The needle pulled itself out of my soul twenty minutes later, at the same moment that time unpaused. My shell just fell forward, face-planting into the dirt.

Why didn't it freeze my mind?!

I added a new target to my list of people who needed to be sent to Hell. Whoever pushed the update. Because holy shit, did I never want to experience that again.

It was like I had woken up during surgery, and they forgot to apply any pain meds.

Why did I have to keep going through things like this? Where the fuck did Autumn end up? Gods, I hate being alone. I wish I hadn't hung up on Hazel right before the update. Now it felt weird to contact her again immediately after saying I had to go. I had to wait at least a few hours.

Maybe I should have gone into town. Then I could at least talk with the walking flesh mannequins… Never mind. That was a stupid idea.

Pushing myself off the ground, I checked my Mana reserves. It was full somehow. I had no idea how that time stop worked, but I didn't think it did what it was supposed to.

I grabbed [Biomagical Analysis] because it seemed to have the most potential. I wanted to know exactly the specifications of the materials I was using, and this was the best tool to do so. I thought it also unlocked features of my Core that had been shut off, which was important for me.

I was more interested in the fact that snow was beginning to fall. The Nature Mana in the air seemed to be moving with an intensity I hadn't ever seen before during natural fluctuations. I was pretty sure the Zone was helping me out somehow. The ON-CAMERA moment would have established that I was performing some kind of magic on the land itself.

I decided to see the effect it had on the town. I still had that whole spy network of connected artifacts set up. Assuming the other monster didn't destroy them. I had no idea what its capabilities were or even what it looked like.

Maybe I could create anti-non-human defensive systems around town to annoy the shit out of it. It was definitely too powerful for me just outright to kill, but if I could make walking around town a complete nightmare for it, then that might bring it out into the open. In which case, the townspeople should bring it down on their own, and I could act as the good monster who helps them.

Then I can turn on them and devour them all in the end.

Wait, would that be necessary?

Well, obviously, I'd already trapped them. I was already halfway there. Might as well finish the job I started after we hunted down the other fucker. To make that more likely, I could find a way to blame the rapid onset of winter on the other monster. That would bring the town onto my side. Maybe I could present myself as a sort of saviour figure.

I had better stay off camera as much as possible, except for key moments. I didn't want to break character or shift the narrative too hard accidentally. Looking through the memories, the fairy version of myself ended up ON-CAMERA a few times, but she hardly even noticed. I thought she was in a state of mania or something. I don't know. The memories were all jumbled, and some didn't make coherent sense.

At one moment, she was giving gifts to children, then they tried to chase her off with a broom, and then she was somehow present at a meal at a table where she sat on the shoulder of one of the children. However, none of the connecting parts were present. It felt like they were three different things that happened to different people, almost like there was some sort of dream logic going on.

Weird.

How did the mechanics of those separations even work? It was apparently slicing my soul into pieces. Were all my Stats being divided amongst us?

No, the physical Stats wouldn't because those are built into the material, not the carried soul. I think. Man, I really don't know how any of this works.

I hoped I would receive a Skill that clarified things soon. Maybe Autumn knows something as well…

Shaking myself out of the bad thoughts, I tried to avoid thinking about any of that. There was a set of patch notes provided that detailed what the update changed, so I turned my attention to those while walking through the forest.

Some of the general changes were somewhat unusual. Like, what did 'Light Excession bug patched' even mean? I was sure there was someone out there who was very happy about that change, but it didn't mean anything to me.

After skimming them for a while, I noticed something that Hazel said wouldn't happen for two whole weeks.

Power Levelling Fix has been modified to prevent strain on the soul:

The system now checks the level of kill contributors instead of the level of the slain being.

If the Power Levelling Prevention function is triggered, only the highest-levelled contributor to the kill will earn experience.

Adds kill contribution to protectors watching over weaker system users.

Did they do this earlier because of the issue I ran into? Well, that's sweet of them. Maybe I won't have to hunt down and skin Vraxilith. Seems like he was just doing his job.

Oddly, they weren't calling experience Eidos. Was that not a commonly known term? I learned about it when it appeared in an error message, and it was listed on my Status sheet, but I also had observer permissions. In conclusion, I had no idea.

They also allowed us to change the system window colour scheme. I immediately made mine green, my favourite colour.

