“Uh, hey man.”

Seth looked up from his spot on the ground to meet the nervous gaze of Will. “Are we good?” he asked shakily.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Seth inquired with an eyebrow raised.

Will glanced over at the spot where Ryan was nursing his freshly healed hand and staring daggers at Seth.

“Uh, never mind bro. That was pretty cool what you did though. That guy threatened me when I got here as well. The only difference is that I just cowered like a chump.”

Seth watched him inquisitively. “Wait, why? Don’t you have any combat abilities? How did you kill any of the monsters without any?”

Will relaxed a bit and sat down next to Seth.

“You must have had some pretty hard tests man. The only monsters I had to deal with were on the first planet, just like everyone else. Luckily they were some slow bastards and I was able to get away every time. That last big monster at the end of the first test was pretty fucking terrifying huh. I almost pissed my pants trying to run away from it.”

Will took a breath and resumed talking.

“After that scare, I just had to walk around for weeks trying to find some stupid rocks for the rest of the tests. It progressively got harder and I actually only passed after hitting tier two and getting an ability boost. My abilities are mostly detection based so it made sense.”

Will was about to continue when Seth interrupted him.

“How did you tier up without fighting?”

Now it was Will’s turn to be confused.

“What do you mean? Attribute grades were a quest reward. You must have gotten them if you are a tier two.” Will thought for a moment then gasped.

“Wait did you seriously only tier up from fighting? Jesus Christ man, your tests must have been seriously fucked up.”

Seth looked at his black hand and recalled the visit to Perdition.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

They both were silent for a minute until Will tried to raise the mood.

“Well anyway man, tell me about your Umbra!”

He saw Seth’s lost stare and kept going. “Ah I forgot; some people were not told by theirs so you might not know. An Umbra is the thing that gave you all your abilities. You know, the one you met after eating the Anomalous Gem.”

As Will gave the description of an Umbra, Seth realized what who he was talking about and quickly turned his eyes to the ground. Will didn’t pick up on Seth’s mood and started to go off on a rant.

“My Umbra was named Rynack. He was so cool man, like Indiana Jones on steroids! After he explained that he made the anomalous gem, he gave me all my abilities and sent me off. The power radiating off the guy was incredible, I can’t even fathom having all that.” He finished with a wistful look.

Seth watched Will closely and saw he wasn’t lying.

“You weren’t afraid?” he whispered.

Will turned toward Seth incredulously, about to continue his fan rant, when he saw the real fear on Seth’s face. Seth’s expression sent a wave of sympathy through Will. He had never seen Seth have any real emotions at school. Anytime he would say hi or notice him in class, Seth always had the same detached look.

This was the first time Seth had ever opened up in front of him, and it terrified Will.

What could have possibly scared this guy so much that he is literally shaking at the thought of it? Will reeled.

He was about to respond and try and comfort Seth when a voice interrupted him.

“What the fuck happened to you?”

Will turned around sharply to glare at the new arrival. Sydney’s judging stare met his hostile gaze. “What?” she responded, confused.

“Same shit, different dimension. What about you?” Seth replied abruptly.

Will whirled back at Seth and was disturbingly surprised to find no evidence of the horrified guy he was talking to a second ago.

 

--------

 

“Wow, it speaks.” Sydney proclaimed with mock surprise.

Seth crushed the whispers that had begun to arise during his conversation with Will and met Sydney’s eyes. Ever since his fight with the first Fouler, the whispers constantly plagued him. For the millionth time he mentally told them to fuck off and turned his attention back to the problem at hand.

“Seems you haven’t changed much.” He chuckled dryly.

Even without her normal makeup, Sydney was still quite pretty with her smooth black hair tied into a ponytail and her lithe body was complimented perfectly by a set of dark purple light armor.

“And what is that supposed to mean? Or is Mr. Emo so cool now that he thinks he can be a dick to everyone without repercussion.” Sydney commented as her eyes narrowed.

“Nothing really, just good to see a familiar face, I guess. Also, why am I Mr. Emo, last time I checked you were the one always covered in black.” He rebuttaled.

Her eyebrows raised at his comment.

“While it’s incredibly weird to know that you paid attention to what I wore at school, have you checked a mirror lately? You aren’t exactly one that should be talking about wearing too much black.”

Seth blinked and looked down at himself. He was wearing his dark grey set of armor and he was covered in crimson and black blood.

