My hand entered the center of the orb. No, really. It was like the orb was made of light since I didn’t even feel anything as my hand went through.
When I tried pulling my hand away, although there was a weird force pulling my hands back in, I was able to do so without a problem. I repeated the action several times, confirming that although I can’t “touch” the core, my hands could pass through it.
“Fatima? Any ideas on what is happening?”
She was still gaping in shock as she stared at my hands. Hearing my call, she quickly shook her head and beamed an extremely happy smile.
“Will! What the hell are you, really?! To think you could completely permeate through the core which was made from other tamer’s sacrifices, it’s beyond amazing!”
She cheered as she tried reaching for my hands, only to get repelled by an arc of electricity once more. Despite that, her smile didn’t fade as she instead held my shoulders and stared through my eyes.
“With this ability of yours, we may be able to ensure our win against the Void Beast!”
I glanced at her right hand, which was out there touching a certain part of her body moments earlier. However, I quickly chased the thought out of my head.
“So, you mean, with me here we can somehow fix this thing?”
Fatima shook her head.
“No, not fix. Even if we fix this core, the Void Beast wouldn’t be affected at all. Instead, we could modify it!”
Her eyes were sparkling with hope for the future and happiness from the bottom of her heart. However, there’s one problem.
“I… Don’t know how to fix this thing…”
Even if I could technically “tamper” with the core, I didn’t have the knowledge and skills required to do so. Fatima on the other hand may have the techniques to do the same, but she couldn’t touch the orb. It was a perfect stalemate.
“That’s easy! I would just need to pass my knowledge to you!”
Saying so, she brashly pulled my shoulders and made me face her. Then, she slowly moved her face closer to mine.
“Don’t move too much okay?”
‘I-Is she going to…!’ While I was imagining this and that for an instant, she quickly moved her face close to mine. Our noses were close enough to touch each other, however, unlike what I imagined, she closed her eyes before placing her forehead on top of mine.
[System Message: Another tamer wishes to initiate knowledge transfer, confirmed as a God Tamer… Permission Granted.]
[System Warning: You are receiving knowledge from another tamer of a higher league. The basic taming system cannot protect the user from adverse effects.]
Suddenly, the system’s voice echoed inside my head. It felt like it had been ages since I heard it since normal usage of the taming system doesn’t need prompts and reminders. Even the monster appraisal, which I often use, doesn’t use the system voice but instead just imprints the information inside my head.
‘But… Basic taming system?’
I got stuck in thought after hearing this term. However, I didn’t have the time to think an instant later.
“Argh!!!”
Pain assaulted my brain as if thousands of needles were puncturing it from all sides. Although there shouldn’t be pain receptors in the brain, the phantom pain almost reaped my consciousness away.
The pain felt like it lasted hours, but only a few seconds had passed in reality. When Fatima let go of my face, I dropped down on all fours as I panted for air.
“Y-You didn’t tell me it would hurt this much!!!”
I complained to her as I tried to digest the information she just shared. Similar to when a tamed monster learns a new skill, it felt like the information was integrated with my mind. It was as if the information was something I experienced firsthand.
“What? It shouldn’t hurt though?”
Fatima tilted her head in pure wonder.
“The system should’ve helped in shielding your psyche from the flood of information. There’s no way you would… Wait!”
As she was explaining, it was as if she realized something and lifted my chin as she stared straight into my eyes. Is this a sort of trend? Why does everybody want to pull my chin like that?
“…”
Fatima ignored my almost nonexistent attempts to resist and stared straight into my eyes with all seriousness. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes wide in shock.
“You’re kidding me, right?! Why is your taming system locked? All other features are basically useless other than taming and appraisal!”
I tilted my head after hearing her shout in slight anger.
“Well, I don’t know too. It’s like this as soon as I got it so…”
“You mean, nobody helped you in activating it?”
She pressed further for confirmation.
“Activation? There’s no information like that out there…”
I scanned my body’s memories but no information relating to the activation of the taming system came to mind. It was a completely unfamiliar term.
Fatima impatiently bit her thumb’s nail in chagrin.
“Don’t tell me nobody has an activated taming system in the outer world anymore? What the hell happened? How did that happen?!”
She keeps pacing back and forth in the small room as she was in deep thought.
“Alright! Will! I will make sure to send you out there, for sure! I will activate your system, so you activate everyone else’s systems for me.”
‘Can’t you just do that yourself when we get out?’ I was about to interject but seeing her impatient face, I just nodded along.
Again, Fatima placed her forehead against mine. However, this time, a different prompt appeared.
[System Message: Detected the implementation of the Activation Sequence. Confirming the other party’s credentials… Passed. Initiating unlocking… Done. Activating features… 3 out of 20 succeeded. Error. Insufficient Energy Level.]
[System Message: Welcome to the Taming System, User NDT-16-44-96005. Detected the use of Administrator Code during unlocking… Earning Administrator Privileges… Success.]
After all the messages passed, I noticed a few pieces of new information in my head. It contains three new abilities other than the appraisal. It was the Monster Encyclopedia, Monster Storage, and Heavenly System’s Halo.𝘰𝑣𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