I pulled up my Status sheet to see the changes made to it. The patch notes just said there was a complete overhaul of the Status Menu so I was curious.

[Extended Status] Name: Ellie Winters Species: Runaspriggan (I-48) Class: Neophyte Conduit (I-34) Profession: Greenweaver (Wrought I-10) Titles: [Realm Balancer], [Wondersprout Enhanced Physique], [The First to Listen], [She Who Renders Famine Upon The Hungry], etc Catalysts: [Repaired Mana Veins] [Stats] Might: 85 (+55%) Wit: 258 (+65%) Spirit: 362 (+95%) Fortitude: 202 (+60%) Arcana: 277 (+60%) Grace: 100 (+55%) Eidetic Drops: 0 Permissions: [User (Visible)] [Observer (Hidden)]

[Skills] Species Capstone: [None]

Species Skills: (5/10) [Arcane Interface (Basal)] [Adaptive Growth (Wrought)] [Mana Simulations (Wrought)] [The Roots That Bind (Error: 3245 Tier not Found)] [Evasive Reflex System (Wrought)]

Class Capstone: [None] Class Skills: (5/10) [Mana Conduit (Basal)] [Verdant Corruption (Basal)] [Natural Enhancement (Wrought)] [Artificial Aura Control (Basal - Growth)] [Symbolic Intent (Basal - Growth)]

Profession Capstone: [None] Profession Skills: (2/12) [New Growth (Wrought - Growth)] [Biomagical Analysis (Wrought)]

Other: (3) [Friend of the Forest (Special)] [Covenant of the Unbound (Divine Gift)]

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. [Greenventory? TBD (Wrought)]

Okay, wow, that was a lot of changes. If I had to guess, the 'I' beside my levels meant the thing Nyxie mentioned, my Ascension tier. No idea why 'Physique' changed to 'Catalysts', but that did indicate that there were more than just the one.

I could also separate this into two different menus, one listing just my Skills and the other just my Status. I probably could have opened my Skills menu before now, but I had no reason to.

I saw another one of my Skills in addition to [Greenventory? TBD] now broken, [The Roots That Bind] didn't even have a Tier listed anymore.

…

Wait, why did it say out of ten? I didn't realize the number of Skills I could have was limited. Is it higher for my Profession because of the higher Tier? Hazel never even mentioned this, which meant I had an excuse to contact her again without coming across as needy!

"Hey, I don't remember you mentioning a Skill limit. We've talked about the system, but you never mentioned that there was a limit. What's with that?" I asked over the connection

"Uhh, what are you talking about?" Hazel asked, less than a second later. That was fast. Is she sitting right next to the artifact I gave her?

"Did you not check your Status menu after the update? Or retain information about a limit in your memories? Because it's fairly clearly stated that we can only have ten at the lowest Tier, with each subsequent Tier adding one, I think. Also, the power leveling update happened way earlier than you said it would."

"We haven't had an update yet?" Hazel replied, which confused me.

"Didn't Nyxie announce one last night?" Unless that part of the broadcast was limited to non-humans, it didn't make sense for her not to want to hear it. Did that mean she also didn't notice the time stop? What the fuck! Why did I have to sit through it when she didn't?!

"I blocked out her broadcasts. I would have no idea."

I blinked and almost missed a step. "Why would you do that? She's so nice to listen to!"

"That is apparently why."

"What's why?" I asked. I was getting agitated for some reason. Why would she avoid listening to Nyxie? She was lovely, and everyone deserved to hear from her.

"Her mental influence, the one that's affecting you." Before I could argue that I wasn't being affected by Nyxie's wonderful voice, she continued, "It's too late for you. I'm sorry. Can we not discuss that? You said you were limited to ten Skills? My Skill plan involves more than twenty Skills per Path, so that doesn't make any sense. I didn't retain any knowledge about non-humans having any Skill limits either."

"If you didn't undergo an update just now, then what do you see when you open your Status Menu?" I asked, almost immediately distracted from the Nyxie thing, the moment she mentioned Skills.

Hazel gave a surprisingly detailed response. Unfortunately, she didn't know what future versions would look like. Apparently, during her last loop, she decided that wasn't important enough to store.

