Chapter 148 - Imprint (Patreon)

I did have my suspicions, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I did hope it won't be like this.

Obviously, I ended up being right.

"How much do you know?" First, I need to find out how much she knows, and how much she is under the influence of the system.

"Little pup, I'm absolute of my planet. Obviously, I know a lot," she answers once again. This time I observe it a bit more and find out how terrifyingly difficult what she does is. She uses the tiniest amount of mana to vibrate the air to create soundwaves; she is even skilled enough to make them mimic her original voice.

Who the heck would even bother with that?

"System, tutorial, second floor, floor quests, third floor, repeat that."

"I do not appreciate your tone," she says before continuing, "System, tutorial, second floor, floor quests, third floor," she just repeats it all.

Oh boy, this is getting fun. I move closer and sit in front of the thing that used to be my left hand. Just from a few sentences we exchanged I notice that she is a bit different from the Lissandra I knew. How to say it, her personality is a bit off?

"Could you explain it to me?" I say.

"I could, but first, I have to say that I'm quite disappointed by your usage of mana, little pup. I find it really inadequate."

"I find your lack of an actual body more inadequate."

"..."

"Go on, try to poke me again, granny, you are not so scary any…"

Before I finish, a small pulse of mana can be felt from the fleshy item on the ground. The amount is so ridiculously small that I almost do not bother defending against it. It just feels like someone blowing a little bit of air from their nose. That's how minuscule the amount is.

Yet, I do remember who Lissandra was and send disruptive mana at it, even creating a shield in front of it.

The whiff of mana sent at me then absorbs the disruptive mana and reflects it at me. That mana then proceeds to delete my shield from existence and engulfs my entire body, totally breaking my hold over my mana. Then it hits me, sending sharp pain through my entire body.

It's as if someone kicked my crotch, just the pain repeating all over the entirety of my body. The pain disappears as quickly as it came, but the feeling lingers behind.

"My usage of mana is trash," I groan quietly.

The item lets out something resembling a laugh, and Lissandra continues, "You were always fun to observe, little pup."

*****

The Lissandra I knew on the second floor is dead, like actually dead, and the thing in front of me is something more akin to a fingerprint or imprint, as it calls itself.

So yeah, she did try to transfer her mind to me during her last moments but wasn't able to do so; the system is just set up that way. It doesn't want natives of the floor to mess with our minds. Killing us is fine, taking over our minds is a no-no.

So she came up with a plan after being unable to escape from under the influence of the system. She left her imprint, the fingerprint of her mind inside the Peacemaker she gave me and set it up to try to infuse me when the item breaks.

She did hope I would observe her as long as possible, in hopes that her [Singularity] might confuse the system a bit, she also threw the Peacemaker in a way that I would use my left hand to grab it. All for a tiny chance that the hand created within the tutorial might help with all of this.

The entire plan then relied on me staying as long as possible and the Peacemaker breaking on the second floor, as she is sure passing through the portal would wipe out her imprint from the item.

And yes, the woman partially knew about the system, before the end she learned a bit about the system without letting it know. She did it all under the influence of the system that kept messing with her head.

The woman is a monster, absolute and terrifying. Even as a copy, a much weaker version of her original self, she was able to mess with the system and show it a massive middle finger.

So in the end her plan did work and did not work. It did work because she was able to leave her imprint on the palm of my left hand, bearing a tiny amount of her mana. The problem, for her, not for me, is that she wasn't able to leave my left hand and rewrite my mind. She also wasn't able to absorb my mana to slowly restore herself either.

She says it without hesitation, easily revealing that she would have deleted my mind and replaced it with hers if she could've.

Probably thanks to the system still somehow limiting her or imprint being imperfect, she is unable to do so and unable to get more mana, having to rely on the tiny amount she has now.

"So how did you even listen up until now?"

"I simply translated vibrations as you talked into words, and I often used a small amount of mana to observe a bit more. It's all basics."

Only someone like her could call things like this basics.

"Should I burn you? I don't think you can do much more than cause me some pain. The system won't allow you to rewrite my mind. Plus if you use up all of your mana, you will disappear."

"Both of us know you won't do that."

The storm already starts to rage outside. Strong wind, ever-reaching mist, and it's dark inside. Yet I don't care and continue to observe the thing in front of me. How much I can learn from being like her? How dangerous it even is to keep this thing near me.

“Now then, shall we make a deal?” she says.

I move even closer and infuse one of my orbs with thermal energy, making it glow and radiate heat while it floats in the air, creating flickering shadows as the house I'm in continues to creak under the strong wind.

“It is most likely impossible for me to get a new body or continue to exist after I spend all the mana within the imprint. The system won't allow that. So, little pup, to make it worth your time I'll teach you and I will help you fix some of your terrible habits,” she pauses and then continues, "and for that, I want a simple thing."

This time even though its voice is made only with the help of mana, I can hear deep anger and hate in it.

“I'll give you coordinates of my world, of a most likely dead world where only I'm still alive. When you are strong enough, you will get there and pass to me the message I will leave you.”

Even though the item contains only a tiny amount of mana, I can almost feel the terrifying pressure of someone strong enough to be called absolute. Being way beyond any logic and someone even the system was unable to replicate or contain fully.

"And then, when the original me learns that this cheeky system dared to copy her, she will go and find it,” her words are full of despise, “And when she finds the system or being responsible behind it, she will fuck it up.”

*****

I'm not going to lie, Lissandra is scary, like goddamn. Who creates a copy of her consciousness just to try to screw over someone who pissed her off and dared to use her for the tutorial. Talk about holding a grudge.

The thing is that I believe that she might just try to do that. The second floor showed us the end of the second floor, which was caused by the Mind Mage Emperor manipulating Champion Tristan into sacrificing his life and using [Dawn]. I believe she would survive that if that's how her word ended.

It doesn't matter if everyone on the planet died or if the system copied it thousands of years ago. I'm sure she would still be alive.

“First, we will do something about your body. From watching you, I understand how you like to go about things, but to be honest, it's dumb. Having mana keep threatening your own body is good, but it stops being funny when you keep getting wrecked by your own mana.”

Oi, there is no need to be such a douche about that.

“Putting stats into mana is good, it's just amazing that you didn't use it to temper your body actively and only let the passive strain of your mana temper it.”

Temper what? Active tempering? Passive tempering? Why does it all sound so interesting?

“You have to talk, I won't be wasting my mana just because it's bothersome for you to open your mouth.”

Ouch, that did sting a little.

“Tell me more about active tempering,” I say.

“I still dislike your tone, even now it somewhat pisses me off. Your eyes were the same,” even as she is saying it, I can hear a hint of amusement in her words, “That's what made it so fun to watch. But enough  nonsense, there are multiple ways  to go about it, but the easiest would be to do what you were doing up until now, just more actively.”

Why do I have a feeling that this is going to hurt?

“We will use the thing you created around your heart to send strong waves of energy through your body and pummel it until it either breaks or becomes stronger.”

“...”

I knew it.

***

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