Soulless Players

Chapter 52: Dreamwalker

"How?"

Lala's eyes almost popped out, stunned at how Philip could achieve an astral state for the first time.

'How could this be possible? Even I took two months of practice just to summon my astral body.' Lala mulled as she quickly looked at Sam, who at the same time, wore the same reaction as hers.

Sam almost couldn't control himself from maintaining his state, causing his physical body to woggle while it stood on the platform.

'Is this why the teacher gave him the poster because he is a talent that appears once in a century?' Sam instantly recovered from his astonishment, his eyes beamed in delight.

Similarly, Philip had also noticed their exaggerated reaction. However, he had no time to mull over them as he was fixated on his condition.

'How did I do this? Is it this easy to summon an astral body?' Philip brooded for a while before stopping, seemingly examining his state.

'Hmm, this is very familiar. I think this is kind of similar to the 'Spatial Cognitive State' I've done in the past.'

'Yes, like when I fought against Emile, I imagined to eject myself out of my physical body to see everything from the god's point of view. So... was the cognitive state all along my astral state?'

Suddenly, while Philip was busy contemplating, he heard a series of coughs, as if trying to gain his attention.

"Care to explain? You might not know this, but there has never been someone that can summon their astral body on the first try, especially if they were like you - unable to relax due to suspicions about the club.' Sam asked. The tone of his voice was lukewarm.

At this point, Lala, who had been motionless, finally recovered and quickly interjected, "Shouldn't we be the ones to feel suspicious of you?"

She stopped, then continued, "Come to think of it. You've seen the illusionary doors and were aware of the astral states of Chris and Topher. If this is the case, aren't you already a mentalist? Because from what I know, only those who are mentalists can see them. So why would you still participate in this club? Why act as if you're frightened about them?"

Philip willed his body, astral form rather, to sit. He glanced at Sam and Lala and answered honestly.

"I'm as confused as you are. This is also my first time knowing I could do these things."

Owing to the fact that Philip was very bewildered and curious, he methodically forgot his fear and quickly reiterated,

"All I know is that I can enter this special cognitive state where everything moves extremely slow, and my intelligence and memory are greatly enhanced, making me recall even the short glances I took in the past."

Upon hearing this, Lala's contracted pupils relaxed as she probed inquisitively,

"What is your IQ? Do you have a special constitution of hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, or perhaps synesthesia? Or maybe you are a savant?"

"..."

Philip just looked at Lala dumbfoundedly. He could not understand a single word she was saying.

Lala noticed his reaction but before she could continue her questioning, Sam quickly interceded and said,

"No. What we want to know is, were you born with this condition or acquired it in one day and you suddenly noticed that something is different in you?"

Philip carefully gave it some thought first. Since now that he knew that the astral state and his so-called invention 'Spatial Cognitive State' were similar, he understood how he was capable of doing what a mentalist can do. It is due to his high Mental Stats.

Facing these omniscient mentalists, Philip doesn't know what to do or say. All he knew was that he could not just say that this abnormality was caused by the Soulless System.

"No, I wasn't born like this. In fact, my memory wasn't this great in the past. It was only this week that I've experienced it..." answered Philip truthfully. He felt it was better to be honest but also be secretive in front of these mentalists.

Hearing this, Sam also gave it some thought,

"You are Conrad Davies, right? Yes, you have always been famous in the university because of you're status as the son of the Alma Inn's owner and the mascot of the Engineering department. I heard that you have been embroidered with the large project from Evans Family... Then, did you experience this sudden change after your father died?"

"Ye-yes..." Philip answered hesitantly. He was able to enter into a cognitive state last Monday, so it was partially the truth.

"So that must be the reason..." Sam sighed. He looked at Keith who was silently listening to them, and at Chris and Topher in the corner before saying,

"The reason why the mentalists are so rare to the point we're experiencing a lack of employment is because of its rigorous and difficult process to become one. Aside from talent, an individual must undergo a series of challenging trials, some of which can be life-threatening and excruciating, in order to have a chance at becoming a mentalist."

Sam raised three of his fingers and continued,

"There are three demands that one must accomplish to become a bona fide mentalist.

First, an individual must, at some point, unlock one of their core memories in their space of consciousness.

The core memories are the person's most special memory that affects their well-being and personality. Unlike other memories that are easily forgettable, these cores are sturdy, difficult to break, and are locked deep inside our minds.

So if an individual unlocked one of his cores, he would temporarily possess extraordinary strength, tenacity, or otherworldly mind powers. This usually occurs to save oneself or another from a tragedy.

An example of this is when a mother obtained a supernatural strength to save her baby from being trapped in a blazing building. This is somehow similar to adrenaline but more on the metaphysical side.

However, unlocking these cores wouldn't suffice as you need to close them afterward, or else, it would poison your mind and be the reason for your early death.

To close it, one must, after obtaining abilities from core memories, ease their mind after the using it. This is similar to a mother having successfully saved her baby. So if the child dies, even with the core memories' support, the mother will live the rest of her life deranged and has the possibility of dying from it.

The condition of locking the core memories varies from how important and impactful the unlocked cores are in shaping your personality. Yes, because of its unpredictability, it is very difficult to close them..."

Sam stopped and looked sideways. Seeing that the students around needed his help, he returned to his physical body.

Lala then continued the next demand,

"Second, an individual must possess a genius level of intelligence and mental strength, this is equivalent to an IQ of 150 or in any similar mental strength quotations.

This is the reason why a mentalist requires aptitude as not everyone is born gifted. However, the world is still fair. Intelligence and mental strength can be trained and improved. This is also the basis why the Mental Study Society was created."

Lala looked over the students around,

"These students once had unlocked one of their core memories and successfully closed it. However, because their intelligence was insufficient, they had a hard time becoming a mentalist. Thus, to help them, the first session of the gathering was created... "

"Yes, unlike you, who could see the illusionary doors and the astral projection, these people couldn't. Even Sarah can't. She can only see a pinkish hallucination but would soon forget it."

"So that's why..." Philip nodded. Initially, he thought that Sarah could see the doors, however, after seeing her superb acting, he felt that there was wrong. Thus, hearing Lala's explanation answered his speculations.

Keith who was silently listening at his side continued,

"The third condition is, after accomplishing the first two prerequisites, you must be able to summon your astral body and maintain it for an extended period of time. This requires practice for months or even years. As for me, it is only now in my third month that I could finally summon my astral body."

"In addition to that, once you can maintain the state for more or less an hour, you can now try summoning the door leading to your space of consciousness. Only when you successfully enter it then you will become a Dreamwalker, the first level of Mentalists."

Then, Keith walked to the platform and raised his hands onto the bare wall with difficulty. Shortly afterward, the pinkish hue that bordered his body shook and gathered on his palm.

Keith gritted his teeth as he willed the pinkish hue to spread out on the wall. However, before the hues touched the wall, Keith's astral body became more transparent and slowly disappeared afterwards.

Soon, Keith woke up in his physical body. Although he had some inkling that he would fail in summoning the door, he still could not help but be frustrated.

"Why don't you try it? From what I see, you can already easily maintain your astral body." Sam, who had returned to his physical body earlier, was in his astral state again. He gave Philip directions on how to do it.

Since Philip had obtained a lot of information from them, he thought why not be more proactive?

Hence, like Keith, he stood up and slowly walked to the bare wall.