NuroFusion

Atrus woke up early, he ate a light breakfast and then he went out carrying his book.

 The officers from the academy would arrive tomorrow, so Gabell decided that today would be a rest day and there would be no training, so Artus, to clear his mind, went for a walk around the village.

He met the children on his way, they were led by Tom who was carrying a wooden sword in his hand.

"Yoo Artus, I will show you who is the strongest one tomorrow when the academy officers come to our village"

When Tom first saw him, he could no help but say that Tom had recently returned to the village, his father, the village chief, sent him to train with the hunters, he trained using the sword, he could also handle a bow to a certain extent.

Tom was older than Artus, not to mention that he was tall for his age, he also had significant improvement in his body build, his strength improved a lot, on the other hand even though Artus trained hard in the recent period, he was born with a sick body, he was smaller than his peers, so undoubtedly Tom is many times stronger than him in terms of physical strength.

Artus had no idea why Tom looked at him with resentful eyes, Tom was acting as if they were rivals, the last time Artus saw him was a long time ago, he did not remember insulting him, their interactions were few as they played together with other children in the village, they did not even talk much.

Artus ignored him, he continued his way to the training field, which provoked Tom even further he gritted his teeth.

"ARTUS!!"

He started shouting but Artus did not even look back, he did not have time for Tom's childish acts, he had grand plans, he was putting everything on the line.

Maggie's eyes never left Artus, she quietly left the group of children.

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

Artus sat on the shades of the trees at the edge of the forest close to the training field, he did not wish to meet anyone, he did not want to be distributed, he wanted to concentrate on his magic training.

He sat down on the ground, leaned his back on the tree behind him, and put the book beside him, he then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He started isolating himself from his surroundings, slowly light-blue colored dots started to appear around him, increasing in number after a while they started moving slowly in random directions.

After a while, he opened his eyes.

"I am satisfied with my progress in magic training"

"According to the book, the first step which is awakening is the ability to sense and feel the presence of energy in the surrounding world"

"It can be said that I completed the awakening, now I need to establish a connection with the energy particles then try to draw to me, to enter the energy gathering phase, the first level of energy training"

"I will not be able to do that with the available knowledge right now, but I think completing the awakening phase would be enough to earn me an invitation letter to the magic division from the academy officers"

"I can't seem to grasp the principles behind energy gathering"

"Analyze …. the…. book …. contents"

Artus opened the book again, he was trying to figure out how to start drawing energy particles to himself.

"Voice command detected, starting the analysis process, estimated time to finish the task 1 hour"

Suddenly the voice of NuroFusion was heard.

"What?"

Artus was startled by the voice, he stood up suddenly from the ground, he started looking around for the speaker but did not see anyone around>

"Who are you? Show yourself"

The voice again replied to him

"Affirmative, Dr Jeffrey Oppenheim"

"I am NuroFusion, the control computer of 013 Eclipse Core nuclear reactor research facility"

"What? Nurofusion? How could that be? Where are you now? How can you talk to me?"

Artus looked around once more, he did not see any sort of electrical device or even magical stones that could be used as a medium to project voice, there were only trees.

"Dr. Jeffery, I don't have any physical form right now, I exist in you and project my voice to your inner world directly"

"Insufficient information to explain how that happened"

"Hypothesis: Nurofusion system fused with your soul due to the high amount of energy that was produced during the Nuclear explosion"

Artus sat on the ground again to digest the newfound information. That was certainly a plausible explanation.

He stayed silent for a while then spoke again.

"Ok, NuroFusion can you explain to me how I get transported to this world?"

"Insufficient data, the only variable which may or may not trigger or cause this phenomenon was the explosion of the nuclear reactor, the amount of heat and energy which was produced by that explosion suppressed all previous explosion in the history of that world".

"That's the only information I can provide, Dr Jeffrey".

"Hmm…. it's not something that could be understood in the first place….it can be said to be a supernatural phenomenon".

