November 17th, 625
My dreams felt like a recollection of my entire life. I saw my earliest monts as a baby and the complexities of the knowledge that I had learned later in my life. Every piece of information within my brain was flashed into my mind as if my mories needed to be re-burned into my neurons.
Perhaps that’s exactly what I needed. A new mind demanded a new way of seeing things. I may have the sa mories and knowledge of John Cooper but after this advancent, I would never be the sa man again.
It wasn’t necessarily a change of personality. With Anarchy there, my principles and values wouldn’t undergo any seismic shifts. My philosophies remained the sa but that didn’t an I would approach things the sa way.
I no longer had a human mind. That much I quickly accepted. As if I hadn’t before, I had officially surpassed the bounds of humanity. A perfect and infallible mory, two Sparks that gave a second miniature mind, speed of thought so fast that reality seed to slow instead, and an Aura so powerful that perhaps only Maxwell in his pri could see through the complexity of my illusions.
To impose myself on other minds was simplicity itself. Right now, the only reason I didn’t know the limits of my power was because I had yet to use them on anyone. I was eager to get outside and observe like I had when I received my Crown and first opened my golden eyes.
I knew Authority 7 was a major stepping stone. It was the ti to create the second Spark, and those major milestones were also opportunities for major temperings. I knew my power would advance, I knew I would restructure and improve my Mind Palace.
I hadn’t anticipated that I’d take it this far.
I opened my eyes, taking in the images around so fast that I couldn’t keep up with my own mind. I verified what I was seeing dozens of tis over in the span of two seconds, and only then could I finally accept that not only had I seen correctly, but I had done so in the smallest fraction of a second.
It seed the density of my neural matter skyrocketed. The changes to my mind brought changes to my brain which brought changes to my neural connections which brought changes to my senses, strength, acuity, reflexes, and every other voluntary system in my body.
It was slow. I turned my head slowly, at normal speed, watching Maxwell slowly enter my vision. Then his mouth moved, and I knew what he was going to say before he even spit it out.
“Co-”
“Thanks.”
“...So you-”
“Yes.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
It seed that my predictive ability skyrocketed along with everything else. Maxwell assuredly knew what kind of power I had attained.
He sighed, putting up his hand. I took that as the signal to let him speak full sentences, even though with every syllable that ca out of his mouth his full sentence was replayed in my mind like I had heard it a hundred tis over before.
“You will need to learn to slow yourself down and let normal people speak complete sentences. You’ll piss people off if you interrupt them or assu their words, even though you’ll almost always be on the mark.”
“I know.”
“I know you know, just make sure to actually do it. After I got to Authority 10 I had a hard ti listening to every imbecile mumble out their words dozens of tis before actually getting their sentence out. I could play the entire conversation out after soone’s first three words to and knew the end result after the 4th word left their mouth. Few summoners understand this problem and now you’re one of those few.”
I sat there, tuned out after Maxwell’s first sentence.
It felt like I was thinking faster than I could keep up with, but I knew that was just because I had no mory of my mind ever moving so fast. I wasn’t used to it, so to speak. I would have to train myself with ti.
That was difficult because every second felt like a minute. And when a minute went by I realized that I had thought about the things I needed to do all throughout my life, pondering ongoing enchantnt projects, how I would kill that summoner from the 3rd Claw, how I’d have to contact Gurns and get myself into Special Operations, but not before I settled things at the Treehouse.
I needed to get back to the Treehouse. Things would only get worse.
The ti for Intelligence was past. Brutality was now the only option. There were no more weapons to develop, no more opsec changes to implent, no more improvents to tactics to be made, no more adaptations to my weapons necessary.
The Scourge was throwing everything at the Treehouse and there was nothing more I could create to increase their odds of fending them off. Adding my personal firepower to the equation was the only option left.
My newfound power ant that I would have a far heavier presence. My 7th Star ant that I’d have greater weapons to take advantage of this power.
In my mind Space, I suddenly looked up, realizing I never broke down the barrier to the 7th Star.
