Veronica could feel her brain pulsing in frustration. She sure didn’t like how she was getting read by a system made of 0’s and 1’s. She clenched her fist in front of her face and exhaled deeply.

“Are you making fun of me?” She growled.

The system moved back and forth as if trying to tell her ‘no.’ The peeved woman glared at the red popup box. It loaded another message.

Attention!

Would you like to open your next gift? A gift box will appear. Reach out and grab it!

Yes No

Right. There was a gift box. Veronica thought. I might as well see about that too.

She pressed ‘Yes’ and a gift box appeared in front of her. It was baby pink with a white ribbon, not her cup of tea. She grabbed it anyway and pulled out the ribbon.

The box vanished into thin air but in its place was a pair of knuckle gloves. It was black with spherical rubies embedded on the knuckles and a slightly bigger one at the palms.

Veronica blinked, “Knuckles? Why do I need knuckles when I’m a pyromancer? Shouldn’t I have a staff?”

The system loaded yet another message.

Announcement!

It looks like your mana pool is too large for a staff! We adjusted to giving you knuckles as a handicap to your opponents and to balance the mana flowing through your body!

With this in mind, please accept this other gift to help keep your mana in check!

Another baby pink gift box appeared in front of Veronica. For some reason, she didn’t feel the need to reach out and grab it and simply pulled the ribbon. The gift box vanished and in its place is a ruby necklace, floating mid air.

She then reached out to it and brought it closer to her face, “What’s with all these rubies? Do I need them to keep my mana in check?”

The system nodded.

“Will something happen to me if I don’t wear these?” Veronica looked at the popup box in confusion. “Will I die?”

The system loaded a foreboding message.

Announcement!

Not wearing your ruby-encrusted gear can lead to dire consequences for not only yourself, but those around you. Only mages with large mana pools are required to wear rubies to regulate the mana in their systems. The more rubies you have, the larger your pool.

Failure to wear rubies while having a large mana pool will lead to a mana-explosion. The mage in question will detonate and depending on how large their mana pool is, depends on the radius of the explosion.

So she would explode and take a crowd of people down with her. That already sounds better than how she died last time.

Veronica pondered for a bit. Maybe I shouldn’t wear it. It will get me out of this ridiculous main quest.

Her scheming got thrown off by the system giving her another message.

Attention!

Would you like to equip your newfound gear?

Yes No

It was as if the system had heard her thoughts and was trying to make sure she doesn’t try anything funny. She was fascinated either way. She pressed ‘Yes’ and watched as the knuckles magically equipped to her hands and the necklace dangled around her neck.

The feeling of being able to run to a mountain and back diminished. Veronica’s body felt like it was being chained down by some unknown force. She felt like she was carrying large sandbags.

“What the-?!” She complained. “My body is heavy…!”

She could almost not carry herself without dragging her feet, “Hey, can’t you lighten the load a little?”

Another message popped up.

New Quest!

Princess Genevieve’s body is incredibly weak. In order for you to better utilize your mana, you must train in both mind and body!

Objectives:

Run 1 lap around the training grounds for 7 days

Do 5 push ups for 7 days

Do 5 sit ups for 7 days

Do deep breathing exercises for 5 minutes for 7 days

Eat a hearty meal for 7 days

Rewards for completion:

Vitality increase

Beads of sweat went down Veronica’s face, “Really?”

Veronica never knew how weak a person could be. She wasn’t that strong in her previous life but she definitely could carry herself from one place to another. It seems like Genevieve was pampered to the point where she barely lifted a finger. That or, she was forced to rely on others to do things for her. Or worse, think for her.

“Do I really have to do something so troublesome?” Veronica shook her head. “Isn’t it a little weird that I have to do all this in this woman’s body?”

The system showed a happy-go-lucky face.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?!” Veronica screamed at the system.

It shook its head but its expression never changed. A slight irritation swept over the woman before she pointed at it. “You do realize I’m not going to pretend to be weak or shy at all, right? I don’t play those types of games.”

The system gave Veronica a nod of approval.

“Haa, really…” She sighed in defeat. “I’ll probably start punching walls if I don’t feel stronger by the end of this quest. This is probably the weakest I’ve ever felt.”

The system looked a little nervous after she said that. It knows that Veronica wasn’t joking. If only she knew what would happen if she started swinging her fists around. It didn’t even want to think about it.

Veronica is already raring to go though, “So, how long until I wake up? I want to get this over with.”

She sat down, hovering in the space, “I have no choice but to play along, right? Fine, let’s do it.”

Her eyes fell on Princess Genevieve, who slept soundly in her crystallized prison.

One-hundred million lives, huh? Veronica thought. I’m not really a hero but I’ll give it a shot.

—

Emperor Isaac Ulrich ruled his domain with an iron fist. Strict laws were put in place to make sure his subjects know their place and to keep order in the empire. While not recommended, he works alongside the church to place the fear of Altani in their hearts.

Royal families of past kingdoms would compete with the church to see who holds the bigger influence. While a god was a great way to keep loyal followers, there were some who either lost their faith due to bad luck in life or never believed in the first place. The imperial family would step in and give them a reason to put their faith into something more real.

Now, it’s more of a partnership. As long as each party held up their own end of the bargain, there wouldn’t be a need for a power struggle. This prevented the nobility from trying to bribe church officials for any preferential treatments or incentives over the common people. 

Before, the nobles would bribe church members to close the church to the general public on most days. It led to a bunch of them complaining to the imperial family that the gateway to Heaven was reserved for the wealthy. A bunch of commoners got excommunicated and even killed for attempting to fight back.

Bodies were piled at the outskirts of the empire. Necromancers would tamper with the corpses for twisted fun experiments. One of them led to the appearance of gates. A corpse shifts into a realm that’s home to monsters and the only way to get rid of it is to defeat the boss monster. It can get dangerous real fast but the rewards you get after defeating the boss are worth it.

It’s one of the reasons why the Ulrich Empire is thriving. Emperor Isaac’s two sons each have a guild established specifically for monster hunting and gate clearing. Of course, they’re at each other’s throats because they’re competing to be next in line on the throne. Other than their political bickering and personal jabs at each other, they take their role as guild master seriously.

The emperor doesn’t have to worry about them physically getting into altercations. He’s the most powerful mage in all of Ulrich with the largest mana pool. He keeps twenty-five rubies on his belt and another twenty-five on his crown. Anti-magic protection sigils are implemented throughout the palace, so no one should be able to use their spells freely. Also, he could easily stop the fight without having blood spilt on palace grounds. 

The anti-magic protection sigils were mostly in place because his daughter, Princess Genevieve, had no mana potential when she was born. Born to the late Empress, Angelica Ulrich, she was tiny and weak. She required 24/7 nursing and protection around the clock until she was old enough to not need as much medical care. Empress Angelica had passed away shortly after giving birth to her, leading the nursemaids to call her a cursed child.

She was a lonely girl. Then, Isaac married the new empress, Delilah Ulrich, and Genevieve’s days were never dull again.

They were torturous.