Magnus was told by the General that he would have a new mission in 5 days. Magnus thought that this was the perfect time to probe into what was happening with his mind.
Magnus, being the quite type, usually thought to himself most of the time when he was awake. Magnus noticed that even after he had woken up from his nap that his head started to hurt whenever he thought too hard about a certain subject. Having free time, he decided to sleep so he could search for that mysterious voice.
Magnus went back to his tent. On the way back, he was confronted by Russel.
"Hey, Magnus! Thanks for today, you really saved my skin. I told the General all about what happened today, so I'm sorry if that inconvenienced you."
Magnus was startled by how polite he was being, and, after a second, responded, saying, "Yeah, it was really no trouble at all. Actually, you got me promoted!"
Russel was amazed by this, his eyes lighting up like a dog when its master praises it. Russel then asked Magnus if there was anything more he could do for him. Magnus turned down the offer, desperate wanting to figure out just what exactly was happening inside his head. Wasting no time, Magnus immediately slipped away from Russel and went back to his tent.
Magnus lay down on the ground again. He closed his eyes, letting the comfortable darkness envelope him.
Magnus had no dreams that night.
When Magnus woke up, he pondered the possibility of all he saw being just a dream and nothing more. Magnus opened the tent flap and charged out into a bright world, the atmosphere completely different from last night. The reason for this was, despite taking heavy losses, the UPC was successful in pushing the Third Deutschland Reich back. This was a cause for celebration.
Getting his extra-large helping of breakfast, Magnus too was soon converted to high spirits. Magnus sat on a log near a fire and started eating. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the beginnings of a trench and sandbag wall.
Magnus then realized that even though they had just won a great victory, most of the UPC soldiers had gotten no rest, especially the engineers. The engineers had stood up all night just mapping out the new fortifications.
Magnus realized that this was another hardship of a soldier, there was no time to rest. Magnus, however, by accepting the offer of the General, had earned himself five days of rest.
Magnus thought to himself, "Alright! I've got five days of spare time. I really need to do some strength training and find out what's going on with my mind."
Magnus then got up, having finished his breakfast. Going over to the dish-washing station, he rinsed off his mess kit. Putting it back inside his tent, Magnus got to exercising. Already boasting a great deal of stamina, Magnus ran a mile to warm up. He thought about what exactly he should do to train his muscles. Within four seconds, the answer came to him, in full depth. Magnus suddenly understood what exercises were most effective for each muscle group.
"This!", Magnus realized he never understood anything about exercising. Magnus then tried to see if he could access any other information from his brain that he had never consciously learned.
"How is a rifle built? I wonder...", and within seven seconds of asking himself, he knew the answer.
Magnus tested this out several more times. He found out that he could learn anything as long as he thought about it for long enough. The time necessary to learn was directly proportional with how complex the topic was. Through more experimentation he found out that the minimum time needed was three seconds and the maximum time needed was fourteen minutes. Magnus tried thinking of more and more complex things, only to find that the maximum time needed became greater than before.
Magnus did this while exercising. Then an idea struck him. If he thought hard enough to learn something, would it work with doing things?
Magnus grabbed and ax and a thick piece of wood. Placing it on a tree stump, he visualized what it would look like if he were to chop the piece of wood in half. Thunk! Magnus heard and felt such a sensation. When he opened his eyes, the log was split in two, and the ax was lodged into the tree stump. When Magnus tried to pull it out, it wouldn't budge.
"So not only can I go beyond my mental limits, I can also push my physical limits too?", Magnus thought, as he began to gather more logs to experiment with.
Magnus chopped up every log he could find, and was only able to take the ax out of the stump by visualizing it. This astounded Magnus.
"If I could see with my eyes closed, I would be unstoppable on the battlefield!"
Magnus thought this while he started to clean his gun. Magnus knew from the sensations of the ax hitting the stump that he actually did the action, but without actually trying. Magnus made learning to see with his eyes closed top priority, only behind with exploring the dark recesses of his mind.
That night, Magnus went to sleep, only thinking of ways to get himself to see with his eyes closed.
"So, you wish to learn of your New Limits?"
Magnus had heard this voice before. When Magnus finally focused, he could feel himself floating in a warm, comfortable place, but in complete darkness.
"Yes! Who are you? What are you doing in my mind? Tell me!", Magnus asked, wondering if he was awake or not.
"You're body is currently asleep, but your consciousness is not in it right now. You are the equivalent of being dead, but your ability to return to your body makes you technically alive. No Administrator has ever had the power to access the Human realm directly."
Magnus was puzzled. "What's an Administrator?", he asked.
"Magnus, that is what you are. You became one after you died and were exterminated in the Realm of Trial. Any consciousness that enters the Administrator's Quarters is immediately considered an Administrator, as nothing is allowed to enter the Administrator's Quarters, though re-entry is possible. When you were exterminated, your soul returned to your body, probably by outside intervention, but it also could be that you are special."
Magnus asked again, "OK, but what is an Administrator? You still haven't told me."
"An Administrator is a being who helps run the world. There was a time when they did not exist, but when life became too great a number for the Creator to handle, Administrators were born to handle life. There is an Administrator assigned to each individual planet by the Creator, so don't be surprised when earth's Administrator confronts you. And don't say I didn't warn you."
"Alright, so what can I do? What are my 'New Limits'?", Magnus inquired, getting giddy as his life was suddenly getting more interesting by the second
"Magnus, an Administrator has the power to manifest physically in their domain and influence it. Each Administrator has a planet as their domain and thus are unable to meddle in the affairs in others because they cannot leave their domain, but you are not restricted by the Realm of Trial. You are already in the Human realm. Magnus, you could become the Tribune."
"The Tribune? What's that?!", Magnus exclaimed, already knowing that the sun had risen. "Tell me quickly!"
"This conversation will have to wait..."
The voice faded out into silence, and a new voice took it's place.
"Magnus! Magnus! Magnus wake up! You've got to come with me!"