"You can't hurt Soph!"

"I'm not going to hurt her."

"Lies, you really want to punch her every time you see her," the little girl squeaks at me while looking like an angry kitten.

Damn, Izzy, you are getting better and better at reading me. The problem is that your skill works with so little mana it's hard to block it. To be honest, it's quite fascinating.

"Do you need something from me?" Sophie says from behind little Isabella, who covers her older sister with her small body.

"I need you for a bit of testing," I say to her, and that makes her lift up one of her eyebrows in surprise. She thinks about it for a second and then taps the shoulder of her sister.

"Izzy, why don't you go and play with Biscuit?" Sophie says.

That finally makes Izzy hesitate a bit, and her defensive stance weakens, "I need to protect you! You are too dumb to do it on your own, Soph!"

That makes a gentle smile appear on Sophie's face, and she hugs Isabella from behind and gives her a small peck on her cheek, to which the little kid giggles, "It's fine, Izzy, I don't think he will hurt me without any reason, and you should feel it too, right?"

Isabella then looks at me and back at Sophie and sighs.

"Fine! But I will hate you if you do something!" she shouts at me before she heads towards where I saw Biscuit resting.

"Biscuit!" Isabella shouts, and then I hear a short, almost surprised sounding bark, and I see four human-like arms made of mana appear that start moving creepily. The doggo immediately tries to escape, just a moment after being woken up.

"Yes! Let's play catch!" the little girl says.

Oh, Izzy, I don't think he is playing. It looks more like he is escaping.

"So what was it?" Sophie asks. Her eyes are surprisingly calm as she looks at me.

I sit down and gesture for her to do the same, "It's quite simple. I will show you something, and I want you to check for mistakes with your [Manipulation]."

"I'm surprised you are asking me, why don't you ask Lissandra for help? She seems to quite like you."

"I don't trust her," it's as simple as that. I do not trust Lissandra. Sure, I will take some advice from her, and improve my skills, and handling of mana, but I do not want her to mess with my constructs, not at all.

I believe she could give me some really deep knowledge, and improve them so much I would become much stronger. It's just that constructs are changes to my body. Circuits I barely understand at my present level. Who knows what a mess she could cause. Maybe she would be able to leave seeds of her imprint. Maybe she would be able to work around the system limiting her.

"Lissandra is out of the question when it comes to this," I say once more.

"I see. So why me?" This time Sophie seems to be slightly curious.

"You are the best one after me when it comes to manipulating mana. It's simple as that."

"And you trust me to be more reliable than Lissandra?"

"Nope, I just know I can handle you and that I'm much stronger than you. I can also notice your tampering."

"That's quite rude." Even saying that Sophie doesn't seem to mind.

"Yup, so will you do it?" I ask her.

"As if I have any choice. But yes, I will do it if it means getting on your good side," she confirms.

"Good! Now, look at this mana stone. I etched a temporary construct inside it. It doesn't work right now, but that's fine. I just want you to check it and tell me if there are some messed-up parts."

When I give her the mana stone, she takes it carefully, and while still looking at me, she infuses it with her mana and then turns her full attention to it.

One minute.

Two minutes.

A sweat starts appearing on her forehead.

"T-this is crazy," she sighs, and when she looks at me, her eyes are full of emotion that is hard to read, "This is straight-up modifying your body. You would mess with your Mana Heart, and a mistake would affect it in a way that is hard to predict. You could easily end up constantly disrupting your mana flow."

"It's fine, I will deal with it somehow."

"This is not your first time; you already modified your body." Sophie says, remembering, "So you surely realize how crazily dangerous it is."

"Yes, yes. Now look at this thing," I put my hands on her and send my mana inside the mana stone, "Look at this and this part, they are the ones I'm worried about the most."

Her hand twitches slightly as I touch her, but then she also focuses her attention on the stone.

"They seem fine to me. I would be more worried about this part that should be connected to your Mana Heart. It's all weird." She squints her eyes a little bit while saying that.

"Oh, ignore that, it's fine. My heart is kind of weird. So how about this part?"

