Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]
2.48 Systemic Understanding

Planet XSQ-1827, Substation 33, Year 16,369 A.I. (6 Weeks After Seraphina’s Awakening)

This week has been the same every day. A calm morning for rest and meditation, followed by hours of backbreaking, painstaking torture, I mean, training, courtesy of Madison and whoever she decides to rope into the day’s ‘beat Seraphina to a bloody pulp’ session. A slight exaggeration; her healing magic is quite potent and pleasant to experience, soothing both my injuries and my pain. It doesn’t, however, erase the memories of that pain, nor the memories of her inflicting it upon me.

Still, I would like to take a break. We’ve been at this for four hours already. And no, despite a week of constant training, I have yet to score even a single good blow upon her. Despair and disheartenment keep creeping up upon me more and more, telling me that I am insufficient, that I am inadequate, that I am failing as a person as much as I am failing as a construct.

It wasn’t something that bothered me the first day of my training. I was frustrated at myself, but more the frustration of a child who is fed up after trying and failing. Now my frustrations are a bit more complex.

There are so many people living and working in this substation. I can hardly remember everyone’s name. Not just Madison and Dr. Chotono. I know their names and faces all too well. It’s everyone else, from the janitors and cooks to the interns… I think that’s what they called them. People who help out but aren’t technically employed at the facility.

And all this stuff about ‘employment’ and ‘jobs’ that people talk about. I do not understand it, exactly. Apparently, they have a big system— not the System, but one designed by humans— that governs who works where, and then something about ‘money’ that decides how people decide where people live and what they’re allowed to eat and… It is very difficult to understand and it makes my head hurt just thinking about it all.

“The battlefield is no place to be zoning out, Seraphina!” Madison says. “Even the slightest lapse in thought or action might mean the difference between life and death. And it might not be you who ends up losing your life at the end of the day. It could be me or the Doctor or any of your friends or the others who live and work here. That’s why we train here every day, to make sure that when it’s time for you to go out on the battlefield, that you will be ready and able to do what needs to be done to keep your friends safe. Now, back on your feet!”

“Why do I have to fight?” I ask. “I know you gave me this power, this class that the System calls 「The Anomaly」 , but why did you give me this power? Why couldn’t you have given it to someone who knows better? Someone stronger, faster, more powerful. Someone like you?”

“It was our only option. For that, I am sorry. We could not give this power to anyone else; every natural lifeform is established within the System on the day they are born, and upon reaching an age when the System judges them competent to do so— age ten for humans— the System awakens, and they become able to start using their power.

“But you are different. You are a lifeform not born from a lifeform, in the traditional sense. And your construction took place entirely in chambers that we have engineered to be immune to the System’s gaze.”

“Like my room?”

“Not just like your room, but your room exactly,” Madison says. “I’m glad to hear that you have been paying attention to my lectures.”

I smile at the rare compliment while in our training arena. Madison is kind and thoughtful after we are done training for the day, and in the mornings while we’re meeting people and exploring the facility. But while she is here, in the gym-turned-torture-chamber, she is as unpleasant and uncompromising as they come.

“Now, again! Use your Skills! Don’t just come at me recklessly!”

I nod, grit my teeth, and draw on my [Laser Spear]. Although I’m not quite as proficient with a spear as I am with a sword, Madison has made it clear that I need to practice with a wide variety of different weapon types. Not only can I not be expected to always have my preferred weapon in the middle of a fight, but there’s always the chance— or so she says— that I will lose my weapon and be forced to improvise.

With a spear, I’ve learned I need to keep my distance, take advantage of my range compared with swords or axes, and try to keep my opponents off-balance and unable to close the gap. Swords, in contrast, demand quick footwork and precise parries to counteract their shorter ranges. There are other weapons I will be learning in the future, from the bow and arrow to the crossbow and other projectiles, but most of my study has been on close-quarters martial combat.

I weave in and out of the way of Madison’s [Air Cutter], using my [Swift Foot] to augment my [Speed] in momentary bursts. But she anticipates my dodging pattern, knocking me down with another of her nasty projectiles. I reorient myself in midair, catching my fall with my offhand and backflipping to gain distance, but Madison has closed the gap, much to my chagrin. She presses the attack, thrusting through every hole in my defense, even the ones I can’t see, and easily bats my attempt to counterattack aside.

I’m pushed back against the back wall, fearing that this is the end for me. But I don’t give up just yet. With everything I have left, I feint right for a fraction of a second, then spin to the left, getting my bodysuit torn but otherwise avoiding the brunt of her attack. A simple kick to her groin is easily caught, at which point she throws me to the ground and holds her blade to my neck.

Defeated, I can only lower my head and avert my gaze slightly, admitting defeat.

She disables her [Laser Sword] and takes my hand, helping me up. “You still have a long way to go before you’re ready. But I do want to commend you. You lasted a full thirty-seven seconds against me this time around. That’s almost ten seconds longer than just yesterday.”

“Madison? Is everyone in this facility as strong as you are?”

