"If it's possible, would you mind showing me your skills, vessel of god?"
Merlin in reflex simply asked.
"Why would you believe I have any?"
His confidence was unmasked, as for why, russian roulette, all or nothing.
"Well you have been given the essence of the gods, so those essence must have established themselves as some skills in your possession, I would love you to display them" Dorax smiled widely as her eyes blazed with anticipation.
"No" Merlin didn't even think much about it, he could already tell, giving this guy any ability from the coward pathway of his was simply making it more unkillable, and that was something Merlin was not betting on.
"Refused huh… that just makes me more eager to see it" Dorax's eyes were now full-on crescent from excitement.
'Yeah… no way in hell'
"I'll be taking my leave now…" Merlin stood up and left the dining room. He felt that if he stayed any second longer, Dorax would find a way to force him to use his abilities.
"In the end, it all boils down to getting the scribe's ability…" Merlin muttered to himself.
That night, Merlin dove into his soul sea, he painted all night, with pure focus, and after five hours of trial and error, he finally achieved it, the counter read.
[90% / 90%]
"Finally…" Merlin sighed as he put away the paint brush.
[Proceed?]
"Yes" Merlin said with full confidence.
The next moment, he was in a room with speakers, from the speakers, words and reports started sounding out like a cracked old radio.
Merlin who was already prepared immediately listened to the words closely, he was determined not to miss a single sentence.
The sounds coming out of the speaker continued for a full ten minutes until it ended with the words.
"In the end, a Scribe is one who records"
Immediately those words sounded, Merlin found himself face to face with a typewriter, the kind of the 90's.
"If I don't pass this trial, I'm definitely blaming this on poor equipment"
Merlin sat down and started typing, ten minutes of words were what he typed, he spent an hour doing, after he finished the last words, he glanced up to the timer that read.
[94% / 90%]...
"Yes… that's what I'm talking about" Merlin pumped his fists in joy.
[Congratulations!]
"Thank you" Merlin bowed respectfully.
The next moment, the scene shattered and Merlin was back on his bed.
[Claim Legacy Relic?]
"Yes" Merlin spoke calmly.
[Legacy Relic Claimed: Scribe.]
[Legacy Description: The core ability of a Scribe, after witnessing an aspect ability, Scribes can attempt to Record its mystical symbols, patterns, and labels—storing them for a single use if they succeed. In principle, this ability uses their Soul as a pen and their Spirit Body as the paper to function… (Locked).]
"What do you mean locked?" Merlin was baffled by the words locked.
[Requirements: Awakened…]
"Just as I expected… guess I have no choice but to go down the awakening route" Merlin sighed and closed his eyes. He was truly happy about his achievement, at least when he awakened he would have another trump card, an almost omnipotent one.
"Let's start with the awakening tomorrow…" Merlin then drifted off to sleep, he had truly stressed his mind.
…
..
.
By morning, Merlin woke up rather lively compared to yesterday, for one he didn't have the familiar nightmare, and second, he really wanted to try his idea of awakening.
"You seem to be in a good mood" Silver said as she noticed his exaggerated smile.
"I really am, I can't wait to begin the awakening process" Merlin smiled warmly as he practically hummed his way to the shower.
As for how the water was still intact, Merlin was curious but felt it was better not to find out.
After he finished, he didn't leave the room, instead he sat crosslegged on the bed, and retrieved the shards from the dimension ring, a few hundreds of awakened and fallen shards, eighty transcendent and twenty supreme.
Dorax wasn't holding back with her investment at all, but then again to her, these things were meaningless.
'Huuu… what a waste this is, but it doesn't matter, it's for the greater good and my survival.
He then checked his runes.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Titan
Soul Core: [7/7]
Soul Fragments: [1405/7000]
He sighed and began absorbing the shards one by one, the numbers rising steadily.
..
.
Soul Fragments: [1495/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [1547/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [1768/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [1992/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [2105/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [2748/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [3874/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [4999/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [6002/7000]
..
Soul Fragments: [7000/7000]
..
.
