Chris: "Tell that brute Fred to get ready. Begin test A1: Mana reactivity."
A hole opened up on the roof and started releasing a blue gas into the room. It flowed like a free mist at first, spreading across the room. The hole in the roof stopped releasing the blue gas and closed. The mist then began to move into the center of the room doing a sphere. A-Line formed out of the blue mist came moved towards me. It connected to the spot in my left chest. I couldn't do anything to effect this as far as I knew, so I just stood there and let it do its thing.
The feminine and artificial voice came back.
[Grade 8 Mana detected]
[Beginning absorption]
The ball in the center of the room became smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared.
[Core has reached max Mana, beginning upgrade]
My world began to sway and my core, as I know knew it was, felt like it was burning. The feeling was excruciating, it was not the worst I experienced, as the FOP I had before was more painful on the bad days. The feeling didn't last long and went away as quickly as it came.
[Upgrade complete]
[Displaying stats]
~
Name: Thorn
Race: Living armor
Titles: Reincarnated, Living Metal
Grade:9
Mana: 20/20 Arc
Status: Excited, confused and slightly disbelieving.
~
And that's how I got my Status screen. I was excited. I got one of the things most people in my past life dreamed of. Other than the whole reincarnation thing as well. I felt like one of those protagonists in the Novel's m I read. I wasn't naive enough to believe that though. I was not in a good situation but was going along with it. I probably didn't have plot armor or crazy luck and I would die if I did anything stupid. But I was still happy about it.
I tried to find the meaning behind those words, like in the novels. It worked.
-
Reincarnated:
One whose soul was reborn.
"You have been given a second chance, don't waste it" - Captain Hellberg during the Otodolan war.
Living Metal:
You are metal, you don't have mortal needs and you don't have mortal fears. As long as your core is not damaged and you have Mana, you will survive.
"Metal protects us and harms us, but that is because of us. If it could think for itself, I wonder what it would do." - Dwarven Smith.
-
Reincarnated was self-explanatory as I had just reincarnated.
Living Metal meant that I didn't need to worry about things hunger, thirst, fatigue, poison, disease, breathing and bleeding. My core is my weak point and if it is damaged in any way it would be catastrophic.
Chris: "There are no problems with the cores ability to absorb Mana and to advance a grade. We will continue testing after a short lunch break. End Log 01. So he didn't explode like the last one, that's good. Dylan go get Fred, I need to discuss some things with him."
Dylan: "Yes sir."
Then I internally freaked out. I was just told I could have exploded, dead right then and there. That wiped the last thoughts I had of being the protagonist. I was just some expendable test subject.
After that, I sat around fiddling with my Status. Figuring things out. I found out that I could display a single line of information.
-
Mana:19/20Arc
-
I also found out that moving uses Mana, not a lot, but a noticeable amount. The Mana would go down to 19 Arc if I waited for around 10 minutes or and go back to 20 Arc within the next five minutes. It also used more if I moved around.
Chris: "And we're back. Start log 02. We are going to start test A2: Mana Usage and movement. Dylan start the transformation."
Dylan: "Beginning transformation..."
(Test A1: Mana reactivity just tests to see if there are any problems with the subject's core. If it can absorb Mana or if it will overload.)