I tapped the keyplate against the door and waited a moment for it to register the tap. Then waited another moment because nothing was happening. I checked the map.

Yup, this is the right way to go. What's with the doo—

My train of thought was interrupted when a loud, distorted buzzer echoed down the hallway. All of the lights flickered as the noise played. Something fucky is afoot.

I brought my hand up to connect to the circuit in the door, but hesitated a moment before I activated [Arcane Interface]. Obviously, the Malifactum was somehow interfering with the circuit, but I didn't know how it was doing so. Connecting to a corrupted circuit wouldn't damage me, right?

Only one way to find out.

I took a deep breath and connected to it.

The moment the circuits interacted with mine, a pulse went through my body, and suddenly it felt like some calculation was stuck in a recursive loop. I sat there for a couple of seconds, nothing happening, the loop not resolving. Suddenly, a massive diagram was dropped into my memory all at once. If I still had a digestive system, I would have emptied my stomach, my legs gave out, but I didn't allow my hand to drop from the circuit. I didn't want to have to go through the connection process again.

I felt Autumn put their hand on my shoulder, and I weakly looked up and nodded at them.

Basically, what I normally felt when connecting with an artifact was that a small amount of my Mana was sent into the connected circuit, followed by my Core processing the ripples it felt in return using a method that I didn't understand in the slightest. It then outputs a diagram of the circuit into my memory. I assumed it had to be done this way because I couldn't absorb anything from inside the circuit without my soul being hijacked.

What just happened, if I was understanding the log data correctly, was that my Core realized that the circuit it was examining couldn't exist. Or at least it didn't make any sense logically. It was like I had just been sent a bunch of nonsense data. In terms that would make sense to a human, it was as if the information my Core received was that the circuit was an infinitely wide storage space that looped back within itself endlessly, while also being a series of small circuits designed to handle processing a single pulse of data each.

This obviously confused my processor, as it tried to fit the infinitely large space into a tiny circuit. It then attempted to cycle through methods to examine the data structure. It ultimately settled on one called "Greylight Recursion Fix 0.23", a name that made a lot of sense given the current circumstances. It did pretty much exactly what it implied: it fixed the recursion issue. Unfortunately, the output for the recursion fix was also recursive, which didn't go so well when shoved into my mind all at once.

This was an unpleasant experience, especially because, unlike the easy kind of recursive structure, this one didn't look like it followed any pattern. So instead of just being a small set of data labelled 'Repeating', it was basically an infinite amount of semi-randomized information. With every iteration, the circuit became increasingly distorted until it eventually became random noise. At least I know why the keyplate didn't work.

Now that I was thinking about it, wasn't the 'all the information being dumped into my mind at once' problem already an issue Eryx solved? Instead of just dumping a load of information into my memory, shouldn't it just be made available as a module I can access at will?

I added another item to the list of reasons why I was going to strangle the person who nerfed my design to death.

Okay, now how do I create a key for an infinitely long recursive circuit? Actually, wait, can I even pull it into [Mana Simulations]? I attempted to add the circuit as I saw it in its entirety into a simulation and immediately hit a hard stop, followed by the simulation crashing.

That stumped me. So I decided to try my favourite solution when I hit a dead end—excessive use of force.

I had to adjust the wires inside my body to get the right ones for the task to align with the hole, which for this current problem was wiring made out of Ashenflare Leaf. Then I dumped as much Fire Mana into the lock as it would allow me. Eventually, something broke, and with a pop, the doors slid open.

"That's why you always gotta remember to protect your locking mechanisms from thermal injection," I muttered to myself. Though I'm fairly certain the locks in the other building were protected, it's just whatever the hell Malifactum had done to this lock removed that feature.

Heading through the doors, I decided in advance that I never wanted to connect to one of the locks again. If it were possible for me to sleep, I would probably end up having nightmares about infinitely large data sets being forced into my memory buffers. So I built a little automatic key artifact to do it for me.

