The theater room… What was it like?
Well, Ed's first impression was… vastly empty?
It was odd that it was vastly empty but yet it was. There were no seats, no machines, no nothing. He was inside of a white box. Nothing less, nothing more.
'I should scour a bit then-' With this idea in mind, Ed pressed further in. This turned out be the right call as soon after, something changed.
There was a projector.
'How old are you system?' Ed asked it with a small sense of deja vu before approaching the archaic device. He fiddled around with it a bit until finally managing to eject something. It was a videotape.
'Records of struggle…' Ed read the label and made the connection that this videotape was his price.
With nothing better to do, Ed reinserted the tape into the projector and finally pressed play. Since the whole room was white, it meant that it didn't matter where the projector pointed.
'Huh? Wait… Wh- What's going on?' To Ed's surprise however soon after he pressed play on the projector, the white room started to experience changes.
The white ceiling seemed to become a sky-like blue hue that expanded outwards towards space. The walls that confined Ed were gone and replaced by picturesque scenery.
The green grass flowing gently alongside the wind and the animals that inhabited these grasslands were going about their business as was usual. Ed ran an assessment on one of the animals.
[Grass Deer]
{ A passive monster with impressive speed. They also have limited power over plants }
The grass deer was not too far from Ed so he calmly approached it afraid to scare it away. If it ran… the assessment suggested he wouldn't catch up.
Ed was finally right behind the grass deer. Apart from the greenish hue and grass-like patterns, Ed could say it was a regular animal. He reached to touch it and…!
His hand went right through. The deer even remained unfazed causing various question marks to form.
'Is this… a simulation?' Ed asked himself. Once this thought reached him a sudden change occurred.
[>>>]
The deer which had been eating calmly started to move much faster before inevitably taking off. The sky which had been a light blue hue turned darker and darker until night came.
'Why is it speeding?!' Ed thought confused.
But time only continued to move faster.
Eventually, weeks started to pass and before Ed knew it, months. Trees started to grow and the grassy plains were turning into forests.
At some point, Ed couldn't even tell what was going on as the scenery was moving forward way too rapidly.
'I- I need a better look!' Ed thought before taking to the sky. He was still in the system space so it was reasonable for him to be able to start floating.
Soon, he got the full picture.
The forest was thriving and growing and expanding. One day however orcs appeared. They started to tear down trees and build homes. These homes were shabby but they rapidly progressed.
The orcs battled amongst themselves sometimes and other times against enemies. Whatever the case, the small settlements perished and these groups were quickly history.
Minutes that felt like years continued to pass and history was repeating itself. Groups after groups settled in the same area or in its vicinity. The younger and shorter were simply easier to cut.
Eventually one of these groups started to see success under the might of an individual orc. Ed snuck a lucky assessment during one of the high-speed battles.
[Grat (Berserk)]
{ The great Grat, the first to perfect the act of breaking stuff when angry. Currently putting it into practice.}
The assessment was short but it told Ed plenty. This wasn't any simulation but a simulation of the entire orc plains.
Before Ed knew it, Grat's death occurred but the settlement that was at one point crappy huts was guarded by a wooden wall and had almost twice as many residents.
Time continued to fly but this settlement not only persisted but expanded.
[Vargan (Pensive)]
{ Vargan the first Craftsman of the Dawn Tribe. Inscribing knowledge into stone }
The first boulder was being created by the first Craftsman of the Dawn tribe.
But… Vargan died. The boulder of Vargan perished alongside him. He had taken over the mantle of Grat but lacked his power and the tribes in the vicinity did not miss this.
The settlement was burned to cinders in the onslaught. Yet the tribe persisted, though now a shadow of its former self.
[Azuk (Sleeping)]
{ DIsciple of Vargan, hope of dawn }
Time continued to fly and Vargan's death had not been for naught. His disciple Azuk eventually managed to create great stone walls. It was unfortunate it was finished moments before his death.
As time continued to fly, these great stone walls grew larger. Azuk had inscribed his knowledge in a boulder as his master had taught him and so did Azuk's disciples.
This was a tradition that carried over for generations.
'Records of struggles' Every incision and groove in the boulders he assimilated was created by different generations. Each line, each circle, each letter they had created carried not just their knowledge but their personality.
The choice of words, the messy carvings, the crappy line spacing. All of these could tell whether the chief at the time was an orc scholar or a warrior.
