Chapter 3: "The Secrets Of This World"

Divine Calendar Year 5568

The Faceless Realm

Outer World: The Forsaken World

Nova stepped past the line she had drawn, approx. 16 hours ago, on the sparkling yellow sand. A bundle of sticks was squeezed beneath her sweaty arms. The sun was still shining dazzlingly, up in the harsh blue, cloudless sky. Hot rivulets of sweat cascaded from her scalp, joining the beige speckles at the collar of her white shirt.

"Is it just me...Nyx, or has that sun not moved once? Or more like the earth hasn't been revolving round the sun as it should? Plus, I feel like I'm in the Sahara desert," she sputtered between short, parched breaths. The brass monkey weather was beating down on her pale skin as though she was a metal being welded in a kiln.

Nyx had been quiet for a while, as they experimented with Nova's abilities. Now, they piped up, sounding very bored. "Yeah...I honestly don't think that's a 'real sun'. I think it might be artificial, or made by magic...who knows what the magic of this world is capable of?" they remarked thoughtfully.

"This island itself is also a bit abnormal...I wouldn't be surprised if it was also artificial. The being who brought us here might have made this island as a test...?" Nyx added doubtfully.

Nova laid the bundle of sticks next to the small 'shelter' she had completed only an hour ago. Her whole body felt damp and itchy and she was extremely famished, but at least she was done with securing a shelter...though architects would argue otherwise. The shelter was basically a bunch of long sticks she had aligned and inclined against the sun.

Her [Telekinesis] and [Spatial Perception] had honestly alleviated the burden. With [Spatial Perception], she could effortlessly spot sticks and branches on the beach. And [Telekinesis] allowed her to levitate the materials above her and also aided in building the shelter.

In fact, her usage of [Telekinesis] had improved so much to the extent that it had advanced into the [advanced-level] around thirty minutes ago. It seemed that abilities could level up, and there were 4 distinct levels that the two were aware of so far. In ascending order, the levels were: average, intermediary, advanced, and, lastly, sage.

Now, she had to secure food and water. Drinking seawater directly would sound alright to an insanely hungry person...thankfully, Nyx had stopped her severally before she could try anything suicidal. The salt content in seawater was too high for her cells to handle; that's why her sleep-deprived, hungry mind had thought up the idea of using [Telekinesis] to directly filter out the salt from the water.

Crazy idea, right? She couldn't even see the dissolved salt, so how would she even begin to remove it?

Nova exhaled heavily and collapsed backward on the searing sand, feeling like the 'fake sun' was bringing her closer and closer to a frying pan. Walking around the entire island had taken her 5 hours, affirming her assumption that she was, indeed, on an island that was 99.9% forest.

Whatever was inside said forest...she had no idea but, hopefully, her neighbors wouldn't decide to come out of there and take a stroll on the beach to find dark witch meat.

Nova sat up once more after a minute of gazing into the vast blueness of the (artificial?) sky.

Her grey eyes shifted to the colorless waters lapping against the golden sand. Her finger curled up, and the water motioned upwards, heeding her silent command. The water kept on flowing up and up, into the air before her quiet grey eyes, forming a silent mass of water that vaguely resembled a ball.

As expected, her [Telekinesis] enabled her to influence tangible matter without physical interaction. So, water--being as tangible as her hunger was at that moment--was not exempted from the reaches of this ability. Nonetheless, Nova felt that her ability did not stem from mental powers because she didn't feel any strain on her mind when she used [Telekinesis].

"What is it really?" she spoke aloud the thought whizzing through her mind.

If [Telekinesis] did not stem from her mental powers, then...she speculated that it could be related to...gravity, maybe?

Perhaps...it was the ability to offset the effect of gravity on an object...rather than to influence an object merely through the mind.

Nyx spoke up at this point, "It could be that most of your abilities are space-related because you were mainly blessed by the <god of space and time>. I don't know about time-related abilities though. However, gravity, space, and time are like three peas in a pod. If we can understand one of them, the other three will start to open up to us."

"Ha, then the <god of space and time> should have kidnapped an astrophysicist instead," she remarked with a low groan.

Nova chuckled as she stared tiredly at the small ball of water still floating in the air. Her eyes felt tired, but she couldn't help that her interest had been piqued. "Nyx, you said earlier that [Mana sense] is basically just sensing the mana, or magical energy, in the environment around us, right?" she asked suddenly, still staring at the water which glittered faintly beneath the golden disc, casting a light shadow upon her jaded features.

"Yeah, it turned out to be more useless than expected since we still can't manipulate the mana or absorb it, only sense it, but I've been using it constantly so that it can level up. Right now, [Mana Sense] is at the advanced level," Nyx responded. They had realized that they could use two abilities at once when the two of them used the abilities separately. This was achieved through [Soul Connection], but a problem surfaced when they failed to absorb the mana around them.

Nova suddenly straightened her back. Her grey eyes had dilated with surprise and Nyx's words kept recurring in her head like the echoes of a gong.

"Eureka!" she exclaimed abruptly. 

"What?" Nyx questioned.

"That's it, Nyx! We don't need to manipulate mana. First, we need to accurately sense every particle of mana; the same goes for gravity. We just need to first sense every basic functional unit of matter. Otherwise, we'll be interacting with something too large for our minds to conceive," she explained excitedly, standing up and letting the ball of water collapse on her head, wetting her long, black hair and making it stick to her skin.

