Chapter 14: Assessment
Hugo was still sitting cross-legged on the ground, contemplating the new revelations brought by his Aspect.
'So I can turn into an Awakened Beast for around 10 minutes, and the transformation changes me entirely, both in body and personality...'
It was a double edged sword capable of giving great strength but the source of that strength could also lead to his doom.
In truth, his Flaw was not as crippling as some awakened but it was still a flaw nonetheless. Having his personality change every time he transformed was bound to be a problem in the long run and these kinds of problems were what caused the death of many Awakened in the Dream Realm.
'But on the other hand, I can manipulate Soul Essence while transformed, meaning not only could I enhance my body, but I can also use Memory enchantments that require essence Not to mention that I got a lot of passive effects when transformed.'
That perhaps, was the greatest strength of his Aspect so far: versatility.
With only one transformation, he already covered a lot of categories that even seasoned Awakened didn't possess such a passive physical augmentation, an aquatic breathing, an elemental resistance and lastly enhanced reflexes.
Hugo sighed as he got up, enjoying the ability to move around the room freely once more.
He looked at his Omnitrix, noticing that the hourglass symbol, which was part black and part blue was glowing with a different color. The blue part was currently gling with red.
Raising his eyebrow in confusion, Hugo tried to use the Omnitrix but nothing happened. The dial simply remained there, unwilling to rise up.
"Don't tell me it needs to recharge... that's ridiculous!" he frowned. Being able to use his transformations for only 10 minutes was already a bit limiting, but having to wait for his Aspect to recharge was a far bigger limitation than the first one, practically making it a flaw on it's own.
Hugo grumbled, walking around the room in circles; this was a habit he usually did when he was frustrated.
"It's not that bad of a trade-off, right? It's not like I'm that vulnerable in my human form... Well, I am, but not as a Mundane human would be..."
He was a Sleeper after all, possessing an enhanced body that no Mundane human could match and he would grow only more powerful once he rises in ranks so the problem of being left vulnerable after his transformation runs out was not as severe as Hugo was making it out to be, although this realization did not make it any less bitter.
Hugo exhaled. "Alright, let's think this through. What can I actually do?"
Firstly, he possessed the ability to imprint any lifeform on himself then transform into them, gaining their attributes. What made his Aspect powerful was the fact that his transformations were of the Awakened rank... or at least that's what Hugo assumed. There was also the possibility that he could imprint humans, which he had not tried yet.
Then there were his Attributes. [Mutant] did not do anything outright, as it made him different from other humans which was quite fitting considering Hugo's Aspect was all about becoming non-human.
His other Attributes, however, were far more useful. [Anatomica] changed his biology to an extent, saturating it with mysterious power, which Hugo found out was Omni-energy, a strange form of energy created by the Omnitrix. That aside, the Attribute granted him a form of regeneration that was quite potent, allowing him to ignore minor wounds in an instant.
He had assumed that it granted him a form of enhanced strength during his first nightmare but that was wrong, what it actually granted him beside regeneration was better physical resilience and stronger endurance, which were by no means inferior to a physical boost.
Then there was [Spirit Core], which Hugo knew was a very special Attribute, especially after his awakening but its exact functions were still a mystery. He only knew that it granted him a type of augmentation unlike the one [Anatomica] offered, but thankfully his lack of knowledge was not going to be a problem for long due to the fact that he was in the Awakened Academy, which held all sorts of information about the Dream Realm and Awakened Attributes and Abilities alike, All the information he had gathered on the internet would pale in comparison to the academy's archives so Hugo decided that gathering as much knowledge as he could would be the most important thing right now.
Then there was [Shadow-Rend]...
'I guess it makes... shadow bridges?' he thought, almost finding the idea ridiculous, even though he would not mind having the ability to creat bridges from his shadow...
"No, that can't be it..."
His shadow was impossibly large and also possessed the ability to separate from him and aid him in certain situations but he could not control it which was a problem.
Hugo lowered his head to the floor where a large shadow was covering a large part the room.
"Ummmm, hello?" Hugo said with a hesitant expression.
His shadow did not budge, staying the same as any regular shadow, with the sole exception of it being bigger than most shadows.
"I guess you're not that talkative... That makes two of us, I guess," he murmured.
