The last three days were spent walking in ancient tunnels made by forgotten civilizations, fighting mantises in tight places, eating shiny plants, and seeing the same red bricks every day, which makes me think those ancient guys really liked this color. I think we may be lost, Skelones wasn't sure about which way to go earlier today, but he said probably both would work, even if one took much longer. At least those roots can be enjoyable to eat when you get used to the sweet taste. I mean, it’s far better than eating that prison stuff, but being stuck here underground is not my idea of freedom.
“We should call it a day and rest a little, you all look tired and this place seems safe enough to rest.” Says Skelones.
“Honestly, every part of these tunnels look the same to me, but sure, I could use a rest.” Mazurka Says
I simply nod, a rest would be nice. Although it is hard to relax with the occasional bug creeping me out, both the big ones and the small ones biting my legs from time to time. After we all place our baggage in a corner, Morgus starts pilling up the dry plants we collected to make a fire and roast the edible roots, filling the tunnel with the sweet, earthy smell of smoke. Luckily, the bugs are afraid of fire, so they won't bother us for now. Following Skelones instructions, I keep practicing my abilities to keep in shape, he said we all can get rusted from time to time, pun intended. The first turn of the watch is mine this time, so I chose a spot to sit and watch for any danger lurking in the tunnels. To keep me awake and to avoid dying of boredom, I take a look at the gains I got these days. I learned a few practical things too, there are ways to customize the panels but that is something I have yet to mess with, for now, being able to move them around is enough.
◇Temporary mark is now level 5 Duration is now 1:40 Cooldown is now 8:00
◇New skill: Short Sword Mastery Description: Some would prefer a longer blade, but a short one may have its uses, be it cost, ease of carrying, fighting in confined spaces, or dual-wielding. The short sword is both good at thrusting and cutting. Effect: You get better at handling the short sword. +1% damage.
◇Short sword mastery is now level 2 ◇Short sword mastery is now level 3 ◇Short sword mastery is now level 4 ◇Short sword mastery is now level 5 ◇Short sword mastery is now level 6 ◇Fighting is now level 12 ◇Battle Magic is now level 6 ◇Battle Magic is now level 7
Normally I would get excited about improving my skills, but I am too tired for that, all my willpower is being used to keep my eyelids open and avoid sleeping until someone else takes the turn. If Skelones could watch it would be great, but he doesn't exactly have eyes, so he can only feel the environment to an extent, which may be the reason we got lost...
I am almost sleeping when Morgus comes and tells me to rest. I can't refuse it in the state I am, even if my turn isn't over yet. I lay down in my makeshift bed and sleep almost instantly.
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Light. Everywhere, coming from the plants, the rocks, the creatures… Where am I? The walls around me are made of light too? A white fish emitting a faint purple glow comes to my direction, swimming in the air.
"Quickly, follow me, for we are in need of you, Kali." The fish said.
"Did you just spoke? Wait, you know my name…" I say. My mind whirls trying to figure out what is going on. Am I dreaming? I don't think this is a memory-dream, I usually am not aware of being dreaming when its a memory.
The fish swims into a wall, a path opening up in front of him. I decide to follow the talking animal, for the sake of my curiosity at least.
Walking into the path brought me to a lake with some Squidcrabs walking around with their tentacles at the shore, one of them was grabbing a stick with their claw, swinging it around, perhaps for fun or curiosity.
"Hey, I know you guys, I have a skill that says I am your friend!" I say to the squidcrab. The animal gives me a weird look with his only eye and then he says
"Do I know you?" The Squidcrab says.
"Oh, I suppose not, sorry." I say.
The white fish dives into the lake, telling me to follow him. How can I? I can't breathe underwater… but he can swim in the air, so maybe...
Carefully, I put my feet on the water. I expected the feeling of the cold liquid on my skin but instead, it felt more like air, but denser. Slowly I dive in the lake, the water is clear as possible and as I suspected, breathing here is possible. The feeling on my skin is weird, but nothing I can't get used to. What is really strange is all the kinds of weird fishes swimming around, there is one with legs and arms but the body of a fish, one with two big horns, one with wings and some squidcrabs swimming as well. The white fish is easily distinguished with the purple glow around him as he goes deeper and deeper. Following him gets harder, the density of the substance this lake is made of is making it difficult to move, but I try to keep up with him.
Usually, when going deeper on a body of water, the place would get darker, but here it seems like the reverse; it's brighter down there, but the fishes are getting even weirder the deeper we get. I think I can see something big and luminous at the bottom…
After approaching the source of light, my eyes adapt to the intensity and I get to see what is there. It's big... similar to a human, but with more arms and lots of eyes on the body. There are lots of spikes piercing the flesh and chains holding the limbs to the bottom of the lake. This looks like the creatures I saw before in my dream-memory. The eyes look at me and a motherly voice resonates in my mind.
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"You came. I thank you for this." Said the voice.
"What? Who are you? What is this?" I say.
"The light from the sun can reach deep into most darkness, I will do my best to enlighten yours. My Name Is… LRT041, but I have been called Lorati as well. This here is the DREAM, an virtual reality created by Ari-Os and the subconscious of every being connected to it." Lorati said.
"How can I know if you are not a product of my imagination?" I say.
"How do you know if everything is not a product of your imagination? Everything is real in one way or another, be it virtual, mental, material… I am all of those." Lorati said.
"Well, whatever then. Why you sent the talking fish to bring me here? And what exactly are you? This may sound rude, but... I have unpleasant memories of beings similar to you" I say.
