A journal of an 11th Wave Transplant on the planet of the Akleg

I don’t think I am going to survive this place … These creatures have been following me for a few days and keep calling me an abomination, throwing rocks at me anytime I get too close. I think … I think they are corralling me towards something but I don’t really know what or where. Justine, if you ever find this, I miss you more than anything. Give William my love and tell him I’m proud of him and that I always will be. If anyone else finds this … please take this book back to my wife on Earth. Below is a way that you may find them…

I sit on the floor of Albasalas’s cave with my eyes closed in concentration, an excruciatingly slow breathing pattern making it appear as if I’m not moving. Technically, this would be true; on the outside. Inside however, my mind extends toward the nearby cave wall and a patch of Albasala’s fungus, forming a tenuous psychic connection, and a deluge of information floods into me in an instant. Countless alien concepts I can barely understand flash through my brain simultaneously. As I try to focus on individual pieces of data, I feel myself becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information being presented to me at once. Pain begins to build in my temples and sweat drips down my forehead as I fight to gain control, but my efforts are useless, like a minnow fighting to stop the torrent of the river.

After a few more moments of struggling against the mental onslaught, I know that I’m quickly approaching my breaking point, but my own stubbornness refuses to give in despite the risks. Just as I’m about to let out a primal scream of pain and frustration the flow suddenly stops and I immediately begin gasping for air. Without even realizing, at some point during my challenge I had gone from slowly breathing, to not breathing at all.

“Manling, once again you are doing this wrong. Let your unconscious mind handle the information and you will interpret it as best as your Skill is able. Using your conscious mind to try and understand everything obtained in a passive search will only result in your frail mind fracturing. I refuse to be penalized due to your incompetence. Once again, the right way this time”

I grit my teeth in frustration. It is the beginning of the second week of training with Albasalas and I’ve not yet made any significant progress, but I refuse to give in. We’ve been doing the same exercise since we started and I’ve yet to even start to master the concept of what she refers to as ‘the Passive Search’. I asked her, after our first several days of no progress, if it was possible to explore other techniques, but she had just laughed at my ignorance. “The tree grows from the trunk and you will grow, or not, from the passive search. It doesn’t bother me whether or not you understand.Your success was not part of our deal, only my tutelage”

Since Albasala has prohibited me from using Effortless Presence during our training, it takes me a few minutes to return to a focused state. Once accomplished, I nod my head gently to start. I once again reach out towards the fungus with my mind, re-forming the connection, and I feel the torrent of information begin to rush towards me. The only way I can describe the feeling is as if my mind was a small rock in the middle of a raging river, buffeted on all sides by information that only comprises a small percentage of the total.

My conscious mind instinctively tries to reach out and understand each piece of information but, for the first time since beginning this challenge, I manage to reign it in, holding myself back and passively letting the river flow through me. It goes against my instincts, crying out for me to master and control the information, but I ignore them and let it all flow through. The momentary flashes of images, sounds, and thoughts passing by begin to linger, crystallizing in the process as my unconscious mind begins to build a deeper understanding of the countless parts of Albasalas.

I, however, am completely unaware of this breakthrough, still sitting rigidly and staring blankly at the wall as the barrage of information slowly fades from the foreground of my mind. It takes a few minutes but my conscious awareness of the flow completely disappears. The river, once raging and flooding, slowly ebbs in force until I can barely perceive it flowing inward. I arc an eyebrow at Albasalas. The training usually only stopped once I was panting and about to scream under the mental strain. “Why did you stop? I thought I was doing okay”

Her face morphs into a frown. Despite our now frequent interactions, her appearance still fascinates me, the branches of her mouth curving downwards in a distinctly human appearance. The white branches mix with the purple fungi to form a body obviously based on bipedal beings but not fully loyal to the concept. Her arms stretch out gaily from her torso, twisting and turning in unnatural patterns that are uncomfortable to human sensibilities, while her legs are short and stubby, fusing with the trunk beneath her and giving her the appearance of growing from within the tree. “You have taken the first step, manling. Your unconscious mind is currently interpreting the information and the limited understanding that your Weak Telepathic Mind can handle will begin to flow into your conscious mind.”

My eyes widen as her words come true, the understanding achieved by my unconscious mind flowing upwards into my conscious mind. It may only be a small portion of the massive amounts of information that I was subjected to originally, but I now understand the positioning of Trainees at the border, rebuffing the creature from the higher Zone that is trying to escape the clutches of its own leader. I understand the roving patterns of the Butchers and why they can only travel in groups of three, any more causing their predatory instincts to take over and forcing them to attack each other. I even begin to understand the composition of Albasalas’s fungus, a strange combination of fungi and synapses that allow her to expand her mental reach and power.

