He blinked open his eyes and saw the goateed old man smiling down at him.
Confusion gripped Braydon Neal as he realized he was lying on a bed.
Rubbing his swollen head, he queried, "How long was I out?"
"Three years," came the matter-of-fact reply from the artifact spirit.
Braydon's face paled at the revelation.
Three years?
That couldn't be right!
If that much time had passed, the aborigines would have already overrun the outside world.
"Don't fret," reassured the artifact spirit. "Three years in Star Tower equates to just 3.6 months in the outside world."
Relieved, Braydon let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
There was still time.
With that comfort, he closed his eyes and began to sift through the complex memories flooding his mind.
Among the inherited memories bestowed upon him by the tower's owner were 108 secret techniques, all centered around the manipulation of time and space.