A short silence and I feel her mana moving through the stone. Her [Manipulation], is a skill including all kinds of manipulations. Manipulation of mana, manipulation of mana flow, manipulation of the body. The skill offers her some perspective I might not have.

I can probably do it without her; hell, I'm sure of it. But I want to be absolutely sure. Especially after the last time I tried to create a construct and nearly ended up the way undead Winnie did.

"I think you are right; this one is a bit weird. I don't have enough knowledge to say exactly what, but my skills make me feel that something isn't good with it." She points at the pathway and then at two more. "These ones are weird as well, it feels as if they are too 'sharp'?"

Oh? Interesting. I reach in and examine them as well, then I make a few small changes and send a tiny bit of my mana through them. I do notice a slight difference; the mana flows more naturally.

"This one is weird as well," Sophie says and points to another one. Even though she lacks the knowledge, her skill offers her some insight into this.

Then to test her, I make a mistake; I change one pathway in a way that would surely kill me if I went with it. It's a barely noticeable change, something I could easily miss. Then I watch her.

She examines the construct and finds the pathway I changed. It takes her a few seconds, and she notices the mistake immediately, saying, "Oh, this needs to be changed again. It seems super dangerous," as she continues to examine another part while I fix it.

After I fix it, she goes back to it and checks again, saying, "It seems fine now."

"I see," I say shortly.

We then continue for a few more hours, and Sophie is a great help. She points out a few more things and gives me more warnings. Stuff like: "A single mistake can kill you" or "I would not do that," or my favorite: "You shouldn't just go on and modify your body just a few months after getting mana."

No, you totally should. You can totally do it successfully as well! And I will do it for other people! My next construct will be for Hadwin. The older man doesn't know it yet, but I'm sure he would agree.

Just imagine, a bunch of people that I will strengthen with my constructs. By doing that, I will gain some experience and have them deal with annoying stuff like looking for food and water, killing weaker monsters, and building hideouts so I can focus on my own training and strengthening.

Sounds good to me.

But first, I check on Lissandra, making sure others keep their distance from her. During past few days she has already given a few good pieces of advice, and the one who spends the most time with her is Hadwin.

Just to make sure, I observe him and the brooch for an hour and do not notice a thing, not a single whiff of mana from Lissandra and only some mana from Hadwin who continues to test his skills. I examine him a bit more, but I don't notice anything.

Seems fine. Now then, back to my construct!

I go to the place on top of the white wall where I get into position. Tess keeps a watch nearby. I close my eyes, putting my attention on my body and my heart.The process this time won't be as long or painful. I already have the design in mind, and I remember it, so I just need to repeat it on my body.

My [Focus] consolidates, and the world around me disappears from my mind. I only see my body, my pathways, and my heart that beats quietly intertwined with a web of mana that creates kinetic energy when I wish it to.

I am prepared. I've checked multiple times, so there's no time to hesitate. I immediately start working, and time doesn't matter anymore as I modify my body with the help of [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Infusion]. This part takes the longest, but slowly and surely, the construct is prepared.

Then I test it more, send some mana through, and examine the changes, not wanting the last time I did it to repeat. Everything feels right.

The construct is the most difficult I've ever created, and there are some parts where I'm not even sure how it works, so I'm only led by my instincts and my skills, with the help of all my testing.

[Resonance] activates to make the final changes, and it's ready as I connect it to my heart. First, mana starts flowing through it, and the construct slowly comes to life. The construct covers my entire body and affects my mana flow. And not only that, but it also affects my heart.

As many times before, I realize how crazy this kind of modification is, but I still push forward. This construct is something I need and something I will continue to improve in the future.

I do it because there are situations I do not want to repeat.

Finally, the notification sounds, and I check the text.

Congratulations, you have created your fourth Construct. The name will be kept as such and will be shown in the status under active skills and over passive skills. Well done!

Mana Sovereignty Mantle (construct): A protective mantle seamlessly integrated with the user's mana heart and body. Solely designed to prevent external influences from disrupting or hijacking the user's mana flow.