BornAndTorn 71 A Bloody Newbie

" Yes, it all happened on their own volition, happy now?"

See, it was not that hard and it was the expected outcome, how absolutely boring.

Without any further ado let me start with this coin. As you can see this coin was the reason I was forced to cut off my own hand. It only started to actually accept my blood once it was inserted into my bloodstream. That itself raises 2 big questions. The first one is, why It accepted my blood after it had been inserted but not before? Linked to this question are many uncertainties regarding possible conditions and likeable causes.

The second big question is why I asked you about the memories. If their sacrifices offered up all of their blood. Then why was this coin hold by someone instead of being lined up neatly like any other coin? There has to be something special about it or the circ.u.mstances surrounding it. Every other corpse whether young or old was positioned in the same manner. There was only one person, who had grabbed an item tightly within his or her hands. Why would that person die, with the coin tightly grabbed?

If they place so much importance on those coins, putting them in front of what was most likely their sacrificial site, then I start to wonder exactly why the person acted in that way. I do not know much about their religion or motivation, but what I can conclude is that behaviour like that seems highly unlogical.

If each and every one of these persons acted on their own free will, the person with the coin should have been the last sacrifice. That begs the question, what was so important about this person, was it a person with a high social ranking? Or did they just draw lots? Furthermore, if it was the last person left, then why did he still go through with the sacrifice leaving the coin behind in his hand.

That leaves only 2 possible conclusions, this person either did not care about this coin not being close to the rest of them or there was a third party involved that failed to put the coin back for unknown reasons. Each scenario would explain different things, but neither would give conclusive evidence to what actually happened here.

Because this story reeks. There are so many coins placed here and if each of those absorbs blood than this story can not be true. I have seen for myself how much blood this coin has absorbed, there is no way that 60 people are enough to fill more than 4 coins. So tell me, why are here no coins filled with blood?

Were the coins taken away by the third party and are now at a different place or did the pa.s.sage of time rob the coins of their saved blood?

All this information seem to lead us nowhere, but I have not forgotten about all the knowledge I have shared with the Observer and you. This is nothing more than a sacrificial site for Aztec I have just described. Those coins are a detail added by the Observer, that is why I failed to draw the connection at first.

Everything can be explained this way. The poses of the corpse, nothing more than a tradition for them, no signs of struggle or disturbance can be explained by their own decisionmaking. The ma.s.sive amount of coins were just waiting to be filled up with blood. That leaves just one last big question unsolved, why did this one person hold this one coin in his clutches?

Did the Observer want me to find it? Surely, but is that the reason for its obvious placement? That seems unlikely, given the position the Observer finds itself placed in. If every of its moved is supervised I find it hard to believe, that it would do something that obvious. So why would it still place this coin, in such a fas.h.i.+on? making it easy to find this coin?

By now it should be obvious, that the reason is as simple as it is genius. This coin is nothing more than a false lead to start with. Now hear me out, it might seem strange at first, but now view it through the lens of a player.

You come into this discarded place high up on a mountain, you went through much trouble just to arrive at this place and now you are finally here. You are not just going to run into it and run straight into the mountain of coins. No, you will likely sneak around and be careful. You would see the corpses robbed out of their blood and essence. Regardless of whether a player does know about the Aztec behaviour or not, he or she would still expect something of value in this place.

This is where the single coin comes in, this coin is on a corpse looking different from the rest. It is not placed in the beginning, so that most players should have seen the continuity with the poses. So after they have seen the difference, they will approach the corpse and find the coin.

It was my approach that is wrong, this coin in itself is nothing special its purpose is to draw attention and to tell the players that they are on the right track and that more treasure lies ahead. Having stated the obvious part now here comes the interesting stuff.

The genius part is that this kind of trap works for me and players as well. I found the coin and immediately thought of it as something special but discarded that thought after seeing the mountain of coins. Those players had the exact opposite approach, for them the coin is nothing more than a small part of a big treasure. After verifying that those coins were indeed capable of absorbing blood as well I was devastated as I had known that my hopes had been thoroughly crushed.

What would those players have done, if they saw the ma.s.sive amount of coins? They would have collected them and then spread them out once they would have found out that those coins are capable of absorbing blood. Now you might say that people as selfish as those players would not even think about spreading such a treasure and would prefer to use it all by themselves once they knew what these coins are capable of.

