Chương 273: The Three Presences And Their Quirks

When it came to Unwanted Presences that actually presented talent, they usually fell into two categories… They were either granted power through a special variant of the Universal System, which could be described as what I had, and it could even include a nice little assistant like my adorable little Nara. If it wasn't system-related, then it would usually be unspecified, immense magical talent, typically with mana in particular.

I have no idea whether it is because mana is most abundant amongst all energies, or if Unwanteds just had an innate affinity for it, but that was how things normally went, and those three, while a little bit special, didn't really step outside of the norm in this regard. Kevin Baker had been doing better in my classes than in Johnpol Jimeni's, but that wasn't due to low talent in energy manipulation–Though he did have the lowest of the trio, what he had was nothing to sneeze at.

I myself was no expert on the matter, as my own talent was somewhere in the negatives, but according to the archmage, Baker not only had the appropriate amount of raw aptitude, but also the necessary diligence to go very far as a mage. The special thing about him, however, was that his magical skills needed to be expressed in a particular manner. This was the little thing that set him apart from just being some guy who had a future as a mage. The old archmage had been a bit stumped on that point, but not me.

I understood what was stopping Baker from shining despite the natural talent he was known to have. It was actually quite simple. He needed to meld his spellcasting with close-quarters combat in some way, or rather, his spellcasting was linked to his wielding of a weapon… Frankly, it wasn't actually just me who had figured this out, but when I made him practise his halberd, being that I was in my knightly form, I would sense a small amount of extra danger to his swings.

With Nara's keener eye for energy, I was able to find out that even when he didn't mean it, his regular weapon swings would bear some of his mana. The action of swinging his weapon was such a great conductor for his inner mana that it simply would happen on its own, without even him noticing. Johnpol Jimeni definitely would have noticed this immediately had he been there, but the dusty old man was never around for my lessons, so he never got the chance to actually notice this himself.

It would be my own achievement only. In any case, I thus began instructing Mister Baker to start thinking of his halberd as a staff or wand that doubled as a skull splitter. He had a bright future as a warrior or knight. His reinforcement and augmentation spells were already quite nasty, even though he was clumsy with how he used them, and he was far from limited to spells useful in close quarters as well. He didn't have any particular elemental affinity, but elemental was overrated anyway.

Everyone knows the murderous simplicity of a mana bullet. Why bother with summoning a meteor when you could just fling a simple, low-cost spell through someone's mouth and kill them instantly? The big, powerful spells were reserved for large-scale slaughter, or for especially powerful enemies–Such as myself. Speaking of me and spells, I had been able to push my 'Energy Resistance' upgrade quite a bit. It was nearing going up a rank, moving from intermediate to advanced, just like the 'Flame Resistance' upgrade.

Improving upgrades that could be improved over time was actually quite complicated, but I had also pushed 'Crushing Bite' to intermediate. The first real roadblock seemed to be the advanced stage, as hard as I may try, my resilience to flames had barely gone up at all. I would need to find some powerful fire to actually have a chance at improving 'Flame Resistance', though part of the issue certainly lay with the fact that it was a general resistance upgrade.

It would probably be easier to improve one that was more focused and was thus considered less valuable due to being more situational, which was definitely why 'Energy Resistance' improved so slowly, it was just too wide-reaching and powerful. In any case… Kevin had a lot of promise. Daniel Williams was a bit of a hybrid. He had a strong affinity for mana and magic, but also possessed a special system, which had only recently awakened.

His system didn't have a cute little assistant, so he had to navigate and understand it himself. Well… He would have had to do so alone, if not for the fact that Nara could actually see the system panels of others. My little darling had never told me about this for the simple reason that this was the first time ever that anyone else had opened a system panel in front of her.

The Universal System tended not to give people much of a 'feel', and even those who could view it as a panel typically wouldn't bother, as the Universal System required no input. It just worked on its own regardless of whether someone could check it out with their own two eyes or not. Only system fanatics would study their panel religiously, and of course, those who actually owned a special system that actually held interesting information, or required direct intervention from them. Let me take a look at this…

That's what Nara had said before proceeding not just to see what no one but Williams should be able to lay eyes upon, but she straight-up interacted with it. I couldn't see it for myself, but Daniel clearly showed a reaction as system panels opened on their own and they began being sifted through. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

I had to pretend that it was all me, but Nara passed me over the information by sharing bits of her memory with me in the form of images of the system. This special system served a very simple function and actually interacted directly with the Universal System, in the sense that Mister Williams would no longer be interacting with experience or 'XP', in the same manner as everyone else.