But… they also carried emotion. Because on particularly sad days one incision might come off too strong and other times one might try to perfect every angle.
The meaning of records of struggles became evident.
As the settlement became larger and larger Ed had to go further and further up into the sky to capture every inch.
[Dawn Tribe]
{ A settlement made by torch carriers of various generations }
Ed ran a final assessment. By this point, the tribe had hit its peak.
How did Ed know? Time slowed down. It wasn't back to normal but each day lasted at least a minute.
'This was an experience…' Ed thought before starting his descent towards the ground.
From his birds' eye view, he could tell this was the settlement he was familiar with. The main difference however was that the houses weren't vacant. They were lively.
While some orcs chatted a good chunk of them trained and fought. Some seemed to be studying botany and a certain distance from the settlement mining and processing of minerals was happening.
Before Ed could make a full descent, he noticed that the buildings were starting to magically crumble. Not just that, the animals in the area all started to die.
'What is-?' The lights shut off.
[Language has leveled up]
[Mind +1]
[Thought Manifestation has leveled up]
'???' Ed's thoughts turned into question marks. The black turned to white and all that was left was a projector and a videotape.
'Why did I watch that?' Rather than answer anything, the sped-up movie left him with questions. It seemed to have been incredibly beneficial but… why?
'St- Status' Still flabbergasted, Ed decided to get a closer look at things.
[Name: Edwa&!]
Type: Level 8 Consciousness.
Health: 967/967
Mind: 1/1
Bodies: Skeleton, Orc, Mushroom
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 7] -Show-
[Fortified Mind lvl. 0] -Show-
[Assessment lvl. 3] -Show-
[Assimilation lvl. 7] -Show-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 3] -Show-
[Language lvl. 2] -Show-
[System Link lvl. 6] -Show-
[Eloquence lvl. 4] -Show-
[Sixth Sense lvl. 2] -Show-
[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-
[Spiritual Mark lvl. 0] -Show-
Ed was deeply troubled. He couldn't quite understand if anything had changed.
'What might Mind be?' It was the part of a person that feels, thinks, perceives, wills, and especially reasons. To think rationality, to have insight and discernment. So did it mean he got smarter by watching a nature documentary?
He couldn't write off the possibility but he wasn't convinced. Ed only knew the answer had to lie with consciousness. The main tell was the fact that it was an attribute on his consciousness a never-before-seen occurrence. The attribute was also displayed like his health implying it could be spent.
Since it lay with the consciousness, what was the order of operations?
After watching the experience of the orcs, his language skill leveled up. Following that, he earned a point of Mind. Finally, thought manifestation had benefited and leveled up as well.
Rather than say he earned Mind from watching a documentary, Ed felt he earned it from learning multiple languages. The simulation was quite real but Ed was not in any way directly involved in the events.
That wasn't enough to discard it on its own but the issue lay with the fact that he wasn't forced to see hundreds upon hundreds of years of development. If he had, Mind would have likely seen more than a single point of increase. There was much to learn from hundreds of years of even the most rudimentary societies.
Then… Why did gaining Mind cause his thought manifestation to level up?
Since Mind had to do with thoughts, it was natural he'd be able to manifest his thoughts better. Ed didn't think it was an unreasonable stretch.
'What really matters now is testing something…' Ed focused intently on activating his thought manifestation skill. Within the domain of the Mind, the skill always had a sort of edge.
'What should I do?' To have a strong yearning for something, to wish for something to come into fruition, that was the requirement to manifest his thought.
'I want more lethality in the domain of the Mind' Thanks to the fortified Mind he could defend himself but retaliating against the attacks of the dungeon would have been nice.
Since Mind could be spent like mana, it meant it had to do with the spiritual.
Without as much as an alert, Ed's thoughts seemed to become reality as a small needle formed in front of him and shot forth directly attacking the white wall of the system space.
[You've been dealt damage. -1 hp]
'Ah! What the hell!' Ed who had shot off a small needle felt a small prickle on his consciousness all of a sudden. He clearly shot it off towards the wall so why did it hurt him?
'Let's not try that here again…' Ed muttered inwardly. For the time being the Mind points were near useless anyway so there was no point in experimenting with it for too long.
He had no idea how long it would take for it to recover either, he couldn't stick around for too long.
Convinced not to attack the system, Ed left his Mind that was now its space and returned to the mushroom panorama.. There was work to be done.