"You have to be kidding me," Luke groaned as he read the entry in the System notification. "What did he do that screwed up that far into the future?"
"Checking now," Michael replied as he checked out the recent updates. Unlike other protagonists who transmigrate into the Whoniverse, Luke and Michael were among the rare few who wish to preserve the timeline. It didn't take too long for Michael to learn what was going on.
"Apparently," Michael began to reply to Luke, "Fifteen and his most latest companion, one Belinda Chandra, have been attempting to return to that specific day. Unable to return due to temporal instability, the Doctor decided to create a 'Vortex Indicator' or a 'Vindicator' to attempt to find a way back to May 24th, 2025. The instance of them being there is due to them taking vindicator readings and encountering the young Conrad Clark. At this point in time, they would have already encountered a new god of the Pantheon."
Luke nodded a bit as his birthday was going to happen at the stroke of midnight tonight. He was glad to receive this as a birthday present, but there were a few things that made him wonder. One of them was on his mind for a while...
"Wait a minute," Luke said as he was preparing for his birthday in his room. He held up his right hand as he said this too. "I'm curious about a couple of things. First off, why haven't I gotten new stat points? I'm level seven now and I haven't gotten new stat points to allocate."
"Because," Michael began to reply before pausing in concern. Gulping down his nervousness, he continued, "your levels aren't set in stone. Your soul may be over 18 years old if you count your previous life, but your body isn't even half that age yet. You have to wait until 2018 before your [Profile] upgrades."
"What?! What upgrade?!" Luke inquired as he never heard of such a requirement. "I thought all Systems granted their hosts instant access to powers and endless upgrades!"
"Not the one you are using nor the one that brought you here," Michael replied with a mental sigh. "Both are Systems designed to allow children the safety of normal lives within their cultures until they were of age to endure the dark reality. What the differences are between these two Systems is that this one you have only supports you with me as your guide. The other one supports an entire multiverse of beings."
Luke was shocked at the revelation, but Michael wasn't done yet. "Both of these Systems were created by the Primal Powers themselves. Nothing in this universe nor any of them you know from your original world could destroy either of these Systems."
"So," Luke started with his tone a little shaky, "my System is essentially a copy of that System?"
Michael nodded in his mental landscape. "But with a few changes. We'll get to that when you're older, of course. As for now, just understand that the why you haven't gone past your base stats is simply because the System is withholding the stat points until you are of age."
Luke sighed in acknowledgement. He had no idea why the Primal Powers designed his System with this odd safety buffer, but he knew he couldn't change it. He was at least grateful enough to have one and get to meet Michael too in this crazy new life of his, but something else bothered him.
Even now, as the clock reached its eleventh hour on 2005, something else came back to Luke's mind. He knew that, from when he was still in the Abyssal Sea, there were some boons that he had a high degree of compatability with.
He even learned from Death's Garden that there will come a time where he will, in the future, be able to travel into other universes outside of the Whoniverse. Luke knew that other universes existed since he could live in a universe that was a television show to him years ago, but there were hopes that he could avoid the ones that could cause him the most trouble.
Two of which were the infamous creation of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe and ReLogic's Terraria game. Aside from the former, the reason why he wanted to avoid the latter was because that game world was, in a nutshell, hell.
The world had two biomes that would devour entire sections of this universe without a problem and cause issues with the Doctor if it was brought here. Luke did not feel right with allowing both the Crimson and Corruption into this universe and potentially screwing with canon. That would've inevitably put him on the Doctor's hit list if he brought anything from the Crimson and the Corruption into this universe to only let it run free.
One thing about this situation that Luke knew and Michael seemed not to was that Luke felt something attempt to cross the omniverse. It was like something barely touched upon the edges of this universe before being repelled forcibly, but he knew that this was something trying to get his attention.
As for what or who it could be, Luke knew that it wouldn't end well...
==[DW:NG]==
Meanwhile...
In a huge galaxy far, far away, a lone man sat. His body long withered to the point of being an ancient mummy and remained on this seat for over ten millennia. He knew that his efforts had been repelled yet again.
Six times He attempted to call forth a soul from the depths, but all of them had been repelled. He knew it was not the work of the Four, but of something much older than even He. He knew that many versions of Himself and His domain called forth successfully souls not of their universe to protect the people within, but He seemed to be among the few who could not.
He could only hope that His attempts would be met with eventual success...
==[DW:NG]==
Continued in: Birthday.