Chương 10: 9-Field Work

Dawn watched her status screen, unable to believe what she saw. Level 22 (00%) Each level will add 20% to your base potential. If the rank is a multiple of 5, it will be considered your new base potential. Gift: Learning 22 (Psychokinesis) Gift: System Vector 22 (acquired through Alpha). Can be used once per day to activate another sentient being. Activated beings gain System Vector 21 for one day. Things had changed a lot in the last four days.

Monsters had started to crawl out of the most unexpected places, roaming among the streets, seeking easy prey. An attempt at martial law had lasted only a few hours; the army troops had bravely tried to hold the monsters back, but they had only partially succeeded until their Essence guns stopped working. Their dying screams still resonated in Dawn's ears. A ragtag group of survivors had gathered at the University, mostly students, with a few teachers and staff. There were only ninety-eight of them.

All of them had families and friends they would probably never see again. That included her. Dawn tried very hard not to think about her mother and her elder brother, but their images appeared pristine in her now almost perfect memory. Enhanced minds were sometimes a curse. She was one memory away from breaking down, and that was not something she could afford to do—these people depended on her. She toned down her limbic system slightly, putting a rein on her emotions.

It would have to do, for now; there would be plenty of time to grieve later. She hated Arimel with a passion; she saw his maverick attitude as the main culprit for today's disaster, but no matter how she spun it, she understood she had played a part too. She disliked him intensely, but she had to admit that the man's prophetic powers had saved them all more than once. It was he who had chosen where they should hide and how to organize if they wanted to avoid the mob of hungry monsters marauding down the streets.

Essentials, he had called them. Arimelians would be a fitter name, she thought.

"How do you know what to do, professor?" a scared nineteen-year-old student had asked him.

"It is easy," he answered, "I just filter out all possible futures in which none of us survives." The king of pep-talks, Dawn bitterly thought. The only bright spot was that her rank had skyrocketed since she began activating the students. She could use her activation power only once per day, but it allowed each activated subject to use it as well. She had been level 21 five minutes ago. Empowering Elsa, one of the cafeteria staff, had given her one rank. Elsa had gained the ability to use the power once.

Each time a new student was activated, even by proxy, she gained a level. Only her level limited the number of activations she could perform in a day. In less than four days, her level would be in the three-digit range. She did not miss the worried looks Arimel cast at her. She was now at least as smart as he was. Tomorrow night, he would be like an infant when compared to her.

All the other enhanced, including Arimel and Ahura, could level without needing to activate anyone by practicing their powers and exposing themselves to risky situations, but they did so at a much slower rate than she did. She had already caught up with them, and she would soon be looking at them in the rearview mirror. Not only had her mind changed: she was faster, stronger, and more resilient. She had not eaten or had anything to drink for the past three days, but she felt no worse for it.

And her psychokinetic powers were off the charts. She gently floated down the stairs merely by wishing it. This morning, she had managed to levitate a car just by looking at it, even though it was 500 feet away. She had placed it to block an exit, which Arimel had identified as a possible entry point for Essentials. Not only had her might increased, but her fine psychokinetic control had improved as well. She could deal cards with her mind, with much greater precision than using her fingers.

She wondered what she could do with these powers tomorrow. Arimel's calm voice took her out of her reverie. He had an important announcement to make, and he wanted everyone present.

"As you know, we have managed to work out some aspects of how the Polydimensional Parasitic Eidocyte strain, or Dungeons, as some of you have so woefully baptized them, works," he began.

"These are parasites that feed on our Essence. An inefficient parasite that eventually kills its host," he went on.

"They look pretty efficient to me; they have wiped out the world in less than a week," said Tol, who was an assistant in her department before the world went to hell. Dawn covered her smile with her hand. Arimel ignored him, "We are one hundred people crammed in a tight place. Sooner or later, the Essence we emit was bound to feed one of these organisms. One of them has been festering under the stairs to the second floor, right below us. It has slowly been feeding off our Essence and has grown in size."

"How do you know this?" Ahura asked him. Events had taken a toll on him, and he was no longer as close to Arimel as he once was.

"I know because tonight, at 11: 34 PM, a horde of creatures will emerge from the dungeon and kill us all." Arimel's assertion was met with gasps of horror.

"Calm down, we are not going to let it come to that," he said, trying to disarm the scene of havoc he had just caused. If we are not going to let it come to that, why must you announce it that way? Asshole, Dawn thought.

"Dawn, Ahura, and I will enter the dungeon and take care of it. We will come as scientists, not as hunters, though," he explained.

"I hope we can discover enough about the nature of these creatures to successfully counter the threat they pose." And there it goes. Another chance for Arimel to investigate his bloody eidocytes. Everything was secondary to that. Dawn considered telling him to go to hell, but in the end, she agreed to go. They needed information and, even though she was loath to admit it, she was as curious about the whole process as Arimel was. They met one hour later, at the chosen spot.