Though there are exactly 2 reasons, why something like this would not occur. First of all, for them, this is a fictional world, with its own ruleset and this world is designed in a fas.h.i.+on that centres around fulfilling their needs. These coins would be viewed as a special tool, which when filled up would cause something very special to happen.

Let them fill up one coin by themselves and if nothing happens, they will try to seek outside help to accomplish that mission. Furthermore who said that these coins are limited to one place? It would be quite useless to only place your bets on one place, given the actual size of the map.

The even bigger reason why something like that would not occur is really simple, the Observer would intervene if those players would not do his bidding. It could set quests or manipulate those players into acting the way they should.

So why, would I call this coin a false lead, If everything I had done afterwards leads into the same direction I had just denounced? Good question, you would have never asked either way.

While this coin seems to be nothing more than a tool to raise attention towards the rest of the coin, its purpose can be determined by connecting the dots. This coin was used on the last sacrifice and was the last coin overall and it was not placed with the others, rather it was put away from the rest. Why would they make such a distinction and not do the last sacrifice right in front of the rest of the coins?

All these people have been sacrificed for this one coin only. It was not even full, after absorbing 60 people and only after it had absorbed the strong blood of my body, was it showing signs of change. What made the difference obvious was the behaviour of the second coin. On the surface, it might have looked like the 2 coins did all the same. But have you not noticed right away?

Why would the first coin spit the blood right at me, while the second coin would not react in any way after coming into contact with my saliva? As you can see, a different coin just absorbs my blood after coming into contact with it.

Once my blood comes into contact with the special coin, it gets spit right back into my face. Right now it happened once again, even after it had absorbed my blood already. Further proving my theory.

Those people would have never noticed it if they placed every coin inside of a monster to let them absorb the blood freely. I do not know the real purpose behind this kind of special coins but I do know, that there has to be something. This arrangement would not make any sense otherwise. That is why I called it a false lead, the true worth of this one coin is much higher than the rest of this coins combined. Though n.o.body would notice it, without paying much attention to detail.

" You could get that much information, just from that little detail I am thoroughly impressed"

As much as I would like to portray myself as an all-knowing being, it is simply not true. Everything felt off from the moment I opened my eyes in this place. Why would I find myself in a place up in a mountain? I asked for a remote village, not a hidden place. The more I saw of this place the more simply felt off to me. I could not lay a finger on it at first, but more and more doubts started to surface once I saw those corpses inside of those tipis, The coin was the last thing I had to see to be sure, that this "village" was a copy of the Aztec. Of course, it might have been just a big coincidence and this was nothing more than an abandoned temple.

After you told me about their motivation, it all made sense in a way. So as much as I would like you to see me in that way, I do not want to earn your admiration for something like this. Save it for then I do something truly amazing.

Besides, there are still so many questions left unanswered. Why exactly am I here for? Are their really more places like these? What is the deeper meaning of those coins and what is their intended purpose? Why exactly was this "village" placed on top of a mountain? What is the upcoming event going to be about and in what ways are the coins connected to it? Are the coins really only limited to absorbing blood? Why have the corpses not resp.a.w.ned but the Tipis have, are the corpses really not of importance in the eyes of the Observer?

All these questions would change the view on this whole scenario. What if those coins would not only absorb blood but were capable of absorbing any liquid, that has the same qualities of blood. What if those coins could absorb water or lava? The whole picture would change in an instant, especially if you consider the fact that those corpses have not resp.a.w.ned.

They would have been nothing more than a prop to underline the atmosphere and my whole proposed theory would crumble in an instant. If it would turn out that the purpose of the coin is to be full of my blood, then I will have to be very concerned about the next event.

That is why I put so much emphasis on the importance of those experiments. Those results will change my future.

" I am not going to bother and follow your experiments. Since I know most of the results already. If you want something from me, just let me know. I will be busy doing something really important, so do not call me for just any reason."

Yeah if I ever need your help I am just going to put my left hand on fire.

" Regardless, best of luck too you whatever you are trying to accomplish by these experiments."

