Mosh pushed in, feeling the tunnel opening overhead and to the sides. The smell of the cat was strong here, but in the light of the mana globe, he could see it was a dead end and it was empty. He sighed, able to relax as it was high enough and wide enough to sit and stretch out. He relaxed, but only for a moment, knowing he needed to bring the corpse of the Prowl Cat in before it was found by the scavengers. He crawled forward, pushing his way out, grabbing the corpse, and then crawling backwards into the burrow. Its bulk blocked much of the tunnel as the burrow wasn’t big enough for him and the corpse, but the movement of air continued, making him happy that he would not suffocate.
Finally, in what felt like a safe space, he settled back ready to delve into his interface and, hopefully, a helpful mentor. He concentrated on activating the interface, the familiar text rolling before him. He had merely integrated the interface earlier, now it was time to make use of it. He thought at the interface, hoping it worked, a single thought, MENTOR
The candidate has activated MENTOR. Before integration with the MENTOR candidate is required to confirm their willingness and understanding that integrating with a mentor will result in the consciousness of the Mentor being loaded into their core and unable to be removed until the Mentor is released by the Greater Mileu, its designated time is completed, or the candidate exits the Game.
Seems there is more to this Mentor than Shiel told me. But I trust her judgement, and that she means well for Earth and myself. Mosh’s thoughts rushed through his head, giving the needed permission.
Permission received. Integration commencing, integration will take ten minutes. A dull ache started behind his eyes, a slight pressure, but not enough to distract him from keeping watch for anything that might crawl up the passage and find the body of the cat or himself. He remained alert, watching, as the Mentor was integrated.
M’Dkar
Time had passed, he did not know how much time, and he had no way to measure its flow. The black void of being a disembodied consciousness in storage maddening, but music played, evidently sourced from the archives within his nanite implants, he could also summon up books to read while he waited. He even had a message console, able to communicate with others in a similar predicament. The Greater Mileu did not want them to go mad and spoil their candidates, or at least that was what the training he had to undergo said. A lot of information, and a lot of restrictions on when he could give it out though there was one leniency, anything he knew before he entered the training he could pass onto his host, and he was far better informed and advanced than many of the other Mentors.
A notification flashed before him; he was finally being inserted into the Game. Only minimal information was provided, the rest would have to be supplied by his host. One Mosh Barmenash, of a planet called Earth, a lottery world. He cursed, which meant the world had not advanced, it had not even earned its first accolade, and his host was likely to be completely clueless. So be it, he could not change it, just help this Mosh Barmenash and make sure that when Mosh fell, as seemed inevitable given the circumstances, and his consciousness extracted back into holding he needed to be judged as not guilty of leading to his demise so the time counted for his sentence. He mentally sighed, he would have loved to just take a deep breath, but he couldn’t do that and hoped that he would have at least a few competent hosts. He was here for the long run, centuries, and dealing with incompetents throughout that time a push to madness even if the isolation between times did not! Books, music and remote chat would do only so much to stave off insanity. He brought his attention back to the transfer, to the feeling of his mind being squeezed through a thin tube as he became part of the consciousness of another.
Mosh
Mentor Integration complete. Mentor Midkar integrated.
Mosh saw the message and wondered how he could access the mentor. He decided to just think at it. Didn’t it say it was in his consciousness? ‘Uh, hi? Mentor Midkar are you there?’
‘So, you are the one I am supposed to be helping, is it? Care to let me see what I am working with? Or have you seen my name on the Mileu Net, and are now going to curse and rant on being paired with me? But assuming you are not a complete half-wit and are willing to assist help, let us get started. How old are you, and how much Mileu education have you passed?’ Mosh heard the voice in his head, it sounded harsh, coarse, and bitter.
‘I have no idea who you are. Why should I curse at you? And what do you need to know about me? My trainer, before I entered The Crucible said I should work with my Mentor, that it is in your interests that I do well. She also said she would love to see your reaction when you first saw my indices, she said to tell you that our world has only been re-introduced to mana three centuries ago and I am clueless. Seems harsh, but she is probably right. As for my age, my Celebration of Age and Awakening took place just over a week ago, uh, that’s at eighteen years old, I don’t know if you are human and know that. I don’t know what you mean by Mileu education, we just have our local schools here and we don’t have a teleportation platform to go elsewhere in the Mileu to study yet. Or rather, we didn’t have a platform, the Arbiter has granted Earth five as reparations for the Greater Mileu breaking a contract with us.’
M'dkar might only be a disembodied consciousness, but he still felt frustration and was completely bewilderment. How could a mana-enforced contract be broken? He imagined it would have to have been by the Upper Council, but why would they? He broke off that speculation, contemplating the child. A lottery world three centuries old. He could think of only one world that fitted that description! He was guilty of genocide for destroying one side species that had resulted from a mutation, this world had wiped out what, thirty or forty prime races? And a kid, they had given him a baby!
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‘No, I am not human, I am one of the Kin. And be prepared if you ever tell another my name. They are likely to curse me and call me a genocidal maniac. I suppose it is fitting that I am paired with a descendant of other genocidal maniacs. So, child, if you are prepared to trust me, open your Akashic Records and let me see your current summary. Do so by invoking the command PRESENTATION RECORDS, though many tell the records to store it with a simpler command.’
