There comes a time in every Empress’s life when one body just isn’t enough, and an ever-growing harem isn’t a solution but an exacerbation of the problem. I can split my focus into multiple different directions at once, a Skill that has done me well, but I need something more. I need some thing that will turn me into an absolute processing monster.

I need some advanced processing power, and I might be on track for that.

“You want to attach your soul to a computer chip?”

“I want to extend my mana form into an advanced computational device. I’m not certain that a computer chip will quite cut it yet, I mean the human brain is a pretty advanced thing, and I want to have like a hundred times what I have right now. Apparently, mana forms can be utilised to give sentience and sapience to all sorts of things, so maybe I can do something with that too.”

“What about Barry?” Eshya asks, leaning onto my side and tilting her head. “He doesn’t really seem to think or act like real people, isn’t that what you’re after?”

“Barry! We should study his brain and mana form and shit, that’s a brilliant idea!” I shout in realization. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure he’s faking it. I mean, I’m not a scientist, but I really don’t think that a machine could lack proper personhood when a loose pile of rocks can achieve it. Maybe, there’s some computer program rattling around his head to keep him on course like with collars… actually that sounds likely. You should’ve brought this up earlier, poor Barry’s probably been suffering, while we’ve been using him for all he’s worth.”

“Who is Barry?” Karl asks, and Matt can only shake his head.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The engineer and the scientist follow me as I go find Barry. He’s set himself up in a square just outside the markets of the city, I don’t know who brought him here, but I’m glad that someone is looking out for him since I’m apparently an awful adoptive mother.

“Hey kids, want to meet Barry?” I ask the insect children following me around, they don’t stay in stealth here since they don’t have to. They’ve been hanging around the palace with Nel, and she’s been taking care of them with June’s help. I really am relying so very much on the people around me, and I’m not even giving them the roles, they’re just stepping up to take care of things that I neglect.

This is not good leadership. I know that. I just… what do I do about it?

I’m already running myself ragged with the little time that I can squeeze out of a day.

“Who’s Barry?” Blade asks. She’s the little insect baby with the chipped feet, I don’t know why I called her Blade but at this point I’m not really thinking about much anymore. I need to act, not think!

“Barry is an old machine that has survived a long, long time. He’s from the elvish empire that preceded the Unified States of Mana. While they’re crazy peaceful now, except for the god going around crushing galaxies, they used to be warriors. All of them learning to fight so that they could expand their empire. Barry is one of the machines that trained them to fight. He’s cool if a bit racist—speciesist?”

“So, she answers the bug but ignores us?” Matt says with a sigh.

“She’s my adoptive kid.” I say, turning my eyes back to him. “Sorry for not answering you properly, but don’t go mistaking her for just some bug. I’ll look past it because obviously this situation is absolutely fucking insane, but please show a little more respect.”

“Right, sorry.” He runs his hands through his already messed hair, as he stresses out.

“Barry is something like a robot or an android.” I say. “He’s acting largely on pre-programmed behaviours, and I was uncertain what to think at the beginning, at this point I’m fairly sure that he has something special going on. He could have a collar binding his behaviour, or something else working to the sane purpose.

“For all I know it could just be that he’s a little physiologically twisted from being used, abused, and then left to rot for billions of years in a dark room with monsters skittering by outside the locked doors.”

“That’s a horrible thought.” Karl says, looking at me strangely. “Can he teach us magic?”

“No, read through the Skill manuals in your brain chips for that, you’ll find all you need there. If you need something more, then I’ll connect you with a few study groups that have formed because I’m too slow building a school.”

With that out of the way we finally find Barry.

“You’re back for more training?” He asks. “Your lazy attitude reflects poorly on your character, you’re a poor man’s elf but if you put in the effort, you can at least stand above the short-scales, maybe not the feather-brained freaks though. They’re stupid, but competent.”

“See what I’m talking about?” I say, waving at him. “Anyway, it’s great to see you again Barry.”

I step in close and hug the robot, lifting him up high as he struggles to fight me off, probably getting into training mode, assuming that I’m trying to wrestle him.

“I’d advise you find a more advanced unit. While your Skills are pathetic, your mana form is advanced. Did you grow fat off of the spoils of someone else’s battles?”

“Nah, I just rely on some pretty mean magic and consume the mana from every piece of trash people can pile together for me.” I say, “I’m a human recycler, and a magic cannon, all in one. Aren’t you proud of me?”

