I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

She was woken up briefly by the smell of food, a single food tray was on a bedside table near her bed with a small single note that read '[Eli-Eli, not feeling well. I think the mana drain is worse than expected so I used a higher-tier spell that will knock me up till tomorrow morning. -Rossie]' and besides that one an extra one was added with a more refined writing that added '[I will check on Mother while she rests Mistress. Please eat and don't worry for Mother, her magic is already solving it.]'

 

It seemed as if the problem that Rossie had suffered was bigger than hers, her own Health and Mana had recovered almost fully by now... And her stress meter was hovering around 40%...It just didn't go down anymore.

 

A quick check on her [Library] and some [Idea] infused order "[Update: Rossie]" brought the screen for Rossie's Status... She once again condensed it to the bare minimum of health, mana, stamina, and stress. Sure enough, the numbers didn't lie.

Rossie's Health was back at 100%, her stamina was also almost full...And she was better [Stress] wise...The girl had some way to keep her stress low...Maybe she would ask about it later, perhaps she could teach her?

 

But the mana was the problem...Her mana was hovering at 0% any time the number trickled up it went down to 0% again. Something was going on there...

 

She remembered some windows had a [Condition] status added sometimes, mostly to inform her about the overall condition or attitude of the target of her skill. So she molded her [Will] infused it with [Mana] and projected the [Idea] "[Identify - Condition]" while casting her skill.

"She what?" Was all Elizabeth could say while staring at the extended information she was given.

 

Her friend was or had casted several complex compound spells 'Why is she using compound spells?' wondered the blonde girl. But that was beside the point. Rossie had casted several high-class, mid-class, low-class, and a few miscellaneous class Spells one after the other to manage a pseudo cure all complex mandala of spells.

 

If her Mother could see what this girl was achieving she might even have enough to get a spot as a future member of the [High Council of Magical Girls]...

 

Nay...If she showed this to the student council she might even jump to third grade in one go and kick someone out of the student council...Perhaps even Selen could be kicked out...

 

Of course, she crushed that thought after remembering what Level Selen was. But this made it clear once more that those that were touched by [Gods] and [Molded] by them were different breeds altogether. She might pass as a [Prodigy] for her use in compound spells...Even if some might think she was wasting said [Talent], but the truth was that she wasn't [Using] spellcasting more than [Emulating] it, since her [System] was the one doing all the heavy lifting.

 

Even so, it seemed as if the pink-haired girl would be unconscious for quite a long time, as her blue screen showed a timer that would end somewhere around midnight, probably she wanted to use the night to recover some mana for tomorrow.

 

They didn't have anything planned for their scouting as magical girls...Mostly to wait for some work sent their way...Or Rossie's way to be precise. Unlike [Villains] who could do whatever they wanted, their work as [Magical Girls] was mostly a reactive one. And since she had Rossie as her partner...Their work would be more geared toward support or rescue.

 

So the blonde girl decided to close the blue screen and focus on her food. She wondered if Rossie had a spell to deal with mana-drain, perhaps she did since she was mostly funneling all her mana to keep those compound spells alive... She still had her sport's drink/mana potion/soul of a planet in a bottle.

 

But she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to give some to Rossie...On one side this thing could try and nudge Rossie's mind into some weird mission to restore the world where her Father and Mother got that [Core]...

 

On the other hand...It would be an indirect Kiss...She blushed at the thought of that, not quite sure why. But even so, she started eating to distract herself from that.

 

The food wasn't as good as those prepared by Rossie, it seemed that the little girl was worried for her [Mother], and she could feel her in the room of the pink-haired girl. She also got the feeling that a little nudge of her [Will] would allow her to [See] through the eyes of the little maid.

 

But refrained from doing so, mostly to respect the privacy of Rossie...And the sanctity of a [Daughter] looking after her sick [Mother]. She wouldn't have liked it if someone could spy through her eyes while she was taking care of her Mother...

 

Not that she ever needed to, she was half sure her Mother had already shed her mortal body and used permanently [Body Of Mana]...Thinking about that made her do a whole re-examination of that spell.

 

It was supposed to change the physical body into one of mana while saving the composition and returning it to normal after ending the spell. It was expensive to use for long amounts of time, she knew that from experience, as she had used it for like ten seconds and had emptied most of her mana reservoir.

 

So that put the use of that spell to deal with her situation out...Actually how bad was it really? She didn't feel that different even though Alexanders had made a show of how he was [Fixing the bugs] and [Patching the errors] live.

 

So she once again sharpened her [Will] and sent it into the [Idea] "[Identify - Condition]" and she felt the skill suffuse her body and focus in her heart... and abdomen for some reason?

As usual, there were a few that she couldn't get through thanks to the blurbed text, She could make up some letters that may imply the word [Madness], but that was probably because she had heard about it from others and confirmed some stuff in the library.

 

She worried about the last one which was mostly weird characters blurred, it felt ominous not knowing what was going on. But since the blue screen spoke as if she would be able to rid herself of some of those effects...It meant that everything was removable...

 

That gave her hope, if nothing else, since that implied that she indeed could remove the influence from the [Taint]...She wouldn't be tied up by [The Madness] from a dead person. She just needed to find the owner of the [Shadow Guardian] that was keeping the brunt of the [Madness] away from her [Soulscape]. And maybe get a sample from said [Shadow Guardian] for Alexanders.

 

She still remembered that look and smile the blonde man had given when suggesting her to get a sample...That was the look of a madman...Not [Madness] but the start of what [Tinkers] referred to as [The Itch]. A pseudo trance that stuck them in a loop of thinking that wouldn't end till they finished whatever had got into their heads. It isn't something that can be stopped, but it seemed that the blonde could at least delay it...