“Well I suppose you aren’t wrong there, but its not like I am covered in this shit for fun.” He relinquished.

She rolled her eyes and pointed at his head.

“I’m not talking about that crap. Look at your hair, I didn’t know you had time to get highlights during the tests. And don’t act like I missed that creepy ass black rash you got going on, or the fact your eye is a whole different color.”

Seth absently rubbed his hair in curiosity. Huh, so that’s why it said Undecided, he realized.

“Yeah man, I didn’t want to bring it up, but you look a lot different than before.” Will chimed in.

Sydney clucked her tongue. “Ah, race change, isn’t it?”

Will glanced at her, worried. “Come on Syd, you know people don’t like talking about their new race.” Seth glowered for a moment before speaking up.

“Fiend. Whatever the fuck that is.”

Both Sydney and Will raised their eyebrows in surprise. Will covered his hesitation poorly and tried to continue the conversation. “Er, that’s cool. Mine is Nym, same as most of us here. According to some people’s Umbras, that is one of the three main races for those with Foundations.”

Wait, in the infinite multiverse there is seriously that many beings of the same race that they have three main ones? It was now Seth's turn to be shocked.

“And I am a different race as well.” Sydney interrupted.

“A Celist, one of the other three main races. The last race is apparently Goliath. You see Ty over there.” Sydney pointed over her shoulder.

“He claims to be a specific race of Goliaths called Mineral Giant.” She finished.

Will snorted next to Seth. “She always finds a way to mention her talk with Ty. Apparently, he won’t talk to anyone other than a specific seven people. Syd here seems to be cool enough to be one of them.”

Sydney quickly punched Will in the arm, causing him to stumble in the middle of his giggles. The slight blush on her face was not lost upon Seth.

“Well, I would say it is fairly obvious why he only talks to a specific few.”

Will and Sydney exchanged looks.

“What do you mean by that?” Will questioned.

Seth blinked and said nothing for a moment.

So, they can’t sense each other’s power? Even without my True Sight I can still tell just by feeling the dimensional energy around them.

“It’s because he can tell your level of power. There are seven of you not including Ty that have an exceptional amount of dimensional energy. The difference between Ty and the rest of you, is that he has a whole different level of it.”

Sydney narrowed her eyes in understanding.

“So that’s what it is.” She stated simply.

Will just sat there dumbfounded.

“Ok guys, I am lost. What do you mean he can tell our power level?”

Seth thought about it for a second then replied.

“It’s kind of hard to explain. You remember the feeling of tiering up? There was a large influx of dimensional energy that your body absorbed. If you can remember how that energy felt, you can feel it coming off everyone in this room. It feels like a field of dense air around the person.”

The pair stood dumbfounded before Will shut his eyes and puffed out his cheeks. Sydney hid a smirk behind her hand and tried to focus on the air around herself. Seth watched them both try their best before activating True Sight. He observed as the energy around Sydney seemed to calm down while Will’s became sporadic and shifted in spikes. Seth saw how both were fairing and manipulated the energy around himself to send a small pulse toward the two.

Sydney’s eyes shot open as she took a sharp intake of breath.

“Woah,” she breathed.

“Holy shit!” Will practically yelled.

As people around them turned to look at the commotion, Will blushed in embarrassment before turning back to Seth. “Dude whatever you did just gave me a new ability called “Skeptic.” Now I can see what you are talking about!” Will’s head was on a swivel as he gaped at the rest of the room.

“Bro I can see the energy in this room man, it’s coming off the walls. I can also see some of it on people, but it’s harder for some reason.” He squinted.

Finally, he finished looking at everyone for a moment address Seth again.

“Do you have an ability for this as well? It must be pretty powerful for you to be able to whatever you just did.”

Seth’s eyes did not waver as he replied to Will.

“It doesn’t come from an ability, I learned how to manipulate my own energy to an extent through practice, nothing more.”

He was not ready to disclose any of his abilities yet, especially in a room full of strangers. Seth scanned the room as quickly as possible to see if he had possibly gained unwanted attention from his energy pulse. His eyes met a large figure’s from across the room.

“Hey, I heard there were showers here, I could really use one.”

Seth’s eyes did not leave the figure as Will tentatively pointed out the door he was looking for, confused at Seth’s random decision. He got up and made his way to the showers, never changing his gaze. As Seth left the room and closed the door, he let out a shaken breath, unnerved. The figure Seth had been watching was Ty, and Ty had been watching him.

