The books were easy to read, worded in an entertaining way, and filled with puns that I greatly enjoyed.

“Man, my life in this new world has been so chaotic that I didn’t make a single ‘decent’ pun since being [Transferred]. That’s so ‘not me’ that it’s worrying.”

Until now you have been through one discombobulating event after the other, and have not had time to relax and just be yourself.

I think that having such a first introduction to your new life be so jarring, coupled with the normality of you simply sitting at a desk to study the day after, has resulted in you self-analyzing yourself, somewhat.

And with that I mean that you are shedding this armor of detachment you imposed on your personality that you are using in order to deal with all the “impossibilities” you are facing; not too dissimilarly to how the [Pacify] in the [Temple] was meant to function like.

The difference is that, since you are normally a volatile person, strong emotion easily broke your façade, making you unreasonably lash out, which ended up frustrating you more than it should have.

“That’s… a lot more complex than what I was talking about…”

But was [Buddy] right? Have I been acting weirdly?

I can vividly remember how angry I was when I first realized what was happening, and how I made no more than a token attempt at reconciliation with my fellow [Humans], when the fact that we remained united mattered the most.

No, I was doing even worse: with the excuse of having [Buddy] to talk with, I made no effort in getting to know the people that I was allowed to meet. Did I even know the name of the staff that wasn’t one of my [Teachers], or the [Guild Master]?

I have been acting like a pretentious prick this entire time, without bothering to engage with others when I didn’t strictly have to.

I’ve always been an introvert… but this was something else….

It was born from the fear of losing someone else.

I felt it then, that mask that I had unknowingly created, cracking, and it dawned on me:

My life as knew it was over, my parents were probably dead, my friends were also probably dead, all the usual sights I was used to were completely gone, and every single thing I was familiar with had been replaced with something else. Including myself.

Stupid things like memes wouldn’t distract me anymore, nor would random altercations with strangers on the internet, or in the streets.

No more friendly dogs hunting for pets from every passerby, or neighborly grandmas offering me slices of velvet cake, because I looked too thin, and they knew I liked that pastry.

But more importantly: No more calls from my parents at inopportune times that end up being longer than either of us originally wanted, and no more sleepless nights spent playing online games with Ray.

Anything that I could even remotely define as ‘home’ was gone.

I had nothing left.

I, for the first time in my life, was truly alone.

You will never be alone.

I will always be there with you,

The bittersweet feeling of having [Buddy] being nice to me, in a moment like this, caused me to let it flow: And I started crying.

“My parents…

…Ray”

The rage at my impotence in not being able to do anything to control what had happened was gone; now, all that was left was an all-encompassing sense of intense sadness, that momentarily drained anything else out of my perception.

There was only me, my ‘bodyless’ eternal companion, and a bunch of books.

A bunch of books designed on making contracts with otherwordly being, with wild animals, or by constructing them from the ground up.

Books, that detailed a form of magic that was made to make bonds, to make connections.

Suddenly, my fixations for [Spell-Weaving] sentient being, or even the appearance of this [Class] among my options, made a lot more sense now: I didn’t have to make them so, or at least not as ‘peculiarly’ and ‘enthused’ as I have until now, but the idea that they were intelligent companions resonated with the pathetically lonely part of me, and I inadvertently let it string me along, curbing my potential.

Making my mind up on the spot, I stopped crying, or at least forced myself to stop until the flow ebbed enough, cleaned my face by furiously rubbing it with both hands, and promised myself that I would broaden my horizon: I will not allow ‘this me’ to stop myself from becoming even greater than this world ever thought possible from me.

“Fuck this world’s expectations of me, and my own too, I’m going to be something truly special: I’m going to be the strongest [Theomancer] that has ever existed, and that the [Nexus] will ever know!”

Through your actions, you have been awarded +7 [Will]

Through your actions, and [World Within], [Indominable] has evolved into [Unyielding Sovereign]

Unyielding Sovereign:

Your mind is a fortress, now truly impregnable, leaving every entity baffled at the sight of your resoluteness.

Indefinitely increases resistance to unwanted and/or sudden effects, especially if they contain a mental, or spiritual, aspect.

“Well, if even the [System] was on my side, it seems that I’ll just have to kick some ass to prove both of us right!

