"...First what? You have been holding your finger like that for five seconds now," Glory said annoyed at Alexa.

Alexa wasn't sure how long one needed to do the pause to get the maximum effect, she was not the theater guy or the scrambled guy…Actually, did the scrambled guy do these things? Alexa arrived late, so she wasn't sure.

Not that it mattered.

"Fine," Alexa said, sighing, "You want to know what would change, right?"

Alexa turned once again and started writing on the whiteboard, "First of all, the emotion thingy will not be as regulated as it is now; right now, you have the chemical stability of a [Adult - Human stage]," What else? Oh right, "I would need to fix way too many parts of your interior to normal levels, you have accelerated and improved digestive system, you burn too much energy to compensate for the nice things you have. Also, your Consciousness Streams may diverge more…"

Like Alexa!

"You will not have a guaranteed build to look forward to, as it is, your [Blueprints] are working in stockpiling energy and mass to grow in certain ways; that will no longer be the case. You will grow to what you work torward." Alexa had taken a peek at the future Glory and Alan, and while she wasn't one to judge…She wasn't what to think, since Alexa said she wasn't one to judge!

But she had the image, so she may show it to them later; they needed to know what they would lose or something; she could perhaps do a partial shift? Maybe? But she would refrain from, she didn't want to explain that quite yet.

"We know about that," Glory said, standing up with some help from Alan, "They have shown us how we are supposed to look; the images have some margin of error, of course, since there are things that even genetic therapy can't compensate for."

There were?

Alexa hadn't found any of those yet.

"So we will have a less stable emotional intelligence?" Glory asked, "Anything else?"

"That is kind of a big thing," Alexa said turning around, "But no, Alexa did not say that, what Alexa said is that your emotional thingy will be more unstable. You have already formed a stable Consciousness Stream, at worst you will be pulled down to the normal emotional responses."

Alexa wasn't quite sure how that would look, perhaps they would be more like her?

"I think you could end more like Alexa," Alexa decided to say, "But Alexa can't confirm anything; she hasn't gone through that kind of modifications, mostly because they aren't fun."

"They aren't fun?" Alan asked from the side, surprised, "What do you mean? You could have these modifications? And you just… don't?"

What was he asking?

"Of course Alexa could, they aren't even that hard to make." Alexa said, shrugging. Really, if anything, it was closer to how she had been when she had just started using her body; it was a highly inefficient way to dampen the emotions. Probably why they all sounded so weird, if the class of the elite was filled with people like these then it was no wonder.

They probably put them all in the same place to monitor them like that.

"And Alexa has used a version of it, but it was boring and the world was too gray for Alexa's taste." Alexa didn't like a world that gray; it was boring! Boring Alexa said! "Besides the emotion thingy, Alexa will remove most of the things that help that, unlock the limiters to growth and focus…Fix the kidney and liver thingies…"

What else could Alexa do?

"Hmm……Also, Alexa could fix the genetic thingy that will make the Cancer sick?" Alexa had seen evidence of some cells that seemed propense to make that Sick, "And that would be about it? Alexa isn't sure about modifying the [Brain] and [Heart], so she will leave those alone, though she hasn't found where the Conscious Stream is housed in non-[Core Users]."

"Okay stop, wait a second." Alan said raising his hand and using the other to nurse his head, "Cancer? You saw Cancer in us?"

"No?" Alexa said confused, "She saw evidence of some cells that seem to grow in that direction, I guess that it may devolve into that. But Alexa hasn't found the reason why they move like that. She needs more time, perhaps grow a few…."

"No!" "NO!" Both Alan and Glory screamed at the same time. They looked at each other, and Alan nodded to Glory.

"Please don't ever make cancerous cells." Glory said standing forward Alexa, "Cancer is anathema for shapeshifters. Once they recognize the cancer cells as part of their body, they start growing out of control. Father told me that if I made a Shapeshifter Core, I would need to break it or mentalize myself into the idea of a horrifying death."

The what now?

