System's Consciousness and Discovery of the Settings

[Upgrade Complete]

[System Being Reactivated]

'It's done?' Roland hadn't been keeping track of time when he was training his skills. He went to check his status. Just when he was looking at his status, a screen appeared in front of him.

[Hello]

'What?!' Roland looked confusedly at the message in front of him. 'What is this?' This screen wasn't familiar to him.

[I am the system]

'Really?' Roland was a bit skeptical. Not only had it just appeared out of nowhere, it was now calling the system that appeared when he reincarnated. Clearly, he had never been sent such messages before, so why had this only appeared now?. Also If that was the system, then what had he been using up until now? And why did it only appear when the upgrade was done? Roland had hundreds of questions racing thorough his mind.

[Don't overthink it. Previously, you were using the automated program that is used when you either can't house my consciousness in your soul, or when I am low on energy. The reason I didn't appear earlier is because you soul was too weak to host my consciousness.]

'If my soul was too weak previously, doesn't that mean my soul became stronger? When did that happen?' As far as Roland was concerned, he had done nothing soul related, so what had happened to make it that way?

'What made my soul stronger then?' Roland asked. This was a good opportunity to have some of his questions answered.

[The upgrades not only increase the capabilities of the system, it is also strengthens your soul]

'Alright then,' Roland thought, one of his questions answered. He decided he could always asked the other questions later, and focused on the important thing.

'what can you do?' he asked. It would be nice to know the capabilities of the system's consciousness, since it had just appeared and all.

[...]

The only reply he got was three periods. Roland was speechless. 'So you're useless?'

[... No.]

He groaned and rolled his eyes. So this 'System Consciousness' had no use.

[First Profanity Alert!]

[Stop or you will be punished]

'Huh?' Roland was surprised, 'what did I do?!'

[Do not insult me]

'But I was just telling the trut-' Before Roland could finish his sentence, he was interrupted.

[Final warning!]

'Do you have to be so unreasonable?!?'

Complaining internally but not wanting to know what would happen to him, Roland went silent.

Deciding to ignore that for now, he opened the status screen.

[Form: Mana Conducting Rock] [Lv. 15]

[EXP: 348/1400]

[System Points] [201]

[Stat Points] [3]

[HP: 20/20]

[Def] [11] +

[Mana] [30] +

[Skills]

[Spirit Sense Lv.6] [Basic Mind Magic Lv.4] [Pure Mana Lv. 7] [Wind Blade Lv.6] [Appraisal Lv. 1] [Basic Language Understanding Lv. N/A] [Thunder Beam Lv. 1]

Looking at this, he nodded, deciding not to distribute his stat points yet. Before he closed it, he checked the description for Thunder Beam.

[Thunder Beam]

[Fires a ray made of lightning]

'That's it?' Not sure what to expect, Roland closed the status screen.

However, a message popped up the moment he moved.

[Spirit Sense Leveled Up]

[Basic Mind Magic Leveled Up]

[Basic Mind Magic Leveled Up]

[Pure Mana Leveled Up]

[Wind Blade Leveled Up]

[Wind Blade Leveled Up]

[Pure Mana Leveled Up]

'I was wondering when the training I did would show results.' He thought. He had found it strange when his skill levels didn't change when the system was done upgrading. It seemed there was a delay between the moment when the system upgraded, and the time that his skills leveled up.

Moving on, he searched for something to text his new skill on.

Looking at a nearby tree, he decided to use it as his target.

'Thunder Beam.' He thought, willing himself to use the skill. After that Roland looked around expectantly. "Pop!" A tiny purple portal appeared in the air.

'That's it?' Just as Roland was becoming disappointed, sparks started to come out of the portal. A moment later, a torrent of lightning came out, blindingly bright. The air crackled as the lightning struck its target. The poor tree barely lasted a moment before it was left charred and burnt.

Roland went up to it, and tested the tree to see the damage. To do so, he needed to ram his body into the tree. Flying back a distance, he threw himself at it.

When he hit it, the tree made a groaning sound before crashing to the ground. Burnt pieces broke off, and the parts of the tree directly hit by the beam turned into ashes as they hit the ground.

'Interesting,' Roland thought, surveying the damage done. The skill definitely used a lot of mana, but it clearly worked well.

'If only I could see how much mana I used.' He thought.

[Turn on "Mana Counter" in the Settings?]

[Yes] [No]

'What now?' Roland felt it was good that he had been discovering a lot of new things lately. However, he was starting to get a headache from the abundance of information he was receiving. A moment later, he answered.

'Sure, why not.'

[Turning on mana counter]

Not bothering to see what it did, he tried to access the settings page that the message mentioned.

'Settings?'

[Settings]

[Mana Counter] <[On]>

[HP Bar] <[On]>

[Skill List partitioning] <[Off]>

[Skill Stats] <[Off]>

[Display Bonus Stats] <[Off]>

[Show Skill Tier] <[Off]>

[Mini Map] <[Off]>

[Show Max Skill Level] <[Off]>

[Inventory] <[Off]>

He took a glance at them, trying to figure out what they did, but eventually, he gave up and asked the system.

'What are these supposed to mean?'

When the system answered, Roland could tell that the words directed at him were filled with contempt.

[Not so useless now, am I?]

Roland rolled his eyes again.

'I suppose not,' He said, before adding something else a moment later. 'Just give me an answer already.'

More panels of text appeared before him.

[Whatever]

[Mana Counter: Shows how much mp you have left compared to the highest amount your body can contain]

[HP Bar: Shows how much life force you have left]

[Skill list Partitioning: Splits your skill list into parts separated by the skill's usage]

[Skill Stats: Show how much mana your skills use and how much damage they deal]

[Display Bonus Stats: Reflects the bonus you get from passive and active skills onto your stats]

[Show Skill Tier: Show what tier a skill is at on the skill list]

[Mini Map: A small map in the corner of your vision that shows your surroundings. You can expand it to see all the places you've explored before. Unexplored areas will be shown in grey]

[Show Max Skill Level: Displays how many more levels a skill needs until it evolves]

[Inventory: Changes the Spacial storage into a panel]

Roland skimmed through all the information, and another question came up.

'Did the settings just get unlocked?'

Previously, the system had told him that the MiniMap would be unlocked after the system upgraded, but he was seeing it here. If he had access to the settings earlier, that meant that the system had been lying to him.

[It was only unlocked after your recent upgrade]

'So it did just unlock.' He thought to himself.

He looked at the end of the list and saw something that attracted his attention.

'Inventory?' He asked the system, 'what is this?'

[I got this idea from those video games you played]

Roland narrowed his eyes. 'How did you know about that?'

[I looked at your memories]

'You did what!?!' Roland screamed. Now, he had a creepy system that could look at all of his memories and thoughts?!

[I am not creepy!!]

[Also, that was your last warning!]

[Punishment: Lightning.]

'Great.' He complained, 'now what?'

Hearing a rumbling sound, he looked up.

'Oh God...' A giant cloud of lighting had appeared out of thin air. The giant, swirling mass crackled with electricity, and he could faintly see a giant bolt of lighting forming inside, jumping from one place it another, quickly becoming stronger and more pronounced.

'Isn't this a bit too much?!?' Roland screamed inwardly. He would probably die instantly of he was hit with the full force of that!