Watch me, [Nexus], because you have no idea of what you have awakened!”

I couldn’t have hoped for a better resolution.

“You too! Just you wait, and I’ll come and kick ass even in the fight that you [Gods] seem to be having!”

Through your prayers, you have been awarded +5 [Serendipity]

With newfound vigor I poured myself back into the books, focusing on the building of [Constructs], and how to summon beings from the beyond, among which were, weirdly, [Demons].

* * *

{Merga’s POV}

Merga was torn on what to do: on one hand, she wanted to further enhance the [Ability] to [Sweep Away] of [Sweepy] (which was able to nullify the effect of anything, including [Traits], within a small radius, without being able to be detected, unless they made direct contact with the familiar), so that she could further strip Darwin of his defenses and show her his true self; on the other hand, what her [Share Sense] showed her through [Sweepy] almost made her drop the modified quarterstaff and rush into the room to comfort the boy.

She considered herself a very caring person, ignoring the opinions of her peers, and her tendency to scour the depths of a person was mostly born from her [Class], [Depth Witch], which was much more spiritual and mental than many thought, associating it to her aquatic [Race], the [Oceanic Syren].

And what of her frivolousness? It never caused real problems. And wasn’t one her age allowed some liberties? May the [Gods Smite] her if she ended up acting like an elderly crone, ignoring the needs of someone with a body like hers: Still deliciously sinful after all these years.

Really, she hadn’t originally considered the young [Human] as a possible partner due to the fact that he reminded her too much of a child, but that look he sent her earlier turned her passive teasing into active lust.

But she would control herself, she saw him at his weakest, and he obviously wasn’t ready for a casual relationship.

…And avoiding sleeping with a [Student], again, will keep Abaan from needlessly reprimanding her.

Back to the quarterstaff that she was clutching then: It was originally meant to be a very basic model, optimal for beginners, made from simple, treated wood, giving it enough resilience and flexibility to be useful, without making it weight too much.

What ended up happening was that every [Teacher] pitched in with something extravagant to add to the equipment for every [Transferred]. Darwin’s weapon was sporting an [Engraved] Damascus Mithril head on the bottom, made so it would keep it from losing durability unnecessarily during usage, so it would more easily stick to surfaces, and with a focus-crystal on top, cut so it would have similar use to the Rune-Gun, but that instead of just shooting modified [Mana Arrows], it shot either [Mana Orbs] or [Mana Bolts], both slower than the previous [Spell], but with much more utility, reduced [Mana Cost], and shortened [Cast delay].

Unknown to Darwin, Grog had reported in with them after their ‘spar’, and it was Abaan that decided on a quarterstaff modified for a [Mage], so this change in weaponry wasn’t born from one of her whims, but from a collective agreement.

The carved, grey wood its shaft was made of was from an [Ancient Ent], and [Inscribed] with ‘bonding’ qualities, so it would grow with the user, and it would more easily accept [Enchantments].

Merga didn’t know much about crafting, hers was the realm of [Alchemy], so what she did know was how to insert [Catalysts] inside objects, especially useful when the recipient was meant to keep close proximity to its user: And that’s why, based on Darwin’s disposition, it was hollowed out in the middle, so it could house a small [Golem Core] in it.

And none of that synthetic garbage they usually sold, but one from a [Monster Farm] near the border.

It was probably making the weapon much more expensive than it needed to be, even more than the other components, but money was in no way a problem for them, and every [Transferred] needed every help they could get, at least at the beginning.

For [Luck]’s sake, the thing had become ludicrous!

And since the little [Human] seemed to be one that paid his debts back, she was eager to reap the rewards in the future.

Not that she wasn’t doing it from the goodness of her heart, but a true lady needed to be pragmatic about everything.

In the midst of observing what was now a ‘smaller than average mage’s staff’ she missed the moment when Darwin seemed to recollect himself, seemingly overcoming the trauma that plagued him on his own (a true testament to his mental fortitude), and [Sweepy] started feeling blocked from affecting the [Human] and remaining inconspicuous about it at the same time.

Merga saw no point in pushing it, for now, and ordered her [familiar] to stop its activities and remain dormant.