"You are close to my physical body location, which allowed me to get in contact with you. As for what I am… I am many things. Ancient, mechanical, biological, trapped, poisoned, and alive are words that may define me. This form you see here is part of me, a representation of the truth. My drones were watching you for a while… Kali, isn't it? Do you know what you are?" Lorati said.
"I am me." I say
"Yet, you question yourself all the time deep within your mind without even being aware of it. Are you the same from your memories or are you someone else? Why are you here in this era? Surviving the hardships thrown at you changed your priorities, but you still seek to know the answers, don't you?" Lorati says.
"Yes, I question things, who wouldn't in my situation? Right now I am questioning you for the reason I was brought here, and I am still waiting for the answer." I say.
"I was imprisoned by the same beings who… brought you to this age. I don't have much time left here, a few years at most, so I ask for your help. The key is Time, Space, Creation, Light, Arcane, and Solid. Come back if you have them and want to help me." Lorati says.
"And who are those beings you speak about, exactly? These keys are runes, right? As for this favor, how do I know I won't be unleashing some sealed ancient evil?" I say.
"I understand you don't trust me, Perhaps, finding the answers by yourself will change that. All I can do now is to give you something to help your journey: Light and information. You are not the only one who is capable of reading the system; others were made to be able to do that as well… And entities are looking forward to acquiring this ability by any means available to them. Also, one of your friends has two of the keys, her help will be valuable. Farewell, Kali, may we meet again soon.” Lorati says, her light fading slowly, everything is getting dark…
“OUCH” I say out loud after feeling a sudden sharp pain in my neck much like a needle.
It’s no longer dark, the bioluminescence of the vegetation brightens the old red bricks of the tunnels as well as the worried faces of Mazurka and Morgus.
“You okay there, kid?” Skelones says.
“Yeah, sure. It’s just that…” before I can finish my sentence, a panel shows up in front of me
◇New Rune: Light Description: Light can be manipulated for many purposes, be it to blind, to hide, or to elude, the effects of Light are a strong tool in the right hands. Effect: You have been gifted the understanding of Light by an Ancient being. You are able to manipulate Light and inscribe objects with its meaning. +1% Light power.
So this means… All that dream stuff was real. I am not sure how to deal with that yet.
“Just what? Hello? You there?” Mazurka says.
“Sorry… I have those dreams sometimes… And a bug bit me in my neck, I think. Sorry if I worried you.” I say.
It may be my brain trying to make sense of the dream, but I am pretty sure Mazurka's face shows she knows something… the way her eyes are looking at me, her eyebrows… Could she be the one Lorati mentioned?
I don't know if I can trust those two to know about my ability to read the system, Lorati said there are people wanting it… and there are others like me… how do they know about it? Was I not the first then? Or some entity like Lorati told people about it? What is her, by the way?
"Hell yeah you are worrying us, you are looking at my face for like a minute" Mazurka says.
"I was trying to make sense of the dream and got carried away, sorry." I say
"Dreams can show many aspects of yourself and others, but the truth only comes with time." Morgus says.
"There is definitely something about dreams that smell like magic." Skelones says.
"Do you dream, Skelones?" I ask him.
"Usually yes, dreams are nostalgic, aren't they?" Skelones says.
"Hey, can we talk? It's huh… women stuff." Mazurka says.
"Sure…" I say.
Mazurka grabs my hand and takes me a little bit away from the others, to a more secluded place. Why she took my hand with such urgency? I am not used to hand contact, it feels all weird and makes me nervous, but feels kinda nice, the heat from her hand, especially in those cold tunnels.
"So… what do you want to talk about?" I ask her.
"One of these days you talked about waking up with memory loss, right? I have to be honest with you, I already knew about that, and a few other things about you." She says, looking at me as if her eyes could see something beyond my flesh, right into my soul.
"There were some rumors about people called 'The Awakened', they would be able to read the world and themselves, know about their statistics without any artifact and access to hidden knowledge, does any of that sounds familiar to you?" Mazurka says. Shit, I got myself in a corner now, I don't think I can simply lie my way out of this situation, but maybe she doesn't know everything about it...
"Hmm yes I heard of that." I say, trying my best to not show how nervous I am about all this.
"The reason I came to this Valley was to investigate a magical anomaly that reverberated to quite some distance… It's not every day you feel a distortion in space that big, someone activated an ancient teleportation device to travel from really far away, and all the evidence shows it was you." Mazurka says.
What will she do now that she figured out? Should I run? Will she attack me? I stay quietly looking into her, waiting for what is to come.
"I met someone like that before… And that person died running away from people who wanted that kind of power. I just wanted for you to know you are not alone, I won't let anyone mess with you, okay?" Mazurka says with her eyes looking down, her voice lower than the usual... She is in sorrow, I can see that.
"I don't know what to say… Thanks? Sorry about what happened to that person, was it someone close to you?" I say. Part of me wanted to hug her but I am not comfortable with this much physical contact.
"Yeah, It was. I was trying to find the source of distortion to study more about space magic, I need it for this personal quest of mine. I decided to talk with you now because I had some kind of dream, and I think you had it too." Mazurka says.
"I suspected that was the reason. How was your dream?" I say.
"There was an ancient creature named Lorati asking for help, same with you?" Mazurka says.
"Yes, but I don't know what to think of this yet. Listen, I have some dreams where I access some of my memories, and Lorati looked too similar to some creatures that I saw killing lots of people in those." I say.
"I never saw anything like that, we can search for something in the city. For now, we should get ready or we won't find the right way any time soon." Mazurka says.
We come back to our camp to get ready, I hope we get can get to Kavros in a day or two, I can't stand being in the underground anymore...
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