"This is your first time seeing the world outside, right?" Will says as he observes Sean's reactions. Him and Sean are both sitting out of nothing, hovering high above the sky. Below their feet are the lush green of leaves from the thick large trees blocking their eyes from further seeing the ground.
"I've seen it in the VR world but the reality is fundamentally different after all. So yes, this is the first time…" Sean observes the green scene beneath his feet and then shift his gaze somewhere in the horizon. "The new world in the new era..." He murmurs. Expanse greens of the striving plant life seemingly took over the lands after the human kind lost control over the area.
In fact, everywhere in the world now has the same fate. Nature is finally taking over their rightful place in the world after more than half of the human population was 'cleared' during the apocalypse. These nature-rich places are the best habitat for the magical beasts where they can rapidly multiply and evolve. Human kind is simply no longer the top of the food chain. They are lying scattered on some corner of these greeneries, encapsulated by the enclosures of their cities.
"We can't be seen from outside right? This feels like we're out in the open and I can't help but feel nervous…" Sean looks at Will timidly.
"Of course… It's as if we are never here to begin with. But, I could turn the interior back to normal if you want to." They are currently in Will's private hover car. Will made it himself and he didn't need to hold himself back in putting all functions and features that he wanted. He never planned to reveal its existence to anyone else after all.
"You don't need to do that. I just need to get used to this if that were the case. I want to see the outside world as much as possible… Green? What is it?" Suddenly, Sean's fairy summon appears and informs Sean about something by doing gestures with its whole body. It looks like its dancing in the air.
"It seems like your two other little friends can sense the surrounding magical beast. They appear to want to go out and fight some of them…" Will says as he observes the dragon, Black, and the slime, Blue.
"I forgot that you could see them all this time… even I don't know where they are these days…" Sean then orders Green to make Black and Blue visible. "You're right, they seem to want to test their powers against the magical beasts."
"Can anyone of them finally speak? Like…. The fairy? Can it speak now?"
"I tried giving them the ability to speak some time ago but only after a bit of testing, something bad happened. It resulted to them getting out of my control… My instructors told me that the stronger they become, the stronger restrictions I should put on them…"
Will observes the summons. They are subtly not as animated as before indeed. Sean also don't often interact with them these days. He don't even bring them up in conversations any longer.
Will looks back at Sean and then gives his own analysis. "They are not so simple at all to begin with. Other Catalysis ability user's materialized energies dissipates back to the atmosphere some time after they get cut off from the links of the internal energy of the caster. In your case, this link won't get cut off unless you deliberately do so. This means you keep giving them 'commands' unconsciously consecutively from the moment you materialized them, until now." Will says as he observes the three strands of energies from Sean that connects to the summons.
In Will's eyes, these strands of energies resembles the veins that pumps up life to the summons. He could see Sean's internal energy lights up as they flow inside the 'veins' towards the summons. "Normally, Catalysis ability users materialize their energies as projectiles, shields, armors, or any other weapons that can be used in battle… or for other circumstances. They simply command them to either shoot, harden, or reshape. They also only have single properties and elements. Compared to yours, other Catalysis abilities are what you should consider giving a 'simple' description…"
Sean nods. "That's right. Giving my summons the ability to speak would give them the ability to give 'me' their thoughts. That could influence my imagination… or rather, 'command' on them to divert somewhere harder for me to predict. For example, right now, if they were to keep asking me to let them fight outside and I happen to imagine the worst case scenario, that 'imagination' could convert into a 'command' for them, making that worst imagination into a reality… My instructors suggested that I should keep my mind away from them whenever I'm in public places or else, some accidents might happen." Sean looks at his summons regretfully. It is so unfortunate, Black in the initial stage looked so animated and alive.
"But you also tried cutting off your links from them before, right?… What were the results, did they retain their personalities?"