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And finally, I do not have to hear my annoying partner anymore for the time being. It is always so exhausting to make up stuff that might be the truth. Those revelations were in fact only scratching the surface of the possible ramifications of those coins. The biggest unknown variable was the interaction between those coins and the "real world". What were to happen if they a.n.a.lyzed my blood and arranged the production of it in the bodies of the players?

And if that's not their purpose I am really interested to know, what their real purpose is for those players. I have to keep in mind that this world is meant as a device to strengthen them. So I doubt the notion, that the Observer would do something as mysterious as this without any merits to the players.

I am trying to learn as much as possible about these coins to find out what possibilities this coin has to offer. Why would the Observer even decide to make 2 different versions of the coin in the first place? All I do know about it is that this idea derived from the things I told the system about.

And the decision I absolutely fail to comprehend is why the Observer would design this coin in such a way. Why would the coin be allowed to spit the blood right back into my face? Every theory I had surrounding those coins is rendered useless if those coins act like this. These secret coins will not be a secret for long if they show this kind of behaviour to everyone. Knowing my luck I got a faulty one or those coins only accept magic in the first place. And the only reason the coin even absorbed my blood was to get rid of the obstacle that was me.

I repeated the process once again and dropped some blood on the very special coin only to have it returned with even more vigour than before. I swear I could hear the coin laughing back at me. Of course, I would not suffer defeat at its hand once again, so I did the only reasonable thing. I used my arm hair to puncture my body to collect that promising slime.

After cutting open my hand once again, I let the blood acc.u.mulate on it. I added the slime into the mix and took notice on every change that resulted out of the combination. At first glance nothing major happened. The slime and the blood had created 2 different phases and there was no activity that would suggest any sort of combination between those 2.

The test I now had to conduct was to change the parameter surrounding it. It might share a similarity to salt and water. If water is heated up, it can bind more salt in comparison to a cold state. At least that's what I still can remember from that boring chemistry lesson. There is still not much known about how this magical flame will interfere in this kind of process. Secondly, I do not know whether the slime has had any effect on the blood beforehand.

Though as I tested its basic properties, there had been no change of any kind. It was still a liquid and still moving as fluently as before. The dispersion of the light was still the same and therefore the colour as well.

After heating up the blood, I noticed that the blood had evaporated after coming into contact with the flames. Now that in itself might be bad, but even worse is the fact that the evaporated blood had turned into a b.l.o.o.d.y fog, that was now clinging to this place.

Using my burning flames directly to heat up the flames seems to not be the correct approach. The right call was to control the process directly, by using a different fire source. Looking at the newly resp.a.w.ned tipis I decided to light them up and use them next.

My inner arsonist was jubilating, as I once again set fire to this place. After preparing yet another blood sample, I decided to test how long it would take for it to evaporate. I order to test if there is any difference by the slime I have to conduct those tests several times with or without the slime mixed into the blood.

There was a noticeable trend, as the blood with the slime lasted a significant amount of time longer than the blood without it. Though the blood alone did not leave behind any b.l.o.o.d.y fog. Only the combination with the slime was causing such a reaction. It might not help me in my current situation, but keeping it in the back of my mind does not seem to hurt.

This observation confirmed the fact that the slime has an effect on the blood itself. Though I could not determine what kind of effect truly happened. I will have to change the experiment if I want to find out the actual change that occurred.

The next test should be whether I can force the blood to mingle with the slime by shaking it with quite some force. Or I could test how long the blood coagulation would take in this context. The previous experiment might have been falsified by the magical component in my hair, that is why I will have to test it without its presence.

Leaving the blood open to air was causing some interesting effects, as I could see that my blood was staying the same if I kept it on my hand, but I could watch it disappear by the seconds once I had placed it on any other material.

There was no difference between the blood with slime or the one without. Both of them were absorbed quickly by the material they were placed on, whether those were the tipis or the soil beneath my feet.

Now I am intrigued what kind of difference would result out of covering the object in question with the slime or inserting it with a liquid. Theoretically, it should change the stone from the inside and strengthen the basic properties of it. On the other hand, I know that covering the stone in slime only will change the properties on the surface. A stone without any slime on or it will remain a normal basic stone at least that much is obvious.

Some interesting concepts ran through my head, as I thought about possible ways to utilize this kind of knowledge. The easiest way to apply it would be to let my detached hair soak in the substances to further strengthen their penetrative powers. The biggest downside was that I know for certain that it would not work directly on my body.

