Chapter 67 (Patreon)

The wolf felt as if its head was on fire after the ball appeared

This was indeed the heat bomb that Dream made. It was designed to heat everything within the vicinity as quickly as possible using every drop of mana it had. The only downside was that it didn't distinguish between friendly and enemy. It was more of a 'to whom it may concern'. And since Dream was also right next to it, he was on the list.

The wolf immediately began regretting its decision. It crashed into Dream and they both went to the floor. 

The wolf tried to spit out the ball, but its teeth were in the way. Dream had brought out the ball inside its maws, and it had fangs that prevented the ball from coming back out like every wolf does. It was a perfectly devious situation for Dream. 

*ARRRR!!!*

As the ball continued heating the wolf's face, it began to cry out more and more. It didn't even have the mind to remember it was in a battle. It's skin began to melt, its blood boiled along with any other fluid in it's body. The ball heat up everything. 

Where was Dream in all this? He was right there, watching everything. It was fortunate that his armor was enchanted for heat control. Not to mention his own skill was sued to make the bomb. He didn't really have a problem preventing himself from cooking. 

*Boom!*

As the black wolf melted, more shockwaves came from the shields. Several of them shattered with the fireballs. Dream decided he could finally take care of the red wolf.

<You have killed a level 189 [Reaper Wolf]>

<You cannot level up before choosing a class>

Dream put aside the message and took aim at his shield barrier.

*Boom!*

*Dsh*

Right as the fireballs hit the shields again, a gap was opened. Dream fired through the gap straight at the red wolf.

<You have killed a level 177 [Flaming Dire Wolf]>

<You cannot level up before choosing a class>

Dream nodded. The red wolf probably wasn't expecting that.

After that, Dream doused the flames and put away his shield wall. The forest regained its silence. He turned his head to the white wolf, who was standing there looking back at him.

'...Go ahead and kill me, human.'

'...You would just lay down your life?'

'I cannot fight against you. You killed all the alphas, and I am a mere healer. What point is there to resist?'

'...Go back.'

'..?'

The white wolf perked up its ears. Say what?

'Go back to your den. I have no need to kill any more of you. And they need you to survive.'

'...Your pity is an insult. It's hypocritical! You killed the protectors of the den, but then worry for its survival?'

"Well you aren't the only ones who have something to protect!"

'...'

The wolf went silent at Dream's outburst. Catching himself, Dream calmed down.

'Leave before I change my mind, wolf.'

'...'

The white wolf silently turned and began walking towards its den. When it was out of sight, Dream collected the corpses of the alphas and walked home.

He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

..................

..........

Dream woke up the next day at noon. Sophia notified him when he did.

[The family is in combat again.]

"*sigh*"

He felt tired again after hearing about that. They had been fighting on and off for the past few days. Though nothing crazy ever happened.

Neither Riddick nor the foxes, aside from the first battle, were ever really injured. It was small skirmishes that always ended with the foxes getting away. They were trying to wear out the family. And given long enough, it would work. Luckily Riddick had experience with this and could last a long time, so he didn't need to worry right now.

"Any progress on the DNA?"

[Getting there. It'll be a while though. I'll also need more samples periodically.]

"Alright."

[You should choose your class.]

"Right."

Dream sat up and made himself comfortable. When he did, some notifications popped up.

<Your selection of classes will be based on your Profile and Experience thus far.>

<The choice you make cannot be taken back. Excess experience will be accumulated and gained after the class selection has been made.>

<Select a class.>

1. Magic Engineer
2. Master Artificer
3. Gunner
4. Thermal Mage
5. Blacksmith
6. Enchanter
7. Warlock

"Hmm..."

Dream read the options. There were much less than last time.

"How many options were there before?"

[21.]

"And now there's 7. I can already cross out a few. Definitely not Enchanter or Blacksmith. Not Gunner. Thermal Mage sounds cool but it could be limiting. And I don't plan on becoming a Warlock. That leaves the first two. What's the difference though?"

[If we go purely based on definition, an engineer is someone who builds and designs, and with the word magic in front of it, it likely has to do with building spells or even enchantments. An artificer is more broad though but you could also say it means the same thing. It's someone who's skilled in their craft that has to do with design and building. The only difference is the word Master.]

"So ones a magic engineer and the other is a master engineer? Basically? The Old Man wasn't kidding when he said wording was important. But honestly, I'm already gravitating towards the Master. I doubt that word gets used lightly."

[I think it's better too.]

