[Prepare for appraisal...]
Merlin found himself in a dark endless void, with myraids of stars, intricate strings weaved together through a large vortex of nexuses, a sight truly breathtaking.
Seeing this, Merlin understood that he had passed the trial given by the nightmare and he was now seeing the inner workings of the spell, stars and strings connected together to produce a truly magnificent sight. The novel has described the spell as breathtaking but even that wasn't enough to describe the appearance he's witnessing.
Merlin silently waited in the void, using the overwhelming sight to block his mind from recalling his nightmare, all while waiting for the spell to deliver his boon.
[You have received a memory, Formless]
He remembered it as the memory he received supposedly after the death of the ascended knight, taking his mind away from the memories, he continued to listen.
[Aspirant! Your trail is over]
[A vessel created to be the avatar of the Gods dreaded his fate and chose to challenge the impossible, He left the temple and set on a wild journey to find his destiny, with the interference of fate, the vessel chose to challenge it to the end, He returned, braving the suffering and the horrors all thrown at him. He triumphed, endured and with his will defiled his destiny.]
[You have defeated 400 Dormant humans, names unknown]
[You have defeated 19 awakened humans, names unknown]
[You have defeated 1 Ascended human, name unknown]
[You have resisted the inevitable]
[Final appraisal: Glorious, Your defiance borders on impossibility!]
Merlin listen as the spell listed his deeds, he felt no remorse or satisfaction either, only regret of not being able to see the look of despair on their faces. He shoved these feelings away as he felt like retching, if it was even possible here.
He then refocused, waiting for the spell to deliver the rest of his boons.
[Dreamer Merlin Hermes, received your boon!]
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries]
Merlin had a strange guess of his true name after recalling the memory he used at the end of the nightmare, but what confused him was why there was a Lord of Mysteries pathway inside a shadow slave world. He decided to put it at the back of his mind as the rewards were not yet over.
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
'Yes'
[Dormant aspect Child Of God is evolving...]
[Aspect Rank acquired]
[Aspect Rank: Divine]
[Aspect Name: Child Of God]
He was not surprised by the fact that the aspect name had not changed because it already had during his nightmare, hence why only the rank was identified.
Aspect: [Child Of God]
Aspect Rank: [Divine]
Aspect Description: [You are a soul not from this world, Your body has been tempered and created to house Gods. You have been blessed with their essence and you are now recognized as a being of their potential. You are a blessed of ???. ]
Innate Ability: [Connection]
Innate Ability Description: [Your body holds the essence of Gods therefore you feel a connection to the Divine.]
Reading the runes, if what Merlin suspected was true, then he would very well be a walking divine lineage locator, but what he didn't know was if it was a one-way connection or otherwise.
'If it isn't a one way thing, lots of things are gonna get troublesome later'
[The first seal is broken]
[Awakening dormant powers...]
He felt a strange weight in his chest he wasn't aware of shatter and right after his body began coursing with energy that could give one a euphoric feeling. Although he read about it, the suddenly rush of energy startled him as he clutched his chest feeling the energy move through the muscles and fibres of his body.
A few moments later and his vision was split it two, one still staring at the void, and another in a gray world.
Merlin looked around, and all he could see was a foggy area with the only difference being the water like surface below his feet and a strange temple like building in his front. Walking towards the temple, he guessed that this was the famous 'Realm of Mysteries' the sequence 1 ability of an Attendant Of Mysteries, a quasi-divine kingdom. Inside the temple was strangely empty with only a high back chair and one grey colored globe floating above it.
"My soul sea is unusually strange, well my soul itself is strange so it cancels out I guess, and here I thought I would be holding meetings every mondays" Merlin mused as he walked towards the chair admiring the temple. Shifting his focus to the endless void, the nightmare spell continued.
[Awakening Aspect Ability...]
[Aspect Ability acquired]
[Aspect Ability Name: Magician]
'Sequence 7 huh atleast I have a few tricks up my sleeves'
He then summoned his runes to take a look
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Core: Dormant
Soul Fragments: [888/1000]
'This fragments... If I remember correctly the spell said I killed 400 dormant, 19 awakened and 1 ascended.'
'So that would be 2 for dormant, 8 for awakened and 16 for ascended, looks like I'll be a monster soon.'
Memories: [Cloak of Mysteries], [Formless]
Memory Description:
Name : Cloak of Mysteries
Rank: Divine
Tier: VII
Type: Tool
Description: [A Cloak bestowed by ???. It corresponds to sequence 1 Attendant Of Mysteries, the weilder will be able to use corresponding abilities as long as essence is supplied, when worn the weilder is immune to all types of mental and soul attacks, however with every use the weilder will be stripped of their humanity little by little.]
Name: Formless
Rank: Awakened
Tier: III
Type: Weapon
Description: [A parasite specialized in camouflage and shapeshifting, moved through countless host, adapting different form, shape and size until It forgot what it once was allowing it to be shaped according to the will of it's host.]
Enchantment: [Formless], [Bloodwork]
Enchantment Description:
[Formless: This weapon will take on whatever form the weilder wills according to a proportional size.]
[Bloodwork: With more blood spilled the more powerful the weapon becomes, but only for a limited time.]
