Artificial Spirit [Artifact]

Grade: 1 Level: 0

Passive; Magic; Manipulation; Arcane: 310%

You are a creature without a spirit. That way, however, you will forever be unable to control magic. And the system saw it fit to fix such a thing.

Your maximum Spirit pool is fixed at 250 [1025] and regenerates at 0,1% [0,41%] of your mana regeneration.

You can now perceive mana.

You automatically generate the [Mana emission], [Mana manipulation], and [Mana infusion] general Skills on the same Grade and Level as this Skill.

As your mind is not bound to your Spirit, having it destroyed only temporarily seals your ability to perceive and use mana until your Spirit has regenerated to above 10%[103] at least once.

Just by her rough understanding of things, Amren could tell that this Skill was very good just from the fact that it would allow her to use magic. The rest, however, she was pretty much incapable of measuring until she got a closer look at everything else. She had no idea how much Spirit a normal person had or how fast they regenerated it. Also, she had even less of an idea of how good those general Skills would be. At least, a quick check told her that they didn't use her three Skill slots.

Also, that last part of the Skill already more or less determined her next step. If possible, she would want to regenerate beyond 10% of her Spirit pool before leaving.

Next, just to get a good picture, Amren checked the general Skills that had been mentioned.

Mana emission [General]

Grade: 1 Level: 0

You learned to emit mana.

+15% [Mana emission]

Mana manipulation [General]

Grade: 1 Level: 0

You learned to manipulate mana.

+15% [Mana manipulation]

Mana infusion [General]

Grade: 1 Level: 0

You learned to infuse things with mana.

+15% [Mana infusion]

If she was being honest, the general Skills looked a lot less motivated than everything else. Also, it told her a lot less than everything else. More and more stuff for her to figure out just kept piling up.

Permanence [Artifact]

Grade: 1 Level: 0

Passive; Magic; Manipulation; Arcane: 310%

Without a Spirit, you weren't just unable to feel and control mana, you also weren't capable of storing that which you generated. While your artificial spirit is incapable of such a thing, this Skill will allow you to keep your Mana for yourself at least for a while.

All mana you generated now stays with you for 30 [123] seconds before dispersing.

"So, if I understand this correctly, my maximum mana pool equals the amount of mana I can regenerate in a bit over two minutes?"

Of course, no one answered her. Still, it seemed a bit disappointing. It had been roughly 3,5 hours since she got her Skills. That were 12.600 seconds. If she considered a regeneration of one mana per second and a Spirit regeneration of 0,41% of that, she would have regenerated 51,66 Spirit by now. If she doubled that to two mana per second, she would have already regenerated 103 Spirit, meaning she would already be able to feel Mana, which she wasn't. At least if it was as obvious of a feeling as she was hoping it to be. Still, even with a regeneration of two Mana per second, she would only have 246 Mana at maximum, which was a bit disappointing when compared to her maximum Spirit. And she was more or less guaranteed to have a lot less.

"Wait a fucking second..."

That had felt a bit freaky. Amren was pretty sure she hadn't been that good at maths before. Sure, she was more than capable of the basics, but that didn't include calculating how many seconds three and a half hours had, and even less how much 0,41% of that number is. And she did exactly that, to two decimal points, in her head, in barely a few seconds.

By the minute, she became more aware of how much weird shit had happened to not only her body but also her mind. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of what else might be happening to her in the future. She just hoped she wouldn't start growing tentacles or shit like that.

Mana Physique [Artifact]

Grade: 1 Level: 0

Passive; Magic; Infusion; Arcane: 325%

Your [Regeneration] was unusually high from the start and as the most essential part of you, this Skill changes your very body to make it capable of even more.

-1 [Mana pool]

+1 [Mana regeneration]

+20 [85] [Regeneration](Base)

+20% [85%] [Regeneration]

+20% [85%] [Regeneration](Super)

Slowly, all the different phrases for what seemed to be almost the same started to become confusing. She really had to take her time analyzing all of this. However, the least this Skill told her was that her ability to regenerate Mana was probably quite a bit higher than normal. And this Skill wasn't even the end.

Mana Vortex [Artifact]

Grade: 1 Level: 0

Passive; Magic; Manipulation; Arcane: 310%

Even though your [Regeneration] is unusually high, it still can't quite keep up with your demands. This Skill should help with that.

Slowly create a Vortex of Mana around yourself with a radius of [4] meters, increasing your [Regeneration] by 1% per second to a maximum of 100% [410%]. However, the Vortex will collapse if you move away from the center.

"That means, the Vortex should be at full strength if I don't leave a certain location for six minutes and fifty seconds? It's a bit inconvenient, but o matter how it's calculated, it should increase my regeneration by quite a lot... Also, what do the four meters mean? It does look like it will change depending on some kind of factor...

