Infinitium

(Union Glacier Base Camp, Tuesday, January 1st, 2036)

Adam heard fireworks shooting off in the distance. Not the big ones you’d find in a city, the little ones that families might light off. He also felt a cool breeze blowing over his skin. he opened his eyes to see the darkest night he’d ever witnessed. he thought about the conversation he’d just had with Adaline….he just had a conversation with Adaline…he was remembering who Adaline was…he wasn’t supposed to remember anything. He looked around quickly to see if he was in danger and realized that he was standing on a sheet of ice looking at a sign that read “Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions, Union Glacier Antarctica.” Next to that sign was one of those distance-to-location signs pointing in various directions. “New York, Oslo, Hong Kong, Punta Arenas, Sydney.” That’s when he realized that he was reading the sign because a light was bouncing over his shoulder from behind him. Huh? he turned to look and saw three people running towards him in bright red coats, one already spreading an emergency thermal blanket as they came up to him. At that moment he realized two things. One, he wasn’t cold and Two, he was butt-ass naked.

“Who the hell are you?” a man yelled at him in French.

“Calm down Pierre, I don’t recognize him either but he’s naked and it’s 0 degrees Celsius out here right now, not too bad for this time of year but we need to get him inside, he’s naked.

“I’m not cold,” Adam tried to say in French but was cut off by a third person

“He’s mumbling that he’s not cold,” a second woman said. “It could be shock or hypothermia? Let’s get him inside quickly.”

Adam decided to just go with it and didn’t struggle as he was quickly guided toward one of the closet clamshell tents and was led inside. The second woman ran over and grabbed a snowsuit and thermals while the first woman looked him over and then peered into his eyes. “What’s your name?” she asked in English

“Adam.”

“Okay Adam, do you know where you are?”

“The sign said Union Glacier”

“That’s right, Do you know what day it is or the date?”

“No idea,” he said.

“That’s okay. We’re going to get you dressed then get you over to medical to check you out. Do you have any pain, any tingling sensations in your extremities, your fingers, or toes?”

“Nope, I feel fine,” he said as he wiggled his fingers and his toes.

“Good, that’s good. My name is Lindsey and the other woman getting you clothes is Samantha. We’re going to get you dressed then go back outside to a bigger building okay?”

“Okay Lindsey, and thank you?”

Samantha brought him clothes and he dressed. The three of them led him over to another building that was a little bigger and he was led into a makeshift medical examination room to wait for the doctor with Lindsey, while Samantha and Pierre went off to find the doctor. A couple of minutes later they returned with another man who seemed to be in his early forties or fifties came into the building and rushed over.

“Lindsey, what is the meaning of this, what’s happened, I’d just gotten comfortable and was getting ready to enjoy a nice glass of bourbon and watch a movie.” The doctor said in English.

“Doc, I swear he just appeared next to the marker sign. One second he wasn’t there the next he was, and he was butt-assed naked.” Lindsey answered back in English.

“Yep, butt ass naked,” Samantha said.”

“Sorry about that,” Adam said.

The doc approached him, and looked at his hands and feet, “What was the temperature out there tonight?”

“Right now, it’s 0 Celsius,” Pierre said in English.

“At the very least I’d expect his extremities to be red as blood flow returned, yet he looks fine.” The doctor picked up one of the laser temperature readers and aimed it at his forehead. “98.6 Fahrenheit, no temperature.” He looked at him for the first time, “How do you feel son?”

“Confused, not really sure how I got here.”

“Well, we did have a cargo plane leave here a bit ago. Do you know where you are from?”

“The United States,” he said

“I’m going to ask you to stay here for a bit. We’re going to send word that someone missed the plane and see if we can get them to turn around and come back. Hopefully, we can so we can get you out on that flight or you’ll be stuck with us through the week until the next transport arrives.”

The doctor walked over to talk to the three of them. Lindsey and Pierre stayed to keep an eye on him while Samantha and the Doctor went off to make calls. While he was sitting there a prompt activated in his Personal Interface.

Congratulations You have reached level 2! You have 8 attributes to…

Adam canceled the prompt and then remembered that his link to the Labyrinth was turned off. Where was he getting XP from? he opened his Personal Interface and reviewed it.