“Show me how you punch.” He says, stepping back on his limping mechanical leg.

I take up a stance and punch at the air before him using all my most advanced Skills to punch as best as I can.

“Please, find an advanced unit and begin your training immediately. Advise the unit that you are at a child’s level competency before beginning.”

“I didn’t think he had any magic.” Matt mutters, “But here he is burning you with his words alone.”

“Damnit, why do all my employees and subjects talk back to me? Where is my respect?” I ask, and Barry just tilts his head.

“Perhaps, you should learn to punch properly.” Barry advises.

“So, Barry. Do you know how you work? How the cogs in your head turn? Whether there’s some operating system in there, or a collar that we can pull?” I ask, but he goes silent, blanking out. “Barry?”

“I’m returning to training the students.” He says. “If you’re not here for training, then please stop distracting those who are.”

“Huh… I’ll keep an eye on him I guess.” I say, bothered by how quickly he turned the conversation away. If anything, I swear there was a little frustration in his mechanical voice.

I couldn’t feel any collar in him while I was touching him, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t something there that I didn’t notice. He’s quite unlike most people that I’ve met.

Karl is gazing at the machine as it leaves, burning curiosity glowing in his eyes, but that same curiosity quickly turns towards the next passer-by, a plant man currently in flower. Wait… shouldn’t there be laws about that? Showing your genitals in public is not generally acceptable…

Ah, whatever, no one else seems to care.

“Don’t we have class soon?” Eshya asks, grabbing my shoulder.

“Ah, shoot.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I make an order for a computer chip with an attached magical electrical source, so that I can play with my idea later. For now, I have to focus on class, and thankfully we’ve had some good steps forward here too.

No, I haven’t suddenly become a genius. It certainly must look like it from the outside, though.

“The ripples through the space-time fabric decay because of the ‘pull’ exerted by the wider fabric as represented by this particular formula, gravity wells are accounted for via this factor, and the interference of conflicting ripples with this factor.”

The teacher is looking at me with wide open eyes, trying to take in everything I’m saying, even though I’m sure he knows it all already. I mean, he’s the one I stole all of this from.

“That is some… impressive improvements on your part. Please keep it up.” The teacher says. “Next, Vii. Do you know the most reliable means of marking a special location, such that it can be recorded and given to another Space mage?”

“Give me a second… I’ve got this, I’ve got this!” Vii shouts standing up and providing an answer. Her words sound like their coming straight from a textbook, as she provides a perfectly correct answer. The same words come to my own mind when I try to answer the question.

Vii excitedly hops excitedly on her feet, to give an even more in-depth answer dealing with side details and issues.

Nel had a group of people working on getting these information Skills functional a while ago, and only now are we seeing the effects. Up until now all the information stored in the Skills were accessible only in something akin to a digital format. The pages and pages of words and data scrawled uselessly in thick and unmanaged textbook length Skills.

Now, we can access the information more intuitively.

It’s much like remembering something that you haven’t heard in a long time. It takes a little prodding, but when you pull at one thread it becomes easier to unravel the next. Through extensive testing we’ve found that the knowledge isn’t quite as adept as if we’d learned it properly and developed an understanding for ourselves. While we can express the ideas, they don’t quite come naturally so to speak.

More than this, it can be difficult to find the relevant piece of information. If I’m trying to make a space enchantment to Earth for instance, nothing pops into my mind to help me, but if someone asks me how to mark a specific position in space, I can name the fifteen different methods to achieve it, and the pros and cons of each.

When the teacher is done interrogating Vii and I, he eventually gets back on track for class, and the pair of us find it much, much easier to keep up. The ideas come easily, and from there it’s a little easier to conceptualise.

So much so, I can now split my focus back to my city in the world below. Malea was not subtle about the existence of agents within my own city. Khet was but one of them, and while I dealt with him quite firmly, I can be sure that there will be others who are willing to take the risk for whatever rewards they’re being promised.

Through the city streets, into the private homes, and the fields where the farmers toil, I watch it all, but I see nothing that would suggest anyone is doing anything against the rules. A few people are having their fun in private, but there’s nothing really concerning except for my own degrading understanding of the value of privacy. I can see no one that could be considered a dangerous agent looking to subvert and endanger my city and my people.

The worst that I can find is an old man crying out in the streets about how cruel and evil I am. Which… I mean that’s too blatant to be an agent, and everyone else just spits on him, or shakes their heads and leaves. A few pause to give him a speaking to, and a few others silently nod at his words and clean him up.