The design was fairly simple. I pumped Mana in through one side, converted it to Fire Mana, and held it until a certain amount was stored inside. Then, once the overflow gate was fully saturated, it released the entire charge all at once, hopefully frying whatever lock I'm using it to bypass. The best part was that this would likely work for physical locks as well. Or at least it would for physical locks that still operated after being reduced to molten metal. Maybe I shouldn't try using it on wooden doors, though.

Autumn didn't seem all that impressed as I described the bypass method. But that's okay, I didn't need their approval when I had the system's.

Profession Level (Greenweaver) Increased +1 (2)

+4 Wit, +2 Arcana, +2 Spirit, +4 Free Stats

Speaking of the system, I hadn't actually checked my status menu in what felt like a while. This was as good a time as any to do that.

Profile Under Watch By: Kaelzar, Myrris Name: Ellie Winters

Species: Runaspriggan (Lvl 33) Class: Neophyte Conduit (Lvl 29) Profession: Greenweaver (Lvl 2)

Titles: [Pioneering Explorer of the Boundless Horizons], [Pioneering Explorer of the Vast Expanse], [Pioneering Explorer of the Far Reaches], [Scorched Survivor of Kharathyx], [Arcane Veilbreaker], [Realm Balancer], [Wondersprout Enhanced Physique], [The First to Listen], [Repaired Mana Veins] Physique: [Repaired Mana Veins] Permissions: User (Hidden: Sys_Observer)

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Stats: Might: 35 + 8 + 15 (+55%)

Wit: 171 (+65%)

Spirit: 231 + 20 (+75%)

Fortitude: 128 (+60%)

Arcana: 196 + 5 (+60%)

Grace: 70 (+55%)

Free Stats (Untethered Eidos Fragments): 0

Alright, wow, that's a bunch of new information.

First off, the changes I expected. Greenweaver was listed as my profession, and from that, I now had Free Stats listed as an available option. All of which I'd been dumping into Might so far. I suppose I should have expected my system permissions to be listed as well, so I'd list that as an expected change as well. My Titles were starting to get a little bit crowded. I hoped it would start shortening that section soon.

Next were things that I needed to figure out more about. What the hell was a Physique, and what was Eidos? I should ask Autumn about the second thing, but I'd heard of the first before, sort of.

Going by novel logic, Physiques were usually hidden traits within a body that could be discovered, allowing the character to do cool things. Or at least, that was cultivation novel logic—I was pretty sure Bloodlines were more common in other genres. But I didn't think that was how the term was being used here. I probably couldn't rely on genre tropes to figure out what was going on, because I didn't have a body that could even contain a hidden Bloodline or Physique. So instead, it was probably referring to the upgrades I'd already made to my body.

That would imply there were more Physique upgrades to find. I definitely needed to discuss this with Hazel. She probably knew a lot more than I do. Why is she taking so long to get back to me, though?

Last of all, who the hell is Myrris?

I debated praying to them, just to ask for an answer as to who they were and why they were watching me. But for one, the gods hadn't really had the best track record of responding to my prayers. And two, I didn't want to let anyone know I had Sys-Observer permissions, which was probably what was letting me see the list of gods watching my profile. Sending them a message directly from me sounded like a great way to share information with a complete unknown.

Might as well just ignore them then. They can't even see the interesting bit of my profile, my hidden permissions.

I did have one more thing I wanted to ask for a while now, though: "Hey Autumn, what's Eidos?"

Autumn let out a crunchy sigh, nearly exasperated. "Goddess, it's like I'm back in the Foresthome teaching Sylvan candidates again. I thought I left that life behind hundreds of seasons ago."

They stared off for a moment, seemingly lost in some distant past. I let them have their moment and used the key artifact I created to bypass a door. Eventually, they blinked back to the present.

