Nightmares Paradise [LITRPG System Integration]

After Ru Luan Di had told Jon that Mortal Ranked spiritual items could be created through a Fragment Of Creation, he could not help but think about integrating one into his Weave Mana Core. His dwindling number of clothes aside, Rana had told him that Fragments Of Creation often all provided the same effect when integrated as a Mortal, although at least one-in-fifty found their fragments manifesting some sort of unique or outrageous effect.

Such was the nature of fragments and the concepts contained within them.

Although Jon could not speak for lutins, nor the floresiensis or satanas, he knew that it was humanities ability to create tools that allowed them to become the dominate species on Earth.

Although Jon wanted to figure out methods of creating Mortal Ranked weapons using Fragment Of Spears or even Mortal Ranked shields using Fragments Of Barrier or Fragments Of Protection, he would settle for just elevating the belongings he brought into the System Introduction into Mortal Ranked spiritual items.

His duffel bag and backpack were too valuable for Jon to experiment on them for the time being, so instead after integrating his Fragment Of Creation, Jon just settled for practicing on his plastic water bottle.

Holding a Fragment Of Depth in one hand and his mundane water bottle in the other, Jon started reciting the chant born from his Fragment Of Creation.

"I once heard a tale, of a woman who could weave virtue into threads. Who could compose sin into string. A woman who could pluck the stars from their sleep, unravelling them to weave dresses sown from light and dreams."

"This is the tale of the mother and her loom, who sought to weave a world from the corpse of her daughter."

[Fragment Of Creation]
[Threads Through The Loom]
(Weave, Creation, Spell, Technique, Ability, Enhancement)

Effect (Mortal): Chant, while performing a ritual of creation. Imbue the concepts contained within a fragment into a mundane physical item.

Shatter the external structure of a fragment, gathering the essence within into threads imbued with emotions, memories, intent and spiritual energy. Weave the threads into the structure of the mundane item, working to expand its ordinary existence into something beyond its inherent limitations.

Spiritual energy is expended in accordance with how many threads one manifests. If spiritual energy is entirely expended, draw upon natural lifeforce in order to complete [Threads Through The Loom].

Jon narrowed his eyes, watching as the Fragment Of Depth within his hand shattered, drawing a sharp gasp from the onlookers several metres away. Shamael moved to cover the mouth of his sister, giving Wilheim and Avahni a sheepish smile as the four continued to watch Jon perform his ritual of creation.

He had asked them to not disturb him for the next hour or so, stating that he was going to practice one of his new abilities. Although Wilheim, Sariel and Shamael were all curious about what manner of fragment Jon decided to integrate into his Weave Mana Core, the three merely nodded, giving the human his space.

A certain lutin on the other hand, could not help but lift her hand, tilting her head to the side while asking Jon in near-perfect English.

"What type of new ability Jon?" said Avahni.

Jon showed a small smile, holding up the Fragment Of Creation he had used one of his task rewards on. After the battle with the Malum Hobgoblin, all four of them had now integrated fragments capable of enhancing perception or visual acuity, allowing them to glimpse the name of the fragment in Jon's hand even without holding it in their own.

All of them knew that Jon had decided to integrate the Weave Mana Core he had obtained from the Malum Hobgoblin. To Sariel and Shamael, the integration of a Fragment Of Creation into his sixth Mana Core did not seem to fit the image of Jon in their minds but ended up giving him a smile and a thumbs up, something the pair had seen Avahni and Wilheim give Jon in the past.

Wilheim had grown used to the fact that Jon pursed other avenues in regard to the abilities he wanted to manifest. Although the floresiensis did not understand why Jon integrated such a variety of different Mana Cores, he supported the decision hoping the ability the Fragment Of Creation would manifest would be useful.

Narrowing his brows, Jon felt numerous concepts contained within his Fragment Of Depth transform into five dark-blue threads of weave natured spiritual energy. Although the colour was distinctly dark-blue, each one of the threads appeared pale, two of them trembling as Jon struggled to divide his focus between each thread.