She was smiling delightfully up at the searing golden sun, the hot rays dancing on her damp face and making her senses tingle electrically.

Nyx mumbled concernedly. "Are you sure the heat isn't getting to your head?"

"Not quite. But it would be encouraged if the heat could somehow slip into my mind right now. Then, I'd be capable of Pyrokinesis," Nova said smilingly as she stretched her tired limbs, feeling them relax as she loosened the strain on her muscles. 

"That sounds...concerning, but okay," Nyx replied, figuring that she had lost her bonkers.

"I never understood whether magic could be the very essence of life or if magic was inexistent without life..." Nova mumbled and pursed her lips. "In the end, I don't think I'll ever truly understand why there can always be magic even without life. I might find myself a handsome man to have a passionate night with, but I surely won't easily fathom this seeming paradox."

Nova vaguely heard a mechanical voice echo: < Your understanding of this world has profoundly increased! >

Her confusion, ironically, had warranted her understanding of this strange world to increase...?

"I thought we had already agreed to give up on...the thing about hot guys. And...have you been possessed by Isaac Newton?" Nyx asked, now too astounded to ask what she was saying. Nova guessed that Nyx had not heard the earlier mechanical voice. Maybe only she could hear it...?

"...don't worry about it. I don't really get it either," Nova shrugged, pushing aside her earlier thoughts, "More importantly, Nyx, can you use [Mana Sense]? I'll also be activating [Mana Sense]. I want to try something out."

"Okay. I just hope that you won't have died of starvation at the end of this," Nyx said helplessly.

Nova chuckled. "I hope so too. I don't want to go hunting in that scary-looking forest until I have an offensive ability at least," she said smilingly and activated [Mana Sense].

[Mana Sense] and [Spatial Awareness] were vaguely similar. Except, right now, all around her, there were shining specks of light that a child might have mistaken for spirits or pixies. Those lights were mana. The lights that Nova could perceive when she used [Mana Sense] by herself were only grey and black, possibly because the elements that resonated with her were Space elements.

However, when Nyx used [Mana Sense] through their [Soul Connection], the number of lights around her considerably increased. Now, there were also blue, red, white, brown, and purple ones. Still, the mana was especially denser in the forest. Both of them speculated that that indicated there were much more lifeforms within the forest.

This was Nova's first time really interacting with magic, but she instinctively realized that the Space element naturally gravitated towards her while the other elements were repelled.

The Space element was represented by the grey lights that seemed to amalgamate and, periodically, scatter into microscopic grey dots. Something clicked as Nova quietly watched their incorrigible motions.

The [Mana Sense] ability was never intended to enable the operator to manipulate mana particles.

That was already covered by one's other abilities. Be it [Telekinesis] or [Spatial Perception], what they did was somewhat interact with the Space-related mana particles. 

Nova guessed that whichever being had brought her here had intentionally called it [Telekinesis] as a test for her.

"[Telekinesis] my foot," Nova muttered to herself with a growing smile, "More like [Gravity Manipulation]."

She wouldn't have realized this tiny detail if not for the little mental strain when she used [Telekinesis].

< You have unlocked your hidden skill [Gyrokinesis](average)! [Telekinesis] has been successfully overwritten! >

So it was also possible to 'overwrite' abilities like this. What a buggy program this world had. In actuality, however, it seemed that she was somewhat exempted from the rules of this world. However, in Nyx's case, it was even stranger because Nyx was barely recognized by this world's rules.

Was it because Nyx wasn't created by this world? Technically, Nyx had claimed that they were a fabrication from Nova's subconscious, whereas Nova herself had not been created in this world but had possessed one of this world's residents. Therefore, that meant that Nova was partially governed by this world's rules.

"Nyx, did you hear something just now?" she asked testingly, staring distantly at the watery horizon.

"Hear what?"

"I don't know... Something like a voice, maybe?" she asked again.

"No. I'm perfectly sane. Thank you," Nyx grumbled.

Nova shrugged, seemingly uncaring of Nyx's answer. "I think this world has a will of its own," she revealed.

"Hence the artificial sun...?" Nyx questioned doubtfully.

"No. This island is different. I'd like to assume that the island is like a battleground that's been tailored to test whoever enters. The problem is that we didn't come in here by normal means; we were forced into this place without any explanations," she said, "As for the world we're in...it is a very hedonistic one. Each time I make a correct assumption about this world, I hear a cyborg-like voice that confirms my assumptions. And, before you ask, I am not off my rocker."

Nyx was quiet for a moment, absorbing her words and analyzing what happened to them so far. "Okay. But it's quite unbelievable for a world to have its own will... Couldn't that voice you heard have been a different force of nature?" they asked.

Nova nodded. "Possibly. But I think that that voice doesn't recognize your existence because I created you," she said and caressed her chin thoughtfully, "You aren't restricted by this world like I am. For instance, you can't access your Status because this world has no clue that you're even there. You're invisible to it, in every way, which I think is a good thing. Because this world can't define your path."

Nyx gaped. "Ah, now I suddenly feel like the protagonist in a dystopian film," they uttered in enlightenment, "We should get stronger quickly so that we can get out of here... Also, how is that info dump supposed to solve the food shortage again?"

Nova: "..."

Nyx: "..."