Chapter 2: Preparation
Lucas stumbled through the doorway of his apartment, the transition from the blank, featureless white void to the dim, cluttered space was disorienting. The room seemed more vivid than before, sharper, as if his senses had been recalibrated. The smell of stale coffee and the faint humidity of the evening air filled his nose. Outside, the drizzle softened the edges of the city skyline, and the gray clouds loomed heavy above. The sound of the rain tapping against the window matched the rapid thumping of his heart. For a moment, he stood frozen in the doorway, letting the steady rhythm of the storm calm him.
His hands, now back In the familiar confines of his apartment, felt ordinary. No tingle. No rush of energy. Everything appeared as it had been—his desk, the flickering glow of the monitors, his phone on the desk, just as it had been before. The world was unchanged, but it wasn't. He was.
I just… left. That place… the white room. What was it?
Lucas closed his eyes, breathing deeply. The feeling of the void still lingered—an unsettling mix of emptiness and infinite possibility. He wasn't sure if the sense of awe or dread outweighed each other. Both had settled into the pit of his stomach.
But the familiar hum of his monitors grounded him. His apartment, his small corner of the world, was unchanged. It was safe, predictable. But his mind felt anything but.
With slow, deliberate steps, he moved toward the desk. His chair creaked under his weight as he sat, the cool air from the window brushing across his skin. It felt almost comforting, the mundane feeling of being back in his apartment. Almost.
He glanced at the laptop in front of him. His hand hovered over it for a moment, fingers barely brushing the surface, unsure. There was so much to consider. So much unknown.
I need to understand this. I can't rush in blindly.
Testing the Limits
The thought lingered in his mind as he sat there, feeling the familiar weight of the laptop before him. With a steady breath, Lucas pushed aside his swirling thoughts and focused.
The phone on his desk. It lay there, an object he'd used a thousand times before, but now, it was something more. He extended his senses, feeling the air around it, listening to the faint electrical hum of the device. He could feel the surface, the texture of the plastic, but there was something else beneath it. The underlying flow of information, the connection between the device and the web of the world beyond it, was now almost palpable to him. It wasn't just a phone. It was a complex system—a network of connections and data, a part of the larger world.
Without moving a finger, he focused on the phone. Unlock.
The lock icon vanished as if it had been erased from existence. His heart skipped. There had been no physical interaction. No button pressed. But the phone had obeyed, unlocking itself as if his mind had simply willed it. The sense of control was unnerving.
Lucas sat still for a moment, processing. His thoughts moved rapidly, flowing in a way that almost felt alien. Every second seemed to stretch out longer, his mind digesting information at an impossible rate. He could feel it, the way his senses had heightened. The world felt more detailed now, more alive. Each input—every touch, every sound, every scent—was processed instantly. His brain was no longer working at the pace it once had. It was faster. Sharper.
But there was more. He didn't just sense the world differently. He understood it.
His fingers hovered over the keyboard of his laptop. He didn't need to touch the keys to know what was happening. His mind could trace the flow of the circuits, the transfer of data, the logic behind the operation. His thoughts sped ahead of his actions, anticipating what was next before he even gave the order. His mind worked like a machine, sifting through information at unimaginable speeds, sorting and categorizing it like a library of infinite files.
This is… not just speed. It's something else.
Lucas' thoughts raced in parallel, effortlessly weaving through the vast web of knowledge he now felt connected to. He could hear the quiet hum of the laptop's internal components, feel the data flow through his brain, as though each action had already been written out for him. He reached for the router. His mind cataloged the settings, the configuration, the way the internet service was structured. Without moving from his seat, he made the adjustments. Simple commands, simple changes, but it felt like unlocking a secret world—his control was absolute.
Lucas leaned back in his chair, eyes unfocused as he let the weight of the new reality settle over him. The rain outside was now falling harder, the steady rhythm of droplets against the glass almost hypnotic. He could hear it in every corner of the room, feel the slight chill in the air creeping through the window. But his mind was elsewhere, sorting through the flood of information. There was so much now. So many pieces to store, so many layers to consider.
He blinked, and suddenly, every detail from the moment he'd arrived in this apartment, to the soft hum of the air conditioning, to the individual components of his laptop, was cataloged in his mind, each detail as easily accessible as a file on a desktop. A quick thought, a slight tug on his consciousness, and he could pull up any piece of information he had stored.
It wasn't just about speed anymore. His mind had become a vast repository of knowledge, processing the world around him In ways he hadn't fully comprehended before. Each sense was heightened. He could taste the faint bitterness of the air in the room, the subtle shift in the temperature, the way his heartbeat felt slightly slower in contrast to the speed of his thoughts.
I can do more than control things. I can understand them. I can know them, instantly.
The thought felt as if it had always been there, waiting just beyond the surface of his awareness.
He wasn't just thinking faster. He was thinking deeper, with an understanding that went beyond the surface of things. He wasn't merely processing information; he was absorbing it, storing it in neat, organized files, always ready to be accessed.
The potential was enormous. With this power, there were no limits.
His mind drifted back to the gateway on his laptop, the swirling vortex that had beckoned him earlier. Eldrin's Grimoire. The world of magic and power. The world he would soon enter.
But not yet. He had to be ready. He could feel the weight of the decision. It wasn't just about knowledge anymore. It was about survival.
The rain outside continued, the sky darker now as the storm deepened. The tension in the room felt palpable, as if the world itself was holding its breath, waiting for him to make the next move.
Tomorrow, Lucas thought. Tomorrow, I'll go. But tonight, I prepare.