Chapter 159_A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World

Chapter 159

 After some hesitation, Alice decided to ask Ethan what to do about the potentially unstablews of physics. In some ways, telling anyone was a terrible idea, because it would help destabilize thews of reality. At least, if her theory was correct.

 But Alice also didnt have the informationwork she needed to verify her theory. She couldnt do everything on her own, as evidenced by Cecilias [Enchanter] team. She needed information to verify her theory, and she trusted Ethan. If it was possible to verify her theory, he could help her and he would also be able to prevent her theory from unravelling reality.

 But Alice resolved not to tell Cecilia unless Ethan said it was okay. As much as Alice didnt like the idea of keeping information from Cecilia, this was an infohazard that could end the world by ident. She didnt want to end the world by ident.

 So Alice made her way back to Ethans office, and told Ethan about her theory. Part of her was hoping that Ethan could somehow disprove her guess that reality was more stable than Alice gave it credit for being. Instead, Ethan fell into thought after Alice finished speaking.

 After two minutes of silence, Alice couldnt bear it any longer.

 Do you think its correct, or not? asked Alice. I feel like I''m grasping at ideas here, but

 I have no idea, he said. Your theory could be true or it could be wrong. Im going to be honest and say that I just dont have the information I would need to verify it. It seems usible, but I also dont know if we have enough evidence to verify it yet. I will get my informationwork to look into interesting urrences. But the fact that I cant tell them exactly what to look out for makes it harder to get information. And youre a better researcher than I am. Ethan gave Alice a careful look. I will say that a lot of Achievements seem to be based on what other people perceive to be true, but that could also be some quirk of how the System works. Do you think this theory is correct?

 Alice nodded. Its more of a sneaking suspicion on my part but it seems to line up with other things Ive observed. I still need more information, though.

 Lets keep an eye out for other information, and act as if spreading this theory could make the implode, said Ethan, frowning. Either way, our priority remains the same either fix the System, or rece it. We just need to keep a closer eye on public opinion than expected. Which is something I can handle on my end.

 Alice felt relieved that controlling public opinion wouldnt fall on her. She had enough on her te already without trying to figure out how to manage yet another ticking time bomb. She already had enough of those to worry about.

 Is there anything else you need to talk about?

 I also had a rather troubling encounter with a new type of mana, said Alice. She went on to describe the newly discovered Alice mana, and how it might influence her.

 Ethan actually seemed quite worried when Alice mentioned that. Do you have a way to stave off the influence of Alice mana? If you were to lose yourself, that would be very troubling.

 Alice sighed. Im actually pretty confident that Ill find a solution. But when we get back to Metsel, do you mind if I study you a bit more? This is obviously a problem that all Immortals should have to deal with but you dont seem very influenced by other peoples perception of you. After all, most people think youre some sort of amazing master of magic, and yet ording to Elder Sujia, you identally blew up your training facility when you were first teaching her. It seems to be evidence that your personality remains your own, rather than bing an amalgamation of other people''s perception.

 Ethans eyebrows rose in surprise. She told you that story?

 Alice nodded. The first time I met her. When we were gathering [Soldiers] to rescue Samantha.

 Ethan actually snorted, before he nodded. Then you think the System solved this problem somehow for other Immortals?

 Alice nodded.

 Then when we get back to Metsel, you can take a look and see if you can figure anything out. Its best to wait until then, though. We have half a week left before we reach Metsel, and were down a lot of [Guards] andbatants on the ship. I dont think that Emilia will make a second attempt, since she was willing to flee from battle. But she is an [Assassin], so theres a chance that shes trying to get our guard down, said Ethan.

 Sounds good, said Alice. While it will eventually be a problem, right now I can stave off the effects of Alice mana pretty easily.

 Just be careful, said Ethan. And let me know the moment you run into a problem whether that problem is Alice-mana rted or Emilia-rted.

 With that, Alice left Ethans cabin.

 * * *

 The Society and Sigmusi didnt try again before the group returned to Metsel. Alice didnt encounter any issues from the Alice-mana in her brain either. She kept a close eye on their surroundings for the four days it took to reach the capital, and even frequently scanned the surroundings to see if the [Guards] missed something. But Emilia apparently valued her own life too much to try again. While Alice felt sure that the Society would try again, it seemed like they needed more time to put together the next attack.