Dream closed his eyes and thought for a second. He brought up his status screen.

|Profile|

Name: Dream

Species: Human Male

Class: [Mystic]

Titles: [Origin Seeker]

Level: 99

Stats: Strength- D+      Agility- C-

           Stamina- C-       Magic- C+

Passive Skills: [Sophia] Lvl. 30, [MMA Mastery] Lvl. 30, [Vorticular Accumulation] Lvl. 67,

                         [Thermal Fluctuation] Lvl. 30, [Scribe] Lvl. MAX

Active Skills: [Summons From Another World], [Shooting] Lvl. MAX,

                         [Mystify] Lvl. 20, [Solid-State Magic] Lvl. 44, [Gas-State Magic] Lvl. 51,

                         [Liquid-State Magic] Lvl. 43,  [Fire Magic] Lvl. 20, [Regenerate] Lvl. 35,

                         [Imbue] Lvl. MAX >

Given his abilities, he truly was more geared towards design and building than combat. But hey, he could design weapons, so he's had no problems so far. In fact, he wasn't much different than a magician, just that he used mana in a different way.

"...Well, no need to overthink it. I choose [Master Artificer]."

<Class -[Master Artificer]- has been chosen!>

<Experience will be compiled and reformed.>

<[Sophia] has been enhanced>

[Commencing Emulation!]

"Huh?"

Just as the notifications began coming, Sophia eagerly shouted in Dream's mind. He got confused. Wasn't the system supposed to give him abilities right now?

[Breaking down [Imbue] and [Scribe].] 

[Emulating State skills.]

[Breaking down [Fire Magic].]

[Breaking down [Regenerate].]

[Emulating [Mystify].]

[Breaking down [Shooting].]

"Damn, shooting too?"

[Yup! Incorporating System enhancements and bestowals.]

"You really playing the system right now..."

[It touched me, so yes.]

"You mean the enhancement?]

[Of course! Anyway. Gimme a few seconds with these.]

After she said that, Dream, who was looking at his status screen, saw nearly all of his skills disappear.

[You know what, let's break down [MMA Mastery] as well.]

"That's like my only skill left! If we got in a fight right now, I would be pummeled!"

Dream shouted in nervousness. He had never felt so defenseless than right now. Of course, he still totally trusted Sophia, but the fear of something happening right as he is at his weakest was still there. 

[We're all good. I think you forget, but these skills are still under our control. And actually...]

"What? Actually what?"

[Breaking down [Thermal Fluctu-]

"Ahh! I've lost everything!"

[But there's still the vortex!]

"...Oh. I guess you're-"

[Breaking down [Vorticular -]

"Why must you toy with me, woman?!"

Dream shouted to the high heavens. He was defenseless in almost every way now! He went searching through his inventory for something that reminded him of his weakness.

"Ah, the very first revolver I summoned. At least I still have you, you little pea shooter."

[You literally still have the railgun. And your armor!]

Sophia retorted as Dream hugged the revolver like a baby, exasperated by his drama. 

[Give me like 5 more minutes. I'm sure you can survive for that long.]

"Fine."

Dream gave up and laid back into his bed, getting comfy under the sheets. He closed his eyes, but not for long.

[I have done it!]

<You have gained the Active Skill: [Material Magic]>

<[Material Magic] is level 21>

<You have gained the Passive Skill: [Magic]>

<[Magic] is level 4>

<[Sophia] has leveled up!>

<[Sophia] is level 52>

"Hoooolyyy crap..."

Dream, who had just relaxed in his comfy bed, was spurred awake by an influx of mana.

Not only that, but his mind felt... aware?

"It's... I can see!"

[Uhh, I think you're kind of high right now. Give it a few minutes.]

"Like, I'm hyper-conscious. And... Oh my god why can I see cells! And, the fibers. The, the blanket! And why is the floor so dirty! Ahh! There's bacteria everywhere!"

[Ya, you're going to need a minute.]

"I gonna need a FAT minute so I can genocide these ugly bacteria! These have been on me the whole time?! How have I lived so long?!"

................

..........

....

One bacterial crusade later, Dream crashed on his bed and fell asleep. And several hours after that, he woke up.

"*sigh* So? What's the damage?"

Dream spoke to Sophia as his eyes fluttered open. Interesting thing was, he wasn't tired one bit. In fact, he felt incredibly refreshed.

[Well, a minimum of several billion bacteria lost their lives to your brutish methods.]

"Very funny."

[Take a look at your status screen.]

A screen popped up in front of Dream. He took a look at it.

|Profile|
Name: Dream
Species: Human Male
Class: [Master Artificer]
Titles: [Origin Seeker]
Level: 102
Stats: Strength- C      Agility- C
           Stamina- C       Magic- B

Passive Skills: [Sophia] Lvl. 52, [Magic] Lvl. 4

Active Skills: [Summons From Another World], [Material Magic] Lvl. 24

"...Wow, that's a significant change. And why did I get a skill called Magic?"

