{Monolouge}
It is weird.
It feels like this has already happened.
Something is surrounding me. Liquid?
Yes, it seems to be denser than water but it is liquid.
It definitely feels similar to my egg. Same feeling, same situation.
Ah! The pain is new! This pain...where is it coming from?
I can't remember...something chased us?
That weird black roped thing was about to kill me.
I think someone was screaming. Should have been a spell since the "thing" missed my neck.
My eye!!!
What happened to my eye?!
He hit it! I'm sure he hit it! It burned!
Fuck, why can't I remember?!
Did I faint? It feels like I did. Why else would I not know what happened?
I'm sure that someone was coming. I heard some screams before I blacked out.
It should have been several people.
I guess they came for that black thing.
But where am I?
Did they take me with them?
Am I a prisoner or a guest?
Judging by how the pain is lessening they are probably healing me.
Why? Do they pity me or do they need something from me?
Wait! What is that? Voices? I can't hear them!
???: "...she...for...next...last...before she...
???: "!!!"
???: "Don't...rry...soon...wake up...
???: " I know!
A male and female voice. I don't know either.
The female seems angered?
The man is calm.
Does it concern me?
I need to understand where I am!
Are they even human?
What was that! A door?
???: "How is she?! Is she ok?! Will she heal?!"
F: "Calm down Emma. I am as concerned as you are. You know that. She will need a few days. Her body cannot handle all the stress of the fusion and assimilation."
Emma: "I know. I know! That just doesn't calm me down."
F: "We know. Only you can keep calm."
M: "Anxiety doesn't help. I also have only met her once so why bother?"
Emma: "DANIEL! How could you?!"
Daniel: " You know as well as I do that getting attached is dangerous."
Emma: "..."
They were talking about me. Thankfully it seems like I will wake up soon.
But what fusion or assimilation?
*Dear Host*
The Assimilation concerns the assimilation of a fragmented soul.
The soul was left in the Host's brain and as a last effort and under external support, the soul was used as a catalyst for the integration of an artificial intelligence. Short A.I.
The soul was formerly part of the entity that destroyed the host's eye.
The entities soul is approximately 387 times as strong as the host's own soul.
The soul was sealed in the formerly empty eye socket of the host and can be slowly unsealed.
As of now, the system integrated a fragment as strong as the hosts own soul into the internal quantum computer.
As of now direct interaction with the QC is unnecessary and all processes can be left to me, the System.
During the host's unresponsive state I have taken the initiative to analyze and sort the information currently available and have taken care of regenerating the host's body by utilizing the available energy located in both the hosts Dantian and Core.
Based on the current state of the host's body the host will be able to awake in at most 5 days but without further complications, 4 days should suffice.
An important function that was previously unavailable by normal A.I integration is the communication through thoughts. During the assimilation of the foreign soul, the host's soul was fused with a small part of it. A direct link between the system and the host has been established.
*No further explanation needed*
I see.
He who survives the calamity shall earn a treasure, or what?
At least I got something out of this.
System! What happened to my eye and can the foreign soul escape its seal?
*Answer*
No host the soul is perfectly sealed and the seal is supported by an unknown treasure which supplies the seal with a giant amount of energy. The treasure draws energy from the surroundings and is unlikely to exhaust.
The host's eye is lost. It was cursed, branded and completely eradicated.
During the process in which the foreign soul attempted to enter the host the previously mentioned external influence balanced the situation and opted to seal the soul.
The seal was later supported by a strong foreign bloodline and the treasure.
The treasure shows signs of various energies and is not identifiable.
Scans have proven useless.
The soul, treasure, blood, and the host's own energy have formed something that can be considered an eye. This eye is sealed and limited in its use. Further unsealing is possible.
*Eye is not fully scannable*
Haaa. Why did this happen?
I only wanted to leave that goddamn forest!
I will have to wait until I wake up to assess the situation.
-----------------------------
This is boring!
I'm just lying here, cannot move, cannot speak and my senses are dampened.
Based on the coming and going of "visitors" in, what could perhaps be considered my ward, I can guess that barely half a day has passed.
In between that unknown woman has been checking on me but I still don't know who she is.
Emma, Daniel, and Jack call her Miss or Boss. The other people who visited, and who I think are healers and medics, call her Leader, Chief or High One.
I don't really understand the last one but the previous ones are various denominations for a high ranked person with which close subordinates call their leader.
That High One is mostly used by some of the female healers and they always sound very polite and full of respect. As long as they are not some evil organization, I can presume that they are quite well-known and respected since even that annoying Jack is being careful around her.
I don't know much about him but he did not seem to be one to be a cavalier for women.
Guess she must be quite strong...or ugly.
