The Unified States of Mana

Time is a slippery thing, no matter how much you have or how tightly you grip it, the clock will always, eventually run out.

My time here in the academy will eventually come to an end, whether I want it to or not. Red will one day soon be released from her cell, in one piece or many. Somewhere out there is a clock ticking away, slowly stealing the future from my hands.

To save Red and the others, I’m going to have to risk everything.

A raid on their prison could bring hell down on us, but the alternative is to sit back and let them have their way. I’m not doing that.

By the time I get back to my dorm the sun is set, and the others are gathered in wait of me. I give them an abbreviated explanation of what’s happened, and they ask a few questions. Nel in particular asks for details of the device, while Vii sits thoughtfully to the side.

Before I fall asleep, I force my new Chip to stop dubbing everyone in English. It’s a bit of an effort to get it to allow me to understand their words while hearing their true voices, but it’s worth the effort, at least to me.

Morning comes, and class after. We sit around listening to a lecture on biology in the hopes of learning healing magic, while in my mind I’m breaking into a secured facility and rescuing dangerous prisoners. The teacher’s words all go in one ear and out the other.

As soon as we’re free, we rush down into the ruins and have a private conversation discussing this new Chip of mine. To keep the details quiet, it’s only Eshya, Vii, Nell, Adler, and I down here.

“You have every Skill?” Eshya asks again as if I’ve started talking gibberish. I suppose I can’t really blame her; it would be something like claiming to have read every book in a library. Anyone saying something like that is either crazy or a liar.

People lean towards the former rather quickly when you try to explain that you haven’t actually read every book, you’ve just scanned them all and downloaded the contents directly into your brain.

“Not every Skill,” I clarify, “But I do have the ability to copy Skills, and a pretty large library to start off with.”

“That still seems rather excessive.” Nel says, staring at me with thoughtful eyes. “Though if true, working with such a large number of new Skills would impose a problem of its own. It would take considerable time to even understand what each Skill is capable of.”

“Ah, yeah.” I say, “Probably. Did you get some extra silver slime for me? I’d like to try copying my new system across.”

“Enough for all of us, but there isn’t as much of it around as you’d think.” She says, “The teachers and welfare officers likely have plenty, but I doubt we could come up with a good enough reason why they should give any to us.”

“I could come up with a few excuses.” Adler offers nervously, “But I’m not sure it would be a good idea.”

“Thanks for offering, but let’s not take the risk.” I say, “If you guys don’t mind, I’d like to try copying some of your Skills first. I’m not sure how many you’ve remade since the other day, but if I store what you have in my own Chip, they should be transferred into the new devices after you upgrade.”

“I’ve regained around half of my sword Skills.” Eshya says, swinging her sword around. “How about copying them? I’d like to see if you can use them yourself.”

A glowing blade comes to life along the front edge of her sword, it separates mid-swing cutting through the air outwards for a few moments before fading into the atmosphere of the underground training room.

Her incredible dedication to her sword training certainly shows in how smooth the attack is, but I doubt it will be enough for the fights I have planned. I very much doubt that attack would do much at all against the people that’ll be defending the prison where Red is waiting for us.

“Just let me...” I touch at the symbol on her hand, while messing with my own system. Thankfully it’s not too difficult to get it to copy over all of her Skills. The menu is still a bit unwieldy as I’m still in the process of modifying it to my liking.

“There we go,” I say, seeing my new Chip accept the Skills. The number of them that she’s regained is quite impressive, but the nature of some of them do make for quite the surprise.

Apparently, Eshya has been bringing a number of Skills into the bedroom with her, which does explain a few things. I’ll have to play with those Skills later.

“The sword?” I ask.

She hands it to me, smiling excitedly. The others all stand around me watching closely, there’s the same anticipation hanging in the air as before a rocket launch. Half hoping for a successful launch, and half hoping for an impromptu, supersized fireworks display.

 While Nel clearly watches analytically, trying to measure the value of this new tool, Eshya watches with a smirk as if hoping to see me fail. Adler meanwhile seems a little frightened, and Vii doesn’t look like she’s thinking much at all as she cheerily watches on.

“Wish me luck,” I say, wiping the sweat from my brow and using my new Skill simply named ‘Cut’. Quite the simplistic naming sense.

With the sword in hand, I activate the ‘cut’ Skill and let it take control over of my body. I move the same as Eshya had before me, and let my mana flow out and into the sword. It floods along the blades edge, glowing bright for a moment before the Skill reaches for something that simply isn’t there.

I stop myself just as I start to overstretch, trying to take back control of my body. I succeed in cutting off the Skill, only to fall flat on the ground after losing my balance.

“Well, you tried.” Eshya says with a laugh, lending me her hand.

“It’ll take a little practice.” I say brushing the dust off of me.

“Can’t say I’m impressed. Isn’t it just as easy to learn Skills the old way if this is what a copied Skill is like?” Eshya asks.

