I wasted no time and opened the first notification, curious about what the Profession was going to be. I was fairly certain he wasn't just going to give me the same one as before. I would feel rather insulted if he did. The first notification I opened was a little different from what I expected, though.

Milestone Achieved: Met your Creator, the designer of this System, and received their last will.

Species Level (Runaspriggan) Increased +?? (32)

Error: Soul unable to handle load increase due to size of Achievement and damage sustained. Converting into Title.

That's… I don't know, the soul damage part is probably really bad. I need to prioritize looking into fixing my Core somehow. Fuck, should I have asked Eryx about the damage?

His memory fragment seemed to have detected my current condition, so maybe he couldn't say anything about it. He did say I could only ask one relevant question. I don't know if he could have helped even if I had asked him how to fix it.

I let out a sigh and connected to the ring. It now had two options: save a design or access puzzles. Honestly, the fact that I could continue working on the artifact puzzles might be worth my soul splintering into pieces or whatever the hell it was doing. Maybe if I accrue enough damage, I'll be able to kill my soul and avoid eternal Hell permanently? Wouldn't that be nice, just being able to die without being tormented forever.

Nah, they more likely than not have ways to put broken souls back together before the torture begins. They had sent an angel into the void just to retrieve me; obviously, they wouldn't want their products damaged or lost. Given that amount of investment, I didn't want to test whether they could repair broken souls or not. I could only test whether that worked once, and losing that gamble meant I'd get to experience what eternal torment was like.

Anyway, the main problem here was that I had no idea how many levels I was supposed to gain. If it was supposed to be twenty levels or more, then well, that sucked, but I could live with it. Most of my Milestones hadn't rewarded that many levels anyway, so I wasn't going to miss out on any more.

If this Milestone was supposed to give me like five levels then I was fucked. The maximum number of levels I could gain at once might have been decreasing as I accrued damage. That 'Soul Attachment' error was showing up with increasing frequency, every time I was damaged. If I damaged myself enough, I might just be stuck at a particular level, unable to move from that point forward, assuming getting to that point wouldn't just kill me, that is.

Let's just see what the title even is, maybe that will give me some perspective.

[Title Earned]

Name: [OVERRIDDEN]

Description: [Convert_Milestone_Func Overridden: Permission Level

Sys_Architect

Current Title Cancelled

Reconverting Milestone Reward into Eidos

Eidos Converted into Privilege Upgrade

Title Hidden from [View Titles] Mod Skill

Title removed from

EllieWinters0_Profile]

Effect: [Activating Title Repair]

Wait what?

Oh! He knew I was going to get that error for the Milestone reward for meeting him, since he could detect my internals were damaged.

I didn't like the fact that the description implied Eryx was doing everything in his power to hide the fact that I had whatever he was giving me. That meant it was probably going to be something dangerous. I let out a sigh and opened the new title pop-up.

[Title Repair Complete]

Name: [Inheritor of Root Access]

Tier: [MOD_TOOL]

Description: [You convinced Admin: Sys_Architect to bestow privileges upon you when you pointed out how his grand design was implemented terribly. Sys_Architect would appreciate it if you could look into why the implementation was rushed and eliminate those responsible if you ever gain the power to do so. This is not a mandatory quest, it's a request from one artifactually contained soul to another.]

Effects: [User permissions have been set to Sys_Observer. Moderator interventions that happen near you will be detectable and may be overruled once per day. Granted knowledge on how to perform ritual to bestow System upon willing sapient beings.]

Notice: [New functions and additional permissions may be unlocked when the User's soul and body undergoes Evolution.]

I don't know how to feel about this, but I was right about it being dangerous. Also, it kind of feels like Eryx sees me as an equal.

I was fairly certain he saw artificially contained souls as some kind of unique kind of being that he had a kind of kinship with. Oh no wait, artifactually contained, not artificial. Which kind of made sense. When I was reading through the list of five hundred and ninety-three different species I could choose from, the Runaspriggan was the only one whose brain was built out of Mana circuitry. There were numerous artificially designed species, but they were typically biological organisms, spiritual entities, or energy beings. These were usually described as pet projects created by gods. I didn't even notice that this species was unique in that regard when I picked it. Actually, after thinking about it…

The task he asked me to do didn't feel like something I would need to complete for a very long time, unless Kaelzar decided to lend a helping hand. He did say we were going to have a chat on day thirty. Is it safe to bring it up with him, though?