By the time his counter was full, he wasn't done with the shards, but he also didn't stop, he just turned to Silver and told her not to let anyone interrupt him for the next few days.
Merlin was determined to awaken and he wasn't going to spare any time on anything else, as for eating, his body was already built to handle worse, he could go a week without eating until it started to bother him, he had done so in his first nightmare and he could do so again.
Merlin began absorbing the shards, but this time, the essence had nowhere to go, so Merlin was simply pouring his full attention to force it into one core, he would dice the core to move beyond its limit while pushing it to merge with other of his cores.
It was a mad idea, but it was the only one he could think of, combining seven cores to form one awakened core, a feat that had never been achieved in history, but he was going to force himself to do it.
…
Merlin spent the entire week on the same thing, after Dorax heard of his plan, she instantly supplied him with a bunch of shards, to her it was more of an entertainment than a challenge.
An awakened against a cursed creature, it wasn't even a fight that had to be considered or documented, just from a slight exertion of will, he would be deleted from existence, that was how powerful a cursed creature's will could operate.
Merlin had struggled for the entire week, but it hadn't been for naught, sitting on his bed, Merlin stared at his runes.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: Dre_
Class: Titan
Soul Core: [6/6]
Soul Fragments: [7000/6000]
His runes were a rather odd mess, his rank was glitching, his class was a titan even while having six cores, and his fragments were off the charts.
After a week of nonstop focus, Merlin had finally fused one of his two of his cores together, proving that his method was working, but it wasn't without its disadvantages though.
Currently, Merlin was very weak, the mental strain was high, he hadn't eaten in a week, but most of all, the moment his cores fused, he was washed by a rather soul tearing pain, one even worse than forming a new core, Merlin had blacked out from the pain, and when he woke up, Dorax had forbidden him from doing it again until he was well rested.
He also explained his progress to the worried Silver and she chose to trust him.
Merlin stood up from the bed and after freshening up, before he left his room, he entered his soul sea, now there were six cores, but one was shining brighter than the remaining five, the fused core stood proudly above the high back chair.
Merlin turned to the three points of light that were flickering slightly, few days ago, the cohort had recited his honorific name, but Merlin had ignored them, he was in a critical state of fusing his cores, so he avoided any form of distraction, as a result, Merlin placed them on hold.
"I'll have to explain things to them today…" Merlin sighed and left his soul sea.
He then turned to Silver and said.
"Let's go have breakfast…"
"Alright" Silver replied softly, and the two of them walked out of the door both headed to the dining room.
Needless to say, as Merlin got there, he was baffled, Dorax had completely ditched the long table, all that was left was a small round table with two chairs.
It was the kind used for evening dates, ideal ones at that, but the problem here was that, although the table made the moment, the woman was rather underage…(FBI… Open up), but that wasn't even the worst part, the woman in question, was not a woman at all, but rather a…. It's best if it isn't mentioned.
Merlin sighed and walked to the chair, he couldn't do anything about the situation. If you're in Rome, do like the Romans do, if you're in Russia, be strong enough to hold your liquor.
"You seem to be doing fine" Dorax said with a smile.
Merlin didn't reply but directly asked.
"What happened to the other table?"
"That one wasn't to my liking, do you have a problem with this one?" Dorax asked softly.
"No not really…" Merlin replied calmly on the outside, but inside he was reeling.
'I have a lot of problems with this setting. Let's skip the underage part for a second, I want to know how high your mental fortitude is, playing a child isn't enough, you just had to play a female child?'
Dorax nodded and said.
"Since there's no problem, let's eat, I told the chefs to prepare extra just for you"
"Thank you" Merlin nodded as the chef Thoraxes walked in carrying multiple edible dishes.
Merlin ate with joy, he ignored the bland taste of the food and simply ate his fill, the feeling of energy was something he missed, and now he was getting his strength back.
After he finished eating, he was in a hurry to return to the room, partly because he wanted to return to his awakening process, the other part was because Dorax had been staring intently at him, more accurately, his chest.
