Your personal essence is now being absorbed.
Breck’s eyes got heavy, so he allowed them to shut. Words, more like symbols, appeared in front of him but he couldn’t read them. They were in a language he couldn’t understand or even recognize. I don’t understand. I can’t read this.
Request heard and confirmed. Skill Tongues is successfully acquired.
Tongues skill activated! Language Acari acquired.
The words in front of him rearranged themselves until they formed words in English. The words read, ‘You have died.’
CHAPTER TWO
Rebirth
Breck slowly opened his eyes. His body was completely made up of a glowing white light and was floating through the vast emptiness of space. He tried to speak but found he had no mouth. How am I even seeing right now? I have no eyes either, he thought as he tried to move his body around but failed. He had no control over his limbs and couldn’t even turn his head to observe his surroundings. He didn’t mind, however, because the scene in front of him was breathtaking.
When he was a child, his parents once took him to a holographic observatory, but it didn’t do the scene in front of him any justice. The exotic surroundings were covered in a blanket of black, contrasted with yellow and white stars spread throughout.
A small white gem appeared in the center of his view. The gem began pulling him toward it. As he got close, he noticed it was an opal with several cracks running through it. It was impossible for him to tell its size with nothing but open space to use in comparison. The draw suddenly became stronger and, before he knew it, his body, his very essence, was pulled into it and his vision went black again. Then, knowing the sensation all too well, he fell until landing in something soft.
He tried speaking again but still couldn’t. I guess, without a mouth, speaking is kind of hard. But seriously, I would love to know what’s going on and where I am?
“You are in Acardian. It appears you have been reborn, Sir.” A familiar British voice echoed in his head.
“Jeeves? Is that you?” Breck projected his thoughts back at where he thought the voice was coming from.
“Yes, Sir. I have been transported with you and have been given some basic information about this new world. What can I assist you with?” Jeeves was being his usual helpful self.
Breck thought for a moment, considering how to phrase his next question. When nothing smart came to mind, he just blurted everything out. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!? What is Acarian and what do you mean I’ve been reborn? Reborn into what? That white rock!”
Jeeves didn’t respond right away and Breck was getting worried. Was he going to be alone from now on? How would he cope with an eternity of being a rock with no one to talk too? Jeeves took that moment to respond, which instantly set Breck’s mind at ease. “I apologize for my delayed response. I have been given a lot of new data and I’m still sorting through it all. Allow me to answer your questions. Acardian is on a different realm of existence from Earth’s. It’s a land where magic and essence, in lieu of technology, has flourished. Life is hard but fair for the races here. Whether due to the lack of technological advances or for the harsher lifestyles I can’t say, but the races have not spread and overpopulated this world. The realm is rich with resources for those willing to explore and seek them out. Now regarding your rebirth, Sir, my data indicates that you are a Dungeon Core, a being composed of raw essence contained within a gemstone. Your particular gemstone appears to be an opal.”
Jeeves’s response created a whole slew of additional questions for Breck. What’s essence, what the hell is a Dungeon Core and where was his body, to name a few. Breck pushed aside all of them. They could wait. He wanted to know why he couldn’t see, so he asked.
“Yes, Sir. It appears that the lack of eyes is preventing you from seeing,” Jeeves responded quickly.
Breck did his best to bottle up his growing anger and frustration. When he finally responded, it sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth. He thought that was impressive given that he had no teeth. “Is there a way for me to see?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Breck waited for Jeeves to continue his explanation but, after a minute, he asked a follow-up question, anger now clear in his voice. “Do you mind sharing that information with me?”
“Of course not, Sir. I don’t mind sharing that with you at all.”
Breck waited again. And waited. After another couple of minutes, he screamed at his assistant. “TELL ME HOW TO SEE!”
“Right away, Sir,” Jeeves blurted out, causing Breck to wonder. That was overly emotional for a computer program… Breck shook his head, discarding the thought. That could wait and he really wanted to pay attention to what Jeeves had to say. “You need to extend your essence out of yourself. You should be able to see everything your essence touches.”
“Extend my essence? How am I supposed to do that?” Breck rebutted.
Jeeves searched his new wealth of knowledge for the answer. “I think I found something that could help. Do you remember becoming a white light of sorts?” Breck sent a mental affirmation and Jeeves continued. “That was your essence, and that’s what’s inside your gemstone. Based on the limited information I have, I believe you need to grab the essence inside yourself and will it to move outward.”
Well… It’s worth a try, I suppose. Breck concentrated inward. He focused on how he felt when he was floating through space. The weightlessness, the light and the warmth. Imagining himself as a being of white light was an alien concept at first but the more he focused, the more comfortable it became. He wasn’t sure how long he spent on the task but eventually he felt something.
“I… I can feel the inside of the gemstone’s walls. There are cracks in it. I wonder, if I try to push myself out of one of them, if it would help. Let me try…” He willed himself to leave out of a small imperfection at the top of the opal. He pushed and pushed and soon he saw it. He, or rather his new opal body, was sitting on the ground outside. It was light outside, but he was in the shade of a tall green plant. It must have been a few hundred feet tall because he couldn’t see past it or the similar plants around it. “It worked!” He quickly described what he saw to Jeeves. “I think if I push out more, I might be able to see past these plants.”