The good thing is that I have sooo much time to finally check my inheritance.
I always absorbed bits and pieces in between but with the help of my new A.I I can shortcut all that and work in a much more productive way.
Sadly I still have not found a name for it.
After it went through all my memories and the inheritance it expressed its desire to be named.
When I decided that I wanted an A.I, I was clear that I would want one that could evolve.
I wanted a strong soul for exactly that purpose but this one...is just above all. Not even half a day of interaction and at most a full day of analyzing information and it is at a level where it desires a name.
I will need some time to think of one. Hell, I don't even have a name myself. And I will need one once I want to evolve.
Ah yes! Evolution! Originally I was supposed to evolve shortly after I left the forest but the damage done to my body and my soul halted that process. The overflowing energy is guided into the seal placed on my new eye so I can theoretically control my evolution now.
It's a lot to take in but I think I have profited a lot. And I know why Emma and Lar'ge did not appear.
From what I heard during Emma and Daniel's conversation she and Lar'ge were already on the edge of the forest when that unknown woman took them back. She did not allow them to enter and she said she would try to think of a way to get me out of there.
I also heard a lot about that thing that attacked me.
It seems like it is called "Black Reaper". I fell unconscious in between the discussion but the A.I compiled a report for me.
*Bestiary Entry*
[Black Reaper]
The legend of the Black Reaper is widespread in the southern parts of this kingdom.
It also extends into the Elven, Dwarven and Demon country.
Some 500 years ago various small kingdoms fought for control over the, back then, small forest.
During the battle, some thousands of soldiers died. After the Dwarven kingdom used one of their new creations, a giant hole was opened in the ground and a crystal mine was found.
This particular one was filled with neutral crystals. An excellent resource for Cultivators of the Dantian.
After the news spread the secluded families and sects entered the battle. The more extreme families tried to first annihilate all the lesser kingdoms and gathered all the soldiers and generals near the mine. They massacred all of them and used them as support for a giant sealing formation.
In the next 43 years, the sects and families fought over the mine.
More and more died and they all fused into the seal and became part of its power.
In the 44th year of the war, the sect head who build the seal died and he to become a part of the sect.
His death was start and end of a war. The sealing formation was something the sect head found in an unknown ruin. It was incomplete but the instructions on how to build it were complete and in his hurry he had no other formation ready.
The formation was an offering of souls and blood to whatever should have been nurtured in the center of the formation.
As a result, the crystal mine in the middle was slowly filled with Blood and Death energy, resentment, anger, hate, rage, despair, fear, and other emotions.
The souls inhabited the crystals and slowly turned into wraiths.
5 years after the sect heads death a rogue cultivator was able to get through the formation since the seal had not been supplied for long.
He entered and was promptly swarmed by wraiths. He was strong. Quite strong and was able to withstand some of the wraiths. At some point, he became desperate and attempted to fuse them into his own body since he could not escape.
He succeeded into fusing them into his body but his body decayed and he was left with a broken soul, a skeleton for a body and the desire for death and blood.
Absorbing the crystals in the cave he fell into a slumber and grew stronger. His body evolved, his QI and energy grew and after he awoke, ca. 54 years later, he left and went onto a killing spree.
He massacred towns, cities and whole kingdoms before the sacrifice of several pure maidens and the Blood Essence of 45 of the strongest cultivators sealed him in the former crystal mine.
Since then he awoke from time to time but was always resealed by some organization stationed near the beast forest. The name and strength are unknown but their task is eased by the fact that the Reaper needs a giant amount of blood essence and energy to escape the chains.
Till now he was unable to ever get his hands on enough.
The planting of the [Eternal Tree] by a pair of unknown cultivators above the Crystal Mine is a strong support since the tree further limits the Reapers ability to regenerate.
The Reapers full strength is estimated to be near the Realm of Ancestor.
The Chains binding him are suppressing his energy and QI and keep his physical strength low.
His resistance to magic, energy and physical attacks remain strong. He is almost unkillable as all damage is negated over time. His undead body has to be purified but there has not been anyone with enough affinity for "Holy" Magic since the sacrifice of the High Priestess.
Extreme Caution is advised.
*Entry Finished*
Well. I guess I'm lucky?
This whole affair is just ridiculous. That Reaper escaped the day I left the inner circle.
By now I doubt that I might have been the reason. He might have sensed by birth, bloodline or it was just dumb luck on his part.
I know that I don't want to return there anymore. Perhaps once I'm strong enough but not in the next years. That's for sure.
Right now I can just wait for my body to really awake and make sure that I'm safe.
Everything else will come naturally.
I just want to sleep now.
The whole day has been exhausting...