Name: Adamantadine

Identity: Adam

Age: 35

Weight: 170

Birthday, July 16th, 2001

Fundamental Abilities: (Note Fundamental Abilities are Always Active and stay with you through any temporal shifts, changes, or paradoxes that occur.)

“Perfect Memory” - Like Photographic Memory except for all five senses with an automatic recall of desired information.

“That Was Easy” - Your Ability Guided Understanding, Jack of all trades, and the Orb of Knowledge have combined into the Unique ability “That was Easy.” You may use any skill as if you had skill level 100 in it. Even if you have never seen the skill used before your skill level is 100.

“I have Always Been, I will Always Be” - Your existence is now sacrosanct. You are no longer subject to a Grandfather Paradox and you gain a 100% resistance to harmful Time Magic.

“Creature of Raw Chaos” - Your body has been inundated with Chaos. During this process, your will was strong enough to hold your core identity together and permanent changes were made to your body. You may now enter and exit Chaos 100% resistant to any further changes.

“Adaptable” - Chaos has modified your body so that you may adapt to any environment. From Absolute Zero to the Gravity well of a Singularity your body can and will adapt to all environmental conditions. This includes the ability to survive in those environments. Example: the ability to breathe underwater if necessary.

“Undying” - You will reform at the nearest Place of Power containing Life Magic if killed. While you are not truly immortal, the powers that granted this ability have decreed that you will be resurrected and reformed a number of times equal to the souls you’ve spared from utter annihilation, this includes all souls across all Universes that were saved. Number of resurrections left: “What was that phrase you liked to use? “A number of times best phrased as a Scientific Number.”

“Resistant” - You are 50% resistant to all Primal Magic and natural manifestations of those energy types. Additionally, you are 100% resistant to all magic from the following spheres of power; "Chaos, Time, Space, and Gravity, and 50% resistant to Holy and Demonic Magic

“Godless” - The changes to your body have severed any clerical link to the divine you had. As you share a host of traits similar to the Divine you may not become the servant of any Divine again.

“Confluence” - Your Place of Power has merged with you. While you cannot access a Place of Power any longer Chaos seeps into you from beyond the barrier of the Universe you’re in and converts it to primal magic of all spheres. You do not have control of this process. In any Universe, you have access to and can utilize any magical energy normally. Additionally, your Mana Regeneration has increased by Willpower + Endurance per minute. Finally, the process of converting raw Chaos into magic garners 1 XP per second.

Note: This seepage of magic acts like a magnet to leylines and will divert their normal path. Additionally, any area around you will become magically saturated allowing magic items and spells cast by others to work as well. This area increases by 100 feet for every Level, Grade, Division, Category, Tier, and Rank you attain.

“Spellweaver” - You neither memorize nor permanently add spells using spell slots. Instead, you may weave magic into any form of your desire so long as you have the skill and mana to do so.

“Personal Storage” - You now have the equivalent of 1,000' cubic feet of dimensional storage that reduces weight by 100%. It can be accessed at will. Items placed into or taken out of the space appear or disappear to the hand touching them. This space can be represented by slots if you prefer.

“Infinite Wealth” - Your Belt of Infinite Wealth has been transformed into a Fundamental Ability. You may pull forth any type of currency and have the ability to produce any amount of wealth you might need. As per the initial conditions of this item’s acquisition, any cost incurred for any wealth withdrawn is paid for by the Divine Detrik. Even though “The Change” this cost was maintained.

Level 1

Attributes

Strength 10

Agility 10

Dexterity 10

Endurance 10

Constitution 10

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 10

Willpower 10

Perception 10

Charisma 10

Luck 10

Primary Stats

Carrying Capacity 90 lbs. (41 kgs)

Hit Points: 4

Base Health Regeneration: 3 HP per second

Mana: 200

Base Mana Regeneration: 5 MP per second

Movement

Normal Running Speed: 16.2 mph, 24 fps

Standing high Jump: 32.2 Inches.

Note. Falling Damage is not mitigated by maximum jumping Distance.