Mosh felt slightly irritated at being called “Child”, but he supposed he was young, and his mentor had already told him something he did not know, he decided it was probably in his best interests to listen ‘I’m not that young, you know, I just had my Celebration of Age, I am an adult! But umm, PRESENTATION RECORDS, but please use command RECS if that is ok.’
The candidate has requested Presentation Records be aliased to RECS, alias recorded. Records being presented
Candidate Name: Mosh Barmenash, Human, Age 18
Evolution Tier: 0 Evolution Points: 5
Body index, Tier 3 5/1000. Mind index, Tier 3 0/1000. Mana index Tier 4 5/1500, Soul Index Tier 5 0/1000, Evolution Potential Tier 10 5/6600, Shaping Potential Tier 8 0/4500
Core Class: Greater Energy Adept Level: 1
Class Evolutions: Not Achieved
Enhancements:
Sensory Sensitivity Tier 3 Basic Level 2
Imbue Mana Tier 4 Basic Level 1
Skills: Not Achieved
Evolutions:
Retractable claws
Mosh read the information about himself, interested in what it revealed. Class Evolution had been discussed in school, but was rare, needing the class to evolve to at least level 50. A few combat classes had it, but only a handful, like Alchemist Diligera, had achieved it amongst the non-combat classes, it was much harder to gain classes outside of the danger of combat. He could also see the number of points needed to evolve his indices. If he understood what he was seeing it meant that he had gotten one point per tier of the monsters he had fought. Would he have to kill thousands of monsters to advance?
‘Not bad.’ His mentor’s words broke Mosh out of his reverie. ‘I can work with that. And yes, you are a baby to me! I am over three centuries old, and you haven’t even hit your second decade. The Earth year is shorter than the Greater Mileu standard, in terms of my race, you are not even a teenager! You have no idea of the timescales being worked with here, your exposure is that of a toddler! But that is inconsequential. What is important here is your base tiers and growth. What absorption method do you use?’
Mosh frowned and shook his head, then realised that physical action was pointless when dealing with a voice in his head.’ Absorption? What is that? I have never heard of that.’
‘And you don’t want to be seen as a child? It’s the first skill we will work on, it's what you need to get meaningful energy from creatures you battle. Next will be getting you a PSI enhancement. You can only get points to evolve abilities that you use in battle. Just a pity you don’t have a Soul cultivation yet.’
Mosh thought for a moment, then remembered the books that the Arbiter said would be in his backup. In the scramble for safety and then the fight, he hadn’t even thought about them. ‘Umm, I may have one? And even something for Shaping. The Arbiter said that there is a Soul Codex and Shaping Codex in the
M’dkar found himself shocked, hearing talk of an Arbiter giving gifts. They were far better known for giving punishments and enforcing the letter of the laws ‘A codex is what we need, though a Tier one will only get you started.’
‘It is not tier one, it's tier 10. He said it was double my current soul tier so it would remain relevant as we grew.’
M’dkar found himself shocked again; a Tier 10 codex given as a gift? What agreement had been broken that caused such a reaction, he wondered if the Shaping Codex was as ridiculous. ‘Ok kid, it seems the Arbiter was far more generous than I expected. The Shaping codex is the same, Tier 10?’
‘No, that’s Tier 16, double its Tier. What is shaping anyway?’
‘Never mind shaping for now, Soul cultivation is what you need for immediate survival.’ M’dkar tried to keep the shock out of his voice. Sapients might achieve far higher tiers than that, but a full codex was rare, and higher tiers were sought after and fought for! Tier 16 might not be an extreme, but until one fought their way into the inner regions of the Game, it was an outlier. A change to the plan. ‘We’ll start with Soul cultivation, at least initiate it, and then an absorption skill. If it is done properly, Soul cultivation should enhance absorption. And it will be done properly! I will make sure of that. We are stuck together, and if one of the Kin is stuck in your head, you will be worthy of us!’If I must guide a child of a race still scrambling in the dust, I will make sure you grow as you should! Try not to disappoint me, child, I'd rather not have to find a new host too soon.'
Following his mentor's prompts, Mosh retrieved the Soul Codex from his bag. The book was bigger than expected, its cover a polished leather that glimmered softly in the dim light of the barrow. Gold script on the dark brown cover shivered, settling into the standard English alphabet spelling out a title ‘Subsume the Sky’. In slightly smaller letters below it lay a name, Gravi’Ma’Fiers’Telus’Jieran, and below that a small subscript “Part One”.
Mosh opened the book, the perfectly white pages bordered with pictures of clouds. Paging through, he could see the margins changing slightly on each page. He recalled children’s books like that, pictures made by fanning the pages. It seemed childish in such an important book, but he tried it and watched as the sky clouded over and lightning descended. The picture seemed lacking, and then he saw the discrepancy, despite the realism and detail of the pictures, the ground remained unchanged.
The moving picture intrigued him. It must mean something, or else why was it there? Checking that the corpse of the Prowl Hunter remained in place, he started his studies.