Torrin sat at a desk, staring at his hand. Though he'd experienced immense pain when sticking his hand into the liquid energy, the pain had diminished quickly--completely gone in moments.
"What exactly are you?" He questioned the container of energy.
His gaze roamed the room, passing over the cages, the stage with the energy container, and all of his items he'd had to remove from his storage pouch. His eyes landed on the bookshelf. More specifically, the two diaries about Nim's Ascension.
He'd glanced through them briefly and was appalled at the contents, the man was crazier than Grams! He shifted his gaze to the box with a '1' on it, and he walked over to the shelf, retrieving the box.
Popping the top off, he reached into the box, grabbing and studying the tablet.
'Since there's no exit to be found in here, my best bet is trying to find something useful around here.' He thought about his broken ring and sighed heavily. He no longer had any mana source to work with besides the heavy ambient mana of the room.
Torrin prepared himself for the worst; laying his head on the table, he pushed his will into the tablet. The world went dark.
Opening his eyes, he found himself in the same place as before, but he was standing before the raised platform at the back of the room.
"This recording shall be a testament to my Ascension," A middle-aged man smiled softly, staring directly at Torrin, or at least in his direction, as he spoke, "A lasting legacy of my greatness. 500 years ago, I reached what I believed was the peak of power. A shining blue core in my young chest, I felt invincible. At that time, I was called Emperor Nim," the man paused, letting his words sink in.
The man was of an average height, long silvery hair with eyes like pools of darkness. The hair reached far down his back, reaching the waist-line of the loose black pants he wore. A loose black tunic covered the top part of his body, embroidered with silver runes etched across it in a flowery design.
A look of contemplation appeared on his face, as if deciding which part of his story to tell next.
"I had everything a man could desire--A grand palace that stretched for miles, lands covering an entire continent, artifacts and potions, pills and elixirs, formations that could generate mana so dense, it would solidify if you didn't absorb it fast enough. Women flocked to my palace in droves, wishing for me to bed them, begging me to grace them with a bastard of mine," A sly smile appeared on Nim's face, "And of course I obliged!"
'What an arrogant bastard.' Torrin would have rolled his eyes if he could.
"I was young and foolish, brash and impulsive... I probably sired thousands of bastards over the years." The man at least had the good sense to look sheepish at this statement, "Ahem, I bring this up because if you're viewing this, that means you are of my bloodline in some way, meaning you are worthy of becoming the heir to my legacy!" The slightly embarrassed expression was replaced by a broad grin, arms spread wide, as if he'd just revealed the world's greatest secret.
'Ah, shit, Little Lark! Who knew your ancestor was such a creep? What could this guy have that I would want?'
"No matter how faint the trace, only my descendants will be able to access this place once I lock the doors. So, let me begin by explaining what you may receive." The man said, as if reading Torrin's mind, "It is not material wealth--I have found that is almost useless in the end-- No, what I offer you... is knowledge." The man continued, pacing back and forth across the same raised platform of the current day.
This platform also had the container, but it wasn't completely filled with liquid energy. Looking past Nim, he could see there was a human and what he assumed to be a member of the race represented on the door with golden runes. They stood beside the nearly empty container, adding what looked like golden crystals into it; faint wisps of that golden energy were circling around inside the container.
"After years of debauchery I realized that my Empire had nothing left to offer me. I was stronger than anyone else, my lands stretched from coast to coast, and I was empty," His expression turned sad at the thought, "The finest dishes began to taste like ash. Bedding women no longer brought pleasure. There was no one to fight anymore, and everyone feared me…" He trailed off in a wistful tone.
'I get it, I get it, rich and powerful. Knower of everything. Fucker of women... Get on with it already…' Torrin was beginning to get annoyed at the rambling speech.
"I eventually left my empire, travelling the world recklessly, challenging any demonic plane, dimensional rift, and every dark dungeon I could find--by myself--to try and find meaning. Conquering these places, gaining more battle prowess, this was what I needed! Growth! I found myself becoming stronger once more! I condensed my core, turning it purple--Something unheard of in my day. But soon enough, I had conquered everything I could find, I was no longer challenged. I had found a new peak of power, and I sat atop it... Alone... I could find no joy once again."
The man sighed, shaking his head at the memory before continuing, "I was saved from my depressing existence by the discovery of another world," his words were flowing quicker, clearly excited. "This world was connected to ours by a small Dimensional Pathway. I explored this world and soon realized that it was much weaker than ours, not only the people there but the very energy itself had less potential."
The man paused his pacing and looked back towards Torrin. Torrin thought he may have been talking about his world.
"The world did not impress me; the world itself offered me nearly nothing. I had vast amounts of resources and wealth, as I said, I wanted for nothing but to grow my strength. But what it did offer me was something simple. Hope! With the discovery of a lower world with weaker energy, I theorized that there must also be a higher world! With a stronger energy!"
The man was almost bouncing on his toes at this point like a little kid getting excited.
"My friend here is from one such higher world... The Highest World." His tone became serious when mentioning this. "I traveled through many inter-connected Dimensional Pathways, seeing various worlds, races, and cultures. Fighting strong opponents and sharpening my skills. It was at this time that I learned of ascension. A way to surpass this very universe, going into the unknown."