With a quick thought I did so, the barrier disintegrating under my power. Then I sent a powerful drone of Projection into the dinsion, cataloging several new weapons into my armory instantly, asuring their pros and cons, creating new loadouts for different situations.
“John.”
“Yes?”
“You’re not listening to .”
“No.”
“...Oh Lord God, give the patience to deal with this disrespectful brat.”
I pondered as he sighed.
The new weapons had finally put into the modern era. Even further, the dinsion was looking like an online weapon store of expansive armant. That ant modular weapons, things I could put together, attachnts, optics, bells and whistles. I also saw ammunition variants.
I was glad to finally take the hurdle into the modern era. I wouldn’t be limited by technology anymore. I’d have the best that money could buy in the 21st century. It was just a matter of taking the ti to find it.
“Alright, hurry up and take your next advancent formation.”
I got an Orb thrown at , catching it absentmindedly and infusing my Psyka. The entire thing appeared in my mind.
I frowned when I felt pain in my brain, the sheer amount of information overwhelming for just a mont. Given so seconds I was able to process what I was seeing, understanding that another dinsion had just been added to my advancents.
“This formation will get you to Authority 8 and pave the path for Authority 9. Since you have a perfect mory and that monstrous fortress in your head now, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“You saw the fortress.”
My eyes snapped over to him, Maxwell nodding.
“I did.”
“You must’ve seen so things you don’t understand.”
“Yes, but I’ve decided not to ask. I don’t know if it’s right for you to tell .”
“If it was through my Aura then you learned so things. The weapons, the tech. It’s from Earth, not here. I was distinctive about that. You know I’m not from this world.”
My words echoed in his mind as well as his ears, causing him to nod.
“Yes.”
“...Well, it’s good to know there’s at least one person from this rock that knows my secret.”
I leaned back, not particularly worried about Maxwell knowing.
“Have any questions for ?”
“...Yes. Those weapons. Those… microelectronics? What are they?”
“Tech from my world. The Weapons are ballistic cannons. They work like my guns, just bigger. As for the microelectronics, they are miniature assemblies of transistors, made from laser and chemical etching in silicon wafers. I’d have to describe two centuries of technology for you to begin to understand what they are but at their core, they’re rocks that we crafted to do math.”
“Math?”
“Yes. With enough math you can do anything. They run computers, which are like Aerials except they can do thousands of tis more. The ones within my fortress are supercomputers but in the end they’re only visualizations and don’t carry the sa capabilities.”
“I see…”
He looked at weird, making shrug.
“Don’t be surprised that you can’t understand computers. Just know that my world is close to thousand years ahead of this one in technological developnt. The only reason it's not 2 or 3 thousand years ahead is due to magic, which my world doesn’t have.”
“No magic? At all?”
“None. That ans no enchanting, no Crowns, no spells, no superhuman knights, no uber smart summoners. Just normal humans using their intelligence to build amazing things. Though most importantly, there wasn’t any Scourge either.”
“Hm, it sounds like a peaceful place.”
“Hah! I wish. Depending on where you lived it was, but instead of fighting the Scourge we humans fought each other. Instead of just killing monsters you were killing other people. It was a different kind of battle and those weapons you saw were rudintary compared to the advanced stuff used later in our history, all of them developed for the sole purpose of killing the most amount of people with the most amount of precision. You wouldn’t truly understand war until you learn of the kind of wrath humanity can exert through its creations. In a way, all you people here are lucky. Fighting monsters is easier.”
He sat silently as I brought out a SIG P320 chambered in 10mm, racking the smooth slide a couple tis before taking out a 21 round magazine and slotting it in. I tapped the mag and racked the slide, chambering a round and flicking the safety off and on.
Polyr was often a characteristic of modern weapons, tal only used where needed to make it lighter and cheaper.
I sent the pistol back, Maxwell sighing.
“So, how did you co to our world?”
“No idea. I was murdered by a sentient tractor trailer and then I woke up in a grassy field outside a village. I was in the Captial soon after where I got grabbed by Plex.”
“I see… There’s no reason you can think of as to why sothing so impossible happened?”
“Not that I know of.”
