Chapter 4: Traveling Through the Flume (1)
After a short time and many instances of the Flume opening and closing, it was finally time for the Lad's Class to step forward and begin their new lives as Travelers. Although the Lad was good at hiding it externally, internally, he was a mixed bag of emotions.
Not only was he anxious and scared, but also excited beyond belief.
This was a moment he had been looking forward to from the time he could form coherent thoughts.
Travelers were everything in this modern era: actors, celebrities, politicians, businessmen, heroes, you name it, and they were all some form of Traveler, and the lifestyle alone was looked up to and thought to be the pinnacle of society.
Mind you, that really only applied to those strong individuals who had gotten powerful Attributes or had high potential and, as such, were able to make a name for themselves, but still, IT WAS POSSIBLE.
Standing on the precipice of a whole new life, one of opportunity, danger, excitement, and potential fortune, who wouldn't be scared shitless? The only thing that set the Lad apart from the majority of the other new Travelers was how perfectly he was able to mask his insecurity and anxiety.
In a sense, a lot of that has to do with how he's always acted around his classmates. Growing up in a low-income family and wearing only hand-me-down clothing put a target on the Ash-Blond Lad's back from a young age, and he had been the victim of bullying for the majority of his fundamental years.
Thus, to steer clear of trouble and all that, he became adept at blending in with his surroundings, almost seeming invisible to his classmates and even many of the teachers.
Tack on his keen observation skills, and he was completely unnoticed in most cases, allowing him to blend into any social setting like a ghost.
'Stay in the background, and you won't be picked on; that's what I knew and had lived by, but I had long since made a solemn vow that once I stepped foot into the Flume for the first time, I would become a new me.' The Lad thought to himself while continuing to shuffle forward toward the first of two checkpoints leading to the mouth of the large stone artifact called a Flume; one by one, the names of each student were called until finally…
"Aoni Thurston, please step forward and present your right hand for the Biometric Scan." His name was said aloud by the Teacher in charge of 3-E.
"Yes, Ma'am," speaking in a meek tone, one the Ash-Blond lad…named Aoni was accustomed to using, he followed her command, stepped forward, and placed his palm perfectly flat on the tablet being held by the Teacher.
For a moment, he felt as if his heart leaped out of his chest and into his throat since he was fully aware of what was happening; his country's government issued the tablet, and it was a failsafe put in place so that no mundanes would have a chance at entering the Flume.
The tablet basically sent a signal to the dormant TD hidden within a person's mind…body… uh, soul; frankly, no one really knew where it was housed, but regardless, the tablet would ping the TD, and if one were present, the ping would return. From that moment on, they would be stored in the Government Catalog as a registered Traveler.
For a full second, Aoni swore the world around him appeared to slow as his eyes locked onto the device, and he waited with bated breath for the indicator that a Traveler's Display was present, and then…
"DING"
"Alright, Traveler Thurston, you may step forward and claim your Beginners Starter Pack and await your turn to enter the Flume; congratulations, you make us at Ralgai Academy proud." Wearing a bright smile that was extremely out of character for the Stoic and Strict Teacher he'd had spent the whole year learning from, the Teacher waved Aoni past the checkpoint and toward a large shelf full of hundreds of identical black backpacks.
With a sheepish nod, Aoni scanned the shelves for any pack that seemed unique, and upon failing to do so, he eventually grabbed the closest one and hoisted it onto his right shoulder, only to be amazed at its lightness.
Mind you, he was only amazed at the weight of the pack because he knew it was packed to the brim with supplies that would aid a new Traveler in surviving their first month on Genovia.
Carrying his newly acquired pack toward the nearest Teacher, whose job was to keep track of inventory, Aoni placed the pack atop the table and began emptying the contents. Meanwhile, the Teacher, whom Aoni couldn't recall the name of, counted out each item before entering it into his tablet.
"Basic Rations for 1 month, two empty one-liter water bottles, three waterproof matchbooks, a tinder kit, One Star Flume, One Star Combat knife, two One-Star Health Potions, two One-Star Energia Potions, one sleeping bag, one survival blanket, one stationary kit, and one first aid kit, alright, everything is in order; put it all away and fall in line with the others." Swiping up on his tablet, the Teacher issued two orders, which Aoni followed without hesitation, and soon he found himself back in line with four others who were waiting to enter the Flume.
One by one, each of them walked up to the empty, circular stone archway and was whisked away into the unknown. While Aoni had seen Travelers enter the flume hundreds of times on TV and even had one back at home, this time was different.
He was finally going to get a turn.
"Next, Traveler Thurston, step forward and enter the Flume."
While Aoni was lost in thought, the Principal called out his name several times, only to get ignored by the Ash-Blond Lad, who was envisioning his future, causing the man to huff before sternly shouting...
"AONI THURSTON GET UP HERE!"
"Ah, right away, Principal Gavver," Startled by someone suddenly yelling at him, Aoni hopped forward a bit too fast and stumbled, nearly biting the dust in the process, but was caught by the Principal, who used little to no effort at all in stopping him from falling embarrassingly.
In Aoni's defense, he still wasn't used to being called with a title or by his last name, so it didn't register in his brain that it was HIS name being called.
"Calm down, Traveler Thurston, this is the fun part, I promise," the Principal said while giving Aoni a reassuring pat on the shoulder and pushing him forward so that he ended up standing directly in front of the eight-by-eight-foot stone ring sitting on a metal platform.
Funny enough, as Aoni stood before the Flume, his brain kind of shifted gears as all those lessons from elementary school to high school kicked in, and in an instant, he knew what to do, and now it was time to put that training into action.