But… couldn't they just….not? It was a [Human Disease], surely they would have studied it enough to know how to treat it when not in a designated Cancer gestation [Human] right?

".... can't you…fix it if it isn't compatible with your [Core]?" Alexa asked confused about that. Was this another type of thing that the [Humans] understood naturally?

"...No one can cure cancer, Alexa," Glory said, shaking her head, "We can treat it, sometimes, if it is possible to remove it, but no one can truly cure Cancer."

"Or no one is supposed to be able anyway…if what you say is true….then you will need to be very careful about who you tell about it." Alan said from the side.

What? Again?!?!?!?

Why was it always like this! Alexa wanted to brag about her [Core] too dang it!

"....I mean, Alexa isn't sure if it is the same sick…" Alexa said, kicking an imaginary rock, "Maybe the Cancer sick Alexa is speaking isn't the same?"

"....Good try, but you described the only type of cancer existing." Alan said, shaking his head, "We will not tell anyone about it, don't worry. But you need to be more careful."

….Dang it!

"Okay…" Alexa said in a small voice, "So, do you want to do it?"

Alexa had spent enough time going through the [Blueprints] of Alan and Glory; she was ready. She had isolated their [Brain] and [Heart], and she would leave alone the parts of their body that made them more susceptible to absorb Mana too.

She wanted to see if her modification to those parts of their body would help them or not, she had noticed that her body and those of people she had scanned had the same thing under their circulatory system.

Like a shadow to the veins and arteries, only instead of moving blood and nutrients, Mana was moving through them. She wasn't even entirely sure if they were on the physical or metaphysical, since her [Blueprints] half the time seemed to include things that weren't visible to her normal Nanites and only were visible to her Mk1 nanites.

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"I'll go first," Alan said taking one step towards Alexa, "What do you need me to do?"

What did Alexa need him to do…She really didn't need him to do anything, did she?

"Lay on the floor," But Alexa would play it safe, "Put your hands to your sides, close your eyes, and think about how cute Alexa is."

Perhaps the last one wasn't really needed, "As you say Princess." ALEXA WOULD NOT FALL FOR HIS HONEYD WORDS! SHE KNEW THAT ALAN WAS GLORY'S PARTNER THINGIE!

ALEXA WOULD NOT BE DECEIVED!

"......" ALEXA WAS NOT BEING DECEIVED.

"What now Princess?" Alan asked from the floor, with his eyes closed.

…Could Alexa…perhaps hit him? They wouldn't know it wasn't part of the treatment, right? But then she would need to also hit Glory…and she didn't want to bonk Glory with a five-ton hammer….

"Alexa is going to poke you, don't flinch or open your eyes." Alexa said raising her hand and turning it into her wiggle configuration, there wasn't any reason to do that of course, but she wanted to be ready to fix any issue that cropped up while doing this.

So she moved a wiggle into each part of Alan's body, splitting the wiggles across his body surface equally.

One wiggle to each arm and leg, one wiggle to his tummy, chest and finally five wiggles to his head, one for each ear, one for each eye and one into his mouth.

She laced each of the wiggles with paralyzing agent and numbing agent so he wouldn't notice it… too much anyway.

He may feel some pressure, "You may feel some pressure, but don't mind it." Alexa said focusing into what her wiggles told her, they feed her an updated blueprint of Alan that also included a full debrief of his vital signs. He had a slightly accelerated pulse, and his breathing seemed to be taking a dive…

Why?

"....Can he even breathe like that?" Glory asked from the side, so Alexa looked at Alan's face as his lips turned slightly blue…why couldn't….

"Oh right, Alexa's wiggle is on his mouth…" Alexa said understanding the issue, "Alexa will fix it, she will give Alan some Oxygen manually. Let me just…tweek….tei!"

Alexa said and a pipe extended from the wiggle, and another one opened inside Alan's throat, it would feed Oxygen straight into his lungs. Alexa felt Alan attempting to make a gesture with his hand and interpreted the electric signals to parse the meaning; it was a thumbs-up gesture.

So that meant that he was fine!

