"Damn," I can't help but whistle as I stare at my new creation with a mix of awe and disbelief. It took more time than I would have liked, but I finally settled on how I would upgrade the magical armor. I added a sliver of physical protection, but not much. Right now, I could probably survive being shot by a tank once. All the bones in my body would break, but I would technically still be alive.

No, this armor shines in the magical department. I maxed out the magical resistance along with all the protective effects. Now I should be able to swim in an active volcano for at least twenty seconds! The Mana disruption was also massively upgraded, low-power spells should be outright disabled before they hit me.

Or at least that's the theory. I have no way of currently testing it. I don't want to try it, but I have to be realistic. I'm bound to face wizards again, so I better be prepared. The elemental protections are at their maximum, so everything should be fine and dandy.

The problem is how the armor looks. I know it's concealed under my clothes and nobody should ever see it. But I can only cringe when I look at it. The silvery metal is now jet black, and green glowing lines appeared on the surface of the armor. They are pulsing with energy, and they all lead to a green M located near my heart. The metal is friction-less to the touch, which is a weird sensation. It also doesn't make any sound when I shake it.

To put it simply, I've made a super-hero suit. Not even a cool power-armor like Iron Man, no. Instead, I got one of those weird spandex suits from the fifties.

I almost don't want to put it on, but I have no other choice. Nobody should ever see it because I would die of embarrassment if they did. For crying out loud, I bet that MERTICORE would rename me as MertiBoi or something equally dumb if I let it run wild. I've already learned to be deeply wary of the naming sense of the supernatural world; I won't lose my dignity no matter what.

Putting on the suit is quick, and I feel a warm breeze enveloping my body as it closes on itself. I open and close my hands. At least people should believe that I was wearing gloves or something. I should count my blessings; I don't know what I would have done if the suit turned out to be bright pink. At least, the armor does not constrain my movements, and I can barely feel the thin metal on my skin.

There's a silver lining in everything. I shouldn't die instantly when the sisters come knocking. I do not doubt that it's not a question of if they find me, but when they reach me. I hope that my equipment will be enough to stop them.

And that my house will still stand once the fight is over.

A single shot of 10mm MERTICORE is probably enough to destroy my home, let alone a beam of Arcane energy.

And yes, Arcane is a real thing. I checked with magical Alexa. It's purple energy that is a slight deviation from Mana. It contains a lot more power but is more unstable. I wanted to learn it, but techniques are rare and well-hidden. No matter, I guess I'll just settle on 'normal' magic.

But even that is too broad of a category. I learned that when I researched what kind of spells I would face. There's a lot of magical systems if I can call them that. The ones based on spells and Mana are the majority, but there are others. They all use some form of mystical energy, but that's all they have in common.

That's exciting, but also terrifying. Who knows if my armor will even stop something like a burst of Arcane? My research taught me that something which disturbs Mana should usually affect other types of magical energies, but that's not very reassuring. I take a deep breath; the existence of other magic systems also means something even more worrying.

MERTICORE might be one of them, and I might not be the only MERTICORE user. When I think about it, it all checks out. MERTICORE uses some form of mystical energy to function and affects reality according to what the user wants, not what reality wants. I also suspect that the MertiPoints are the energy used by MERTICORE. That would certainly explain why they are earned by eating Mana Crystals and why I need to buy new apps. At least it's a one-time cost, even if it's preposterous most of the time.

I'm looking at you, Universal Interface. You and your damn hidden in-app purchases!

But cursing at the horrible business practices of MERTICORE is not going to get me very far. Instead, I need to decide what I should do with the rest of my MertiPoints. Should I save them or spend them? A quick look at the app store from my ethereal laptop doesn't show me anything I particularly want. There's a ton of apps, and I don't know what most of them do. For instance, what the hell is a Dimensional Adapter?

Who the fuck knows?

I shrug, the list of the apps I can afford is by no means small. But it's not that useful for my current situation. I would love to buy something like teleportation, but-

Oh.

I just had an idea. It might be stupid, but it might work. I grab a spoon from a drawer in my kitchen and activate the Object Editor. A grin creeps on my face as I spot the parameters I want, the coordinates of the object. I try to edit one number. If I recall how coordinates work, then that should move the spoon one centimeter to the left.

My head buzzes, and my vision flickers for a second before static creeps on the side of my eyes. My heart is pounding, and my breath is ragged. I also became very sweaty in an instant.

***Warning, exceeding permission levels! ***

***Warning, minor system damage detected! Running MERTCORE.Restore()! ***

***Warning! Fatal Exceptions: PERMISSIONS_NOT_GRANTED, METHOD_NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_CURRENT_HARDWARE***

A list of recommended apps then pops into my head. As it turns out, I'm far from being able to teleport. A single app from the list is worth at least five thousand MertiPoints. And that's the cheapest one, from the two dozen or so I would need.

I take a deep breath and lean back. I'm glad that the armor has an auto-cleaning function.

But that failed experiment taught me a few useful things, like the existence of MERTCORE.Restore(). A quick look into the documentation tells me what I already suspected. It's able to heal me. Of course, it's not an infinite regeneration since it's limited by 'Hardware power' and 'permission levels.'

Looking into those mysterious permissions is also pretty concerning. My current level of permissions doesn't allow me to access the full documentation, only the beginning. But they relate to the depths of the edits I can make to reality. The permissions are related to my current hardware. It's a safety feature to stop my head from exploding.

