Origin Seeker

Chapter 43: Science

Dream walked in and looked around. 

"It's not as big as I thought." (Dream)

"Well what you see now is only a bit. There's a library off to the side. There's also a storage room where I keep my materials. There's a forgery and crafting area over there where I make things. This area we're in is where I do most of my writing and theory work." (Graff)

Graff pointed out the doors to other rooms as he explained what they were. In the room they were in, Dream could see a big table with many papers on it, along with boards on the walls, like chalkboards. These chalkboards had many drawings and writings on them, which Dream didn't know the purpose of.

Graff spoke after noticing Dream's curiosity.

"Alright! Our purpose today is not explaining the crap on the walls, but the knowledge in your head, Dream. I want to see if it's really as good as I think. Let's sit down first." (Graff)

Graff led everyone to a table and sat. 

"Now, If I'm going to explain my knowledge to you, there are things you need to know first." (Dream)

"What might that be?" (Graff)

"What I'm going to explain is how the fundamental world works. No magic. Therefore, although I know it might be hard, you need to remove that bias. The bias that anything unexplained is due to magic. Know that nothing I will talk about has any magic involved whatsoever."

"Alright. It shouldn't be too difficult." (Graff)

"Good. Now there's one thing I want to do first."

Dream stood up from his seat and turned to the empty space behind him. He then summoned out the Panel, which promptly lit up.

"What is that?" (Graff) 

"Its a device that displays images. I won't explain it now. Sophia, give me an image of Earth."

[On it!]

Sophia's voice rang out as an image of Earth was put up. Graff looked at the image of the globe from space with a confused face.

"This is what's known as a planet. A planet is basically a massive rock. And this is what you live on. Otherwise known as a world." (Dream)

"Wait, the world is just a ball?"

"Always has been. The reason you can't see the curve is because it's so big. Sophia, start zooming in on LA."

The screen soon changed as the perspective flew over to the planet and gradually zoomed in to the North American continent. It then approached the coast of California and finally, the city of Los Angeles where there was a lone person standing in the black street.

"...Oh my god..."

Graff was frozen as he stared at the screen. Dream nodded seeing that a person as smart as him understood.

"That is the scale of the world. One massive rock that everyone lives on. What you're seeing now is one of the many cities on my world. All those gray boxes to the sides of the person are the buildings made of metal and glass. Everything ever created on my world was done by mathematics and design. Those buildings are a system of metal pillars and stabilizers to perfectly balance the weight of itself on the ground. Not to mention the tall ones where even the wind has to be factored in."

Dream paused as Graff took in everything he said. 

"...Its amazing how something that big could be made without magic reinforcement."

"Well, the impressive stuff isn't what's big, but what's small."

"Small?"

"Yes. Take this screen for example. How do you think it displays these images you see?"

"Uhh..."

Graff thought long and hard before giving his best guess.

"...Well, all I know is that it releases light." (Graff)

"That much is correct, yes. This screen is made of millions of tiny boxes. Each box can shine different colors. Every one of those boxes are also connected through wires that lead to a brain inside the screen."

"A brain? You mean this screen can think?"

"No. The brain inside of it has a long set of instructions that it follows to do everything. It has no life of its own. The brain is used to tie everything together. It controls the millions of boxes inside. Now to create something like this, you need to get small. Really small. That's why it's so much more impressive than a building. Come up and see if you can see any of the millions of boxes inside this screen."

Graff stood up and walked over to the screen. Riddick also went up as he was curious as well. Both put their face really close, trying their hardest to see anything Dream was talking about. 

"...I can't see any boxes. Wait, are you able to?" (Graff)

"Nope."

"Then how do you know that there are boxes?"

"Because I understand how it was built. I understand everything about this device, how its made, and how it works. I also understand the science behind its engineering. The dozens of concepts and laws of the universe that went into making this piece of machinery. Now, one last question."

"What is it?"

"What do you think this extremely complex device was used for?"

