'Whatever I wanna do with stage three, stage two is a prerequisite, right?' Ember tilted her head. It was not like the system ever suggested an alternative path. But it did not hurt asking for one.

  'Are you perhaps annoyed about something I have done?' She asked, taken aback by the sudden change of attitude.

  To be honest, Ember did not see that one coming. Yet, she could not deny she had been kind of awful with her system assistant.

  'Okay. I don't have any sort of plan for the day. So how about we go around with the plan, and then I do whatever you want until my owner comes back? Deal?' She tried to cheer it up.

  'Sure. That's a limited-time offer, but whatever.' Ember confirmed. It was not like she had any plans for the day.

  'Yes, and yes,' She agreed immediately. ' What's next.'

  The way the system described it made it sound like her magic was a litter of puppies trying to compete for their mother's attention.

  The wild thought made Ember smile, and she lay down to do as it said.

  Only this time, she could feel the hand of the system, the other half of MAGUS, directing her as she started to meditate. And for the first time, she realized how hard she had made it for herself. The whole meditating thing was not supposed to be difficult. Still, without the know-how and her jittery personality holding her back, she made a headache of the entire thing when it was supposed to be the opposite.

  Her magic just ran to her, waiting to be acknowledged, and she welcomed its Soothing Presence entirely. It was always with her, she realized. But it wasn't the same as giving it her full attention. And now, it was precisely what she was doing. And her magic did behave just like a litter of puppies with their mother. It wanted to go play outside. It wanted to learn new tricks. It wanted to grow to make her proud. But first and foremost, it wanted to make the greatest fuss possible cause she was here, and it missed her.

  'I won't complain you are not trying to kill me anymore. But that way over the top, even for me.'

  If her magic were really puppies and her body was her house, then she would best describe what was happening as the puppies constantly pouncing on her or lacking her while also trashing the place in their excitement. Was magic always like that, or did it take after her? Cause if it did, it definitely ramped it up to eleven, as she clearly never was THAT BAD. Was she?

  But any attempt to make it stop backfired until she realized it.

  'Okay. It's craving attention, and I'm just encouraging it. Just ignore it until it does something I want. That was the system advice, right?'

  So Ember concentrated on the feeling of her body instead, but her magic was stubborn and kept demanding her attention. Hence, she had to focus her attention elsewhere, over and over again, until she realized.

  'That’s it—no need for encouragement or all that bullshit. My magic wants to play tag. Let's just make sure it follows me on the right path, and everything should be fine!'

  Easier said than done, as her magic was always taking the shortcut, and she had no idea what she was doing with that whole 'making her magic circulate her whole body' thing. But after a few trials and errors, Ember got the entire running in-circle thing right and kept enlarging until the whole pouncing-and-running game became an actual race that needed little to no encouragement on her part.

  And so she broke her meditative trance to ask her assistant for whatever instructions she had been missing.

  'So I got that right? I had no freaking idea what I was doing.'

  'Is there anything wrong with racing and playing tag?' Ember asked.

  'Wasn't it supposed to be your day?' Ember asked back again, confused.

  And then, her main screen opened on its own

  Ember looked at all the new stuff since she last bothered opening her main menu, and sure, there was a lot.

  Soothing Presence got an upgrade and her meditation cards...

  'Why didn't you tell me I could meditate while doing other things?' She asked, a bit bothered by all the time she had wasted since that night.

  Touché. She remembered that conversation. And she did forget.

  'Sorry,' Ember did not knew what else to say.

  'Why does it feel so different than the other one?' She asked after reading it twice. Most of the text sounded like noise to her.

  'Does every magic has its thing?' She asked, suddenly curious about it.

  'Right, right,' Ember agreed. 'What's next?'

  So Ember had to ensure her magic only played at one place at a time? That might be a tad challenging, but she thought she could manage. 'Okay. Sound fun. I will be right back!'

  And then, she went back to her meditative state, utterly oblivious to her surrounding.

  https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/52873/apocalypse-redux-a-litrpg-apocalypse/