The implications of being given additional permissions when interacting with the System were enormous, even though I didn't know exactly what additional permissions I had obtained. Also, the ability to just cancel a moderator action was potentially incredibly useful. I had no idea if I'd ever need to combat a moderator, but this might just save my life someday.

The ritual was also fairly interesting, but what caught my attention was how, instead of what normally happened when the system granted me knowledge, like how it just packed it into my head, this felt more like a pocket of information that I could access just by thinking about it. This meant that whoever had control over the system probably didn't know how to use it properly. Because otherwise, why weren't they using this function for granted knowledge? It didn't make sense not to use the better functionality.

My eyes turned to Autumn, who I was still slumped over, as they dragged my body down the hall. I was definitely going to offer to use the ritual on them. That would have to wait until whenever I had enough Mana lying around, though, because wow the ritual took a fuckload.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

I had to wonder if he gave me that ritual just for Autumn. No, he couldn't have, because he implied he was missing the information relating to why I was supposed to exist. That information should include how I was supposed to accomplish whatever goal they have set out for me. So he should have no idea that Autumn was here with me. Maybe he knew I was going to learn ritualism, and therefore learn how to summon beings from other Planes? That was part of the last puzzle on the ring. Symbolic Encoding was obviously important in artificery.

[Profession Bestowed]

Name: [Greenweaver]

Criteria Met: You have become a ??? through claiming your ???. Bestowed upon you by The Weaver himself.

Tier: [Wrought—Unique]

Description: [The Weaver is dead, but his spirit lives on within you. Though meeting the requirements may have been almost entirely based on luck, you have still been chosen to succeed his legacy. Through his and The Evergreen Matriarch's combined work, your body was born. Through their combined talents, you will begin the path of weaving artifacts out of self-designed organic biomagical materials.]

Stats: +4 Wit, +2 Arcana, +2 Spirit, +4 Free Stats

I'm just going to ignore those question marks. Damn that description looks a lot more promising than the other profession I was offered. Also, free Stats? Those weren't unique to humans?

I added them to Might because I was kind of lacking in that Stat. Even if I could out-speed an opponent with [Natural Enhancement] and abuse momentum to do some ridiculous inhuman moves, I wasn't actually that strong. I had approximately six times the strength of an average human when you accounted for the size difference. Which sounds ridiculous when I think it out loud, but I don't actually think that's going to be worth much against a physical build.

It sounded like I had already started down the path of what was intended for me to do. Reconstructing my body out of new materials that I had designed for myself felt like the first step towards what I was designed for. It was no wonder that my internal System had a known materials list that I could check.

[Skill Growth Triggered]

Name: [New Growth]

Source: [Regrowth]

Tier: [Wrought - Growth]

Description: [The Runaspriggan model was originally conceived by Eryx to become a perfect Natural artificer. This golemoid construct is perfectly upgradable with new materials. As long as your Modular Evolutionary Core survives, you are able to spend Mana to grow plant-derived materials. This material can be grown directly connected to your soul to be controlled by your Core, limited by your maximum Biomass. Alternatively, it may be grown anywhere within your Authority Field at an increased time cost. Grown material will be treated as part of your soul when Soul Refinement is taken into account.]

Yes! This is exactly what I was looking for. I thought this was the exact Skill I was missing and why I hadn't been using my Species as efficiently as I could have been. I'd focused almost entirely on personal upgrades because of that fucking Biomass limit.

I immediately disconnected my clothes from my shell and had the odd experience of no longer being able to feel things through my cloak, which, to be honest, was a weird thing to have gotten used to so fast. This Skill upgrade meant self-repair was just a functionality all my clothes came with now, as long as they were made out of plant material directly.

Maybe I should try to make a superheavy, incredibly dense plant to use as armour plating! Or perhaps I could build myself strap-on artifacts that used environmental Mana so I could save on the cost of casting spells. Hell, I could build a house for myself to live in, given enough time. I have so many ideas!

[Profession Skill Obtained]

Name: [Living Circuits]

Tier: [Wrought - Growth]

Description: [You have an incredibly deep comprehension of Plant-based Nature Mana. You have used this understanding to remould your body and completely repair your Mana Vascular system. Now, using this knowledge, you may imbue artifacts with a mimicry of life. Basic instructions may be given to artifacts, and they will be followed to the best of their ability and understanding. Unfortunately, these life-giving circuits are not true life and therefore are inherently unstable. They will tear themselves apart if separated from your Authority for long enough periods or during heavy use. The maximum number of imbued artifacts connected to your Authority Field scales with Wit, the maximum duration of separation scales with Fortitude and the materials used.]