Dream put on a wide smile as he questioned Graff.

"...I'm not sure." (Graff)

"Heh. This device was used by kids the same age as the twins to play games."

"Games?! Are you serious? This miracle of technology was used by a couple of children for something as stupid as games?!"

"Oh, not just a couple. You see, there were millions of this same exact thing made. And in turn, teenagers around the world could enjoy entertainment on it."

"There are millions of these?! How? That can't be possible..."

"Believe it, caveman! That's the power of science. It's the power of technology! Just so you know, the time it took humans on my world to go from the technology you have today, to making this stuff was around 600 years. (If we start from the Renaissance)" 

"600 years... Amazing."

Graff stroked his chin as he went deep into thought. 

"Now, this was just to give you perspective on what to expect. The way that I will impart my knowledge to you is not actually through teaching you everything, but instead using another method."

"What method is that?"

"This is actually something I did back when I first met Riddick and the girls. I figured that if I could telepathically communicate words to someone, there was no reason I couldn't for other forms of information. So I directly input my language into their minds. Allowing them to learn my language."

"Directly imparting knowledge? Is that true, Prince?" (Graff)

Graff turned to Riddick as he had a hard time believing it.

"It is. I was surprised as well since I've never seen such a method or use of telepathy. There was sorting involved, but it wasn't much. Though that raises a problem, Boy. How much information are you planning to give us?" (Riddick)

"There is absolutely no shortage of information, so as much as you can handle and process. I will also give you guys devices that will have all the information on it, like a book. That way after you process the information, you can look through the book to help further understand and take your time learning." (Dream)

"...Very interesting. Since the prince trusts and approves of your method, then I have no reason not to. I can handle a lot of information, but I still have limits, so make sure not to overload my mind or I'll just forget everything." (Graff)

"Sure. I will be handing out the information by subject. Just to stay organized. Afterward, you can have the device to look through. It will also have an assistant to make navigation easier."

"An assistant?"

"Yes. It'll be a piece of intelligence inside the book to help guide you. Since things will be confusing at first."

"So you can even create intelligence. What hasn't your world been able to do?" (Graff)

"Many things. You'll understand after attaining some of my knowledge."

"Very well. Shall we get started then? I'm interested to see how this goes." (Graff)

"Sure. Give me a second."

Dream went quiet as he turned his attention to his mind.

'Sophia?'

[The best way to do this is a channel directly to each other's minds. Just make contact and I'll do the rest. Though we will also need approval from them.]

Dream nodded to her and spoke.

"We will need to make contact and you will be prompted with a question. This question will not come from me, but another being. Her name is Sophia, and she's my partner."

"I heard you say that name earlier. So where is she?" (Graff)

"She is inside of me. Specifically, she's my ability."

"Ability? Like a skill? I've never heard of such a thing."

"Well don't think about it too much. Just give her permission. Here, sit down and get comfortable."

Dream had Graff sit in a seat. He then put his hand on Graff's head and Sophia took over.

*In Graff's mind*

[Hello Graff. My name is Sophia.]

'Oh, hello. So you're that ability...'

[In order to carry out this process, I need permission from your soul. This will allow me to send information directly to your mind. I will also be able to monitor your processing limits to keep from overloading. During this time, you will still retain control over yourself and can break the connection at any time, for your own safety.]

'Hmm...Very well. I give permission.'

[Understood. Beginning transfer...]

After Graff's soul consented to her interference, Sophia began sending information. 

The material that she would be sending was left for her to decide. Dream knew that Sophia understood best how to teach that stuff, and he couldn't do it himself anyway. So, she decided to start with basic fundamentals. Things like how atoms are the building blocks of the universe, basic physics, states of matter, things of that nature. She would build up to everything else after they learned the 5th-grade science.

In order to transfer the information, Sophia went and found Graff's mind space. The mind space was the 'space' used by the soul for information processing and decision making. This was one of the things discovered by her and Dream after she was created. They found that the brain, while it was a processor, was more geared for instinct and sensory processing. It was actually the soul that held someone's sentience. Without it, humans would just be instinctual animals with thumbs, like monkeys.