"Yes, but they would weaken if they keep moving around. Their personalities, movements…. Their basic programming all requires energy to keep on functioning so they would eventually regress unless I regularly feed them with energy gems. Unfortunately for me, underage are forbidden to go out and slay magical beasts so I had no opportunity to get my hands on some until now... I also did what you told me to keep this matter a secret." Sean says this with dismay, but then, he suddenly took a turn and looks at Will with expectant eyes. "Will, your ability is so amazing. You have countless drones and AI balls that are working all over the world as we speak. They don't seem to have any problems regarding energy cunsumption and they could work continuously for so long…"
Will feels hesitant since he could tell that Sean is anticipating some kind of miraculous tip to counter the flaws of his ability. "Sean, unfortunately, the nature of our abilities don't have any similarities at all. Unlike you, I'm an Imperium ability user. I didn't materialize any of them, I 'influenced' ordinary things to have magical properties. Before they became what they are today, they were technologies with functions already engraved on their chips and processing hardware. I enchanted them to be enhanced and added new features but the energy they hold also gets used overtime. But remember that I have loads of those energy gems counting this day. Most importantly, their AI functions aren't engraved in them for the energy gems to be used. They have the AI function because they are all connected to me through Brain2.0… " Will looks at Sean and feels sorry that he can't help him in this.
"Oh…" Sean knows that fact but he was kind of hopeful to receive some kind of an alternative tip.
"Actually, I thought up other means for you to utilize your ability…" Will is still skeptical about how Sean would take this matter. He kept holding himself back from giving Sean these tips until the day that the latter opens up his heart to him. But it seems to be the right time already.
"Really?"
"Yes… but this also means you will lose your summons… I don't know if you would like that…"
Sean looks at his summons reluctantly. "Lose them…" Sean knows what Will want to say. Even Sean himself finds that his ability seems to be blocked by a large wall that he couldn't get through to reach the next threshold.
Will needs Sean's ability to help him build the 'ultimate weapon' but at Sean's current state, it's questionable whether he could properly help him when there's the possibility that his summons could lose control at any given moment.
Over time, Sean's ability's flaws are becoming more and more apparent. He could be mentally drained just by keeping them in check. The ability to materialize imagination is very broad and versatile for any situations but that doesn't merely stop there. It's also a double edged sword that could bring more harm to Sean and those around him.
As his summons are getting stronger, Sean himself would weaken since he would be preoccupied in constant control over the ticking time bomb that goes wherever he goes. Human mind are subject to change and constantly fluctuate in all different situations after all. Sean is already pushing himself too much just by limit his imagination. His current situation is akin to having gained the amazing gift to materialize his imagination in exchange for his freedom to immerse in his imaginations.
Sean looks in Will's eyes. "But at this rate, I would be useless right? Your plan wouldn't move accordingly to the right track…" Sean wouldn't let his summons get destroyed before because he considers them as his friends. But all along, they were just his imaginary friends materialized by chance because of his ability. He knows by heart that he is limiting himself by keeping his ability as it is. His ability could be so much more if he free himself from his superficial beliefs.
But after all, Sean couldn't just disregard the fact that Black has been there with him through those dark times. This made him reluctant all this while. But after hearing about the imminent danger lurking near Ardent city where his 'real' friends are living, Sean finally realized that keeping his summon friends 'alive' was just his stubborn delusion. "I want to hear about it…" Sean says determinedly.
Will sighs in relief. "Okay… I will send you the compilation of my ideas. There are several of them so give yourself some time to choose from them… " With this, Sean's Point Link bracelet vibrates.
"Thanks…" Sean says and then rubs black's head. "I'm…" he couldn't say he's sorry. The emotion is so overwhelming that it's choking him from saying it out loud. If he say the word, he knows that it will only hurt more. He built so much bond with Black and his summons and what he's about to do is equal to killing them with his own hands.