"I see you come well-prepared, Professor," Dawn greeted Arimel.

"Eidoscopic sensors, test tubes, spectrometer… Not a single weapon, though. This is not a field test, Arimel. We could meet hostiles."

"There are no weapons in the University, Dawn. You may look for them if you don't believe me," he said as he checked his equipment.

"I have not seen a single future in which you find them."

"And how do you intend to survive if we are attacked?" Dawn countered.

"I count on you both to protect me. We will all do what we know to do best," Arimel answered with a cold smile.

"You move things with your mind, Ahura shifts his shape, and I lead, organize, and study the dungeon. See? All fair. You only have to do one thing to my three." Arimel was usually not one for sarcasm. That is when Dawn realized he was afraid. Peachy. Nothing bolsters confidence so much as following a scared man who can see the future. They approached their destination. There it was. A gilded door under the second flight of stairs. A door that was not there before.

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"Aren't eidocytes primitive microorganisms? How can they design such a complex structure?" asked Ahura.

"The eidocyte does not design anything. The Essence it takes from us is imbued with our ideas and personalities. They shape the form Essence takes when the eidocyte manifests it," Arimel explained.

"Just as I predicted, even before I had my powers," he added smugly. They approached the door. Ahura gently pushed it, and it opened into a clean, almost aseptic corridor that should not exist according to the laws of local geography. Dawn turned towards Elsa, who had been activated for only ten minutes and had gained a power called Manifestation.

"Elsa, have you got the echo of my Activation power?" she asked her.

"Yes, it says I may act as a level 21 system vector for 24 hours," she answered.

"That means you get a single activation, but the person you empower will be able to activate another, and so on, until 20 more people have been enhanced," she explained.

"The process must go on, Elsa. It can't be stopped. Each time one new person is empowered, I gain one level—I will need as many levels as I can get hold of."

"I will do that," said Elsa, as she ran back to the mess hall.

"I don't know if that is a good idea," Arimel said quietly. Typical. Everything was fine and dandy until someone outranked him.

"I don't care what you think," Dawn answered as she crossed the door. Fifteen minutes later, they ran for their lives, as a horde of clockwork automatons pursued them. They looked like the mannequins one may find in any fashion store, but they were all armed with knives and maces, which they used to deadly effect. All of them had huge smiles painted on their faces and moved in jerky steps that made them look almost like they were dancing.

"Right, left, left, right…" Arimel shouted, guiding them through the maze of corridors, his prophetic powers choosing the route most likely to guarantee their survival.

"Ahura, change your body and climb up that wall. Dawn, float us both. Only two feet above the ground is enough," he frantically ordered them"And what good is that supposed to do?" Dawn said as she focused her mind, levitating both of them. From the corner of her eyes, she saw her ex-boyfriend, who had mutated into some type of humanoid caterpillar, crawling up the wall as if it were horizontal.

"I don't bloody know!" Arimel shouted.

"I only know that if we do this, we enter a timeline in which we survive!" Dawn hoped that Arimel's powers were not wrong because dozens of mechanical humanoids were trampling over the glass floor towards them. The glass floor. All the other rooms had standard ones. Dawn saw a tsunami of knives heading towards them, and then she heard the most beautiful sound in the world: glass cracking.

With a huge shudder, the whole floor collapsed into the bottomless pit it had been covering, taking the horde of automatons with it. She took Arimel and her to the corridor, while Ahura jumped towards the edge, transforming in mid-air into a squirrel-like creature that easily made the jump. Ahura and Dawn sat down, trying to catch their breath, as Arimel frantically checked his instruments.

"The bigger one that led the charge was not the same type as the others. Their Essence compositions match, though—I think he is the one causing the lesser automatons to manifest."

"Was," Dawn corrected him angrily. They had almost died four times in the last hour, and even so, Arimel seemed to be having the time of his life.

"How are we doing on levels?" asked Ahura, while he concentrated on a cut he had gotten from their last brawl. Dawn could see the skin weaving itself back into pristine form.

"I have gained three levels since I entered. I am now level 24, my visions are clearer now," Arimel announced.

"And you, Ahura?"

"Same," he answered.

"It seems interacting with the eidocyte or its manifestations accelerates the rate at which our powers grow. How are you doing?" Ahura asked Dawn.

"I have been gaining one level every five minutes, each time a new student was activated," she explained.

"I am level 38 now." Both Arimel and Ahura looked at her in stunned silence.

"It seems you are following totally different rules," her ex-boyfriend concluded.

"Okay, let's move now to the other corridor, take some measurements, and go back to the left side," Arimel instructed them.

"No," answered Dawn.

"Why should we?"

"Because of him?" Arimel asked, pointing at the gigantic automaton that appeared at the end of the corridor.

"He is strong, but slow; we can still outrun him if you follow my instructions."