I mean I can’t have a hundred percent approval rating, it’s good that there are people willing to speak out against me. This way my own people know that I’m not going to be hunting them down for the smallest of offences, which helps them to speak freely and explore different ideas. Ideas that I desperately need at the moment.

The most unhappy of my citizens are the gremlins. For all my promises of giving them opportunities for a better life, there’s not actually all that much that I’ve done so far. When they get to the academy, perhaps they’ll start learning things and growing, but I need to do more for them before that.

For now, they have their own little leaders that have influenced various groups, each doing their own things. Fodder is still the main leader over them, and from what I’m aware he’s cracked down on anyone trying anything that would go against the rules I’ve put into place.

So, when the gremlins form into gangs, they focus on something other than killing and stealing. I have to say that I’m impressed with them, the world they lived in before joining my society prized Skills in killing and stealing above any other. Which is also why I’m rather good at both, so it’s nice to see them adapting so well.

They have groups working on various crafts, and training various Skills, they even have their own knitting circles. The knowledge stuck inside Chip is enough to teach them, and they more than eagerly dive into it all now that they have nothing else to do. Many of them do enjoy all these opportunities at least, there’s still a subgroup among them that isn’t suited to it, most of them rush to join Red’s training or work with Barry, so it doesn’t worry me too much.

It's nice to see things developing well, but it concerns me more and more that I didn’t know how half these things have happened until well afterwards. It won’t be too long before other sub-cultures and behaviours spread that aren’t nearly so pleasant for my city and my people.

I have my experts here, but I’ll need to form a council of my own with people focused on learning how to identify various aspects of our society so that they can help me manage them. This doesn’t mean that I’m going to do a sudden authoritarian takeover of the gremlin knitting clubs, but it does mean that when various groups have issues, I’ll understand how it’s come about, and what I can do about it.

A big issue that has to be addressed is the justice system and law enforcement. Far too much is being done by my own people, smaller tribes run by smaller leaders, like Fodder ruling over the gremlins. I’m leaving it up to them not because it’s the best option, but because I’m not ready to deal with it myself.

This will snowball, and quickly.

“Kyra?” Vii asks, just as class ends.

“Just thinking. We still have a lot to figure out.” I say, wishing that I was some crazy idealist that could pretend that they have all the answers. If I’ve had one philosophy guiding my path so far, it is that of survival of the fittest. The very philosophy that I’m hoping to escape.

“How did you two do that?!” The elf is the first one to jump out of his seat the moment the teacher is out of earshot. “Are you cheating? Is there something going on? I don’t… what…?”

I swear that I can see his brain frying inside of his skull.

I shrug, unsure how to answer him. I’m not exactly keen to be sharing around this new technology just yet. Not up here at least. I know it was the intention of the inventor, and that he’s likely already sharing it around the other worlds, but I don’t want to stir unwanted trouble here on the surface.

I’ll speak with a few of my pet welfare officers before I jump to any ideas.

“Did you… have a breakthrough or something?” The nice young man says approaching us. He’s the one who invited us into the group discussion earlier, the rest of our classmates are staring at us in wonder while whispering excitedly.

“Or something.” I reply, “Sorry for saying this, but I need to confirm that what we did is actually safe before sharing it. It wouldn’t be very good to train you in a new Skill only for it to make your head pop like a balloon. Wait, do you have balloons here?”

The pale expression on the man’s face tells me that they do.

“Well, anyway, sorry to be rude but I have a lot of work to focus on at the moment. I’ll make sure I have some spare time after next class and we can talk about a few things, even without anything dangerous we can help each other plenty.”

I pull Vii out of the classroom, but she takes a step faster once we’re out and pulls me along the hall to our next destination. One more class, one more thing to do. A million more after that. I can’t delay, my people are depending on me, and soon some will go hungry if I can’t get us some new hunting grounds.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 30,094 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 14,958 / 30,266 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,266 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (20,000 mana shards)

-Bone Magic Storage (40,000 mana shards)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (8,000 mana shards)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)

-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)

-Repulsive Skin (80,000 mana shards)

-Prehensile hair (10,000 mana shards)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (5,000 mana shards)

-Wide ears (5,000 mana shards)

-Sharp nose (5,000 mana shards)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Trapping

-Stealth

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net

-Eyes of an Empire