I could feel Winter licking at the edges of my mind as I walked, almost urging me to delete the entire conversation I just had with Autumn for the sake of my own mental well-being. The one issue being that this felt more like a 'stuff it down and don't think about it' kind of problem. Erasing it entirely could lead to worse outcomes than just ignoring it would.

And it wasn't like I used memory removal for my problems all that often. I would know if I was getting addicted to something. I had plenty of experience dealing with addictions back on Earth.

And boy, what I would give to have this power back there. It would have made sleeping at night far easier. Now I didn't even have to sleep, and I wasn't looking back. Not even for a moment.

Gods, I miss being able to time skip once or twice a day.

While walking down to the coast and ignoring my ability to forget all of my problems and only remember the good parts of life, I looked through the large number of Skill options to pick the ones I liked.

Ugh. There were so many. I hoped there wasn't an imp that had to individually come up with every Skill. Their job would suck, and nobody deserved that. If I ever had to design a System in the future, I'd just force one Skill on the user and be done with it. Choice was overrated.

Would I ever get a chance to build a system? I was following Eryx's footsteps as a Soul Weaver, if only in the most basic fashion so far. Though, maybe I shouldn't try and replicate the achievements of a god dedicated to that path. I didn't plan on going all in on Soul Weaving unless it gave me some kind of advantage.

I was a witch and a craftsthing, my hands were already full.

As for the Skills, it seemed like I could pick any two of the six Species Skills I had available. I didn't realize I could save Skill options until now. Not that it would have changed my choices much. I'd rather have a Skill immediately, not the potential for a better Skill later.

After all, what if avoiding selecting a Skill got me killed?

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Winter Magic Focality] Tier: [Basal] Description: [Reattune yourself away from Nature and towards the Winter subset of Nature Mana.] Effect: [Increases the Effectiveness of Winter Mana by 250%. Aura takes on the qualities of Winter. Winter-related Concepts no longer strain the soul when called upon. Renders you incapable of holding any other kind of Mana besides Winter within your body.]

This was both amazing and complete trash. If I wanted to go really hard with just Winter Mana, then I'd probably pick it. Being able to use Runes to convert whatever types of Mana I needed in the moment within my body was too useful of an ability to just give up, unfortunately.

Then there's the whole overspecialization thing that I was just warned about in the Mana Vein message.

I could probably freeze one of those tortoise shields whole if I took this Skill, though. That would be pretty neat.

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Combat Simulations] Tier: [Wrought - Growth] Description: [Internal Systems perform automatic mapping and predictions based on your observed environment. These predictive systems can be run through a Mana Simulation to simulate combat scenarios.] Effect: [Combat Mode may be enabled when running a Mana Simulation. When Combat Mode is enabled, the data received by your senses is sent to the simulation, creating a rendering of your environment and everything within it. When outside of your senses, predictive models will take over the role of actors providing a real-time view of the battlefield.] Warning: [Predictive models may be inaccurate. The capability of the model scales off the total Wit of networked intelligence. Experience will increase the accuracy of the model.]

I was very close to picking this Skill immediately. Very close. But no, I couldn't just potentially waste a Skill pick without looking at everything.

Having a live simulation of combat running at all times would be incredibly helpful. I knew [Mana Simulations] had combat capabilities that I wasn't using, but that was because it was hard to focus on multiple things at once.

I liked that it was based on the total of the 'networked intelligence,' which I took to mean Novi's existence was actually beneficial to the Skill because she effectively doubled the Wit running across the system as a whole. Which was currently…

I ran some quick math.

It would be 1.02 times our Wit with her current three extra bodies. If we cut back on the number of bodies Novi was running at the same time, we could substantially increase that number. She could also run overwatch with one of her bodies to fill out the simulation.

It also meant that splitting my mind wouldn't affect the simulation at all. Meaning I could leave a dedicated split to handle combat analysis.

Did I want another me running around in my head, though? I'd figure that out later. The Skill was good, no matter what.

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Subsystem Access] Tier: [Special] Description: [After much prodding, you have begun to learn the intricate details as to how your internal System functions.] Effect: [Gives read and write access to the subsystems running within your Core.]

Okay, this was definitely something Novi was up to. I wasn't sure if I wanted to give her more power to watch what I was thinking at all times.

Though this might allow me to unlock those broken parts of my Core System without having to choose Skills relating to them. I was fairly certain I was supposed to have the capabilities [Mana Simulations] when I first arrived in Eternia because literally nothing within my Core changed when I took the Skill. Indicating it was already there, and just needed to be turned on.

