Chương 14: System Initialization

The screen floating in front of Malachi's face was full of twisting shapes and symbols. Gradually, they coalesced into words he could understand, but the words came by too fast for him to recognize any of them. WHAT A STRANGE WORLD YOU COME FROM, a voice in his head said. It seemed to echo, and when it spoke, it chased away every other possible thought. Malachi heard another sound, this one sounding like a chorus of cicadas, or maybe a herd of elephants. It seemed to come from a great distance.

PERHAPS THIS CREATURE CAN FIX WHAT WENT WRONG. IF NOT, WE TRY AGAIN IN SOME OTHER DISTANT EPOCH. The silence that followed those words was so abrupt it felt like it had a presence. YOU WON'T LAST LONG HERE, LITTLE CREATURE. RUN ALONG NOW… And then Malachi gasped for air and collapsed onto the ground.

At first, he thought he was burning, but then he realized that, when he'd been in that void, he'd felt no other sensations except the sound and the screen, and now all of a sudden he was feeling everything: the tickle of grass as it swayed in the breeze, the heat of the sun warming him, the cool touch of loam beneath his fingers, the sound of crickets and strange birds, the smell of petrichor—and gravity, pulling him down to the world. His heart pounded, and he clutched his chest with his arm—his right arm.

He pulled it away in shock and stared at it. He had this vivid memory of seeing it missing, seeing the charred stump. He'd felt it burned away as the fire explosion had seared it away. Malachi stood and looked around. Stood, he realized, on both his legs. He examined himself, still confused. He was still wearing the tattered remains of his clothes. His boots had holes in them, and bits of corroded rust staining his shirt and pants were the only signs he'd once worn armor.

His spear was gone, lost along with his arm—that had now returned. His buckler remained strapped to his arm, though even as he looked at it, another corroded piece of it fell off. He was in a field of grass, and as the wind swept through it, it tickled his legs. By him, there was a pond, and further out, gnarled looking trees. A few dark birds swooped by. It looked like he was in some sort of swamp. But he was alive. And none of the others had made it.

The grief traveled through him like a bullet train, and then he felt empty, the world felt empty, and the ground called to him again. He fell to his knees and stared at the ground. He should have been dead too. What the hell happened? You were healed, a voice announced. Malachi looked around, wariness displacing his grief. What the fuck? Who was that? Give me a moment. Your language is an absolute mess to learn. The concept of a homonym should not exist. And who was in charge of phonemes?

All of them should all be shot. Is your culture at all familiar with the idea that communication methods and institutions can be reformed? Processing… Malachi stood, but he still couldn't see anything. It felt like the voice was in his head. Was he hallucinating? Was this some sort of psychic attack? He'd read rumors of mind magic in some reports. I said give me a moment you gormless ape!! He blinked. It was responding to his thoughts, and not just the fully formed ones. That was slightly terrifying.

I can't exactly stop thinking. Besides, this is my mind you're in. The thing speaking gave a mental sigh. Right, I've analyzed enough of your primitive sound-based language. I am a Magical System Assistance Unit. The reason you can't see me is I'm integrated into your Magical Core and communicating directly with your brain. By the Creators, what a stupid name for that. Magical Core? That's what you apes came up with? Malachi heard another mental sigh. You may call me SERA-Phasia. Magical Core?

That was the thing I touched, right? Yes. Here, look. Suddenly, the screen Malachi had seen briefly popped back into his vision, only this time, it was populated with far more information: Magical Core (Celestial Tier) Mana Conduits: Conjuration (Protection) - Level 1 Martial (Body) - Level 1 Elemental (Lightning) - Level 1 Class: None Passives: Regeneration - Level 1 Spells/Abilities: [Conjuration (Protection) - Pending Selection] [Elemental (Lightning) - Pending Selection] Health: Great! Mana: …

eh, we'll get it straightened out Malachi turned to look away from the screen, but it followed his vision. Weird. Why does it look like a game screen? Because I designed it to make sense to your video game-poisoned brain, genius. People without functioning System Assistance Units have to feel it out with practice and long, boring meditation sessions. Fortunately you have me, so you'll be in fighting shape before those nearby swamp rats coming to gnaw on your legs can finish the job.

"What?" Malachi said, alarmed.

"And why is this screen still in my face? How do I make it go away?" Well, now they'll be here sooner, since you alerted them. The Guardian had to pair me with a half-wit, didn't it? Just my luck. Here, I'll minimize the screen for you. But you should probably select a combat spell, unless you plan on using those pathetic, half-formed claws of yours to scratch them. The screen disappeared as Malachi looked down at his fingernails, confused. Then he looked up again.

He guessed he was probably in the brown portal realm, which had been deemed the 'fire swamp' for obvious reasons. However, he'd never heard of unusually sized rodents there. How do I get a spell? he thought. The Guardian you encountered chose 'regeneration' for your martial skill so you didn't die, then temporarily supercharged it because that's a thing they can do. When you gain enough magical power in a conduit you can manifest a new magical ability.

