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Chapter 32: We are what we are.

  Elizabeth closed her eyes and felt herself sink within her [Soul]. She went through all the layers of her own [Existence].

  First manifesting her body at the outside of her [Soulscape], then sinking into the obsidian gem floating in the void that was her [Soulscape]. Appearing in the sky of Aquila, then sinking into the ground of the dead [World], first slowly then faster and faster.

  Soon enough she saw herself once more in the empty space that seemed to be the [Core] of her [Soul], the underground with hundreds and hundreds of crystal spires connecting the floor with the [World].

  The same place she saw [The Shadow Weaver] before, the place where she sent who would end up being [Reginald] to look after Alice and [Elemental Weaver].

  The place that seemed to symbolize the true identity of her [Soulscape]..

  “What is the Soulscape.” A voice asked her.

  “Such a stupid question, aren’t you tired of it? The [Soulscape] is the reflection of the [Soul].” Elizabeth answered, she felt as if this question had been asked to her before. But she couldn’t place who or where had asked her this.

  “Not yet then.” The voice of a second girl said, Elizabeth turned around and sure enough she found two girls.

  One blonde like her and a black-haired.

  “Alice, Chloe.” Elizabeth greeted both of them, “Fancy finding you here.”

  “Not like we could be anywhere else, we aren’t precisely…[Dead], so no reason for us to go to your [Shadow Haven].” Alice answered.

  “Besides, you do need help on this side too.” Chloe said pointing around to the empty space, “Do you have any idea how messy this place was? And then you made those as if nothing, giving us more job!”

  Chloe grumbled pointed a two crystal spires, one red and one pink.

  “Is that…” Elizabeth asked, she knew the owner of those of course.

  “Yes, those are the [Foundation] of your girlfriends…oh god, just the fact that there are more than one is annoying by itself,” Chloe said while grumbling.

  Elizabeth regretted giving [Elemental Weaver] the name Chloe; the Chloe she remembered was nice(and hot). This one?

  Well…she was also Hot…

  “Don’t ever think about it.” Chloe said glaring at Elizabeth, “Go and use a [Doppelganger] or something.”

  The other blonde said while hiding behind Alice, who was also cute…

  Wait…Did…Did her two [Shifts] somehow reflect Rena and Rossie?

  In one hand she had the shy-type cute girl, and in the other she had the somewhat crazy one…

  “No Elizabeth, we are normal. It’s you people who are crazy here, who would even see a clone of themselves and think ‘Would’?!?!?” Chloe said from behind Alice.

  “*Sigh* why are we even…” Oh right, Alice was also there. “Stop messing around sis, and you too Elizabeth.”

  It seemed as if Alice was tired, surely it wasn’t that bad?

  “So, as you may have surmised, we are in the deepest part of your [Soul] because your third job evolution is special,” Alice said, snapping her fingers and summoning one of Elizabeth’s blue screens.

  “See here? This one is special. It only shows up to [Heroes]. Your girlfriends got it, and now that your Mother and Papa have chosen you as a [Hero], you get one too,” Alice said while pushing the notification toward Elizabeth.

  “So? Then show me the options.” Elizabeth said dismissing the blue screen.

  “Here they go, please pick one of these.” Chloe said summoning a blue screen and throwing it at Elizabeth from behind Alice. “Please pick one of those.”

  Elizabeth caught the blue screen and started reading her options, to be honest. She wasn’t that impressed, but then again, they did evolve just three months ago. She had hoped to grow stronger and get some achievements since leveling up was supposed to get harder the more they grew in levels….

  But then again, her options always had some shenanigans from both her parents and [The World], and remembering what had happened before, Elizabeth had to ask. “Is that all? Don’t I get a [Black Screen] offering too?”

  Chloe looked as if she had ate something sour, while Alice sighed.

  “Yes, you do.” Alice sighed as she said that.

  “Wait! Think this through first, okay? You don’t know where these come right? Maybe they are a trap! Like the Ethan thing! Or maybe they will again corrupt you like with the Pride’s Crown!” Chloe said, bringing up very valid points.

  “Don’t they come from…you know… [The World] too?” Elizabeth asked.

  “They come from A World all right…” Alice mumbled. You need to understand something. We are here because we are helping you with the most…. esoteric parts of your power.”

  Yes, Elizabeth had gotten that idea too when Alice and Chloe showed up in the deepest parts of her [Soul], she thought they were doing something like that, especially since the flow of Souls seemed more stable.

  “So? “ Elizabeth asked.

  “Well…we…didn’t have enough time to prepare those; we hadn’t expected you to actually go out of your way and deal with [Shadow Pact].” Chloe said from behind, “Why are you even doing this. What [Shadow Pact] did to us was wrong and everything, but you don’t need to deal with him right now, you can go about your way, graduate from School after farming more power and then go and deal with him.”

  “But I have to deliver [Chloe]’s Message.” Elizabeth answered.

  “My message to him is for him to go eat dirt, and you can send that one by mail if needed.” Chloe answered. “There, just…leave and come back in like a month, okay?”

