Ascending Endlessly: I Copy Skills

It's warm. It's really warm. I don't want to wake up.

Inside the stomach of the Goliath, these thoughts had been filling my head for several hours, becoming more and more prominent as time passed. I could feel myself slipping away. However, I was trying my best to maintain my senses.

I was laying in the center of a mound of flesh which had wrapped around me tenderly and, strangely enough, healed the wounds on my body. It was wet and dark, but it was so comfortable that I wanted so badly to lean into it and forget all my worries.

But that wasn't an option. I was currently inside the stomach of one of the most dangerous beings wandering the earth: a Goliath.

They were beasts which had arrived with The Gloam. However, we weren't entirely certain as to their relation to it. They didn't appear to be Gloam constructs, but we didn't know what else they could be, either. Unlike the other monsters which had been trapped in the dungeons, the Goliaths were untrappable. Also, unlike the monsters, they didn't have any regular patterns. If they wanted, they could wipe out every human who left their sanctuaries, but they seemingly had no interest in that, for the most part.

If you happened to run into one, you were certainly dead. But they didn't really seek out fights, despite their strength.

They could appear suddenly in a cloud of black dust, and evaporate, disappearing, just as easily. Above all else, they were some of the strongest monsters we'd ever seen. Stronger than even some S-Rank beasts. 

And these Goliaths were my worst nightmare. So how could I possibly allow myself to feel comfortable riding around in one? Instead, I spent my time running through the possibilities over and over again to keep my consciousness sharp. 

The Goliath seemed to only have an interest in me. It called me the child of The Architect. It spoke, an unprecedented event, and asked me for help before swallowing and healing me. 

What did it all mean? Well, for starters, it obviously intended on keeping me alive. The chamber in its stomach wasn't digesting me, or not that I could tell, at least. It was healing me. And considering the Goliath wanted my help, unless 'help' meant digesting me, it wouldn't let me die so easily.

What could a Goliath need help with? I wasn't sure, but it seemed related to The Architect, the being who had answered my call that night which my skill activated. I had met the old man, who called himself The Curator, but no architect, unless he went by two different names. And his child?

Neither of my parents were any kind of inter-dimensional being to my knowledge. What would make him think I'm The Architect's child? Well, if The Architect is the one who brought me to the museum, maybe this deck of cards he gave me is somehow functioning as an identifier of my alleged allegiance with him?

I wasn't sure. What else could it be? I continued trying to move my mana to allow me to escape, but my gate was barely working, and I couldn't call out to any of my cards. 

For now, it seemed I'd just have to wait. A long time passed. I wasn't sure how long it was, exactly. I tried keeping track in my head, but I kept drifting off. Hours? Days?

It felt like days. My thoughts were getting dimmer and dimmer. I tried to keep myself alert, but after a long enough time, my efforts seemed to be in vain. Everything I was was growing further and further away.

Just as I felt I was about to lose myself completely, I was abruptly awoken. I felt the flesh which had wrapped around my body pushing me upwards, flinging my higher up inside the Goliath's body, until a minute later I emerged from its mouth, shocked and dizzy.

Where am I? What happened? Everything felt so distant just a moment ago, and now I'm back in reality.

I groaned as I stretched, before a moment later the Goliath picked me up from its tongue which was the size of a city block and placed me on the ground.

I took a minute to breathe. The Goliath seemed willing to let me collect myself. I felt strange, but I also felt completely rejuvenated. I was quick to fully regain my awareness, maybe because I had worked so hard in there to retain my sense of self.

As the blurry haze which had enveloped my mind dissipated, I started to look around where I was. It looked like a massive cave made of twisting black wood, in the center of which was... a little girl. 

She had black hair and pale skin. She looked thin, almost malnourished, and couldn't have been older than ten. Maybe even younger.

What? I looked over to the Goliath, who was hunched over, curled into a ball, trying its best to fit inside the space. I looked back to the girl who was convulsing lightly on the ground. What's going on here?

"DAUGH... TER..."

The Goliath pointed at me with its strangely human elongated finger.

"YOU... SAVE..."

I pointed at myself. Me?

"I'm not a doctor. What the hell do you expect me to do?"

The Goliath, however, was unrelenting.

"SAVE... REWARD..."

It retracted its finger and watched me closely, sitting perfectly still with every inch of its body except its giant eyes which followed me.

Hesitantly I approached the girl, looking back over at the Goliath nervously. What if it attacked me?

And what did it want me to do, exactly? How can I heal this girl? I know little of medicine. 

I placed my hand on her head. She felt feverish, to an extreme degree. I had to protect myself with mana to avoid getting burned. What the hell...

Then, I noticed a strange fluctuation of mana coming from within her. It was just for a split second, but as it occurred, she convulsed. Is this why the Goliath wanted me? Because of my knowledge of mana? I'd never seen anything like this, though.

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel more closely what exactly was going on inside her. My focus was heightened to a frightening degree. When it came to mana, especially strange things like this, my interest couldn't help but take over.

After several minutes of sensing her mana, I got a rough idea of what was happening. There was some kind of abnormality in her gate. I could make a couple of guesses as to what exactly was going on.

There were erratic pulses of mana emanating through it, damaging her body. This could mean that she can't control her gate, and the mana is flowing through against her will. However, I'd have to dive deeper to understand it. I focused even harder and started to push my mana into her body. It wasn't like before, where I was collecting it all in one place. Instead, I was trying to wash over her whole body with it to try to pinpoint any unusual reactions.

And something strange I did find. I could feel it from her gate as my mana touched it. There was a layer above her gate, like a bottle cap. Mana was building up behind it and then breaking through bit by bit. I didn't really get it, though. I'd never heard of something like this.

It didn't seem to be made of mana. Could I even fix this? And it was a problem with her gate. I had no idea how to reach someone's gate. It was kind of just... there. I turned towards the Goliath.

"I can see the issue here, but I don't exactly get it. There's something blocking her gate. It needs to be removed. Can you do that? I don't know how,"

I shouted as loud as I could to make sure it heard me. I waited for a response, but none came. I sighed. It seemed I was alone here. 

However, just as I placed my hands on her once again, the Goliath spoke.

"ARCHITECT... CHILD..."

Yes? What does that even mean?

"TRAVERSE... PLANE... CENTRAL... DATA... ENGINE..."

Hello? I was dumbfounded as it spoke. I had no idea what the fuck it was talking about. Traverse plane, central data engine. That's what I heard. Well, hold on. I pressed my hand to my chin. Traverse plane? 

Um... no way... 

That sounds a lot like my skill, no?

"Allows the caster to call out to other planes of existence."

And when I'd used the skill, it said that I called out to 'Creation's Cradle'. 

The skill implied that there were more than just that one. Was the Central Data Engine another plane? At that moment, something clicked.

When I'd been trying to replicate my use of the skill, I was thinking in entirely the wrong way. I was trying to recreate the emotions I'd felt, the actions I'd taken, and the sensation of the activation. What about the moment I'd actually travelled? The moment that space felt as though it was ripped out from under me?

For a split second, when it happened, I could sense something. Could that be the other planes? Could that be the missing piece?