Peace After a Hurdle

[Arius POV]

After walking into the portal, I felt the feeling of being launched into the air and getting dragged across a long distance. It only happened for an instant before I felt like I hit a solid surface. I feel my senses go numb and my body freezes before I regained my ability to move.

Slowly opening my eyes, I find myself lying on the ground in the exact same position as I saw on the screen in Duargeinhelm.

'What just happened?'

Looking around I quickly see the ground soaked with blood and the many bodies of goblins laying around. I get up and start looking around. Before long I see what I'm looking for and run over to Sister Lorraine and Big Brother Jaque.

Seeing the state of the two, I ball both my hands into fists and grit my teeth trying not to cry. In the end, I couldn't stop the floodgates from opening as streams of tears started pouring from my eyes.

"sniff...I'm sooooorry, Big Brother Jaque...Sister Lorraine... I'm sorry for being so weak, I couldn't help. Don't worry anymore, I will get stronger now!"

Sister Lorraine was bleeding from many small wounds all over her body. Big Brother Jaque had two arrows sticking into his arm and one of his arms had turned black. Carefully looking at his arm, I notice a blue glowing ring around Brother Jaque's shoulder that seemed to prevent the black from spreading. Other than Big Brother Jaque's black arm, their complexions were thankfully alright and their breathing was normal.

Not knowing exactly what to do, I decided to at least get them off the floor and onto the wagon where the hay could let them rest better. Walking over to Big Brother Jaque, I grab onto his torso, avoiding the arrows sticking out of him, and using the muscles in my arms and legs to try and lift him.

"Woah!"

I suddenly lifted Big Brother Jaque like he was a pile of leaves and fell over back onto my back. Looking towards the sky in a daze, I go through what little information I had in my brain to explain why I got so much stronger. While deep in thought, I flipped my hand and a screen appears in front of me. My eyes widened in shock, I didn't consciously do that action, it happened on its own as if it was muscle memory.

'Hmm... Looking at this screen, I must have awakened. That's why I got so strong, and I knew how to summon it.'

While you gain for info sheet in your coming-of-age ceremony, gaining access to the info sheet is called Awakening. Your coming-of-age ceremony is simply a method to force your awakening to happen.

When you awaken, you gain a boost in all physical attributes, that's why you typically only start training and leave the protection of your home after you turn 10 and awaken.

With my newfound strength, I quickly carried both Big Brother Jaque and Sister Lorraine to the wagon, which was now broken in many places with arrows sticking out of it. Placing them in the wagon, making sure that they were comfortable, I sat down on the ground, leaning against the wagon with my hands behind my head.

With my back leaning against the wagon, I remember that I had gotten slashed there by the goblin. Feeling my back, I noticed that there was no pain and no wound.

"How did it heal?"

{... .... May I answer your inquiry?...}

"WA! Dakria, you scared me! Waaait, why can I still hear you? Didn't I leave?"

{As the one and only MasterMind Core, this level of telepathy is but one of the countless abilities I possess.}

The voice had a prideful and expectant tone as if it wanted a certain response.

'Wow, that's amazing! What else can you do?'

{...um... well you see... due to just activating today, I can only use...um... telepathy...}

'ohh'

I responded with disappointment as I was expecting more or at least a few cool abilities to be named. CRACK! I heard something crack in my head but more sounds of things breaking and getting destroyed rang in my ears.

{HEY! I can do a lot of things like creating mythical weapons and operating world-ending machinery!}

'But you can't do that right now. Right?'

{... ... yeah... I can't}

Oblivious to the disappointment and despair emanating from Dakria's voice, I remember the original question and quickly fire it.

"Sooo, how did my injury on my back heal?"

{...*sigh*...Remember the shiny rock you picked up earlier in the day? That was a small piece of impure mithril and I used that to heal you and bring you to Duargeinhelm.}

Listening to what she said, I quickly check my pockets and pulled out a small pile of rumble which should have been the glowy rock from before. Slowly letting the rumble fall out of my hand, I ask Dakria another question on my mind.

"Dakria, why did I feel like I was being tossed around before I woke up?"

{You, more specifically your soul, was transferred from Duargeinhelm back into your body.}

"My SOUL!"

{ Yeah, your soul. Due to having limited access to Duargeinhelm, you can only arrive as a soul. So once you decided to return, your soul was sent back to your body.}

"hmmm, when can I come with my real body then?"

{When you're a high-level creator.}

The more answers I got, the more questions I had. With my curiosity and thirst for knowledge, I asked Dakria more questions.

'What's a creator? How do you get a high level?'

{ha, you're asking too many questions! Find out yourself}

'What. Dakria, can't you just tell me? Dakria? Hey, where'd you go?'

Trying to ask more questions, it seemed like Dakria stopped answering me when suddenly a screen popped up in front of me.

<You 1 have been limited to asking non-essential question per day>

Staring blankly at the screen for a few moments, I puffed my cheeks and turn away from looking at the screen.

"Fine, I'll figure it out myself!"

A few minutes passed since my little outburst and having calmed down a little, I lay back down on my back and look at the sun setting. Thinking. Thinking back at all the things that happened today. The good and the bad.

"Man, I think I've had enough of adventures for a while."

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Dakria's Fun Facts: Dakria is capable of using high-level telepathy capable of even contacting Arius from the isolated dimension where Duargeinhelm is located. Dakria's telepathy can only connect to those allowed to enter Duargeinhelm. Due to these restrictions, Dakria's telepathy gives the extra bonus that allows her to read the mind and have immunity to high-level mind impairment spells.