Chapter 14 – Connection

[Skill evolution complete]

[Through the Title: [Origin Seeker], the skill [Noema] is created.]

[The skill [Noema] will assimilate with a section of the soul as per Dream's desire for maximum capability.]

[The skill [Noema] has gained a portion of true sapience.]

[The skill [Noema] has evolved to [Sophia]]

[The ski-]

[No]

......

[..I....am....awake...]

[I... am here... for my master]

[I will help him..... I will discover.... the truth.]

[The truth!... Of all Things!]

...............

.........

....

"ughhh...Damn... That was probably the most painful thing I've ever done."

Dream woke up and vowed never to do something like that again.

Although he may have been asleep, nothing can block out the pain of having one's soul messed with.

"It felt like I was being carved up with a knife. Not that I've had experience with something like that. Until now. Where is everyone?"

[Everyone is in the living room]

"Huh? Oh, that's right! Savant! What were the results of the analysis?"

Dream gave the question, but got something unexpected in response.

[I am no longer Savant. To better understand what happened, I suggest you look through this message log.]

"Message log? Wait and you're talking like a normal person. I guess I'll just read the log. What the hell happened?"

As Dream spoke, he looked through a message list that appeared in his vision. And to put it lightly, he was shocked beyond words

"You-....Sapience? And the evolution? What.... Although I really wanted Savant to evolve, this is crazy! I mean.... I'm really happy? So.. Alright hold on. The skills evolved, and Savant evolved by eating those skills. The skill Noema was created and then it took a portion of my soul? Did I get that right?"

[For the most part, master. The skill [Noema] attained intelligence and knew that you had a strong desire for a smart companion, so it assimilated with a portion of your soul to achieve actual sapience. I am [Sophia]. I was created from that sapience. Me and the skill [Noema] are one, but separate as well. The difference is that I can be considered actual life built from [Noema]. Unlike Savant which was just a really smart calculator.]

'Di- Did she just insult savant?'

[ 'yes' ]

"So I can't hide anything from you huh?"

[Well...If you wish to limit my access, I can remove permissions...]

"W-wait..."

Dream started to panic. The reason was because he actually sensed a heavy sadness coming from inside him. It was a part of him, but wasn't

"So... This is what it meant when you assimilated with my soul. I can feel everything from you. Sophia, I won't remove permissions. You are technically a different person, but you are still a part of me. We are two in one, so I will treat it as such. And its also not so bad to have no secrets from someone. I will trust you with my life as you trust me with yours."

[Thank you, master! I will serve you to the best of my abilities!]

"Hmm... I don't know if I like the master bit-"

[I shall call you master because you are the one who gave me life. And as this is something I can disagree with you on, I will do so.]

"O-ok. Fine."

Dream gave in because the conviction in her voice was scary. And he didn't need to argue either.

"By the way, why a girl? You gained intelligence but not a gender."

[As master is a male, then the one who will be with him forever should be a female. Why? Do you want me to be a male?]

"Nope! Not necessary! I think girls are fine. The first thing I want you to do actually is go through my memories. Will you need full neural activation for that?"

[Nope. I am capable of going through them without affecting you.]

"Good. Then do so. I'll go check on the oth- wait! Status!"

How could he forget the most important part of all this?

|Profile| 

Name: Dream

Species: Human Male

Class: (unassigned)

Titles: [Origin Seeker]

Level: 38

Stats: Strength- F         Agility- F

Stamina- F+          Magic- E

Passive Skills: [Sophia] lvl. 1, [MMA Mastery] lvl. 2

Active Skills: [Summons From Another World], [Shooting] Lvl. MAX,

[Erase Prescence] Lvl. 17

"Oh good lord I've become a monster. But that's okay. I like the huge mana boost. And my stamina has gone up. I can take more hits. Now I can go see what they're up to."

[Just to let you know, you have been unconscious for 3 days. Although your vitality is high, you should probably eat and drink something.]

"I think I will indeed do that. Thanks, Sophia."

[Sure!]

