Chapter 178 Strange Happening
When dungeons started appearing all over the world, in what Alexis Dmitry calls the Second Irruption, it did not take long for humans to begin invading them. At the time, for humans, Dungeons were just nests of creepy monsters, but soon they stopped being seen so simply and became a kind of the second world, where anyone could start a second life.
As the generations went by, the Genes\' abilities became more powerful and the Panspermia Weapons. All the progress that could typically be discovered with the advance of chemistry, biology, mathematics, and other intelligence fields became even slower than it should have been. Wars were fought, genocides happened, and humanity had been completely transformed in just a few hundred years. Now people could fly, while others could sweep a village off the map with just one hand.
The Genes Abilities took human life to a level beyond anything imagined.
A well-known fact is that the more difficult high-level abilities have the downside that little detail is known about them, and consequently, the process of assimilating them is much more arduous. However, Luke had experience assimilating Skills without having any information, just focusing on the mental image itself, so he thought it would be easy. Well... in the end, it wasn\'t easy at all.
No matter how focused he was, the half-wolf couldn\'t find a mental image that wasn\'t ethereal, nothing stuck in his mind.
If the first stage of the assimilation process was so complicated, Luke didn\'t even want to imagine what the next one would be like, and this uncertainty devoured his focus like a hungry Goblorc.
Seeing Luke open his eyes and straighten his position for the tenth time in the last five minutes, Amelia decided that she needed to help, and it didn\'t matter what Luke would think of her.
" Once I helped a friend with the assimilation of a Legendary Skill, can I try it with you?"
Luke accepted Amelia\'s help; after all, he wasn\'t making any progress by himself, and he didn\'t have weeks or days to stay in the Cardinal Church. If the woman couldn\'t help him, he knew he would need to try to assimilate only during his breaks in the trip.
When Luke accepted, Amelia sat opposite him and instructed: "Close your eyes again."
Just then, Luke closed his eyes, leaving him again with the impression that he was alone in a hollow world.
"Now, think of past experiences that you believe directly interconnect to this moment, to this ability."
Gradually the half-wolf\'s subconscious began to recall old memories, while Amelia\'s soft voice played the role of guiding Luke\'s thoughts, while not letting him lose focus. In a few minutes, Luke managed to fix an image in his mind, the image of a stopped clock. Even though the half-wolf tried hard to make the hands of the clock move, he could not.
After at least an hour focused on the image of that clock, Luke felt the tip of his tongue heat up and flicker as if he needed to say something, and like he already knew what he should do, Luke muttered:
"<Eye of Horus>..."
Suddenly, the entire space around him turned gray. Amelia\'s sea-blue eyes were stagnant, as was her pink mouth, and the whole environment was like before, only with the same grayish tone.
\'What\'s going on? Why has everything stopped?\' Luke wondered, noticing that Amelia still had her mouth open and immediately tried to stand up. However, Luke couldn\'t even move, because it felt like there was the weight of an entire world on his back.
Even so, the half-wolf didn\'t give up and tried countless times to stand up, but each time he ended up almost fainting from the effort. After a few minutes of noticing the black threads on Amelia\'s head, Luke noticed that the world wasn\'t stopped, but that it was exorbitantly slower.
As soon as Luke deactivated the ability with his willpower, he felt tired like never before in his life.
To Amelia, in the blink of an eye, the half-wolf was drenched in sweat and with a fretful countenance.
"Half-wolf, are you all right!" She asked, touching his shoulder.
"Don\'t call me that; you can call me Luke." He replied to the woman, a little breathless, but proud that he could assimilate the sensations of the Legendary Skill.
For Luke, it was undeniable that the <Eye of Horus> was on a level far above his own; however, this did not discourage him because, at the time, he felt that it was a skill with enormous potential and that he could not even imagine what it might be helpful.
When Luke started to put on his overcoat again, his stomach rumbling with hunger, he noticed that Amelia was acting differently than before.
"What is wrong? Did I say something wrong? Don\'t feel obligated to call me by my real name, I just thought it would be appropriate because you helped me."
"I-it\'s not that. It\'s just...you said your name is Luke Lange and that\'s the name of the man who is helping my friend on a mission."
Luke suddenly stopped putting on his overcoat. "Do you know Alexis, the woman with the little horns?"
Suddenly Amelia\'s eyes sparkled, and she repeatedly nodded, with a much more exciting expression. "Uhum, Uhum!"
"Has she been around?" Luke questioned with a serious semblance, as he approached.
Amelia was a little intimidated by the half-wolf\'s abrupt reaction and took a few steps back. "No, she hasn\'t been in this town for over two years..."
At that point, Luke calmed down and put his thoughts in order. "Sigh... All right, thanks for everything, but I\'m already leaving..."
"Wait! If you\'re not with Alexis, where is she?"
There was no way Luke wanted to alert the Cardinal Church that a Class-S mercenary was missing, so the half-wolf decided to lie. "Annn... The last time we had contact, she said she was near Forge Hill."
"I see... well, when you see her again, tell her to come over here. We all miss her presence."
"I\'ll tell her that." Luke spoke, as he smoothed his heavy overcoat over his shoulders. "By the way, do you have a detailed map of the North to borrow? I realize my map is a little out of date."