The patterns of information within [Identify] were definitely the programming language of whatever Magic was in this world. I decided to call it “Omnicode” as a reference to the "Omniscience". I didn't know for sure if the Omniscience created the System that I was using, but it seemed like a possibility.

I started to identify the rest of the words within my status menu. [Identify] told me the following information of interest:

[Strength] - [Improves strength. Unlocks Strength skills.] [Intelligence] - [Improves intelligence. Unlocks Intelligence skills.]

...and so forth. Not very useful information overall, as I had priorly assumed as much.

I identified the word “Skills” next.

[Skills] - A skill can be gained via accomplishment of any task. Success in unlocking a Skill depends upon factors such as:

- Genetic talent

- Dedication to the task [repetitive use]

- Growth in stats

- Luck stat

- Learning from a dedicated instructor.

Bind an unlocked skill to yourself by putting it into an available slot.

Warning: unbinding a skill from yourself will reset its level back to 0.

I identified my other two skills.

[Transient Soul LV 1] - [Marks you as a soul from another Universe. Binds you to your current body. Gain greater control over your soul as this skill levels up.]

Hrm. Right.

[Universal Comprehension LV 0] - [Instantly comprehend the System's language. Understand more languages and visual cues as this skill levels up.]

Interesting. Would I eventually become Ivan Tsarevich and be able to talk to animals if I didn't keep resetting this skill? I imagined myself commanding an army of wolves like some sort of a fairytale prince. It was a very silly idea indeed.

Understanding Identify made the spell use much cheaper, but it was still very limiting:

I could only identify things within my line of sight and my eyes didn't develop enough to see anything specific.

Identify didn’t have a zoom function.

While Identify exposed bits of Omnicode in the menu, it didn’t identify things in my imagination, such as words I tried to visualize. This was a problem that limited me to knowing only the words and numbers within the status menu.

Since Identify was so cheap to use now, I decided to experiment with it in the same way that I had experimented with bacteria and viruses in my lab. How does one make bacteria more efficient? Evolution and endless growth repetition. My laboratory assistants mass-produced bacteria, growing them in petri dishes again and again without end in slightly different bases. As the bacteria mutated, there were batches that were more resistant to penicillin, more deadly and ones that had weaker versions of the disease. In the same way, I manually started to mess with the [Identify] spell, removing, substituting and adding lines of Omnicode to it and then casting it on myself and number [1] in the menu to see if the result changed.

Not having much success, I decided that going at it randomly was a stupid idea. I needed to modify Identify specifically. If I could change Identify to see things, it would limitlessly expand my horizons of information-gathering. Thanks to identifying [Universal Comprehension] I knew the phrase "visual cues" in Omnicode. I studied the word [Visual] as far down as Identify allowed me to scan it.

After I mentally imagined the Omnicode word for [Visual] as a multi-limbed RNA-virus-like formation, I attempted to entwine it with Identify. Thankfully, I had a lot of experience in integrating viruses together to create vaccines for Soviet citizens and... death for our enemies.

Back in Aralsk-7 we called the science of combining viruses the "Antigenic shift", a process by which different viruses merged to form a new subtype that had a mixture of the surface antigens of the two or more original strains. The best known example of an antigenic shift naturally occurred in the common flu. Since the flu infected 5-15% of Soviet Union citizens annually, it provided Aralsk-7 research lab with excellent study of the antigenic shift. Our government poured a lot of funding into studying influenza, after the 1977 H1N1 influenza pandemic came from China into Siberia, spread across the USSR student population and then moved onto the rest of the world. The World Health Organization had labeled the global pandemic of 1977 as the "Russian flu". According to the W.H.O.'s report, the Russian flu killed approximately seven hundred thousand people worldwide.

One of our "genius" leaders even proposed to fund a project in which our lab would combine wildlife Coronaviridae RNA strands with the human coronavirus 229E that was discovered in 1960, to make some kind of a new "super-killer flu to drop on Americans to destroy their capitalist economy". I called this project idea of his utter lunacy.

To prove my point, I computed the probable outcome on my Bessie, showing the "global deaths" forecast curve, based on the 1977 Russian flu. An entirely new contagion like that, for which humanity would have no immunity, would rapidly spread globally, naturally mutate endlessly and wouldn't stop until it killed millions, including the people who created it... and do you think that he listened? The project development went through regardless! I tried to stall it as much as I could, so that the damned thing wouldn't be finished. Thankfully, the old Soviet generals dropped like flies due to old age as Leonid Brezhnev refused to change up the "old guard".

Trying not to obsess endlessly over the vast idiocy of the "leaders" from my past life, I buried myself with my current research.

I went through tens, then hundreds, then thousands of iterations of [Identify] + [Visual], learning to merge two Omnicode info-fractal words together. My end goal was to radically change the [Identify] spell itself.

The fact that I was able to Identify myself without having eyes was my advantage, my first step towards an endless stairwell of greater knowledge. At least I had plenty of time within the womb for this mentally laborious task. It was nice that my body didn’t need lunch breaks - mom fed me via the umbilical cord.

In test 16'225 I finally managed to give Identify a “Visualize” function!

When I had pointed the changed [Identify-Visualize] at myself I didn’t just get the annoying [Female human embryo] text. I perceived my own shape as a tiny, newt-like critter. I felt the shape, saw it inside a blue menu box. Somehow in the same manner as my soul observed the System's text I was seeing my body live.