"I am tired of following your instructions. Do this, jump to the left, go to the right..." she answered peevishly.

"My instructions have kept us alive!" Arimel protested.

"Have they, Arimel? Because we did not need to do that cool stunt with the glass floor. I could have crushed all of them with my mind before they even got near."

"And I could say the same for every single plan you have made with your prophetic powers since we entered the dungeon."

"All your solutions seem to revolve around me not using my full powers. Tell me, Arimel, do you even know what my limits are?" She turned her mind on the approaching titan. She enveloped its whole form in her thoughts, feeling every juncture and pressure point. And then she pushed. And pushed. And pushed. The mechanical titan screamed once, making a sound like red-hot steel plunged into cold water. Then it exploded. Ahura and Arimel looked astounded at the wrecked remains of their pursuer.

Then Dawn grabbed Arimel by the throat and lifted him up, as if he weighed nothing. Even her body was superhuman now.

"Are you messing with me, Arimel? You had us running all afternoon. I could have done that anytime. Why did you just not tell me?" She was so angry that she thought she might hit him.

"I did not know!" protested Arimel.

"How is that even possible? You know everything, even before it happens!" she screamed in his face.

"My powers do not work on you," Arimel confessed.

"Not since you outleveled me." Dawn released him, letting him fall to the ground. His powers made him seem infallible—that is why she had followed his instructions, even if she sometimes felt like an adult following a kid. He had basically admitted that his prophecies were no longer reliable when she was around. He had not ordered her to use her powers against the monsters directly because he had no way of determining what the result would be. And he had chosen to hide this fact from her. Was it envy? Or fear?

Who is the man who can read the future afraid of? He is afraid of the one person he can't read.

"I do not know what games you are playing, Arimel," she said, looking threateningly at him.

"But I am not your fool anymore."

"What are we supposed to do now, Professor?" Ahura asked him, trying to break the sudden chill.

"We have obtained very significant data," Arimel went on, trying to regain some of his lost dignity.

"Most of the monsters we have seen are manifestations created by some of the larger ones. They seem to act as anchors of the whole structure. If my calculations are right, we ought to encounter one very powerful creature that acts as the equivalent of a reproductive system, allowing the whole structure to absorb Essence and mutate into a more evolved form. If we destroy all these anchors, the whole dungeon will collapse."

"What are we waiting for?" asked Dawn.

"Let 's do it." They had to run after her, as she looked for the missing monster. They finally found it in one of the most secluded corridors, a beast made of glass and steel that looked like the son of a tiger and a skyscraper. It was huddling in a corner, looking at Dawn as if it were afraid of her. With good cause.

"Dawn, wait," Arimel begged.

"Let me take some readings before…" The creature exploded into one thousand pieces before Arimel could finish the sentence.

"By all means, Professor," Dawn answered acidly.

"Let's just play mad scientist some more with this lethal thing we have unleashed on our students. Do not let me interrupt you, please." The dungeon dissolved around them—they were back in the cafeteria, surrounded by scared students.

"Well?" she asked, turning toward Arimel.

"Did we get it?"

"The dungeon is destroyed," Arimel confirmed.

"But most of the Essence has escaped back into the atmosphere. It will just coalesce back into a new dungeon." Dawn sat down, defeated. It would have been too easy. She could destroy all the dungeons in the city, and she would achieve nothing. Taking a dungeon down was just the equivalent of trying to get rid of garbage by moving it between rooms. She had become a demigoddess, but she had never felt so powerless. She could hear both Arimel and Ahura talking excitedly to each other.

They are having the time of their lives. We have destroyed the world, and they are enjoying it. Assholes.

"... see, just like I told you," Dawn could hear Arimel's manic voice.

"Their genetic structure is multimodal. They can combine it as if it were a kaleidoscope. Each combination would grant totally different metaphysical properties. And we can record them!"

"How, Professor? That is a titanic investigation process," Ahura objected.

"It would take years."

"Not anymore, not with my powers. The automated probe collector we installed last year spent most of last week collecting and classifying different spore strains, before its tech stopped functioning. We have hundreds of different samples by now, each a unique combination," Arimel said excitedly.

"I can use my vision powers on each sample, concentrating on which findings I would obtain in a hypothetical future in which I focused on studying it. I can do the work of thousands of investigators in a single afternoon," Arimel was almost ecstatic as he said this.

"In at most forty-eight hours, I will have completed the work," he ended. Ahura seemed almost as manic as he was. Well, at least someone is having fun, Dawn bitterly thought as she saw both of them leave the room, chatting excitedly and heading towards the lab.

"Do you think there is a chance of a new dungeon sprouting nearby?" Tol asked her.

"We would also like to level up. I have lightning powers," Tol told her proudly. Dawn almost groaned.

"Do not worry, Tol. You are going to have plenty of chances."