Chapter 493 - Logic Core (Patreon)

I spend enough time in this damned tower to be able to temporarily take over the defensive array, especially now that Sophie has locked herself in her room and refuses to leave.

I also know I promised Izzy to wait but this is taking way too long already.

That’s why I’m now standing in front of the door to her room, taking control of the web and defenses to let myself in.

The door opens, and I enter. “I do realize you keep throwing ash on your head because you got tricked by that dumbass, but you promised to tell me about Blackie and about that Logic Core thing…”

My words stop there as I see Sophie lying on the floor as Tess pulls her by the leg. Sophie looks… well… not the best. Messy hair and clothes, big bags under her eyes, and signs of dried blood under her nose. There’s even a bruise under one of her eyes.

Tess looks even worse. Marks as if someone clawed her forearms, bites, a few bruises, and clothes torn in places.

“Hey,” Tess smiles brightly. She follows my eyes to Sophie and shrugs, “Did you know she locked herself in her room for days, spending more time wallowing in self-pity than actually examining her mind?”

“Fuck off, Tess…” Sophie curses in a hoarse voice.

“Sure, sure.” Tess smiles even more and, ignoring it, continues to pull her through the floor, and Sophie, with her physical stats, just can’t fight against it. The battle marks left on Tess are probably something Tess herself allowed, as I’m sure she is more than capable of pummeling that black-haired mind mage.

“I’ll take her to bathe and make her dress properly. After that, I’ll bring her to this floor’s terrace so she gets some fresh air. You can talk with her there.”

Both of the girls disappear around the corner, and only then does Izzy poke out.

“Your work?” I ask.

“I asked Tess for help,” Izzy confirms, and Noodle, the size of an anaconda, shrinks and climbs to coil around her arm.

“Good job.”

“Even though Sophie doesn’t say it, she…” Izzy lowers her voice, “she looks up to Tess a bit.”

“Didn’t Sophie give Tess that beautiful shiner on the eye when we were under Mana Desert?”

“Yes, it’s weird, isn’t it?”

“People…”

“Yes, people!” Izzy agrees. “When you were messing with her web, she wanted to storm out of the room a few times and called you a dumb fuck before giving me lessons on what you did wrong.”

“I’ve heard worse.”

Both of us enter the hallway, the doors closing behind us and protections reactivating. Together we head toward the terrace, where we sit down on one of the armchairs I stole from a different floor and left there.

It’s night, so it’s cold, but Izzy doesn’t seem to have any problem with that. Her body radiates an impressive amount of inner heat. Even so, I take it upon myself, and one of my thermal cubes floats over the small table, generating soft light and comfortable, even heat.

The view from the tower so high up is beautiful, even on this messed-up floor. Lights shine down below, each tower having windows glowing lightly into the night. There are even some on the bank of the lake. And then there is this purple nebula in the sky and a myriad of stars.

It takes half an hour, and Sophie and Tess join us, both wearing different clothes and the wounds they had nearly fully healed with just the power of their natural regeneration.

Tess rushes in first and sits next to Izzy, which forces Sophie to sit in the armchair alone.

The silence that ensues is awkward as it stretches over a few minutes until Sophie breaks it, “I think that fucker was only able to do three things.”

This time, Izzy doesn’t complain about Sophie’s language.

Sophie lifts her first finger, “He planted something akin to thought anchoring. The first one was to avoid clashing with him or his forces. He did it very covertly, and my mind made up the excuses on its own. There was also an impulse here was to even forget that I met him. This was the riskiest one and the one I was most likely to notice. But I didn’t.”

She lifts the second finger, “The second thought anchor was a desire to control as many mind mages as possible.”

The last finger lifts, “The last one was the most open one—relying on myself, cutting myself off from the others, and focusing on the things within the city. Just a slight push in that direction.”

As these words sound off, Sophie buries her head in her palms and sighs, “Without him renewing and adding to them, these thought anchors should dissipate over time, removed by my natural defenses, but… if he got a few weeks longer… he would have been able to influence me more and more without me even noticing.”

“He begged before he died. I’m pretty sure he cried as well,” I throw in.

In reaction to that, Sophie looks up at me, and I return that gaze. “You fucked up,” I tell her.

“I fucked up,” she confirms.

“Really fucked up.”

“Yes, I guess I got a taste of my own medicine, didn’t I?”

“Yep, fuck mind mages. Anyway, what’s the deal with Blackie?” I change the subject, considering this topic settled.

“Nat, you don’t want her to talk about that thought anchor? You might be able to help.” Tess interrupts.

