The Human Path

Koren stood in the vast nothingness. There was no light, yet he could see his hands clearly. He looked at his body and he was wearing some strange clothing that he had never seen.

"Am I in the afterlife" said Koren with surprise. His voice was just like it was before the attack. He touched his face and could feel the soft and supple skin of his cheeks.

"I must be dead, there is no other explanation, will I see father, grandpa and all the other uncles" said Koren with some anticipation.

"Afterlife, oh no, I'm afraid you have it all wrong, this is just the virtual space, we still need to bring you up to speed after all. "suddenly a voice came from behind Koren.

Koren turned around, but there was no one there. 'I must be hearing things' thought Koren.

"No, I'm right here, well not here, but everywhere. You should be able to see me. Huh, this is strange, you're not networked yet." Said the mysterious voice.

Koren kept turning to see where the person talking was, but each time he turned around the voice would just drift elsewhere. He was starting to get scared, even though he had been through hell, he was still a child.

"Ahh, your still too young, this is a good thing, but also a bad thing since it means you can't properly network with me, so I can't help you at all. Then again, you are young, so the modifications should work better as you are in your growing phase." Said the voice with some frustration.

Koren was confused and scared. He did not know what the voice was talking about, what network, and what modifications. He had heard his grandfather talk about how the Draconian's perform cruel experiments on humans, turning them into mutants. He started to wonder if this was a prison. Had he been captured, was this a cage.

"Ahh, I'm not a bad person." This time the voice seemed stressed and offended. "Look Koren, I know you can't see me, but I want you to know that I am a human being just like you, well in the principle of soul at least." Said the voice with confidence.

"If you're not a bad person then show yourself" said Koren with some courage.

"I'm not trying to hide from you, it's you Koren, you're too young, I can't network with you, you need to be…ahhh" the voice suddenly screamed.

"Ah, Koren I don't have much time, I'm going to leave a basic command sequence to help you out till you are old enough to network with me properly. Remember Koren, My name is Hope, and we, are bonded, forever." said the voice with assertion. This time the voice was very clear, and Koren could tell that the voice, was of a woman. The voice was warm, yet fierce, it reminded him of his mother. He couldn't explain it, but he felt that he could trust this voice, that he could trust 'Hope'.

Koren was about to say something, but before he could even open his mouth, he felt a force pull him from behind.

************

The desert is an unforgiving place, its days are blazing hot, and its nights, chilling cold. The mighty sun had finally set, making way for the moon. When the moonlight shone on the desert, it made the sand grains glow with a blue hue. However, today in a particular region, the entire desert was reflecting the moon. This was no lake In the middle of the desert, it was glass. The whole surface had turned into glass, and it went on for hundreds of kilometers.

In the very center of this glass moon was a figure, lying flat, eyes closed, as if sleeping. This figure was a boy, a very young and cute boy. The sleeping boy had jet black hair and golden tan skin, his eyebrows were slanted like swords and his face was picturesque.

Koren finally opened his eyes, only to see the moon above him. He panicked and quickly got up. The desert night is the domain of the sand beasts, they are creatures that even his father never dared to underestimate. He looked at his clothes, and they were what he always wore, not the ones he saw in that strange place. As Koren was making sure he had all his belongings he finally noticed the shiny surface he was standing on. The first thing he noticed was his own face. Koren was gobsmacked. He touched his face to make sure it was real, tears started to flow from his eyes. These tears were for his family, and for himself, tears long overdue.

Koren looked at the moon, hanging in the sky, and then rubbed the tears away with the sleeves of his robes. He knew, that he had to go now.

"Mother you were right, Hope found me." said Koren as he took his first step.

As Koren stepped forth, the wind reacted intensely, and pushed him forward without much resistance. Koren was, for the second time shocked. He could tell that he was no longer only a level 1 spiritualist. 'what level is this, grandpa said each level can only control 1 meter, and the rest comes from harmonization. But I just turned 9 a few days ago, I can't harmonize unless I turn 10.' Though Koren as he sped across the shiny surface of the desert glass.

Koren quickly crossed the entire glossy surface and was now on regular sand, suddenly he felt a presence, a big object directly ahead.

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'It's a sand beast, 10 meters ahead, right under the sand, if I had stepped on it, I would have ended up in its belly. 10 meters is my limit, does this mean I'm level 10 now, but how is that even possible. Did Hope do this.' Thought Koren as he stopped.

Koren had never seen a sand beast before, he had heard stories, but that's all they were to him, stories. But now he had the opportunity to see one up-close.

'I want to see if I am really level 10. Anyways, I'm a wind spiritualist, so I can out run it.' Thought Koren as he finally stepped forward.

1 step, 2, 3, 4 steps, Koren kept moving forward till the sand beast was only a single step away.

As Koren moved, the whole sand dune exploded, and a huge crocodile like creature came out, the creature had scales like glass, and teeth like sharp crooked twigs. Its huge mouth lunged for Koren's legs.

Just as Koren was about to use his wind to jump back, a voice suddenly sounded from inside him.

…Beep…Threat detected, Spiritual reserve 10 percent 'wind', 3 percent 'fire', 3 percent 'water', 3 percent 'earth'…beep…

…activating Armor …beep

Koren could feel something taking over his body, it was a metallic liquid like substance that started to pour out from inside of him, this substance quickly covered his whole body and solidified, it had turned into a shiny metallic Armor. Koren who had coagulated the wind power around his legs was about to jump back but the beast was faster and bit down on him hard.

Koren's leg was now in the beasts mouth, but it was not bitten off, instead it was the beast who had lost a few of its teeth. Instead of continuing to bite Koren's leg the beast let go and lunged back in pain. It roared, and smashed back and forth on the sand.

Koren, who was in no pain, was stunned. He just didn't know what to make of this. The voice was not Hope.

Koren suddenly realized that the world around him was a bit low, he looked at his own body only to realize he was taller.

"No, not just my height, my whole body has grown, it's this Armor, it made me 'grow up', but how do I go back to normal." Said Koren as he stared at himself in the shiny Armor.

It wasn't only Koren who was dazed, but the sand beast as well. It wasn't as smart as a human but it still had some intelligence, it knew that the being in front of him was not the man cub from before. The beast thought that it was a rival that had gotten to its prey before it did, and this made the beast furious.

However, the beast had learnt from its past mistakes, this time it didn't go in for the attack headstrong, instead it controlled the sand, to create a sand well, sucking in the Armor, and applying pressure from all directions to directly crush it's enemy.

Koren was completely safe inside the Armor, even though the pressure around him was intense, he didn't feel a thing. Koren had already realized that he was sinking into the sand, if this went on, things would be problematic, but this wasn't important right now. That's right, impending doom had to take a back seat. Every time Koren was sure that something was shocking, a new thing came along and widened his horizons. Koren was once again utterly flabbergasted by what he was seeing in front of him. The Armor was displaying information directly in front of him. Even though Koren never learned to read, he could still understand this strange language.

The thing that caught his eye the most was the level displayed directly above the beast's head.

Name: Sand Crocodile, Type: Earth, Level:9, Harmonization Level:3

'By the Ancestors, harmonization level of 3, if it hadn't been for this Armor, I would have been dead already.' Thought Koren before looking at his own information in the display.

The beast had already pulled Koren all the way into the sand, and was preparing to attack with its final move since its opponent had been immobilized.