The moment I opened the notification, the Skill's knowledge slammed into my mind in the usual way. Now that I had experienced how information transfers should actually work, I found this method fairly uncomfortable, in comparison.

The knowledge itself was pretty interesting. I could basically imbue Nature-aligned circuits designed similarly to an artificial nervous system with a set of instructions. I'd have to test what kind of instructions I could embed and how long they'd last.

This could be very useful. It basically allowed me to make and use remote-controlled artifacts without devoting any attention or Biomass to them. The fact that they degraded over time while not within my aura was kind of annoying, but not too limiting. All that meant was if I wanted to make a permanent construct, I needed some way to attach my aura to it. I was more worried about the limits on how many automated constructs I could have attached to myself at once.

The fact that both of these Skills were growth Skills was amazing. I could only dream of what they'd become in the later Tiers. If [New Growth] was anything to go by, then I had a feeling that Skills grown from lower Tiers upwards were better than Skills that started at a higher Tier, because it did not feel like it should be just a Wrought Tier Skill.

[Hidden Skill Discovered]

Name: [Greenventory? TBD]

Tier: [Wrought]

Description: [Unlock a feature of your Core allowing it to identify and isolate distinct objects to be stored within internal root-nodes. Designed for handling plant based materials and artifacts, anything, these root-nodes will grip and hold up to twenty Natural Constructs, objects isolating them from external influences such as 'Time' and 'Fire'. There is no total maximum space or weight capacity. However, each node can only hold up to [Unknown] kg and [Unknown] m^3

//Devnote: Fuck! I can't figure out how in the Hells to disable this function. Why did The Sovereign include a species with so many fucking internal functions? Was he trying to make a completely unbalanced Species? Might as well have listed 'Ozyrae' as an option if we're including this one. Actually that would be a great idea, they'd kill us all for corrupting their otherwise pure race with impure souls and I'd no longer have to deal with this fucking project. If I can't figure this out by tomorrow, I'm gonna throw all the parts I don't understand into a randomization algorithm and call it a day.]

Uhh, I guess I found the Inventory function's actual Skill.

This was probably unhidden when I was given system observer permissions, which made sense because being an observer implied I'd be looking over system details. I wondered what else I was able to see with this beyond when someone made a change near me.

I kinda felt bad for the guy who was nerfing my species. It sounded like he was having a rough time. I also wanted to slowly skin him alive while feeding Autumn his blood because that 'randomization algorithm' he used was probably why my internal circuit design was fucked up. That was almost certainly the reason I keep getting the 'Soul attachment' error in my log. Also, what the hell is an Ozyrae?

Whatever, it doesn't matter, they're a bunch of species purists from the sounds of it anyway. They can't be that important.

I picked myself back up off Autumn's shoulder and held my hand out for the keyplate they had taken out of my pocket.

"Make a decision yet?" asked Autumn, while they handed the plate back.

"Oh yeah, all done with that. Had a chat with Eryx, he's a nice guy by the way. He gave me a cool upgrade for the ring and a way better Profession."

"WHAT?!" Autumn screeched like a tree falling down. Their question contained such a confusing jumble of emotions in its undermeaning that I almost didn't understand the word they said. To make a comparison to human language, it sounded like they spoke with an incredibly thick accent, except the specific accent they used could be added to the word's definition in a dictionary.

We had pretty much reached the exit I was heading towards, which was the one closest to the entrance to the other facility. I did not want to remain on the surface any longer than I had to, so I pulled the Hazardous dimension suits out of my Inventory—hazdim suits for short, I just decided.

"Here, you're gonna want to put one on before we head up top. Unless you like the idea of being instantly killed due to the abominations on the surface detecting the Mana in you," I said while pulling mine on.

"Come on, you can't just mention that you spoke to a dead god and give no details about how or why," Autumn whined.

"You know the thing is, I kinda can actually," I replied, then pointed to the suit on the ground. "Hurry up, we're burning daylight, we only have like uh…"

I took a moment to check the timestamps in my log to see how long it had been since we first spoke to Dave. When I saw how long we had, my Mana flow skipped a beat, and I felt my consciousness flash off and then back on again. "Two hours, please hurry the fuck up."

How the hell did we waste that much time?!

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