 As the boat pulled up to the dock in the fishing vige near Metsel, Alice breathed a sigh of relief. At the docks, she could see a fresh group of [Guards] ready to rece the old ones. This group had about a hundred people in it ten of whom were level 75. Alice was happy to see the higher level [Guards] after what had happened during the trip. Higher levelbatants may be kible with enough numbers on their side, but they were still nightmares to contend with until they ran out of mana and Perks. Having more on her side wouldnt hurt if things went wrong again.

 Then, Ethan and Alice proceeded to one of the Churches of the System in Metsel that had been more cooperative with them, where Alice got an update on how things had gone in her absence.

 First of all, the [Willpower] training was starting to produce noticeable results. People werent exactly gaining dozens of points in [Willpower] overnight, but when faced with the potential loss of their identity, many people were willing to brave the difficult and painful [Willpower] training to keep themselves safe.

 Second, while it wasntmon, some people were noticeably starting to lose their minds. It was a gradual, creeping decay, but people with the lowest [Willpower] were disying the same symptoms that Boris originally had. They were obsessively following the behavior of their ss, and were losing their sense of self as the days passed by. Many of them had family members who had forcibly stopped them from continuing, based on Alices suggestions for how to handle this kind of problem. But even so, it would be hard to address all of the cases so far, Cecilias [Enchanters] and Alice only had a small number of enchantments that could fix these problems. And right now, all of them focused on the [Enchanter] ss.

 The only upside to the fact that symptoms were finally appearing was the boost to [Willpower] training. Seeing these people start to lose their mind and sense of self was part of what had encouraged people to wholeheartedly throw themselves into training. While it wouldnt fix things forever, it would help until better solutions were avable.

 Third, a few people had evolved their sses. They reported getting error messages from their Status Screen during the evolution process, and the first person, who had reached level 5 after evolving their ss, reported that they had gotten apletely different set of Perks than the ones recorded in the book of the church. These Perks seemed to be weaker than they should be. The Perks were more built around what the person in question wanted than regr ss Perks. But they were also much, much worse.

 The person in question had evolved their [Apprentice Farmer] ss into a [Farmer] ss, and at level 5, one of the Perk options for [Farmer] was to give a 3% boost to the effect of the [Strength] and [Endurance] stats. This wasnt anything particrly crazy it was just a t stat boost. The person in question was someone who valued [Endurance] quite a bit more than [Strength]. Their version of this Perk had only given then a 2% [Endurance] boost, and no [Strength] boost at all. The Perk was more obviously tailored to their interests but it lost any semnce of efficiency in the process.

 Apanying this Perk choice had been a System message written entirely in binary and garbled Illvarian, which the [Farmer] hadnt been able to understand. Some of the words that the [Farmer] had been able to trante were localized perk source, optimization algorithm lost, and no connection. The [Farmer] hadnt been sure what to make of those messages, but Alice had a pretty good guess what had happened. She guessed that before the copse, whenever someone evolved their ss, the ss seed would download information from the mainframe of the System. It would then use that to optimize the perks that person could acquire in the future. When the person in question reached the requisite energy level, the ss seed would restructure the mana it had absorbed into the appropriate temte after someone finished choosing a Perk. Without the mainframe of the System, the ss seeds were probably using very limitedputing power to try to guess what made the most sense for its respective ss and it was failing miserably at optimizing, since it had so much less data and energy to work with.

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 At least, that was Alices assumption about what was happening, given her understanding of the System and the current situation.

 The final issue the [Farmer] encountered was with the Achievement from evolving a ss. One of the benefits of a ss evolution was the fact that everyone got an Achievement each time they levelled a ss, which gave them a few minor benefits. Through some testing, the [Farmer] confirmed that, just like every other Achievement, it had taken a massive reduction in how effective the Achievement was. Not the end of the world, but with those two issuesbined, Alice wasnt as eager to evolve her [Student of Organic Mana] ss. Even if it was just a secondary ss, losing around 50-60% of the benefits of an evolution would sting.