 

She would need to get that stupid sample, if nothing else just so that he didn't start making a tantrum inside her [Soulscape], he had implied that he could destroy parts of it... She didn't want to see what would happen if he decided to hold [Hostage] parts of her soulscape.

 

Especially if that meant some of her skills would stop working as intended...She just got that [Wardrobe]!... SHE FORGOT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE STUPID WARDROBE!

 

Ugh...

 

"Might as well check that out again..." Mumbled the blonde while finishing her meal and standing from the bed. She didn't even get the chance to say anything else before a single shadow dragon came from below the bed and took the dishes.

 

He scuttled away towards the kitchen, presumably to clean it. She felt with her shadow sense how it stopped for half a second in front of Rossie's room before carrying on.

 

That was weird.

 

"Okay, asshole...Hope you didn't leave another nasty surprise..." Elizabeth said mostly towards her shadow and with a flick of her will she summoned the blue screen again. It showed a reflection of herself dressed exactly like she left it, a flick with her fingers allowed her to move the projection of her body to let her see herself in a 360°

 

"Hello pretty girl ♪~" Mumbled the blonde while marveling at that little feature. It showed how she looked from behind too, a point she shouldn't be able to see by herself. She tried to take a picture of her behind to compare it with the projection and sure enough...It was exactly the same.

 

Was this thing using the [Shadow Senses] to feed it the information?

 

Either way, she focused on the skill and found that the different slots represented different parts of her body, for example, she could put her obsidian bracelet near her right hand and it would create a slot for it. Move it up her arm and the slot would move with it.

 

She found that she could also personalize [Loadouts], pick a few things from her wardrobe, and put them there and there would look as if she was dressed like that. She tried putting one of her school uniforms in one of them and sure enough, the picture looked like herself.

 

She only needed to hit the [Load] button and while looking at her reflection she noticed how her whole body got surrounded by that weird holographic static followed by being dressed in her school uniform...

 

"Yes, this is my school uniform alright..." Said the blonde while admiring her reflection, she would feel quite happy at this finding if not for a little detail that she couldn't quite ignore. "I will still kill that blonde asshole one of these days." [Declared] Elizabeth with a small flush on her face.

 

While updating the loadout in the screen, she had only put her outerwear and had forgotten to add underwear in the screen, after all...She was using underwear right now, why in the four planes of hell would she need to update that part too?

 

"[Loadout 1 - Update]" Mumbled Elizabeth and sure enough she felt the feeling of wearing underwear...Like a normal person. Why would anyone want to dress in school uniform without it anyway? Only a psycho would, and of course, the stupid [Skill] made by an asshole would make her life difficult.

 

Under any other circumstances she would sing praises for the ingenuity of the skill, the versatile use, the ability to change clothing on the go was a marvel of mana engineering... But any skill that would make her suffer this kind of social faux passes...Would be better in the trash!

 

Or would do with some updates to be more useful.

 

"Time to return to a more comfortable setting..." Said the blonde while she went ahead and prepared to click on [Undress]...Only to stop a centimeter short and think again. She instead made another [Loadout] and left it pre-programmed to cycle several different pajamas and clicked on that.

 

She wouldn't allow herself to be naked by a stupid skill!

 

She would, however, test that function in the bathroom before going to shower at the night. For now, she would instead go back and search where the skill would send the used clothing, she still needed to see if it would categorize the used clothes as dirty or if she would need to go and search them one by one.

 

Funny how some would think she was lazy by using a skill to dress...Only to not know how much preparation was needed, and how much maintenance was needed just to be able to afford this kind of luxury. Trully...No one could ever understand how much work was needed to allow the lifestyle she wanted. Now with that out of the way and some [Loadouts] made up with some clothes, she went back to the bed.

 

She hadn't done much in the end...Besides sleeping and preparing some [Loadouts], her clothes were now mostly in the [Wardrobe] and they all had the setting to adjust to her body changes...But only to dramatic body changes, the clothes would not change if these changes were slow.

 

She needed that warning if she started to gain weight, so with that out of the way she looked at her skill list.

 

Subset Skills:
Shadow Investment	Status	Mana Attuned
-Craft / Manipulation -Shift -Minion Summoning. -Shadow Travel	-Identify [Condition] -Inventory [Wardrobe]	-Manipulation -Shift -Spellcasting -Enchantment -Projection

The warning of the blonde asshole had hit close to home, it reminded her that some of the skills she was taking for granted were [Borrowed] just like how some people used [Artifacts] to have access to...She did the same but from her [Soulscape]. Did that mean that inside her [Soulscape] was an [Artifact]?

 

Now the important question was...What of here was [Borrowed] at the very least [Identify] and [Status] was on that list... Perhaps some of her [Mana Attuned] was on it too?

 

She liked to think that she had awakened to the [Mana] since she looked more like her Mother than her Father. But the way she used [Spells] and the way her Mother did...Wasn't the same, she relied too much on her [System]...

 

She would need to try and see if there was a way to find out what [Skills] were truly hers, and what was [Loaned]. Would Alexanders even answer if she asked him about it?

 

She wasn't sure...But now that she had done everything that needed to be done she would go back and sleep. How many times had she thought about just doing that today? Four? Five?

 

It felt as if she was going in a circle trying to do something and failing at it. Maybe it was the mana drain...Maybe it was the stamina drain...Maybe was it her [Stress]?

 

Somehow a depressing feeling bleed over to her, where was that coming from? She would think about that tomorrow. If nothing else, tomorrow would be moved enough that she would have no time to feel depressed about whatever it was that was bleeding to her.