Siton stared in awe at the surreal sight in front of himself.

“Am I dreaming? This is incredible.”

This was a sight only possible before in video games or movies. Seeing it for real felt so much more intense that he began to doubt it actually was true. That didn’t matter to him. This was exactly the kind of stuff he loved. New things within his reach that anybody had yet to discover.

“Can’t be dreaming. The feeling of EX is very real. Gotta make sure though.” He tried to pinch himself, only to realize he lacked a body. The best way to describe his current state was a floating consciousness.

“Well. Can’t say I’ve ever dreamt of not having a body.”

Without solid evidence to prove or disprove his current situation he just decided to ignore it and have some fun. The first thing he did was reach out for that white glimmering ocean beneath himself. Which proved to be a difficult task considering he didn’t have limbs and had no idea how to move within this form.

He tried to walk, drag himself and flail about. Nothing would work, he couldn’t move. That is until he decided to try and pull as he did with the EX gates inside of himself. Propelling himself a solid meter ahead before he slowed down due to air resistance. Was there even any air here? EX resistance maybe? He sure didn’t feel the need to breathe. Maybe this was a dream after all.

Pushing the regards concerning the reality of his surroundings away, Siton began pulling himself about. Slowly inching closer to the shining ocean. This turned out to be quite an exhausting task. Pulling was not as easy as it seemed. He was literally trying to grab the fabric of this space with no hands and then drag himself forward. It was akin to dragging yourself on a floor covered with oiled plastic wrap. His grip on it was trash and he couldn’t pull too hard lest he loses it. All of this while using a mental muscle he never knew he had before. One he wished would stop hurting god damn much from all the exertion already.

After a grueling few minutes, he finally managed to make his way to the ocean. Unsure as of what to do he just propelled himself inside, ready to pull himself out at a moment’s notice. Surprisingly it was a rather pleasant experience. The liquid gently flowed around him, giving off a feeling of warmth and strength. It didn’t take much to infer that this was EX, albeit more different from what he was used to.

This one felt like it didn’t have any emotions or purpose behind it. Unlike when he had used it before-hand. Yet it was different from the one he found in the air. The naturally found version was far wilder, uncontrolled. Whereas this one felt far more tamed, under his command. This was his. Furthering his current theory that this place was somewhere within himself. Perhaps behind the gates, EX flowed through.

This actually made a lot of sense after thinking about it. He knew that EX came from behind the gates and that it was somehow stored there. And the place he was currently in seemed like a huge EX reservoir. On top of that, the EX within seemed to respond to him really easily. The last thing he would need to confirm this theory was to find the actual gates.

“That won’t be easy.” His thoughts once more resonated out loud.

The reason behind that was very simple. All he had seen above the sea was the purple dome. Which meant that if the gate indeed existed it would be beneath it. Which made sense, as it would explain why the pressure EX applied to them increased whenever its quantity did. What it meant though was that if he wanted to find it, he’d have to drag himself to the bottom of that ocean. And he had no idea how deep or how see-through it was. All he could see below it was endless white. It could very well be mostly clear but that was impossible to confirm due to the huge distance it covered in every direction.

“Actually… I could just try to find out how much of the purple dome above I can see at different depths.”

Going with this plan, he tried multiple distances and concluded it was slightly opaquer than water. Kind of like heavily diluted milk in water, somewhat cloudy. What this meant was that he had absolutely no clue how deep the EX actually was. It could very well go down to 5m just like it could be 10km.

Either way, he wasn’t too keen on dragging himself around in the white ocean. He could very easily get lost in it as there was absolutely no way for himself to know which way was up aside from the direction he came from. One of the disadvantages of not having a body.

With nothing better to do, he decided to just wait above the liquid EX, observing his surroundings. Yet, his attention was quickly drawn back to the liquid mass under him once more. The fluid seemed to slowly flow in incredibly complex and mesmerizing patterns very similar to the way it did in the wild. Gentle waves came and went, following the ever-flowing shapes.

Siton lost himself amongst these moving lines for a while. Trying to figure out the pattern behind them. Trying to predict their appearance. Yet after what seemed to have been a long time he remained just as successful as when he had begun. The whole thing seemed to be entirely random. There looked to be no rules behind their movements. But deep down he knew there must have been something. Nothing was ever truly random. If somebody had access to the state and location of every particle in the universe and a computer powerful enough to process it all, then, in theory, they could know anything in the past and future. Of course, the computer computing itself which was computing itself and so on creates some weird problem but that’s not the point. The point was that Siton did not believe anything to be truly random.

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Even if he couldn’t see a pattern now, it didn’t mean there wasn’t one. Stubborn as he was, he wouldn’t give up on it until he had it figured out. But for now, he had grown bored of it so he went back to observing his surroundings while trying to find a way back to his body. He didn’t want to stay stuck in here forever.

Just as he thought that he noticed some weirdly shaped clouds floating in the sky. Three of them to be precise, two of which looked like a person and the last one a drop. They were very faint, which is why he hadn’t noticed them until now. But they had definitively piqued his interest.

