Whispers of Metal: The Forge of the One Mage

well the new chapter is ready I hope you enjoy it, you know comment and leave stones of power

I woke up suddenly, drenched in cold sweat, to the sound of the ocean waves crashing. For some reason, everything felt muted, even though my senses told me nothing had changed.

"Despite everything, I still can't remember them," I said to myself as I looked at my hands. Memories slipped through my grasp like sand no matter how hard I tried to hold onto them.

I stayed in that position for quite a while, nostalgic—or at least trying to be. The memories of my family felt incomplete. Their faces were blank mannequins; their names were censored, as if someone had muted a song. Their voices lacked any human emotion—a parody of what they should have been.

"Feeling sorry for myself won't solve anything," I told myself as I stood up. "All I can do is move forward," I added, trying to convince myself.

I slowly descended the stairs until I was in the living room. With some telekinesis, I tidied up the space until it looked as if nothing had ever happened.

With some reluctance, I grabbed the computer components I had ordered, went down to my lab, and upgraded the big machine.

The physical part didn't take long—just a few minutes. But the coding part was also improved. Now, with my technopathy, all I had to do was connect to the computer and channel my thoughts and will into the machine.

The sensation was like touching static electricity with my fingertips, accompanied by the sound of a mechanical keyboard in the background.

The most surprising part of all this was that I felt a faint current of familiar energy—something I would have ignored at any other time. It was... a soul.

Or at least, that's what I think. Could it be the soul of a tiny insect? I wondered.

Another question immediately formed in my mind: Since when can I see souls?

As if hit by sudden enlightenment, I answered myself.

"Since always," I said, slapping my own face.

"It seems this power also comes with some perception disorders," I thought, ignoring what was clearly a machine spirit. I was more focused on what else my senses might be experiencing—what I now considered normal but could potentially be dangerous.

"This is complete nonsense," I muttered. The machine spirit seemed to sense my frustration, though it calmed down after I gave it the psionic equivalent of a head pat.

I sighed at everything that was happening. Too many things in too little time. I've only been here for two months, and I'm already neck-deep in new experiences.

I decided it wasn't worth acting like a self-pitying fool and focused on something else... the data from the Gem portal and Nora's lion portal.

I transferred the data from my gauntlet and what my senses picked up through technomancy to my lab's central computer, organizing it into the useful information archives. The machine spirit accepted it like a pet taking food from its owner.

With that done, I could focus on analyzing the information I had gathered, along with the data from the gauntlet's sensors.

The data on the Gem portal was strange but understandable if I considered what was shown in the series. The portals acted like brains and anchor points in "physical" space. They connected to each other, and through a selection process initiated by a gem, the destination portal synchronized with the original, overlapping—or so I think. That part isn't clear. Well, once they overlap, is the gem no longer in just one space but in two places at once?

Honestly, that's the only thing I can understand about it, aside from the report the computer provided about the mathematics behind the process. However, the data is incomplete due to the lack of information on "overlapping." Still, the current information should be useful for attempting to create my own portals.

On the other hand, the data on the lion portals also included the concept of spatial "overlapping." However, the method itself was different and more comprehensible, though it theoretically consumed more energy the farther you wanted to go. First, a controlled tear in space is created. This tear exists in two places at once, but on its own, the portals would collapse. To prevent this, they create a "tunnel" connecting the two points. However, since this "tunnel" exists in "exotic" space—or, to put it technically, space that doesn't follow the same laws as the universe—it is unstable and consumes a lot of energy.

"Interesting," I said as I mentally read through the data via the psychic link to the PC.

A couple of ideas crossed my mind. If they worked, I could solve the problem of where to place the forge.

My intrusive thoughts and my amateur scientist mindset got the better of me, and I decided to try something pretty crazy: creating a portal.

I didn't even notice the manic grin spreading across my face, nor the fact that I was toying with some universal force. I just felt the same excitement a child feels when given a new toy to play with.