Sean's eyebrows tightens and his eyes turns downcast. He softly traces Black's scales that feels as real as it could be. The dragon's eyelids lazily falls down, appearing to find Sean's touch pleasant. Blue, the slime glides on the floor and rubs its jelly body on Sean's leg, while the small fairy sits on Sean's shoulder and rubs his little face against Sean's jaw.
The lush of green trees meeting the blue and white skies composes the background while the natural light reduced the shadows falling on their figures. The lively and colorful scenery contradicts so much to Sean's mood like day and night. But actually, he is quite thankful that this is the case or the somber atmosphere would only accentuate if it was the original dim interior of the car.
Will sighs and stands from his chair to rub Sean's hair. "Will…" Sean mutters.
"This is to pay you back for what you did…" Will sinks his hand on Sean's silky hair and combs them softly like what the other did for him last night.
Soon, the white walls of the capital city appears on the horizon. But instead of directly heading there, they have to take a detour and switch to a regular hover car that Will called over to meet them somewhere hidden.
"We're here… Here's your ID…" Will and Sean needs to enter the city officially and be recognized by their pseudo job titles.
Sean receives it and examine the name and title under his picture. Sean Clark, Explorer's organization. Special division assistant advisor. "Wait… there's a special division in your organization, Will?"
"There weren't. But there will be soon. We will be the newly appointed human staff to make these specialized divisions… don't worry, I have all the plans ready. We just need to act all important…"
"What position are you going to play then?..." Sean looks at Will's ID. "You will be the special division technical assistant…" Sean's pseudo position seems to be higher than Will's. This must be so that Will could cover for Sean since the former obviously knows more about the organization. This means that Sean wouldn't have to came up with stuffs since Will 'below' his rank will be there to do the general jobs.
This means that Will could then personally order people around or face other staffs to further develop his organization and oversee its operations himself. His real identity as the organization's founder would still be kept under wraps.
"These will just be hollow pseudo titles. We'll do something much more important… these are just so we can go in and out of the HQ without others bothering us…"
"Okay…"
Near the wall's gate, an AI ball comes to them and escorts them inside the city. They slowly traverse the road towards the explorer's HQ and then head down the underground parking lot.
"Let's go get changed first…" Inside the car, Will takes out two briefcases and hands one to Sean. "We also need to look the part…"
Sean opens the briefcase and sees a simple white dress shirt and black pants, both with luster fabrics. There's also a pair of shoes, socks and a neck tie.
Suddenly, Will takes off his shoes and casual pants, startling Sean.
There are only two seats in the hover car so its really just an elongated dome interior. There's practically nothing here for their covers except behind the car seats so Sean could clearly see the bulge between Will's thighs as he slide his legs on the trunks of his pants. Will then raise his hips and arch his back against the seat to raise his pants up his upper thighs and buns. This puts his bulge in display even clearer and closer to Sean's eyes. Unfortunately, Will sits back down once again as he fixes the pants on his waistline, then buckle and zip it up.
Sean unconsciously takes in an audible gulp. His brain somehow raised its processing speed so he witnessed that in slow-motion just now. Will's white boxer briefs looks clean while the bulge seems actually large up-close. The only thing between Sean's eyes and Will's soft skin and meat was that thin white cloth.
"Sean… you don't need to be shy. Come on. Take it off…" Will says as he raise his arms while clutching the hems of his shirt. He raise them to undress, revealing his peach nipples and clean fair armpits. Will bend his head down and then takes it off from his neck. The tight collar gets caught on his face and it slides off as Will flick his head back up. His hair flip up and exposes his fair forehead. His handsome face finally gets unveiled. His eyes looks especially sharp. He take the shirt off from his arms and exposes the faint collarbones as well as his neck muscles and Adams apple that bobs up and down as he breaths.
Sean couldn't take his eyes off from Will's fair skin as he trace them back down to those adorable peach nipples. Heat rapidly accumulates down his lower abdomen and his neither region slowly hardens up.