In contrast to when I chose [Annexed Domain Establishment] and experienced extra functionality being directly carved into my Core. I shivered at the recollection. It was almost as bad as shaping my own soul. I decided to erase the memory of that pain from my mind so that it wouldn't influence my decision-making when choosing Skills in the future.

The Tier of the Skill was interesting. Special meant that it didn't take up one of my limited Skill slots. I'd have to think about it.

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Communications Array] Tier: [Basal] Description: [You have the requisite Communication Mana being stored within your Core to make improvements. Given the split nature of your soul, this Mana could be used to improve cross-communication. Effect: [Thought transmission between alters is instant and requires no cognitive load. All alters will have instant access to each other's thoughts.]

Did I still have the Astral Echo from the Distributive Array somewhere inside me? I knew I was just generating Space Mana as if it were but I couldn't actually feel it anywhere within my Core circuits. Nor could I feel any Communication Mana.

I honestly thought Novi was using all of it. Was she just storing it somewhere I couldn't see?

This wasn't really the direction I wanted to go. As useful as splitting my soul was, it came with too many drawbacks. Specifically, cutting my Wit into portions made it harder to keep track of things and I liked being able to s.

If I could just make new souls and shove them in my Core, I would. Maybe I could do that with Soul Weaving, become a proper Tulpamancer. I tried to create a Tulpa in high school, but gave up because I kept losing focus and letting him dissipate. Those were lonely times, I think. I couldn't remember them all that well. It just made me feel wistful thinking about them, which usually indicated a sense of loneliness at the time.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Where did I even go to high school again?

Eh, whatever, I didn't have an addiction to erasing my own memories, so forgetting things like this must be normal.

As for the Skill, I had no desire to give Novi permanent access to all of my thoughts in real time. Despite her being me, we needed at least a little bit of separation, otherwise I'd end up ordering her to destroy herself someday. Or maybe asking her to temporarily brick her part of the Core just in case I wanted her back at some point in the future.

She'd have to do it because of the Oath. Also, I thought if I really meant it when I asked, she'd just do it because of how she was.

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Basic Soul Manipulation] Tier: [Basal - Growth] Description: [You have taken the first steps in learning Soul Weaving, manipulating your own soul to carve Mana Veins. This shouldn't have been required, as you already had Mana Veins, but you did it anyway for some reason. You are following in the footsteps of your Creator Deity, despite them never intending you to.] Effect: [Provides a learning module for Basic Soul Weaving.]

Oooo, now this is interesting.

Maybe picking Tulpamancy back up wouldn't be such a bad idea. I could create my own little souls to chat with.

If that's how Soul Weaving even worked. Speaking of, how the hell did it work?

I just chipped away at mine to make some space for Mana to flow in interesting ways. I had no idea what it could actually do besides allowing gods to build systems with it.

Eryx was the god of weaving souls, so he'd know. I could still feel his memory fragment in my ring, completely inaccessible. If I ever got another chance to talk to him, maybe I should ask.

I already had a lot on my plate with the artificery, the ritualism and the… did I have anything else? It felt like I never had enough time on my hands despite not being able to sleep. I supposed you could call photogenic material manipulation a third thing, but that was essentially just the material component of artificery.

Though it had only been like, what, four or five days so far? I'd need hobbies over the millennia I planned to live, and if I decided to throw this one away, I doubted I'd ever get another shot at it. Just something to think about, I suppose.

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Material Decomposition] Tier: [Emblazoned] Description: [You have learned how to break down plant materials into usable forms. Allows materials to be decomposed into their residual properties in the form of sap—

Oh fucking sap, trying to be tricky and hiding in the Skill description are you? Well, I caught you this time, and I'll catch you next time. Ain't no way I'm bringing no untrustworthy sap into my life.

I chose [Basic Soul Manipulation] and [Combat Simulations]. Stacking up on Growth Skills was probably the right choice with my limited slots, and I kind of wanted them anyway.

If I could evolve a Skill from Basal all the way to Eternal, I couldn't even imagine the kind of power it would bring to my toolkit. What would Eternal Tier [Combat Simulations] even do? Could I map out the entire plane at once, tracking every individual entity simultaneously?

That would be cool.

Or was I still thinking too small? I had no idea. My only point of comparison for insane power was that guy who ripped his way through my ritual summon into Eternia.

I couldn't wait for ritual summoning to be allowed again. I had so many entities I wanted to bind to my will.

Anyway, onto Profession Skills.