"Okay, O2 stabilizing….pulse slowing to more normal levels….All vitals stable…" Alexa said as the data went across her mind, no problems seemed to be around, "Starting to locate energy reserves….calculating amount of biomass needed…"

Alexa… didn't have much to work with her personal reserves and Alan's body…She would need to dip into her [Banked Storage], but could she use it if she wasn't going to use it with [Core]?

She hadn't attempted to do this, but she wasn't sure if it would work well if she wanted to pull it into her body and then move it into Alan, the tendrils were there of course, but could she move biomass that fast?

She didn't want to inflate Alan first then to deflate him as she used the biomass, it would look weird…

Core? Can you…like….help?

Core:

Do you wish to update Subject: Alan Harmonia?

Select Blueprint:

-Alan Harmonia (Designed Human)

-Alan Harmonia (Altered Designed Human)

-Alan Harmonia (Original form)

"Can you show me what there is inside each?" Alexa said to Core.

"Alexa? Who are you speaking…?" Glory asked, but Alexa ignored her, "Also why do your eyes look like that?"

Like what?

Core:

Blueprint debriefing:

-Alan Harmonia (Designed Human):

It's the original Blueprint acquired from studying Alan Harmonia's Blueprint; this will return him to the form you knew him the first time you got the Blueprint.

-Alan Harmonia (Altered Designed Human):

It's the version of the previous Blueprint adjusted to Host's desires, there is some degree for modification to this yet, it is possible to set it up so Subject: Alan Harmonia experiences certain chemical reactions to dedicated keyphrases or visual stimuli.

-Alan Harmonia (Original form):

It's the version that Subject: Alan Harmonia would have if he didn't have any modification to his Blueprint; this may result in Subject: Alan Harmonia experiencing some memory loss and some mental degradation.

[No blueprint will incur damage to the subject or Host; any damage resulting from a shift in Blueprint will come as a secondary side effect to the change itself. But the Blueprint will not be responsible for any damage by itself]

"Glory, you want to maintain some degree of your mental and emotional development, right?" Alexa asked to Glory, since she could only get vague answers from Alan right now.

"Yes," Glory said, nodding, "If possible, we will not mind if we lose some degree of emotional intelligence…But if you can keep our mind as stable as possible, we will be thankful."

"Heard that Core? That means that it's the second option," Alexa said, turning to the blue screen in front of her, "Also, no funny business."

Alexa didn't want to do those weird things; why would she want Alan to have an increased number of oxytocin? What would that even serve to help? Or the dopamine hormone? Why would Alexa want that to increase whenever Alan did something Alexa told him to do?

That was stupid, Core was being stupid.

Core:

Acknowledged, building up virtual Blueprint, checking….

Running in virtual enviroment….

No errors detected…

Setting up file…

Setting up materials needed….

Preparing….

Ready.

Do you want to execute the Blueprint Update, Alan Harmonia (Designed Human) to Alan Harmonia (Altered Human)? Y/N.

Alexa went through the changes that Core had suggested; there didn't seem to be anything out of place, and she noticed that Core had even fixed some errors in her original design of the Mana pathways that she wanted to carve in Alan.

Core had even set up a place for the Mana to condense itself and prepare for a Core trigger event.

No, wait, could this trigger a Core generation?

Core:

Possibility of Core awakening at 77.777%

 

Starting recording.

Start what? But it wasn't something sure to happen-

Core:

Detected mana saturation in the area…

Mana Flow Speed: 145.2 m/s (6.8x baseline levels, extreme acceleration detected) Mana Density: 543 MP/m³ (Sudden surge from the ambient 42 MP/m³ level, marking it as a highly volatile zone during formation.) Mana Composition: Pure Mana: 72% Wish Mana: 18% Mind Mana: 10% Mana Stability: Moderate (Core formation has stabilized, but surrounding mana remains highly active.) Core Size: 17.3 cm diameter (Medium-grade mana core, suitable for artifact crafting or advanced spell amplification.) Core Purity: 82% (Above-average purity, indicating strong energy condensation.) Core Type: Primary Type: Body Type Core. Potential Applications: To be analyzed. Leyline Activation: Unstable fluctuations detected. The leyline beneath the formation site temporarily reached an output rate of 180% above normal. Residual Effects: Mana density in the region is expected to remain 35% above normal levels for the next 72 hours.