Which you can do immediately, because that Guardian let you nab one of its own Magical Cores and it's extremely powerful. Well, it has the potential to be. Right now it's shit. Anyways, whatever it was you did down in Foundation impressed the hell out of it. Here, pick. Another screen popped up, filling his vision. Select an Elemental (Lightning) skill: Arc Blink - Shoot an arc of lightning, then move there. Space must be unoccupied and there must be an unobstructed path.

At your level, this can move you about two feet. Just going to mention that this does not do damage and you don't have a weapon. Shocking Blast - Discharge a blast of electricity from your hands. Minor damage, has a chance of magical paralysis, which at your level, means their muscles or equivalent might seize up for a fraction of a second. Consumes a low amount of mana each cast. Lightning Javelin - Manifest a javelin. You'll never guess what it's made of.

Can be thrown, or you can just stab with it to do electric damage. Drains a low amount of mana until released. I'm not going to tell you about Synergies yet because those two rats are about twenty meters away and closing fast. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. There wasn't exactly time to consider or interrogate SERA-Phasia about the choices, what they did, or how they might change. He was glad to have this to focus on, though.

Fighting and game menus, he could do. He mentally chose lightning javelin, thinking his experience with spears would help him out. Now he could see the grass moving ahead of him. Now focus on the relevant conduit node. Here, I'll make it easy, here's a visual representation. A skill bar materialized off to the side. Malachi imagined he was clicking it. He felt a surge moving through his body like he'd just chugged a six pack of Monsters. Electricity crackled around his right hand. He nearly jumped back in surprise.

He gripped it, and felt a tingle through his arm, but it didn't hurt. As he did, the electricity grew into, well, a javelin. That's when the rustling grass parted and the first swamp rat lunged. Malachi dodged left and instinctively stabbed the creature. It was about the size of a large dog, and he caught a flash of its long, nasty looking front teeth. The lightning seemed to crackle around the flesh of the creature, but unlike a blade, it didn't leave a wound. In his peripheral vision, he saw the grass rustling.

He tried to leap back to dodge that too, but it turned into more of a stumble. He fell backward, the javelin dissipating. As it vanished, he felt like he'd stuck a fork in an outlet. No! You idiot! You have to keep your concentration. Even if you are going to fall on your ass. Watch out! The first rat pounced on him, and as it did, Malachi grabbed it by the neck, pushing the snapping mouth away from his face.

With his other hand, he resummoned the lightning javelin, then jammed the spear tip into the head of the creature and twisted. Again, there was no blood or wound, but this time, the rat seized up, and its eyes went glassy. That was when he felt the teeth biting down on his leg. Malachi yelped, kicking at the second creature as he threw the first one off him. This time, though, he kept his focus on the javelin and thrust it at the creature as it gnawed on his shin.

"Fuck! Piece of shit!" he yelled at it, trying to shake it off and stab it at the same time. Finally, he got a good jab in and the swamp rat let go and hissed at him. Malachi hissed back as he scrambled to his feet. Blood ran down his leg freely, soaking what remained of his socks. The wound burned. He moved forward, gritting his teeth as he stepped with the wounded leg. The rat backed away.

"Try that again you little shit!" He took another few steps forward, but the rat just backed away again. It's going to keep doing that, SERA told him. It's waiting for the poison to do its work.

"The what!?" Hmmm. Whoever designed humans did a very poor job. Your bodies have all the mechanisms for chemical communication, and yet, it gets sent to the brain in a bunch of primitive signaling mechanisms that loses critical molecular information. I guess it's up to me to fix your inadequacies. Another translucent screen popped up, this time in the right corner. It read: Conditions: Poison (blood - slow acting) Buffs: None. (Before you ask, Passive abilities don't count as Buffs, and yes, that matters).

After he read the note by 'buffs,' the parentheticals faded from view. Malachi had read about Komodo dragons, how sometimes they would bite their prey then let sepsis actually kill them. The difference between him and a water buffalo, though, was water buffalo couldn't summon magical javelins. He wound up and hurled the javelin right into the rat's stupid face. The lightning crackled, and the weapon went right through it, sending crackles and flashes through the air.

The creature made a surprised squeal, then toppled over. Malachi summoned another javelin to his hand, but neither of the rats were moving. He looked around for any other creatures, but didn't see anything. He sat down hard, clutching his leg to try to stem the bleeding. Swamp rats don't have an essence you can use, so don't bother trying to siphon it, SERA said.

"Essence? What?" Right, you don't know anything. If you siphon the relevant magical essences from creatures, you can fortify your mana conduits. In your terms, 'level them up.' However, wild creatures usually have weak essences, only good for 'leveling up' your mana conduits for a little bit. But the essence needs to match the type of conduit. There's ways to transport essences, but those disgusting little appendages of yours can't exactly pick them up. Malachi was distracted by a weird feeling beneath his fingers.

He pulled his hand away and could see his skin growing fast enough to be visible. Holy shit. Yes, that's your regeneration. It should take care of the worst of that bite in an hour or so. Hour. Hmm. Wow, so your civilization uses base 60 and base 12 systems for keeping track of time, but decided to use base 10 for everything else? That's so stupid. Malachi ignored the second part. He really didn't like the implication that this System Unit was rifling through his mind. At least it was useful.