“What can I do? I’m not a mind mage, and it’s up to her to deal with that shit. If she thinks I could help, she can ask me anytime. So, Blackie?”

“It’s okay, Tess, I’ll deal with it on my own.”

“Don’t forget me,” Izzy reminds her.

To that, Sophie smiles at her lovingly and nods before turning back to me, “Blackie is what remains of that Champion’s bond—a really small piece of it.”

Her shadow moves as if it’s alive and becomes three-dimensional. No certain shape, but it moves like water, smoke, mist; it’s hard to describe.

“That small piece escaped with us then, and Biscuit wanted to eat it, but I made a deal with him and then let the bond stick to me. It was looking for a new master after the Champion died, and with my [Manipulation], I was able to take it in.”

“Are you sure nothing of the Champion remains? Can’t it try to take over, kill you, or something?” Tess asks her.

Shaking her head, Sophie reaches toward her shadow, and it reaches back to her. “I, of course, can’t be absolutely sure, it’s the Champion’s bond we’re dealing with. But I think it’s highly unlikely. Plus, it’s very weak without a connection to its master. I think that Champion got imprisoned because he was experimenting with creating artificial minds, and to that, he likely experimented on entire cities full of people. Blackie is the result of that, an artificial mind with no emotions—a tool that grows with its master.”

“Can it think on its own?” I ask.

“It’s difficult to explain… I wouldn’t say it can think. It’s reminds more of a array that can react to certain stimuli—but taken much further. It is something akin to a collection of an immense amount of information, behavioral patterns. A bit like a mix between a mind imprint and a program. Nat, you said Lissandra created a near-perfect copy of her mind, and I think that Champion was experimenting to be able to do something similar, and his bond was one of the steps to that goal.”

“But Blackie isn’t him nor has his memories?”

“No, but there’s a chance in certain situations, for which I didn’t program or teach it, it will behave in the way that Champion programmed, likely based on the way the Champion would react.”

Seemingly annoyed by the long conversation, Izzy butts in, “Blackie is like a small pup that was taught by a bad guy. Then that bad guy died, and someone nicer took over, but that pup still has some of that bad behavior learned.”

I look at Sophie, and she hesitates a bit before sighing, “You could say that.”

A bright smile blossoms on Izzy’s face as she stands and pokes Blackie. It pulls back quickly, its reaction seeming surprised or scared, yet completely devoid of emotion. The black shadow swirls around Sophie before turning two-dimensional again.

“More than a living being, it’s a tool,” Sophie concludes.

“What can it do?” Knowing it belonged to a Champion, I’m curious about its capabilities.

“Currently? Not much, and it will never be the same as that Champion’s. It’s now bonded to me, and that bond is similar to the one between Izzy and Noodle, so it will be influenced by my growth and the way I ‘program’ it. But I have learned some things from examining it; the Logic Core is one of these thing.”

To that, I straighten up in my armchair and listen carefully, ignoring Tess, who scoffs at me upon seeing that. Sophie notices as well, and there’s that annoying smirk on her face, but for now, I decide to ignore it and listen carefully.

“I know you can ‘program’ your mana constructs a bit. To make projectiles shoot when a thread of mana is torn, these orbs and such. I also know it’s all very limited, and you have been trying for a while to do more that wouldn’t force you to use part of your mental focus on keeping these things up.”

“And?” I notice that she’s stretching it out on purpose. But those thoughts of self-pity she had seem to be pushed away, so I let her have fun and play along.

“Logic Core could help you; it’s the simplest version of an artificial mind. A process node programmed to kickstart certain tasks or behave differently based on information it gets and on how much you ‘program’ it.”

“I’m listening, Sophie. Please tell me more.”

Her green eyes regain a bit of that glint, “Best of all, it’s all mana-based, a distant variation of inscriptions. I’ll likely always be better at it because of my mind powers, but I’m sure you can imagine all the things you could do with that.”

“We’ll see about who will be better at it.” Then, even though I already have a theory, I ask, “So what idea do you have about using it for Fracture?”

“You said how much concentration it takes off you just to keep it from breaking apart and limiting your ability to use it. With some practice and experimentation, the Logic Core could handle some of the menial tasks in the future.”

I look at my waist where the shortsword is tied and give that a moment of thought.

Something excites me even more than the prospect of wielding this damned weapon: the thought of how much I’ll learn about using the Logic Core in the process and the possibilities it will open.

Instead of storing simple arrays in my mind and maintaining them with [Focus] for deployment, maybe I could store multiple Logic Cores—if I can find a way to deploy them. I don’t expect much at the start, but at higher levels, the Logic Core might operate independently of me.

I like it. I like it a lot.

***

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