Rewards, Quests and Achievements
The quests and achievements are created from Mana and one's subconsciousness, motivating mortals to discover new knowledge and to better oneself. Be that good or bad, mana does not judge.
Rewards are created from surrounding natural mana, lowering the mana density. Additional rewards such as knowledge or skills may be awarded by the archives.
—
Fia Lotusriver had had a fairly good life for a Vulpirir. The universe she had lived in had been bullied into the position of a trading hub by the larger and more stronger universes, which had made her people fairly prosperous.
She had had a fairly good life until the day she decided to prank her sister by putting an aphrodisiac in her morning tea. Her sister had been the quartermaster of their city, so thinking back it might have been stupid to give her something that would distract her from work.
Anyhow, her prank escalated into the universe getting killed by one of the stronger ones because that day a powerful and unique weapon had gone missing. It had been an artifact of a long dead universe and nobody knew or could find out how to make more of it.
Normally the territory of the killed universe would have gone to the winner. The only other case was if one of its own inhabitants had a kill participacion of 25% or more. Then this individual would become a new universe and the killed universe would be the new one’s domain after it got restarted.
Fia had gotten more then 30% participation for that prank somehow, killing every living being in her universe and causing her to become the new spirit of the universe as her people had liked to call it.
That event had shattered Fia and she had mourned for a really long time.
There were rules to being a universe that would only come into play once the universe started growing, but Fia never did the latter.
This caused other universes to be unable to attack and kill her or beat her into submission. It ultimately doomed her universe to become the garbage dump of the other universes.
Fia never really noticed any of this at the beginning, but once she had stopped mourning and decided to sleep for eternity, she had been woken up forcefully every single time something got dumped into her.
During the times she had been awake Fia had slowly stopped caring about what she called her first life. It still left a mark on her and now she thought about her next actions a lot more than before, which essentially led to her overthinking everything. As a universe she had time and there was nothing else she wanted to do.
As she thought about everything that came to her mind, Fia had discovered the rules to being a universe.
The moment a universe started to grow, it started to age and one day it would collapse. There was a way around that though, as killing other universes would add their remaining lifespan to yours.
The eternal war of the multiverse made a lot more sense for Fia now, but she didn’t want to be part of it and as long as she didn’t start to grow, the other universes couldn’t attack her. Fia decided she would grow by implementing the trash that got warped into her.
Believing herself safe, she had gone back to sleep. Sometimes whole solar systems got dumped into her, other times it had been black-holes or exploding stars, but it had never been something that was dangerous for her.
It had never been something dangerous for her until the day a solar system warped into her and her danger sense went crazy. Not because of the solar system, mind you. No, it was because of a small sphere that was located on the moon of a really green planet.
Following her instincts, Fia had locked the sphere in its own plane and started to go through her memories to get an idea on what the hell she was working with.
She was still doing so, when she got interrupted AGAIN, but this time it left her so speechless her mind blanked out.
“Uhh… Hello?”
—
Argul had no idea how he should have started this conversation, but she had to admit that ‘Uhh… Hello?’ was not the best way to begin negotiations between two parties who didn’t know each other.
“Really mom, that's how you start this conversation?” Alyra stared at her mother, who pointedly avoided looking at her.
Argul was really embarrassed right now and it got worse as an awkward silence settled in between the two. The universe also didn’t answer, so Argul broke the silence after 10 uncomfortable minutes.
“What if it can’t understand us? Or if it doesn’t even understand the concept of language?”
“Mom, the thing put you in a complicated dimensional prison within a second of us arriving here and you think it doesn’t know language??!!” Alyra should never have let her mother speak with someone she didn’t know and trust. Argul was just really awkward around others she didn’t know.
“Your daughter is quite right, even though the prison was pure instinct.” A gentle female voice said.
Alyra immediately snapped to attention, while Argul jumped about 20 meters into the air in surprise and started to slowly fall down again. It was silent until she landed and Alyra really wished not to be there at the moment.
You are reading story Reincarnated as a mana core at novel35.com
“Ahem” Argul awkwardly cleared her throat, which considering her height and power sounded really terrifying for about everything smaller than her except her daughter.
“Right, hello again I assume Miss Universe. My name is Argul Agren and I am the mana core you decided to imprison some time ago. Now, if I am dangerous to you I can forgive being imprisoned in self defense. As you might know though, being imprisoned isn’t really all that nice, which is why I want to propose a hopefully possible solution for us two to coexist. I don’t know what being a universe means, so it might not be possible.” Argul could have tried to make this a negotiation with him in the better position, sadly she wasn’t all that good with negotiations and interacting with strangers so she just said her piece to be done with it.
Fia being herself took a bit to process and think about what Argul had said. Something didn’t sit right with her. Argul tried to say it as if they were on an equal standing, but she had said her part as if it was really unlikely for Fia to decline this offer. She found the problem, Argul had offered coexistence, which meant that Fia didn’t know something important.
“My name is Fia Lotusriver. As far as I’m concerned you and your energy are safely locked away for eternity and yet you come and offer coexistence as if it weren’t so. What gives you the confidence and motivation to do so?”
Argul sighed and turned a lot more serious than before.
“You are wrong Miss Lotusriver. Firstly, to call it locked a way safely stretches the implication of safety so far that it will rip, just because I would do everything to give my daughter freedom.
Secondly, your containment will fail. I didn’t just bring the energy with me, I generate it and will do so for all of eternity. Mana as I call it, already eats away at the plane you created as my prison and will destroy it someday. Going by your instincts that day will likely be your last one.
