Mikael inspected his status, and he felt the system was being biased with him. What was it implying by giving his luck and charm such high values. Was he some sort of lucky bastard who had everything going his way?
His charm he would agree with had and would continue to be useful to him, but on the aspect of luck Mikael in fact felt he was unlucky.
Mother dead because of a jealous brother, father dead because of once more a jealous brother and turned into a walking puppet and even his brother turned into a parasitic monster due to once more his own jealousy. And what about Mikael, well he had become nothing more than an empty vengeful force and, in the end, he was alone.
So yes, Mikael felt very unlucky.
And what was this abysmal intelligence value, or would this be considered average, or even above that, Mikael had a thought that that was not so.
He wasn't sure if the value displayed was high or low when compared to the different Dreamer the system scavenged but Mikael remained confident. He was the peak of what his modern world had managed to cultivate. Everything from his birth up to the end of the experiment period had been carefully managed to create the existence that was him, a perfect one.
Mikael remained confident in his own strength.
What truly made Mikael worried was the error values when the system was calculating his data. What was wrong with him? For a being that Mikael believed was all powerful in a way, what could have caused it to experience such disturbances for his calculations. The thought was worrying, but it also sparked a curiosity in him. Especially in his Innate ability which seemed to be the cause of the problem.
Supreme body control was truly a fitting name for someone such as himself. It only took little though for him to understand it. But Mikeal wondered if he had not been using the full potential of his body as he though. That was an interesting thought.
Mikael had the thought of asking the voice this question, but a gut instinct told him he would receive now answer.
[[PROCEED TO ENTER THE MAIN MORTAL REALM OF THE TOWER OF DREAMS]]
The Status sheet retreated into the bloody tower imprint on his arm.
The appearance of the screen on the huge door attracted his attention, and this sparked once more curiosity in Mikael. More specifically of the images he had seen as he had looked at the golden doors.
But Mikael had a sudden sinking feeling in his gut, like a scratch in the back of his head that refused to leave. There was something extremely wrong with whatever was currently happening. He felt odd, weird even. But where this oddity arose from, he could not pinpoint.
'Too many questions but no answers' Mikael grimaced, and he moved to push the huge door. He found himself exerting little strength, and with neither sound nor warning, Mikael's conscious blanked when the door fully opened.
But just before this had happened, he peeked at something past the door. And the oddity he had felt came back full force slamming into him. A shiver went through his being, his eyes dilated and even his breath was stuck. A terror he had never known before struck his very being!
The door fully opened and an instant later his mind went blank! Mikael disappeared from the dimensional gap, transported elsewhere.
But something else was happening once more in the area he had just left. It was noise or was it the voice of something trying to speak.
But that was impossible! Even the conversation between Mikael and the Supreme One had been mental. How could it be that noise could exist in this place.
The noise suddenly rose, from where it came from unknown, why it suddenly started unknown, why it even existed was unknown, but the voice persisted, it was illogical, it was somehow loud and silent, it was somehow grating and soft. But there was one thing that persisted the noise was trying to speak!
"…"
The huge golden doors suddenly shut, and the silence returned. The noise was gone, the words no more.
*******************************************************************************************
LOCATION: THE CAVE OF GENESIS
TIME: EARLY MORNING
Awareness instantly returned
A sudden influx of senses overwhelmed Mikael: smell, touch, sight, and sound.
It was all very disorienting. As if he was coming to life for the second time.
He could hear the buzz and chatter of the countless other humans beside him, the feel of the dirt that covered his overly sensitive skin, the blinding light, and the minute taste of blood that covered his tongue.
How long had he been unconscious?
But there was something else that Mikael Instantly noticed within himself. He felt different. No, it was like he was aware of everything in a whole new way. As if his normally high awareness had experienced an evolution once more. Now, he could sense emotions!
Mikael was sure of this because of what the change allowed him to experience.
