Chương 5

Alex lay there for a while, his mind clear. After an indeterminate amount of time—when he felt well-rested, and his mind settled—he made his way to his desk setup. Then he started up his laptop and his monitor, and he started to explore. He felt like he'd grasped the big picture, in a vague way; he just needed the details, and suddenly he felt he had to fill them in. He felt incredible, very awake. He pulled up a blank tab, and then simply went wherever his curiosity desired. The tabs quickly started to multiply.

What am I, exactly? As in—what did I just unlock? He spent a solid hour just poring through Wikipedia and Youtube and Instagram, on occasion. It felt like an entire new, unknown section of the internet had just opened up, and it felt like the more he read, the more questions he had. A few things were easy to confirm. The fact that Outworlders were rare, but new 'cohorts' tended to 'spawn in' when there were large-scale spatial disruptions, like new Towers.

And the risks of being an Outworlder did seem to be minimal, except for a few specific peculiarities when it came to soulspaces. But there was less than 3 decades of data to go off of; this was all still relatively new. In every measurable way he was still himself, supposedly. He was still curious if he'd 'merged' with this other-world self, somehow, and if there'd be any dissociation. An Outworlder's soul reconciles at the moment of transmigration, according to the official D. A. website.

When two souls merge, the mind is presented with two almost identical sets of memories; it selects the likelier version, and discards the other set. That does make sense, he supposed. The website clarified this was simply how the mind worked, even with non-transmigrated memories; the mind reconciles itself. So did I just…

'kill' the other 'me,' in a way? A slightly unsettling thought, but it didn't feel quite right—he was still himself, in all but a few memories, wasn't he? It was a fact that the website was fast to disprove, or at least soften. The question seemed almost philosophical.

Since peoples' lives were essentially identical from his old Universe to this one, except for a relatively tiny percentage of memories—a fact he was still trying to wrap his mind around—the website said the situation was likely closer to his being 'both selves,' as proven by his doubled soul-size, than the alternative. Which was relieving, even if it was preceded by a disclaimer that souls still weren't well-understood. It also did explain the 'counseling' resources the D. A.

Vice President had mentioned; even if he wasn't taking this badly, he could easily see how another Outworlder might. And the counseling's for families as well, he recalled. He could also easily see how some folks could react badly to a relative being replaced by an almost identical clone. There was a ' for Outworlders' section of the D. A. website which specifically mentioned folks tended to reconcile with their families, with time. The near-identical nature of Outworlders did help.

I'll need to text Stella and Matthew. His aunt and uncle—also his godparents—both of whom had been quite young when they'd had to take him in after the accident. They were in their 30's now, in the Upper West Side. And Bella… He opened up his messages, and hesitated. It felt impossible to get a read on how they'd take this. He visited Stella and Matthew once every few weeks, so the chance to tell them would arise naturally; and it felt like something better said in-person. He sent them a text alluding to it.

He also sent a text to Bella, but he accepted it might be weeks until she saw it. Then he set down his phone, and breathed out, and put his hands behind his head. It's done. Suppose there isn't much I can do but keep moving…? He did feel a little apprehensive. But he was hardly going to hide this from them. As for how he'd handle it… we'll see when the time comes. He paused. Will they be any different, actually?

Statistics on Awakened were easy to find—a quick search showed they were still less than 1% of the population, although the figure was rising year-by-year as more and more Awakening stones were discovered. It's still unlikely they'll be touched by this. I mean—they might like a different sports team? But they'd still be them. I'll know when I talk to them, he reminded himself. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

He consciously set it to one side, and continued. Outworlders all have some spatial affinity—which also makes sense. Seems to be because the soul was exposed to space as it transmigrated. So exposure to an element increases your affinity to it? The answer seemed to be, to an extent. You could increase your affinities by maybe one talent-grade, with a huge amount of practice and exposure. Slash affinities, such as his Space, Ice, Fire, and Force, and Pure, were likely to rank up with time.

Speaking of— My highest affinities are Pure, at Very high/Exceptional. And Force, at high/Very high. And my Leveling—'cultivation'—talent is also quite high, at A+-grade… It all still felt a little unreal. If A+-grade is top 1%—and Very high and Exceptional are less than top 1%, respectively— He pulled up a calculator app and did some quick napkin math, taking into account the prevalence of Awakened in the population. I might be the only person who has this combination alive. He considered the thought in silence.

Which also means there likely isn't a build guide for me? Which means I'll have to find my build myself. Actually—that can't be true. Surely there's folks who've worked with something similar, just with lower affinity levels. He still very much liked the idea of doing his own thing, playing with his affinities a bit. Seeing what he could make of this. And there's also all those other affinities to develop with them, if I want. I mean—I should try to understand what I'm working with first.

It feels natural to center my build on 'Pure' and 'Force'-based Skills, and maybe… a bit of 'Space'? Possibly ice and fire? With the rest as nice-to-haves. Quick searches. Pure seems to deal with mana as a construct. As in—mana shields, mana walls, hardened mana weaponry, etc. Also some cleansing and healing functions. And 'force' is pretty self-explanatory. Ideas of build concepts were already starting to surface in his mind. Ways he might play with these ideas, together. I'm getting ahead of myself, he realized.