Crossing that final threshold between Terra and the Flume, Aoni glanced directly into its empty center and could see the other side of the Gym. After a second or two, he felt a slight tug on his mind, signaling that a connection had been made, and with that, he followed his years of schooling.
'My Territory,' issuing the mental command, Aoni watched in amazement as the stone ring instantly came to life.
Chapter 5: Traveling Through the Flume (2)
When I say the Flume came to life, I mean it in a literal sense. Right before Aoni's very eyes, he watched the empty center of the stone ring, which was like a window that allowed one to see the other side of the Gym's bleachers begin filling up. Within a few seconds, it was as if you were looking down an endless crystal tunnel.
Once the center was filled and the transfer tunnel was attached to his destination, Aoni suddenly felt weightless, and when looking down, he was surprised to notice that his feet were no longer touching the ground.
"Remember, no Terrian Technology will work on Genovia, so don't panic when your phone won't power on!" The Principal stated, but the ever-increasing humming in Aoni's ears drowned the man's words out.
However, Aoni didn't have the mental capacity to pay the Principal any attention, not that he said anything the Lad was unaware of, but because his body was being drawn into the crystalline tunnel by the mysterious artifact. Before he had a moment to look behind one last time to inquire about what the man had said, Aoni was on his way.
From the outside looking in, the Ash-Blond Lad had been sucked into the Flume and rapidly accelerated like a speeding train; however, from his perspective, it was quite pleasant and very unlike what Aoni had imagined.
While it may appear like the Lad was on a rollercoaster ride, instead, it felt more like drifting along on an innertube down a lazy river. The slight bobbing his body was experiencing was also akin to floating in water.
"Wow…" unable to contain his amazement at the beautiful shining walls around him as they flew by, Aoni exclaimed before easing his posture into a comfortable position.
Unfortunately, there was no telling how long the trip would be, especially since it was his first time traveling to the new Territory; for all Aoni knew, it could be a couple minutes to a few hours.
Luckily, he knew it couldn't be longer than five hours, as the longest transfer recorded had been four hours and 59 minutes, so while Aoni believed it would be kind of awesome to say, "I hold the record for the longest transfer," he was really hoping that wasn't the case.
So, like the Lad had done many times before, whenever his family went on car trips, Aoni passed the time by looking at the sparkling multi-colored crystalline walls as they flew by.
Much to his surprise, they truly appeared to be living organisms, thanks to the way the walls seemed to vibrate and move in time with his breathing.
After around 20 minutes of being amazed at the view, the Lad finally was able to regain his composure and run through the information that had been hammered into his head from a young age.
"So long as the walls are cloudy and colorful, I am not close to my destination; however, as they begin to clear up, I will be drawing near, and when I am about to arrive, I will be able to see through them as if looking out a window."
"Based on how dense the cloudiness of the Flume's walls are, I know that I'm not remotely close to my destination," and so Aoni's float down the winding crystal tunnel began.
Now, some things need to be said about the transfer; for starters, the Flume does two things, the first being getting Travelers from point A to Point B.
However, there is one massive issue that gets overlooked quite often, and that's the fact that there's a time dilation between Terra and Genovia of 72 hours, so One Terrian Day is equivalent to three on Genovia.
Thus, during the transfer between worlds, the Flume accelerates and acclimates travelers to the time differential.
Although Aoni was aware of this, as he'd been prepared for it, the strange thing was this shift in speed was completely unnoticeable.
What Aoni DID feel, though, was a tangible sensation akin to being in the water surrounding him from head to toe. Still, even this was expected, as he knew it to be the heavy density of Energia within the Flume.
"Ah, right, I can't get distracted; however, putting knowledge into practice is a whole different story," suddenly remembering something important and grumbling to himself as Aoni floated along; he leaned back even further until basically lying down flat and closed his eyes.
'Focus on the abnormal,' He thought while slowing his breathing and calming down his torrential thoughts.
'It's like being in an isolation tank, warm, comfortable, relaxing; this is Energia,' Unconsciously, Aoni's head started slowly swaying from side to side, similar to a fish lazily swimming along; only his head was the fishtail in this analogy.
'The moment I stepped into the world of Travelers, I tossed aside being a normal carbon-based lifeform, and my DNA shifted to that of a DNA Energia hybrid. This is part of me now, a normal sensation.' Aoni mused when suddenly, as if something had been unlocked in his mind, the density dropped off, and it felt no different than just existing on Terra.
Unseen to the naked eye, the ambient Energia that Aoni had been concentrating on had penetrated his body on a cellular level, merging with the Lad's DNA and finalizing the Transformation into a Traveler; now, all that remained was setting up a Flume in his Territory to claim his Lordship and Awaken the Dormant TD.
However, what the Ash-Blond Lad didn't realize was that he'd spent almost two hours completing the process. By the time his emerald eyes fluttered open, the cloudiness of the Walls had drastically cleared up, revealing a glass-like appearance and signaling his first Flume trip was coming to an end.
'I wonder where my Territory is located; I hope it is somewhere hospitable yet isolated. The last thing I want is to be surrounded by other lords; hm, 200 miles should be decent, yeah, let's hope for no other Travelers within 200 miles.' Cupping his chin with his right hand, Aoni nodded silently while his eyes never left the crystalline walls.
Finally, after having spent a little over three hours floating in the Flume, the world of Genovia came into view… unfortunately, what reflected through those crystalline walls was quite unpleasant because, as far as Aoni could see…was endless White.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
77 Power
stone 
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