So when Sophia found the mind space, she began gradually inputting data.

When she had done this for Riddick and the girls to teach them the language, the way she had input knowledge was through presentation. Sophia then hadn't figured out exactly what 'knowledge' was in the soul. But what she did know was that if you provide a stimulus, the soul would create its own interpretation and store the new knowledge. So she provided the stimulus, while the soul in question began interpreting.

Now, however, she was able to use the effects of the skill [Mystify]. The skill said that it could directly influence the cognition of the target. And while she didn't 100% know how that worked or what it did, she knew conceptually how to use it. Basically, with that ability she could make the target see what she wanted it to see. She could make the soul think something specific.

That means she could just give the soul a chunk of information, and determine the interpretation for it. This drastically sped up the data input and understanding of the subject, but it didn't mean that she could do it infinitely. The soul still had to retain the information, and too much info at once would make it forget some, hence overloading. If the person had a weak mind space, it could even cause harm.

On the outside from Dream's perspective, the process took about 20 minutes. Graff had his eyes closed the entire time, just processing everything he was given. When Sophia was done, Dream pulled back his hand while Graff stayed motionless, as though unconscious.

"He'll probably need a bit of time to sift through everything. I guess that means we can begin with you, Riddick." (Dream)

Dream went over and repeated the same thing with Riddick. In the end, Riddick also kept his eyes shut, processing everything.

Dream sat down after finishing.

"Everything went smooth?"

[Yup. Their mind spaces were very strong, and I could have given them more, but starting slow would be better for their absorption. Although I'm able to use Mystify, the mind still has to go through new knowledge and associate it with previous knowledge. This process could take a bit.]

"Makes sense. Well, I have no idea what to do now. Since they're unresponsive and all."

[How about you go to the library. That place is exceedingly important right now.]

"Oh, you're right. I guess Graff wouldn't mind me snooping through his books."

Dream stood up and walked over to the library door, leaving the two unconscious men there.

When he entered the room, he was met with a sitting area, along with many bookshelves. Though,

"...There's actually not as much as I thought."

[There likely isn't an established printing system. Someone as rich as Graff and there's only this many books. Not to mention, he's likely written many of them himself.]

"Very true. I see that the bookshelves are labeled. I guess that makes it easy for navigating, thank god. I couldn't imagine walking through here blind. Let's see what these are about."

Dream went over to a shelf that was labeled 'Code Theory'. It had 4 books on it.

"This seems interesting. Sophia, am I going to have to flip through each page to get all the information?"

[Not at all. I can send your mana through the book and read the writing and such. Though since there's so many pages so close together, I can't read precisely from a distance. You'll need to hold the book at least.]

"Alright. Have you read this one then? What's the summary?"

[This book was written by Graff. It's his work on codifying the magic signals of the communication wires. The wires are actually a way to guide mana and keep it from dispersing as it travels. He also had to develop a language similar to morse code so the wires could work and transfer data.]

"So to talk through the wires, they need to use taps?"

[Not exactly. Basically, you would write out your message, scan it with a device, and send it through the wire. The device would change the writing into signals and shoot it to its destination, and when it arrived, it changes back into writing. Think of it like turning and image into bytes and back to an image.]

"So he had to program a magic device! That's very impressive. Considering this world's tech age, he's a revolutionary. I have more respect for him now."

[It is impressive. This also means that by giving him the knowledge we are, we're creating someone very powerful. Don't forget he's a third class.]

"And he could be a threat. I'm not too concerned about it though. He might be third class, but I don't believe he's more powerful than Riddick. We just need to watch his changes as we teach him more. Anyway, let's continue. I think I found what we're looking for."

Dream put his thoughts aside and walked over to another bookshelf. This one was labeled 'Crafting Material' and had 3 books on it. Dream grabbed one and looked at the cover.