"Can it fix the poison?" Your clocks? Probably not.

"The regeneration," he said, annoyed. Oh. Obviously not. The poison is Sanguimancy, subschool, blood magic. You need it dispelled, cured, or you can just let it run its course. The poison should fade on its own in a few days. Of course, you'll be dead by then.

"What? Well, where do I find a cure?" I don't know, genius human, maybe you should have thought of that before you got bit by a giant rat. Your regeneration will help repair the damage the poison is doing, at least. The System Assistance Unit gave another mental sigh. The Guardian did say there was some sort of settlement that way, it thought, and Malachi knew it meant through the trees he was looking at. It didn't look like a particularly safe forest.

Malachi tore a strip from his tattered shirt and bandaged his leg. Best to prevent it from bleeding too much while the regeneration worked. He stood.

"You said I still have another spell to choose from. How do I do that? And what's wrong with my mana… uh… conduits?" Your biology is making things difficult. You're not even from the Sidereal Convocation. Don't worry about it, lethal mana feedback cycling isn't as common as you'd think. Here, choose quickly because the Guardian also mentioned this area would only be safe for a bit and then the lizardfolk hunters would probably pass this way.

Really, I think it was just pretending to be asleep for the past century so it didn't have to talk to me. While Malachi was processing that, his vision filled with a menu again. Select a Conjuration (Protection) skill: Aegis - Summon a translucent force shield. Blocks both physical and magical attacks until it's destroyed. At low levels, you have to hold onto it and it has to stay right next to you. At higher levels, you can move it around mentally and protect others, and absorption is increased.

A basic workhorse spell with many known enhancements. Ward (Fire) - Makes you resist fire while the spell is active. Please don't make me explain this to you. Tough Skin - Magically enhances your skin, making it harder to cut and making blows a bit softer. This isn't a true modification of your body, but actually a force effect. Dissipates if too much damage is sustained. Damage reduction and absorption scale with level.

Circle (Alarm) - Create a magical circle around an area that will mentally alert you if anything passes it. Currently that circle would be about 5 meters in diameter. Don't blame me for how stupid this is, I don't control what options a Core gives you I just read them out. While Malachi looked at the choices, SERA added, Oh, I should mention these choices permanently occupy a node in your mana conduit. These choices can't normally be changed.

Runic talismans can modify the skills, and omen crystals can eventually merge them, but you're not getting those any time soon.

"What about synergies? You mentioned those." Some spells can work together. For example, if you learn how to conjure a force javelin, lightning javelin would let you imbue it with electric damage. Won't matter at all if you die of poison, though. Yeah, yeah, Malachi thought. He stared at the choices.

"How effective is the fire ward?" Ugh. I knew it. Fine. At low levels? Doesn't do much. Prevents minor burns from natural fire. Prevents more damage from magical fire. A… oh my word you called a Goliath Incinerator Combat Unit a zilla? What is wrong with you? Alright, a zilla fire beam would still incinerate you. At higher level, it can provide temporary fire immunity and could stop a fire beam entirely.

"And how do I, uh, level, spells? You said essences. What makes those?" That felt weird to say. Of course, he was talking to an entity in his mind. Maybe he was actually in a coma or something. Or had gone insane. Weak essences can be found on wild creatures. For stronger ones, you need to enter dungeons. That's 'dungeons' as in generated challenge environments full of loot, not the things you throw prisoners in. Why is your language so imprecise? Malachi chose aegis.

Another icon appeared next to the lightning javelin. Mentally, he focused on it, and an ethereal disk appeared around his left arm.

"How does it know to summon it to my left arm?" Oh no, you can't trick me into having a discussion about the nature of magic and conceptualism. You need to go to that village before you die. He didn't have anything to say to that. It was true, he knew. But he wanted to hear about magical theory, because this whole conversation, he'd been able to put off thinking about the other thing. About death. About how everyone was fucking dead. William. Nicole. Cameron. Trey. Jason. Booth. Nguyen.

Mason had survived, he supposed. He'd been back at HQ. That was going to fuck him up. You and me both, he thought. SERA, thankfully, didn't have anything to say about the wave of grief, of anger, of despair. It all swirled around him. Usually, he tried to push his emotions into the dirt and bury them so they didn't bother him. Then he could distract himself with something. School. A video game. A wiki. The gym. Now, it swirled through him. He had become a hollow cavern, and now, a hurricane raged through it.

He closed his eyes. He couldn't stop the tears. Yikes. Uh. I can talk to you about interfaces, if that would help distract you. You really need to get moving. Malachi took in several deep breaths, then stood. He wasn't okay. Maybe he never would be okay again. But he'd keep moving. Maybe Malia was still out there. And he had an opportunity. Maybe he could learn how the portals worked, or bring magic back to Earth.

He'd lost everyone, but maybe he could make it so no one else had to go through what he'd just gone through. What he was going through. And he wouldn't make the same mistake again. Okay, he thought. Let's go. He started forward towards the trees, and SERA-Phasia began to yammer on about interfaces and spell use in his head.