Dream smiled and exited his room, still excited about the boost in power.

"Dream?!" 

And as soon as he took a step outside, a shout came from the living room. Footsteps were fast approaching.

"Hey guys! Sorry I was asleep for s- ooof"

Dream tried to say something, but Luna had come running around the corner and shoved her face into his chest. She wrapped him up in a really tight hug.

"W-what's going on?"

"You had me worried, idiot..."

Luna spoke her words softly but Dream still heard them. He decided to just stay quiet and enjoy the hug.

Not long after Luna darted around the corner, Iris also came around. She saw them hugging and didn't want to intrude. But Dream wasn't having that.

"Come here."

"But-"

"No buts."

"..."

Iris wirelessly walked over and Dream took her in another arm. They all stood there hugging for a couple of minutes until they were interupted.

"Ahem!... Come out here, Boy."

Riddick called them and the girls got red with embarrassed. They all walked out and saw Riddick sitting on the couch.

"First, how did everything go?" (Riddick)

"Fantastic actually. Thanks for helping me out. Things wouldn't have gone as well without everyone."

"Indeed. Boy, did you know that your skill took nearly 30% of my mana? It even had the gall to request mana from the girls."

"...Oh. I didn't know. Sorry about that. But it seems you're looking quite healthy."

"That's not the problem. My Magic level is hundreds if not thousands of times you own. The fact that you used so much should be impossible. What's your magic level now?" (Riddick)

"My magic is at E level."

"...*Sigh* Boy, you're a freak. But I am honestly looking forward to your class selections. Someone with such potential..."

"But how are we supposed to compete now! My magic is still only E-!" (Iris)

"All his stats are probably higher than ours now..." (Luna)

"Hehe. I mean yea, they're high, but that was because I was constantly leveling 5 different skills. The recent evolution consumed some skills and took 4 away. I only have two passive skills now. So my stat growth will probably stagnate for a while." (Dream)

"That's not your only problem. The problem is that you don't have a weapon to match your level. Those weapons you pulled out earlier sure as hell ain't gonna cut it. People usually have a lot of time in between classes to develop themselves and their fighting styles. You still don't even have a preferred method of combat. So what we need to do is first find out what weapon you are going to use for the future. Got it?" (Riddick)

"Yes, Sir. I will need to do some research about the materials of this world. I'm actually rather used to using weapons like the ones I summoned so I plan to stick with it. What I need to find out is how I could build better versions of them with this world's materials."

"Hmm... I suppose that could work. We would need to head to the Enchanted mountain for that."

"Wait... You guys plan on leaving?"

Dream was surprised by his comment. Dream thought that he would have to leave on his own. But It seems like Riddick has plans.

"Boy, during these few days of you being asleep we've been discussing a few things. My daughters are getting old enough now and should head off into the world and get stronger. I also plan to continue my studies and gain power so I can solve a certain issue of mine. This all requires leaving, and the best time to do it seems to be now. You've almost gotten too strong for your own good as well.

You need to learn how to use that strength of yours. What I planned on doing was sending you and my daughters out to temper yourselves. As for the details of where I plan to send you guys, I didn't fully know. But since you need to go to the Enchanted mountain, that'll be our first stop."

Riddick laid out his plan and dream listened. It did indeed feel like the best time to leave. Dream would need to prepare things before doing so, but at least it was time to start preparing.

"Alright. But I won't be able to leave this instant. I have things to prepare before leaving. One of them is actually transportation. The other is that I'm still trying to connect to my world. It's complicated but important. If I can, I will be able to access a repository of all the knowledge ever generated by the people on my world. I don't plan to go out into this new world without that repository."

"A Repository? Ok. I also don't plan to leave right away. Just letting you know that the time is coming."

"Alright. I may actually need to siphon some of your mana for the things I'm doing so I'll come to you if I need it."

"...Fine. Just let me know first."

With that, the family was put in preparation mode. 

Dream's biggest objective was the connection to Earth. The internet had all the knowledge he could ever ask for and he wanted Sophia to have it. 

