I

It was hard to simultaneously keep the barrier up and destroy the foreign memories - more than once, I briefly lost control over the mental wall, and new images entered my core being. But I quickly reestablished control and doggedly went about eliminating what did not belong to me.

In the middle of the process, suddenly a new blue box popped up, momentarily distracting me and leading to another 100 or more memories entering my core.

You have learned the skill Multitasking. While many people believe themselves to be good at multitasking, usually they are fooling themselves and simply do everything worse. You are the rare exception. While not perfect, you can do multiple things at once, without a significant decrease in quality for any one activity, given that the activities don’t require too much cognitive power. Higher levels allow for increased difficulty and number of tasks to be done simultaneously. Multitasking Level 1

That was actually quite useful as a skill. Not sure what the point of the box was, though. I mean, it was kind of obvious that I had just done some successful multitasking. I did not really need anyone telling me about it. Even less in a weird blue box. But I guess it served as a confirmation that I had improved in some way, that this was not just a fluke.

After what felt like an eternity, I eliminated the last foreign memory and image. The moment I was done, two blue boxes opened up.

You have learned the skill Mental Fortitude. You have learned to control and focus your mental energy to such a high degree that you now have a chance to detect and eliminate foreign intrusion into your brain. Mental Fortitude Level 1

You have learned the skill Mental Ward. You have learned to use your mental energy to ward your core being from mental intrusion. Mental Ward Level 1

That was nice. But still fucking useless.

I was myself again and able to ward off all those alien memories, but still drifting close and closer to that giant vortex. And even if I was, hypothetically, able to ward off memories inside that giant maelstrom, where would I go from there? Drift around in a small bubble of personal memories for eternity?

Fuck that, I’d rather die.

But I could not even do that. Granted, I could lose myself in all those other memories, but then what? Would I have some type of disjointed, fragmented persona that was everyone and no one at the same time? I shuddered at the thought.

Before I could get even more worked up, suddenly a face floated into my vision. It was beautiful, with slightly slanted eyes, high cheekbones, and a perfectly shaped, somewhat aquiline nose. And it was androgynous, which, together with the perfectly white skin, made it look artificial.

It floated closer, and I braced my mental ward for impact. However, the impact never happened. The face floated through my ward as if it was not even there. Once inside, it opened the mouth and started speaking to me in a flat, monotonous voice.

“Daniel Hollander, you have done what no one else has ever has done before. You gain the title: Mental Bastion. Your new survival chance is estimated at one percent. You will be transferred using surplus soul energy. Choice of core mandatory.”

“Huh?” I eloquently responded.

While I understood all the words the face just had said, I was flabbergasted about what was going on. Mental Bastion? What soul energy? Who decided on this? And what about those cores? What was that all about?

“Please choose a core,” the face said.

“What?” Was all I managed to ask.

“Please choose a core,” the face repeated.

“What is a core? And what are my choices?” I shouted, desperate for some information.

“A core aligns your body with a particular type of mana. This allows the body to grow stronger, and you may learn how to use the mana in various internal and external applications. The existing types of cores are White, Yellow, Amber, Red, Green, Blue, Turquoise, Grey, Black, Silver, Gold, where all but Silver and Gold are available for you to choose from.”

“What do the colors represent?”

In response, a blue box opened up.

Core Type

Base Function/Affinity

White

Air

Yellow

Electricity

Amber

Healing

Red

Fire

Green

Nature, Earth

Blue

Ice

Turquoise

Water

Purple

Psychic, Mental

Grey

Stone, Metal

Black

Shadow

Silver

Synergy

Gold

Divine

“Transfer procedure initiated. You have 10 seconds to choose your core type. Otherwise, you will be assigned a core randomly. Ten, nine, …”

With those words, I could see the different types of cores lighten up within the face. It was almost like a self-service kind of cafeteria, only that here, instead of a pastry, I had to choose a core that most likely was going to significantly determine how the rest of my life was going to play out.

Assuming that I was not hallucinating or dreaming all of this up.

I tried touching the silver and gold core, but there seemed to be a barrier in front of them.

As I looked through the options available, I could feel the pressure mounting to make a choice. Many of these were tempting. It was rather unclear of course what they actually would allow you to do. The information on that was rather sparse or cryptic – strengthen your body was straightforward but using mana for internal and external applications… less so.

Take fire. Could I light a fire from a one-yard distance? While cute, it did not seem particularly useful. Could I perhaps create a fireball and toss it at monsters 50 yards away? Not particularly valuable for a civilized society, but at least it had the coolness factor going.

Based on what I could see, it seemed that amber was a good choice because anything that used the word healing was another chance for me to get out of the wheelchair. But air was not bad either. I mean, maybe it would allow me to fly! Shadow sounded sinister, so I was not sure what to think of that. Divine was really juicy but unfortunately prohibited. I flipped back and forth between the choices, and the countdown reached 1 second.

And I decided that I was not going to be denied. Or rather, that I would try to go for it. With the given information, I simply did not have enough of a basis to make a good decision, in which case I might as well get a random core. But the fact that the gold and silver core were prohibited indicated to me that just maybe they were more powerful.

Clearly, the word divine implied that much. Synergy was less informative in that sense.

I figured that the face was in my personal space, my personal core. So just maybe, I could take what I wanted and hope for the best. I did not have enough time to consider all the pros and cons and the undeniable risks and just followed my gut feeling.

I imagined my will to form a massive sledgehammer, and with all my mental power and determination, I slammed the hammer into the barrier that protected the golden core. In the last split second, the face realized what I was trying to do and managed to turn slightly sideways. This caused the hammer to slip off the gold core barrier and slam instead into the barrier to the silver core. At first, nothing happened, and I mentally resigned myself to a random core, but then the barrier cracked and split into hundreds of little shards.

