Chapter 2: Chapter 2 The Key

                  TF Chapter 2 The Key

The hall continued the tradition of being as mundane as the institute's building, if not even more crude. It was constructed in a way such that it resembled an amphitheatre. The places where the audience...namely us...sat, was just plain grey rock.

"Aren't these people taking the whole technology ban too far?" 

Someone complained, probably some youth who had grown up in a very rich family. Was her butt so expensive that it couldn't even accomodate sitting on the damn rock! Kids!

I chose a seat somewhere in the middle, where I wouldn't be so near that I might draw attention, or too far to listen in on the speakers. Danny sat beside me as I expected, but I still released an exasperated sigh. Couldn't he leave me alone! I wanted to be a loner! Couldn't he respect that?!

A mild headache almost took over, but I pushed it away. We had arrived three hours earlier, so we were going to be stuck waiting, what a pain! Maybe I should have taken more time to admire the sun gate!

"What do you think this is going to be about? It can't be the same as what I went through during high school, right?" I asked the only person I could talk to beside me. If I didn't make conversation, I would become bored. If I had been back on Earth, I would have already been all over the Metaverse watching movies, playing virtual games...or any other interesting stuff out there, like investing in stocks. But here, I was going to have to spend over 2 hours in a single place without having anything to do! 

"Its different every single intake...even I don't know what to expect this year. But I doubt it will be any interesting." Danny answered me in a tone that suggested that he wasn't really looking forward to it. That got me curious, has he ever been here? I really wanted to ask this burning question, but I knew that I wouldn't get any answers from him. So far, he hadn't divulged anything important about himself...what was he hiding? And why was he following me?

After releasing a pent up sigh, I decided to take in the place since he appeared to be in no mood for any further conversation.

The entire amphitheater was a mix of grey and brown, with the grey mostly related to the seamless stone seats...yes, seamless! It was like the entire audience seating had been curved out of a single gigantic piece of rock! I had been surprised at first, and then figured that there was no way such a thing had been possible. There had to be joined places somewhere...anyway, the ceiling was brown, interspersed with soft white stones which were providing the light in the room. Yes, even with their brightness, I could tell they were stones due to how their shapes differed from each other.

Am I going to be bored for an entire three hours? I wondered after taking in the entire hall. Many, were gathered in groups and chatting away, with only an occasional few seated quietly just like Danny and me. The chattering was grating my ears, especially because it was everywhere...with the sound trapped and bouncing among the walls.

I sighed in exasperation and made a decision to close my eyes as if I was resting, but the sound! How was I going to get peace of mind with the noise!

After those gruelling hours, where I was sure my head was probably evaporating moisture due to the heat of my rage, a tap sounded. It appeared low, but the sound spread into the hall with such power, that everybody heard it clearly!

I straightened my back in a subconscious move I didn't even notice! I had been leaning forward, with my palms cradling my face between them, trying hard to surpress the rage as an outburst would have earned me nothing. I was sure because someone had complained already, yet all he had gotten was being drowned in curses...anyway, the strange thing didn't only happen to me, but everyone in the hall! It was as if the tap had had a subtle mind control effect, causing everyone to sit down in an appropriate posture!

There was no way it had been that simple! I wondered, even as my gaze was drawn to the right side of the stage below, where a dark tunnel awaited. My, and everyone had been drawn by that tap of the foot to that direction. Someone was about to appear, his feet still making tapping sounds, though these ones didn't have that same influence as the first.

Finally! The entire room had gotten quiet and this orientation thing was going to start! I was immensely elated at that even as my eyes were magnetically held in place by the tunnel, awaiting the kind of person about to step out. My heartbeat had increased, not in fear or anything else, but excitement! My palms sank into the flesh of my thighs as I leaned forward.

I knew, just as everyone, that great figures, the forgers, were always the ones who were invited to provide the orientation speech! This was my chance to catch a glimpse of one without an armor covering them entirely, or in front of a screen! Just that single thought caused my excitement to increase, my nostrils flaring!

The left leg was the first to make it out of the darkness, with the skin bare up to the thigh, with light colored skin and many dark hairs along its length. The foot was placed inside a flipflop, which was the origin of the tapping sounds.

'Casual?'

I wondered inside. Well, they were powerful beings at the apex of humanity, they had every right to appear at such an important orientation in their casual clothes, right? Me, and the others were dressed in skin tight suits that were regulating our temperatures, yet he was simply dressed in brown pants and a dark short sleeved shirt whose collar was unbuttoned to give a glimpse at the man's hairy chest. 