[Profession Skill Option] Name: [Budding Souls] Tier: [Wrought] Description: [Following the path wrought by your Creator Deity, you have stepped into the realm of Soul Weaving. In conjunction with your connection with Nature, this has opened paths that were not even available to this Deity.] Effect: [Allows unbound souls to be grafted to plant material.]

A strong start, though I had no idea what this even enabled me to do. Maybe I should check out the [Basic Soul Manipulation] package before I made my final decision on which Skill to pick.

Haha, yeah, and maybe I could start being responsible with my time as well. One can dream.

Could I rip the souls out of people and stuff them into plants to create my own variety of Spriggans? Who knew?!

If that were the case, it might go really well with my ritual summoning capabilities. I could just summon creatures to ritualistically murder and bind them to new bodies made to serve me.

Would that be kind of evil? Maybe. Did I care? Not really. If it gave me cute little minions to serve me, then what did it matter if I was a little evil?

Oh! And this would give me targets to practice Soul Weaving on. A soul bound to a piece of wood couldn't really resist being manipulated.

Actually, that probably depended on the soul.

[Profession Skill Option] Name: [Sigil Empowerment] Tier: [Wrought] Description: [You have learned to weave ritual mechanics within artifacts you develop. Unfortunately, Sigils often conflict with each other when naturally constructed. This Skill will remove cross conflict between Sigils.] Effect: [Allows up to three Sigils to be Weaved into a single Artifact.]

This… Well, I didn't even realize it was a problem. I hadn't really worked with Sigils that much besides during the creation of Autumn's weapon. And they hadn't even used theirs for some reason.

The Skill would allow me to make my final hammer design even better.

Speaking of, I still needed to get around to adding a Sigil to it. Even more things on my to-do list. How was I going to remember all of this? It wasn't as if I had written down any of my personal notes. And even if I did, I wouldn't even check my notepad. Back on Earth, my phone was filled with notes that I never looked at even once.

I thought the soul thing was better when combined with ritual summoning, but this was a good choice in the event that binding a soul to something wasn't actually useful.

[Profession Skill Option] Name: [Ecosynthetic Spatial Continuum] Tier: [Wrought] Description: [The phytogenic materials you work with would never be found in the wild. Instead, they are derived from synthetic processes touched by your Spatial Affinity. This allows for the creation of materials with perfect Mana Harmonic Coupling.] Effect: [Mana stored in any plant material you have created can be accessed as long as your aura is touching it. This Mana can be transferred between materials at will.]

This would have been amazing before I made Rimeshrouded Cambium. Now I could pull in environmental Mana anyway and have my flesh process it.

I could have used this to create massive Mana batteries that I'd have to pre-fill and store in my Inventory. Now that ability seemed kind of obsolete.

It might be useful for transferring Mana, but I thought my Class had a similar Skill that I didn't pick because it just didn't seem that useful. Not when artifacts were powered by ambient Mana.

I picked [Budding Souls] and didn't look back. As the knowledge of the Skill filled my mind, I realized I could do something with it that I had been meaning to for the past twelve hours.

I could stuff souls into Novi's bodies and carve Mana Veins for her!

I was so excited to get started. She'd be able to have access to her own Catalyst instead of mooching off mine.

Actually, did she even have access to my Catalyst anymore? I kind of shifted it towards my Strand, which she shouldn't have access to.

I had just finished walking down to where she was. Increased Wit, allowing me to think so quickly, was a welcome benefit. I really needed to improve the efficiency of Novi's bodies so they stopped consuming so much of it.

Just another thing I had to do.

"Hey, did you lose access to your first Catalyst?" I asked Novi who was sitting atop a wall that hadn't been there earlier in the day.

She perked up at the sound of my voice, and after a moment of looking at her Status sheet, she turned back to me, "Yeah, it's gone. What did you do?"

"So I have good news and bad news," I replied. "The good news is we're gonna get you your own set of veins! Hurray!"

Novi hopped off the wall to join me, "And what's the bad news?"

"Oh, it's gonna hurt like hell putting them in. But don't worry, I'll do it as quickly as I can," I replied as I picked her up.

She gulped nervously, "What do you mean by putting them in?"

"That's the best part! Check out all these new Skills I got," I said, shoving the memory of the past thirty seconds I spent picking Skills into her mind along with the memory of the pain I went through upgrading my Veins.

"Ohhh boy, I'm so excited," Novi said, taking a step back before bolting.

"Hey! Get back here! It'll be good for you!" I yelled after her.

She froze in place before walking back to me in a janky robotic manner as the Oath forced her to take every step.

"Well, maybe not right now, actually. I need to get a soul somewhere… Do you think we could go fishing? Fish have souls, right?" I asked aloud.

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