"Ok I think I have to stop you there" said Vivian
Lily pouted but didn't protest. "I know you're quite proud of these options, and I know you want to look into them but for now, can we discuss the ones you've already gone over. I do have some concerns"
"I only have a few more though…" said Lily
Vivian gave a soft smirk and looked Lily in the eyes, waiting for the girl to crack first. "Ok fine. Those four ARE the main ones that I was considering. There are a bunch of others that are interesting to hear about though, even if they aren't really suitable for me"
Vivian gave Lily a kind smile. "True, but while everyone's here how about we just go over the ones you've already listed, and maybe just… skim the others lightly pointing out the main problems with them ok?"
Lily bit her lip and looked a little pained but nodded. "Yeah that's ok. Sorry, I guess I got carried away"
"Don't worry about its Lily" said Sylvie with a cheeky smile on her face, "I'm sure Kat would be happy to hear the rest"
"Ah I wouldn't want to bother her, if I've already started to ramble" said Lily
"Why? We always do this though?" said Kat "I'm perfectly happy to listen to you talk"
Lily looked away and coughed quietly into her hand. "Right well… umm, anyway. So, those four are the main ones because of Kat's lifespan. Once she mentioned that I made it a deciding factor. There are a few others that can compete for different reason or are just interesting, but it's harder to get a comparable lifespan from them.
"The system did seem to imply that there were ways around that for basically any of them, but those four get it by default for the most part" said Lily
"Hmm even slimes? I confess I didn't help with that section" said Callisto
"Ah, yeah, apparently they don't really age the same way well… anything does? The only thing important about them is their core which in a Queen Slime is a gem-like structure. They just don't age because of that, or well, they can't die of old age"
Callisto nodded "Right, and Dragons live forever, Kitsune are the same I'd assume, and Vampires are frozen in time right?"
Lily waved her hand from side to side "Well, you are mostly correct but the Kitsune at one tail have a somewhat short life, however once they get to three tails, they have plenty of time. Technically their lifespan isn't quite as good as a dragon by default, but with just a bit of consistent effort they gain massive amounts of lifespan with each tail."
Callisto nodded "Right I guess that makes sense. Is that really all the long-lived races though?"
Lily shrugged "I mean… sometimes? Elves for example, live quite a while for no effort at all… but trying to increase that limit is apparently even harder than a human, which is supposed to be one of the hardest already. There is also races like dryads that are actually a tree. They live for quite a while, but the human body they have is just a projection.
"That means if I wanted to help Kat out, I'd have to move my TREE form. That alongside the fact that there isn't any mana for me to use on Earth here, it would be quite the hassle" said Lily
Sylvie's eyes narrowed "Is there enough mana for the other races you were looking at? Slime seems the most questionable, and Kitsune perhaps as well"
Lily shook her head "Nope, Slimes are fine. They can break pretty much anything down and convert it into mana even if they're drawn to large concentrations of it. Kitsune as well, they only need mana occasionally. Vampires are completely fine, it's actually if I chose Dragon where I might have an issue"
"To grow up physically they require a tonne of mana and protein… so… that might be an issue. At the very least, it's not a constant draw, and I don't know exactly how much but if Kat's system says it's A LOT it must be a massive amount"
Callisto nodded "I do suppose that makes sense. I'm surprised that Slimes can generate mana from essentially nothing"
"Um… well, I wouldn't say nothing, and I'm not completely sure… but I think they are kind of like mana nuclear reactors. Um, I mean… they are MUCH safer than that, and can't go critical, but yeah… I think they like… generate something that makes more mana, and then they can keep going as long as they have something to keep burning?" said Lily
"Hmmm" mumbled Callisto. Sylvie chimed in with "If you became a powerful enough Slime would you start releasing mana?"
Everyone in the room froze. "That… that's a good question and a potential problem" said Lily
*I hope this doesn't spoil their fun but… System can you confirm that won't be an issue?*
User Kat's home dimension will ensure that any Mana produced is kept contained within the Entity that produces it. The only exception to this is if the Entity is powerful enough to push back that Dimensional Force. User Kat is not strong enough to do that, and can only reject it slightly because of the nature of Demonic Energy. Mana has no chance to bypass it without Extreme levels of power.
Everyone else in the room turned to Kat with dull eyes except Lily. "Thank you so much Kat. I should have thought about that really. I'm sure I would have been panicking for ages worrying about that. Good to know that slime is still on the table I suppose"
"Hmm, well that was actually an interesting consideration… Lily I'm overruling Vivian here, what other interesting races did you come across" asked Callisto.
"Err, um" Lily looked to Vivian for approval, and she just shrugged in response "Um well, I mean… there was the Tarasque as an option but… it apparently can't use magic at all and devours planets though. Not sure why that was even on the list of things…
"Um, there were Brakenzharek… they are… basically living black holes? Which… sure is cool, but they have an average lifespan of like… a week? With the oldest living a grand total of one month… they apparently are born from dying stars instead of black holes, but the energy inside them just escalates until they die and turn into a black hole for real…
"Um… there is a bunch of elementals? But apparently if I chose any of them I'd go a little crazy for a long time… like… they aren't much better than animals… or maybe… like basic AI? It takes forever for them to get thoughts and because they don't even have brains I'd have nothing to anchor my mind onto until that body generated enough magic to simulate one" said Lily
"Wait… what about slimes? They don't have a brain" said Kat "Or… I hope they don't that would look really creepy…"
Lily giggled at Kat's response "No… well… yes, I mean…" in between giggles. Lily decided to wait till she calmed down a little before speaking again. "Ok… whoo, right sorry for laughing Kat but I couldn't get the idea of a brain bouncing around the countryside out of my head. Um… so they do have a brain, it's their core. Just because it isn't… huh does it count as organic if their brain is a fancy crystal instead of more biological cells?
"Huh… now that you bring it up though… what about Dryads? Do they technically have a brain considering they are just a giant tree? I wonder… does their avatar have a brain? I'd think not because it's just a projection to make them seem more human… but… I guess depending on how thorough it is they'd make one…?
"But if it isn't actually doing anything is it really a brain…? Then again… octopi have brains at the ends of their tentacles… or at least they have large nerve clusters that can be argued to be brains which are just large clusters of nerves…
"But if we consider it that way… trees don't really have nerves and neither do crystals…" Kat smiled as Lily started to get lost in the question. Vivian sighed, realising that everyone else was actually happy to hear Lily talk around in circles.
Vivian smiled to herself and wondered if maybe she was just tired still, and decided that must be it, before putting Sylvie onto Kat's lap, walking over to the last free chair, and falling asleep as soon as she sat down.
Sylvie and Callisto shared a glance at Vivian and just shrugged before going back to Lily's example. She was now debating if artificial intelligences had brains because multiple electrical cables running between server banks would operate like nerves… and if the server banks themselves housed the mind… and well isn't that a cluster?