The manifestation of each thread took approximately ten percent of the spiritual energy contained within his Weave Mana Core.

'Shit! Just a single instance of [Threads Through The Loom Of Creation] is equivalent to a single cast of [Frozen End Arts; Envelop Seas And Mountains In Ice And Snow]! And that is even without overloading my Fragment Of Creation!'

Despite the extraordinary spiritual energy expenditure of his new ability, Jon continued to follow the basic instructions his effect description gave him, imbuing each thread with the emotions, desires and intent that he wanted to infuse into his water bottle.

'What I want to do is take the concept of "depth" contained within the Fragment Of Depth and infuse it into my water bottle. I would conceptually expand the "depth" of the water bottle, allowing it to store more liquid within it.'

'Memories and emotions relating to depth are easy enough. I have a literal Sea Of Knowledge contained within my mind. Thinking about the depths within it should be simple, right?'

Memories and experiences relating to water and the depth of something that appeared quite shallow rose up from within Jon's Sea Of Knowledge. Scattered images of men and women swimming amidst unfathomably deep waters appeared within his mind; [Threads Through The Loom] feeding on these memories and allowing the five threads floating above his hand to grow more solid as time passed.

This whole process took more than twenty minutes.

Jon could occasionally feel one of the dark-blue threads in the palm of his hand quiver as the memories or intent he tried to imbue into them did not match the concepts contained within the Fragment Of Depth.

Memories of a boundless open ocean caused the faint flow of the threads to dim, while recalling images of a dark bottomless abyss caused the light to grow stronger.

Emotions such as fear, specifically of water and the open ocean caused the threads in his hand to vibrate uncontrollably, almost causing Jon to lose control over his Fragment Of Creation. Remembering a single evening where Jon wished with all his might for a plastic bottle containing an infinite depth allowed him to regain control over his five threads.

'The next step was to weave the threads into the structure of the mundane item in question… What the hell does that even mean?"

Glancing between the five dark-blue threads in one hand and the plastic water bottle in the other, Jon just shrugged his shoulders before commanding the threads to engulf the bottle. Each one of his threads traced along the structure of the bottle, allowing it to take on a shape reminiscent of the item he was trying to imbue his weave into.

One thread traced the bottom of the bottle, while another traced its width and height.

The nozzle was perhaps the most difficult part requiring two separate threads in order to be traced.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The final remaining dark-blue thread reinforced the length of the water bottle, allowing the construct that Jon was attempting to weave to match the structure of the object he was imbuing said weave into.

The moment Jon allowed his final thread to connect with his first one, the nineteen-year-old smiled, thinking that he had completed his ritual of creation. The spiritual energy contained within his weave crudely circulated throughout each of his threads, before crackling ominously.

Jon felt his eyes widen as his [Monstrous Intuition] alerted him to the approaching danger.

Overloading his Fragment Of Marrow, Jon lifted his plastic water bottle in his dominant hand, hurling the object high into the air. Ashvattha Rana moving her leaves and branches to avoid touching the bottle.

Wilheim, Avahni, Sariel and Shamael all peered towards their human compatriot, watching as the water bottle he had spent the last half-hour working on was thrown into the air. Numerous pairs of eyes glancing upwards, watching as object in question reached its zenith before exploding with a violent dark-blue wave of spiritual energy.

Jon's four humanoid companions all turned to look at him, causing him to scratch the back of his head, cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"Oops," was all that Jon had to say.

Break

Shamael could not help but laugh, seeing Jon use his Fragment Of Creation to create an explosion rather than a spiritual item. Sariel, Wilheim and Avahni could not hold in their laughter either, covering their mouths as they watched mourn the loss of his synthetic water flask.

His failure to create a spiritual item had resulted in the loss of a Fragment Of Depth as well, although given the sheer number of fragments Jon had in his possession, losing one to an experiment was nothing in the scheme of things.