As he was about to begin the grueling journey to get there, he felt a tug on himself. Pulling him down below the radiant ocean. At first, he tried to resist it, he didn’t know what it was, and he wanted to inspect those clouds. However, upon reflection, he realized that the force was probably his way out. He must be waking up or something in the real world and he had no idea what would happen if he decided to stay there.

Therefore, he decided to let the strange power tug him below the huge body of liquid EX. It gradually got stronger as time went by and before he knew it, he came face-to-face with a huge double gate, easily one hundred times larger than himself. As he got closer and closer to them, he saw that it was inscribed with weird EX patterns across its whole bulk. When he was about to hit them, they opened up a little, creating a tiny gap just large enough to get him through. Allowing him to zoom past and into the strange, yet somehow familiar, dark abyss on the other side. Then the gates closed behind himself and all was dark.

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Siton’s eyelids felt heavy, making the simple task of opening his eyes far harder than it should be. But after a little bit of struggle, he managed to pry them open. What he saw was tree bark. A huge wall of bark. Looking around he quickly established that he was inside the tree he had been trying to get into prior to being knocked out. It was still daytime, and he could see some trees growing beyond the sanctuary trough a few holes in the wood.

Righting himself up he noticed that he had been lying on some huge leaves that formed a makeshift bed. They had a classic teardrop shape but touching them revealed an interesting property. They were covered in a multitude of small hairs that gave it the texture of animal fur, making it quite a comfortable improvised mattress.

While he was inspecting the leaf a bit closer, he heard a stick crack behind himself. Out of reflex, he turned around immediately. Only to be faced with his savior. The woman this time was far cleaner than before. She must have used some water to clean up while he was out. Her hairs were definitely blond, and she had striking blue eyes.

“Hello.” She said, somewhat quietly.

“Hi.” He replied awkwardly.

They stared at each other, not knowing what to say. One of which was intimidated by the task of talking to a person. The other intimidated by the person facing them. Eventually, after minutes of staring Siton decided to break the silence. The woman’s face had begun to turn red while maintaining a deadpan expression, looking angrier by the second.

“I’m Siton Novmundo, thanks for saving me before.”

“I…” she began to speak only to close her mouth instantly. She stayed like that for a bit until her face took on a resolute expression and she exclaimed.

“My name is Arrine Tielle… Nice to meet you…” Saying that last bit under her breath.

“I want to say, if I’ve offended you in any way, I’m really sorry.”

“Oh! Nononono you haven’t offended me at all!” She exclaimed in a very sudden outburst. Immediately covering her hands with her mouth afterward with wide eyes.

Siton stared at her. She stared back. Which was followed by another stretch of silence.

“Soooo…” Siton began, “Is this where you live?”

She nodded.

Silence.

They stared at each other.

Silence.

She turned red.

He did too.

“Um… So what was that thing you did to make the spike materialize?” He asked, hoping to break this awkward silence.

She mumbled a response. It was hard to hear but she said something along the lines of “strange power” and “imagine the object appearing”. Siton nodded and thanked her. She nodded back and shyly left the tree sanctuary with the aim of finding a good tree to bash her head against.

Uncertain as of what to do now, Siton decided to stay put and try out materializing something. The main reason for that decision was mainly due to two facts. One, it seemed incredibly useful to be able to create something out of thin air whenever you want. Two, it was just plain badass.

But before starting he wanted to gather what he actually knew about that process. First of all, was that it was dependent on EX, this made sense as that energy seemed capable of supernatural feats. Next, the object materialized was temporary, as proven by the spike’s short duration. Perhaps longer-lived items were tougher to make or maybe they created a constant drain whenever active. And finally, the objects made felt like the real deal, at least the spike did.

However, Siton was under no delusion that he’d be able to make it work on his first try. This process required EX, which put him in quite a pinch. He hadn’t once before been able to use EX outside of a life or death situation. Or at least one he considered being so. This meant that he had absolutely no idea how to get EX out when safe if that was at all possible.

Faced with this challenge Siton began at the only place he could. Strong emotions. If his hunch was correct, what actually triggered EX were strong emotions. This was what caused it to enter a frenzy, which made the magic possible. The only supporting evidence he had for this hypothesis was when Arrine had conjured the metal rod. She herself had not really been in a life-threatening situation, he had. So, he had theorized that it was her need to save him that had resonated with the EX within her.

With this starting point, Siton now had to settle on an emotion he’d want to use for his experiments. Ideally, one he could use at any time. The prime candidate on his list was panic, it was a feeling he was extremely prone to. Thus, making it an ideal choice in that regard. However, Siton quickly pushed it aside as it would create more issues than it would solve. Intentionally panicking when your life was on the line was not a wise decision.

So, he settled on another feeling he was familiar with, determination. This was what he used to combat and prevent panic whenever he could. Steeling himself from the tempest of uncontrollable emotions with an iron will. They were polar opposites, which was why he had become adept in using it throughout the years to keep his panic under control. Strengthening his resolve whenever he felt himself flounder, a sign of the storm to come. He had previously let his emotions run rampant these past previous days. This was now over.

Reinforcing his will to survive and explore, he began to delve and unravel the mysteries of that peculiar materialization power.