Milo found himself staring at two soul cores... He didn't even know it was possible, recalling the time she said he could evolve his Aspect, was this what she meant? To force his Soul Sea to adopt another soul core.
Milo opened his set of runes.
Name: Milo
True Name: ---
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Batteries: Dormant
Soul Fragments: [12/2000]
Memories: [Dreamer's Hope] [Metal Shell] [The Prototype] [Frigid Cooler] [Proof of Cooperation Lite]
Echoes: ---
Attributes: [Living Interface] [Code Weaver] [Corrupted Data]
Milo quickly looked at the descriptions of the attributes. All of these seemed very important and strange... technology barely even worked in the Dream Realm so why did all of it sound and look technology based? Had Eva gone so far to give him a useless Aspect so it would be harder to kill her later?
[Living Interface] Attribute Description: "Technology is your home, and thus you are very comfortable navigating it. Your UI is your mind."
[Code Weaver] Attribute Description: "Weave code and creation alike as vast and complex instinctively. Technology, enchantments, engineering is built into your UI."
[Corrupted Data] Attribute Description: "Information about you is corrupted and hard to make out. Divinations, tracking, and prediction of you becomes less effective."
Milo looked over the new attributes with a shaky breath.
The most obvious one was his third attribute... That was incredibly useful, especially the tracking part. If he wanted to make Eva pay for what she did, she just gave him an amazing tool. What made this so good was the fact that one of Eva's Aspect abilities had to do with predictions. His time with her in the academy solidified that suspicion.
So, he had become a foil to that.
Code Weaver seemed to be similar to his Forging attribute in a sense that it gave him the necessary information to become a sort of engineer. Along with that last line. It had been built into his brain if what his Living Interface said was true.
Living Interface seemed to be a built in UI for all things that needed one. Maybe he could even interact with technology that didn't have a UI. What counted as technology could vary after all. Would a pulley just be really ancient technology?
Now came the real kicker, the source of his newfound pain and betrayal, along with the result of a soul core being shoved into his soul.
Aspect: [M.I.L.O]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Description: [Hey buddy, if you're reading this, then that means you actually made it halfway there to the Dark City. I can't tell you much, but please look out for Eva, she has no idea what she's doing, and she seemed pretty scared. Good luck out there, and use the PoC for help. If you aren't M.I.L.O and you somehow received this Aspect. Then just think of the name to stand for Modular Intelligent Logic Operator. Its a technology based Aspect, the only one that will likely exist for a while. So have some fun and make good use of it.]
Milo's hand clenched in fury. Had she really meant to get buddy buddy with Milo only to betray him? Whoever she was working with and whoever dropped off these care packages seemed to believe so at least.
Innate Ability: [Soul Composition]
Innate Ability Description: [Any technology wielded by you is functional regardless of what realm you are in. Technology is powered by your soul essence, and soul essence is a very potent source of power. Technology of your choosing can be assimilated into your soul cores and grow along side you.]
Milo froze as he looked at the Innate Ability description... this was an improvement over his previous one to be certain. He didn't seem to have much mental defenses but this was a boon. The foundation of his Aspect to be certain, access to technology in the Dream Realm was already massive, not needing to create power sources of it was another massive boon. The only issue was actually getting technology in, but with the storage memory he had received, it shouldn't be a big deal.
He then looked at the runes below and saw.
[Two memories are available for assimilation, current Soul Cores unoccupied: 1]
[Memories available: The Prototype, Metal Shell]
Milo already knew what the Metal Shell was... and the fact that Eva could control it unsettled him too much. How many more times would she use it against him? He would have to learn to get rid of the Sealed enchantment first and foremost, then and only then would he consider assimilating it. The Prototype he would review after reviewing his dormant ability.
Aspect Abilities: [Networked Consciousness]
Aspect Ability Description: [Your consciousness is not tied to one vessel.]
'I can split my consciousness?'
Milo could already see where this was going. Being able to be somewhere without truly being there was an amazing boon, and even better it would be hard to track his true location due to the [Corrupted Data] attribute. He had essentially become an untraceable being if he played his cards right.
Milo was surprised at himself for smiling, it would be hard to smile in this situation. Regardless of all the good he had just received, he lost a lot... his only reason for living had been forging, he was a fanatical smith after all. Without it, he had nothing, but now he had to thank Eva, he had a new goal after all.
'I'm going to ruin her plan of going home. She wants to violate me? Rid of me of my only purpose? Then I'll happily ruin hers.'
Well, there was a lot to do before he could do that. Considering her ability to see the future, and the foresight of somehow working with someone in the past... she seemed to either have been transported here with immense knowledge along with a partner, or she can time travel. Considering how scared she had been before, it seemed unlikely she would be able to get the resource to create those memories. Meaning the former was the case.
Milo let out a sigh, this wasn't going to be easy. At the very least, he should consider his advantage over technology. The Aspect description mentioned he was halfway to the Dark Castle. However something was off, there was simply no possibility that this place had been escaped from, no one had catalogued this weird maze, so he was walking into a new biome or no one had managed to escape just like he previously theorized.
