Chapter 148: Imprint

Chapter 148: Imprint

I did have my suspicions, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I did hope it won't be like this.

Obviously, I ended up being right.

"How much do you know?" First, I need to find out how much she knows, and how much she is under the influence of the system.

"Little pup, I'm Absolute of my planet. Obviously, I know a lot," she answers once again. This time I observe it a bit more and find out how terrifyingly difficult what she does is. She uses the tiniest amount of mana to vibrate the air to create soundwaves; she is even skilled enough to make them mimic her original voice.

Who the heck would even bother with that?

"System, tutorial, second floor, floor quests, third floor, repeat that."

"I do not appreciate your tone," she says before continuing, "System, tutorial, second floor, floor quests, third floor," she just repeats it all.

Oh boy, this is getting fun. I move closer and sit in front of the thing that used to be my left hand. Just from a few sentences we exchanged I notice that she is a bit different from the Lissandra I knew. How to say it, her personality is a bit off?

"Could you explain it to me?" I say.

"I could, but first, I have to say that I'm quite disappointed by your usage of mana, little pup. I find it really inadequate."

"I find your lack of an actual body more inadequate."

"..."

"Go on, try to poke me again, granny, you are not so scary any..."

Before I finish, a small pulse of mana can be felt from the fleshy item on the ground. The amount is so ridiculously small that I almost do not bother defending against it. It just feels like someone blowing a little bit of air from their nose. That's how minuscule the amount is.

Yet, I do remember who Lissandra was and send disruptive mana at it, even creating a shield in front of it.

The whiff of mana sent at me then absorbs the disruptive mana and reflects it at me. That mana then proceeds to delete my shield from existence and engulfs my entire body, totally breaking my hold over my mana. Then it hits me, sending sharp pain through my entire body.

It's as if someone kicked my crotch, just the pain repeating all over the entirety of my body. The pain disappears as quickly as it came, but the feeling lingers behind.

"My usage of mana is trash," I groan quietly.

The item lets out something resembling a laugh, and Lissandra continues, "You were always fun to observe, little pup."

This time even though its voice is made only with the help of mana, I can hear deep anger and hate in it.

“I'll give you coordinates of my world, of a most likely dead world where only I'm still alive. When you are strong enough, you will get there and pass to me the message I will leave you.”

Even though the item contains only a tiny amount of mana, I can almost feel the terrifying pressure of someone strong enough to be called Absolute. Being way beyond any logic and someone even the system was unable to replicate or contain fully.

"And then, when the original me learns that this cheeky system dared to copy her, she will go and find it,” her words are full of despise, “And when she finds the system or being responsible behind it, she will fuck it up.”

I'm not going to lie, Lissandra is scary, like goddamn. Who creates a copy of her consciousness just to try to screw over someone who pissed her off and dared to use her for the tutorial. Talk about holding a grudge.

I would totally do the same.

The thing is that I believe that she might just try to do that. The second floor showed us the end of her world, which was caused by the Mind Mage Emperor manipulating Champion Tristan into sacrificing his life and using [Dawn]. I believe she would survive that if that's how her word ended.

It doesn't matter if everyone on the planet died or if the system copied it thousands of years ago. I'm sure she would still be alive.

“First, we will do something about your body. From watching you, I understand how you like to go about things, but to be honest, it's inadequate. Having mana keep threatening your own body is good, but it stops being funny when you keep getting wrecked by it.”

Oi, there is no need to be such a douche about that.

“Putting stats into mana is good, it's just amazing that you didn't use it to temper your body actively and only let the passive strain of your mana temper it.”

Temper what? Active tempering? Passive tempering? Why does it all sound so interesting?

“You have to talk, I won't be wasting my mana just because it's bothersome for you to open your mouth.”

Ouch, that did sting a little.

“Tell me more about active tempering,” I say.

“I still dislike your tone, even now it somewhat pisses me off. Your eyes were the same,” even as she is saying it, I can hear a hint of amusement in her words, “That's what made it so fun to watch. But enough nonsense, there are multiple ways to go about it, but the easiest would be to do what you were doing up until now, just more actively.”

Why do I have a feeling that this is going to hurt?

“There is no need to wait. We can start right away. We will use the thing you created around your heart to send strong waves of kinetic energy through your body and pummel it until it either breaks or becomes stronger.”

I knew it.