  “Not you, the original [Chloe], [Chloe Ashcroft].” Elizabeth said pushing the blue screen with her jobs options to the side. “So spit it out, what are the other options.”

  Both Chloe and Alice turned quiet, and in the end, it was Chloe who sighed and summoned another set of black screens. “Like we said, these aren’t ready. We had prepared them for later. So they are half finished.”

  Alice took the second black screen and said afterwards, “These, however, were made instinctually by The World. They are affected by you, so their names and wording may seem weird. They shift and change depending on how you look at them and how you perceive The World.” And like that, both girls pushed towards Elizabeth two sets of black screens.

  These seemed normal enough, even if somewhat lackluster, but they brought interesting options.

  Elizabeth was tempted by a few ones here, but she had other ones to see.

  …..

  “The heck?” Elizabeth couldn’t help but say aloud, “How many variants of Queen are there? And why am I being offered the [King] job? Don’t I need a few extra organs to qualify for that job?”

  That one honestly weirded out Elizabeth.

  “Not like you can’t grow one, you have Shift after all.” Chloe said in passing from behind Alice, “But like we said, we don’t control what shows up on that one! We also think it’s weird you get offered [Emperor] and [Empress] job!”

  Almost as if she could fulfill both jobs, well, she could indeed fulfill both jobs, she had [Doppelganger] and [Shift]. There was nothing stopping Elizabeth from making a male Elizabeth…

  Besides the fact that Rossie and Rena would probably hate her if she showed up as a Male. Well, Rena may end up being scared of her, which would hurt Elizabeth’s heart. But she wasn’t quite sure how Rossie would react.

  She could see her girlfriend both hating the change and amping up her teasing in an attempt to get her into the bed. Rossie was like that after all.

  “Well, remove the male variants anyway.” Elizabeth said glaring at the black screen, “Leave those that give things I can use while being Female.”

  Elizabeth did add that at the end, but either way, all the male variants disappeared.

  “Most of the extra things that were added to the Male variant include some skills like [Edless Stamina] and [Body Liquid Replenishment].” Chloe chimed from the side.

  “It's not like I needed that info. Also, isn’t a skill that recovers blood useful for me as a female, too?” Elizabeth asked, confused.

  “Well, that skill doesn’t focus on replenishing blood…or water, for that matter.” Alice said from the side as her face blushed red.

  “Then what….liquid….oh….eww……..ewwwwwwwww.” Elizabeth shivered as she caught on to what [Liquid] that one replenished, which was straight-up nasty. “Yeah, no, never bring that one again.”

  Elizabeth didn’t need or want for that skill to exists, unless she got around getting a male partner, but she doubted that would ever happen. She was just too happy with her two girlfriends. And since Rena hated men…yeah, tough luck for the males in Zaanam.

  “So, give me what we have to work with.” Elizabeth said turning to the survivors of her list of skills. “[Identify]!”

  And so she pointed her [Skill] towards the list of jobs, getting descriptions from them…well, most of them. Mostly those that interested Elizabeth.

  “....some of them are missing, is this thing broken?” Elizabeth asked trying to get a feeling why not all of them had shown. “[Identify]!”

  And so she tried again, infusing more mana into the skill and sharpening the [Idea].

  “Not gonna work, you are using a square to try and get it to fit into a circle.” Alice said from the side.

  “I mean, there was that video of the woman shoving all the wood toys into the square hole…” Chloe said from the side.

  “Not now, sis,” Alice scolded the blonde, “These aren’t part of the normal circle your skill belongs. You need to use Idea.”

  “Didn’t I use [Idea] before?” Elizabeth asked, confused, “What are you talking about? See [Identify]!”

  And going through the motions, Elizabeth pointed her skill towards the black-haired girl…only to find nothing. Elizabeth took a deep breath and focused, first she thought about what she wanted.

  She wanted to know the information that could be obtained, she wanted to see the data to decide what to do, with a firm idea of what she wanted, she fed that into her mana. She felt her thoughts travel into the lump of mana she had assigned for this, using that she focused on her skill once more.

  She felt the [Skill Node] in the outer part of her [Soulscape], right now it was a computer station in the central spire in Aquila. There she fed the mana brimming with her [Idea] and opening her eyes focusing into the activation of the skill… “[IDENTIFY]!” Elizabeth said, feeling one of her strongest [Identify] yet.

  “Okay, that one, I am sure had [Idea] on it. What is happening?” Elizabeth said, trying not to think too much about her hurt ego.

  “You are using [Idea], one that is tied to [Zaanam]; we aren’t on Zaanam, are we?” Alice said, pointing at the ceiling, “Where are we?”

  Well, they were in her [Soulscape]...oh…”Damned hell, we aren’t in Kansas.” Elizabeth grumbled. “Do I need to learn a new path of power then? Is that it?”

  “Of course not, that would be silly.” Chloe said from behind Alice, how much more time was she going to stay there? “You already know how to use it, you have used it before. Feel your mana, think of what you wish, and say the words.”