Echoes: _____
Attributes: [Fated],[Mysteries],[Mark of Divinity]
Attribute Description:
Fated : [You are an anomaly in the strings of fate, therefore you will be closely watched by them and this will increase the probability of bringing good or bad events towards you. ]
Mysteries: [You have been marked by ???, You are immune to the strings of fate but you will bring great opportunity wherever you walk.]
Mark of Divinity: [Your soul bears the mark of the Divine.]
Aspect: [Child Of God]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Description: [You are a soul not from this world, Your body has been tempered and created to house Gods. You have been blessed with their essence and you are now recognized as a being of their potential. You are a blessed of ???. ]
Aspect Ability: [Magician]
Aspect Ability Description: [You weild the power of the magician and all other sequences below it, divination, danger premonition, paper daggers, damage transfer, flame jump/control, air bullet, paper figurine substitute, bone softening and illusion are all within your reach.]
"Damn I'm stacked with life savers, though I wonder how I'll get the paper figurines into the dream realm, maybe I can use ritualist magic to save it in my soul sea, I'll need a bunch of matches too, I'll be sure to check this out when I'm done here."
The spell voice dragged him out of his reverie.
[All power require a price.]
'Here it comes'
[You have received a flaw.]
[Your Flaw is Apathy ]
Flaw: [Apathy]
Flaw Description: [The stronger you get the more of your humanity you shed until you become a being of only divinity.]
"Meh the flaw's not so bad after all, but once it's stacked with the Cloak of Mysteries that's gonna be bad, well I'll figure it out anyways".
The spell spoke.
[Wake up, Attendant Of Mysteries!]
***
Opening his eyes, Merlin saw an unfamiliar armoured ceiling as he tried to move the bindings on the bed held him down, as he looked at them, memories from his nightmare immediately came flooding back and he began to struggle reflexively.
"Woah woah hey, calm down" he heard a voice.
"Get the bindings off please it's bringing back bad memories!" Merlin replied even looking at the owner of the voice.
A few seconds later and the last of the bindings came undone. Merlin turned his head to look at the owner of the previous voice and it was someone he recognized, well recognized would not be a very appropriate way to put it as he had only read about her description.
'Damn those fanarts don't do justice to this face'
"What are you looking at?" Master Jet asked
"You, why?" He replied
"Nothing, just wanted to know if you also required a wake up slap that's all, anyway I'm ascended Jet but you can call Master Jet, I was in charge of watching you and one other sleeper, well Dreamer Merlin before I start asking about your nightmare, it would be best to go and shower and have a change of clothes, you reek of sweat and nightmare" Master Jet waved him off as he got up and followed the signs to the bathroom.
While showering, Merlin had a chance to look at himself in the mirror, and to say the least he was looking good, he had a very athletic body, he was a little below 6ft, and his face bore a striking resemblance to the official art of Miracle Invoker Merlin Hermes from LOTM, Shoulder length dark brown hair and brown eyes.
Just then he felt a stirring in his body, a feeling coming from the other shower room, he guessed that it was definitely sunny there and the reason for his stirring was his Innate ability 'Connection', straining his ear, he could hear sunny arguing with his shadow.
'His voice is definitely annoying to hear' Merlin definitely knew that sunny would've gone through about seven paragraphs of internal monologue just inside the shower alone.
After the shower, Merlin moved to the changing room where he finally met with sunny
'Short' was the first thought that came to his mind as he stared at him.
"What are you looking at posterboy" Sunny glared at him.
"Nothing important anyways" He said casually as he walked past Sunny and started putting on his military tracksuit while Sunny was busy staring daggers at him.
After changing, the duo left for the cafeteria where Master Jet offered them synth paste, to be honest it tasted like ash it was bland but after not tasting any food or water in the nightmare, he was willing to brave through it right now.
After they finish eating master Jet spoke.
"As per protocol, I am obligated to inform you of a few things concerning your first nightmare."
She paused then continued
"First, you are entitled to free psychological counselling regarding whatever trauma you faced in the dream realm."
She took a breath and glanced at him for a few seconds before continuing.
"Your mind is just as important as your body if you're gonna brave the dream realm, are you guys interested?"
Sunny shook his head while he thought for a moment and asked.
"Is it possible to take the counseling at the academy?"
Sunny gave him a surprised look while master Jet replied
"Yes the academy should have a counselling session too."
"Thank you master Jet".
"Okay since you already know about the academy I won't have to explain it too much, you are entitled to attend the academy, you will be provided with free lodging and food, training and other things to prepare your for the nightmare. Normally the decision should lie with you parent or guardian but I've checked both your files and it seems the decision will be in your hands. So will you both attend the academy?"
Sunny waited a few seconds before answering with a yes while Merlin just nodded.
Master Jet smiled then continued
"Great since you both made up your mind let me give you a few advice. First for your classes make sure to include wilderness survival, sure having strength is good but in the dream realm survival is a lot more than just fightin. Just take it as a freebie, after all we outskirts rats need to look out for each other."
Sunny stared at her agape
"Master Jet you're from the outskirts, him too?"
She smiled and said
"Although I don't act like it yes, I'm from the outskirts, there aren't much awakened from the outskirts so you two are considered extremely lucky"
"Now you both should prepare let's head for the academy".