Realizing his perverted behavior, Sean finally break himself from his daze as if doused in cold water. He reluctantly turns the chair around to block his eyes from Will's body and then slap his hot and red cheeks to wake up. He then started undressing to get changed before Will notice anything weird going on down his crotch.
Sean made a determination not to let Will know he has feelings for him for now. Not before he could 'trigger' the latter to also start having feelings back for him.
Will opened up his issue with his unknown sexuality and the fact that he will be fine regardless of the gender of the person that he would fall in love with. Sean obviously have a chance. But their conversation that night also made Sean figure out how clueless Will is when it comes to the matter of romance. Will is naturally open about it probably because he have absolutely no clue about how it would feel. If Will happens to find out that Sean have feelings for him, he would naturally be okay with it and even might force himself to try and make it work between them. This is something Sean don't want to happen.
Sean don't want Will to treat his feelings as something like his responsibility. Sean came to this conclusion because this would most likely be how the latter would take it once he finds out. But Sean don't want that. He wants it to be natural and mutual between them.
Will is quite unpredictable because he never shows any flustered behavior, but Sean knows that Will absolutely have no inkling romantic fondness for him. For now that is. Sean now knows that Will likes to be embraced asleep. This was proven last night. The latter don't even mind it if Sean smells him or touch him. Sean could start there. He could slowly seduce Will and make him get used to his presence until he becomes someone irreplaceable for the latter.
But showing the latter Sean's boner once again would be pushing it too much. That's just weird and immoral. That happened last time and Sean vows for that to never happen again. For that, Sean probably need to toughen up his kidney and bladder. There will be much more 'accidents' that might happen in the future because Will is very lax in front of Sean so he would be fine getting undressed in front the latter.
Will is very smart. Once he sees a pattern, he will definitely figure out Sean's feelings for him. The circumstances just now also have the same sequence of events last time when that 'accident' happened. Will was naked and in the middle of getting changed before he accidentally touched Sean's erection. If that happen again now, or any other time in the future, Will would definitely become suspicious. He might even figure out Sean was lusting over his bare body all along. "Which is true…" Sean shamefully murmurs.
If Will figure that out without any romantic feelings for Sean, Will would most probably feel repulsed. Or probably not. Will would most likely feel responsible for it and force himself to understand Sean's feelings and accept it. That could and could not work. That's why, Sean needs to be considerate with his actions in front of Will and make a concrete plan to make the latter willingly fall into his arms. With that, both of them will be mutually involved in the relationship. Both emotionally and physically.
Sean is thinking about this deliberately to get a solid chance to get Will, or perhaps just thinking too much because he's uncertain whether Will would even return his feelings for him anytime in the future. He have no idea but maybe both. Sean heaves a dejected sigh.
Sean finally does the last button in daze as he formulates a plan how to seduce Will. Gladly, his neither region couldn't become too erected because of his anxiousness so he can confidently stand up and fix some small crease on his outfit.
"You looks good…" Will says after seeing Sean appear behind the car seat.
"You look very dashing yourself." Sean calmly replies and act as if his heart didn't almost leap out of his chest.
Later, the two of them finally comes out of the hover car with sleek and formal attire. They directly head for the stairs leading up to the lobby and was then greeted by an AI ball. The AI ball then escorts them and introduces them to the staffs they pass by.
These staffs were directly handed to the explorer's organization from the GEPCA. None of them have any idea about the identity of the founder and they were also instructed to prevent others from prying and sniffing about it.
Will walks along the hallways and greets his employees that have been working for him for quite some time now for the very first time. All the staffs in this building were only few and they were all initially managed by Laurine who was Will's assistant as well as advisor but she ultimately have to go back to the GEPCA once the organization finally settled and formed its systems.
The HQ itself is filled with AI balls that are highly systemized, fitted with all the data needed to handle the matters regarding the explorers and their missions. That's why, there were no need to organize hierarchical status with the few human staff or even need to hire any more than the initial number. In this large building, there are only less than fifty of them that never changed from three years ago.