I don't even really understand what's possible. I feel like I need some real-world inspiration. Which led him back to the official D. A. website, which featured a section containing over 75, 000 'verified' Builds. You could sort by most-used Builds, which yielded a list of open-source Builds published by sources such as 'Delver's Association,' and 'Echelon Guild' and 'The Institute of Blades,' and the list went on. These all seemed to be big international Guilds.

Each guide contained descriptions, Skill Shards to use and in what order, a user's manual with recommended playstyles, guides for specific use cases like clearing or single-target, and FAQs. A few guides documented well-known users of the build, including their precise choices at each level. Each 'build' applied to a specific rank, at which point you'd graduate to a choice of Builds that applied to the next rank up. He spent the next few hours in a state of pure, unadulterated discovery.

He noticed the list of official published guides dropped off pretty quickly after F-rank, since apparently the top 'Guilds' liked to keep their higher-rank guides in-house. Which also meant he couldn't just peer into the mechanics of the world's absolute best, to his disappointment. There were a few enticing glimpses of high-ranking independent Awakened who'd published guides to their builds, which was how he ended up scrutinizing builds with names like AntoineX's Mana Barrier Pure Mage v5. 81.

A vision of what precisely he wanted to do with his new talents was starting to crystallize. Still a very early vision, but it was one he could be inspired by, a vision he could tinker with. He started up a Google Doc, jotted down a few links and concepts. Time passed. He felt weirdly weak, and realized he'd barely eaten anything. He made himself a sandwich in the kitchen—it was well past midnight and he still felt quite lucid. By now it felt like it should've hit him that this was all real.

But he still kept feeling this sense of strangeness. It just felt so unlikely he'd be in this position. Like this was all some very vivid dream that still might be taken away. At three in the morning he was watching highlights of the 2024 Olympics Quarterfinals in Solo Dueling, open class, between one 'Daisuke Suzuki'—the very same duelist he'd seen mentioned in that YouTube comment—and 'Adrian St. Clair,' an ace duelist from the US. Just taking it all in. He went to sleep as the sky was lightening.

It was 12: 38pm when he awoke. He stretched, blinked the blurriness out of his eyes. Then he glimpsed the steel Mage Starter Class suitcase propped up on his bed frame. I'm still here. God, that was… a lot. He'd spent the entirety of last night in his own little world, it felt like. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing; he'd quite enjoyed it. He marveled at the suitcase for a few seconds. I'm really still here… A thought struck him. Idly— I should check this, actually.

He threw on some clothes, made his way downstairs, opened the front door, and stepped out into the sunlight. Then he did something he somehow hadn't done when he'd walked around the block yesterday. He stared directly up, and stilled. It wasn't the easiest to see, because it took on the colors of the sky. But it was definitely there, and now that he saw it honestly wasn't sure how he'd missed it.

There, in the far, far distance, was what seemed a tiny silvery cube, almost like a metallic rubik's cube, catching the rays of the sun. It peeked between a few clouds. A Labyrinth. Diana said there were four—in space, distantly circling Earth, all still waiting to be explored. In a clear sky, like when he'd first left for Stark City, you might be able to see two at daybreak—one on either horizon. They were all quite mysterious, but consensus was whatever force placed the Towers placed them there as well.

It'd been twenty-four years since the first rifts, and the strongest humans still weren't at a level where they could explore these Labyrinths yet. But it was widely theorized that it'd be possible in the next few years, if not the next decade. It's also so far above my pay grade it's utterly pointless to think about it. Still he considered it for a half-minute, a little transfixed. He went back inside.

It felt funny to consider, but it'd been twenty-four hours now and he hadn't touched the resumes he'd been revising for weeks or even his Arc of Sky builds. He still didn't know what the future held, but he dearly hoped he'd never have to write a resume again. It was looking surprisingly possible. He'd wanted to familiarize himself with the world, and with himself, before he decided on anything magic-wise. He definitely wanted to use mana and spells, which suggested the Mage Starter Kit suitcase.

But he was also pretty intrigued by the swordsmen he'd seen, which was more of a Warrior type; he wanted to keep that open, potentially. Maybe wielding spears could be interesting as well. He wasn't as into the concept of axes—and all of this was purely from the perspective of what interested him subjectively. It seemed, for lack of a better word, a little less cool. At the moment he simply liked the concept of wielding a sword, in maybe a slightly immature way.

His philosophy, when making builds, had always been—make an efficient build, of course, and min-max up to a point. But at the end of the day the idea was to have fun, wasn't it? If this was supposed to be the stuff of his life, it felt more important, not less, that he actually liked it. It seemed pretty clear you could get to a 'mana-plus-weapon' type build starting from either the Mage or Warrior starting classes. Which means I've put this off long enough. I can crack this suitcase with a clear conscience.

He unclasped the latches, and he did. Within was a steel-colored Class Card, two Skill Shards, and a crystal that looked like it contained strands of shining gold. With one hand, he freed the Class Card from its insert.