"Alexa?!?!? What is happening?!?!?!?" Glory asked as she was thrown back against one of the walls.

Heh, Glory needed to work more on her body, imagine being thro-

"Wah!" Alexa was suddenly thrown away as her wiggles got vaporized, and Alexa felt the sting as the few nanites that hadn't been self-destructed inside Alan's body got suddenly cut away from her control.

She wasn't worried about that since her Nanites had strict protocols to follow, and they would self-destruct when away from her Mana field, but still!

That stung! She liked those nanites! They had been helping her! Okay no, most of the original nanites that she had had long gone away and replaced by new generations, the model kept mostly the same functions, since there was only so much Alexa could change in them…

Or Main Core, since he was the one responsible for keeping them working….When he wasn't sulking, that is.

This was the first time that she had used them by herself, and even then, she had mostly depended in Core to do the heavy lifting, she had been relegated to provide the materials and being cute about it.

"AH!" And meanwhile since Alan no longer had a wiggle stuck inside his throat he started screaming! Alexa was the one who wanted to scream!

"Alexa! What did you do!?!?!?" Glory also screamed! Alexa did nothing!

"Alexa fixed Alan's Mana pathways!" Alexa screamed back to Glory, "He had a couple malformed ones, so Alexa fixed them and set them up nicely, Core said it could initiate a Core Trigger event, but wasn't sure!"

Only 77.7777% of generating a Core, but this looked closer to 100%!

"Well, it worked!" Glory screamed back while attempting to move forward.

"Core! I hope you are recording this!" Alexa screamed while moving away from Alan, she was getting the readings and she didn't like them. Not while she didn't have Main Core to help her administer all these mana wavelengths, Mana was a type of radiation, and as far as she was aware, she was not graded for Mana radiation!

Core:

Recording in progress…

Core Location: Centralized in the Solar Plexus Core Formation Time: 42 seconds (Rapid stabilization – highly abnormal.) Host Vital Signs: Stable, Elevated Mana Output Detected Internal Mana Flow Speed: 312.5 m/s (Drastic increase from estimated baseline of ~12 m/s.) Core Density: 785 MP/m³ (Far beyond standard human mana capacity; adaptation required.)

Physical Changes: ✔️ Increased Vitality – Cellular regeneration has accelerated by 27%. ✔️ Enhanced Sensory Perception – Human senses seem to be increasing in real time. ✔️ Heightened Reflexes – Neural response time increased by 1.8x.

✔️ Passive Mana Absorption – Subject is now automatically drawing in ambient mana at 4.6 MP/m³ per second. ✔️ Natural Core Compression – Core seems to be self-regulating, meaning external reinforcement may not be necessary.

[Also, Host is equalizing the mana readings naturaly, there is no risk from being exposed to Mana radiation.]

Well she wasn't walking near that quite yet either way, she didn't want to miss anything by going closer, yes. She was going to use that excuse!

"....Is he going to be okay? I thought the Core trigger was shorter event?" Glory asked as she skidded to a stop near Alexa.

The girl had been pushed back, but instead of going back, she had moved towards Alexa, smart girl.

Now…was he going to be okay?

"Yes," Alexa said, she wasn't sure of that, but…surely Alan's wish couldn't hurt him right? Perhaps…perhaps Alexa could even use this as a way to get more data in Cores? The last Core triggering event she saw was the one that brought her the [Core] she used right now…And she didn't quite have as good mana sensors then. "He will be okay…and maybe with the data from this, your own [Core Trigger] will not be as dramatic."

Alexa could dream about that, right?

Surely Glory wouldn't make a mess like this…right?

"My what?" Glory asked, turning to Alexa and ignoring Alan.

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