Chương 17: L.S.M.L

[Name: Yona] [Age: 0] [Species: Gluttonous Feral Fiery Spatial Devourer Thief House Cat. Tier: 1. Level: 6.] [Class: Beginner Mana Vivitect. Tier: 1. Level: 1.] [Profession: Locked] [Titles: Second Lifer, System Breaker] [Traits: Cat-like Reflexes, Gluttony, Spatial Affinity, Nimble, Fire Affinity] [Stats] [Power: 301 (+139)] [Finesse: 460 (+210)] [Resilience: 377 (+173)] [Memory: 470 (+214)] [Willpower: 488 (+222)] [Sensitivity: 445 (+203)] [Skills: Slice, Stomach of the Glutton, Bite of the Glutton, Snatch of the Glutton, Blink, Ember, External Mana Manipulation - Anatomical Constructs, Meditate of the Glutton, Anatomical Blueprint, Phantom Limb Control, Anchor Point] New Skills!

[Congratulations on surviving]??? Annoying Purple Box?! Abby, why are you different? I can't come up with names for APB! [As much as I would love if you couldn't come up with names for me, that wasn't me. It was likely the deity that gave you that Quest] Oh good, you're blue again. The deity, you say? The one who chose me? [Yes. I doubt they'll be able to contact you like this very often. Direct messages from deities are usually reserved for high level priests and prophets. Sending them to anyone else costs a lot of divine power.] Then why did they send me one just to congratulate me on surviving? [To flaunt their power, maybe? To show that they are strong enough to send messages for trivial things like that? I don't know. If they have anything more important to say, it will probably happen shortly.] We both wait for about a minute, but there is no new purple box. I guess not. Oh well. Time for Skills!

[Anatomical Blueprint: You can store blueprints for up to 5 anatomical constructs. Proficiency: Early] [Phantom Limb Control: You have greater control over anatomical mana constructs. Proficiency: Early] [Anchor Point: You can set up to 2 points on your body on which to anchor constructs. Proficiency: Early] Hmmm. These seem kind of… boring? Abby, you didn't make me pick something weird, did you? [All three of those skills are very strong. And this class was objectively one of the two best.] What was the other option? [Beginner Spatial Mage] That sounds boring too. [I don't think you fully comprehend how rare spatial magic is] Maybe. Anyway, I guess it's time to mess around with the new skills. Anatomical Blueprint first. I activate the skill, and a new blue window appears. [Anatomical Blueprints: None. Available: 5] Add Anatomical Blueprint! Hmmm, I guess that's not how it works. Maybe I need to make the hand first. I've barely recovered any mana, but I should have at least enough for a hand.

Making the hand almost makes me black out again, but I get it formed, and intuitively, I know how to add the blueprint. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. [You have submitted a new blueprint. Please name it.] Hand! [Blueprint, Hand, has been registered.] Nothing else happens after that, so I absorb the hand back. Then, I recreate it. This time, forming the hand takes almost no time at all.

It's not quite instant, but compared to how long it took before, it might as well be. I start moving it around, and notice that not only was it faster to create, it's much easier to use as well. It feels almost like I'm using a real hand, rather than just controlling mana that looks like a hand. This is great! No more clumsy pets! Only the finest for Princess Yona!

I enjoy my no-longer-clumsy pets for a little while as my mana replenishes, then create a second mana hand blueprint and rename the blueprints to be Left Hand and Right Hand. Then I use them to pet myself some more before I look into Anchor Point. Unlike the last few times I've tried using new skills, activating Anchor Point has an immediate effect.

I sense my internal mana tense up, like it's waiting for directions, so I point it toward my forehead, and a portion of the mana rushes there, settling in between my eyes. Since the skill said it was for anchoring constructs, I then move my right hand up and anchor it at the wrist. The hand sticks to the anchor point like it's magnetic. I shake my head around, and the ghostly hand shakes with it. Heheh. This looks silly. I look around, then run over toward a rock.

I bend my head down and use the hand to grasp at it. I can't actually feel anything through the hand, so I have to use my eyes to see where it's grabbing, but I manage to pick a rock up and hold it over my head. The act of holding something in the hand makes it very gradually start to bleed mana, but since it's connected to my internal mana, it gets replenished instantly, and doesn't even come close to losing its form.

I spend a few minutes running around and picking up other things, like other rocks, branches, and I even try to pick up an ant, though that doesn't work and I accidentally squish it instead. Alright, enough playing around. The head hand is funny, but I can't actually use this. I probably can't use just hands at all with Anchor Point. Not much I can do with an immobile hand without an arm. So, there's only one solution.

I detach the hand from the anchor point and start emitting more mana and molding it onto the wrist. With External Mana Manipulation - Anatomical Constructs—a Skill that I will now call Emma, because the full name is way too long—it doesn't take anywhere near as long as it took me to form the arms for that mana body I made a while ago. It's not very high resolution, but it's serviceable.

With the arm and hand fully formed, I register the new blueprint as Right Arm, and then move my Anchor Point to my right shoulder and stick the arm there. Ah, much better. I swing the arm around a bit to get a feel for my range of mobility. It's higher than it should be. Maybe that's because I can't actually feel the arm. I'm pretty sure I'd be tearing every tendon in it if it was real. After I get a feel for the movement, I reach out and grab a rock a foot away, then pick it up.