"You're doing something interesting… vessel of god…" Dorax said with an exaggerated smile.
Before he could reply, she continued.
"...At this rate, it will take over two months before you awaken"
Merlin sighed inwardly.
'As expected… ofcourse this guy knew about the process'
"You're the one who wanted to see my abilities, so I figured I would show you something interesting" Merlin replied.
"I see, in that case…" Dorax immediately stood up, and the temperature in the room shifted.
"!!?"
Merlin stood on alert, even Silver stood up to protect him.
Dorax simply sighed and looked at the table, immediately as if the universe rejected it, the dining table simply vanished into nothing along with the chairs.
Dorax turned to him and pointed one finger at his chest.
Immediately Merlin was hammered with an unbearable pain, he felt four of his cores shatter in an instant.
"Aaahhh!!!" He fell to his knees clutching his chest, the pain was unbearable.
With his blurry vision, he saw Dorax produce a sacred shard, she immediately crushed it in her palms, and the essence flooded his body.
Merlin felt all the essence and remnants of his shattered cores fuse together into the recently formed half-awakened core, then the pain hit him again, unable to bear the reforming, Merlin fell unconscious to the ground.
..
.
Silver stared at Merlin's unconscious figure, it wasn't that she didn't want to help, it was that she couldn't, the cursed devil had found a way to lock her body in place, no matter how she resisted or struggled, it was futile.
"Take him and leave… I've helped him the best I can" Dorax said as she looked at Merlin's figure on the ground.
Immediately Silver felt the force on her body disappear and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'll be waiting for when he wakes up…" Dorax said those words and immediately disappeared into thin air, leaving only silver and Merlin in the empty room.
"Sigh… what a troublesome journey this is" Silver sighed again as she picked up Merlin's unconscious figure and returned to the room.
..
.
"Ugh.."
Merlin woke up with a stinging headache and a heavy feeling in his chest.
"I don't think I've fallen unconscious since the cloak…" he sighed as he rubbed his head and sat up.
"You're awake chi… Merlin" Silver's voice sounded from beside the bed.
"Yeah… what exactly happened" Merlin asked as his memories felt foggy.
"The cursed creature did something and you fell unconscious in pain… it said that it helped you" Silver explained calmly.
"Ugh… that, I sort of remember now" Merlin held his head as the memories arranged themselves one after another, he remembered the table, then the pain, then the sacred shard, and finally blacking out.
'Thorax you bastard… wait, what help?'
Merlin thought of something, then he summoned his runes, a light gasp escaped his mouth as he read it.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: D__
Class: Titan
Soul Core: [2/2]
Soul Fragments: [7000/2000]
Dorax had helped him shorten the process by a lot.
'Heh, having a good helper really does make a difference'
Merlin turned to Silver, he smiled and said.
"I guess Thorax really did help me, at this rate I should awaken by next week…"
"I understand, that's good then" Silver nodded.
Merlin laid down on the bed and asked.
"Hey, how long was I out?"
"About half a day, the bell has already sounded" Silver replied softly.
'I see… guess I have to start making my preparations'
"Hey Silver… let's play a game" Merlin said with his eyes closed.
"A game, what kind?" Silver asked calmly.
Merlin sighed and said.
"It's a simple one, just repeat after me…"
"Okay I'm listening…"
Merlin nodded and started.
"Child of Change
The Wandering Miracle Magician
Blessed of the Spirit World
Dreamer Cloaked in Mysteries
Soul Traveling through Dreams and History"
As he finished, Silver was silent for a while then she asked.
"What is that?"
"Nothing, just say it…" He replied calmly.
"Alright then…" Silver said then repeated his words.
As she finished, Merlin heard the whispers in his ears and smiled.
Silver then asked.
"So… what next?"
"Now…" he smiled then continued "...we go to sleep"
"..."
"Ow!" Silver shot him a needle.
"You're a rather strange child…" Silver replied then closed her eyes as she laid her head down.
'Strange doesn't even begin to explain where I stand as of now'
Merlin sighed as he let the comfort of sleep claim his consciousness.