Cipiteca396

If you didn't read the last chapter, make sure you do. It didn't get displayed when I published it for some reason. Ah, and sorry for the late introduction. Meet Selene.

I opened the Evolution menu while keeping an eye on the forum posts. This time, since I had my real body, I could review all of the menu's features, probably.

Huh? It was different from what I expected. The star next to my name replaced 'Puppet Avatar' from before. It probably should've read human, right? And it was only my first name, not that I wanted to see my other names. Weird. Durability was swapped out with... My physical and emotional state, maybe? Equipment was the same, but what was the Guidance effect? The screen suddenly shifted.

What? Why didn't this happen before when I wanted to know about things? Well, this effect seemed useful. I'd never heard of these Rukh things, except in my status screen I guess. A component of CP, I think it was. So, that meant that the Rukh would help me somehow... Weird that they appeared without me doing anything though.

I went back and selected the Body tab. As before a detailed anatomical model appeared. Only this time, it was me, accurate down to the cellular level. Maybe even further. I was one hundred and ninety-two centimeters tall, with pale skin and long dark brown hair. My eyes were brown with a hint of green... Hazel, I think it's usually called. I was listed as 73 kilograms, but please forget that. The Interface mentioned that I was dangerously deficient in several minerals and vitamins, but it wasn't like it was painful or anything. Additionally, various medical problems made themselves apparent, little things like my eyes being slightly near sighted.

It was a little embarrassing to see it all laid out like that... I backed out while hoping that the Refinement pattern would take care of everything. Next was the Heart tab.

It was somewhat familiar. A core constantly emanating 'mana'. There was more to it of course. But the easiest part to describe was probably the mana... This was where the reading of 'Excited' from before probably came from. The Heart was like an emotional center, constantly reacting to stimuli that weren't displayed. Most likely my thoughts and physical feelings like being cold or touching my blankets. The odd thing... There was a solid black sheet around my core, dulling the flow of emotions. I didn't know if it was meant to be there, like a defensive mechanism or something. But, knowing it was there might make it easier to cast magic from now on. I moved on to the Mind tab.

My Mind was an incredibly complicated string of instructions. It seemed like information would be passed through and exposed to various calculations and conditions. It was hard to describe. Basically it looked for familiar things and tried to apply my knowledge to the information. If it made it to the end of the string it would get tacked on as a new source of knowledge. I feel like that explanation is too rough, I'll need to consider it again, later.

The Spirit tab was similar to the puppet's, only much more complicated. In addition, I recognized parts of it that were mixed into the Magic tab along with the Heart. So both seemed to be useful for spell casting. Or maybe all four stats were needed. Anyways, the most notable thing about my Spirit was that it reached out beyond the boundaries I would have expected. Unlike the doll, which was the target of my purpose, my Spirit was the source. It reached out into my Body, into the air around me. Where it was strongest, it condensed into butterfly like shapes... Rukh, I somehow realized. And they were everywhere. Dozens of them fluttered around me constantly.

I took a moment to organize my thoughts. I'd already had a basic understanding of most of it, but I felt like it was too easy to understand this time, compared to with the puppet. Either my little stint with magic had helped, or it was just because this was me. And there really wasn't anything more familiar to me. Either way, I pressed the Soul button.

What is that supposed to mean? Too late for what? This screen was confusing, but not in the way I expected. Wasn't it way too simple compared to the others? Just my name, 'Abilities' and that completely out of the blue 'Extra Info'. The abilities were simple enough, for the most part. Most of them were things I probably picked up in school. Though I don't know why I had Adaptation, Seethe or Subterfuge, and I didn't even know what the 'L' or 'T' words meant. Plus Adaptation was in that weird font. Was the Interface glitching?

After a quick search, I assumed Thaumaturgy was how the Interface signaled my ability to use Gentle Clean without pressing the Cast button. Legerdemain, on the other hand, seemed to be a fancy word for Sleight of Hand. Something I was completely hopeless at, really. My fingers weren't nimble enough for it, though I had tried doing magic tricks when I was in middle school. Was trying all that was needed? I doubted it.

I was confused along the way, but I finally moved onto the 'Evolve' tab. It was exactly what Amy described. I moved into the Pattern menu and was immediately prompted to use the Refinement pattern. It warned that unlike other patterns, I wouldn't be able to undo this one.

I'd intended to only give it a cursory look, but stopped after seeing 'Mana Crystal Overwrite'. Some of these changes were a little more than 'Refinement'. 'Arcane Skeletal Overwrite' and 'Thought Reinforcement' stood out, but there were others as well. It took a while to read through all of their descriptions, and by then my enthusiasm had died down quite a bit.

The Mana Crystal was especially intense. It completely replaced the digestive and respiratory systems with a magic based one. Based on the wording it definitely seemed like an upgrade, but I couldn't help but think that it was a terrible idea. It finally occurred to me that this would physically change my body, irreversibly... And that thought was interrupted by another...

Would that really be so bad?

Cipiteca396

I didn't want to make the chapter title 'XIII - Death' since I thought it would be misleading, but that's how it is. I accidentally closed the tab again... I really hate not having an autosave...