I just noticed, that I was barely scratching the surface of my work with this blood and I already discovered so much. With every discovery, I make my load of work is increasing instead of decreasing as I had hoped beforehand.

Still, it was rea.s.suring to know, that some of my previous knowledge can be applied in this context. I am quite happy not being forced to throw everything I know about the concept of physics out of the window.

Before I inserted the modified blood into the special coin I wanted to make sure, that I knew everything about it, otherwise I might end up ruining something for me. That is why I will use this ma.s.sive pile of coins and try everything I can come up with to determine what's possible and what's bound to remain a dream.

My first test has showcased that those normals coins were showing no refusal to my blood at all, they just absorbed it. They have rejected my saliva alone though.

Obviously, there have to be more mechanisms hidden in that coin, that would enable such a screening process. After all, both of them are liquids. If I can determine, which rules apply to those coins it gets a lot easier.

It can be as simple as only absorbing liquids that have a red colour or it can be really complicated by looking at something like the nutritional level of the liquid. Is it checking the liquid constantly or is it just doing an initial screening before starting the absorbing process?

I started to test, whether the blood would be absorbed if I mixed a bit of saliva into it. Depending on the result, I would have to start and increase or decrease the dosage until it does not work anymore.

A ratio of 50:50 was my first try and the coin swallowed the liquid without any hitch. I increased the saliva part and started the process anew with the same result. Even as I went up to a ratio of 1:9 it still went through without any kind of rejection. Just to verify whether the coin was still the same coin that had previously rejected the saliva, I repeated the experiment with saliva alone.

This time the saliva was rejected and was not absorbed by the coin. I doubt that the Observer would seriously let me do as I please with the coins, so why did it decide to let me bypa.s.s this barrier that easily? The more I think about it the more confused I get.

But I would be a fool If I let my thoughts get to me and stop me in my tracks. I continued the experiment and added rock powder to the mix. I made sure to make the pieces as small as possible when I pulverized the rocks.

Looking at the results I felt a little bit baffled as the blood was accepted once again. Even as the leftover of the rock increased in size they were still swallowed by the coin. As long as the piece of rock was not bigger than the coin itself it was not getting rejected. How does this stuff even fit into the coin, is it compressed? Seems unlikely, I think the blood and everything are just converted into energy or mana.

That brought me to the next question if it is just a medium saving energy, how does it react to external stimuli? If I heat the coin will it react any differently? After conducting the test once again, but this time while heating up the coin with my flames I was caught off-guard once again. The coin itself does not care whether the blood is a liquid or a gas. As long as it is red it gets absorbed. All of the b.l.o.o.d.y fog had been absorbed in the blink of the eye. It was obscure to think, that the only necessary criteria as of now were the colour of the substance in question.

The next parameter I wanted to test how a normal coin would react to being inserted into my bloodstream. Having learned my lesson I wanted to avoid recreating the action and end up having to cut off my own hand out of sheer desperation.

The normal coin absorbed my blood in a moderate fas.h.i.+on though and was easy to remove out of my bloodstream. I decided to test how much blood can be removed out of my body before I get lightheaded to a.n.a.lyze how much blood the special coin had absorbed.

After a period of time had pa.s.sed and I had finished testing whether such a coin could be melted. I finally removed the coin out of my bloodstream. Looking at the coin, I had expected to see any signs indicating the level of energy in the coin. The tinge of red had still not increased in size.

I came to the only logical conclusion that this coin needed a lot more blood to be actually filled, so I did just that and inserted the coin once again into my bloodstream.

This good idea lasted for quite a long time. Until one fateful moment, as I learned one thing forcefully. This kind of coins does indeed compress the blood and everything inside of it. I had not noticed that the pressure reached such a level until it was too late and my complete right arm had been blown to smithereens.

The whole surrounding s.p.a.ce had been turned in a place straight out of a nightmare, as everything including myself was now covered in a solid layer of blood.

Despite this gruesome looking picture I could not help but laugh out quite loudly. For others, I might look like a madman, but this kind of madmen had the fun of a lifetime right at this moment.

I had to admit it, I was still a b.l.o.o.d.y rookie.