“Unnecessary. I shall handle construction.” What was I saying? How could I “handle” anything? I didn’t HAVE hands! Or, you know, much of a body at all. Raz, if you’re listening right now, I could really use some assistance. No answer was forthcoming from the presence in my head.

Wait, so far, my voice has been saying, supposedly, what it was supposed to say. According to what Raz’s definition of “supposed to say” was, at least. So, Raz wanted me to say that. Then... I must be capable of “handling construction?” Now, I just had to figure out how I was going to do that. Unfortunately, Temsello and Arianne looked like they wanted answers before I could figure them out myself. Perhaps the voice that pretended to be mine could help me out here…?

Temsello overcame his incredulity enough to ask me, hesitantly, “...and how are you going to do that, exactly?” I couldn’t blame him for his disbelief, after all, I didn’t even know how I was supposed to accomplish this. My voice however, did.

“As an Overmind, I have limited control over the space within my domain. Plant me in the ground of the Lake Quillfort Estate. I will handle things from there.” So I was an Overmind? I hadn’t been sure if that was just Raz’s explanation or not. I’d have to see if I could learn more about Overminds somehow. I didn’t feel comfortable with being a species I didn’t know anything about.

At this, Temsello simultaneously brightened, and appeared uneasy. “So… you are an Overmind. You don’t look like any that I’ve seen in the past, though admittedly, no two Overminds I had previously seen looked alike. You’re the first I’ve ever met capable of speech, though. Mind telling me how that is?”

I was panicking slightly at this, still remembering Raz’s dire warning. Luckily, my voice remained cool as a cucumber. “Searching memory for the answer to your query. ERROR 404, File Not Found. Data irretrievable.” Brilliant! File not found, wow… never thought I would be happy to see, or in this case, hear those words!

Arianne piped up after this. “You’ve seen Overminds before, Temsello? I had heard that they were extinct. I wonder how Raz got a hold of you, Adam.” She inquired.

My voice continued to stonewall. “Searching memory for the answer to your query. ERROR 404, File Not Found. Data irretrievable.” Don’t overuse that excuse, bud. I have a feeling we’ll need it for some pretty important things.

Temsello cleared his throat. “Harumph. Well, I can’t quite tell if you can’t answer me, or simply won’t answer me, but I’ll put it aside for now. I trust Raz, though for the life of me I’m still not sure why, and he wouldn’t have chosen you for this task if you couldn’t be trusted with it.”

Whew. Made it through that conversation intact. Here’s hoping that I can manage to survive the future ones as well. Temsello and Arianne began to discuss amongst themselves while packing things up. I think we were heading to Lake Quillfort now. I had better get to work on figuring out what I can do before we get there. I retreated into my mind.

---

I was back in that black chamber that Raz had claimed to be my brain. I didn’t have any evidence to the contrary, and it wasn’t impossible, based on all the things that I had seen in the past hour. So. This is my mind. I can make it spawn… notebooks and writing utensils for me? I suppose that was because those were necessary for me to do my work? If I didn’t have a way to keep records, organizing and managing this academy would be… fairly difficult, if not impossible.

When I asked it for other things, though, it didn’t necessarily comply. Not even for food, so I suppose that wasn’t an essential here. Unless Raz simply thought it would be amusing for me to die of starvation. For the moment, I was going to have to assume that wasn’t the case.

So… I couldn’t get myself food or recreational items in here, but I could get notebooks and work-related items… “Can I get a computer? On a desk or something?” A computer would be helpful, right? It would be nice to be able to use software to handle the blueprints and schematics, as well as for organization.

A desk appeared out of thin air, dropping lightly onto the floor with a tap. But there was no computer sitting on it. Argh. I guess I was the computer in this particular instance. So I’d have to do these things manually. “A filing cabinet then?” Might as well set himself up to be organized. After sliding the desk into a corner of the room, and shifting the filing cabinet next to it, he sat down at the desk and prepared to get down to business.