I already deduced that I am the hardware mentioned by MERTICORE. Well, my upgraded laptop, along with my brain, is what this magic system runs on. How do I even improve that? Do I absorb more electronics until I reach the next level? I shake my head. If that was the case, then the system should have suggested eating my phone and my desktop computer.

But MERTICORE did upgrade my laptop when I first got it, so maybe I need to edit it before it becomes compatible or something? I sit in front of my desktop computer in my living room and focus on it with the Object Editor.

Fuck, what am I supposed to upgrade in the first place?

There's a ton of parameters, all of them related to each physical component of the computer. I could try to make my CPU run faster by adding twenty thousand cores... And making my RAM almost infinite along with turning my graphics card into a ridiculous beast. I let MERTCORE.Debug() handle the rest. However, the results are quite disappointing. Don't get me wrong, this computer is probably reaching quantum levels of speed, but it's not enough for MERTICORE.

Oh well, at least I don't have to worry about being able to run modern games now.

Nevertheless, the list of apps supplied by the system to allow me to teleport something is all related to unlocking more functionalities. There's nothing about the hardware or the permissions I need.

A sigh escapes my mouth, just another mystery to add to the pile. It was worth trying, but I guess I'll have to stick to my car from the time being. Instead, I have one last look at the list of apps I can afford. Nothing jumps out, so I save my MertiPoints.

Now let's focus on the staff and the magic manuals. Magic sounds like it could be a useful tool and a complement to what I can currently do with MERTICORE. And let's not kid ourselves here, throwing fireballs around sounds dope. I open the first manual titled 'Magic Theory 101' and start reading.

It takes me an hour to put the book down. To put it simply, everything in this book is beyond my understanding. Or at least the theory is, I think I more or less understood how to feel for Mana. As luck would have it, this metal staff acts as a sort of amplifier and helps to cast spells so it should be easier to progress.

I close my eyes and 'focus on my inner Mana Pool.'

...I have no idea what I'm doing. What am I supposed to be searching for? Do I even have Mana? Am I just wasting my time like an idiot? All those questions without answers are making my work more difficult, but I have to persevere. I bet those mages will not expect me to- What am I saying? They probably think that I'm one of them. It would make sense from their point of view.

Then I better not disappoint them!

I focus and frown as I feel something welling up inside of me. It pushes against my insides and churns as I focus even more. I let out a sigh of relief as I release one of the loudest farts I've ever made.

That was liberating. Now I'm clear-headed and fully-focused on my search for my Mana Pool. I still don't know what I'm looking for, and it feels like a wild-goose chase. How do mages even do it? I bet they have awakening rituals or something similar.

Now that I think about it, I have magical Alexa to answer all my questions. A quick search later and I discover that awakening rituals do exist for Mana-based magical systems, but they are expensive and complicated. The cost of the ritual is not an issue, but it also has to be performed by an experienced wizard. Even then, there are still no guarantees that it will work. And, even if it did, it would only speed up my discovery of my Mana Pool.

Why is nothing ever easy? If only I could use MERTICORE to tap into other systems, then-

***Recommended application: MERTICORE Virtual Machine Executable***

A notification appears in the corner of my vision, and I can't help but make a wry smile. A virtual machine allows an operating system to be run by another one in parallel. If I guessed correctly, then this app would allow me to use the Mana system in parallel to MERTICORE?

The app is quite expensive at four hundred and fifty MertiPoints, and I'm wary of potential hidden costs.

Should I buy it? It would consume my entire reserve of MertiPoints. I shrug and buy it anyway. There's nothing else I need from the time being, so I might as well attempt to learn an entirely new magic system. It can only be useful. I also really want to understand magic.

I open the app, and my floating laptop appears above my forearm. I glance at the screen; the interface of the app is pretty bare-bone. There's a menu that allows me to select available Virtual Machines- Fuck. I got tricked again, haven't I? There was no mention of any provided Virtual Machine, so I bet that I'll have to buy one at a very generous price.

This price-gouging MERTICORE is something else. No wonder that nobody else uses this system. I open the menu and don't know if I should laugh or cry. There is one machine available, the aptly named MANA_001. But there are several conditions I need to meet before I can launch it. First of all, the comprehension of that system is only at 75%. I also need a catalyst, so MERTICORE has the information it needs to compile a new executable.

I look at the provided documentation in more detail, and it feels like a weight lifts off my shoulders. I just need to 'eat' Mana Crystals to increase the comprehension level. As for the catalyst, the documentation only specifies that I should use 'artifacts bound to this System.'

I only have two options for a catalyst, either the staff or the granite plate. Which one should I use? I don't know if the catalyst is consumed by the process. But if it acts like the Crystals then I need to use the staff. The phone is my sole source of information on the magical world, and I can also buy more Mana Crystals with it.

Let's do it now! Miss Farsight must have deep pockets since my previous order went through without an issue, so I order another batch of high-quality Crystals and even pay extra for the express delivery. According to the message I just received, my order should arrive in less than three hours.

Now that I think about it, why not buy even more? The two sisters are bound to be angry once they find me, so I might as well prepare properly. I select all the high-level Crystals that are available and add them to my cart, but I can't press the order button. I grit my teeth; my card got canceled.

It's not that surprising, but I should have bought more Crystals when I had the chance. If only I knew that I robbed a rich woman.

Wait a moment. Usually, a wealthy person has a lot of influence. Did I just anger one of the elites of the magical world?

I hope not, or I'm fucked.