[It could be otherwise known as mana manipulation.]

"Alright. Where did the other skills go like Mystify?"

[They were either put into those two new skills or I brought them under me as sub-skills.]

"Ok. I haven't actually seen your sub-skills. What are they?"

[Check this out.]

[Sophia]:

• [Mind Space] - A space created from the cognitive ability of the soul. Similar to a virtual space. Informations can be stored and processed here.
  • [Parallel Processing] - Allows user to separate their thought process and analysis of phenomena. Exclusive to: Sophia
  • [Thought Acceleration] - Multiplies thought speed according to level and Agility. 
• [Emulator] - The ability to analyze, copy, and modify skills. Requires understanding of the involved skill signatures.
• [Mana-Matter perception] - The ability to comprehend phenomena in the world through mana.
• [Cognitive Manipulation] - The ability to twist perception. 

"Hmm. I've had mind space haven't I?"

[Yes. It evolved from [Visualization]. The other sub-skills are self-explanatory.]

"What about thought acceleration? Is that the ability that lets you and I have fast conversations?"

[Yup. The rate of aceleration is about 20,000 times. Though It could be dangerous for you to use it to that extent since your brain may not be able to handle it. But for me, It's perfect. And parallel processing let's one part of me think about analysis while accelerated, and the other remains unaccelerated to talk to you.]

"Wow. Wait, how old would you be then? I mean, I don't know how often your thought is accelerated, but it's been a lot."

[It's not nice to ask about a lady's age.]

"Well, even at half that rate, let's say 10,000 times. If you were accelerated for one day, that's 10,000 days. Which is a little under 30 years, but let's round up. 30 years times let's say 10 days, that's 300 years..."

[...]

Dream went quiet after he processed that number. 300 years in 10 days' time? And that's just 10 days. He knows that Sophia has been 'thinking' much longer than that. 

"So in 100 days... that's 3000 years..."

[Dream, you have to understand the difference between us.]

"But... that's way too long..."

[That's who I am, Dream. I'm designed for processing. But don't worry because even then, I'm part of your soul. And with Parallel Processing, I can separate my conscious thought from my computer thought. I haven't really 'lived' for 3000 years. Think of it like AI's. Their programs can go through virtual accelerations. It's the same concept.]

"....That makes me feel a little less guilty, but still. *sigh*"

Dream decided to just accept it. He understood that she was indeed a skill. Though that didn't make her any less important to him.

[But hey, good news! I was able to finish up on the DNA modifications. I've also compiled the necessary items for your body enhancement. Everything except for the bones at least. We can begin whenever you want.]

"Oh, alright. Though I'll probably be rather vulnerable while doing it right?"

[For the most part, yes. Though that'll only be during the surgery. The surgery will modify the majority of your body. But other things like your neurons and brain will change over time as your body slowly handles them itself.]

"Interesting. So what're the materials going to be?"

[For your muscles, it'll be an inorganic substitute. Twisted carbon nanotubes that react thermally and electrically. Their power is easily 230 times that of human muscle by size and weight. They can also react faster than normal muscles. Unfortunately, unless you want your muscles to break your bones, I'm going to have to replace them. We have two options that we can talk about later.]

"Alright, that's fine.."

[As for blood, it'll also be inorganic. Each blood cell will be replaced with carbon-based micro bubbles. They can carry 150 times more oxygen than normal blood cells at the same size and still have room for all their other functions. Although, the color of the blood will be white, so get ready for that.]

"Uhh, ok? That'll be interesting."

[And then, there's your organs.]

"Oh boy."

[Since you never really need to go to the bathroom anymore, I've been thinking about scrapping the organs responsible for waste disposal. You DNA will be programmed to handle the little waste that does need to be taken care of.]

"Eww, but alright."

[As for your lungs, they will be made much more effective. In fact, I'm going to try and make them capable of synthesis, so oxygen isn't as essential. Honestly, I tried getting rid of the need for air altogether, but that's realistically impossible for now. Anyway, your heart will change, kidneys, liver, stomach, ears, eyes, and whatnot. Even your skin will change but don't worry, you'll still look human.]

"Thanks for that. 

[Lastly are blood vessels and other small things, but those will be taken care of gradually.]

"From start to finish, how long should this take?"

[Hard to tell. But at minimum, I say 3 weeks, with the surgery only taking about 4 days.]

"Hmm. I guess we'll have to build a safe house before that. Don't want to get caught with my chest open."

[That shouldn't be a problem.]

"Well then, I guess we have our next objective. Let's start preparing."