Author’s Corner: Sorry for the chapter being later than usual! Hope you enjoy it! Also, I’m impressed with the maturity of the readers. There was not a single ‘Do a barrel roll!’ comnt about last chapter!
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After I had received the Cybernetic Adaptation spell, I conducted a few brief experints. Thankfully, I discovered that the altered eye did not prevent the use of Aura Sight. My next experint was the ‘record’ feature of the Cybernetic eye. From my understanding, the spell is split into a passive and active mode. The passive mode increases my ability to see things, to an extent where I was practically able to ‘zoom in’ on tiny objects across the room. Maybe once I figure out how to better control Technomancy, I’ll have telescopic vision.
The active portion of the spell was what would allow to save an image into my mind. Looking out the window, I poured a constant stream of mana into the Cybernetic eye, and could faintly see a red glow in front of . At the sa ti, I felt like I might never forget the simple scenery of the cityscape outside my window.
Even though it was just a brief look, I quickly closed my eyes and focused on the mory. I found that I could reexamine every detail of what I had captured, even things I had not initially focused on. For instance, I was able to point out all the different birds in the sky, or count how many people I was able to see. As long as I upgraded my mory storage and retrieval abilities, I should literally have a photographic mory for everything I record.
I still had a bit of ti left before I could get back in ga, and I wouldn’t suffer if I was a few minutes late anyways. As such, I got back onto my computer and looked up all I could about how the brain stores and retrieves mories. If I was going to be ssing around with my own head, I needed to be very careful which parts I tampered with. If I accidentally changed the section of the brain dealing with emotion into an extra mory storage, then I’d be screwed.
After a little while, I had all the necessary information in front of . For convenience, I simply ‘recorded’ it all down with my Cybernetic eye so that I could review it whenever I needed. Sadly, I did actually have to go back over it to review, as the information wasn’t automatically transferred when I did this. I’d probably need a software update for that to happen.
Once I had that taken care of, I again used my Aura Sight with the Cybernetic Eye to record my computer’s hard drive and motherboard, so that I could accurately rember them in the future. Afterwards, I used the sa thod to re-morize all of the auras I had learned thus far, by putting them in front of with my Mana Manipulation, then recording them. This way, I shouldn’t run the risk of forgetting key parts of an aura I already morized.
The last thing I did before getting back into the Seed was to analyze it with my Mana Sense. I had my suspicions, but I wanted to verify. Once my mana scanned the Seed, I found that it was practically bursting with magic. Every aspect of the device seed to have magic incorporated into it, and if I looked deeply enough I even saw tiny, unfamiliar symbols embedded in the aura.
Must be runes… I shook my head, and didn’t dare try to copy any part of the Seed. After all, I had no idea what any of the runes did. So may have even been counterasures against being copied for all I knew. In the end, I just got back in the device and let it send off to Hascion.
When I opened my eyes, I was back in the elven village at the edge of the woods. Looking over myself, I confird that I hadn’t lost any of my equipnt. In fact, when I logged in, I noticed that my Technomancy had even increased in level a bit, likely due to my experinting.
“Huh? How did we get back here?” I heard the familiar voice coming from my wrist, and looked down to see my companion AI bracelet. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be damaged. “We were just flying… right?”
“What do you rember?” I decided to ask out of curiosity, while probing the bracelet with my Mana Sense. Like with the Seed, I could see a few runes embedded in the structure of the aura, though it was nowhere near as complex as the device that brought here.
“We were flying, the harpy eagle ca in, and there was a brief feeling of pain. After that, we just appeared here. What happened?” She looked up to , obviously confused with the events that had gone on.
“We, or to be more accurate, I died. Apparently, the eagle had a wind blade or sothing extending from its wing, so it cut in half as it passed by.” That was interesting. Maybe when a player died, their gear was stored until they logged back in. If that was the case, it would have been a strange sight for a naked human to suddenly fall from the sky, cut in half like that.
I could at least be thankful that the two deaths I experienced so far were quick and painless, instead of being eaten alive… Though I had experienced that as well, I just didn’t die from it. “I… I see. I would rather that not happen again, if you would be so kind.” She looked pleadingly to , making laugh.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on dying often. This next trip should be far safer, but first, I want to visit the mage’s tower again. By the way, how far did we make it before?” I asked as I started walking to my new destination.
“About two thirds of the distance. Had you managed to sustain flight for another forty minutes at your previous speed, you would have arrived at the edge of the city.” Now that she knew what was going on, her tone quickly returned to normal.
“Sweet… in hindsight, surprised I made it that far. Next ti, we’ll be going on foot.” Once I went into the mage’s tower, it was an easy matter to find the Technomancy instructor. Although he was still not exactly friendly, he did his job properly and answered my questions regarding magic software.
Apparently, in order to create a software for Technomancy, or other devices that use magic to read information, it is necessary to upload it to a special device called a Soft Stick. When asked, the Technomancy teacher showed what it looked like, and I nodded my head in satisfaction. This was the sa type of tal strip that Jarl had used to upload the affinity program to Celeste.
They were basically CDs for magic. Each strip was capable of holding a single program, but that program could be erased or replaced as needed. Once a program was uploaded, the aura of the Soft Stick would shift to match it. I was rather thankful when I learned that the actual programming was not done in runes, but in a coding language. Apparently, the runic programming ca in the form of simply enchanting an item.