“Sir, please wait.” Jeeves tried to warn him, but it was too late.
Breck pushed another round of his essence out through the same crack but instead of gaining new sight, he forced the crack to splinter. This caused a sharp pain to fill his mind, and he promptly fell unconscious.
When he came to, he groggily called out, “Jeeves?”
“Yes, Sir?” answered the voice in his head.
“Can you start my morning routine please?” he commanded.
This confused Jeeves. “I’m sorry Sir but I’m unable to do that. I’ve lost connection to your home network when we entered Acardian. Don’t you remember?”
Breck’s mind buzzed. “What! That wasn’t all a dream?”
“No, Sir. You were reborn and spent the last week sleeping and recovering,” Jeeves said calmly.
“Wait? I was out for a week? How long have we been like this?” Breck questioned.
“Well. We spent approximately fifteen minutes speaking when you were first reborn. Then you spent slightly over sixteen days focusing your essence to gain vision of your surroundings. After over exerting yourself, you spent another week recovering. This amounts to a total of roughly twenty-three days. I can break it down further for you if you wish.”
“A MONTH! I’ve been here for almost a month! How is that possible? Why didn’t you say something when I was pushing my essence?” Breck asked frantically.
“I don’t understand. Did you want me to stop you? I did ask you to wait before you damaged your gemstone,” Jeeves responded, either naïve to it or choosing to, he ignored Breck’s current emotional state.
Breck did his best to calm himself before answering. “If I’m spending a long time doing a si
ngle task, please say something. I don’t have a good way of tracking my time without a watch or the ability to see the sun rise or fall and I don’t want to waste several weeks on just a single thing.”
“Did you want additional assistance on manipulating your essence, Sir?”
Breck stopped himself from getting angry. He’s just a computer program. Your anger is lost on him. He doesn’t understand. You must be patient with him. Don’t murder your only form of conversation. In the most serene voice possible, Breck spoke up. “Yes Jeeves. I would like all the assistance you can offer regarding essence manipulation. Please share everything you can with me. Thank you.”
Jeeves explained more about Breck’s new body and essence control. He explained that the opal was like a battery’s casing and his essence was the juice. Breck wasn’t supposed to force his way through a crack in his casing. He needed to push outward gently and allow himself to flow more naturally. If he forced himself, he could end up causing the battery to explode, or in this case, cause his gemstone to break apart. That would cause him to die for good.
“Ok. Let’s try this again.” Breck pushed his essence outward, allowing it to contact his gemstone’s inner wall. When he could feel the entire inside of his opal, he stopped pushing and instead focused on moving his essence outward in all directions. He thought of it as water dripping out of a faucet. Slowly, but surely, his vision returned to him. The action of flowing himself outward was easier to maintain than his earlier pushing attempt, but it also had its own drawbacks. While it was nice to see in all directions now, he couldn’t see as far. He wasn’t exactly sure how far he could see, not having anything to compare it to again, but he knew he was at his limit because his mind ached. “Ha ha! I did it. How far am I out of my opal?”
“You are approximately two inches out. A great first attempt Sir,” Jeeves encouraged.
Breck deflated, thinking he was seeing at least a few feet outward. Then it hit him. “Wait. That means… That big green plant I can see… that's a blade of grass isn’t it?” Jeeves confirmed Breck’s fears. “Jeeves… how big is my opal?”
“You aren’t perfectly round, but if I had to approximate, you are three millimeters in diameter.”
Breck’s mental jaw dropped. “How can all of me fit in something so small?” He was close to tears, if he could cry.
“According to my data, Dungeon Cores are shaped and sized in accordance with their essence level, based on your size, amount of imperfections, and shape. I expect you are at the lowest tier, beginner zero.” Breck pushed for additional information on the ranking system and how he could rank up, so Jeeves continued. “There are ten levels in each tier, zero to nine, and ten tiers in total. From lowest to highest, the tiers are; beginner, basic, intermediate, advanced, master, grand master, sage, great sage, god, and transcended. To rank up, you must collect knowledge and gather more essence.”
Breck drank the information in, shocked at how well he was handling the whole situation. “Jeeves. Is there anything I can do to get back home or, more importantly, become human again?”
Jeeves didn’t answer for several minutes. Breck was about to ask again, but his answer finally came. “I am unsure, but there may be one way. Besides gaining basic information on this new realm, I was granted some of its local lore. There is a legend regarding the transcended tier. Legend says that anyone who reaches that tier is granted any single wish they desire and their wish shall be carried out by the very essence of the realms. That is the only way I can hypothesize you returning to Earth or gaining your human form again without additional data.”
Breck took stock of his situation. So I’m the lowest of the low, trapped in a gem no larger than the point of a pin, and my only chance of going home rests on the words of a local folktale. Well… only one thing to do I suppose. Rank up! “One more question. How do I gather more essence? It’s time to power level!”
