In a dark room buried under a few layers of rubble, LisiA watched as Storia slowly booted up. Although Storia’s glowing eyes were open, she was still not awake. The Secondary System was slowly optimizing the body as it was never used before.
Utilizing the Mana Manipulation Skill, some flaws within Storia’s body were slowly being fixed by the Secondary System. To improve the experience for the User, the Secondary System created sensors to replicate the feelings of a human body. Objects within the room that were deemed useless were sucked towards the body and slowly turned into mana to aid the process.
Before LisiA, Storia’s body, which was within a vortex of mana and disintegrating objects, slowly looked even more like a human’s, to a level that even LisiA doesn’t reach. She has no idea for what purpose that the core was modifying the body, and she was also worried about Aumo who she had put into the body, but she had to step back in order to not get caught up in the vortex.
Eventually, the Secondary System finished with the body got to the head, and Storia’s eyes started to dim down, until they no longer shone in the dark. As this was happening, the last of the objects around Storia were converted to mana, which then enveloped Storia to form clothes to cover her body which was naked throughout the entire process. Some mana went to LisiA and repaired her clothes as well.
Then, everything was quiet.
--------------
Congratulations on your New Body!
The Secondary System rang out in Aumo’s head.
Although Storia’s eyes were open the entire time, Aumo’s vision wasn’t focused at all when she came to. After blinking a few times, she found herself inside a Cabinet with LisiA’s glowing eyes looking up at her.
“How do you feel?” LisiA asked Storia/Aumo who seemed to be conscious now.
Storia/Aumo opens up her mouth and tries to move, but because she wasn’t used to the body, the sudden movement made her lose her already unsteady balance and she fell out of the closet, landing face first onto the floor before LisiA.
You have taken 1 damage.
As she heard that, she suddenly felt pain. Although androids shouldn’t feel pain, Aumo had clearly felt pain as she fell face first onto the floor. Though it wasn’t a lot of pain, it was still unmistakably pain.
I added sensors to replicate the feelings that a human body could feel, which you can turn off anytime. How are they?
The Secondary System rang out in her head while Aumo was still confused about what’s going on.
After hearing the Secondary System, Aumo realized that she could also feel that the floor was hard and cold as the pain slowly subsided.
“Are you okay?” LisiA was worried as she had just witnessed Storia/Aumo fall face first onto the ground with a loud thud.
“Y-Y-Yes…” Storia/Aumo replied after she got the voice module working. It was never used before, so Aumo never knew what it would sound like. However, the Secondary System did tune it along with the rest of the body, and the voice did fit the image of the body.
Aumo was surprised when she heard her own voice, it was very different compared to what she was used to. The surprise didn’t last long, as Aumo realized that she was still face-planted on the floor.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” LisiA heard the muffled reply, but Storia/Aumo was still face-first on the floor.
Aumo tried moving again, this time successfully sitting up from the awkward position that she was in a few moments prior. She looked down and saw that she was wearing a one piece dress that the body wasn’t wearing when she was first put inside.
A good girl shouldn’t be naked, User, so as a courtesy to you, I made that dress.
Aumo didn’t reply to the system, but instead turned to LisiA and said, “I think so,” and brought up her status in her mind.
-----------------------------
Name: User
Core Level: 1
XP: 0/20
Status: Normal
HP: 1999/2000
MP: 612/1000
-----
Skills: Mana Manipulation, Mana Sight, Mana Sense, Levitation, Mana Vibration
Upgrades: None
------------------------------
“Why is my name User? What are these new additions?” Aumo was confused when she looked at her new status.
Your name and the body’s name conflicted, so the status name was reset to User. You can choose a new name for yourself, or choose to use an old one. As for the Core Level, the higher the level, the more MP you have, which will also increase your output. It will also indirectly increase your body’s HP, as more mana means that it could be held together better. MP naturally regenerates, and the higher the capacity, the more you can intake from the air. To level up, you can absorb monster cores. The higher the quality, the more XP you gain. As for the Upgrades, they are the upgrades for the body. I’m not sure what you can find to upgrade the body, but don’t add anything unnecessary.
While taking all this information in, Aumo/Storia asked LisiA, “What should my name be? Am I Aumo? Am I Storia? Am I something else?”
