A long sigh could be heard in the room.

  “Aren’t you exaggerating a bit? It’s just a small sip of the liquid. You drink, relax, and wait for the fun to begin.”

  “It’s… just hard for me to deal with the thought. Not only have I always avoided this kind of thing, but lately, I’ve been… Oh, never mind. If you’re sure this will work… then I’ll trust you.”

  “If you’re sure this will work… then I’ll trust you. Hah, why are you so dramatic?” said the shalard, mockingly imitating. Orion has already confirmed that this was the name of the race to which Avir belonged.

  Deciding to change the subject, Orion asked.

  “Zai, about what you said about my pathways and that I could supposedly unlock them myself. Something’s been bothering me.”

  “Hmm?”

  “I mean… imagine that instead of getting off that hanging island and meeting you, I had ended up in the Heart of the Swamp. If I unlocked my pathways there and then went to the nearest village, wouldn’t I be spotted by demons? They would have seen my mana circulation by then and possibly wouldn’t have treated me like an insignificant bug.”

  “Oh, that’s for sure, but I wouldn’t worry about it. If it was the System that put you here, it must have considered every possible scenario. Probably if you’d come out of the Heart of the Swamp, someone else would have picked you up. Perhaps the Grand Inquisitor himself, since he was nearby.”

  “Except then we most likely wouldn’t have found out about Shavar Harwar and wouldn’t have asked for his intervention.” Olympia took up the narrative.

  “I think all we can do right now is speculate. But I’m sure the System wouldn’t allow you to unknowingly be captured by demons if it had designated your location.”

  Orion still remembered that during his conversation with the System, he decided that when he had the opportunity, he would confirm the truth of what he had been told. But after everything that’s happened and hearing how people talk about this being, he decided it was no longer necessary. He still didn’t know how the System worked or what its modus operandi was, but now he had other things on his mind.

  “I’m still wondering how it’s possible that the Grand Inquisitor just happened to be nearby right then. That right then, he had something to do here. What’s the likelihood that one of the most powerful figures in the world would show up in such a nowhere?” Olympia decided to share her thoughts.

  “Do you think the System had something to do with this?” asked Orion.

  The owl woman looked at him as if deciding whether it was even worth discussing with him. Orion felt from the beginning that Olympia didn’t like him, but it was understandable in a way. He came out of nowhere and just bothered them, after all. But on the other hand, she’s spoken to him before. Because of the lack of a human face, it was quite difficult to determine what the woman was thinking. Damn, Zaiah didn’t have a face at all, and it was easier to read his mood. Orion decided to stop thinking about it, as he could just as easily be overinterpreting everything.

  “It’s possible, but you’d better not talk to anyone else about it. For a long time, the System didn’t assign quests to anyone. If that’s what happened this time and you had something to do with it, you’d rather… no one knew.” she said.

  Or perhaps the prolonged moment of silence was actually because she needed to think it over? Anyway, the signal was clear, so Orion nodded and changed the subject again.

  “So you’re saying the Inquisitor is one of the strongest in the world? Hmm, although at first I thought I would die just from looking him in the eyes, I… I don’t know. After a while, I felt like I started to see him as a nice, older guy.” Orion said, and seeing some frown, he added. “Don’t get me wrong, I know he’s done a lot for me and I have nothing but gratitude and respect for him. But I still find it difficult to imagine him as a scary person, especially when I remember his happy face when he munched on the mudles.”

  “A man who has to deal with responsibilities like his must be able to enjoy the little things. He’s got to know how to sweeten his life. Even if it’s just a small snack or a casual way of speaking. And it would be good if you slowly learned that too, if you’re going to join the Guild.” said Eyharnis. Her voice was neither harsh nor scolding. She spoke to him with a gentle smile, but her eyes made Orion understand that she was also speaking from her own experience.

  “The Grand Inquisitor spent most of his life trying to help the weak.” said Egill. “And you know what he did before you met him? He had to murder the entire village. Except for a dozen residents being kept there as food for demons, he had to kill everyone. Can you imagine how he felt?”

  Orion sat in silence for a moment, not knowing what to say. Could he have imagined it? Possibly so. Would this picture be in any way consistent with reality? Most likely not. But even if he could not put himself in the older man’s shoes, he knew perfectly well that he would not be able to speak freely after such an experience.

  Saun Otters was definitely not as simple as he made it out to be. There were a few things that Orion had discovered, reflecting on his encounter with this man.

  As he walked around the city with Zaiah, discussing the intricacies of mana, he learned that the stone that the Inquisitor had placed on the door was designed to block sound to give them some privacy. And yet the man removed the stone, most likely knowing how Orion would react to the liquid he was given. The Inquisitor even mentioned afterward that it was to be expected. Therefore, it meant that the man wanted others to hear his screams. Just what for?