 

--------

 

As Seth rinsed off six months of grime, he finally allowed himself to relax. After constant fighting and isolation for so long, Seth honestly didn’t know what to do now. He concluded that for the moment, he could allow himself to chill, so he closed his eyes and let the hot water run down his back.

 

What are you doing little one?

 

Seth’s eyes shot open as the water turned cold.

“Shut. Up.” He whispered.

Seth turned the lever off as the murmurs came back to him at full strength. Blood flowed as his lip was impaled for the millionth time. The pain drowned out the voices and Seth put his armor back on to leave the room. He emerged from wall and went to look for Will and Sydney.

“Hey.” A deep voice sounded from behind him.

I didn’t feel anyone there a second ago.

Seth thought in surprise as he whirled to meet the speaker. It was Ty. Seth’s whole body tensed and he had to forcefully stop himself from summoning Anar.

“We need to talk.”

Ty started walking towards his usual corner and Seth had no choice but to follow. As they both sat down, Seth had no idea how to start the conversation. Luckily, Ty didn’t take long before breaking the silence.

“That wave you sent out earlier, tell me how you did it.”

Seth was dumbstruck. That’s what he wanted!? If he can already feel the pulse, then how…

“Uh, I am not sure what you mean.”

Ty’s eyes continued to run over the room as he replied.

“Look, I showed you a trick, in turn, you explain how you did yours.”

Seth’s eyes brightened as he realized what Ty was talking about.

“So that wasn’t a fluke, I really didn’t sense anyone there.”

Seth appraised Ty with a new sense of respect. As far as he knew, Seth was the only one in the room who could consciously shape dimensional energy. Now he knew that not only could Ty sense the energy, but he could also somehow shape his own to erase his presence.

“Before I tell you, you have to explain your trick first.”

Seth was weary of setting Ty off, but he had to learn how to conceal himself fully. Yet again, Ty didn’t take his eyes off the crowd.

“It’s simple. Pull your energy back towards you so far that it goes right underneath your skin, then will it to stay there.”

Seth quickly activated True Sight and began the process. He settled his ambient energy and pulled. It was resistant at first. Shrinking the field of energy around him was like trying to fill a balloon. He couldn’t do it too fast or his body might be too stressed and “pop.” After finally constraining his energy enough, Seth tried to think of his skin as a lock for the energy.

Soon after a couple minutes of concentration, something clicked in his head and he felt the energy settle. Seth looked down at himself and found no trace of the energy that surrounded everyone in the room. He deactivated his ability and glanced back at Ty, who had finally turned his gaze to Seth. His eyebrows raised by a microscopic margin.

“Hmm.” He grunted.

“That took me a couple weeks to get right.”

Seth didn’t hear him as he gaped at the buzzing feeling coming off his body. It felt… good.

Finally, he changed his attention from his body to Ty.

“I appreciate the tip. To be honest, the pulse I did is way simpler. Focus on a small amount of your energy and instead of pull, just push.” Ty sat there for a second.

“For fucks sake, it can’t be that easy.”

A moment passed and Seth felt a huge wave of energy roll off Ty. It was way larger than Seth’s earlier pulse and the power of it frightened him. An annoyed sigh escaped Ty and he scrutinized Seth for a second.

“Not as useful as I thought, but thanks anyway I guess.”

Seth felt the strong dismissal message, but he couldn’t leave yet.

“I want to ask you one thing.”

Ty’s gaze narrowed as he analyzed Seth.

“Go on then.”

He steeled his resolve and continued. “How do you command so much energy already? I can tell you are a tier two, but it feels like you are on the verge of hitting tier three. I’m going to guess that you were the first one here, so how did you do it in such a short amount of time.”

Ty leaned back on the wall and closed his eyes.

“The answer is simple. I was blessed by my Umbra, Gaia.”

Sensing the end of his compliance, Seth took his leave and made his way back to Will and Sydney, both gaping at him. Upon arrival, Will spoke up first. “Bro how did you get Ty to talk to you?” Seth looked him in the eye and took a breath.

“Don’t show your cards unless you are sure no one is watching. I’m going to take a nap, wake me up when something happens.”

He pivoted to the side and stalked over to a free spot on the wall to lie down. He closed his eyes and settled his thoughts. So it comes down to the damn Umbra, huh. The creature in Perdition once again emerged from the darkness of his mind and the whispers overtook his consciousness.

d