“It’s not perfect, but now I have a better feel of the movements than I did from just watching you.” I say. “Also, that wasn’t a fair Skill. I can’t use whatever magic you used.”

“You didn’t know that before you tried it?” She asks, taking back the sword.

“No, but maybe…” I dive back into the menus, looking through the tools and modifications available to me.

I recall seeing what programming is really like once, if only briefly, and this is reminiscent. When working with code a misspelt word can make a whole program fail, but thankfully this isn’t quite so bad. The tools are intuitive, so there isn’t much risk of accidentally causing anything to break unless I intend to.

That said, considering how closely this thing interacts with my mind, I’d really rather not accidentally lobotomise myself because I wanted to see what would happen if I lower my INT stat. Not that I’ve found any stats yet but give me time.

“You keep getting distracted.” Eshya says taking another swing with her sword in practice, “Is it really that interesting?”

“Yeah, it really is.” I say, “I can’t use half of the Skills, but just looking through them… it’s like window shopping, but it’s all in my head.”

“By the sounds of it, it would be for the best if we could get equipped with our own as soon as is reasonable.” Nel says, tapping at her chin, “If you could prepare them for us, I’ll set about getting some potions to knock us out. I believe there was something in Orsa’s storage that would serve well.”

“First.” I catch her before she leaves and plunder her Skills. They get lumped into a Class simply called ‘Nel’, which I put right beside my ‘Eshya’ Class. I let her go, and run around stealing the Skills of everyone present.

“This just doesn’t feel right.” Adler says, as I sort through her Skills and pick out a few that could be interesting.

“It’s fine, we’re all friends here. Though maybe you should refrain from looking through Eshya’s Skills when you get them.” I say, rubbing her shoulder. I don’t think it makes her feel any better about it.

“Alright,” I say, picking up one of the silver blobs that Nel’s left for me and trying to figure out how to change it. I never actually asked how to make that magic come to life, and even after a quick look around I can’t find anything that might help.

 

Oi, how do I make copies? It’s easy right? It’d better be easy.

 

I send the message to the gamer elf, hoping that he’s not sleeping or too busy in his game to message me back.

 

Just place your hand on the new vessel, or materials, and new parchment should open before your eyes. You can copy just the system, or the full data set.

You’re already making copies?

 

Looking through the many invisible parchments hovering over my eyes, I notice that the one he was talking about has been buried beneath the others that I’ve been rewriting. I quickly get the process started, copying the full data set.

The silver metal within me shifts around uncomfortably as it gathers around my arm and starts to stretch small vines down and around the silver blob before me. I can’t see or understand what it’s doing, but I trust that it’s working right.

 

I got it working, thanks.

I’m sharing it with my girlfriends. No reason to wait, is there?

 

The silver blob gets tossed around as it’s quickly being rewritten with new enchantments. If production can be automated like this, why isn’t this done more often?

Chip drains me of a few units of many, but I don’t mind the cost. Soon enough it’s done and Chip returns back to normal within me while the new blob sits the same as before.

 

So long as they’re not doing anything bad with it.

I’ve put a lot of work into this, it can help a person develop Skills so much more quickly, I don’t want it used for anything cruel, or awful.

 

Way to guilt trip me. I haven’t murdered anyone using his invention just yet.

I get to work on converting the other support devices, while considering whether it’s possible to reprogram collars to mulch people’s minds. This silver does intrude on peoples flesh rather easily, so… I might have to look into that idea.

It doesn’t take long before they’re all done and lined up like a bunch of well-behaved silver slimes.

“These aren’t actually made out of dead slimes are they?” I ask, suspiciously watching them. “That’d be… weird.”

“I don’t think so.” Vii says, hopping over, “They’re a bound collection of metallic bases that are enchanted into a certain form and shape using an ancient technique. There are only a few geniuses every now and again able to reengineer them.”

“That elf is a genius?” I ask, finding it a little difficult to accept.

“I get one?” Vii says watching from the side with a deadly focus. “It’ll be a pain to get it set up the way I want it, but it has to be way better than the one that I’ve got.”

“We’re all getting one.” I say, “If for no other reason than a defence against collaring.”

“About that.” Vii says, tilting her head as she thinks, “What happens to us if they find out that they can’t collar us? Do you think they’ll know, or can we pretend that the collars work? Will they kill us when they figure it out?”

“I don’t know.” I say, looking to Adler for her thoughts.

“It’s not something I’ve ever come across.” Adler admits, “I suppose it would be up to the individual welfare officers to figure out how best to deal with the situation.”

“So, we might just get killed on sight?” Vii asks.

“After being subdued.” Adler corrects her.

“How is it any different from before?” Eshya asks, “It’s not. That trick Kyra pulled last time was a one-off miracle, we can’t afford to get caught. Which means we must get stronger.”

“These will help.” I say, gesturing to the new devices.

“They’ll help, but they won’t be enough.” Eshya says, “They can’t replace real experience. So, we have to train hard.”