That last bit of information makes me, once again, extremely grateful for the existence of Indomitable Spirit. Albasalas’s mental powers are terrifying and there is no way I would have been able to resist her without the benefit of that Skill. A little notification pops up and drags me away from my thoughts.

You have discovered the Skill Passive Mental Search (R-1) Lvl 1! The most fundamental of all Telepathic Skills, you begin to understand the power of the unconscious mind. True understanding, of both your own mind and the minds of those around you, is out of your reach but you strive forward. Cost: 20 Stamina per minute. Current Limit: One subject. Increased skill level increases the amount of information absorbed and understood, the filtering speed of the unconscious mind, and the amount of subjects that can be simultaneously searched (Limited by power of Telepathic Mind). Subject Resistance: Derived from Subject Willpower.

I read the notification a few times to truly understand the implications. Not only is it one of the longest Skill notifications I have received, but it is also one of the most complex. Skill level impacts the amount of subjects that I’m able to search but it is also affected not only by the power of my Telepathic mind, but also the Willpower of the subjects that I’m trying to search.

And I’d thought Mana Skills were complex.

A sudden thought pops up in my mind and I look over at Albasalas with curiosity burning in my eyes. “Will I be able to passively search other beings without their understanding or will they feel my mental presence?”

Her frown immediately turns into a smile and she tilts her head to the side. “Well little manling, as an answer to one of your ten questions, that depends on their Willpower. At your level, anyone with less than 50 Willpower won’t be able to feel your presence, even if you actively root around. You’ll be able to passively search anyone with a Willpower under 100 without them knowing, unless they have a mental resistance Skill, but they will feel any active search. Anything above 100 you’d be better served by not even trying.”

I grimace as she mentions the use of one of my questions. I’d been holding off on asking them until the end of the training but she seems determined to use them on the innocuous question. It is annoying but not the end of the world. What is important is what can be revealed by her answers, such as the revelation that Willpower may be as equally important to my build as Intelligence and Wisdom.

Determination clear in my eyes, I ask the question that has been on my mind since I came to Helldarvin. “What is the purpose of Genesis?” In my mind there is no more important question. Faul had always brushed me off whenever I asked it but I needed to know. Why was I taken? Why does Helldarvin even exist?

What is Genesis’ purpose?

“I do not know.”

I let out a sigh of frustration. I may have wasted one of my questions, but it was necessary to ask. Better to use one now asking something of the utmost importance than assume no one knows. It also helps narrow the rest of the questions I plan on asking. Most importantly though, Albasalas’s lack of knowledge regarding the inner workings and designs of Genesis suggest two different possibilities. Either Dungeon World Leaders have no knowledge of these topics, or the Universe at large has no answer to this question. Only further investigation once I’m off Helldarvin will show which one it is.

Forcing myself to focus on the present, I consider my options for a moment. With eight questions left, I need to focus on the areas that Albasalas will have interacted with, as I am beginning to assume those will be the only areas in which she will be able to answer with clarity.

“Are you limited to only giving or teaching someone one Skill and one Item per person or per exchange?”

“The limitation is one Skill and one Item per person. As such you cannot get another Skill out of me little manling.”

I have the decency to sheepishly grin at her response. She’d known exactly what the question was for and had shut me down expertly. I consider asking her why she is limited but decide not to go down that route. Even if she has an understanding of the purpose, which I highly doubt, the rules of being a Zone Leader are not something that I consider critical at this moment.

I find myself leaning towards saving the rest of the questions until the end of our training and using them to clarify or expand upon concepts related to Telepathic Mind when a stray idea makes me take one more shot in the dark.

“What are Items and how are they created?”

Her face contorts into a grimace and I feel surprise once again rise within me at her ability to express complex emotions with only twigs and fungus. I had gambled on using another question on this topic and assumed she would have no idea, but her displeasure seems to suggest otherwise.

“Items are objects of power recognized by Genesis. They can take any shape or form but they are unified by the fact that each Item interacts with the system in some way. As for how they are created…” She hesitates, and I smile inwardly. If she had lungs, I’m fairly certain she would have sighed. “They are created when objects absorb, or are imbued with, enough Mana to be able to sustain themselves.” She nearly spits out the last sentence, wanting to hold back but forced by our agreement to answer.

I couldn’t care less about her frustration though as I’m too busy thinking through the implications of her answer. Enough Mana to sustain themselves … Do Items have their own Mana Wells? Or do they have a different way of sustaining their Mana? If they are capable of sustaining themselves then perhaps the symbols on the Sigil are the method by which they accomplish that goal…

More and more ideas rush through my head. My introspection is interrupted by Albasalas after a few moments, however.

“Well, if you aren’t going to ask any more questions then we will resume your training, manling. It took you over a week to learn the passive search. Let us see if you can learn the active search before our time is done.”