I could feel my being dissolved into particles and with a last-ditch effort, I mentally grabbed the silver core and pulled it into myself. The next thing I saw was blackness, only disturbed by the occasional green lightning. Gradually the darkness receded. With a pop, the last part of the gloom disappeared, and I found myself laying facedown and stunned on the concrete floor next to the ramp and my wheelchair. My head was hurting, and, the way it felt, my nose was probably broken. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth as I was trying to find my bearings.

-------Annie--------

Annie stumbled and almost fell. She felt a bit nauseous and was still bewildered by what had just happened. What on earth had all that been about?

One moment she was preparing to for a nice walk with Daniel, and the next thing she knew, she was in a weird room with… a voice?

Annie shook her head, trying to make sense of it all.

Only… it just was too bizarre. Characteristic scores for strength, dexterity, and several other things she had already forgotten about? And then that talk about her affinity toward healing and how she was going to have an amber core… That part made even less sense to her, but at least amber was a beautiful color, one of her favorites in fact. For whatever that was worth.

Annie chuckled at herself.

The most likely explanation was some sort of hallucination. Why she would hallucinate was a bit unclear, but maybe the mushrooms at lunch had been poisonous… there should be some type of reasonable and rational explanation after all.

Or Daniel had spiked her drink.

Now Annie had to giggle out loud. Daniel was a good guy, unlike those creeps in Hollywood. And, of course, he was physically incapa-.

Before she could finish her thoughts, she suddenly remembered the shaking earth and seeing Daniel’s wheelchair tipping over.

She whirled around, and there he was, face down on the concrete floor, moaning, with blood slowly pooling around his head. The wheelchair was on its side next to the ramp, one of the wheels still spinning.

“Daniel!” she shouted frantically.

She jumped off the ramp and rushed to him, carefully turning him over. It was unlikely that he had suffered internal injury from a fall like that, but she had seen enough freak accident to exclude that possibility outright. With a sigh of relief, she realized that he seemed mostly unharmed, apart from a busted lip, some bruises, and cuts around the face and what looked like a broken nose.

“Daniel, talk to me,” she said in an insistent, yet calm voice. “Where are you hurt?”

Groaning, Daniel mumbled something incoherent.

With a concerned look on her face, Annie touched Daniel’s head, feeling for bruises or broken bones.

Touching the broken nose, elicited a wince from Daniel and some clarity returned to his eyes.

“Seems you are fine,” Annie said reassuringly. “No broken skull… your head is harder than the concrete, it seems.”

“Next time, catch yourself, will you?” She chuckled. “Not good for your face.”

While Daniel sputtered, looking for a response, Annie put the wheelchair upright and then grabbed him under his arms in a tight hug to lift him back into his wheelchair.

Immediately, Daniel squealed like a pig, clearly audible, despite her chest pressed against his bloody mouth.

Annie instantly released the hold on Daniel and stepped back, with a concerned look in her eyes. “What happened, Daniel? Any pain? Did I touch your nose?”

“The leg! The fucking leg hurts so badly,” Daniel sobbed, lib quivering.

“Which leg? What is it? I don’t see anything.”

Annie bent down and examined his legs, sliding her hand up and down to see if there was any broken bone.

Suddenly, Annie looked up. “Wait, how can you even feel anything?”

Daniel’s face immediately changed from the rictus of pain and suffering to a mischievous grin, only marred by a quick wince when his teeth touched his busted lip. “Never said it was my leg… I just thought that pulling YOUR leg so hard might hurt.”

Annie stared at Daniel for a few seconds before laughing out loud. “You are quite something, Daniel. You really got me there. Well played. But don’t do that again, ok?”

“Sure, sure,” Daniel responded. “Now lift me up to the wheelchair, will you? I kinda like how you are doing that.”

“I’m sure you do, pervert,” Annie immediately retorted while bending down to lift him up.

She wiggled her chest around a bit. “You like the feel, huh?”

“Nah, I just like the artsy red markings all over you,” Daniel responded with a deadpan expression, once he was safely sitting in his chair again.

“Aww, shit,” Annie complained after looking down and noticing the red smears all over her top. “That was my favorite tank top.”

“You should have taken it off,” Daniel offered helpfully.

“Right, in your dreams, mister,” Annie responded, smiling slightly.

Daniel was a nice guy, even if a bit awkward socially sometimes. And he used to be good looking too, based on the pictures she had seen of him from a few years back – about six feet tall, fit, runner’s legs brown hair, warm, green-brown eyes, with a sparkle of amber in them.

Obviously, he still had those eyes, and Annie thought they were quite attractive. As was his humor, misplaced as it was at times. You just had to ‘get’ him. Of course, his body had atrophied over the years, but that was no surprise. Four years in a wheelchair will do that to anyone.

Bantering aside, Annie could tell that Daniel was in pain. She knew the expression on his face.

Gently, she put her hands on Daniel’s face and tried to somehow stem the bleeding from the nose and make him more comfortable. As she did, she could feel warm energy amassing in her chest, rush down her arms towards her hands, and seep out into Daniel’s face.

Annie was absolutely shocked by the unexpected and weird feeling. And then, suddenly, the small gashes in Daniel’s face, including the busted lip, started disappearing. In front of her disbelieving eyes, the skin knitting together until all that was left were a couple of small scabs. Even his broken nose looked a tad better than mere moments ago.

Frozen in disbelief, Annie just stood there and stared.