“No. Most of the people here aren’t combat-trained. In fact, combat training and practical System applications were the two reasons I was brought onto this project in the first place.”

I furrow my brows.

“In other words, my role was to help ensure that the power we gave you was actually going to do what we wanted it to do. As well as teach you how to use this power when the time comes. Which is now.”

“A couple of other questions. First, why not learn how to use a gun or a… plasma rifle? Maybe an [Ether] blaster?”

“A couple of reasons. For one, projectile weapons tend not to do as much damage as one might think. Back before the System arrived, humans did use a lot of guns and explosive-based weaponry. But nowadays, with the System’s power, people can punch and kick and slash a sword far faster than we can fire a bullet. There are classes and Skills that help with that, but Skill slots are limited and gun Skills are rarely useful.

“This segues into the second reason. If you want an effective gun, you’ll have to power it with bullets made out of your own [Ether]. Ordinary projectiles— even the energy weapons that were common in the first couple hundred years after the System— just don’t do all that much against strong enemies. And, yes, before you ask, we both have quite a bit of it— myself especially. But it is a finite resource, and it’s best not to depend on having it when the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan.”

“I’ve never heard you use such… colorful language before,” I say.

“You haven’t seen real combat yet, either. And I promise you, that when you’re in pain from getting hacked half to death, you’ll use your share of colorful language as well.”

I smile. “Are there any good Skills I should try to learn or develop for myself?”

“Hmm. That will depend on the combat style you end up taking “

“Can I be a [Combat Medic] like you, Madison?”

“I’m afraid that’s unlikely to happen. Your class doesn’t support magic of most types, and healing magic is notoriously difficult for someone to learn without a specific class designed for it.”

“What about other types of magic?”

“In time, Seraphina. But in order for you to learn how to use magic, you will have to learn how to more freely tap into the power you possess. Only then, once you are more comfortable tapping into that power, will I be able to start teaching you about glyphs and how to channel them to create the effects we think of as magic.”

“So why can’t I learn healing magic, if I can learn other types?”

“Do you know the inner workings of the human body? Can you tell me exactly what every molecule, every organelle, every cell, every reaction and compound and bodily function does? Glyph magic is potent, but unless you can perfectly express the complexities of biology with your glyphs, it’s impossible without System-generated spells that handle all complexity and express the results perfectly for you. And you, Seraphina, are both human and machine, increasing the complexity of healing yourself by another order of magnitude. That’s why healer classes are so valued in society.”

I nod.

“Now then, Seraphina. We have an hour left before dinner. I want you to practice your Skills with me for the next thirty minutes, then we will break to give you a chance to change outfits and freshen up.”

Training continues just as Madison directs. Without danger, without using these skills in actual combat, gaining Skills and Skill ranks and working toward stronger Skills and Skill Evolutions is slow-going. But each hour is progress, or so Madison says, using my [Swift Foot] and [Stone Skin] to boost my [Agility] and [Defense] temporarily. I’m not sure if they are quite the same as ordinary Skills, but by manipulating the [Ether] within my body, I can mimic their effects to a sufficient extent that the System recognizes them as such.

More than that, she claims, it’s about getting a mental feel for how my Skills work, and learning to tap into them based purely on instinct, without any need for conscious mental invocation. And as I practice, running around, punching through half-foot thick slabs of reinforced steel plate with my hardened skin, I start to meditate, start to let my thoughts slip away from me. The hum of the lights high above fades away from my consciousness. The sounds of Madison’s mantra likewise vanish as she focuses on her own training, seeking to unlock even greater insight into the healing arts.

Now, there is only me. I feel my heartbeat, slow and steady even as I exert myself. My breaths, cool and deep, composed, focused. I gather the [Ether] swirling within my core and concentrate it just underneath the palm of my hand. A bit of soreness sets in— my [Ether] channels aren’t accustomed to being worked in such a manner, nor is my body acclimated to employing this much [Ether] in a single Skill. But I persist, right up to the point that the soreness turns into actual pain.

I release my [Ether] through my palm. It burns like fire as it savages my flesh and skin, but with [Stone Skin], I’m able to both temper the pain and mitigate the damage to my own body. The attack backfires upon me, but it absolutely destroys the so-called ‘strong’ glyph barriers used to reinforce the punching bags and other training equipment, turning my target, a robotic training dummy, into vapor.

Madison protests, but I just smile. I won’t let something so simple as a strength-focused stat distribution and a limited amount of [Ether] stop me from using magic, now that I have the power of 「The Anomaly」 at my disposal. Not today, not ever. This may not be what I was designed to be, but it is who I choose to be. And no one, not even the research team, will take that from me.

[You have learned the General Skill [Ether Strike]. Would you like to acquire this Skill? (General Skill Slots remaining: 4/6)]

[「The Anomaly」 effect activates. Would you like to acquire [Ether Strike] as a Class Skill? (Class Skill Slots remaining: 7/8)]

I choose to take [Ether Strike] as a Class Skill. That is, after all, the truest, most fundamental power of 「The Anomaly」. The power to shape my own evolution and decide for myself who I am to become.