Base Attack

Unarmed Attack: 9 Damage

Critical Damage Maximum Damage x2

Skills: See Fundamental Ability “That Was Easy” above

Adam closed his Personal Interface and thought for a second. His “Perfect Memory” ability was now a Fundamental ability. That was probably why he could remember everything he did. In fact, each and every one of those Fundamental Abilities was powerful. Minor problem. He was leveling again and he was told he’d have to see the new changes.

“Adam, are you okay?” Lindsey asked.

“Yeah I’m fine, I was just wondering what day it is?”

“It’s January 1st, 2036, Happy New Year! Even if you don’t know how you got here.

“Not to worry, just trying to remember,” he said as he turned away and looked thoughtful. If he was earning 1 XP per second then 1 minute was 60 XP, 10 minutes was 600 XP and 1,000 XP would have been right around 16.5 minutes, just a little while ago he could have done that equation and given exact numbers. He looked at the clock and sure enough, it was just passed the hour. If the first couple of levels followed the previous leveling system, he should reach level 2 in about 20 minutes. And level 3 an hour after that.

Just then two men came in. Both carried batons and looked to be security officials of some sort. “Sir, I’m here to inform you that you are officially detained until Flight XL347 returns in two hours to pick you up. From there, you will be flown to Dallas via Punta Arenas Chile where you will be met by United States Government Officials and escorted to America.”

“Why is that?” Adam asked

“Well, Mr. Bennard, or whoever you are, your body double, a professor in Dallas is currently home and has no idea that he’s also in Antarctica. U.S. officials would like to talk to you about that.”

“I don’t know how he arrived here either so that’s fine. Do I need to be handcuffed or something?” he asked.

“No, but we will be with you until the handoff in Punta Arenas.

Samantha brought sandwiches and they all sat down to eat and watch the news. Until he was able to review the current history he wouldn’t know if there had been any significant changes. He was able to see the United States flag behind someone when the President was brought up and the flag still looked the same, with only 50 stars, so wherever he was it must be very similar to the world he remembered.

Adam heard the plane circle around the base and then come in for a landing. As the plane landed and everyone was distracted he tried to use his “Infinite Wealth” ability to create some 20-dollar bills and sure enough, they just appeared in his hand. He placed them on the counter by the dishes and left them. They’d be a nice surprise for whoever came to do the dishes after he left. Rob and Todd came back from the window and escorted him to the waiting area with the other passengers while they all waited for the plane to be refueled. Most weren’t happy and kept shooting daggers at him with their eyes. He apologized once then didn’t bother, they didn’t want to hear about it and everyone was tired. The plane was nice though, it kind of reminded him of one of those military cargo planes, a C-5, but it wasn’t. A new one for him, he didn’t know the make and model of this plane. It looked like some he’d come across but it was different. Maybe there had been some changes in this timeline.

Once the refueling was done, he waited while everyone boarded and then was escorted on by his guards. There was a double-deck and he was escorted up to the 2nd floor and taken to the back of the cabin. Todd and Rob sat in front of him because the cockpit door was only 15 feet in front of him and he was an unknown security risk. He didn’t make trouble, there was no point, he was headed to the United States, it was where he needed to go to get answers.

The plane taxied, turned around, and they were off. It was only about a 5-hour flight to Punta Arenas. He spent most of the flight sleeping. When he woke up he was level 4 and his attributes were all 12s Unlike before he just held any remainders and kept his attributes even. It’d be a while before he was back to where he’d been but he’d get there.

The plane landed and everyone else disembarked. Once the civilians were gone, he was led down to the tarmac and escorted over to a waiting government Learjet. Rod and Todd turned him over to two Military Security Forces personnel and a 1st Lieutenant then went off into the terminal. Adam had overheard them talk about heading back to Antarctica tomorrow.

Adam followed his military escort onto the Learjet, “This way sir, Please sit here,” and “Would you like something to drink?” were the extent of their conversation with him. It was an 8-hour flight and he also took the time to sleep through it as well. Six hours into the flight the lieutenant had taken a call and they’d been diverted. It now looked like we were heading to Area 52. Though they’d tried to not let him know where they were going. They must have found a recording of his arrival. Did doppelgangers of American citizens have rights under American Law? He guessed he was about to find out.