He was shorter than me, that I could tell, yet his body gave off a feeling as if he had the capital to tower over everyone. His head was bald, glinting with the soft white light from the stones embedded within the ceiling, a shocker, since the rest of his body appeared lush with hair.

The man carried himself with a confidence so strong, it formed a powerful atmosphere that proliferated the entire hall, making everyone else feel inferior, with I included.

The frown on his large face though, made me restless. Could it he that there was something wrong with me? Or all of us? My body heated with anxiety.

"He's affecting your emotions, take a deep breath to steady yourself!" Danny's voice entered my ears in a stern whisper.

I followed the youth's instructions, causing my mind to clear greatly.

'What a powerful presence!'

He could actually influence my emotions with a just a simple facial expression?! Forgers, truly were terrifying! I didn't become fearful at such a revelation, instead, my yearning turned into a flame that seared within my mind...I had to become a forger!

"If you have any hope that I will divulge my name, squash that thought. Only those who have managed to reach the same level as I, have the qualifications to enter my memory..."

The man started with such words, words that no doubt were rude, but everyone decided not to hurl anything back as he was a genuine forger. Mere mortals wouldn't have any power against a superhuman.

"Tell me, what, or who do you think a forger is?"

I wracked my brain for an answer but only came up with a single word, 'superhuman.' Though, I didn't take the lead in answering. This orientation was better spent listening and drawing as less attention to myself as possible.

"That was a rhetorical question. I already don't expect any  right answers from you." The raised hands were all lowered, with some faces showing dark expressions, which led me to the thought that if these people had the power, that man on the stage below would have surely been murdered. He was simply too infuriating! His face was a mask of a cold disdain and arrogance, embedded deep within his very being such that it emnanyed from his every gesture.

"I believe most of you must have arrived with a misconception that forgers are those who spend most of their time hammering away in a smithy to create miraculous metals...metals which constitute the armors we don. Well, you are very mistaken!" At the last few words, the man's voice became powerful enough that I felt as if the entire room had shaken with it!

But, his words grabbed my attention. I had had that same misconception! 

"What we forge isn't metal or anything of that sort! Instead, we forge consciousness!"

The reveal caused many whispers from the others, mostly the poorer looking ones, to enter my ears, but since I too, was puzzled by his words, I didn't manage to pay too much attention to what the others were whispering about. 

"Since a long time ago, our consciousness has been known to subtly influence some things, for example machines...but the influence has been so minute that it was basically pointless..." 

I was drawn in by the man's speech. Aquiring knowledge was one of the few things I cherished a lot. Besides, the man had a way with words, or could it be that he was subtly influencing us again? Anyway, it didn't matter. I was going to keep being influenced if that's what it took to learn more about forgers!

"...then this continent appeared onto the surface of our sun, as if it had long been submerged, waiting for when our race achieved the ability to travel from one solar system to another. You could even say that it was miraculous. On this continent, the first landing crew discovered knowledge on how to tap into and increase the power contained in what was called, 'soul'."

'Soul, are we going to be joining a religion now? It would be disappointing if what I have been pursuing all along had been a religion!'

"Don't get mistaken, this isn't a religion, but a profession. The term soul was too vague, so we instead decided to use the word consciousness...now, how does one embark on the path of becoming a forger...?"

It was probably another rhetorical question.

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After the question, the sound of something rolling on the floor entered my, and everyone else's ears. Its origin was the tunnel the man on the stage had arrived in.

Was what was coming related to that question? I wondered since the man appeared to be waiting, not in a hurry to answer my doubts.

A trolley, being pushed along by a figure entered the stage, attracting everyone's vision, mine included.

But, something else had drawn me to its existence, the exquisite cloth covering the contraption. I didn't know how to describe it's beauty, except that it was like looking at waves on the sea. Its swaying with the movement of the trolley created a beauty like no other, enlightening me to the fact that a forger must have been involved in its creation process.

It also created a mysteriousness to whatever it was covering, successfully managing to arouse my curiosity. What was so special that it had to be covered with something made by a forger? I waited with bated breath, just like the rest of the crowd as the trolley made it to the forger on the stage...

The woman who had accompanied the trolley left the stage shortly after exchanging a few whispers with the bald headed man. But, my eyes still couldn't leave the trolley. The beauty of the cloth was just too mesmerising!

"What do we really forge here at the Musana continent? Its spirit...or in other words what we humans call consciousness or soul! I can see the questions many of you are nursing, but even I don't have the answers to them." 

That extinguished the burning question I had developed inside my brain. Could consciousness really be nurtured? Why didn't he have the answers?! Or could it be that unless we advanced to become forgers, we weren't entitled to delve into such knowledge?