These staffs are quite lax, have no fixed position and they could be anything from ushers, receptionists to ingredient appraisers. They are more like assistants that have developed the general purpose to make the newly registered explorers not feel too overwhelmed by all the robots and automations. These staffs have broad variety of jobs but they are most useful in hygiene and maintenance, as well as refilling energy gems to the AI balls that are running out of power.
Now that Will have seen it with his own eyes, his management of these people are very sloppy. But gladly, these staffs quite like it this way and even managed to find harmony in the workplace on their own.
Of course, other branches have lesser AI balls and no founder with high secrecy of an identity hiding somewhere so this is not always the case for them. In fact, the branches have systemic structure for the employees.
"Wow, both of them are so young but the founder himself took notice of them and hired them directly right out of their graduation…" a female staff starts a gossip as she watch the figures of Will and Sean moving further away.
"The AI said that sir Sean Clark and sir Will Merlin are both highly qualified in the previous era and are both young geniuses. They are both from the Ardent city and were core people who helped oppose both the zombie outbreak and the dark beasts attack…"
"Wow… so they came from the Ardent city huh?"
"Yeah… both of them were like twelve years old when the zombie outbreak occurred?"
"Oh yeah! Look, I kept thinking that Will Merlin is a very familiar name. It turns out he was the person who first discovered the abilities and disclosed it to the public!" A male staff shows his phone to the others. In it is an article from three years ago about Will Merlin's achievements.
"You're right… wow, he's beyond amazing…"
"Don't you think Sean Clark is related to the Clark enterprise?..."
"Really?"
"I thought so too… I mean, he must also be someone with great achievements or a high pedigree to be personally hired by the founder himself... Right?"
"The Clark enterprise? That's a huge backer… I have about three appliances with the Clark brand at home…"
"I have a Clark ranger car too…"
"Look at my phone…"
"A Clark pro phone…"
"Exactly!"
The staff's eyes looks at Will and Sean's back with both awe and envy.
"Will, this is amazing… I know I've seen it before in the VR world, but wow…" Sean mutters while skimming his visions through the large hall.
Sean then recalls about this place that he already explored several times in the VR world before. But unlike then that was just virtually recreated and was deserted, the reality is very colorful, festive with hope and joy written on the faces of the explorers that are filling the place like a busy market.
There are holographic images floating in the air a few centimeters before the ceiling with various information and news. Some armed explorers are interacting with the holographs on the tables, bars, and walls.
Sean's eyes are brimming with fun and excitement. He is quite well versed with fantasy books, novels, movies and even games just like any other kids and he especially like those tales and concepts that has elements of magical creatures, dragons, and multiple intelligent magical races with magnificent countries and secluded societies. Those stories often depicts the 'guilds' that gives jobs to those who seek adventures much like Will's explorer's organization.
Sean looks up at the large stained glass that are lighting up the interior with pleasant colors. He then looks at the entranceway and see the explorers coming and going.
Seeing the explorer's organization raw with the real explorers going about their day and then comparing their size with the pillars, doors, and windows, Sean realizes once again how mega structure this place is.
The HQ building's exterior resembles a grand cathedral with its thick and strong beams, slabs and walls. The whole structure has a very wide perimeter of fifty-six-thousand square feet and has high ceilings on each five stories. The main entranceway have the largest door with a width that could fit a trailer truck and height that arches just before it could reach the ceiling.
The first floor is for the first, second, and third rankers. They are considered as the 'initial rankers' and still aren't qualified to receive the Point Link bracelet. On the second floor are the place for the fourth, fifth, and sixth rankers that are considered the 'mid-rankers' that accepts relatively dangerous missions and tasks and would then receive the Point Link bracelets to supplement them for higher success rate.