I guess that means I have to check out the stats next, don't I?"

Amren really didn't want to. Even with her newfound mathematical genius, that stuff looked like more numbers than was healthy for the human mind. Then again, she wasn't human anymore... Anyways, she didn't think it would be too complicated in the end, but the problem was that there wasn't a manual or another kind of explanation on how this worked, so she would have to crossreference all those numbers to figure out which did what.

About half an hour later, she had finally managed to figure it out.

There were a total of six stats. Three for the Physical aspects, and three for the magical aspects, though both aspects had stats that did roughly the same.

[Strength] (25) 26

[Endurance] (50) 51

[Vitality](50) 51

[Power] (40) 40

[Mana] (20) 20

[Regeneration] (135) 2177

The easiest to understand where the [Strength] and [Power] stats, each referencing the strength of her body and, in all probability, the strength of her magic.

Secondly, there were the [Endurance] and [Mana] stats. While the [Endurance] stat controlled the size of her Stamina and Health pool, the [Mana] stat controlled its magical equivalents. Her Mana and Spirit pool. However, given the fact that both her Mana and Spirit pools were controlled by her Skills, she would probably never need to invest anything into the [Mana] stat.

Lastly, were the [Vitality] and the [Regeneration] stats. Both controlling the regeneration of her resources.

Guessing that hadn't been too hard. Instead, figuring out how they were calculated had been a bit more complicated.

The first step was what the system referred to as the (Base). Taking her [Regeneration] stat as an example, it is calculated as twenty points, plus twenty-five from her [Homunculus] race, another forty from [Runeborg], and fifty again from her Class, resulting in the (135), as shown in her status. Also, if her guess was right, her freely assigned stat points would also get added to that.

From that, the first Abilities and Skills get applied. For example, the Energizedracial ability that added one percent of her [Regeneration] to all her Physical stats, raising them by one point each, or the 85 points, her Mana Physique added to her [Regeneration], bringing it to a total of 220 points.

Then, the first percentage bonus got applied. For one, the 85% from her Mana Physique, as well as the bonus from her Mana Vortex, which she by now had managed to activate, for a total bonus of 435%, bringing her to 1177 [Regeneration].

While Amren was pretty sure that this was already quite the ridiculous number, it should actually be even bigger, considering that her Mana Vortexdidn't seem to operate at its full capacity. She would probably be able to tell for sure once she became able to see Mana, but her current guess was that if too much stuff was in its way, the vortex would get interrupted.

And lastly, another percentage bonus got applied. The one that was marked as (super) in her Mana Physique Skill, bringing her to a total of over 2177 points of [Regeneration], though it seemed like the system was rounding stats.

Once again, it was only a guess, but it would make sense if these kinds of multipliers were pretty rare. After all, they added a second layer to the already exponential growth.

This was where it stopped, at least for the [Strength] and [Power]stats.

The four stats controlling resources had another multiplicator. Well, it was less of a multiplicator, and more an act of balancing stemming from her Races, Class, Skills, and Abilities.

For example, she currently had 51 [Endurance] and [Vitality]. But while her Stamina and Health pools, stemming from her [Endurance]were at 510, meaning ten times higher, she was regenerating 25,5 stamina per hour or 612 stamina per day. Which just happened to be 51 [Vitality] times twelve, which was the same as ten plus the points of [stamina regeneration] she got with her [Homunculus]and [Bloodslime] races.

However, these stats didn't have nearly as much growth as everything else and even decreased quite regularly. For example, her Energized ability decreased her [Mana regeneration] by one point.

Though she did get quite lucky it seemed. Of the six points, she had lost, five had been in [Mana pool], [Spirit pool], and [Spirit regeneration]. None of which mattered to her since they were controlled by her Skills.

Thus, her complete status looked like this:

Name: Deus ex machina/ Amren

Race: [Homunculus Slime Runeborg]

Health: 510/510 23,38 per hour

Stamina: 510/510 25,5 per hour

Spirit: 10/1025 5,58 per hour

Mana: 47 22,68 per minute

Stability 84

Strength [25] 26

Endurance [50] 51

Vitality [50] 51

Power [40] 40

Mana [20] 20

Regeneration [135] (752) 2421

Skillpoints: 0

Class: Artifact

Level: 0

[Artificial Spirit] Grade 1 Level 0

[Permanence] Grade 1 Level 0

[Mana Physique] Grade 1 Level 0

[Mana Vortex] Grade 1 Level 0

Abilities:

[Potential] (Homunculus)

[Adaption] (Bloodslime)

[Energized] (Runeborg)

[Analyze] (Runeborg)

[Slimeblood] (Inherent)

[Spiritless] (Inherent)

General Skills:

[Mana emission] Grade 1 Level 0

[Mana manipulation] Grade 1 Level 0

[Mana infusion] Grade 1 Level 0

After fiddling around with it a little, Amren had finally figured that it would be best to have her stats displayed as her base first, and then after applying all her skills. Though in the case of her regeneration it displayed both the maximum and minimum amount possible.