"Once I heard about ascension, I found my way to the Highest World, the supposed birthplace of the first person to ascend. In this world were a powerful race of beings that had tremendous power from birth." Clearing his throat, he motioned towards the "friend". "This race was named the Dromo."
'Eh? Isn't that what Grams was going on about? That guy's one of the Dromo?' He thought, glancing over at the being as it turned, facing Torrin.
Torrin took in the appearance of the Dromo, really analyzing it for the first time. The Dromo had scaly skin, it looked very sleek, and black like an endless void--it seemed to absorb light around it. The head of the Dromo was the same shape as that of a human, but at the temples, the scales continued straight up, arching before peaking like some sort of horns. There was no hair upon its head. The eyes were a vibrant gold, they almost seemed to glow as they reflected light from above, and red flecks were visible floating around within the iris.
"... A higher energy than mana," Torrin realized he'd missed something Nim had said so he focused more intently on the man, "They call this energy Saen."
'A higher energy than mana? Is that the golden energy? Sign, huh?' Torrin thought, sounding out the word in his mind.
"The reason I've built this lab, is for testing purposes. It is possible to adapt one's body to another energy, strengthening it just as we do with mana. Even forming the capability to harness its power. However, no human has ever enhanced themselves with Saen, I'm unsure if one has even seen it before in such a form," He said, motioning towards the container that was slowly filling with the golden smoke.
"As for testing, I have gathered a few... Ahem, candidates. We will test out the best way to absorb the energy, and once we know what that method is, I shall go through the process myself, forging my body anew with the energy. Turning into the strongest human ever." Nim finished his speech wearing a shit eating grin.
"The point of this recording, my descendant, is to give you this information as well, so that when you are ready to ascend, you shall also have a perfect body. That is my gift to you as my heir; The legacy you have inherited." The man clasped his hands in front of him, dark eyes seeming to pierce through the recording, analyzing Torrin. He nodded towards Torrin and the world blurred.
Keeping his head on the desk, Torrin's thoughts whirled endlessly. His foremost thought was not of Saen, or becoming stronger. The main thought he kept coming back to was how terrifying the Dromo was.
He eventually got up and walked towards the container, grimacing as he passed the corpses of the "candidates". Looking at the container, he couldn't help shaking his head.
'This energy is far denser than in that recording...' He thought, examining the swirling liquid mass.
Torrin winced as he thought back to the pain he'd felt in his hand as he'd accidentally touched the energy--His writhing flesh, his cracked ring. He looked back to his perfectly normal looking hand, flexing it, trying to feel a difference.
'I'm not sure if it did anything...' Torrin thought, his curiosity peaked.
He sat on the platform and entered a meditative state, allowing his thoughts to wash over him, before they finally petered out.
The first thing he noticed was the bright sun of energy that was the container of Saen. He looked inwards, comparing his left and right hands. The Mana Pathways of his right hand were a bit wider than the ones of his left.
'So it did do... Something...' Surprised his short contact with Saen had a lasting effect.
Standing back up, he walked over to the skeletons. Reaching into the cage, he grabbed onto an arm of a skeleton, removing the humerus. The colorful bone was much heavier than he expected and he tested its strength by smashing it on the ground repeatedly.
After repeated heavy smashes, the bone finally broke.
'Damn! That's definitely way more resilient,' he thought as his gaze turned back towards the glowing tank of energy.
Torrin sighed, knowing what he was going to do next. He walked back to the shelves on the other side of the room and took down the box labeled '2'. There were 5 labeled boxes in total. Just like the first one, the second box also contained a tablet, which he promptly prepared himself to enter.
The second tablet held a much longer recording, and as Torrin returned to himself, he found he was visibly shaking. He wasn't sure if it was from excitement or fear.
'That bastard Nim is truly wicked...' Torrin thought with a scowl, looking back to the cages containing the bones, 'Who would do that to his own descendants?'
The first thing he'd learned from the second recording was how Saen was spelled, which he found helpful to some minute degree. That was the only good thing he'd learned...
The second recording had shocked Torrin thoroughly. He found out that the skeletons belonged to close relatives of Nim. They were all blue-core mages who hadn't reached the purple-core stage. Apparently, they hadn't even known it existed. Since Nim found them to be strong for their ages and had his blood running through their veins, he chose them as test subjects for his experiments with Saen.
Learning that there was a further stage of advancement, they got trapped by a thirst for power.
The tests went on for a very long time... And eventually, they found a decent method of absorbing the energy into the human body, a way to cycle it so that it could be distributed evenly throughout the body, seeping into the skin, organs, flesh and bones. Every part of the body was eventually baptized in the energy, becoming something greater.
The main reason Nim had his "friend" helping with the experiment, was so that the Dromo could forcibly cycle the Saen into the test subjects. Nim took no chances on his descendants possibly rioting or escaping, he used an advanced mana suppression seal on them so their cores became drained and locked down.
The only energy that moved through them was what Nim and the Dromo desired. They had no control over the proceedings. The shouts and begging soon turned to sobs and silence as the tests began being conducted.
In the second recording alone, there were over twenty descendants that perished from the process. Only five survived the initial testing. Torrin wanted to vomit as he thought of the dead looks in their eyes.
'Those five survived, but they definitely weren't living...' He thought solemnly.
Torrin glanced back to the shelf and sighed wearily. He had three more boxes to get through and was not looking forward to any of it.