  Another mystery was why the Inquisitor would raise his aura. When Orion asked why the others were kneeling, the man pretended he got carried away. However, it seems he was trying to convey something with that too. Then we have the question of why he decided to help him and invest in him in the first place. Orion saw the glances of random people falling on his Spatial Ring. He didn’t believe his story about the quarantine could be worth that much, and apparently there was supposed to be another surprise in the Ring.

  To do these things, the man had to have a reason, and as Orion thought about it, he became more inclined to the possibility that the System was involved.

  Orion has long wondered why the System sent him to this planet. He understood now why he hadn’t returned to Earth like the others, but why here? Was it just that this world had air and gravity at similar levels to what he was adapted to? That would sound logical, but upon learning about the influence of essence and how it can sometimes act as a template for reality, he already suspected that there must be many worlds in which he could exist. And yet, he ended up in one overrun by demons.

  Orion felt that the System had some plan in sending him here, and what that was, he could only guess.

  “Back then… when I woke up. Why were you on your knees?” he asked, deciding to return to the Inquisitor in his thoughts. He’d already guessed the answer based on what the man had said at the time, but he decided to confirm it and maybe give them some thought, too. “The Inquisitor was talking about the aura, but…”

  “But you could get up.” finished Egill.

  “Yeah. Well, I actually had a problem with tense muscles, but yeah.”

  “You must have felt his pressure, right?”

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  “Well, yeah, but…”

  “Low Sanity stat.” said Olympia before he could finish.

  Oh. So he wanted them to know that, too. But why show when you can tell, though? A moment later, the man spoke to them privately, after all.

  “You’re gonna have to work on that, too.” said Egill. “Low Sanity makes it much easier to adapt to new situations. The longer you’re in this state, the more events you can tolerate over time. But sometimes adapting too easily can be harmful or you just don’t normally want to adapt to something.”

  Surely there was some truth in what he said. For example, Orion realized that he didn’t care at all that he was talking to the levitating crystal. Sure, when he met him, there was some surprise, but that’s it. And this has happened before. He had no problem accepting the fact that a being that fed on dreams had become his good friend.

  Even in quarantine, he had these thoughts sometimes, although he approached them from a different angle. He once fought a spider-like anomaly that somehow managed to instill a terrifying fear in him. After that fight, he wondered how he didn’t feel any fear at all in fights with other beasts. At the time, he assumed it was due to uncertainty about whether he was alive at all, but maybe it was also a matter of Sanity. On the other hand, he didn’t have a partially installed System in him at the time, so did ordinary sanity also work on this principle?

  “Alright. Back to the subject, you should make a definitive decision about whether you want to try the substance that we talked about.” said Olympia. “Do you know when you’re supposed to be at the Guild meeting?”

  The meeting was to take place at the end of the next active cycle. Since the duration of a single cycle was like three-quarters of a full day on Earth, it was decided that Orion would have time to go through the ‘ritual of mana sentience’; as they called it; and come to his senses in time.

  Avir was sent for the substance, who already knew where and in what quantities to get it. Apparently, the poor man also had some ‘problems with mana’, and this remedy was not unfamiliar to him. Naturally, they considered the difference in levels and Orion’s tolerance, so they decided that he would take the minimum dose, and if that proved to be too little, he would simply repeat the process.

  While waiting for the shalard’s return, the group discussed various topics. One of them was the issue of weapons and the approach Orion had been considering before he ran out of the store. He was told that he should acquire a weapon as soon as possible and then train to fight and control mana in parallel. According to Olympia, this would significantly improve the quality of his foundations and strength compared to adding mana control, say, halfway to the next rank.

  Then they went to the hotel. There they ordered a much larger room to comfortably accommodate the entire group. That way, after taking it, if Orion were to pass out or just fall asleep, they wouldn’t have to worry about carrying him.

  Orion sat cross-legged in the middle. The room, apart from the considerable size and quantity of furniture, was almost no different from the one in which he had previously tried to sleep. The exception was the vase now standing before him, which Avir had taken out of his inventory. Like many things in this world, it had patterns drawn on it, which, though rather abstract, led Orion to associate this object with the shalard. He concluded that maybe it was the equivalent of his personal bong, or something like that.

  “Try to calm down. You have a very fast pulse.” said Olimpia, sitting on the pillow against the wall. Her ability to hear his heartbeat from there was rather unsettling.

  Orion took a few slow, deep breaths. Although he felt that taking a sip from the vase would somehow destroy something he’d been proud of his whole life. Rationalizing that he had to do it, he drank. The drink itself was slightly warm, and it was so sour that seeing his face, Eyharnis burst out laughing.

  For the first few minutes, Orion felt no effects. He just sat there, looking around the room. At first, the team talked to each other in low voices, but now they remained silent. The fact that they were sitting in the room, watching him, definitely didn’t help him relax, but apparently everyone wanted to see how he would react and if he would get anything out of it.