I toss it into the air and try to catch it, but fail. The throw went too far and the hand wasn't even close to where it landed. Looks like my coordination is still kind of off. Still, this is great! I spend another minute making a left arm, bringing me down to half my mana reserves, but it's worth it once I get both Anchor Points and both arms activated. It doesn't quite feel human, but it's similar. Now, there's only one thing left to do.

"Blegh!" The sharkman I killed earlier appears in front of me on the ground. I sit down next to him, then use my mana arms to lift up his arm and take a bite. Hahah! No longer must I resort to eating like a beast with my head to the ground! I can eat like the proper, civilized princess Chosen One that I am! Also, this sharkman is pretty tasty. Tastes like fish, but a little sweeter. A solid 8/10 food. Not as good as the eelman or octodude, but slightly better than the fishman. Would definitely eat again.

I finish my midnight snack, then mess around with my new arms a bit more. When I move them around, I always lose a bit of mana, and it's replenished from my internal mana reserves, but using them to eat cost more than I normally regenerate. I still regenerated to full while eating, because the sharkman meat is full of mana, but if I was doing the same thing and not eating, I'd be bleeding mana. I need to figure out a way to regenerate mana faster. Or at least how to not lose it so fast.

I bet my next upgrade to Emma would do that. I check the skill, but unfortunately, it's still stuck at Late Proficiency. What did Abby say? Consistency, accuracy, and versatility? I think I'm pretty consistent and accurate with the skill now, so I guess versatility is what's missing. Time to think of some more creative ways to make anatomical constructs. I glance at my ghostly white arms, then bare my teeth in a grin. I think I have the perfect idea.

Five minutes later, I am wobbling on a pair of mana legs anchored to either side of my ribcage. And they're not just any mana legs. They're long, sexy mana legs. Making them long and sexy cost me all of my mana and then some, so my reserves are totally empty, and I had to clear my Left Hand blueprint to make room for them, but it was worth it. A small price to pay for long, sexy mana legs. I take a shaky step forward, and almost fall over, but manage to keep my balance. I need to get better at this.

It would be hilarious to walk into a human town like this. Though I think that will probably have to wait at least a few levels until my mana pool is big enough to do that. And there's really only one way to get levels. Killing seafoodmen! I think. [You can only gain Species levels by either killing things, or by aging, and since I doubt you're patient enough to wait years to level your Species, yes, killing "seafoodmen" is the easiest way for you to level up right now.] Cool!

Well, now that I'm back on the mainland and they can't surround me like they could on the island, it's time to get hunting! Wait, no, I was trying to get Emma to Peak proficiency! Did I do it? No! But how could the long, sexy mana legs fail? [Perhaps you should try constructs that are not based on human anatomy. That would certainly do more for your versatility.] Oh, good idea. Reluctantly, I absorb my long, sexy mana legs back into my body.

They were already starting to fade anyway from the bleed, but they were fun while I had them. Time to make something not human. And the easiest non-human thing I can make? A cat paw! A minute later, I have a ghostly cat paw in front of me. It's about the same size as mine, and totally useless, because it's just mana. With my Resilience so high, I'm pretty sure my regular paws are stronger than this paw, and it's not like I can use Slice with the mana paw. Wait. Can I use Slice with my mana paw? Slice! …

Holy shit it worked! The cuts aren't anywhere near as deep as I can make with my own claws, but I test another scratch from the mana paw without the skill, and Slice is definitely working. I have ranged attacks now! Weak ones, but they're ranged. Hmmm… I wonder… I spend another minute or so scaling the paw up to about three times the size, then I shave off the top of it, exposing the hollow interior. I float it down near my own paw, and then set my foot inside.

At the same time, I move one of my Anchor Points to my foot, sticking the paw to the end. I walk toward the nearest tree, and it feels awkward, since my right paw is hovering a little above the left one, but it's manageable. I then stand up on my hind legs, and bring my right mana paw glove down on the tree, using Slice. This time, with the full power of my body behind it, the Slice cuts just as deep as it does when I use it with my normal paw.

The lines are further apart because the paw is bigger, but the power looks the same. This is awesome! I bet that I could make a whole hollow cat like this! I could have cat armor made of mana! It would be like piloting a mana mech! I immediately get to work on this idea, but unfortunately run into a few issues. I make the cat body just fine, but piloting an entire mana body is way different from just a mana limb or two.

I mean, I was struggling even with just two legs, so this isn't that surprising, but it's super uncoordinated. Also, the movements of the mana cat don't mirror my movements. I have to control them separately, which is too much brainpower for me right now. I guess the mana mecha cat will have to wait. Now, I wonder if Emma's Proficiency has gone up yet. [Divine power usage limit reached. Please wait 167: 59: 57 before using more.]"Dammit!"

The goddess pounded her fist on her desk in anger, then put her face in her hands. She was originally planning to introduce herself, and explain the rules of the divine game, but she had underestimated how much divine power that Avatar Quest and its reward would cost.

"I'm an idiot," she muttered.