"What's underneath this cloth is the key to starting upon the path of the forger. All the expensive tuition that you have paid is mostly taken up by the manufacturing of this..."

A sound was created as the man abruptly pulled off the cloth and something, vials, entered my, and everyone's vision.

"...awakening solution."

Something orange entered my vision. Was the sloshing liquid glowing? 

The vials were many, probably equal to the number of people within this venue, me included.

The vial was going to push me onto the path of the forger! My heart sped up with anticipation as my gaze refused to leave the trolley. I even leaned forward, the orange glow drawing me in!

"This vial, will allow your consciousness to interact with particles at the level of atoms..."

Atoms? Could it be the secret behind those extraordinary forger creations? 

Some conglomerates had even started filing for bankruptcy due to their exclusive products losing market because the forgers were producing better things! Could that be related to this? I wondered.

"Before I go into more, I want you to start coming down here and receiving one. Do remember, if you lose it, there is no more for you, so, a rule was devised...all vials must be consumed within this hall." 

Finally! The time had arrived!

-----

"Senior Nat, you really resemble a child holding their favourite candy."

That jolted me! My cheeks heated up at Danny's words.

When someone says that you are holding the future in your hands, most of the times its only figurative...but I was literally holding my future in the palms of both my hands! The nervousness and the excitement were both warring within me to the point that my body was on the verge of trembling, yet, through the worry that the glass tube holding the orange liquid might slip through my hands and shatter upon hitting the stone floor, I desperately battled the sensation.

I was embarrassed that Danny boy had to see this immacure side of me, yet, I couldn't mask it! Born within riches and having a guaranteed spot onto this continent, made it so that he would never understand my current emotions. This had been my dream since I was ten years old, and holding the key to it alone filled me with immense anticipation and satisfaction, not to mention nervousness!

The orange glow peeking through and lighting up my face almost made me shout in excitement, with my rational self battling intensely so that I wouldn't go crazy. Due to my immense concentration, I didn't know whether someone else among the crowd was even going crazy at the moment. If someone jumped up and howled into the sky at this moment, I wouldn't even take offense, as I would have an understanding of their current emotional spectrum.

I took in a deep slow breath, pulling my concentration away from the singular thing that was the vial, regaining my senses of the surroundings. No one was shouting, but through the murmurs, I managed to pick out the excitement, which made me wonder, why was Danny not showing anything? His expression was impassive, something that was starting to get in my nerves. What was wrong with him?

"Danny, is there something going on with you?" I asked cautiously, using my eyes to gesture him towards the others. Even the other rich kids were radiating some sort of elation in their features, yet, nothing of the sort was happening with him!

"Ah, I am not the same as other people. I am very excited right now...its just that this is how I am." The boy said, though, that failed to convince me. There was definitely something wrong with him!

When I gave him a hard stare, his gaze shifted away from mine and he pretended to be engrossed in examining his vial. The way he did it made me think that he was treating all this like some boring show. Why?

I decided to leave him to his devices for now as the key to my dream was within my hands. The transparent glass allowed me to have a clear view of the liquid, which was corked at the top to prevent exposure with the surrounding air.

"Now, it will be better if you take the vial right now as I have no time to waste."

I felt a tug within my mind. The man was trying to influence me and the crowd, with this time being stronger than previously. Even though I knew it to be so, my hands still uncorked the vial and I raised it up, bringing the rim to my lips, where I proceeded to gulp everything down in an instant.

I would have liked to admire the color more...

"Huh!"

That subconsciously slipped out of me as I got the strangest of sensations after gulping down the liquid. I felt as if my head was expanding...weird!

At first, that was the only sensation, only for me to lose control of motor control, my mind strangely aware, yet having absolutely zero control over my body, causing it to lean into the stone backrest...scratch that! It crashed into the backrest, but since my mind was somehow not connected to it, except my eyes, I didn't feel any pain or sensation whatsoever!

What was happening? Was I the only one feeling this? 

Fear engulfed me like a tide, causing me to feelt jittery. Was I about to die? Could this have been an elaborate death trap? Suspicions swarm within me before another sensation took over, something I have never felt before in my life...my mind expanding, or whatever the hell it was!

The first thing I felt upon that was that there were many minute things floating around my body, with some clashing with my skin, causing mild sensory feedback. This new sense was only a few inches away from my skin, yet it surpassed what my other senses could capture put together!

Particles! Atoms!

Those two words appeared within my mind abruptly the moment I felt those particular sensations. I couldn't see them with my eyes, but I felt them through some sense unknown to me...probably the spirit, soul or consciousness the man had talked about.

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