Meaning he had to navigate a never escaped zone, while hunting down someone who can see the future. All the meanwhile, she had much more information then he did...
"I never expected my goal to be easy to begin with." Milo mused to himself, before he could do any of that however, he needed to check out his new memories. Considering the Aspect wasn't a complete dud, they should be usable as well.
Milo had gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he forgot the most important part of his new Aspect...
Milo hurriedly pulled up the runes to describe his Flaw, and sure enough, they had changed.
Flaw: [Helping Hand]
Flaw Description: [Your creation must be a collaboration]
Milo stared at the runes, and let out a sound between a sob and a groan. Did the Spell really have to make it something like this? Out of everything it could've been. There was no way he was ever letting someone get that close again!
Eva might be a special case, but they still had the foundation of a friendship. He was still happy when helping her learn to wield a blade, or when hearing her stories about her life in that other world. The one that seemed like paradise compared to this hellhole with monsters and death always lurking around the corner.
'Would mom and dad and Lucy have lived if they lived there instead? Would Lucy have become been able to meet her favorite celebrities and idols in that world?'
Milo didn't want to dwell on it much longer. If he did he might not move from this small space for nearly two weeks. No need to dwell on the past anymore... just keep moving forward and it can't catch up to you.
Milo pulled up the runes for the three new Memories he had received.
Memory: [The Prototype]
Memory Rank: [Awakened]
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: [Weapon]
Memory Description: [It's in the name, a prototype for a weapon I was making. Consider it a tutorial for your forging needs.]
Milo raised an eyebrow, was this written by the partner of Eva? He seemed so nice before in that Aspect description, this other description seemed much more blunt.
Enchantments: [Unstable Circuitry]
[Unstable Circuitry] Enchantment Description: [Attacks build up the voltage on this weapon, once unstable, attacks temporally let out arcs of electricity.]
Milo summoned it into his hand. What formed next was a keen single edged straight blade. It had lacked a hand guard completely which disappointed Milo, however the hilt itself was wrapped in a mix of cloth and rubber.
The grip on the hilt was nice, and Milo swinged it, small electrical sparks flying from the blade occasionally.
It was a nice weapon, but it could be improved on. Milo's vision changed, highlighting all the flaws both external and internal in the blade itself. A mix of untuned circuits along with slightly messed up weaving within the enchantment made the enchantment itself unstable.
Milo was seeing what his attribute [Living Interface] meant. It was sort of incredible to see it highlight the flaws.
Milo then dismissed the Prototype and focused on the runes describing the remaining two Memories he had yet to check out.
Memory: [Proof of Cooperation Lite]
Memory Rank: [Ascended]
Memory Tier: IV
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Description: [You're now a friend of Carmen, aka me! Benefit from my collection of databases ranging from maps of different regions to a bestiary and other neat additions.]
Enchantments: [Gold Access] [Network Web]
[Gold Access] Enchantment Description: [You have gold access to all of Carmen's tools.]
[Network Web] Enchantment Description: [Locate other users of this Memory on the provided map as green dots. Access to higher level owners requires them to turn on their location]
Milo summoned the Memory. What appeared on his hand seemed to be a lapel pin, it was brown with a small digital interface. If Milo was being honest... it was ugly as hell.
Then Milo saw in the corner of his vision.
{Downloading Database}
A small progress bar quickly moved forward. Soon enough, he saw multiple things appear in his vision. Things like a map of where he currently was, multiple names and diagrams of what seemed to be different Nightmare Creatures, it all jumped at Milo. Milo quickly dismissed most of the feed. Was that what managing this UI would be like. Then he remembered his Dormant Aspect Ability, now was a better time than ever to try it, right?
Milo quickly gave his best shot at splitting his two streams of consciousness. One to focus on his UI and one to focus on the actual things he was seeing. Sure enough, two streams of information entered his brain much more steadily. He then dismissed the ugly piece of tech that was the Proof of Cooperation Lite and took a breath to get used to this new view.
With that figured out, he then reviewed the last Memory he had received.
Memory: [Frigid Cooler]
Memory Rank: [Ascended]
Memory Tier: III
Memory Type: [Tool]
Memory Description: [A very cold cooler to store things in. Do I even need to explain this to you?]
Enchantments: [Frigid] [Spacious]
[Frigid] Enchantment Description: [The inside of this cooler is frigid cold.]
[Spacious] Enchantment Description: [The interior is much larger then it appears.]
Milo noted the usefulness of a storage Memory. He wasn't just limited to storing food. Items, crafting materials, soul shards, all of it was possible.
Milo dismissed the runes and looked ahead. According to the map provided by Carmen's Database, he had a couple more of weeks of travel before arriving at the Dark City, and the straightest route required him to go through a giant burrow along with an encounter with a Awakened Terror that could put him under a mind thrall. No chance in hell was he dealing with that, which meant the only path was around through a treacherous track with a mix of centipedes and metal spiders.
'How fun, how utterly fun.' Milo mused to himself. The sun had already set, and Milo would begin moving the next morning.