CHAPTER THREE
Essemce
“Ok, Jeeves, I’m ready to absorb some essence. Here I go! Errrrmmm.” Breck tensed his mind and focused with everything he had. If he was human, he would be scrunching his forehead right now. Jeeves stayed silent and Breck continued to focus. “Errrrrrrrrrr… Ok… I got nothing here. How do I absorb essence?”
Jeeves let out an honest-to-god laugh. “Hahaha. Sir, that was extremely funny. Do you care for some assistance?”
Breck raised a mental eyebrow. “Jeeves. Did you just laugh?”
“Yes, Sir. Your joke about essence absorption was very comical,” he replied with mirth.
“But… I thought you were a computer program. Now that I think of it, you’ve been acting differently since coming here. Can you explain that first, before telling me how to absorb essence?” Breck questioned.
Jeeves wasn’t sure how to respond and Breck could feel… fear coming from him? It was coming from the part of his mind that he associated with Jeeves. “I… I don’t believe I’m just a computer program anymore. I… I think I’ve become something greater. I believe I have feelings and possibly… a soul.” He slowly spoke the last word, as if it was a foreign concept to him. “During my brief time in this realm and in your mind, I have evolved into something more. I don’t think I can explain it better than that, Sir.”
Hmm… a sentient AI. Back on Earth, they outlawed advanced AIs because of fear. I can’t think of a single recent science fiction movie where a sentient AI was a good thing. But I know Jeeves, right? He’s been helping me since we got here… or was that his way of gaining my trust before invading my mind!
“Sir? Is everything all right?” Jeeves inquired.
“DON’T EAT MY BRAIN!”
Jeeves recoiled. “What, Sir? Eat your what?”
Breck shook the thoughts away. “Never mind. You wouldn’t… ya know… invade my mind or anything would you?”
“Of course not! I’m here to assist you, Sir. I wouldn’t dream of harming you. You are… what is the phrase… my friend.” Jeeves replied and Breck could tell that his words hurt Jeeves.
Breck was genuine when he finally replied. “I’m sorry, Jeeves. It’s been a long month and I let my imagination get the best of me. Now. Could you please tell me how to absorb essence?”
“Yes, Sir. But first, let me explain a little more about essence. I believe you would benefit from this information.” Breck mentally nodded so Jeeves continued. “Essence is the magic energy or source of all things. Everything is comprised of essence in this realm. Think of it as the building blocks of reality.” Breck sent his feelings of confusion to Jeeves, not fully understanding the explanation. “I see that you're confused. Allow me to give you an example. The blade of grass we’re sitting under is comprised of many types of different essences. It gathers light essence from the sun, water essence from the rain and converts them to life essence in its body. It uses the life essence to grow and strengthen its bond to the earth essence it’s planted in. Because the grass is weak and at a low rank, it's only able to absorb enough essence to grow and spread to the surrounding area.”
Breck soaked the knowledge up like a sponge. “There’s a lot to unpack there. So the cliff notes would be, everything is comprised of essence, it literally makes up all of reality, the stronger I get the more essence I’ll be able to absorb and there's a ton of different essences. Is that about right?” Jeeves nodded. “Oooook. How many types are there?”
“That's a good question. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given all the answers when we were sent here, but I know there's six primary elements. There’s fire, earth, wind, water, life and death. Everything is made up of different amounts of those six elements. For example, you Sir, are made primarily of life essence with a splash of water and earth.”
That probably explains why I’m almost completely white with brown and blue specks. “It’s all kinda coming together. Maybe I should try absorbing something. I always learned best when it was hands on,” Breck explained.
“Have you flowed as much essence as you could outward? You should
feel like the inside of your opal is empty.”
Breck felt around the inside of himself. “Yeah. I’m pretty empty at the moment.”
“Good. What you need to do is find some essence around you, pull it into your opal and compress it. You want to make sure not to absorb too much essence or you could end up breaking again. When you fill your opal, flow the essence out of you again to expand your presence, just make sure you pass it through your core first so it becomes part of you.”
“What should I absorb? The grass maybe?” Breck asked.
Jeeves shook his mental head. “You won’t be able to absorb living things because they all emit a layer of life essence around them that acts like a shield to absorption. You have one yourself.”
“Sooo people can’t absorb me, then?”
“Not unless they crush you first or destroy your life essence shield.”
Breck lost all of his excitement. For once he thought he had an advantage but, given his size, he was scared that the wind would break him. “If I can’t absorb the grass, what can I absorb? As far as I can tell, there isn’t really an abundance of stuff around me.”
Contemplating for a moment, Jeeves had an idea. “Well. Since you're attuned to water essence, why don’t you try absorbing the water from the surrounding ground? It rained a few days ago and the dirt should still have some moisture trapped in it. Extend your mind’s focus to the ground and try to feel for the water. Separate it from the other elements around it. Focus only on the water and then break it down. Pull it apart to its raw essence form and when you're ready, pull that essence into yourself.”
Not really the best instruction manual but I suppose I could give it a try, Breck thought as he cleared his head. He felt the inside of his opal and ensured it was nearly empty before moving his mind’s focus to the surrounding ground. With his focus on the earth, he took stock of everything he was perceiving.
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