Chapter 23: A Body Of Their Own
The screen of Midgard's system lit up and a circle with strange symbols formed beneath our feet before a beam of light emerged, engulfing us.
I was in a multicolored whirlwind, several screens turning around in this magic cyclone and when I started to realize the craziness that was happening, I saw my hand deconstruct into thousands of little cubes. Nearby, the same phenomenon was happening to Midgard who only had her upper body left.
"What... Is... Haaa-"
The deconstruction reached my jaw and soon it was pitch white. I couldn't feel anything, and little by little, my consciousness faded away. Did I make a wrong decision by trusting her?
Only a cyclone of screen and energy remained, while the two partners had disappeared.
The screens flashed and merged, creating new fluorescent blue screens.
[Character selected, all system functions unlocked]
[Character analysis, Main quest unlocked]
[Character analysis, convert Kill points]
[99999 Kill points transferred to your wallet]
[God Mode unlocked, Superuser connected]
[Character analysis, Sub quests unlocked]
[God Mode unlocked, stats points available]
Several messages like this appeared and swirled in this vortex that seemed to last forever.
I don't know what happened, or how long it lasted, but at one moment, I was able to open an eye, then the other.
I was back in my bedroom and looked at my body, which had not a single scar.
"I'm... Alive?"
"Of course, are you still doubting me even after my heartwarming speech?"
I turned to my bed, and what I saw stunned me.
"Don't stay that far away, come closer, my precious, Let's enjoy the beauty of our evolution."
Midgard was sitting on the large bed but the person in front of me was a literal talking mystery.
She looked a few years younger, slightly the same size as me, her long unkempt hair was more elegant and wavy, and her outfit had also changed.
The white doctor's coat had been replaced by a very revealing black and white outfit, long black gloves with no finger cuffs resembling reptile scales that stopped at the base of her hands, fingers covered by black claws.
On her head, was a helmet, or rather a large white and black tiara with a snake symbol.
But the most surprising change was her legs, which had taken the shape of a mermaid's tail, or perhaps a black snake, she looked like a lamia.
I looked at her, speechless, fascinated by this spectacle. She noticed my reaction and smiled mischievously.
"Ah, dearie, if you keep staring at me like that, you will give me funny ideas."
"What... What happened to you?!"
"Oh, you mean this form? Isn't it magnificent? This skin, those hairs, it's such a crime to keep this treasure away from a lady."
She made 2 screens disappear in front of her so that I could admire her body.
"This is my true form, as a human, my very pure form, this, right in front of you, is the real me. This is the one we call Midgard, the true Midgard, the one before the world imprisoned her into a prison of flesh and bones."
"... I... What... How?!... I have so many questions!"
"Tututu~ Little toy, we had an agreement on what to talk about and what to not talk about. But rejoice, this miracle is our feat, our success, so I allow you to enjoy this as much as me, Come and dive into an infinite world of pleasure only reserved for us, the higher beings."
She opened her arms, What did I get myself into, seriously?
"You're sick."
"Hn~ that's a no? I was sure boys like that stuff, or maybe you're scared of my age? Don't worry honey, this body never got old, for an eternity, literally."
"Holy cow... Stop being crazy! I want to know what happened and I want to know now!"
"Ah~ Yes, yes, but my offering is still on the table, I can still make my legs appear by the way. But let's save that for later, sit here, please."
She patted the spot right next to her on the bed, I hesitated for a moment but at this point, I urgently needed an answer. I sat next to her as she asked.
"Now open your system again."
I did as she asked and raised my hand to activate the system, but when the screen appeared I was surprised.
The screen was split into several parts, one window labeled 'Quests', another labeled 'Stats', 'Shop', 'Items', 'Skills' and it looked like it could be scrolled down.
"That's what a player can see through your system."
"What... Is this the same system? My system?!"
"No, it's OUR system. This window can only be activated and used by me, but of course, you will lead the way. Basically, I will use everything to give you the best you need and you decide what is happening and what to do. That's pretty fair, isn't it? Now let's take a look at all the functions."
She opened the quest window, it showed 2 other windows, one for the main quests and the other for the side quests.