"But in this world of magic.... supernatural power is everywhere….so in one way or another I think soul transfer is possible".

"let's leave this subject aside for now".

"Ok then, NuroFusion if your operating system was fused with my soul and transported with me to this world that means you have been with me from the moment I was born…. why did not you notify me?".

"Yes, Dr Jeffrey".

"The operating system and all other functions were disabled…. the activation protocol was Initiated yesterday"

"Hypothesis: the system was turned off due to lack of power source...yesterday when Dr. Jeffrey started making contact with the so-called energy particles…. the system was powered up using them as an energy source".

"That does make sense".

"So NuroFusion what tasks can you perform now?".

"Since I don't have any physical, for now, I can only run analytical and theoretical functions, for example, analysis, estimation, simulation, and so on".

"The operating system is powered by your energy Dr Jeffery that means if you are able to provide more power, I will be able to increase my processing power".

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

Artus was sitting in his room late at night.

"Tomorrow, the academy officers will come to the village, they will probably stay for one day, so they will most likely carry the test tomorrow"

"NuroFusion, inform about the result of the analysis"

"Affirmative"

"Through in-depth analysis of the book, it can be concluded that the next step in the path of a mage after initial awakening and perception of energy particles in the surrounding environment is energy gathering".

"I know that. The question is how to draw energy to one's body?"

"To draw energy particles, you have to make a connection with each one individually, to put it in other worlds you have to visualize yourself as a fire in a dark forest trying to attract fireflies for example".

"That is usually done with the help of a catalyst".

"Since there is no catalyst available right now, and there is no sufficient power to pull energy to yourself forcefully".

"You can try to stimulate the energy particles gently, so they come to you on their own rather than pulling them forcefully".

"After stimulating them, you should use your power gently to guide them to you".

"Similar to a fisherman who throws a bait to attract fish and then guides them to himself using the fishing line, he does not forcefully pull the fish towards himself, he guides the fish. Let's assume that the fish started moving randomly after taking the bait, if the fish moves in his direction, he does nothing, if the fish moves in the opposite direction, he pulls the fishing line to re-direct it towards himself".

"If you draw a line similar to the course that the fish swam through before being caught by the fisherman, you will find that it is always a circular and semi-circular course of going back and forth, left and right before reaching the fisherman, it is never a just straight line between the fish and the fisherman".

"Ok then, NuroFusion, I will try that"

"By the way stop calling me Dr. Jeffery, my name is Artus"

"Affirmative, master Artus".

Artus slowly closed his eyes after sitting on the ground, he no longer needed to put the blindfold, with the help of NuroFusion he was able to completely isolate his senses from the physical world.

He started to see small particles around him, but rather than light blue, they were more light green in color, Artus ignored this change as he had more important things at hand right now.

He slowly focused on and reached for the closest particle with his mind, the particle started moving randomly slowly, then every time the particle moved away from him, he would use his mind to nudge it gently, it would change its course again.

He continued doing that, nudging the particle gently, changing its course. Slowly but surely the particle started getting close to him, when it was very close, he forcefully pulled it towards himself in a sudden movement.

After it entered his body, it started moving in a circle in his inner world, akin to a star moving in an orbit.

He felt his body becoming somewhat lighter.

*Ha*

He took a deep breath.

"Finely, I have collected the first energy particle in my inner world, but it's so stressful and consuming"

"NuroFusion, how much time did I spend this time?"

"Around 1.5 hours".

"There are around 3 or 4 energy particles that are somewhat close to me, if I spent all night, I think I will be able to collect them all, but I can stay up all night, I have to sleep after all tomorrow is an important day"

"Suggestion: Master Artus, I could take over the process and try to draw the energy particles while you sleep, but I cannot guarantee the results".

"Ok then, no problem, after all, it's better than nothing".

Artus drank some water from the potion bottle then went to sleep while NuroFusion started working.