3D POV, Valhalla :
A group of eleven people were laying at the bottom of a hole, resting before continuing through the door that had opened.
It was only when all the water had drained that a normal stone wall opened and revealed a hidden passageway behind it.
"I think we should keep on going, this is probably part of the ceremony so we should not let the elders wait too long." Bohr said lifting himself up
Everyone agreed and entered the corridor.
What they were greeted with once they existed on the other side was an astonishing spectacle. An enormous hole was descending in front of them, the bottom of it is pretty far down but stayed visible thanks to the lake of magma flowing and bubbling within it, giving the crater a red glow.
In contrast to this sinister ambience you could see three giant spheres and multiple structures made out of an unknown material located at the mouth of the pit.
Connecting to those spheres were thick cables and pipes rising into the ceiling and walls in a chaotic fashion
[Welcome to the geothermal energy and temperature management facility under the Vulcan overseer]
"Haha, thank you for this introduction.", an old man that had appeared out of nowhere said. The group was startled at first before they recognized their elder shaman, also called the great elder presiding over the council of elders.
"We pay our respects to the great shaman.", we quickly put our left hand to our heart and bowed slightly in a Valhallan greeting.
"Please don't be nervous, this is your great day after all. Let me explain where we are right now, we are currently standing in the heart of the mountain.
It is here that the gods obtain their energy to raise and protect our clan located above. Recently the temperature inside the dome has dropped and many animals have stopped appearing in their territory.
At first we thought that the heart was dying but we were recently able to find out that something was taking the gods power away from them. "
This was dumbfounding, I knew about the temperature gradually falling, everyone knew. But we just assumed that the winter outside the mountain was harsher than usual.
This means that this giant heater under our village that was alimenting our lands to stay habitable was now failing, or rather something was taking the energy away from it?
"I am sorry great shaman, while I do hope that we can find a way to stop this, why are you talking about this during our coming of age ceremony?" Rhin asked respectfully
"Yes, of course. Every coming of age ceremony has three trials, the first one is the fighting tournament to test your strength. The second is the prison, where you are locked in a room with a certain set of tasks that will test your mind, seeing as you came from the entrance behind you means that you went through the "well of war" under the great god Mars.
The last trial which you have yet to face will test your courage and insight. It can be whatever we, the elders, want. Most of the time we send you through either the west, north-west or south-west tunnels to retrieve artefacts or any other relic the ancients may have left there.
Now as I said before, the gods' energy is being stolen, and for situations where the clan needs young warriors to access the tunnels we give you a task for the final trial.
This time the trial is to find whatever is stealing from us inside the northern tunnel, bringing back any artefacts will give you more merit. Don't try to stop it, a being that can steal from the gods cannot be beaten by younglings like you."
Bohr was still unsure about something so he asked the shaman, "But why do you not do so yourself ? I mean the tunnels are dangerous for us, you constantly warn us about them, we aren't even adults yet, w-we-"
"I can understand your question and your concerns, young one… We adults can only enter the tunnels once, the southern tunnel that brings us out of the mountain being the exception.
As for the threat you may face inside… worry not, as long as you are careful you will not die, we have given this task to the last generation and most of them made it back alive… even though none of them found the god's thief." The elder shaman's words did not help in calming the group; it did quite the opposite actually.
The way towards the northern tunnel went by in a blink of an eye for Matt, he finally had the opportunity to adventure into the ruins and discover more about this world but he was still thinking about the code that activated something unknown, the reactor that was staying right below his feet all along and all the problems that are threatening his new home.
"Don't think too much about it." focusing on what was around him again, Matt saw Astrid looking straight into his eyes smiling sweetly at him. "We will go through everything together so please, don't worry about it."
This made Matt realise that whatever was coming would not stop with him stressing over, his only choice was to prepare and become stronger to protect his people from the unknown.
"You are right, let's make it through this challenge together before taking on the next one." Matt said now sure of what to do.
In front of him was a giant door about 3 or 4 meters high and wide. It's metal exterior in prime condition contrasted with the overgrown and lush forest around it that had already encrusted itself in the stone walls around it.
"Once you approach the door one of the gods will give you a certain amount of time to enter to the other side and come back, the way is very long so make sure you come back soon enough or you will stay out there... and become an outcast." the elder said carefully making sure all of us understood him.
They all nodded and stepped closer to the gate.
[Scanning users…]
[Mathew Ward, Astrid Bergesen, Falco Smith, Rhina Beaumont…]
[Searching for entry authorisation, please wait for the process is complete]
[0.1%, 523 minutes left]
"Go now!" the elder behind them shouted. Following his words, they rushed into the doors that were still in the process of sliding into the walls and were met with a dark underground passage.