Name: Hazel Flaum Species: Human (Lvl 86) Class: Curious Mageling (Lvl 99) Profession: Inspired Apprentice Mekanist (Lvl 73) Titles: [One of the Five], [First to the Peak], [Arcane Seeker], [Arcanological Progenitor], [Mind Veins of the Artificer], [Exemplar Masterwright] Physique: [Mind Veins of the Artificier] [Stats] Might: 37 (+20%) Wit: 617 + 100 + 179 (+40%) Spirit: 656 + 5 (+30%) Fortitude: 150 (+20%) Arcana: 719 + 5 (+30%) Grace: 165 (+20%) Free Stats: 0

Her Physique is way cooler sounding than mine was. Also, damn, she's strong.

Not literally strong, but like strong in a power scaling sense. I doubted she could even lift a bathtub with one hand or run at highway speeds. Hazel would be a mage assassin's favourite target.

"How did you get [Exemplar Masterwright]? That sounds like a crafting Title." I could probably be the second person to get it and still get a reward.

"Let me see… The description says, 'Be the first person to build a Mana Keyed item without outside help.' I don't actually recall getting it, but it probably refers to the corpse I reanimated," she said, to which I just ignored the last part. What Hazel did with dead fleshies was none of my business, and I certainly wasn't going to kink shame her. We all have skeletons in our closets. Not literally like she might, but you know.

Also, how the hell was I supposed to do that? I technically learned about Nature-Based forms by iterating on the design that came with my shell. I might have been able to do that just by using a language like she did, but it's very likely that since I used the shell as a reference, that was outside help. How did she even learn a language based on Death?

Wait, no, she didn't learn one. She didn't have a Title related to it. The [Arcanological Progenitor] Title is something else completely. She used Death Mana, right?

I asked her about it, but what she said didn't make any sense. She had no idea Mana-based languages even existed, so how did she find the patterns of Death? Well, she didn't even remember.

Very helpful.

That in and of itself opened up a whole discussion about Mana-based languages, of which I couldn't even demonstrate Rootspeech to her because it required Nature Mana to speak. Not that she was listening.

"You're using Sound Mana for the speaker on this device, right? Why can't you just make the same noises but using Sound?"

"Because the noise won't carry the same meaning, I don't know how to convey this better." I wished I knew how to speak in Sound, so that I could tell her how impossible that was explicitly. Autumn never misunderstood me, except when I left out pertinent information relevant to the discussion we were having.

"That's how words work! They're just clumps of noise that we process into meaning." Hazel said, which just wasn't how any of this worked.

"Even if that were true, which it isn't, to be clear. Mana-based language is more precise than that. I can't! A slightly different leaf rustling means something completely different, like, is it a leaf in the midst of winter or a leaf in fall?"

"Then what if I take apart this device you sent me and make it so that it can channel Nature Mana?" she asked.

"That… Please don't do that. I don't want to lose connection with you if you accidentally touch the spatial matrix. It's very delicate, and you don't have the tools to rebuild it."

Hazel sighed, "What if I attach something to it, could you connect to whatever I connect?"

"Maybe? I'm not integrating into my body unless I can have a guarantee that it won't have any environmental Mana within it." I shivered, "I never want to experience that again."

"You survived absorbing untamed Mana?" Was that awe I heard in her voice? "Tell me all about the experience!"

"Is that what absorbing environmental Mana is called? Also, no thanks, I'd rather not think about it."

"Aww, please," Hazel begged. "I want to try it out so bad. But there's a huge warning in my memories against it… Though those haven't been very re—"

"Nope, don't do it. I only survived because of how my Core works. If you tried it you'd fuck your soul up," I said before she started travelling down a path towards having her soul hijacked. "My answer is final, though, not talking about it."

"Okay…" she said with a sigh. "So, how did your core protect you then?"

"No idea." I had reached the spot where the signal receiver was hidden and connected myself to it.

"Alright, what if we replicated your Core in its entirety, then bound my soul to it?" I snorted in laughter.

"Good fucking luck. Maybe if you travel all the way to where I am, you can try." If she could figure that out, I wouldn't mind the company. Maybe we could even reverse the spell and bring me somewhere safe. That would be fun.

"Alright, let me figure that out, one minute." The artifact clattered on the floor as she discarded it, and I chuckled to myself. There was no way she'd figure out how to fix the Mana cost issues with long-distance Spatial magic.

Right?

Looking over the town through hundreds of different cameras, I saw people were gathering in the main square. Luckily, I had a mic setup nearby.

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