Atlas's next thought was disoriented, "Where the hell did that voice come from?" It felt as though the sound had reverberated directly into his brain.
Before he could process anything further, a blinding pain struck him once again. This time, however, there were no new attackers—rather, the pain originated from within his own body. Something inside him was heating up and growing, as if his insides were spinning and rotating at impossible speeds.
The agony was unbearable. Atlas wondered if whatever had poisoned the rabbit had been transferred to him through the bloodstream. His anxiety deepened as he could barely move; a strange sensation started to take place, and he could feel a constantly spinning sphere forming within him. Each passing second felt like an eternity as the sphere grew and spun faster and faster, expanding until it seemed ready to explode out of his body.
Then, suddenly, it stopped growing and shrank down to the size of a fist.
The aftershock of such intense pain left Atlas feeling numb. Summoning what little willpower he had left, he began to investigate what had just happened. His first priority was to ensure he wasn't about to be attacked again. He took the rabbit in his mouth and, using his hands, pulled the flower out of the center of the ice lake. He crawled toward the edge of the ice lak-"Wait a second," Atlas said aloud, "my hands are… they're normal!"
His hands, no longer a pierced mess with a piece of straw through the middle, were now strong and veiny. Ecstatic, he looked at his torso that had healed perfectly midway through inspecting it he realized that sensation had returned to his legs as well.
He had somehow healed back to his previous state—and it was even better than before. Atlas stood up, savoring the sensation of having fully functional legs. He stretched each of his toes and started jumping, feeling stronger. With each jump, he soared higher, reaching nearly five meters—twice the normal height, even with the gravity altered.
Recalling the "Warp technique," the mysterious voice, and the spinning sphere, now feeling like a weightless ball in his chest, Atlas began to explore this new development.
He realized there was a mental connection with the sphere, as if he could communicate with it. He attempted to physically touch his chest on the opposite side of his heart but found only a normal, soft surface. Undeterred, he tried imagining touching the sphere with an invisible hand. When that didn't work, he focused his mind on the sphere itself. As he concentrated, he felt the spinning increase in speed, and then he sent a mental command to release whatever was trapped inside.
A small burst of energy shot out from his right index finger, creating an indentation in the snow below. "YES!" Atlas screamed, exhilarated. He had found a way to access the power of the sphere. He was so thrilled that he almost forgot about his situation.
Atlas threw himself into testing this newfound power. He continued trying to establish a deeper mental connection with the sphere. Walking to the center of the lake, he found the spin again and commanded it to release through his index finger once more. Pointing his finger like a gun, he shot downward. The ground cracked slightly, as if someone had taken a pickaxe to the surface. This time, he was able to see the aquamarine aura emanating from his finger.
He repeated this three more times, feeling as though he could continue dozens of times, though he did start to feel a little tired. Next, he decided to investigate what this "Warp" technique was all about. What was it, and how did he access it? Could he communicate with the voice?
Atlas tried the simplest commands.
"Technique warp"
…Nothing happened.
"Warp activate"
…Still nothing.
"Lady who gave me this skill, how do I access it, and can you help me?"
…
Met with deafening silence, he tried to delve deeper into the sphere, hoping to find answers. Instead of trying to extract energy, he focused on exploring the sphere mentally.
He dove into yet another maze this time one inside him that was spinning at insane speeds.
Navigating through a spinning ball mentally was challenging. The deeper he went, the harder it became to progress.
This sphere was not as ordinary as he had thought; it had layers. The outermost layer spun slowly compared to the core. As he progressed past the first, second, and third layers, he reached a fourth layer spinning so fast that he couldn't break through.
Suddenly, a tunnel formed from where he was in the sphere to the outer layer, as if all the spinning had stopped and he could easily access this point again in the future.
At the same time, a space within the sphere opened up, resembling a circular room.
He mentally felt a click and had a weird sensation wash over him as if his body had split into two versions: one tiny and inside the mental connection within the sphere, and the other his normal physical body.
Atlas was surprised when the room kept transforming and at the feeling of having a tiny body in his sphere. Eventually the room stopped expanding being about 4x4 meters if it was scaled to normal sized. Somehow things got even crazier when text appeared in the same format as the timer he had first seen:
{Warp}
Rank - Sentinel
Level - 0/6
"Holy crap," Atlas said aloud, astonished.
He had actually uncovered a secret about the spinning sphere.