  With complete silence, Orion could hear barely audible music coming through the walls. The melody was subdued, and it didn’t have the same effect as the one he’d heard before. However, for some reason, it was a nice addition.

  As his eyes wandered across the floor and observed its texture, he saw a subtle movement. The tiny bumps slowly began to change shape, drifting like a calm stream to the rhythm of the song. The material itself behaved as if it were uncertain whether it was still solid or already liquid. The movements created patterns that would peel off the floor and rise, taking on colors, as if he were witnessing the emergence of colorful air currents.

  His gaze turned to the team of adventurers, who were watching him with interest. Orion realized that he was moving slowly to the beat of the music, and yet Olimpia, despite her hearing, looked as if she hadn’t registered it at all. Then he looked at Zaiah, who was sitting quietly on his pillow, reflecting the lights falling on him from the many windows, which then colored the walls with a magnificent, multicolored spectacle.

  Avir, who was obviously irritated by the constant sitting in silence, moved his body as if it swelled and returned to normal. His reptilian mouth slowly lengthened, now resembling that of a crocodile, and grew further, filling itself with thousands of thin, sharp fangs. His jaw became so long that it reached Orion from the end of the room, twirling in the air like a snake ready to attack.

  Observing the sharp teeth, he noticed that one of them was stealthily trying to get closer to him, almost sinking into his wrist. He noticed its metallic sheen and tiny needle-like opening.

  The consciousness of taking an unknown substance struck him. He was handcuffed again, and the ominously smiling figure had just withdrawn his hand, now holding an empty syringe. His heart rate sped up again, quickly recognizing the scene and knowing what was about to happen. Not only did he see it when it happened, but he was repeatedly shown the video of the first time his limb was sawed off.

  “Breathe.” she said. “Slowly.”

  As his gaze followed the voice, the scene from his torture disappeared, revealing the place where he actually was. But this time, there was no furniture. There were no adventurers.

  Just him, the empty room and her.

  She was sitting, leaning against the wall, this time wearing familiar rags. Her face was adorned with a gentle smile. She looked at him with complete calmness, as if they were having a pleasant conversation over coffee on a sunny morning off work.

  Orion felt his mind wanting to take him on a journey, but there was another feeling slowly emerging. It was born of the knowledge that she was not real. He suppressed it and finally calmed down. Then he let himself be carried away.

  The walls immediately disappeared, replaced by a black void.

  Somewhere in the distance, he saw an opalescent sphere from which the veins were spreading and intertwined in space. They took on a rather familiar pattern that he’d seen many times, dismantling various computer components and observing the copper traces.

  He was moving toward the sphere when he began to notice something inside it. The shape, barely noticeable at first, but the closer he was, the more distinct it became. The fetus was curled up in the sphere.

  Realizing this, Orion saw the colors on the sphere spinning. The fetus began to shrink, as if it were regressing. Before it completely disappeared, the traces also began to retreat, breaking away from the sphere and hiding behind the mantle of space. Then both the contents and the sphere disappeared.

  He floated in space for who knows how long. It felt like thousands, maybe millions of years had passed, and yet for him, it was just a few moments. Space filled with colors, creating curved currents and shapes. They writhed and twitched, changed colors, and dispersed, only to reappear a moment later. At one point, the vortex swept him away, causing images to form in his mind as he drifted with the current.

  Pulsating quarks. Shaping the cosmos. Cell division. Recognizable universe. A wriggling bacterium. Solar prominences. A sprouting plant. A speeding car. A whale, humming in the depths. A simple morning sip of water after waking up. The baby’s first step. All of it having a common origin.

  The colors burst, opening up reality. Behind the hidden wall was an echo of everything. The space became stratified, showing the shapes of emotion, the sounds of physicality, and the taste of time. In the midst of all this, a single silver-eyed observer. Though so abstract, he now knew that they too shared the same source.

  It was everywhere.

  It was everything.

  And yet so elusive.

  Orion was drifting through the chaos, absorbing it all.

  He opened his eyes.

  The team changed their positions a little bit, so it must have taken a while. He felt that his mind was numb, and the effects of the drug were still interfering with his vision.

  However, though slowly and awkwardly, he managed to form a logical thought. He looked at Zaiah, who rose from his pillow, seeing him wake up. After a moment’s levitation, he rose a little, realizing what Orion meant.

  “Go on. Do it. You can show them.” Zaiah said.

  Orion remembered the first reaction of the crystal, so this time he preferred to prepare the rest. In his hand appeared a mostly metal cube, which at the bottom changed as if it were made of glass.

  Holding it in his hand, Orion carefully observed its construction.

  Seconds passed, then minutes.

  The metal began to recede, giving way to the glass.

  Again. It's just a story. You really shouldn't be doing drugs in the real world.

  :)

  You’re damn awesome ?