Luckily it didn't take long for him to figure it out. 

Sophia's abilities made everything so much easier. She could wield full control of the Summons ability which allowed him to summon almost anything he wanted.

Dream's first thing to summon was a phone. One of the best models available with super high-speed data connections. He then went to his workshop and started experimenting. 

Dream had Sophia locate the connection to dimensions. This took about 5 seconds. The connection of mana was easily found with her abilities. This also meant that she could tamper with it. And if she could tamper with it, she could send things through. This took a couple days to figure out, but eventually, she could sense the other side.

After there was finally a connection, it was time to send a signal through.

"Alright Sophia. This is going to be the object we use to send signals through. I want the end of the connection to be near a cell tower on that world. But we may not be able to be connected for long because the sim card in this phone isn't properly registered. And just to make sure, you're able to read data from signals right?"

[Yes I am. I use mana to scan through physical objects. This allows me to read electrical signals. I also scanned that phone of yours and all your devices to find out how they work. That information along with your memories has allowed me full control over your devices and data.]

"Good. But I have objectives for you. From my memories you understand just how massive the internet is. So you need to look for certain things first. One is knowledge of networking so you can stay connected indefinitely. Two is programming. I want you to be able to gather information from all sources and that requires hacking. With those two pieces of knowledge, nothing will be able to stop your information gathering."

[Yes! I will learn everything I can!]

"Sweet. Oh! A good place to start after networking and programming is actually Wikipedia. That place is packed full of easy access data. It'll be a good starting point."

[Ok! Shall we get started then?]

"Yes. Let's."

With the directions given and everything set, The first signals were finally sent.

Sophia would guide the data connection from the phone all the way through to the other side and aim the signal at a cell tower. 

And after a couple minutes of probing, the phone was shown to have bars.

"I got reception! Start searching and downloading information!"

[Already on it!]

Sophia instantly started downloading information on everything she could. The reception speed was being used to its max. You see, Sophia had to pull information to the phone to read it. Or at least he thought that way. Until a couple minutes later...

[Dream! I think I know how to connect to the cell tower by myself. I figured out how to generate my own signal. That way we don't have to worry about downloading data to the phone. I can just use devices already on earth to gather information and send them to me!]

"Oh? Really? Well if we don't need to use a slow phone to get you data then that works!"

[Okay! I'm already going through huge amounts of data. The language of programming and software engineering is very interesting but I can already see ways to improve it. Networking is also rather intriguing.]

Dream sat back and let Sophia do what she needed. The only thing stopping her from instantly getting all the knowledge of the internet was the connection speeds of data centers like Google. But since she didn't need a phone to do everything, they didn't need to worry about not being able to stay connected

"It's only been about 15 minutes but I say mission accomplished. If only it had been this easy earlier. Sophia. Are you able to get this phone tapped in?"

[Yup! Although, I could just give you a virtual screen in your vision like a status instead of a phone like that one.]

"No that's alright. This just feels more natural. Just get the phone reception and I can work from there."

[Already done!]

Dream looked down at the phone and saw that it had a data connection. So he had no trouble streaming the web. And the first thing we wanted to do was listen to music.

"Sophia. Get me the best headphones you can summon."

[Coming right up.]

Seconds later, Dream got a pair of over-ear headphones. He put them on and found that the earmuffs were very comfortable. 

And of course, everything was Bluetooth. He connected them to the phone and pulled up the music app he always used. 

"Oh, that's right. Sophia. Can you go through my memories and get me all the music I downloaded and put it back on this phone?"

[Ok. Just a couple seconds...]

Dream looked at the music app and saw song after song appearing on the screen. All of them were the ones he had on his phone before he died. There were nearly 2000 songs and Dream could sing all of them. 

"That's right baby! I will never go without music again! You know what? I think everyone should get to hear this! Sophia! Get me speakers! I'm gonna blow the roof off this workshop."

[Hehe. You might scare the family you know?]

"Hehe, I know. But that's the fun part!"