They still ran forward hoping that they would catch a light at the end of the tunnel. But stopped after one of them bumped into another causing both of them to lose their way.
"Shit where are we supposed to go now ?" "Hey! Who pushed me?"
Matt wasn't able to judge the situation in this complete darkness.
'Hey, is there a way for me to see in the dark?'
[Hello host, as you have reached a symbiotic state with your I am now able to concentrate my resources into other functions. It has been detected that your body is now in a 'healthy' state; you are also able to access Project phoenix's entire capabilities.]
[Remaining Focus upgrades available, do you wish to integrate them as well ?]
[YES / NO]
'Sure, why did the complete focus integration only show up now though?'
[It was deemed that you were previously not able to survive the integration, please prepare for data transfer.]
'Not able to survive? But you are just putting the data into the nanobots inside me right? Right?'
[Initiating cerebral transfer.]
"This must be a jo-" *AARGH*
Matt fell, kneeling on the ground holding his head, and even though he couldn't be seen by his friends, all of them were able to hear his scream.
"Matt!? Are you oka-" Astrid that was next to him immediately came to his side
"Fuck! Sorry, yes, yes I'm alright." Matt was breathing roughly and stood up again.
'Shit it hurts. At least I get over it faster now, spartan training and shitty ceremonies have their advantages I guess.'
[Devices successfully integrated into hosts body]
[Central neuronal phoenix control created.]
[Fusing nanobot options and awakened helix parts.]
[Creating a special interface to display new options.]
A purplish screen with stripes of cyan and blue appeared but strangely enough it didn't seem to be a hologram as nobody else saw it.
[Actually host. This is a hologram. One that is directly projected into your eyes. Please consult the nearest ophthalmologist if any sight problems are detected.]
Matt ignored that last comment and rather focused on what the panel showed him.
______________________________________
Name : Matthew Ward
Age : 16
Mutation : Dream reaper (Partially locked)
Mental state : Annoyed, Curious
Skills :
User menu / status : Show user information
Scan : Detect surrounding informatic devices and machines. Can also reveal precise information if the target has been recorded.
Track : Target a nearby entity and display its location.
Minor data control : Aggressively retrieve data from blocked devices. Has great computational capabilities.
Holographic projection : Display a small hologram of your choice near you.
Cold blooded : Reduce your body's metabolism to reduce consumption at the cost of efficiency.
Heat vision : Detects infrared light and converts the radiation into an image.
Other biologic abilities that are not connected to the system have been detected, please discover these on your own.
You can now name your system and rename your microbot array.
_____________________________________
'Woah. I was wondering when I'd finally get a real system. Alright I'll call you Samus.'
[Unoriginal name detected, for copyright reasons, please choose another.]
'What, really? Oh, then what about Aiden?'
[... Name accepted, hello host my name is Aiden. Please choose a new name for Phoenix nano-]
'Let's just call them dusk, and while I would like to spend another thirty minutes asking you about all this, I still have a timed trial that is going on so catch you later'
[You know that I am still here right? ]
Matt stood up again and activated his heat vision ability. The darkness that was laid before him was quickly replaced by a new pallet of colors. Most of the tunnel and the things that were previously hidden to him were now in a dark blue hue showing how cold this place was and giving him an outline of his surroundings.
His friends and the clothes they were wearing however showed colors that were much more varied, ranging from light blue to red. One red ball that just appeared particularly drew his eye.
Falco noticed his stares then explained, "Oh, yeah… I brought along some alcohol from John's tavern so I made a torch... I wanted to see you struggle a bit but then you kinda fell and… well you know."
All of the others looked at him as if he was an idiot.
"Anyways, let's get going. I just had a small chat with my spirit. I'm fine." Matt took the lead this time and advanced forward.
The tunnel was far from hospitable, icicles and frozen snow covered diverse crates and broken vehicles. These obstacles would have made their travel through the tunnel much more complicated if they had stayed in the dark.
As they reached the other side, a broken door was before them.
"Bohr, how long." Rhin asked the big guy next to her
"46 minutes, as long as we have some light we can easily make it back in 40 minutes now." Bohr responded. He had counted every second on their way to give them a deadline to come back.
Falco was the first to go forward, "Alright, then as planned we split up and get back here on time. Bye suckers."
He then ran off leaving the rest in the dark again. Luckily for them, some light came from the rooms behind the broken door so they wouldn't need more to search around in there.
All of them split up again except for Astrid, who didn't want to leave Matt's side and proceeded to explore this ruin together.
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