Before this Mikael had been able to perceive things to an unnatural level. A sort of hyperactive sense that allowed him to easily read and predict the behavior, actions and emotions of humans. Many had called it uncanny even. But Mikael simply called it super awareness. But this new sort of experience was strange, the simplest explanation would be to say that Mikael had suddenly become an empath.
This new awareness of his had suddenly upgraded in his rebirth.
Mikael sat from the ground slowly, his eyes quickly readjusting to the light or the lack of it. He could see countless human bodies covering the entire floor, some of them already leaving from what Mikael could now see was an extremely large lit room. His keen vision was able to quickly spot the bloody tower symbol on all the Dreamers' hands and reduced his wariness slightly. It would do him no good for being the only with the symbol.
Was this a cave? He wasn't sure, but it certainly looked like one.
The new emphatic sense Mikael had turned off knocked once more on his senses, as if it was bursting from a confine, refusing to be suppressed
It was strange, the emotions. Some of them burned brightly, not with emotion but something else, Mikael felt it oddly felt like a sort of will, and others could hardly be compared to the light of a candle. This though was more instinctual than factual. Mikael just felt that his thoughts were correct.
It was like he could smell it, feel it, touch it, like all their deepest feelings were somehow bear to him. But Mikael choose once more to suppress this rising oddity, he did not understand it and he would therefore resist his own curiosity to let it go wild… for now at least.
"Truly amazing. "Mikael believed this ability was a form of perceiving either the presence, emotion, ego or will of people. This could either be what it was but Mikael for now would take it as he had concluded. The real question was why this ability had failed to appear on his Ability list…
He looked around and realized this was a sort of large cave like structure acting as a nexus point where various pathways converged. He could see other routes leading further into the cave system, as well as one pathway illuminated by a light source where the Dreamers were exiting.
The cave itself had supports of a group of pillars which went round the room in a circular pattern, and the surroundings had an odd smell of dust, mold, and a slight acidic touch to it.
The cave walls were decorated with strange ancient murals which looked like they had gone through better days, cracked in some places, and had moss growing in others. But the story they told was as clear as day.
He found himself getting pulled into these images. And it came to a surprise when outside his attention, a sort of soft glow had outlined this murals. It would normally not be that obvious to spot but in this dark gloomy cave, the glow was quite eye-catching. Looking around, it seemed like he was the only one who was able to see these details. No one paid them as much attention as him...
One mural comprised mostly of diverse groups of people bowing down to what Mikael believed to be a deity or was it multiple deities, Mikael could see that there looked to be several types of groups bowing down.
"PRAISE!!!! PRAISE!!!! PRAISE!!!"
"PLEASE BLESS US! "
"Save my child!!!!"
The images from this mural came to life in his mind, and it was like seeing the images of the countless groups of worshipers forced into his mind. Mikael could neither see the people themselves nor the gods they were worshiping but their voices were loud, Loud and with deep devoutness. There was a certain madness in their voices a certain corruption that started to bring an ache to Mikaels head.
[Calm Mind Activated]
Another showed what Mikael believed was a group of Dreamers entering a tower wearing a set of protective gear, ranging from the somewhat primitive metallic knight amour pieces to something Mikael believed was a pointy hat with a staff. This image brought no ache to him.
And the last was a sort of vast kingdom. A kingdom that even eclipsed the entire world from what Mikael could infer from the murals. This kingdom held all kinds of people and all types of races walking as pleased. The kingdom seemed to have all manners of inventions, and it somehow maintained a futuristic, medieval style that was truly odd.
At the center of this kingdom was a tower, majestic, ancient and strong. It stood as a silent beacon in this vast superpower of a kingdom, time doing nothing to its still pristine structure. The tower pierced the foundation of the sky, going past normal eye vision and traveling even further and further away, unending…INFINITE!!!
[
ADVANCED CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE [PROFICIENCY 65%] +5%
]
The images stopped and Mikael finally came back from the transmission of sorts. He still found this strange how just glancing at something would put him in this strange trance-like state, but it was truly a confirmation of the odd circumstances he was now in.
