Rare rays of light entered the room, making their way through the thick curtains. Conor was lying on the bed, half-asleep.
The room itself was like a perfect geometric figure, without a single hitch. The only thing that stood out on the flawless surface of the wall was a window with curtains. There was not a single sound in this geometric perfectionism. Not even Conor's breathing seemed to exist.
The door of the room opened. Door? Was there a door in the room? It probably was. Perhaps the boy just did not notice her.
A man entered through the doorway, whose appearance Conor could never forget, no matter how much he wanted to. A man whose words and actions shaped his personality when he was a child. A man who, for the first time in his life, showed him the world of science and knowledge. His father entered the room.
Conor was still in a semi-conscious state, but even so, he felt an unprecedented melancholy and nostalgia. For the first time in a long time, he saw something native in this godforsaken, medieval world.
His father slowly walked over to the bed, sat silently on it, and looked Conor in the face. That look was like a swift arrow that cuts through time and space. This gaze cut through all the masks and images that Conor created during his stay in this world. It's like he's stripped his soul.
-D... Dad...
Conor mumbled in disbelief.
For him, this whole scene was extremely shocking. Were all these events in the new world a dream? Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed how the empty room gradually took on the features of ... his own room. All posters of science fiction films took their rightful place on the walls. To the right of his bed, a bookshelf grew out of the void. He kept his favorite books there, from the encyclopedia that his father gave him to novels and textbooks on quantum physics.
A long-forgotten feeling, he was... at home. In all this turmoil, Conor gradually forgot that he was not a resident of that cultivation world. This was not his homeland and not his home. He was only a visitor, a guest, but not a host.
- Hello, Conor.
His father said with a warm smile on his face.
The first sound that Conor heard for a long time was the voice of his father, from which it unpleasantly ached in his chest, as if you were looking at a shop window where there was a thing that you previously owned and cherished very much, but irretrievably lost.
-H...Hi, dad...
Conor answered in a confused voice.
-How are you, son? Are you doing good?
He wanted to cry. He had not felt this unconditional kindness and warmth for so long that he was not ready for such a seemingly natural thing when he received it.
- I... I...
Conor couldn't find the words.
"Am I okay? Am I really coping?"
-Dad, I'm...trying, I'm in a very strange and cruel place that I don't even fully understand yet, but I'm trying...
His father silently nodded at his answer, after which he asked with the same calmness.
-Will you come back soon?
One single question struck Conor like lightning, but really, when will he return? How will he return? What will he need to do to do this? Will he make it? Is it even possible? Doubt tormented Conor like ravenous crows.
"I... I don't know, but I found out about such a thing as cultivation. I feel like if I succeed in it, I'll be able to understand what I need to do."
Conor didn't fully understand until he said it, but the cultivation was probably the only way for him to return. If he cultivates, he will probably be able to comprehend the Dao, and maybe one day, he will understand it to the point where he will know how to return to his home.
"But... Will I make it? How long will it be before I can return? One year? Ten years? A thousand years?" Conor asked himself.
He found himself in one of the most incredible situations he could ever get into, being transported to another world right from the threshold of the University, fighting for survival, cultivating, trying to assimilate into this new society.
He had only been in this new world for a couple of weeks, but more events had already happened during that time than in a significant part of his life. He fought, overcame, and prevailed as he could. Previously, Conor did not even think that he had so much determination and willpower, but apparently, the circumstances encouraged him to take previously unthinkable actions.
- Okay, we'll wait for you, but be careful.
Again, his father's words were like a stake in Conor's heart, although he was no longer a complete child in mind. For him, such emotional upheavals were new. After all, he never thoroughly thought about the cause and effect of his emotions because, in science, emotions are just an extra element that can lead to a stupid mistake. That was the reason he never considered emotions as something serious. So simple human experiences evoked a cascade of different feelings and emotions, which he had practically never experienced before.
- Thanks, dad...
This whole situation was extremely mystical, but then something happened that, in a normal situation, Conor would have considered a hallucination. He heard a voice, extremely distorted, creaking, and unpleasant. He spoke one slurred word. Conor looked around for the source of the sound. He stood up from the bed and began to walk around his room, trying to find this voice. After a while, he realized that the voice was coming from behind the door. Approaching it, Conor suddenly felt cold, comparable to what he had experienced in the snowy desert. Along with that, he felt fear. A shackling, chilling feeling of fear spread through the veins and did not allow moving even one muscle.
It is unknown how long he stood like that with a feeling of animal fear, but with a titanic effort of will, Conor finally grabbed the door handle and abruptly opened it.
As soon as he opened it, the room suddenly disappeared, and an impenetrable void remained. There was not a single ray of light here, it felt like the darkness was looking at you, and you could not hide anything.
After a couple of moments, or a couple of hours? No one knows, but a strange object appeared in front of Conorm in a fabric case, this thing was about two meters high, but at the same time, it was no more than a centimeter thick.
Instinctively, without even thinking much, Conor reached for the fabric and pulled it off the thing in one motion.
Beneath the piece of cloth was a full-length mirror.
-What...
Conor spoke softly.
He saw himself in the reflection. But not the little child who was trying to learn how to live in the new world, but his face and body from his homeworld.
He saw a young man who stood on the threshold of the University.
Tall, with jet black hair and blue eyes as deep and beautiful as the ocean. Looking at himself, he realized that the voice was coming from here. And the word, the very unpleasant sound that cut the ears, came from the reflection. When he realized that, Conor, unknown to himself, suddenly yelled along with his expression in the mirror.
- WAKE UP!!!
Conor opened his eyes and jumped out of bed. He was drenched in a cold sweat and tried to process what had happened to him. He was in his room in the tower, and there seemed to be nothing strange around. His father, the sound, the mirror, and the scream that seemed to come from the depths of his soul all turned out to be just a dream, just a dream...
Then the memories came back to him.
"I broke into the Soul Formation Realm, after which everything was in a blur... The last thing I remember is how that strange symbol somehow changed my brain... I'll have to ask Alrik what it is and how it works."
Slowly recovering, Conor assumed that after his breakthrough on the roof, he fell unconscious, and therefore was now in his room. Alric most likely carried him. Immediately, he tried to look deep into his body to find out if everything was all right with him, and to his surprise, an incredible thing happened ...
A clear picture of all his insides appeared in his head. It was like a 3D model that he saw simultaneously from all angles, and each layer was available to him at a glance. An incredible feeling, as if all the available information about his body appeared in his mind instantly.
"Wow... If only I could observe other objects in the same way... Wait a minute..."
After this thought, Conor immediately tried to "feel" the bed on which he was sitting in the same way, and to his surprise ... He succeeded!
"It's ... just incredible! I can see and feel every bump in the bed frame, I see every cut and every nail, how much easier it will be to conduct researches now..."
After playing with his newfound ability a little more, he realized one thing.
"With this, any problem with monitoring the progress of the experiments will be solved."