Accordingly, there are the seventh, eighth, and ninth rankers on the third floor. They are the most successful and famed 'high ranked' explorers that are far lesser in numbers. It is considered to be such a great achievement once an explorer becomes qualified step foot in the third floor. It is rumored that there are various exclusive benefits they could get there. Recreational facilities for entertainments, free dorms, personal automated attendants and maids, and most importantly, free meals, snacks, and drinks. However, the few high ranked explorers are actually secretive and personal people so it's not really confirmed what is up there.
The fourth floor is designated solely for the tenth and highest rank. However, there's still currently no one qualified to have that floor. Every single explorers could only wonder and admire the benefits that they could get once they reach the fourth floor. Many speculate that it would probably resemble a high class suite where they would be treated like kings.
The fifth floor is for the founder of the explorer's organization that are out of limits from everyone else except the distinguished people that are escorted by the AI balls with a VIP sign.
"I always speculated that the founder of the explorer's organization was someone influenced by fantasy books as a kid. But I never imagined that the founder was just a kid himself to begin with… Will, do you also read fantasy books as well? I can't imagine this coming from you at all…" Sean casually brings this up.
"Well…" Will don't quite know how to answer this.
Will already knows a long time ago that there exists novels and books in this world that have similar stories to the reality of his previous world. Will studied all relating theories about alternate realities and parallel universes and he came into a conclusion that his previous and current world must be closely related for him to have existed and move on to the next one.
This should be very easy for Will to explain and he even wouldn't mind it whether Sean believe this or not but Will is very reluctant to tell anybody about the tragic story of his previous life. Will thinks of his previous life is his greatest shame. He lived uselessly and died uselessly. He never accomplished a single one of his dreams because he died shortly after starting moving his life according to his plans. Will's choice to end the life of a merchant and move on to settle in the royal capital was such a big mistake that caused him to die pointlessly.
"That's right… something like that…" Will says hesitantly with a bleak expression. He still couldn't find it in himself to open about this to anyone. Even to Sean.
The two passes by the registration space and sees many young adults conversing with AI balls as they are giving their requirements and filling up some documents or reading the protocols and signing up the contacts. They look hopeful and excited about their future. They probably couldn't wait to receive missions so that they could raise their ranks immediately.
"Some of them have bodyguards?..." Sean mutters confusedly after seeing some teenagers imposing an important attitude that are being escorted by people who seems to be their personal attendants or body guards.
Will looks towards the registration area and heaves a sigh of resignation. "There's still this matter…"
There were initially booms of people who choose to traverse the dangerous outside world to register in the HQ despite having a branch there in their cities. Probably hoping that there's some benefits they could get once they push the efforts to do so. But they were wrong and they came here with disappointment. That already calmed down but for some reason, some still does this blindly. They were mostly influential, rich, and powerful people who prefer to and does so just because they can or some who still blindly believes that the organization's founder might come down and sees their worth and hope that they could get a preferential treatment.
"This will eventually settle down given some time… " Will says nonchalantly. Unknown to Will, the explorer's organization's HQ is considered as something like a tourist attraction. Every explorers all over the world want to enter this building at least once in their lifetime.
They then smoothly enters the elevator while the AI ball cleared other people from entering. Will and Sean's destination is the top floor.
"Will… do you think Jess and Rick would eventually chose to join the explorer's organization?…" After seeing those incredible scenes just now, he can't help but recollect his time with those other two while exploring the explorers HQ in the VR world and talked about how it would be if they were there themselves.
"I hope so… I had plans for Rick and Jess too actually. I wanted to form the special divisions for them initially. Their abilities would have been perfect for the 'rogue' special division… "
"Really?" Sean turns surprised that there was this underlying factor.
"But I'm also glad that they decided to stay in the ardent city so they could protect everyone we left behind…"
"So you think about it like that…" Sean could empathize with Will but he still can't help but feel regretful for Rick and Jess.
With a tinkle, they soon finally arrives at the fifth floor.
End of chapter.