I asked how I could upload a software onto a Soft Stick, and how I could get one for myself. Thankfully, I learned that my companion AI bracelet was a suitable terminal to upload software from, and that a single Soft Stick cost one silver. I happily bought it, and went off to work. My last question for him had been on how to adapt a living brain in order to house an AI.
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This seed to be a common question, because it didn’t take too long to say that it was possible. Although it would not be a direct adaptation, but rather an addition. If I were to simply try to augnt my brain to house my AI, then I would have essentially been replacing myself with Celeste. Instead, it was possible to create a secondary system through which the AI would reside. She would have access to all my senses and be capable of communicating with , but be unable to directly control . Likewise, she would lose any abilities granted by the hardware she initially occupied.
When I asked how I could do this, he told to head to the capital, because it was sothing too advanced for my current ability. He was actually surprised when he noticed the change in my eye, as not many people choose to directly alter themselves as soon as they receive Technomancy. I didn’t ntion that I was planning to do the sa for my other senses as well, and even my mory.
After I left the tower, I summoned Yin out of my grove, and asked her to go find her favorite fruit. Since I’m taking the birds with , I might as well plant a heart’s apple tree in my grove for them to enjoy. While she was gone, I had Celeste open up a holographic window for to work with. Since she herself was a program, she was naturally well versed in the programming language. Otherwise, things like a self diagnostic or virus scanning would be impossible.
With her help, I quickly got the flow of this ga’s programming language, which wasn’t that different than my world. There were many new terms, to compensate for the presence of magic, and a few gimmicks in the language itself. Thankfully, Celeste doubled as a debugging software, able to quickly correct any errors I made. I had considered leaving the entire thing up to her, but decided against it. I wanted to be able to do this myself.
About ten minutes later, Yin was returning with a heart shaped apple just as I finished this software patch. I had the options of either applying it to Celeste, or saving it on a Soft Stick. Apparently, mass-produced programs could not copied onto a second Soft Stick, since they had so protections against illegally redistributing them. Though, it was likely possible to overco this with hacking, just like in the real world.
After returning Yin to my grove, and planting the heart’s apple seeds, I placed the Soft Stick up in front of my Cybernetic eye, and activated Aura Sight. Using my Mana Manipulation while attuning to Technomancy, I gradually incorporated the software into my eye.
New Skill Unlocked!Programming - Interdiate Level 2
Exp: 75%
The ability to write code and create programs for technology.
Software Applied to Cybernetic Adaptation: EyePhotographic Learning
This software enables the owner of a Cybernetic Eye to instantly know the contents of images they record, even if they are unable to understand the aning behind it.
Mana Cost: 50% cost to record images.
I smiled, satisfied with that. Sadly, the software wasn’t retroactive, so I didn’t imdiately know the information regarding the brain that I had looked up before. And it was also nice seeing that Programming was my currently highest level skill. If I worked a bit longer on the code, I might be able to reduce the cost to record images, but I’ll save that for later.
Moving out of town, I decided that this ti I would change into my wolf form to run towards the city. Since the wind wolves don’t differ much visually from normal wolves, they shouldn’t bother if I take that form. Surprisingly, my Cybernetic eye remained even after I changed. I guess, since I was using a different type of magic to create it, Nature Magic wouldn’t automatically change it to match a new form. I wasn’t going to complain, since that ant I had one eye that still had perfect vision. I actually went ahead and spent the extra mana to alter my other eye as well, temporarily.
Once I had rested for a few minutes and grown accustod to the new forms, I ran off out of the forest, once again heading to the city. Though, this ti the city wasn’t quite on the horizon due to the change in elevation, that was soon fixed. I should also note that I saw sothing I hadn’t noticed the first ti I took my wolf form, and that was the tal bracelet on my front paw. It seed to have adapted to my new size just like my armor would.
With this form, I was largely unobstructed during my travel. The only attack that ca for was from another elf, who seed to have misunderstood as an attacking wind wolf. After that encounter, which was solved by running away for dear life, I ran parallel to the road without running on it. There was little difference for , but for normal people on the road, it relieved them to see that I wasn’t attacking. They would be on guard as I approached, but relax the mont I left.
My running speed as a wolf was only about half of that of my flight form, but the additional asure of safety was worth it. As a result, the normally two hour flight turned into a four hour run. I heard a little beep from my wrist so ti around the third hour, and knew that Celeste was letting know I had officially gone further than the last ti. That thought made chuckle slightly, an odd sound in my wolf form.
While running, I began to make ideas for other programs I would make once I had ‘reformatted’ my brain for increased mory. My mind already counted as a simple operating system, so I at least didn’t have to make that from scratch. I would, however, need to make a program to let experint with my morized auras to combine different aspects of creatures and create new forms. While I could simply do it manually one piece at a ti, having a preset would save a bit of ti when I need it most.
After the fourth hour, I finally approached a large steel wall, and jumped over onto the road. A pair of guards looked at warily, moving to grab what looked like pistols at their waists as I shifted into my elf form and dismissed the Cybernetic spell on my left eye. Imdiately, the two relaxed, and even bowed respectfully to . I guess that druids really are respected a lot in this society.
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