The view didn’t have much color, but it was incredible - a relatively discernible image of myself, shaped from tiny, moving blue, white and black static bits. My first perception of self! I perceived something flowing around and inside my diminutive body as I held onto the spell, refusing to let the view fade. It had to be mana! I was observing things with mana!

The view was a bit eerie, but I knew what seven week-old embryos looked like so I wasn't that surprised that my body was a tiny alien critter at this point of fetal development.

I slotted the translator back in and pointed [Identify-Visualize] at itself. It defined itself as:

[Identify-Visualize LV 15] - [A modified Identify spell that allows its wielder to visualize the object of identification]

In the [Visual] window below the text, I witnessed my spell as a beautiful, white & blue fractal with many limbs. It was a lot sharper than the image of myself, probably because I worked on the damn thing for so long. It was amazing to finally see what I've been mentally composing as a real, physical manifestation woven from mana currents!

Tu du! Congratulations! You have unlocked the [Modify] skill!

The System dinged.

What the...? I focused [Identify-Visualize LV 15] on the unlocked skill.

[Modify] - [A passive skill that improves your ability to modify anything.]

I didn’t get a visual of [Modify] as I wasn’t empowering the spell-word with my mana. If I had to guess it would be very expensive to use, since I didn’t even know its true, full definition in Omnicode yet. Either way, it would be incredibly handy once I learned and memorized more of it.

Other announcements waited for me:

[Tu du! Achievement unlocked: Complex spell modification!] [Tu du! Achievement unlocked: Mana flow observation!] [210/200 Experience optimum reached! Initiate level up?]

The System inquired.

"Yes," I mentally replied and stared at myself with [Identify-Visualize] as the level up started.

[Tu du! Level up to LV: 2!]

I observed how blue-shaded patterns of magic moved across my tiny body. It looked like a microscopic, blue aurora borealis made from Omnicode that danced over me. I had no idea what it was doing, but it was pretty. It was unfortunately shifting far too rapidly for me to memorize it.

[Identify-Visualize LV 15] allowed me to remain conscious, observing the process until I ran out of mana and collapsed into oblivion.

[1 new skill slot gained!]

Greeted me when I woke up. I called up the menu and looked at the changed stats. They now sat at:

Name:

_______ Alana Skyisle

Age:

49 days

Species & Subtype:

Female human embryo

Level:

2

Experience:

40/450

Health:

2/2

Stamina:

2/2

Mana:

2/2

Mana regen:

2 m/hr

Strength:

0

Agility:

0

Dexterity:

0

Vitality:

0

Charisma:

0

Magic:

1

Luck:

0

Intelligence:

5 [+89]

Wisdom:

0

Soul:

1

Skills:

[Transient Soul LV 2]

[Universal Comprehension LV 1]

[Identify-Visualize LV 16]

[________________]

Investiture points:

10

Ha! Observing my evolution as it happened has given me 30 experience points. Only lost 6 days this time. A definite improvement!

I added [Modify] into my skills and it showed up as [Modify LV 0]

I shoved the 10 Investiture again into Intelligence, making it go up to 15 [+89].

Every point invested in Intelligence made my memory sharper. I had pretty sharp memory to begin with, but with even more memory I could memorize and use more layers of Universal. I wondered if "Intelligence" was the RAM of my soul, since it basically computed and visualized fractal math for me.

I wanted to go deeper, improve Identify further. I wanted to push its limits. How far could the spell be taken?

I kept on modifying [Identify-Visualize]. It was definitely easier to do with [Modify] as a skill!

I was focused like a laser beam, persistent in my work, even if it was maddeningly repetitive and boring.

Over the next 15 days going through thousands of tests and defining more items in my menu I stumbled onto the mathemagic Omnicode patterns that approximately stood for [Magnification] and [Shift]. With the modified [Identify-Visualize-Magnify LV 28] I was able to see much smaller things by visually magnifying them in my mind.

The changed spell became a lens through which I saw everything with fantastic clarity. It showed me things within myself with increasingly complex visual and mathematical representations. The darkness of the womb parted as [Identify] replaced my underdeveloped eyes, becoming a mental camera through which I now saw the world.

I was always pretty good at chemical formulas and computer punch cards, but with the increased intelligence I was feeling victorious and unstoppable.

[Identify-Visualize-Magnify LV 28] showed me each word within the System as patterns, able to zoom in and out of them several levels deep all at once. Sadly I didn’t have enough [Intelligence] to memorize the fractals for each. I was certain that if I spent a long time memorizing and modifying a specific word like “Health” I could eventually stumble on a modifier that would let me improve health or kill something. Not that I wanted to breed death once again. This time I would do things differently, I told myself. This time I wouldn't work for an empire built atop a mountain of lies, ruled by blind fools. This time I would make sure that people wouldn't suffer horribly or die because of my actions.

I recalled the three names once again. The three chains that I carried with me until my death, the burden that weighed down on my conscience. They were the reason why I asked the Omniscience whether I was destined for hell.

In 1971 a ship came close to Aralsk-7, ignoring the rule that demanded ships stay 40 kilometers away from Vozrozhdeniya Island. A technician girl took samples of local plankton from the Aral sea that day. What she had brought with her into the ship wasn’t mere plankton. One of my modified viruses - Variola major, also known as Smallpox was being field tested that day on the island. Four hundred grams of it.

The girl and her family perished and the Soviet authorities were able to cover up the incident. I had ordered smallpox inoculations for everyone in the city where the ship docked, but three people had still died.

I would find a way to save and aid people in this world, I made a promise to myself. I would find a way to prevent and stop death. I would not be its agent in this world!