Chapter 8
“Lex?” Lyla murmured. “Interesting name, unimaginative, but a good name.” Lex gracefully floated over to hover in front of her face. “New designation approved, thank you, Ms. Graves.” Wide-eyed, Lyla leaned away from the construct. “How do you know who I am? And my name is Lyla, just Lyla.” Lex blinked rapidly. “Preference noted. I detect a desire to read the status that was shown to Mr. Wounder. Projecting now.”
Lex floated away from Lyla slightly and started to glow with a constant intensity. Lyla was soon taken aback by what was in front of her. A window seemingly made up of a very thin piece of glass with a slight hue of maroon popped up out of nowhere with Lyla’s full name at the very top. Reading through, Lyla looked past the window and sternly asked Lex the first questions that came to her mind. “Lex! What is this? And how did you get that information?” Lex bobbed up and down. “I simply used the power ingrained in me by Mr. Wounder to access your neural pathways on a shallow level. Although I can delve deeper, I must obtain permission to do so by Mr. Wounder.”
Kalex’s hand shot into the air. “Lex, as long as it’s alright with Lyla, you can pull up as much information as you want. Also, I insist that you call me Kalex. Mr. Wounder is what my instructors and housekeepers called me. With that said, can you show me my status?”
Lex plopped down into Lyla’s hand and blinked in what seemed like anticipation. “Yes Lex, let's see what you can pull up.” Lex flew up and rotated around her head. “I do not have an expansive enough knowledge base to accurately define most attributes. This world is similar but fundamentally different from everything in Mr. Wounder’s memories. A larger data pool is needed for accuracy. With permission, I will tap into Mr. Wounder’s senses, or ‘presence sight’ as he likes to refer to it, and do a superficial scan to update my understanding. This is necessary for status precision.” Kalex walked up to the duo. “Granted.”
Kalex felt his presence sight activate instantly. With Lex controlling the action, it felt effortless to shroud the majority of the planet. Lex was also processing all of the information that came through the sight as well, causing Kalex to barely comprehend what was happening. Before Kalex could think anymore about the topic, the process had finished. Lex fluoresced with a different color every moment until it stopped on a bright white light. “Process complete.”
Both Kalex and Lyla looked at the rock with looks of bewilderment. “That’s it? Alright, can you show us our updated statuses please?” Kalex stepped up to the rock. “And could you keep it short enough that we’re not stuck reading it for hours?” Lex moved to the middle of the cave and bathed the area in light. As the light hit them, a more detailed screen appeared in front of them with more filigree on the edges than the last one had. Lyla sat on the ground as Kalex huddled up next to her to read each other's screens. Lyla went first.
Name: Lyla Graves
Race: Human (Enternia)
Rank: Silver Sayer
Maturity: 164/200
Path: Mystknit (Adept)
Vitality: 8,254/600
Myst: 4,200/5,170
Strength: 26 (Diat’s Bounty)
Wisdom: 48 (Diat’s Bounty)
Agility: 32 (Diat’s Bounty)
Charisma: 20 (Diat’s Bounty)
Luck: 62 (Diat’s Bounty)
“I took liberties in categorizing the data compared to the 4.2 billion other lifeforms I scanned. With the large quantity of differentiation, a system of ranks and abilities was needed, using terms that both Mr. Wounder and the inhabitants of Enternia could easily understand. Information on the different ranks and levels can be explained at request.” Lyla looked from her status to Lex. “Please explain how this all works! I have no idea what a Silver Sayer or Mystknit is! But first, we have to see Kalex’s to see how we compare!” Kalex agreed and looked at his own status.
Name: Kalex Wounder
Race: Human (Enternia), Beer (Diat)
Rank: Platinum Seer Savant
Maturity: 399/400
Path: Shifting Wanderer (Master)
Vitality: 162/12,550
Myst: 19,200,320/20,000,000
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Strength: 1
Wisdom: 602
Agility: 1
Charisma: 5
Luck: 17,069
Lyla burst out laughing. “You have 1 in strength and agility.” Kalex scoffed “Lyla, look at me. I’m a baby, I can’t exactly sprint. Actually, thinking about that, I need to change that as fast as I can. You’ve taken the notion of a baby speaking to you very well, but I doubt that would be the consensus.”
Kalex turned to a floating Lex. “Before you explain what these statuses mean, can you tell me if there is any way to change the way I look? At least for a few years until I grow my physical body.” Lex bobbed playfully. “Everything is untested but there might be a way to alter your physical being. Using your ability to apply a false presence, there could be a way to apply your previous physical presence from Diat onto the form you find yourself in now. I have to advise, many things could go wrong and can lead to injury or dea…”
Kalex loudly spoke over Lex. “Let’s do it! If it works, will it get rid of the scars as well?” Kalex asked.
