[ — Grim Card —
Name: Engram Enhancer Card
Race: Grim Spell
Rarity: Neuter (⚲)
Age: Spiritless
Health: Usable Build (60/60)
Gioncore: Peak-grade (Maturing)
Grim Deck: Awakened (Minor)
Grim Cypher: Fractured Fate
The Grimlock can biologically stimulate and reinforce the neural pathways (engrams) responsible for memory and muscle memory.
i) Memory Enhancer: The Grimlock actively converts short-term working memory into deep long-term storage.
ii) Memory Suppressor: The Grimlock can target their brains' bad engrams, like a regret, or a fear, or a past trauma, and suppress them.
Note:
i) Grim spell, seals, and arts use Grimlock's grimcore. Only Grim artifacts have their own grimcore.
ii) Overuse of the 'Memory Enhancer' effect to enhance neural pathways generates immense heat and metabolic waste in the brain, leading to migraines, nosebleeds, seizures, or strokes.
iii) Overuse of the 'Memory Suppressor' effect will cause the Grimlock to suffer from 'Phantom Pains,' remembering memories they were trying to suppress as if they were happening right now.]
After dinner at the cafeteria, Mary and I headed to the administration building. While I collected my complimentary card, Engram Enhancer, she spoke with the management about my training situation. When that was done, we called it a day and returned to our respective dorms.
As I reviewed the card's functions, I began to understand how institute researchers managed to memorize and process knowledge accumulated by billions of people over several centuries, all within a few decades and without mental fatigue.
Most of them specialized in a single field and stayed within it. Even so, the volume of information was staggering for any human mind to handle, even across a century, let alone a few decades. The ability to choose which memories to retain and which to discard fundamentally changed the equation.
Anyone could obtain a card like this. What truly set the researchers apart was how they used the knowledge they retained. They did not merely store information. They interpreted it, explained the unknown, and in doing so, generated new knowledge and innovation.
For the time being, I sealed it into my grim deck as a minor card. I had no intention of upgrading it to a major card, nor did I plan to keep it long term. I already possessed something conceptually similar: the Dream Engine grim cypher. While Dream Engine lacked the selective retention filter Engram Enhancer offered, its accelerated processing within the Dream Domain compensated adequately. Engram Enhancer was attractive, certainly, but not attractive enough to justify sacrificing one of my limited card slots.
Instead, I decided I would trade it for a more combat-oriented card, as my immediate priority was registering with the city's garrison reserve. The institute placed no restrictions on what I did with complimentary cards once issued.
Considering the caliber of card they handed out without cost, it was no surprise that researchers across the F.O.E. competed fiercely to secure a position at the Grimmyth Research Institute. The competition threshold was high—but the returns were undeniable.
Returning the Engram Enhancer card to my grim deck, I mirrored the Dream Engine grim cypher recorded in Fate Index using Fateless, and went to sleep planning to master basic survival and combat training in my dream domain. With its time-dilution and simulation functions, it wouldn't be hard once I gathered all the required material resources from the videos and materials on the grim web.
To anyone else, training like this might not amount to much. But for me, thanks to my gioncore's Martial Unity ability, it was different. Anything I mastered in the Dream Domain could be replicated seamlessly through combat simulations. I would have no trouble translating mental practice into physical performance.
After speaking with the management, Mary informed me that my contract with the institute granted me access to all its classes and workshops. That included the survival and combat training sessions held at the Institute's Gym for researchers preparing for expeditions. In short, I could begin training as early as tomorrow morning without ever leaving campus.
That was a huge relief because I had been wandering through the darker corners of the Grim Web, reading the discussions about me. Some people posted disturbing things they claimed they would do if they ever got the chance. Others obsessed over my contract ceremony outside of Grimmyth, calling it unfair or Grimmyth's gift to humankind.
Those threads proved my earlier caution had not been paranoia. For my own sanity, I decided to use the Grim Web strictly for communication and studies—nothing more.
Back to the matter at hand, the advanced survival and combat training classes began at four in the morning.
As a newcomer, I was supposed to start with the basic survival and combat courses. Instead, I planned to complete the foundational training inside the Dream Domain using its simulations. Once I had covered the basics there, I would attend the advanced class directly.
I was in a hurry because I had asked Mary to help me obtain a license as a Grimlock Medic before they called me to register with the garrison reserves. I planned to follow her path and join the garrison reserve as a doctor. With my grim cypher, earning the qualification would not be difficult.
As someone who preferred mediation over physical confrontation, I had no intention of fighting on the front lines and risking my life unnecessarily. Self-preservation came first, though never at the expense of my principles. If I was cornered, I would fight. Hence the combat training.
To improve my chances further, I even intended to record additional medic-related grim cyphers in my fate index. However, without a Grimlock Medic license, no matter how many medic-related ciphers or cards I displayed, they would not be considered during my registration.
Therefore, with the limited time I had before they called me for registration, I needed to divide it between survival and combat training and studying for my grimlock medical license.
Thankfully, Mary had generously offered to help me prepare for the Grimlock Medic license application. Because of that, I focused entirely on survival and combat training.