“You look like you’re having an identity crisis,” replied LisiA, “Whatever you choose, I will still follow you regardless.”
“Then… I’ll be Aumo. It feels weird being called anything other than this,” replied Aumo as she made up her mind, “Still, that would be unfair for Storia, so… Secondary System, your name is too long. Can I name you Storia, Ria for short from now on?”
LisiA was confused by this “Secondary System” as the voice has only been inside Aumo’s head this entire time.
“Who is this Secondary System?” LisiA asked Aumo.
“That would be me. The second half to the core inside this body.” A voice rang out of Aumo’s body.
It sounded somewhat robotic, and was extremely quiet, yet just enough for LisiA to detect it.
“Yes, you may call me Ria, but may I have permission to create a small speaker to use?” Ria was dependent on the primary half of the core, and required permission to access certain things. As such, Ria had to use Mana Vibration, but keep the mana usage to the minimum. The only reason it was allowed to modify the body was because Aumo had left it up to Ria to configure everything, and went to sleep during the process.
“Yes, it is best if you do,” replied Aumo, “Mana Vibration was a pain to use.”
--------------
After Aumo tested out her new body, and slowly started adapting to it, LisiA and Aumo looked around the base to see if there was anything useful left. Many shelves were empty as the items were used to configure the new body, but they were mostly junk that Aumo wanted to recycle, but couldn’t bring himself to all those years ago.
As dust was also composed of mana, all of the dust was cleaned by the vortex that was created during the configuration. The place didn’t look like somewhere that was abandoned for many years, and instead like somewhere that was recently cleaned to perfection.
Most of the food that was still in the base had naturally expired, and also turned into mana to aid the configuration process, except for some sugar and salt that were in the base for some reason.
After looking around a bit more and finding a map and some books, LisiA and Aumo made their way out of the base to the surface. An outdated map wouldn’t do well, especially after 130 years but it may still be of use.
The two decided to go to the closest forest on the map, as they now have a general sense where they were.
Status:
-----------------------------
Name: Aumo
Core Level: 1
XP: 0/20
Status: Normal
HP: 1999/2000
MP: 763/1000
-----
Skills: Mana Manipulation, Mana Sight, Mana Sense, Levitation, Mana Vibration
Upgrades: None
------------------------------
--------------
Note: To be completely honest, I myself am confused about this status system. I might take this next week, in which I have no classes, to figure out how the mana system will work… Then again, I write nonsense after all. I ought to doodle up a cover for this series too...
I really like the concept for this novel. Though, considering you can turn mana into matter and vice versa, Aumo has basically unlimited mana, which sounds pretty op. You’re going to need to keep this ability in mind when making the mana system for your novel. Given how this is a sci-fi fantasy novel, you’re going to need to come up with some concrete rules that magic and science in your system has to follow.
I sometimes question why I made this system. It was actually a system I created for another story, but that story was such a mess that chapter 1 is still being planned after 3 years...
You might want to adjust the way the narrative itself instantly switches to female pronouns for Aumo, and wait to do so until he at least acknowledges that he's no longer in a male body. He obviously didn't have a normal childhood, so I could see him not being too attached to his gender (i.e. he's genderfluid), and decide that having a girl's body makes him a girl, but it's still important for that conversation to happen before the narrative switches.
Without something like that, there's little point to the genderbend tag, as the character in question hasn't acknowledged their gender at all. At this point, nothing would be different if Aumo was a girl from the start. Just my two cents.
There is no strength or defense stat. How strong would her punch be? one adult male, two, three?
I really like how you created the system and all that mana and soul stuff it's very interesting tbh
Also I hope aumo doesn't wear dresses all the time (idk why but every gender bender I see the MC wear all the frilly dresses in the world it's kinda annoying tbh)
As I am attempting to draw my characters, I don't think I will do anything frilly anytime soon... Think of it as a non-frilly dress.
Thanks for the chap!
As for the Core Level, the higher the level, the more MP you have, which will also increase your output. It will also indirectly increase your body’s HP, as more mana means that it could be held together better. MP naturally regenerates, and the higher the capacity, the more you can intake from the air.
So having more Mana increases damage mitigation, which is separate from the base HP. I guess it could also mean the higher the Mana, the higher the Defense. Interesting.
Thanks for the chapter!!!!