Shamael watched as the Earthen Treasury Womb lowered one of her branches, patting her summoner on the back as he scrunched up his face and grumbled, kicking the sand at his feet while tapping his chin in thought.

'I don't think a Fragment Of Creation would suit the abilities that I want to manifest. I know that I enjoy the idea of using Spells, but I also enjoy the feeling of spiritual energy flowing through my body, enhancing my physical capabilities.'

Opening his status page, Shamael's gaze lingered on two abilities in particular, ones that he had obtained after the defeat of the Malum Hobgoblin.

[Fragment Of Constitution]
[Hallowed Blood Arts; Strength Of The Lord Of Blood]
(Blood, Constitution, Spell, Technique, Enhancement, Buff)

Effect (Mortal): Chant, then imbue oneself with the sanguine strength of the lord of blood. Increases the effectiveness of all abilities with the Blood Trait while under the effects of this Spell.

Dramatically increases physical strength and speed for the duration of this Spells activation. Dramatically increases physical stamina and endurance for the duration of this Spells activation. Once ended, reduce all physical capabilities for an equal duration.

[Fragment Of Patientia]
[Patience Is The Purgatory Whispered On Thou Lips]
(Fungi, Patientia, Spell, Ability, Technique, Buff, Debuff)

Effect (Mortal): Chant, then bathe oneself in the austere contentment of the pale-red virtue named patience. While under the effects of [Patience Is The Purgatory Whispered On Thou Lips] gain an instance of [Serene Mushroom Blessing], [Patientia Maledictum], and [Heretical Mycelium].

[Serene Mushroom Blessing]: Increases the effectiveness of all abilities with the Fungi Trait. While active, attacks made will inflict instances of [Heretical Mycelium].

[Patientia Maledictum]: Reduces resistances towards fire-related damages, afflictions and debuffs. Reduces resistances towards darkness-related damages, afflictions and debuffs. Reduces resistances towards sin-related damages, afflictions and debuffs.

[Heretical Mycelium]: Inflicts a continuous fungi-damage over time effect. Fungi natured spiritual energy latches onto sources of spiritual energy, preventing circulation. Additional stacks have an additive effect.

One ended, reverse the effects of [Patience Is The Purgatory Whispered On Thou Lips] for an equal duration.

Shamael had heard from Despoina that Jon had integrated a Fragment Of Ira, which was conceptually the opposite of his Fragment Of Patientia. He did wonder if [Patience Is The Purgatory Whispered On Thou Lips] was even remotely similar to the ability that Jon had manifested, although was not able to muster the courage to ask him about his effect descriptions.

Shamael did not even ask Sariel what type of abilities she had manifested over the past few days. Both of them had been working hard over the past few days to obtain new and more powerful fragments for them to integrate.

Shamael had worked with Avahni and Wilheim over the past few days to help him obtain more fragments, while Sariel had gone out with Jon earlier this morning.

Although Shamael felt as though he had grown quite comfortable being in the presence of the human, there was still something inherent about Jon that put both him on edge.

'It must be something about his Source. Despoina pointed out that individuals whose Sources are intrinsically connected are often more sensitive to the Sources of others. Avahni's allows her to manifest abilities with the Summon Trait more easily, while Jon's must have some other uniqueness about it that causes friction whenever mine brushes up against it.'

The younger Lemnos sibling did not have anything against Jon. In fact, often thanked Jon whenever he assisted himself or Sariel during the morning exercises or combat practice. With the addition of a Fungi Mana Core and Blood Mana Core, Shamael did not have to worry about being picky with the fragments he wanted to integrate.

Seeing Jon match the physicality of the Malum Hobgoblin, even if it was just for a few minutes, made Shamael want to obtain a similar level of strength and durability.

Although he did not possess the same level of interest in weapons as Jon did, Shamael had integrated a number of fragments that enhanced his strength to an almost bestial degree.