He went silent for so seconds before waving and standing.
“Alright, you can tell more later. Settle your advancent and focus on your business. I’m tired.”
“Will do. I’ll be going back to the Treehouse soon. The Scourge is going full force and I’m needed.”
“...You need to be careful, John.”
Maxwell turned to after I stood up and let him take the tempering chair back.
“You’re still vulnerable. I know your illusions are powerful but it takes one wrong step to be targeted by sothing your Aura won’t work on. It would be better if you simply stayed back and continued to invent things that can help the war. Your planes have already done wonders. Don’t put yourself in danger when you don’t have to.”
“I will be going because the ti for invention has passed. I got the planes and bombs out. Now, the Scourge is trying to bring down the Treehouse and there’s nothing I can invent that will reach there in ti to affect the situation. That ans I need my boots on the ground. When there’s no more thinking to be done, action must be unhesitant.”
“You’re being reckless.”
“I’m being a soldier,” I snapped back, “You want to know why I’m here? Well, I would reckon that I’m here to bring the might of my world’s war machine to this planet and defeat the Scourge. I have access to weapons that can unleash volus of devastation you can’t imagine, and I’ve received the ability to further imbue those weapons with magic power. Those planes I’ve invented are children’s toys compared to the aircraft on my world, nothing but mimicries of historical antiques.”
I leveled my eyes at him, noticing his neutral face, “It took so ti to co to terms with why I was brought here. I’ve never received an answer from anyone else but chances are, I’m here for war. And as it turns out, I’m fucking good at it. I will bring a new level of warfare to this world as I’ve already begun to, but I have people at the Treehouse who need my weapons to support them. I won’t hide in the Spire drawing on tables when I have allies fighting for their lives.”
“...You know I wasn’t telling you otherwise.”
Maxwell’s voice dropped. I noticed how pitiful he looked. He was old, worn, and had seen things throughout his life that I was only starting to live out. I knew he was a veteran.
I nodded.
“I know what you ant. I’ve always known what you ant when you told I was being reckless or stupid, or when you gave advice. Sure, I could sit in the Spire, build amazing weapons, and probably orchestrate the Scourge’s downfall. I could at least dedicate myself to an intelligence position and stay away from combat, using the sheer intellectual capabilities your Call has given to do the most good without risking anything at all. I’ll ask you though.”
I looked him in the eyes, “Would you have done things any other way?”
He looked back at before eventually turning his gaze down. He knew I wasn’t talking about things from my perspective.
His life. His triumphs, his mistakes, his experiences. The wars he fought compared to the life he didn’t live. I wanted to know if he regretted what he did, or if he would do it all again to arrive at this very mont. I wanted to know if he thought it was worth it. If he thought that, despite what logically seed the most efficient and beneficial route, he would have walked down the sa road.
He seed to age a bit more as he muttered, almost inaudibly.
“No.”
I nodded, stepping to the door to leave, adjusting my clothes to be more comfortable after sitting for many hours.
Once I opened the door, I paused and looked back.
“I know you must’ve made mistakes. Everyone looks back and thinks about what they could’ve done better, thinking that they should’ve just made the harder or better decision for the longer term gain. I know this isn’t the best path for . But that doesn’t an I’m going to squander my talent. I know that I have to grow in order to make real change. I just hope that you can trust in my judgnt when I decide to get my hands dirty. Maybe even trust that I’m better than you.”
I gave a small grin when he looked up with a slight glare.
“Just saying.”
“Your ego knows no bounds. Get out of here.”
“This is my house.”
“I could buy this shit shack 1000 tis over. That’s hardly an impressive statent. Leave before I charge you for the advancent crystal too.”
“Heh.”
I turned and finally left, shutting the door behind and walking to the helipad.
I’d be making a stop at Wonderland for a bit, throw out so new ideas and streamline so designs with my new brain. I also needed to put in an order for Umara’s Witch hat.
After all that though, I’d be on my way back to the Treehouse, at least before the end of November.
I couldn’t let the Snow Doves have all the fun. How could I not be present for the climax of this war?
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