Abruptly, he paused. There was a force in here helping him. He had assumed it was Raz, but it might not have been. Could the… being that was supplying him with what he needed, and presumably handled speaking, help him with other things?

I decided to try asking it. “Umm, whoever you are, do you think you could explain some things to me?” There was no reply, but there was a change in the atmosphere of the room. It went from a slightly oppressive silence to an expectant one. Was it waiting for me to ask something else? “Could you tell me how I’m supposed to build the academy? I know that it’s something I’m supposed to be able to do as an Overmind, but I don’t know how.”

At this, the wall that had become a television earlier lit up. Instead of displaying images this time however, it started to display text.

Overminds are capable of exerting their will on their surroundings by flooding the land around them with magic. By doing so, they exert “Ownership” over the land. Ordinary Overminds are simple beings whose sole goal in existence is the acquiring and keeping of land.

That was… both helpful and confusing. “Magic? But I don’t have any magic! How am I supposed to build anything!?” I was getting more desperate and confused than ever. How was I supposed to do anything like this? Then, the text on the wall changed.

Quantifying your magic capacity… Please hold.

Processing… Processing…

Process complete. Your current Magic Capacity stands at 12 Hekares.

I stared at the words for a moment, uncomprehending. I have… magic? I hadn’t heard of Hekares before, but in context, they sounded like a unit of measurement for magic. I also had no idea how much 12 Hekares translated into, by way of, say, manual labor. For all I knew, I could construct the academy twelve times over with this amount, or this amount could be insufficient to raise a single-room hut. I needed more information, dangit! “What could I… accomplish with that much magic? How do I go about getting more of it? And how on earth do I use it?”

Answer to first query: 1 Hekare is enough magic power to exert ownership over 1 cubic meter of land. Land you have exerted ownership over can be shaped for minor amounts of Hekare, depending on the user’s level of control. Owned matter can be withdrawn into Overmind space for processing, which requires greater amounts of Hekare.

Answer to second query: Magic power is regained through rest. While in sleep mode, Overminds tend to generate roughly 10% of their overall Magic power per hour. Overall Magic Capacity can be increased through the usage of Magic power over time, or through the acquisition of territory. The more land that an Overmind owns, the greater their overall Magic Capacity.

Answer to third query: By entering Land Mode, you will be able to exert ownership over the land around you, as well as manipulate land you already own through the usage of magic power.

While reading through the answers to my questions, I was getting kinda weirded out. “Wait, is this some sort of game world or something? Will I go up levels by doing these things or something? And how does one go about entering land mode?” If this was some sort of video-game reality, I would be extremely disappointed that I was stuck as some sort of robot. I may not have been a huge fan of RPG’s, but I was very good at them. I’d hate to miss out on finding and exploiting some sort of game-breaking interaction by virtue of my inhumanity…

Answer to first query: Negative. The existence of “Game Worlds” are possible, but illogical. This is an ordinary reality. The growth and usage of Magic Power is quantifiable through science, not because of some overlying system imposed by the world.

Answer to second query: While in Viewing Mode, simply say that you want to enter Land Mode.

Hmm, well, that was simple enough. Assuming that Viewing Mode is where I’m looking around through the… cameras? Did I have eyes? An intriguing, but overall unimportant question. I could see, and that was that.

”Thank you. That’s all for now.” I said, probably unnecessarily. Anyways, now that I had some idea of my capabilities and how to use them, I could factor these into my plans. I sat back down at my desk, while the wall behind me fell back into darkness. I picked up my pen, and began to sketch more detailed blueprints for the surrounding classrooms, as I had gone with my decision to separate the dorms and classrooms. Safety first, that was always a huge theme in the educational system back home, and a good ideal to follow here, as well.

In the back of my mind, though, I could not hold back my excitement. I had magic! Actual magic! I hadn’t used it yet, but the mere thoughts of the potential this had made my mind tingle. This might not be a bad life, after all.

---

Author Note: Coming up with a magic system I liked was hard. I hope I don't have to change it in order to eliminate some unforeseen aspect soon!