Narcissism

The sensations reformat through all of your body, the hurdle for your spines to connect your motoric movement have been annihilated. The gushing acid dusts from the flower have once again assimilated themselves into your bloodstream and veins, this time with a denser amount. A solution is a sweater that you have to knit yourself, but having a knitting machine is by no means cheating or resourceful—it's a blessing.

Life gave you lemonade, it's time to quench the thirst and enjoy the taste.

"I CAN MOVE!!"

"Oh, you can move. Lovely." Lues lowers her head to sip her cup of tea again before she does a double take, blinking twice. "Wait, you can move?!"

"I CAN MOVEEEE!!" You lunge at the floating crimson devil, swinging her around by the arm as the cup in her hand flies off into the wall and breaks. "THE REALM'S DUST IS HEALING MY SENSES!!"

"EXCUSE ME?!"

"CAN YOU TWO SHUT UP?!" Chronos' clone, Chrolay, shouts as well. "IT'S LATE! DON'T YOU TWO NINCOMPOOPS UNDERSTAND WHEN TO BE QUI--" Lues collides with the angry child using the built-up momentum from your swinging, the three of you fall like bowling pins.

"...Owwww."

Down on your knees, your eyes are upon the two unconscious children. Standing up wobbly, it seems like your body needs a physiotherapy session even though it's only a day or more and yet you feel stiffer than this whole building.

"Shit, I need blood."

Sensing up the infected blood, you find that the majority of them are splashed into bed like someone having a nasty period. Will it happen to you too knowing that you're a female now? Although pissing feels natural to you, imagining blood coming from your private parts is scary.

'I'll infect the blood right away so I can use them!'

You soak all the blood you control and condense it into a tiny orb. There are no stains left after, this place is as good as new, except the mess from your playful swinging.

Flower of Perspicacity, is the name of the flora you planted into your mana sea. Its roots are multicolored in golden and black just like the dust from its former realm. Pulsating, the colors move, enlarge, shrink, and collide. Weaving the resplendent and yin like its own entity with branching roots ever stretching to the outside of your athenaeum and into your brain.

Ideas are popping up like popcorn for watching a movie, playing multiple variables of every memory you have and their outcomes on the big cinema with your neurons as the viewers.

You wonder if you're able to stretch the manipulated blood so thin but still thick enough to transfer information, frequency, and sounds. You wonder if your virus can be tinkered to infect a whole organism. You wonder if your taming virus is able to make you manipulate their vessel like your own. You wonder what this Golden Orb is and how to utilize them for your mana sea. You wonder if you can make an exact copy of yourself using your DNAs and mana with only just your blood as the materials.

Strangely, you're itching to augment the blood you manipulate with unassimilated mana first to achieve those things.

"What is this insurmountable amount of thirst in my head…?"

Lues' eyes stop rolling like a barrel off a cliff, she immediately pins you down on the bed. Wiping the bangs out of the way with a circuit formation on her forehead, you spectate the killer eyes similar to those when you're in flower fields back on Kauhu Forest, with less killing intent, and more concern.

She connects her forehead with yours. Her consciousness strings are exploring every inch of your body then eventually, your mana sea. Lueling channels her own mana line to give her report to Lues' consciousness. The metaphysical strings hold your body in place more than her hands pinning yours on the bed. Rather aware of the situation, you feel awkward

Retracting all of her consciousness strings, a jolt stings your nerves as she sighs in relief. "You worried me for a sec."

"And you frightened me for a sec," you say. "Now get up and tell me what is happening."

"Hey, we're in a romantic position here. Are you sure you want to miss this chance?'

Your mind is telling you no, but your body, your body~

"WHO SAYS THAT YOU TWO CAN FUCK LIKE RABBITS INFRONT OF ME!"

Chrolay takes the thirsty rascal by pinning her on the shoulders and does a back-body-drop like a professional wrestler. Your mind tells you that the lass woke up because Chronos put some kind of radar in her head that would agitate her if Lues made suspicious bodily contact with you.

"I HAVE A RADAR ON MY HEAD TO PINPOINT BOTH OF YOU RABBITS' EXACT LOCATION WHEN IN HEAT!"

'Called it.'

Both of them proceed to ensure physical contact more than Lues did with you but with some killing intent mixed into the bowl. Luckily enough, they seem to know where they are and decide to solve their argument with playful scratching and hair pulling. You ignore them as your head subconsciously looks into the ceiling to seek inspiration.

The flowers continuously excrete an unknown vitamin that works like caffeine with no side effects. The stimulus is so strong it cleanses away all the fatigue and anxiety pent up to this very moment. Let alone to ditch sleep, you feel like you can bring an army and put civilization back to its former glory.

No need to ask about what the flower is all about anymore. With enough given information and speculation, you manage to gather three possible conclusions in just half a minute.

Firstly, the 'Acid Realm' is what you'll call them from now on, the realm is meant to preserve objects with a high subconscious attachment from sentient beings, cultivating them to reach greater heights. You still can't grasp the concept of the golden bubbles but they definitely empower the items within them. This begs more questions—do 'Subconscious Strings' discharge its essences into inanimate objects? Does it have essences to begin with? Recalling Chronos' words, a Tekhanure such as Goyang embeds their artificial 'Soul' into dead material to live.

It's obvious enough that the 'Soul' is equal with 'Consciousness Strings' in this case, if its essence has the same property, then you might want to experiment with it later as there is a chance for you to put more objects into the Acid Realm and cultivate them. There is also a high chance of other metaphysical strings that haven't been found.

And knowing that each object might have its own story, their experience of the world will matter on their effect and property when utilized. Such as the flower from the blood of a ruler with a blessed mind will give massive benefits in your creativity and critical thinking.

Secondly, a larger pool of mana is inferior to denser mana with multiple properties. The concept of mana is so flexible that you might want to abuse the hell out of it, but you need to know how to insert objects from the outside world into your athenaeum first before adding stuff into the experiment. You need to ask the crimson devil first.

Lues is a walking treasure of knowledge, especially in the long run, you might want to tame her as soon as you can before she finds a way to separate herself from you.

Thirdly, you're cute as fuck! Your adventure is still young, utilizing everything in your disposal or even your body is a must for you to obtain everything you desire.

You walk into the standing tall mirror,

'Who is this cutie I wonder?'

Narcissism acquired.