My Little Adept

by Dolphy Blue Drake

Chapter 6: The Arrival

At the market, the three of us started looking around, and I split my money between the three of us.

“Okay, we’ll each buy as much as we can of two of the six things we need,” I announced to the other two Adepts. “Try to get ninety of them if you can, then bring them back here so we can spread them out more evenly. You can buy more if you want, but remember that we can only carry so much, so any extras should just be stuff to replace breakfast, since Karen and I haven’t eaten yet to save room for this stuff.”

Yegelos’ stomach growled, and he chuckled weakly before saying, “Yeah, I haven’t eaten yet, either.”

“Okay, gang! Let’s get to it!” Karen cheered. “I’ll find some mint leaves and pepper!”

“I’ll take care of the peanuts and bread,” Yegelos added.

“I guess that leaves me with the cookies and apples,” I said, not at all upset with being left with those two.

“By the way, Felix,” Karen said, tapping me on the shoulder right as I started to trot away, “Prices here aren’t set. You can haggle them down to lower prices.”

My jaw dropped. “Wait, haggling is legal here?” I gasped. “In every place on Weyard, haggling is illegal!”

“I know, but Equestria’s not on Weyard,” Karen said with a wink. “Try it. Haggling Is actually pretty fun! But stores don’t allow haggling. Just the markets.”

“Got it,” I replied with a nod before spotting a stand selling apples, with none other than Applejack manning it. Is “manning” even the right word in Equestria? I never did find that one out.

Trotting up to the orange mare, Applejack spotted me and said, “Hey, Felix! Ya here ta buy some apples?”

“I sure am,” I said, trying to contain my excitement and failing.

“What’s so excitin’ ‘bout buyin’ apples?” she asked, looking at me strangely.

“Apples are rare in the world I come from,” I admitted with a sigh. “I usually only found them in treasure chests, and I only ever saw two apple trees in all my travels, each with only a single apple.”

“Sounds rough,” Applejack replied with a nod. “Well, here, apples are plentiful! Mah family’s even got our own orchard!”

My eyes grew to the size of dinner plates at what she said. “A-an orchard?” I breathed in disbelief, “Well, then, I’ve got to buy them right now!”

“What kind do ya fancy?” the mare asked, and I gave her a confused look.

“There’s more than one kind of apple?” I asked in confusion. “All the apples I ever found were the same.”

“Ya poor thing!” the farm mare exclaimed. “Ya don’ know what yah’ve been missin’ out on!”

I looked through the all the different sizes, shapes and colors of apples, my mouth watering and my mind still straining to wrap itself around the concept that apples had variety.

“I don’t know the names of any of them, but my companions and I need at least ninety of them for our upcoming trip,” I explained. “We’ll need a few extra to cover breakfast, so I’d like to buy ninety-nine apples, all chosen at random.”

“That’s a lotta apples,” Applejack said with a whistle. “That’ll be…” she thought for a moment and said, “two hundred Bits.”

I started to reach for my wallet to just give her the named price, but then I remembered what Karen told me.

“Karen told me that unlike in my world, haggling is legal,” I said with a smile. “I’ve always wanted to tell a store owner that their price is too high and demand a lower one, so here goes!” I cleared my throat and said, “Two hundred for ninety nine? That’s robbery! Surely you could go lower… say, one a piece?”

“Ninety nine Bits fer ninety nine apples?” Applejack shot back, a smile on her own face. It seemed she had decided to show me how haggling was really done. “Nothin’ doin’ Sugarcube! A hundred eighty!”

Getting into the feel of the “game”, I chuckled and shook my head. “Still too high. No dice. How about…” I closed my own eyes in thought and thought of another number. I felt it still had to be lower than the one I had in mind, for it seemed that it might go on for a little longer. “One hundred eleven?”

Applejack actually went slack jawed for a second. Obviously, she thought such a number was an incredibly odd one for me to throw out of nowhere, but I had my plans. I knew mathematics beyond simple counting, adding and subtracting, and it was paying off for me, here.

After regaining her composure, Applejack chuckled and shook her head. “That’s a weird number, Sugarcube, but Ah can’t give away this many apples fer that low. Yer mind games won’t work on meh! A hundred seventy! An’ Ah ain’t goin’ much lower than that!”

Doing some more calculations, I came to my next number. “Still too high for my tastes,” I chuckled with a shake of my head. “How about one hundred twenty four?”

Applejack still seemed oblivious to the number I was shooting for, but to take her even more off guard, I took advantage of glimpsing some silver and copper coins being exchanged out of the corner of my eye, and before she could fire back a new number, I asked, “What are those silver and copper coins?”

Applejack stopped in the middle of formulating her comeback and had to sidetrack to explain.

“Those ain’t Bits, Sugarcube,” she replied. “Those’re Jangles. Twenty of em to a Bit. The copper ones are worth one, an’ the silver ones are worth five or ten, depending on size.”

“Thank you,” I said with a nod. “So, back to the matter at hoof,” I still felt awkward using their jargon. “One twenty four. Do we have a deal or not?”

Applejack blinked, remembering what she was doing, but forgot where she left off. “Still no good, Sugarcube,” she laughed. “Ah’ll need more than that. A hundred fifty-five, an’ that’s final!”