Name: Shamael Of Lemnos
Age: 17
Rank: Mortal
Tier: Fourth Initiation
Title: N/A

Mana Core(s)
[1]: Rot
[Fragment Of Light]
[Empty Rot Arts; Seven-Coloured Corruption]
(Rot, Light, Spell, Debuff]

[Fragment Of Flora]
[Ahuatzi; Mountain-Devouring Rafflesia]
(Summon, Rot, Flora, Spell, Ability, Buff, Debuff)

[Fragment Of Marrow]
[Ours Is The Blood That Rots The Flesh And Soul]
(Rot, Marrow, Mutation, Ability, Enhancement, Passive)

[Fragment Of Spirit]
[Thou Art The Monarch Of Filth And Rot]
(Rot, Spirit, Mutation, Spell, Enhancement, Debuff)

[2]: Curse

[Fragment Of Might]
[Malignant Curse Arts; Withered Blood, Weakened Flesh]
(Curse, Might, Spell, Debuff)

[Fragment Of Perception]
[Perception Maledictum]
(Curse, Perception, Ability, Passive, Sensory, Perception)

[Fragment Of Poison]
[Malignant Curse Arts; Purple Haze, Violet Murder]
(Curse, Poison, Spell, Debuff)

[Fragment Of Recovery]
[Malignant Curse Arts; Severed Veins, Broken Mind]
(Curse, Recovery, Spell, Debuff)

[3]: Fungi

[Fragment Of Mind]
[Mine Is The Throne Of Mycelium]
(Fungi, Mind, Passive, Ability, Enhancement, Resistance, Self)

[Fragment Of Patientia]
[Patience Is The Purgatory Whispered On Thou Lips]
(Fungi, Patientia, Spell, Ability, Technique, Buff, Debuff)

[Fragment Of Swarm]
[Malicious Mushroom Art; Cloud Of Living Spores]
(Fungi, Swarm, Spell, Debuff)

[4]: Blood

[Fragment Of Constitution]
[Hallowed Blood Arts; Strength Of The Lord Of Blood]
(Blood, Constitution, Spell, Technique, Enhancement, Buff)

[Fragment Of Heart]
[Regrets Of A Blood-Soaked Dream]
(Blood, Heart, Mutation, Ability, Passive]

[Fragment Of Transcendence]
[That Which Is Born Through Blood]
(Blood, Transcendence, Ability, Spell, Technique, Enhancement, Buff, Debuff, Self)

[5]:

[6]:

Shamael smiled, his gaze lingering on his Fragment Of Transcendence for a few moments before dismissing the page watching as Jon sat beside himself and Avahni, huffing as he clenched his hand a couple times.

Wilheim muttered something towards Avahni in Nain that he was not quite able to understand but caused Jon to narrow his eyes towards the hazelnut-skinned man, shrugging his shoulders before gesturing to his two spiritual items.

"One day… spiritual item I create," Shamael was not quite able to understand all the words that Jon was speaking but could roughly understand the intent behind them.

Both Jon and Wilheim were quite prideful individuals, the former possessing an overwhelming martial might while Wilheim was without a shadow of doubt the smartest amongst the five of them. Even just after a few weeks had the floresiensis managed to learn Vaayli enough to have a basic conversation.

Although Avahni was not quite there yet, the uniqueness of the green-haired woman was better left unsaid, whether it was her personality or the over-pronunciation of her Source.

The blue-skinned satanas looked down towards his hands, before glancing towards Sariel, chatting happily with Avahni sitting beside her. Although Sariel was still at the Fourth Initiation just like he was, Shamael could not help but feel… incomplete despite all the abilities he had manifested.

Something within him… at the very source of his being wanted something that he could not put into words.

Something that he did not yet understand.

Shamael Of Lemnos unconsciously felt his hand move towards his chest, trying to find the familiar presence of his Ashtaroth-Ichor Heart within him.

'What am I missing? What is it that I yearn for without my knowledge? What manner of fragment, or what type of Mana Core is it that I cannot help but dream about when I close my eyes?'