Instead of absorbing experience to grow invisible numbers with very little impact on anything, he could use experience as a currency in this special system to buy things, and what he could buy was–In clear words–Absolutely fucking insane. He currently didn't have any elemental affinities, but he could buy some as long as he put the money in. He could even pay to expand his inner mana reserves permanently, or improve certain aspects of his mana, just as the power of it.

There were even physical items up for sale, each with rather impressive descriptions, and since they would definitely be crafted directly by the system, they would doubtlessly be flawless. Of course, the prices were quite staggering, but that was certainly because he wouldn't be struggling with the same issues as a system fanatic to accumulate experience. Normally, the more someone gains experience, the harder it is to get, but Daniel wouldn't have this issue, as he doesn't interact with it in the same manner.

In any case, I instructed him to keep his special system under as tight of wraps as possible. If the murderous maniacs who worship the Universal System like a god hear about him, they would lose their minds and try to make him a saint or messiah. Lastly, there was Rose Miller. She was also a bit of a hybrid, although in a more literal manner than Daniel. Instead of having both magical talent and a special system, her magical talent and special system were merged together.

It was a bit complicated at a glance, which made it extra nice that Nara could just look at it directly for me. The main trait of this melded thing was that she could only cast very specific spells. Well, not only, but spells that weren't part of the system would be quite weak. Also, some of these spells felt more like combat arts or the so-called rare system skills.

There were actually quite a lot of these bizarre, often oddly specific spells, such as one that made it so that her next club strike would have great chances of knocking the target out. Or the spell that felt a lot like one of my sub-nightmare forms, and allowed her to materialise a bear trap on the ground… It was a real, physical trap, by the way. It wouldn't fade away eventually. That alone was rather interesting, although quite weaker than what the other two had, but it wasn't all she had access to.

When she mentioned something else, Daniel Williams had exclaimed, 'INVENTORY', seemingly out of pure reflex. I suppose the word did work to describe what Rose had. There was a part of her special system that allowed her to stock and take out items at will, and it was of consequent size at that. If one needed to sneak something somewhere, Rose could do it with ease.

Lastly, there was another portion that was similar in looks to the inventory, but had much less space, and did much more than just store stuff for later usage. Basically, it improved whatever was placed inside in some way, nourishing the items with energy, repairing them if they were damaged, and seemingly bound said items to Miss Miller, basically allowing her to use the items better. Although less grandiose, she definitely had a lot of potential as well.

I had her place her club and crossbow inside the special inventory for now, and would wait to see improvement. Aren't they doing great under my guidance? They are definitely developing well, but which one do you plan on bringing back to the organisation, Big Sis? We already have the Gravescape that is perfect to extract them quietly and without leaving any trace, so that's not an issue Ever heard about having cake and eating it too? I'll take all three of them with me. Not like Aesther actually needs them.

They are in bed with Rootriska and its allies. They don't need any 'heroes'. … But how many of them are you planning on actually delivering? You always hit the nail on the head, Nara. I will let the organisation have Baker and Williams. I'll keep Rose with me. She reminds me of Jinine. I'll keep her as my protégé. Right, but you do remember the discussion we had about the Unwanted Presences, right? Of course. Their souls can not be claimed, no matter what, right?

Do not worry, I have abandoned the idea of making her into a spirit. What do you think all my experiments were about? I didn't take that elf alive for no reason. I needed to run tests whilst he was still alive to figure out a few things. The discovery that I could take certain things out of the Mindscape into the real world was a big step in finding a way to do what I want to do with Rose… Even if she can't become a ghost, it doesn't mean that she can't be part of the gang.

You know, even though Leton has your genius of mechanistry and such, it seems like you are getting closer every day to reclaiming it Do you think so? I am just doing a lot of trial and error. It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure this out, especially since I am using 'Machine Brain' every step of the way to try and find out every little detail possible that I can improve. I am just saying that even though the ability itself is not with you, it seems like you already had predispositions to being a genius.

The only reason you can't manage mechanistry outside of the Dreamscape is because that specific genius was tied to an ability, but overall, the ability was supposed to work along a mind competent enough to operate it Oh, you're complimenting your big sister a lot today, aren't you? We both know that you're the smartest. I'll make sure to be as good as you think I am… By the way, I haven't been checking your memories since you want to make it a surprise, but what in damnation is it that you are working on?

I can guess a few things, but… What's up with the masks? What a nice coincidence that you ask about this one, it just so happens to be exactly what I am working on to make Rose one of us…