Were all these images some sort of clue for what lay ahead in this place the System had sent him. The kingdom could have represented that the world was not as barbaric as Mikael believed it to be. There was a possibility of there being a form of rulership of government.
The image of the groups of worshipers made Mikael feel a strange danger he could not explain, a shiver went down his back. A fact that equally unsettled him. His instincts rarely led him astray and they currently told him to avoid those religious people. He was at least assured with the fact that Calm mind
And the group of Dreamers Mikael believed in was to show them what the godlike figure had told him, experiencing the infinite random realms the Tower connected to. But Mikael was more worried why each mural seemed to give him an odd feeling, like an ancient sort of power.
[[
Congratulations Dreamer Garmadon, you have achieved a milestone
Milestone: The three murals of The Originals.
Description: The murals lining the walls of the cave of Genesis have existed since the days of the ancients, telling of the long historic tale of the tower. The Dreamer has managed to infer what the original creators desired from one perceiving this ancient tale! The Dreamer had also gleamed at long secrets of the tower.
Status: Achieved
Reward:
Skill: Explorers instinct,
+2 luck
+10 worth
]]
Mikael looked surprised at the new screen before him, had his deduction been the truth? He smiled happily at both the new skill and the addition of luck. Seeing the values on his status screen increase did add an odd satisfaction to him.
And Mikael finally had a clue about what this ability of his did. The term curse of knowledge had sparked his curiosity. And from how after each time the strange images were forced into his mind it experienced an increase, Mikael believed it was due to this ability. Or it could somewhat be an ability born from his unnatural awareness. Since birth many had told him he had an abnormal level of awareness.
He also quickly realized there was new knowledge in his mind, basic information about how to use the system interface, how to activate his status sheet as well as basic controls to make use of the interface.
He focused his intent on the new skill, and a new status screen appeared.
[
Skill: Basic Explorer's instinct
Type: Active/Passive
Description: Reveals hidden paths or areas of interest once the contestant has stayed in an area for a period or the contestant has explored at least 80% of the area.
Effect: Reveals hidden spaces or locations a distance of 25meter around.
Requirements: Perception above 20, Breadth above 20
Attributes:
Consumes 25 units of SP in passive use
Consumes 50 units of SP in active use
Warning: May cause mental exhaustion
]
'A very useful skill.' Mikael though. It's only downside from what he saw was being that he was required to stay in one specific area for an unknown amount of time and it would cause him mental exhaustion. The exploration of at least 80% was not that difficult, with both his speed and memory, it would be an easy job.
He took a last look at the different murals and saved them to memory; they might have been useful in other ways.
Mikael sat back down, regulating his senses to an optimal level, and he could already feel the difference in this new body. He felt weaker, having returned to the state he was in before his cybernetic enhancements were implanted within him.
It was both a liberating and disappointing, but he would adapt to this new sensation soon enough.
The upside to the absence of enhancements was that his emotional blockers were gone, which had both positive and negative implications for him. The downside was that his emotions could swing from 0 to 100 in an instant.
Another upside was that he no longer had to endure the sensation of a machine shocking his brain into apathy.
The only true disadvantage of the experiments he had undergone was the removal of any emotional limits on his mind. This meant he could go from laughing like a madman one moment to crying the next, but he was determined to manage it. It was simple enough, he hopped…
Now that he thought about it, could the lack of emotional blocker in his head be the cause of his new emphatic ability…? That was something to think about.
He could already see the researchers back home pulling out their hairs at their missed opportunity to study such a phenomenon due to their adding of the emotion dampeners within his mind.
Haha.
It took Mika about 5 minutes to adjust to his new body, and he noticed that he was one of the few people still in the cave hall.
He took his time to observe who he believed to be the other new Dreamers, and Mikael was surprised from the sheer diversity.
There was a range of people, some with abnormal hair colors, from blue, green to even yellow and a lot of different others with equally strange features.
