GemsWorld Quest Chapter 3: Journey to the center of the mind

"Hi Mom, I'm back from training!"

"Scrupulous liar..."

"That's not entirely false! Besides isn't normal for a youngster such as I to appreciate life in the most various aspects?"

"Welcome back!" She shouted from a distance. "How was it?!"

"You're in the workshop again Mom?"

My parents were both Oryktia scientists that gained their lives thanks to their discoveries on the precious Mineral of Hope. In order to make their work more efficient they installed two crafting workshops in the house: the first one belonging to them and the second one to me, as I needed one for my own studies.

Life truly depended on the Oryktia science nowadays. It was a necessity, both in order to survive in our society and against the Ischy Beast attacks. I wasn't really concerned about all those threats, but I knew how important it was.

"Yes I am!", she answered. "We have to continue working on our next project for the Main Academy. Your dad will be back for dinner, he had to buy a few things. How was the training?"

"Good Mom. Very good. I'll just let you work and get me some hours of sleep. It's getting late now."

"You don't want to eat anything?"

"Let's say that the taste of defeat was good enough for me. Good night!"

"Wait, you mean you lost again?"

I almost rushed directly to my bed, eager to reach my favorite place of all. A realm that no one had access to without my consent.

The kingdom known as my own mind.

******

He was late. Awfully late.

I knew I always took a long time to start sleeping for real – my countless thought had transform my mind into an eternally active factory, except when I was really tired – but he knew how much I wanted to think back on my recent project with him. And yet he still desired to show-off, as always...

"How dare you even think this way when you would have done the exact same thing in my position, despicable fiend!"

I looked in the direction of the voice. A shadowy figure with glowing red eyes was staring at me.

Its shape had the exact same proportions as mine: average size, short black hair, Oryktia armor set on – always wondered why he always wore the armor when I wasn't – and a joyful expression on the face.

My Doppelgänger, dark copy of my physical self, and flawless copy of my mind.

For better or worse.

"Wrong answer pal! I would've been too excited to care about dramatic presentations. Now let us begin the brainstorming!"

He sighed.

"Be my guest."

"Right then. First off, please list the names and summarized Summond Skills of our crafted weapons so far. Including our latest one."

"I don't care about the names, and I want to be quick on this. I'll do it anyway though...

The first one was a rather powerful and balanced sword. Its only Summoned Skill was to create a shockwave when hitting the ground.

The second one was a fire bracer that allowed you to throw fireballs as a main skill, and create a small fire wall as a sub-skill. Rather unbalanced: drained too much energy away.

The third one was a more practical and ice counterpart of the fire bracelet, but it was a necklace.

The fourth one was a hammer with similar but enhanced capabilities of the sword, and the fifth one was the Stone Staff who could create rocks, control the earth to a certain extent and had the ability to stun the ground near the opponent, thus petrifying the opponent himself.

Our best weapon so far I might add"

I nodded. The description was good enough, and thinking about my past weapons filled my heart with nostalgia. Those were good times... But I needed to focus on the present chatting and move on.

"Mojuko was indeed the best of them all», I confirmed, «but that's not the point. DG, I'm going to merge some of the Summoned Skills of my old weapons into one. That's my idea!"

My Doppelgänger glared at me during a long time before answering.

"Legitimate question right now: how the heck do you intend to perform such a trick?"

My excitment grew as I was talking.

"The keyword is mix!"

"Mix?... Wait, you don't mean?..."

"YES DG, YES! That IS what I mean! The first part of the project must be an experience: we will have to carefully rework on our previous weapons and mix some of their effects. In order to create Cyfer, we need a perfect balance. A perfect form. And a deadly set of ability that our rival won't be able to predict and eventually counter.

After testing everything, from fire sword to stone hammer, passing by a ground-stunning necklace and so on, we'll be able to create Cyfer. That's the tricky part, because it it will be from scratch. I'll send you a mental image of its shape and size afterwards.

And finally, when we're done, we'll have to prepare a Master Scheme. You know how this works now, right? A defined strategic battle pattern that'll allow us to be unpredictable enough to defeat Crystial. The only difference between this time's Master Scheme and the previous ones is that this time...»

"...We shall not fail..."

An equally evil smile appeared on our lips.

"I like your plan Dyrow. I really do. I actually couldn't see one bit of it since your mind's access was locked by a wall thoughts, but now I see why you were so excited. We'll do it. I'll keep my usual role of reminder, as always."

"That's the spirit pal! Now it's your turn. You said you wanted to be quick on it."

"Right. I just wanted you to be very careful concerning Crystial..."

I instantly wiped out the smile on my face in order to stay sharp for DG's next words.

"She's definitely honest and the only interest she has is purely sentimental a far as I can see."

"But?..."

"...But She's hiding something, and I might know what it is all about. Remember our previous Master Schemes Dyrow? They weren't flawless because we're far from being so, but Crystial hadn't too much trouble getting through them. Especially compared to the other students. The only thing that worked against her was always the backup plan. Do you realize what I'm trying to say here?"

The backup plan was an alternate version of the Master Scheme that we prepared just in case, but never actually practiced over in the nearby forest. It wasn't really possible for anybody to predict, since it was never acutally practiced. But Crystial still managed to win with ease and no apprent efforts, as if it was completly predictable – that always got on my nerves –.

"You're trying to tell me that she's been spying on us all this time?! It can't be! You just said that her intentions were purely sentimental. But what you describe is strategic and mean. Even our mischievous minds wouldn't pull out such dirty tricks! Besides she has talent in both Crafting and Brawling arts. She's not a beginner."

"I agree. And the part I don't understand is the reason why she would have to do it. I could be wrong too, but we both know that my warnings are never useless. We could also analyze her last actions. She's been working on drama, and she managed to spot the places we liked to go when we want to be alone. It almost sounds like she's tracking us down, maybe to know more about you."

He was right. This advice of him was really accurate. I didn't consider Crystial's behavior in such a way, but I had to admit she was unusually cheerful lately. And she did studied drama only to see how I would react to it. But still... Why would she spy on me? Watch every move of my training? I couldn't find any good reason why she would've done that without a mischievous idea behind it. But I needed to start sleeping and get ready to craft like crazy in order to beat her. Crystial's feelings weren't my main priority.

"I won't forget this warning then, thanks for telling me. However I think we should first focus on the making of Cyfer. That is our current priority."

"Agreed. We just need to be more careful about it, as well as the Master Scheme, and everything else. You leave the rest of the operation to me."

I nodded. This was definitely the good train of thoughts.

"Right on! Let's get moving then! We need to get up early and start crafting."

"You know what this means right?"

"Yep! If Cyfer's impressive enough – and if we finally get the golden Crafting Oryktia Certificate from the teacher –, we'll finally move on!"

"We already have the brawling one, so we have one step into it anyway."

"Yeah...She's already in the Main Academy, too. Lucky girl..."

"Don't think like that. You mustn't feel inferior just because of a social difference, no matter how big it is. It's not like we were living on the streets."

"I guess you're right. We'll catch up. Well, I think that's the end of tonight's mental session!»

"'Twas a good one."

I raised my fist in the air.

"Tricky spirit 'till the end!"

"As it should be!"

With a final smile towards my partner, I finally sank into a reassuring slumber.

But why did my Doppelgänger smiled back at me in such a gloomy way?...