《Soul of the Academy.exe》Chapter 9: Pointed Questions

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I had a dilemma. I stared down at the brick, and then glanced over to the spot I wanted to build the dormitory… roughly 2 ½ kilometers away. I could, of course, pick up the brick, and run it over there… and then back, cut out another brick, run it over, and back…

Or I could hopefully come up with another solution that could help me accomplish all these things in a fraction of the time. Let’s see what I can brainstorm here…

“Hey, voice, is there something like a… Build Mode or anything that would me get things here done more quickly? Maybe an inventory or something?” I asked. I knew that it had already told me this wasn’t a game world, but it would be pretty dang handy if I had an interdimensional box to stash things in.

Processing Space is available.

...Processing Space? “How do I use… that?” It sounds useful. Is it an Inventory?

Focus on objects you wish to draw into Processing Space, and absorb them. Processing Space is limited. Enter Processing Mode to manipulate withdrawn material with greater precision than is possible in Land Mode.

...Time to test this and see just how amazing Processing Space is. Probably not very large, I imagine. I place my hands on the brick I had created, and focus my mind. I try to use that same mental muscle I use to push power into things, to pull the brick to me. I concentrate like that for a few moments, when suddenly, the brick vanishes. Perfect.

Processing Space 4.167% full.

...So I can fill the processing space with 24 of those? Not a bad haul. That should certainly reduce the amount of time it will take me. Now, to test what I can do with things that are in processing space. Processing Mode.

The world vanishes, and a new one rises up around me. I’m in a black chamber, like my normal mind-box, except this one is empty of my desk and filing cabinet. There is, however, a familiar brick of stone on the floor. I approach the brick, and reach down to pick it up.

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My hands pass through it. I frown, and try to focus more magic power into my fingers.

Nothing happens. Hmm. This place must work differently than Land Mode. I look at the brick. It’s not perfect, as I literally cut it from the rock with a mental box of heat. Quite a lot of it is fairly… droopy. Melted rock can do that, I suppose. I wish I could pick it up, if I could hold it, I could check all the sides and try to come up with a strategy to make a cleaner cut…

When I think this, the brick floats into the air. I jumped backwards a bit from being startled. The brick stays where it is. No gravity here…? No momentum either, the brick simply moves exactly as I think it will. I move the brick around, rotating it to look at all the sides. Yeah, that’s pretty much slag. I guess I’ll have to use heat to melt the pockmarks and smooth it over - The pockmarks melted into the surface of the brick as I thought that.

...What is this…? I have complete control over objects in this place? This is incredible! I contorted the brick into a myriad of shapes, and even sculpted it into a little tree. ‘Amazing! Truly, Processing Mode is amazing…’ I murmur.

And then I blacked out.

---

I woke up and groaned. Darn, I wasted another ten hours with my fooling around. Apparently, Processing Mode uses up a lot of magic power to maintain. Or perhaps it simply uses up magic power to manipulate things in there? I’ll just have to do what I can with what I have. In any case, now that I have Processing Mode, I can just blast the rock, and absorb the fragments.

I pump magic into the rock, shattering a good deal of the parts on the surface… and scattering the pieces over a fairly large distance. I glance around. Darn. I start touching all the shards around me, pulling them into Processing Space.

After I managed to gather all the visible shards, I laughed to myself. I should probably find a better way to cut the rock than simply blowing it up. Alright, time to test out how much magic power that Processing Mode uses up. I check my magic capacity.

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Magic Capacity: 607/974

Hmm? How did my overall magic capacity increase? I hadn’t gained any more territory recently…?

Acquisition of territory is but one way to improve your magic capacity. Regularly using all of your magic power can cause your magic capacity to increase as well.

Ah, well, I had certainly been doing that. Made sense, I suppose, like working out. I return to my work, and enter Processing Mode.

I quickly melted all the stone chunks I had absorbed into one giant cube, and then subdivided it into 24 bricks. I gave them a once over to make sure they were all the same, and then returned to Land Mode.

Magic Capacity: 283/974

Time to begin, finally, constructing the ACTUAL DARN BUILDING. Whew. I’ve spent so much time preparing to build it, that actually reaching this point is a huge relief. I floated back to the location I had chosen for the dormitory.

I glance over, and see Arianne’s cart. She was back already? Wow, I guess it had technically been about two days. Still, it seemed kinda rushed. Viewing Mode.

“Greetings, Arianne. My apologies for my silence up to this point. I was engaged in my activities elsewhere on my territory.” The voice droned. Gah… I wish that I didn’t have to deal with it. It would be nice to speak for myself.

Arianne looked up from the book she was reading in surprise at my voice, but then she narrowed her eyes. “Adam. I have some questions for you.” My eyes widened at this. What did she want to know? Her tone of voice was suspicious. “Who is Raz Amun?” Ah, I hadn’t expected this question, though in hindsight, it was a fairly obvious question to ask. Heck, I wanted to know the answer to that question.

“Searching memory for the answer to your query. ERROR 666, File is corrupted. Data cannot be read.” Hmm? That was… sinister. 666…

“Alright then, who are you?” She asked, face set in a grim expression. Gah, I wasn’t liking the turn that these questions were taking…

“I am A-4-1-13, Management Computation Device” The voice said stolidly.

“Then why did Raz tell us to call you Adam? Let me be frank here. Are you actually an Overmind?” She asked pointedly. “From everything I’ve read,” Here she held the book in her hands up to show me the title, Overminds, a Mysterious Existence, “No Overmind has ever been sentient, and all of them have been made of some sort of stone, or crystal. You’re made out of something unknown, a strange smooth substance that is, at the same time, extremely light. You have strange markings that glow when you are awake. All of these are strange when you compare them to past Overminds.” She breathed in here.

“But, none of that really matters to me. I can accept that you are a unique Overmind, and may be willing to help us with this Academy…” She lowered her voice. “But I do not trust Raz Amun, and you, unfortunately, are majorly connected to him.”

“I’ve been doing some research yesterday, and I discovered some frightening things. Apparently, this country was founded by refugees that escaped from the Polizam Empire 470 years ago…” I wasn’t sure how this was connected to everything else, but I stayed silent.

“...And apparently, they were led here by a stranger with blond hair and mismatched eyes, whose control over the fabric of space was unrivaled.” My eyes widened at this. 470 years!? Raz has been alive that long? Wait, Temsello said that mastering magical disciplines took a very long time, and that Spatial magics were well known as the most difficult of disciplines. He was probably much older than that, then.

“So I ask you again.” She glared at the point in space that my voice has been emitting from. “Who is Raz Amun?” She breathed in once more. “And what connection does he have to Atako Lolona?” Eh? Who was Atako Lolona?

“Password: ‘Atako Lolona’ has been accepted. Automatic Voice Control has been disabled. Manual Voice Control has been enabled. Thank you for using Amun Electronics, your patronage is appreciated.”

---

A

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