Lastly, his Attribute [Soul Bound] was still a greater mystery then all his attributes promising multiple enchantments but How he would get these enchantments, he did not know.
for now, it supposedly granted him immunity to mind attacks—an immunity he still was not sure of how reliable it is—which is one of the greatest boons any Awakened can ask for. A complete negation of an entire category of attacks was nothing to scoff at, as even Saints were not fully immune to mind attacks.
Hugo scratched his head, now seated on his bed. 'Then there's my Memories... One is an Awakened armor, the other is a Crystal capable of seeing Memory enchantments and tiers and upgrading equipment while also being able to store energy, and releasing it as kinetic projectiles. Then there's the charm which gives me heat resistance, a physical passive augmentation, the ability to maneuver underwater and the ability to dominate creatures with less power than me... Oh, did I mention that I can eat said Memory to gain some ancient sinister power?' he thought, feeling a bit weird that he was talking to himself.
'I'm pretty strong for a Sleeper... Well, the right word would be that I possess too many abilities for a Sleeper, but still...'
That said, it did not mean Hugo was invincible.
He would still die if an Awakened abomination decided to take a bite out of him and he would also die if he let his guard down in the Dream Realm.
It was the truth, even saints could not allow themselves to grown arragont or else they would die.
This fact made Hugo feel a strange type of feeling as he looked at the ceiling of his dorm room, his face blank and empty. His mind had stopped thinking about his Abilities and attributes.
A strange thought came across him, making him shudder slightly...
"...Would you have been proud of me if you were alive? Mom..." he muttered, his eyes uncontrollably filling up with tears...
It was ironic really, Having all of this power at his current rank, one would assume Hugo possessed a will of steel and an unbreakable resolve that would not allow him to shed tears in any type of situation... But he simply wasn't that type of person.
It was a strange paradox; his greatest dream was to wage war on Nightmare Creatures and eradicate every single one of them yet at the same time, he did not want to be here, he did not want to go to the Dream Realm, and he did not want to risk his life.
His greatest wish, besides killing Nightmare Creatures was to be happy once again...
to be with his mother again.
Yet that was not possible his mother was long gone leaving only Hugo behind.
All that was left was his maddening hatred for Nightmare Creatures, defining who Hugo was as a person. It was an all-encompassing emotion that threatened to consume him whole, and he, in a sense, wanted to be consumed by that desire.
He wanted to stop feeling sadness, he wanted to stop feeling guilt for his mother's death yet he couldn't.
And that angered Hugo more than anything; he knew exactly what he wanted and he knew how to achieve it yet he was afraid of taking the final step. Because a part of him wanted to remember.
A part of him wanted to keep his mother alive in his heart...
To remember her smile and grown up to become someone she would have been proud of.
Eventually, the storm of emotions raging in his heart was slowly drowned by the dizziness of sleep
In his slumber, the Omnitrix symbol made a small beeping sound.
CLICK
The symbol turned blue once again, regaining its former glory.
Yet that, too was left unheard.
–––
Hugo woke up with a slight headache, remembering the state he was in before he fell asleep.
exhaling as he got up realizing it was early in the morning...
"I really overslept..." he muttered under his breath as he entered the small bathroom in his room intending to take a hot shower to calm his mind
"Ahh?"
He was faced with a bit of an awkward situation not knowing if the Omnitrix was waterproof or not.
"I mean, it's the first divine relic made by mortal hands.... It'd be embarrassing if it's not waterproof."
And thankfully, it was.
'gods imagine if I lost my aspect because it wasn't waterproof?! I would drown myself in a hole...' he thought, letting the hot water run through his body.
Hugo noticed how organic the Omnitrix looked and felt.
For starters it felt like nothing was there.
'no not quite...'
It felt like it was a part of him, no different from his arm which was quite fascinating.
After the shower, Hugo wore the outfit provided by the academy, which was a sleek black tracksuit familiar to the police tracksuit.
Before he left for the cafeteria, Hugo decided to try out his Galvan transformation just to know what it was capable of.
Hd activated the dial, selecting the Galvan figure and then pressed the Omnitrix slightly.
With a beam of blue light, his figure shifted once more.
His torso shrunk down and down, eventually reaching the ground, Then his skull extended changing the shape of his eyes which were now bright blue.