“Mr. Wounder, I believe the scars are the least of your issues if something goes wrong.”
Nodding, Kalex took on a look of determination. “It’s alright, Lex. Let’s do it, I trust you. What do I need to do?” Lex dropped into Kalex’s hands, blinking in a slightly rueful manner. “You wouldn’t have to do anything. It would work the same way as earlier when I merged with your presence and scanned the world for information.”
Joining the conversation, Lyla interjected. “This is too dangerous, Kalex. I don’t think you should go through with it.” Kalex faced her with a gleam in his eye. “It’ll be alright Lyla, But thank you for worrying. Alright Lex, Let’s start!”
The cave filled with eye-scorching light as Lex started the process. Lex first brought up Kalex’s presence signature from his life on Diat and overlaid it over his current one. With the success of this step, Lex moved on to the physical records of Kalex and began to merge them. The melding of both Kalexs went as planned as his physical stature began to grow. The figure that was Kalex started to grow to his height from Diat and almost reached the ceiling of the cave.
As the glowing Kalex reached his final height of two and a half rods, or ten feet tall, his form became hazy, and odd waves obscured the form.
“Warning. Original corporeal data locked. Data inaccessible. Must have proper somatic information to complete formation.” Lex blinked a harsh red light. “Switching to reserve power to stabilize form until information is provided.” Standing a few feet behind Kalex, with her hands blocking the light, Lyla screamed. “Kalex!”
Kalex was comfortable. When the transformation started, he was thrown into his area of darkness. Coming back to this place and seeing the bright spark lazily rotating brought solace to the insanity his life had become. Kalex was unaware of anything that was happening on the outside of his body until he got the same feeling he had when the ion blade was closing in on his presence.
Like a bolt of lightning, Kalex heard his name called in urgency. Brought out of his idyllic mood, he immediately attempted to leave and join with Lyla and Lex again, but to no avail. He knew he needed to get out of this place and figure out what was happening to his body on the outside. He had done it once before when he joined this world and he was stronger now than he was then. With all of the willpower and with every thought, he screamed into his void.
“OPEN!” A blue haze similar to the mist he had seen when first draining the wall of its presence flooded into the darkness from every corner. From the status Lex had shown them, he knew this had to be what Lex called ‘myst.’ The myst poured in until there was nothing he could sense. Remembering his first time dealing with it, he began to spin his spark and ponder his presence.
The myst fused with his spark almost as quickly as it was rushing into the darkness and Kalex could feel the quality and efficiency of his spark growing with every passing second. After what seemed like an eternity, the myst stopped and his spark, which looked a lot more like a vibrant ball of light, took in the last remnants. With the pure golden light it cast, Kalex was able to look into the depths of his darkness. To his surprise, it looked more like Lyla’s, with no straight edges, only a void without end.
Remembering himself, Kalex rejoined the real world where Lyla and Lex were waiting for him. Opening his eyes, he was expecting to look down, as his height in Diat was significantly taller than any human he had seen in this world so far. Promptly looking down in expectation, the ground was a lot closer than he had expected and he was greeted only by the sight of his hands.
His scarless hands. Lyla let out a breath she was holding and Kalex peered in her direction. Looking up into her red, but joyful face, he tilted his head to the side as he didn’t know what was happening. If everything had gone correctly, he should tower over her.
Luckily, Humans and Beers were very similar looking. The only differences were the general height, lighter complexion, proportionally smaller features, and slightly larger eyes, so other than his height, he could still have a chance of fitting in. Something had gone very wrong and Kalex could only hope it wasn’t too bad. Turning to Lex he made to ask what had happened, but Lex was quicker with a response.
“It was a partial success, Mr. Wounder. The appropriate data was unavailable and you were put in a stasis. I attempted to find the correct information but was unable to. As the formation was collapsing, the information became available and I continued the process in an attempt to mitigate the chance of you perishing. The result was a combination of your previous Beer heritage and your human one, with your age being a determining factor."
"Your age here on Enternia was rounded to one and your equivalent age from Diat was rounded to twenty-eight, thus setting you to an age of fourteen and a half moons. As this world doesn’t have half measures when it comes to age, and your birthday is the day when the moon blocks out the sun, you are currently fourteen moons. I noticed changes deeper than physical during the transformation and ran a cursory scan to determine your state and well-being. After confirming your status I’d like to be the first to say, welcome back Sage Wounder, and congratulations.”
Kalex and Lyla looked at each other in disbelief. Lyla with a paled expression on her face and Kalex with a nearly unscarred one. Raising his much deeper voice, Kalex nearly yelled in frustration. “Lex! We need to know how this system that you created works!”
Blinking a soft light, Lex relented. “Sending the information to you both now.” A plane of intangible glass appeared in front of both Kalex and Lyla. After reading it through, Lyla swore. “Oh, my Lumen.”