Don’t understand me wrong. Before this meeting I never wished you ill or wanted to harm you, but depending on how this negotiation goes this might change in a way you won’t enjoy.”
Argul was not going to let the freedom of her daughter be taken away. She would do what she could for her, even if it meant killing another person. Do not understand her wrong, if Alyra does wrong she is going to be punished, but he wanted her to have the ability to even do wrong in the first place.
Fia on the other hand now gave Argul the respect she should have given her from the beginning. She was able to kill her if she really wanted to and Fia couldn’t really do anything against that. But instead of Fia ultimately dying, Argul had come to her to solve their problem, instead of possibly gaining a lot more power.
“Please let me apologize. I haven’t talked with anyone since the death of my own universe and didn’t even think it was possible. I acted how I did, because from what I know about other universes I wouldn’t trust them to move the length of an atom without throwing something deadly at you.”
“So you haven’t always been a universe, that’s interesting and makes us somewhat similar as I haven't always been a mana core. Would you mind telling me and my daughter a bit about universes?”
Argul was truthfully curious and while the same did count for Alyra, she let her mother have this conversation as it would be important for her plan.
For Fia it was a gamble. Until now it could have all been an act to make her lower her defenses, but it would be an impossible act, as communicating with the spirit of a universe shouldn’t be possible.
Fia took the gamble. It was a chance to change her life, as much as it could be her doom. She talked and explained some things about universes. Fia did not reveal everything and what she had said had mostly been common knowledge in her old universe, but it was enough for Argul to know that her plan would likely work.
“So what do you wanted to propose to let us coexist?” Fia asked after she finished.
“Ahh I nearly forgot, sorry! Let me give you an overview about mana. It changes the laws of existence a bit, maybe a lot. Anyway, using your intent with mana lets you do things that should be impossible and mana will create things you thought were impossible. Using mana I should be able to create a pact that will force you to integrate mana without dying.
Mana should also allow you to grow your universe without aging by the way.
Back to the pact, with what I had in mind it will also force our behavior if there are clauses concerning said behavior.”
Algur was really excited. She would need to use the connection created by uniphone to create the pact and it would be a lot harder than creating the materialization spell.
“You are aware that what you just said sounds really ominous, yes?” Fia was wary and did not like the part about forcing her behavior.
“Whoops! Let me tell you what I had in mind, then you will understand.
Firstly, Fia Lotusriver will become a mana universe enabling her to use mana and live with it.
Secondly, Fia Lotusriver will be allowed to use all mana that the containment plane of Argul Agren can’t hold, to grow her universe. This includes matter creation, invading other universes or management such as deciding on a natural mana density.
Thirdly, Fia Lotusriver will have no control over Argul and Alyra Agren. This clause applies vice versa and will cause Fia Lotusriver to lose control over Argul Agren’s plane.
Fourth, Fia Lotusriver, Argul Agren and Alyra Agren can take no actions against each other with the intent of the other's death, no matter how much in the future said death would be.
Fifth, all organisms are able to traverse between the universe and Argul Agren’s plane through portals based on the rules set by Argul Agren.
Sixth, Fia Lotusriver, Argul Agren and Alyra Agren have equal standing. This clause will not stop them from acting in relationships such as mother and daughter or friends.
And that should be about it.
We would have to talk a bit about how to start, as there are currently invaders in your universe, but I believe Alyra’s system will offer a solution for that. I will not be able to hide the true nature of the pact and you will be able to decline it should you want. I might need a few tries to create it, because it should be really difficult.”
Fia was a bit overwhelmed. The pact wasn’t long, but what surprised her the most was that Argul wanted nothing other than her and her daughters freedom and made sure that they won’t be able to kill each other, but didn’t need to like each other and would still be able to work against one another.
Fia on the other hand would gain a lot more power and options, she could even take revenge on the universe that killed her old one if she wanted. If Argul really couldn’t hide the true nature of the pact then Fia had nothing to lose and a lot to win.
“Alright, you basically give me a huge packet of future power, let’s try this out.”
Argul got to work and sent her mana along the connection of ‘uniphone’ to create the pact. She failed 28 times, before she managed to build a stable connection. It took Argul another five tries to create a pact and then had to try two more times to get the pact right.
Fia now being fully able to see the nature of the pact found nothing wrong with Argul’s last pact and decided to accept. A weird feeling invaded all three of them , even Alyra as she was part of the pact.
Argul ignored her last notifications and decided to get to the last part of her plan. Alyra meanwhile was really happy, because what Argul had just created made a completely new function possible for the system. Even though she would make it really limited and make sure that it won’t get abused.
“I’m sure you just got integrated with the system Miss Lotusriver, but I suggest that you go through all of that later with Alyra, she can help you if you want.” Argul interrupted Fia from getting overwhelmed with unknown things.
“Please just call me Fia. I would like to accept that offer. I am not the fastest with new things.” This time it was actually Alyra who spoke up next.
“That’s okay. What I wanted to tell you is, that every sapient non mana creature that comes into contact with mana will get the choice to ally itself with us or fight against us. Those who ally themselves with us will get the system's help while evolving and those that choose to fight against us and are still sapient after their evolution will become allies anyway, while those who lose their sapience during evolution will be labeled as monsters by the system. Now comes your part mom.” Alyra ended her explanation and a huge grin spread on both Alyra’s and Argul’s faces.
“Right, right. Fia Lotusriver, would you like to go on an adventure?” Tails wagged, a universe was surprised once again and change was coming.