Chapter 2: First Infusion
The instant he finished reading that text Morden started feeling some sort of connection building up in his mind. It felt as if he were being connected to some higher place while also being simultaneously dragged into it.
A few seconds went by and Morden was already light-headed and could barely sense his immediate surroundings. Just before everything went completely dark, he suddenly heard the woman’s voice in his mind.
"Try your best not to die in there, or else I will be forced to kill you, and also remember, the Omnisphere is completely unfair."
Those words were the last thing Morden heard before everything went completely dark for him and he couldn’t see, hear, or even feel anything; it was just complete darkness.
It remained like that for a few more seconds until something changed and Morden could feel his surroundings brightening a bit.
’Am I in the Omnisphere now?’ Morden thought while checking out his surroundings.
All around him was a large, sprawling forest that made him feel like an ant just standing there; the trees were so large he couldn’t even see their crowns despite completely raising his neck.
Hoping to get a better feel at his surroundings, Morden raised his foot to move when he suddenly felt something heat up on his chest.
In a hurry, he pulled it out to check what it was.
"Isn’t this Mom’s necklace?" he muttered while staring at the green pendant that looked like an emerald but with a slightly unclear center in his hands.
The necklace could be said to be his mom’s most prized possession, as she took extra care of it, and now he was shocked to find it with him.
Morden wasn’t allowed any moment to think further on the anomaly, when another string of text suddenly appeared in his line of sight, snapping him back to reality.
[Welcome, Morden Tales, to the Omnisphere.]
[You have 24 hours to complete the mission provided and fill up the first gene slot, or you shall be exterminated.]
[The first infusion will begin now.]
Before Morden could even process the earliest part of the message that appeared in front of him, the last part of the message caught his attention greatly.
"What’s the first infusion?" he muttered.
He immediately realized he shouldn’t have asked that question as he felt something creeping into his body.
It started gently and warm, making Morden feel quite a lot of refreshment and ease, but as time went by, its force increased at an exponential rate until it slowly grew painful.
Morden immediately dropped straight to the ground under the effect of the pressure he could feel building up inside of him.
The energy came gushing in with even more crazy intensity, exerting a lot of pressure on him. As more and more energy gushed into him and slowly ravaged his body, Morden felt himself about to burst from the overload.
"Shit, am I going to die the moment I arrive here?" Morden cursed out loud.
He hadn’t been given the chance to even see his mission, nor did he even get a feel of where he was, and he was about to die just like that. The body had a limit, and Morden could feel his just in front of him.
But before he could actually hit that limit and burst out like a balloon, a change happened.
The energy that had been violently gushing into Morden suddenly redirected itself as if it were being pulled by a rein, and all headed towards his stomach with unyielding force.
Morden’s eyes opened wide at the turn of events, and he quickly tried to control it, but all his efforts were futile.
The energy didn’t listen at all and only charged at the center of his stomach. Since there was nothing in their path that could stop it, they finally arrived at their location.
But instead of starting chaos in his stomach, they all headed towards a particular spot and slammed into it before disappearing.
Exactly, the energy slammed into a spot in his stomach area and completely vanished without a trace, and it didn’t stop. They kept slamming on that spot and disappearing without a trace, making Morden wonder.
About a minute or two later, a change was finally observed. Despite not knowing how he could, Morden could see a tree slowly taking shape in his core area, with some roots and a trunk at least.
"What’s that?" he wondered.
The process continued like that for a while, and then it slowed down before finally coming to a stop.
And now in Morden’s line of sight was a holographic tree with a hole or a dark round spot in the trunk; only the trunk and root were really visible; every other part was extremely dark and barely noticeable.
Morden wanted to continue observing the tree when he suddenly felt himself being pulled out of that state and back into the world, and then a new line of text appeared in his sight.
[Morden Tales has successfully passed the first infusion of vital energy and now possesses a genetic tree and will also obtain a double in base stats.]
[Morden Tales is now a part of Omnisphere and is now qualified to see his mission and stats.]
The texts then disappeared as quickly as they appeared, and now they were replaced with a screen.
[Name: Morden Tales]
[Race: Human]
[Status: Confused and Emotionally Depressed]
[Total Genetic Slots: 1]
[Occupied Genetic Slots: 0]
[Strength: 15]
[Speed: 17]
[Durability: 17]
[Assigned Mission: ???????]
[Temporary Mission: Obtain a gene and become a true Bearer]
[Time Remaining: 2 hours]
Morden scanned through the information that was currently in front of him with an extremely interested gaze. He had seen screens like this in novels he had read in his past life, so he knew what was going on.
Morden hadn’t finished checking through the page in front of him, when he suddenly noticed it glitch extremely harshly and then completely vanish before being replaced by something else.
[Primordial Shard Detected]
[Morden Tales has awakened the innate abiability—Gene Evolution]