decline The Profession
A message had appeared on the final screen of the ring after I had opened the Profession notification. Just five words. Throw away what I was being offered, no promises of anything else, just a suggestion.
Why couldn’t things just be made simple…
I groaned and leaned over Autumn’s shoulder, hanging my body off their side. They continued unabated, dragging my body down the hallway.
“Is there something wrong?” Autumn asked.
“How familiar are you with Eryx? He just gave me a cryptic message on this, and I’m wondering if I should do what he’s telling me to or not.” I replied, then brought my hand up and pulled the puzzle ring onto one of my fingers. “Basically, I’ve been given the choice, throw away something good with no promise of anything in return. Or accept that good thing, but potentially miss something great.”
“Which option does The Weaver suggest?” They asked.
I explained what the ring was, and what it told me to do.
“Then go with what his ring is telling you. The Weaver designed you for a reason. The Weaver’s Mythos didn’t allow him to make half measures when it came to the artifacts he creates.” Autumn said once I had mentioned that. “I can’t say I know much about the god, but he wouldn't deviate from his Mythos.”
“People keep using that term “Mythos” around me. I’d love for somebody to explain what it means.”
Autumn gave me an odd look. “Who used that term around you?”
“Can’t say, and by that I mean I literally can't say anything relating to them.” The last word I said came out like the sound of a car backfiring.
Autumn just nodded in response, “You’ve had a restriction placed on you. No point worrying about that then. As for what a Mythos is… Well, most Mana aligns with a concept or idea. For example, Nature, Fire, and Gravity are the types of Mana that embody what they represent. But a Mythos, that’s when Mana takes on the shape of a soul. Creating one is the first step toward divinity.”
They chuckled, like dry leaves blowing in the wind, “Not that you have to worry about that any time soon. But you can trust that someone who has created a Mythos will not act in a way contrary to its design. In order to create one, your sense of self must be firm, and your principles, whatever they may be, must be unbreakable.”
“And one of Eryx’s principles is that he won’t skimp out on the end result when it comes to his creations?” I asked, but already kind of knew the answer. I could tell he wasn’t the type not to put his best work into every project, hence all the nerfs I had undergone. He had to be a bit of a perfectionist for that to happen.
Autumn confirmed that fact, so I connected to the ring again and read the message on it one last time.
Then, I declined the Profession I was being offered.
Nothing happened for a moment and I was confused, then suddenly I found myself sitting on a comfortable chair in what appeared to be a workshop. Huh?