"Right. Eidos." They drew themselves up a little, their words carrying the weight of a professor teaching a subject they were kind of tired of but had to go over anyway. "If we're talking about what it is for the average mortal, then Eidos is fuel that your soul burns to maintain attachment with your physical form. That's all most people need to know, once you run out of Eidos, your soul disconnects from your body and returns to whoever owns it. If nobody owns your soul… Then you're just gone, maybe stuck in the void between Planes damned to exist forever in complete nothingness."

Autumn gave me a long-suffering look. "There's a reason we care about our Patrons, most aren't like yours and won't use their afterlives as a Mana farm. Some even provide Eidos to dead followers to rebind them to a new body as a form of reincarnation, their memories intact, allowing them to act out their Patron's will on the world."

Oh, great, regression is an actual thing. I just rolled the dice poorly and got a bad owner. That's great, I'm not mad or anything…

"Okay, but that doesn't really answer my question. Eidos has something to do with Soul Refinement, like my system referring to 'Free Stats' as Untethered Eidos Fragments. What's that all about?" I asked, taking a deep breath. I'm not salty. Who's salty? Not me.

"That's the more complicated part… Okay, so technically, Eidos refers to your metaphysical significance. You can't really personally control your significance; normally, it's just the sum of the impacts you have on the world and its people. Not counting the feeder universe you lived in, obviously, that dimension had zero meaning within it, so even if you managed to do something like wipe out life from the entire universe, you wouldn't gain a single fragment. It has no significance because nobody who matters would care.

"Somehow, The Sovereign's faction managed to design a system to allow manual control of your own soul's significance. Nobody knows how this was made possible. If The Sovereign didn't have such a powerful faction, I'd imagine people would wage war over the formula to add that system to their people." Autumn said their gaze was distant as they spoke.

"Oh, right, I forgot to ask you, did you want to be added to the system?" I asked, I had the ritual and might as well make use of it. "I was given knowledge about a ritual that allows me to add willing sapient life to it. I have some kind of special permission that allows me to link myself to another person's soul and activate a system on them. It's actually a fairly simple ritual… What are you doing?"

Autumn had slowly turned to face me, their eyes wide.

I slowed down, and they continued walking at the same speed, their head turning at an unnatural angle to face me. I think I'd broken them. They were acting the same way they did shortly after I first met them. Huh, I never asked why they did that, did I?

I walked up to them while manipulating circuits inside my right hand. When I reached right in front of them, I brought my hand up and snapped my fingers, rubbing two sound circuits together to produce a fun effect. The sound of an artillery shell exploding echoed down the hallway.

Autumn jumped into the air and squeaked like a sapling bending in the wind. They composed themselves almost instantly before speaking in the sternest meaning I'd ever heard from them, "Never tell anyone else you have that ability."

"Why? Wouldn't it be useful? I can summon one of those Sylvans you mentioned, and add the—" I was interrupted by Autumn slapping me.

"NO," They were breathing heavily. "You cannot let anyone know. If this gets out, you will be…" Suddenly, Autumn was clinging to me. I stopped walking to let them, "My Lady wanted me to protect you. I cannot do that if anyone were to learn that you hold the ability to spread the System outside of Kaelzar's influence."

I rubbed the foliage on their head, "Alright, but I'm going to give it to you. We have to keep moving, we have less than an hour, and I still have to figure out how to manipulate the ritual. You can't protect me if I die now."

Autumn was quiet for a moment before letting go, "If fate may permit it, allow me to become a Sylvan first before you grant me the system… Thank you, it sounds like you don't even know what this means, but you should at least know that it is an incredible boon you'll be granting me."

I was already thinking about how I could safely add the system onto summons without the information getting out. I knew how to override the soul of a summoned entity using a binding ritual, attaching it to my soul, binding it to my will, which would technically work. But then their soul would already be bound to mine, so I didn't know if I could even add a system anymore. I'll have to think about it.

We eventually arrived at the room that we were supposed to enter. I held the key up to the slot and slammed Mana into it, turning the lock into molten metal. The door popped open, and I was greeted with a massive room with five cohesive circles all working together to hold the rift open.

I let out a groan. This was going to be a painful fix, wasn't it?

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