"Wait... Does this mean the daily quest has been reset?! Should I clear everything now?!!"
"Ah~ So hardworking, but don't worry, only the daily quest is an obligation to complete, but from what I see, it's already done for today. It's not impossible that the same kind of conditions happen for the others but for now, they are pending. We can clear them later. Now look at this, it's the statistics window."
She opened another window and I could see a mannequin with stats lined up on the side.
|Attack: 12
|Physical Def: 8
|Intelligence: 24
|Magic Def: 17
|Speed:19
|Stamina:6
|Mana:45 nOve)1b-In
|Agility: 21+5
|Sensitivity:28
|Luck: 1
|Stat Points: 45
Even though it was the first time I saw this, I understood in a second what 1 luck meant.
"That's why?! That's why I always get ridiculous soul stones?!"
"Hm, you were indeed E-rank. There's a lot of work to do but at least you have some stat points left. Let's start by dividing them to make up for what you're missing... Except luck."
"Are you kidding me?"
"This is not a necessity at the moment, my dear, your physical abilities are a disaster, we need to fix that as a priority."
"Maybe it's because this body is specifically for my abnormal magic, my stats are flexible."
"What did you... Oh, is that the thing you did at the exam? The Delta thing?"
"Yeah, so... Write this down in your head, I won't say it out loud again: I can't use every branch type as my avatar, but together we can."
Midgard's irises shrank.
"There are several versions of myself in this body. Dora is our name, but we use different nicknames between us. I am Sigma, the specialist in abnormal skills, the brain. I am the best character to deal with society. The one who does the daily quests is Gamma, the specialist in general skills and combat genius. He is the one with the greatest offensive power, the one who masters normal magic, but is too dangerous because he could seriously hurt someone. The one you saw today was the worst of us, Beta, the one who had no powers and whose only advantage was being a good son and a good brother to our family. That's literally it, he's a real pain in the ass, he once accepted a girl's confession, and We got caught up in this dating bullshit. Luckily, I managed to get her to leave."
Midgard's eyes trembled with pure joy.
"It's... It's wonderful... Oh my God... You are... Where have you been all this time? It's just... Hm? But I'm sure I have felt power in Beta."
"That's gotta be Delta, a special case. When I or Gamma want to use Beta with powers, we transfer some of our powers to an empty body, Delta, and let Beta take control and a character trait of the one who gave the power is also transferred to Beta. Earlier I gave Delta enough power to summon a golem but not enough to defeat it for example.
"Wonderful, simply wonderful..."
"Not exactly. As I said, each persona has its own mind. The problem is we can have different opinions, for example, you didn't make a pact with Anesidora, you made a pact with 'Sigma', but maybe Gamma wouldn't want that, maybe Beta would be too scared, oh but don't worry, since they didn't react, that means that they agree."
"Interesting... So I can... Can you all change places at will or do you have a time limit?"
"... Like I would answer that!"
"Come on~, at first you caught my attention but now I'm dying to know more... Do you have an Alpha persona? Is there one for each letter?"
"Let me just tell you and stop asking, damn! I want to go to bed early. There's an Alpha character, but this one is... A problem. We've only used it once, but I have no memory of it... Well, I do have one memory. I know he's the physical user and there is a huge downside to using him. So we don't summon him... I don't even know if he's conscious or if he is like Delta."
After some thought, Midgard examined the skills screen closely in silence.
"I understand now. So both fighters depend entirely on magic? It's no surprise that your physical body is not strong. However, I have something valuable to teach you. The perfect avatar is not Sigma, Gamma, or any other persona. It's your main body, Anesidora. I doubt that you have flexible stats, but we can spend the whole night experimenting with each of you to see what we can come up with."
"I'm pretty sure tomorrow is the first day of school, so I should definitely sleep early."
"Ah, my poor little darling, I told you once, don't show me anything interesting if you don't want me to kidnap you. We're going to review every inch of this system, every piece of code. I can't wait to start playing for real."
The night was young, unfortunately for me. It was then that I realized for the first time that the most dangerous beings in this kingdom were all these crazy women.