He could see different sets of people with different temperaments from one who gave of a chilling sort of intent, to one who gave a sort of steely resolve to even the many who Mikael did not have to use his ability to know how they felt. They had completely broken down into tears, shouting out their grievances either in tears or by doing absolutely nothing as they cradled themselves, possibly hoping this was nothing more than a nightmare.
It was this observation that allowed Mikael to understand that possibly, these different Dreamers were not solely from his earth, or more precisely, they were from different parallel realities, a conclusion Mikael came to due to the shear diversity of people and the impossibility of Mikael not knowing of their existence if they were from his earth. No one from his world had natural colored green or blue hair. If such a thing was so, the researchers back in the white room would have a field day to try and figure out why.
The other thing he did notice though was that not everyone that was here looked to have willingly come to the tower as Mikael was. Perhaps they had come from their own death and had suddenly been pulled here against their wills. It was also a possibility that Mikael was the only one who had managed to speak to the supreme one even. A fact, that strangely sent a terror within him. And something he would keep to himself.
"Very interesting." It was only because Mikael was observing everything and was constantly trying to make use of his knew sort of emphatic sense that he noticed an interesting person. You could even say his instinct was acting up.
Not because they had a strange hair color, or they had something odd about them. What truly attracted Mikael was the emotion he felt from her. Like a burning sun that acted as a light in the darkness, and it was this exceptional light that had managed to catch Mikaels attention.
Because it was the type of light only someone such as him could understand. It was the type of light that held nothing more than maliciousness that Mikael could understand. Even more impressive was her will, like a raging storm about to burst forth
It was beautiful!
It was more vibrant and explosive as if it might burst furiously in the future. Yes, this was an emotion Mikael could understand and had already mastered, and it was due to that fact and because of his bursting curiosity that Mikael finally moved.
[ADVANCED CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE [PROFICIENCY 70%] +1%]
And this ability of his for some odd reason had chosen to give the strange lady the same glow the murals had earlier in his eyes.
But what made the lady even more mysterious in his eyes was something else. Something he would have to confirm.
Mikael suddenly turned his head, his eyes locking with those of another.
"Shit! "A red-haired man jumped quickly in panic and Mikael noticed that for some odd reason this person had been observing him, or was it coincidence? Their eyes had met by coincidence on his part. The red-haired man currently had a panicked expression, he soon bolted outside after noticing their eyes had locked.
He believed in no such thing. Had Mikael somehow attracted the attention of the others, which would be impossible. Other than his striking looks, Mikael had done nothing to warrant any sort of attention. His suspicion only grew from the fact that Mikael was actively suppressing his presence, an easy technique that allowed him to blend into the environment.
So, Mikael only gave the Dreamer who had shouted an odd searching look and moved away.
But Mikael had caught onto something strange about the Dreamer. He had an odd pair of eyes, with his eyes somehow increasingly enlarged and white and the pupils seemingly nonexistent. But with the way he moved, Mikael believed this Dreamer was not blind. Perhaps a sort of unique pair eyes Mikael was unaware of.
'Strange. 'Mikael ignored the Dreamer who turned to look away after noticing Mikael had been looking at him.
Giving the surroundings a quick look over, he noticed his movement sparking wariness in some of the others who remained in the cave, most probably their survival instincts were dialed to max after getting transported to this place. He could see how they observed everything with a wary vigilance as if any sudden movement would scare the life out of them. He quite liked this type of person, cautious and vigilant of everything.
A quick evaluation of everyone who had been present in the cave had made Mikael come to one conclusion, he could easily suppress everyone within this cave. But there was no reason to do so, he saw no benefit in even trying to do so.
And that was a conclusion Mikael had gathered after collecting and processing the data of the people around him. Their muscles definition, their level of vigilance, which ones looked to be charismatic. Their threat levels were quite low.
He approached the person who had caught his curiosity and identified the figure as a female.
She leaned silently on one of the support pillars in the cave, deep in thought.
The more he approached her the more he noticed her oddity, and that only increased his curiosity.
......…
A/N: Thank you for reading