We grow quiet as Eshya keeps slicing at the air with her sword. In the distance I can almost hear the clock ticking down until the next disaster that threatens to bring us down. It’s clear that she hears the same, as she steps and slices, and works herself into a sweat.

“I’m back.” Nel says, carrying a couple of bottles and a stone in her hands, “I don’t want to know what they were intending on using these for, but I’m sure we’ll be putting them to better use.”

“I’m sure.” I say, “Who’s first?”

“Me.” Eshya says, jumping ahead of the others, “If something goes wrong, I’d rather to be the one to get hurt.”

“That’s not fair.” Vii pops up, “I don’t want to watch you get hurt either!”

“I’m getting the new device even if it means I have to suffer for it.” Nel cuts in, looking between the two quite seriously, “We all will, so it doesn’t much matter what order we go in.”

“So heartless,” Eshya says with a laugh, “But you’re not wrong. If this can give as an edge…” Eshya awkwardly lays on the ground, taking one of the potions.

“If it keeps you alive, then I’ll be as heartless as it takes.” Nel says, “Let’s get started already.”

“It’ll be fine. I’ve done this before remember?” I say, sweating at the memory of their silent screams the last time we did this.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget…” Eshya says quietly, trembling as she pops the lid off of the potion and swallows.

“Even if I wake up in the middle of it. Don’t stop.” She says, as her eyes drift closed, “We need to be stronger…”

I wait to start until a few minutes after she’s gone completely still. By now, I’ve had some good practice at pulling these things out of people, and thankfully the potion works as promised.

I’m going to have to hit her when she wakes up for saying all those things, she almost convinced me that something was going to go wrong. Just as I finish my work on Eshya, I get a new Skill. One, that’ll likely be uniquely useful to me.

 

~Skill developed

~Chip Ripper

 

An interesting name, but rather accurate.

It’ll easily get lost in the long list of Skills hidden in my new Chip, so I file it away in a personal file with a few others.

Rolling Eshya to her side so that she doesn’t choke on the leaking silver of the last device, I turn to the others. Nel and Vii play a game to figure out which of the two will go next.

“Please be gentle.” Vii says with a smile and a laugh, the potion already roiling in her stomach as we wait for her to pass out.

“Hey, I have a Skill now.” I say, “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Sure, sure… I believe you.” She says, and I have the sneaking suspicion that she, in fact, doesn’t actually believe me.

The process is quick and easy from there, but without new potions to awaken my companions they continue to quietly slumber while leaking silver goo.

Adler is the last to get the treatment, and the most worried out of everyone here. She glares down at the knockout potion in her hand, before throwing it back like a shot of vodka. Her foul expression paints quite the picture.

“It’ll be fine.” I say as she lies on her side, looking away from me.

“It won’t.” She says, “None of this is fine. We can’t win. We can’t survive if we go against the Unified States. All of this will end badly.”

“So why are you still here?” I ask, a hand resting on her shoulder.

She becomes so quiet that I think she’s already asleep, but eventually she replies.

“I just want to be a good person.” She whispers so quietly that I barely hear. “I want a kinder world.”

I try to comfort her by rubbing her shoulder as she falls asleep. There’s nothing I can even say to that.

I finish melting her support device and adjust her position so that she won’t drown in her sleep. Her long white hair is incredibly soft, and tempts me, but I can’t get distracted.

I check over all of them, ensuring that they’re mouths remain clear and they’re all breathing steadily. I bring the new altered support devices to each of them, and thankfully they quickly stop bleeding silver after the new Chips are fully integrated.

Nel had enough foresight to bring along a cleansing stone that I use to clean them up, after which, there’s nothing left to do but wait.

The room is quiet, but for the soft sounds of their breathing.

While there’s plenty of things I could do to keep busy, my thoughts keep getting pulled in dark directions.

My plan to free Red and the others will have us prodding at a sleeping bear; picking a fight that we cannot win.

I’m going to get everyone I love killed.

I’m not strong enough. Not smart enough. Not prepared for what’s to come.

Even if I was stronger and smarter, I still wouldn’t win.

I’m not some legendary leader winning wars or starting a revolution, I’m just a psychotic idiot leading others to their deaths.

The phantom clock ticks away in my ears, each tick another second closer to my demise. Another second closer to tragedy.

I laugh.

I laugh, listening to these dark thoughts, giving each a moment, before letting them fade away into nothingness.

“So what?” I say, “I’ll probably die a pointless death. I’ll probably drag others down with me. I’ll take that chance and maybe, just maybe, I’ll live to see something new instead. To become someone great…”

“Do you always talk to yourself like that?” Eshya asks, rubbing away a few lingering silver tears from her eyes.

“Only when the voices in my head get a little too loud.” I reply.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Skills & Stats

 

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 782 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 0/24%

Muscle: 0/12%

Mind: 65/65%

Cardiovascular: 0/11%

Misc.: 0/10%

Efficiency: 65/79%

 

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

//Author Note

More chapters available

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