On the other hand, she would leave her resources and regeneration always updated to show the current numbers.

Though, looking at it, it was quite insane. Amren very much doubted that a lot of people at her level, which was basically zero across the board, had this kind of stats. Especially her Mana regeneration.

Her Health and Stamina Regeneration were probably already pretty high, but her Mana regeneration at its full potential was around sixty times higher. Well, on the other hand, pretty much everyone had probably a bigger Mana pool. Even someone who, somehow, managed to get -5 [Mana pool], would still have twice as much Mana as her, though, only once per day, where she had that amount every two minutes.

In a way, it all seemed kinda balanced.

While Amren doubted that she was the strongest, she at least was pretty sure that she was the most unbalanced at her level.

Also, while Amren wasn't entirely sure what exactly it meant, she was pretty sure that her lowered stability would come back to bite her in the arse sooner or later. In all probability, it was a cost for her high starting potential.

Then again, maybe hers was just average or even below that, though she really didn't think so, considering the slightly pretentious name the system had given her.

In the end, Amren stood back up and started moving again. She still had to explore the rest of the structure, and her Spirit wouldn't have regenerated enough any time soon. Even with her Vortex at almost full power, it would take around another fifteen hours.

Continuing where she had left off, Amren walked along the left side wall, skipping the laundry room this time. And directly behind the room's edge, she found another door.

To be precise, it was the type of swinging double door that were made so you could easily push something through. Truly, some designs would stay the same no matter what world you found yourself in.

Going through, Amren quickly realized what she had found. The Kitchen. Long stone counters went along the wall, around the entire room, several sinks with still running water, and workplaces that had clearly been left behind in the middle of work could be found all over. In several places, she found pretty fancy-looking food in states of half completion, even still looking kinda fresh.

It was the first hint to how long ago it had been that this place got abandoned. It couldn't have been more than two or three days since it happened. It did make her a bit uneasy, but if everyone had already left, she didn't think they would return any time soon. And if she did run into anyone, she could only hope to talk it out with them. Somehow.

As she was a little lost in thought, Amren suddenly got annoyed by the sound of running water. Taking a look around the room, she realized that not just in a few, but in all sinks the water was constantly running. In the laundry room, she had for some reason just ignored it, but now, it suddenly annoyed her.

Walking over to the first best faucet, Amren took a closer look at it, but couldn't find anything resembling a spigot. When she didn't find anything after almost a minute, and even her Analyze only told her that she was looking at a [faucet], she finally couldn't take it anymore.

Grabbing the first best item she could get her hands on, Amren started to furiously hack at the offending object until it broke off the wall. The water now flowing in an arc out of a crystal set into the wall.

Just as quick as her outburst had come, it was gone again.

"What the fucking hell?"

Sure, Amren could get quite angry, and even a bit violent when driven too far. She also sometimes got annoyed at random stuff for almost no reason, like that one guy in one of her lectures. He was a pretty nice guy, but somehow he did everything just a little bit louder than everyone else. Enough that she noticed, but not enough that she could complain. It annoyed her to no end.

Still, even under a stressful situation as she was finding herself in right now, this outburst was very much unlike her. Both in how quickly it came, provoked by just the smallest thing, and how quickly it went away again.

Normally, she was pretty calm and collected. Had to be considering what she did. She didn't want either fear or excitement to get in the way of her concentration when she did stunts that could potentially maim her for life if she made a mistake. On the other hand, once someone, or something, got her angry enough to make her lash out, it wouldn't just go away after a few moments. She would stay angry for days before she calmed down again, and even after that, she could hold quite the grudge.

A violent outburst like this, that came and went quickly, wasn't natural for her. At all.

She had to think about what this meant. But that was something for later. For now, she put down the heavy cleaver she had picked up, which was now pretty damaged, and took a closer look at the crystal in the wall that made the water. It looked a little similar to the ones that were used for light everywhere.

Carefully peeling it out of the wall, Amren used Analyze on it. [Mana Crystal; Water enchantment] was the result this time. Definitely a lot more useful than the previous result. Also, conveniently, the crystal stopped producing water the moment she took it out of the wall, allowing her to put it into her pocket and take it with her for further inspections. Well, considering the small metal plate behind the crystal, it made sense that the water would stop flowing. Even a magical, water-producing lightbulb wouldn't work anymore if you took it out of its socket.

Taking a quick look around, Amren found something that looked like a stove. And a quick inspection and appliance mutilation later, she held another crystal in her hand, her Analyze telling her that it was a [Mana Crystal; Fire enchantment].