 On the other hand Alice was pretty sure that she could solve the problems posed by the copse of the System eventually. She just needed to figure out how in the world Achievements worked, find a way to straighten them out, fix everyones Achievements, figure out how to prevent Alice mana from recing her personality with a facsimile personality built off of other peoples assumptions about who she was, solve the crisis caused by the copse of the System, and prevent thews of physics from imploding. A small, easy to aplish to-do list.

 Alice sighed, before making up her mind.

 She had no idea when, or if, she would be able to fix the broken System in its entirety. Losing 50-60% of the benefits of her ss evolution would sting but watching the process would give her more information. Alice had watched what had happened the other two times she had evolved a ss, and she had a perfect memory to allow her to double check the differences.

 Besides, Alice felt that if or when she fixed or reced the System, it would be possible to fix all of the broken little numbers in her Status Screen where her Achievements and so on werent correctly applied. Evolving her [Student of Organic Magic] ss was going to waste some of her potential gains, but she could recover themter. And improving her abilities now would make it easier to fix everything.

 With her mind made up, Alice returned to Ethans manor again, and then looked at her evolution options for [Student of Organic Magic].

 Congrattions! You have unlocked a ss evolution for the ss: Student of Organic Magic. Listed below are options for what you can evolve your ss into. You may only choose one, so please make your decision after thinking carefully about the future.

 Organic mage: The most traditional advancement for Students of Organic Magic. Organic mages have a wide variety of perk options avable and can learn almost anything. Be itbat, research, or enchanting, this ss trades away the power and precision other ss evolutions might offer for a wide and versatile selection of perks.

 Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic ss at level 25.

 Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 10%. Increases effect of [Endurance] attribute by 10%. Your organic magic seed will have its mana conversion efficiency improved by 10%. You will gain a moderate boost to your instinctive ability to use organic magic, improving the speed and effectiveness with which you wield it.

 Alice looked at her first evolution option, before she shrugged. It wasnt particrly appealing, but if she didnt find a better option, she would take it. It wasnt really what she was hoping to get, though. It was just a generic evolution with no real strengths or weaknesses. She looked at the next option.

 Organic Spearman: An Organic Mage who specializes in close quartersbat, especially their ability to boost their own strength and heal themselves in the middle of a fight. An Organic Spearman is a nightmare for regr soldiers to fight against in the midst of a battlefield.

 Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic ss at level 25, having a spearmanship skill at level 10 or higher, have engaged in battle with both monsters and humans several times, have worked with a military unit at least once.

 Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 10%. Increases effect of [Endurance] attribute by 10%. Increases the effect of the [Strength] Attribute by 10%. Increases the effect of the [Dexterity] attribute by 10%.

 Alice eyed the [Organic Spearman] evolution for a few more moments than she had expected to. Alice still wasnt particrly thrilled at the idea of close quartersbat but on the other hand, being prepared for the worst wasnt a terrible decision. The ss would directly boost herbat abilities, which Alice found appealing, especially after the fight with the Immortal woman who had attacked them on the way back to Illvaria.

 But after a few moments of consideration, Alice still decided against it. Most of herbat strength still relied on her kic magic and this was a secondary ss, so Alice wasnt exactly going to be getting a lot of Perks from it. She would probably need at least Perks from level 50 or so to turn meleebat into a useful tool and she just had much higher priorities to focus on. Even though the ss was appealing because it boosted her self-defense capabilities, it just wasnt good enough. With a surprising amount of regret, she tossed the evolution option into her mental trash bin.

 Legendary Organic Healer: An Organic Mage who specializes in healing others, at the cost of the Perks that boost physical abilities that other organic mages have. A Legendary Organic Healer is willing to heal others no matter how ridiculous their methods might be.

 This particr ss variant is only offered to those who have made exceptional contributions to the field of studying and healing the human body, despite their low level.

 Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic ss at level 25, Having the Creative Healer Achievement (or something simr), have the Legendary Healer Achievement (or something simr), have at least 2 Skills rted to healing or human biology at level 20 or higher, have the [Basic Medicine] Skill.

 Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 50%. sses rted to research will get a levelling speed boost based on how often and how effectively you have used those sses for healing, with a maximum of a 50% boost to levelling speed. The Mana Conversion Ratio of all seeds is increased by 5%. All Skills rted to healing or biology level up 100% faster. Your innate ability to heal the human body without identally causing harm is amplified considerably, making it much harder for you to make mistakes and harm or maim your patients.

