Morning came softly, the first light of dawn peeking through the trees.
Linsley stirred awake, his senses immediately alert. He glanced around the cave.
Lucy was still asleep, her breath even and calm, while Ted was just starting to wake up, rubbing his eyes.
"We should wash up," Linsley said, standing and stretching. "There's a river nearby. We'll clean up and then eat."
Lucy was the first to bathe, making her way to the river alone while Linsley and Ted stayed behind.
Once she returned, Linsley led Ted to the river, and the two of them bathed together.
The cold water refreshed them, washing away the grime from their time in the facility. Ted seemed more at ease in the calm of the river, even managing a small smile as they finished up.
Once they returned to the cave, Linsley used his Real Fantasy gift to create breakfast for them.
Fresh bread, fruits, and water appeared before them, solid and real. It was the kind of sustenance they desperately needed after days of being on the run.
They ate in relative silence, enjoying the simple comfort of a meal that wasn't provided by their captors.
After breakfast, Linsley stood and concentrated again. Their clothes were still the ragged remnants from the experimental site, stained and worn.
He couldn't let them continue wearing that, so with a flicker of his power, he conjured permanent, fresh clothes for all three of them.
"These should hold up better," Linsley said, handing Ted and Lucy their new outfits.
They were simple but durable, well-suited for the journey ahead.
Linsley handed Ted and Lucy their new outfits, the clothes simple but durable, well-suited for the journey ahead.
"Go ahead and change," Linsley said.
The laptop connected to the internet effortlessly, no matter their remote location, a testament to the power of his gift.
Linsley's fingers flew across the keys as he activated his Top Hat Hacker (Purple) talent, slipping into the deepest corners of the web with ease. Firewalls, encrypted databases, and classified government files were no match for his abilities.
"What are you looking for?" Lucy asked, her voice curious.
"Everything," Linsley replied. "I need to understand this world's power structures, its laws, and the people who run things. We can't survive without knowing how the system works."
As he delved deeper into the Diviner World's information network, Linsley began to uncover a wealth of knowledge.
First, there were the power levels of the Diviners, ranked from Level 1 to 9.
Reaching Level 9 was seen as the pinnacle, and only rumors spoke of Diviners approaching the mysterious threshold of Level 9.9.
No one had ever seen what lay beyond that, leaving the higher levels in speculation, though many believed that ultimate power awaited those who could break through.
Linsley also discovered the ranking system for the quality of Gifts, graded from F to SSS-rank.
Ted's Destruction Gift was considered an SS-rank—immensely powerful but dangerous and difficult to control.
Lucy's Fallen Angel: Lucifer was an SSS-rank, placing her among the rare few whose Gifts had the potential to reshape the world.
His own Real Fantasy was similarly ranked in the SSS-category, positioning all three of them far above the average Diviner.
Then there were the categories of Gifts: transformation, elemental, auxiliary, physical enhancement, psionics, and enigma—the last of which housed some of the most unpredictable powers, like his Real Fantasy and Ted's Destruction.
As Linsley scrolled through the vast files, summarizing the most important points for himself, he stumbled upon a curious fact: the Diviner World was three times larger than a typical planet, with gravity that should have been three times stronger as well.
Yet despite that, they hadn't felt any effects of the increased gravity, even before they awakened their Gifts.
"How is it we aren't affected?" Linsley muttered, his brow furrowing. 'It doesn't add up. Even before awakening, we moved as though the gravity was normal.'