She started walking back towards her study, hoping to catch her target still red-eyed, so to further fluster him, and then leave him speechless by presenting the weapon with precise timing to ‘sweep’ him off his feet.

Truly, it was a long time since she’s had this much fun teasing someone.

A quick look through [Sweepy] showed her that he was really getting into the books now, and quickly reconsidered her course of action: She didn’t have to interrupt him now, just to joke-mock him about him crying, it would be best to leave him to self-improve his ‘weaving’.

After all, outside being the feared [Depth Witch], she was his [Teacher], so she would look out for him, bedding him notwithstanding.

So she decided to go bother one of her colleagues to pass the time.

* * *

So, apparently, one normally can’t ‘create’ sentient beings, since that would require them to have a soul, and a [Soul] is an all-encompassing [Matrix] that holds the ‘meaning’ of someone’s existence, and since you can’t put a [Matrix] inside another [Matrix] without them [Dispelling] each other, it was taught that you had to either [Summon] already existing creatures (either from another world, or those already contracted and then met), or [Construct] responsive machinery that could follow simple commands.

That is also why [Summoned] items don’t hold [Enchantments] very well, since, every time they were called, they naturally disrupted every added [Matrix] on it.

All this to say that I totally lucked out on my [Abnormality] and [Aberrantness] that makes me bullshit my way through insurmountable walls like they weren’t even there.

“I mean, don’t I already have the marks of a completely broken character, or what!?”

…

“[Buddy]?”

It wasn’t like him to not reply to direct questions, and that made me worry about his state.

“[Buddy], are you alright? Talk to me!”

Calm down, I was just wondering whether I had a Soul or not, but since we are soul-bonded, and you managed to create a bonafide familiar, I started analyzing instead what differentiates a really complex Matrix from a Soul.

“Oh? That’s a really good point: How much does it take for an ‘artificial’ [Matrix] to be indistinguishable from an actual [Soul]? Is it objective, or subjective? Is the difference not that clear after all?

Man, that’s really trippy to think about; one could easily lose himself into the discussion.”

Exactly my point and the System seems purposely sparse about the information on this matter.

“Typical.”

I got back to studying, momentarily done with that distraction, and immersed myself in my newfound passion: [Totems], and [Turrets]. All examples of what an ‘intelligent’ [Construct] normally is, and both are much safer, and predictable in their outcome, than [Summoning] from other planes, bonding with other creatures, making [Golems], or even whatever bullshit-method, that seems to be fueling my [Abilities], works with.

Two specific ideas are what I’m working with… mostly: [Totem of Shielding] and [Auto-targeting Ballista Turret].

Specific [Spells] and [Skills] are normally described through whatever inane thought passed through the head of those that taught to who wrote about it, coupled with very in-depth descriptions of the results.

Merga’s books avoided much of the fluff and focused mostly on what is actually useful: The most common intention behind its [Spell-weaving], how they end up working, how they could be modified, and tested improvements that one could apply.

Truthfully speaking, all I needed was the ‘technical’ side of things, where they explain how it works and how it can be altered, since my imagination, combined with my [Traits] and [Abilities], did all the ‘heavy lifting’.

That, and the fact that [Constructs] can be technically [Evoked] multiple times, making different instances exist at the same time, which became even more true thanks to my [Create] that doesn’t necessitate materials, I now had everything I needed to just throw an infinity of adds to my enemies (or at least as long ad my Mana allowed it).

And what did I think about that?

“[Buddy], I know what we’re gonna do today!”

Way to ruin a monumental occasion.

“That’s the real me! All puns and references!

You thought I was insufferable before? You haven’t seen anything yet!”

I followed the thought by assuming a ‘super-hero pose’, much to the further chagrin of [Buddy].

And to mine, of chagrin, since Merga decided to enter exactly at that moment.

“What is that pose supposed to be?”

I found myself too embarrassed to respond, and, by the grin on her face, she somehow knew it too.

And then she caught the occasion to throw me a long staff, which promptly bonked on my unprepared head.

Looking at the weapon, that I managed to grasp before it hit the ground, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind: “Isn’t the guy the one that is supposed to present his ‘rod’?”

One audibly amused groan, and another written in all-caps, were the only responses that I got from that.