 Alice grinned.

 This was more like it.

 The fact that the ss had a rarity 7 and rarity 4 Achievement as prerequisites for taking the ss upgrade was already rather appealing, and the boost Alice would get for taking the ss was exceptional.

 Alice usually didnt think a lot about smaller Attribute effect boosts but a 50% boost to her Magic Attribute would be huge even if she got no other bonuses. Magic was her most used attribute, and Alice really didnt think that would be changing in the future. A 50% boost would increase the effect of her Magic stat from 142% to 192%, which was a pretty substantial increase. Then, the ss also offered her a boost to skill levelling speed and mana conversion ratio for her magic seeds, and a small levelling speed boost for her research-rted sses if Alice used them for healing.

 Alice was pretty sure that boost would be active most of the time, depending on what the ss considered healing. A lot of the things Alice had been doing recently helped stave off the impact of the copse of the System, and Alice thought that would probably count. Even if that part of the ss evolution Achievement was unusually picky, the rest of the benefits were still amazing.

 Alice checked her final ss notification to see if it topped [Legendary Organic Healer.

 Regenerating Lab Rat: An Organic Mage who specializes in using organic magic to heal themselves. Unlike most researchers who delve into forbidden topics of research, rather than using others as test subjects, you have instead opted to use yourself as a test subject. This ss will help you survive your own mad experiments, and perhaps undo whatever damage youve done to your body along the way.

 Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic ss at level 25, Having the Creative Healer Achievement (or something simr), frequently use yourself as a test subject for your own experiments

 Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 30%. Increase effect of [Endurance] attribute by 20%. Your innate instincts when trying to heal even the strangest of magic-rted problems is increased moderately, but only when attempting to treat yourself. You gain knowledge and retain it more quickly when using yourself as a test subject.

 Alice squinted at thest ss evolution option.

 In a very, very weird way, it was actually a bit tempting, because Alice knew that she would probably be doing even more weird things involving the System in the future, and she was going to be testing those things on herself. The ss would probably offer Perks to help mitigate any associated risks.

 On the other hand, it only helped her heal problems in her own body, and didnt provide anywhere near the bonuses of [Legendary Organic Healer]. [Legendary Organic Healer] probably also had better Perk selectionster on, based on how much harder it was to meet the requirements for the ss. If Alice didnt have [Legendary Organic Healer], she might have actually chosen [Regenerating Lab Rat], but it just seemed much worse than her other option.

 Alice finished checking through her evolution options, and then selected [Legendary Organic Healer]. The mana in Alices surroundings seemed to swirl around, and at the same time, one of the ss seeds near Alices heart burst with rainbow mana but as Alice had expected, due to the fact that there was no rainbow mana in her surroundings, the evolution of her [Student of Organic Magic] ss felt like it was missing something. She watched as the ss seed tried topensate for this, but even though Alice still didnt understand most of the fractals involved in a ss seed or evolution, it felt like the resulting ss seed was iplete.

 A few momentster, the seed briefly shed with rainbow mana, just like every other magic seed Alice had seen that seemed to need some sort of activation to truly start working, but unlike the other,pleted ss seeds Alice had seen, every 10 seconds, the ss seed shed with mana again.

 Curious, Alice stuck a magic tendril of disy mana into the seed and checked to see if there were any hidden System messages associated with the seed.

 Perk Database not found. Using local, derivative Perk options

 Scanning please wait.

 Perk Database not found. Cannot update. Trying again in 10 seconds

 After about 30 seconds, Alice realized that the same System message was just repeating, again and again.

 Alice sighed, but then shrugged and nodded to herself. That was about what she had expected, honestly. She had already known that her Perk options would be messed up until the System was back online. She was relieved to know that her ss seed was constantly trying to update itself. It indicated that she could fix the ss seeds Perk selections whenever she got ess to the mainframe of the System again. Or whenever she reced it.

 After selecting her ss evolution, Alice and Ethan left the Church of the System. At Ethans manor, they found one of Ethans [Messengers] waiting for them.

 Lady Alice, Honored Immortal Ethan, the [King] of Illvaria has requested your presence in three days, said the [Messenger].

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Chapter 159