I watched as he traced his glowing fingers on the insides of the chassis of the body. It was unreal how fast he was working, I would estimate it was only 4 hours but he had already filled the insides full of machinery, and was even inscribing complex runes and spells separately before connecting them in the frame.

[Can you add stealth spells, defense spells, and tracking spells, I don't want to be ambushed by an unknown enemy if I can.]

My sudden question startled the old man, it was expected since I haven't said a word for the four hours I was watching him. Getting back to his work,

[I don't see a reason why you would need all these things, it's not like you will face any enemy anytime soon, I still have a lot of plans concerning you staying with me for a few years, don't worry it's not as bad as you might imagine.]

[I don't know, I have this feeling that something bad might happen, besides I have always been a prepper, I don't like unexpected situations to overwhelm me and cause me to do stupid and bad things.]

[You should know that no matter how prepared you are for something in life, sometimes there are just things beyond you, things no amount of preparedness will surmount.]

[Yeah see, that's the kind of thing I wanna be prepared for, I don't want my life to be dictated by situations that I could have prepared for, basically, I don't want to have regrets in any way and situation possible.]

The old man stayed silent for a few minutes, his eyes vacant for some reason, those same eyes that I never want to have… again.

[Anyway, enough about this depressing subject, can you do them or not?]

[Well I can't write any more spells on the chassis itself, I will have to restart from zero, make a bigger body from scratch, and all the other nuisances. What I can do though is inscribe those spells on the core that's going to manage the small things in your body, though adding all those complex spells on it will overload the crystal if used in succession.]

[Then just make two cores, one for automating my body, the other for the spells I will need to face hard situations.]

[Well there is the issue of space, after all, I'm almost done with the insides, as well the energy. With the spells you want, not even two crystals will be enough if you want to use the spells for even an hour or two.]

[hmm.. how much space will be left after you put the core inside?]

[Maybe a third of it?]

[Then maybe instead of using two separate cores, could you interlay a smaller core with the main core, you will inscribe all the spells I will need on the smaller core, but it won't be independent, it will fall under the management of the core like everything else. Does that sound good, and can you make it happen?]

[Hmm... It might be difficult to implement, since mana crystals or their mana rebel or refuse to interact with each other. We had some success connecting two mana crystals in the past, but they didn't work as intended so we just left them at using them separately.]

[So it can be done, all you have to do is work out a solution that can make the main core consider the smaller sub-core as a part of itself.]

[Easy enough for you to say, anything that involves handling a large amount of mana is gonna be extremely dangerous.]

…

I had nothing to add to that since I was not the expert here, but there is something that recently came to my attention,

[By the way, I have been thinking of this one thing, where is the... food?]

[Hm? What do you mean by that?]

[I mean I haven't eaten anything since I came to this world and became a crystal. My diet might be different now, but there is no food, which should have meant starvation, which means death. So why and how am I and you still alive after almost four months in this place?]

[Who said I haven't been eating?, in the tower, some formations dispense all the nutrients my body needs into the air, so as I breathe in I'm eating my food. this is a popular feature that most researchers have in their towers to not waste time on eating.]

[Oh! That's a nice feature, but what about me then?]

[I honestly don't know, normal mana crystals never run out of mana alone, no matter how depleted the mana is in the surroundings. We don't know for sure but we hypothesized that without intervention from an outside source, mana crystals could be full for eternity.]

[What? that's ridiculous, I think the only reason I can see is that I'm constantly releasing small doses of my mana, so it's not possible that I will remain for eternity if my mana is leaking out like that, also doesn't the soul also need energy as well, how can it function without feeding?]

[The soul doesn't need energy from you, it's believed it has its own source, but it's a finite one, that is the lifespan limit. Some mad bastards hypothesize that as long as they find a way to feed the soul, they could increase their lifespan.]

[Can't you increase yours? you said you had decades left in you even though you are like an eighty-year-old.]

[No, I can't increase it, not unless I use forbidden magic and rituals, and I'm not low or crazy enough to do those even if I'm faced with death. But what I can do is optimize my use of lifespan to the maximum, more like my body instinctively does it through the use of mana, thus making it seem like I increased my lifespan. ]

[I see, wait.. aren't you a high-leveled mage, can't you at least live for a few centuries?]

[Well no, no matter how high level of a mage I'm in your eyes, I would say I haven't even touched the surface of true magic, sure I know a lot of spells, and I have a high proficiency in handling mana, but that's all I can do. In this continent, some people and creatures can create forests and mountains overnight, compared to them I could be considered a child.]

Damn! How deep is the magic of this world? This sounds dangerous as hell, If I wish to survive in this world I have to be ready for any situation.

[So, once all the physical and magic abilities are done with, the question remains, how I will be able to operate this body?]

[I have been thinking about it, and the only way I could see this happen is by inscribing or putting the command spell of the core in your body.]

[… Didn't you say messing with the mind is bad?]

[Huh.. who said anything about the mind?]

[Didn't you say you will inscribe the spell on my mind?]

[I said your body.]

[MY WHOLE BODY IS MY MIND! or at least I think it is, enough, even if you put it on my body, how can I command anything without it interacting with my mind?]

[You don't have to worry about that, you see the connection I have with you when I establish the mind link right?]

[Yes, I see it as a wispy string that attaches to my body.]

[Well the command spell will be that, it will establish a connection with the core, allowing you to command it along with the body, if you knew how to cast spells or if you even could, we wouldn't have needed to inscribe it on your crystal body or mind.]

[Shit.. would there be side effects to having it inscribed directly on me?]

[I don't know, we never inscribed such a spell on a mana crystal before, we never needed to, until you.]

…

[Wait, doesn't this mean that I could use this spell or command thing to also establish a mental link with other people? meaning I didn't even need to learn your difficult ass alphabet that resembled the scribbles of a child.]

[First of all, what you learned was the easiest language, and it's even labeled as the common language, almost everybody could speak it, so learning it would make your life easier. Second and most important, don't ever make a mental connection with someone you don't trust. If you don't know how to fight back, your mind will be shattered, leaving you as a living corpse.]

[Then, Why did you establish a mental connection with me? haven't you thought that the soul you summoned might shatter your mind?]

[Yeah, it was stupid of me to do such a thing, but I wasn't in good shape both physically and mentally which clouded my judgment of the situation at the time. I was lucky that I met you.]

The mood turned strange for no particular reason, so I just watched as he continued working, the body was beginning to take shape, and I was mesmerized by the intricacy of machinery and tiny runes decorating it, it was truly a work of art.