His skin proceeded to morph and twist eventually settling on a smooth grey color.
Hugo looked at the world with a new perspective.
The perspective of someone who was just 6 inches tall...
"What a weird situation..." he said, thinking about how his other form was standing at a towering 15 feet while this one was not even a foot tall.
Quickly moving around with strange agility, Hugo, now as a Galvan found himself across the mirror.
He had smooth grey skin, as if that of a baby, and he also looked like a frog with large blue eyes that had strange rectangular pupils and horizontal eyelids.
"Well, this is certainly a look, fitting for someone like me, humph," he said with a haughty attitude unbothered by the fact that he was currently taking the form of the people that imprisoned and tortured him.
What was even more bizzare Hugo felt a lot more difference in this form than he did when he was in the Vilgax imprint—which was what he decided to call it because Chimera Sui Generis was too long—
He felt... smarter which was a far more meaningful change then any physical one could give.
Quickly pulling up the imprint runes, Hugo looked at them with a sharp gaze rubbing his smooth chin slightly.
Imprint Race: Galvan
Imprint Rank:Awakened
Imprint Class:Beast
Imprint Description:[Born through the Goddess of War's dreams of advancement, the Galvans possessed the sharpest minds in all the realms. They held no extraordinary powers aside from their intelligence and they were far smaller then most races Yet they still built one of the greatest civilizations, rivaling that of the other Children of War but when the end came, even their brilliant Minds couldn't save them]
"Huh? The Galvans were born of the War God?" Hugo said, analyzing the idea of the Goddess of War creating a peaceful race that not only possessed extraordinary intelligence but also no grand ambition to conquer.
"I suppose simple logic and personality traits cannot be used to determine the hidden reasons behind a god's actions... How peculiar."
There was also the mention of an omnious end which Hugo assumed was the end that caused the death and corruption of all intiligent creatures in the dream realm. Which didn't tell him much but knowing that even the great Galvans did not survive was an interesting thought process if not a little harrowing...
Saturating his body with soul essence, hugo leaped upward standing above the desk and leaning against the small notebook to continue reading the runes.
Imprint Attributes: [Genius Mind], [Linguistic Mastery], [Nimble Limbs]
Imprint Abilities:—
[Genius Mind] Attribute Description: [ as a Galvan You naturally possess an unparalleled genius.]
[Linguistic Mastery] Attribute Description:[You possess an unmatched mastery in all types of languages.]
[Nimble Limbs] Attribute Description:[Your limbs are extraordinarily agile.]
"Hmmm, as expected, this form is more fit for support rather than direct combat combat even though it's of the awakened rank... Not that I'm saying it's a bad thing of course, I prefer this form a lot better than my other two ones."
He said, thinking of the implications of his Attributes.
[Genius Mind] and [Linguistic Mastery] were both extremely good Attributes with the former enhancing his mind making him smarter than the brightest scientist in the world and the latter giving him mastery over all sorts of languages.
[Genius mind] usefulness did not need any further explanation as being smart was one of the key reasons humans had managed to survive and conquer large portions of the dream realm.
[Linguistic Mastery] would have been useless in today's age if not for the existence of two very important things in the awakened world.
Runic language and runic sorcery.
Runic language was translated by the Spell, but it did not mean Awakened understood it truly as they one grasp the concept of the runes not the true meaning the one that had inscribed them had intended to leave behind which is why a lot of people began studying runic language to comprehend the meanings behind the runes they encounter in the Dream Realm which eventually led to the discovery of runic sorcery that granted Awakened a whole new arsenal of power. Said sorcery becoming the foundation of an entire great clan.
Clan valor who are known for their spellsmiths and artifacts.
Usually, Hugo would not have been interested in runic sorcery due to the fact it took years to become adept in it which and the fact that he was currently Dormant human and Soul Essence was an essential part of runic sorcery... But Hugo had the exact solutions to these problems.
His Galvan transformation was an Awakened not only that, he also possesses a perfect fluency in runic language so in theory he could learn runic sorcery way faster than any Awakened even those of the higher ranks while being merely a sleeper himself.
A wide grin appeared on his frog-like face.
"Well, this is certainly going to be fun."
He Said with a hint of mischievousness in his voice.