  “This feels way more esoteric than when Mother taught me about [Idea].” Elizabeth said, that one time her Mother had turned her into a [Star] only to taught her how to [Speak], and that had been nuts. “Fine…Let me focus.”

  Elizabeth closed her eyes once more, she thought about what Chloe had said.

  She already knew how to use it? Of course she knew, she had wielded [Idea] before, she had seen what those who wielded it did. How they rewrote reality.

  She was half sure Alexanders and Alexa could wield it too, way better than her or anyone else.

  So…how to do it…You focus what you want into mana, shove it into a neat package and make reality bend over to fulfill your wish. That was, in a nutshell, what her grandmother had taught her.

  But that wasn’t it was it? It was too crass, one would bruteforce their approach, and in turn would probably end witouth mana even with changes too small to even notice, there must be another way to do it.

  “First…what do I need, how can it be achieved, what I wish…” Elizabeth said while thinking.

  She wanted to know what those [Jobs] would grant her…

  No, she wanted to know what those Jobs would grant her…

  It wasn’t the same, if these black screens weren’t connected to Zaanam, then they didn’t grant [Jobs], the [Job] system was from Zaanam after all. Then what did the black screens give? And from where did they got it?

  She also wanted to know that…In a nutshell what she needed was information, what she wished for was information. She needed to identify what they would give her.

  “Identify” Elizabeth whispered as she was focused on finding a way to feed her mana with that.

  Only for her Mana to grant her wish by itself, she saw the Mana travel from her navel into her heart, from there into her head, to her brain and then to her eyes. She saw a blue flame manifest in her eyes for the briefest of seconds, and sure enough. In front of her were a series of black screens.

  “Alice and Chloe Starbright huh…aren’t we getting comfortable here.” Elizabeth said as she read the first two black screens, she found the nostalgic sight of glitched out parts. “Ah, glitches in the words how have I missed you…not. And hello missing information...Didn't think you would be a thing.”

  “Glitches?” Chloe said moving from behind Alice’s back and walking to the side of Elizbeth, “I don’t see any glitch-”

  “That is normal, the system is new and this is a mere interpretation of how you view and can process the information.” Alice said elbowing Chloe, “The information will fix itself out eventually, for now focus on the feeling.”

  Elizabeth didn’t need Alice’s reminder for this of course, she was already trying to latch into the feeling she had gotten.

  So, taking another deep breath, Elizabeth raised her hand. With her index finger, she pointed at the black screen with the jobs made by Alice and Chloe, “Identify,” and let her mana flow through her body.

  It felt right, as if this was what she was born to do as if this was second nature.

  The information was neatly set up, giving her enough to know about the jobs that had been made available to her.

  “Oooh, didn’t knew it would give you this too.” Chloe said from the right, pointing at the status earned per level, “We didn’t know how many you would get when making them, nice.”

  Elizabeth didn’t feel a call to any of those, to be honest. Most gave below 21, but then again, going by the descriptions, most had been made in a rush and would require her to pull the quality up.

  No, Elizabeth wouldn’t be taking one of those.

  “Identify” Elizabeth instead pointed at the other black screen, the one that had been made from how she saw and interpreted the jobs.

  “You are getting good with that.” Chloe said from the side as the new data was displayed for the three girls to read.

  “It’s almost as if this was something I was meant to do all along.” Elizabeth said as the information started showing.

  Now this? This was more like it... Elizabeth decided to ignore the weirder aspects of the [Black Screens] and pretend she wasn't seeing some parts of it, for...the sake of moving along this.

  Elizabeth could see how each of these affected her, and how they would evolve as she used them, she was half tempted to nab some of those. And wondered how her actions had ended with the creation of those, for ones she was proud…for others she was ashamed.

  And of course, there were those that reflected her darkest moments. And above all…There was a job that she was surprised to see.

  “How can I pick again [Shadow Weaver]? I am already that.” Elizabeth asked, the description hadn’t changed that much either.

  “That will allow you to refine and increase the power and ease with how you use your powers. We just found out about this system too, it seems to allow you to increase your affinity towards some skills and powers, so you just are more at something.” Alice answered, “Like, for example, if I have the [Shadow Empress] job, then taking it a second time would allow my powers as a [Shadow Empress] to become more defined and powerful. Maybe even awaken more skills in tune with it, perhaps I could end with a [Domain]-like area where my words are rules to be followed.”

  “Or she could awaken a [Skill] to let her bestow [Knighthood] into someone, granting them parts of her powers in exchange for their [Loyalty], this being enforced by [The System] would mean absolute loyalty,” Chloe added, that was some…dark things.

  “So doubling down as [The Shadow Weaver]...” Elizabeth said, reading once more the description.

  “Would mean either increasing your powers as [The Shadow Weaver] or opening your path to get [Skills] to allow you to do what you are supposed to do as [The Shadow Weaver].” Alice answered. “Are you going to take it?”

  ….Did she want to?

  She could take another one and increase her versatility. Did she need the powers of a [Shadow Weaver] right now?

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