“Really?” I asked doubtfuly, taking on a devious grin. This was really fun! Applejack was starting to sweat a little. Clearly, I was proving more formidable than she’d expected from a mere novice. “I’m sure you can go a little lower, can’t you? Would one hundred thirty six Bits and two Jangles work for you?”

This took Applejack even more by surprise, knocking her mind off-balance and giving me a new opening. “Well, Ah guess Ah could lower it a smidge. A hundred fifty two an’ ten Jangles. Ah’m stayin’ firm this time, though. Take it or leave it, Sugarcube!”

I almost had her. I was so close. The amount I felt they were worth given how common they were compared to their scarcity in Weyard drove me to push a little further.

“I think we’re close to an agreement, here,” I replied. “My final offer is one hundred forty eight Bits and ten Jangles.” The difference between our final stances was only four Bits. The real question was, would she lower it by such a tiny amount and give me the amount I was shooting for?

“Well, if it’s only four Bits lower, Ah don’ see why not,” Applejack conceded. “A hundred forty eight an’ ten it is. Yah’ve got yerself a deal, Felix.”

Roars of victory sounded inside my head, but I kept a calm demeanor. and fished out a coin for one hundred and the one coin for fifty.

“Do you have change for this?” I asked.

She nodded and gave me a bag full of randomly selected apples as well as a gold coin worth one Bit, and a silver ten Jangle coin.

“A pleasure doing business with you!” I called over my shoulder as I dragged the bag away.

“Same ta ya!” Applejack called back. “Yer a natural!”

When none of the ponies were looking, I whispered, “Grip,” and the hand appeared, this time to pick up the bag of apples and set it on my back. It was heavy, but I’d dealt with much more strenuous stuff than carrying a bag of ninety nine apples on my back. The heavy bag was nothing in comparison to getting hit by the Doom Dragon’s Djinn Storm, followed immediately by its Cruel Ruin, which brought me to within an inch of my life multiple times in that fateful battle.

In the distance, I noticed a bakery shaped like… a gingerbread house? Shaking my head, I slowly trotted towards it, meeting up with Yegelos along the way, who was also headed there, a bag of peanuts on his back.

”So, how’d you do on the apples?” Yegelos asked.

“Ninety nine for One forty eight and ten,” I replied.

Yegelos whistled, obviously impressed.

“I was able to get ninety-nine peanuts down to five Jangles a piece,” Yegelos replied. “But that’s only because the ponies don’t truly understand the worth of a peanut.”

“Remember, for a non-Adept, peanuts are just food,” I reminded Yegelos. “It’s the stuff that makes us Adepts that reacts differently and allows certain foods to do amazing things for us.”

“True enough,” he acknowledged with a nod. “So, you off to the bakery, too, eh?”

“Yep,” I replied simply. “I need to get us those cookies.”

“And I need that bread,” Yegelos added. “Too bad the bakery won’t allow haggling. I just hope the price isn’t too high.”

We trotted in silence for the rest of the way there, silently entering the bakery to find, of all ponies, Pinkie Pie was at the counter.

“Hi Felix!” she chirped before she noticed Yegelos. “Another new pony! Are you with Felix? Can I please throw you a party? Felix wouldn’t let me throw him one because he thinks being a hero is more important than having fun.”

Yegelos just stared, wide-eyed, shaking his head over and over while slowly backing up.

Swiftly coming to his aid, I gently pulled him back to my side and placed a hoof on his shoulder to calm him down.

“This is Yegelos,” I told the pink mare. “He’s with me as well, but we don’t have time for a party because we’re busy stocking up on supplies for a journey we’ll be taking later today.”

Yegelos blinked several times before returning to reality. “Oh! Right!” he exclaimed. “I need ninety nine loaves of bread. Thanks to Felix, i can pay for all of that, and more.”

“Bread?” Pinkie asked, surprised. “Why something that plain? Why not cupcakes or muffins or cake or—”

“Pinkie…” I said sternly. “It’s an Adept thing. It’s not about enjoying it. It’s about what it can do for us that it can’t for others.”

Pinkie sighed with disappointment before heading to the kitchen in the room behind the counter.

A few seconds later, she returned with a huge bag of bread loaves.

“There’s your bread,” she said, obviously not pleased with his choice. “That’ll be a hundred ninety eight bits.”

Yegelos nodded and gave her the money before I helped him get the large bag on his back, right on top of the bag of peanuts.

Yegelos stepped aside, and I trotted up to the counter and said, “As for me, I’m here for cookies. Same number as the bread, though.”

Her eyes lit up when I mentioned something that was actually a treat, and started listing all the different kinds of cookies to choose from, but I put a hoof in her mouth and said, “Just put together a variety box. We’re in kind of a hurry.”

She nodded, pulled out a huge to go box, and started selecting cookies from the display at random, placing them neatly in the box before finally announcing, “That’s one Bit per cookie, so it’s ninety nine.”

I nodded and gave her the closest coin I could to that amount, which was a five hundred.

“You do have change for that, right?” I asked as she stared at the coin.

“Yep! Just never seen anything bigger than a hundred before!” she replied. “Just a sec!”

In the blink of an eye, she gave me my change along with the box of cookies, and Yegelos helped me to balance it on my back before we slowly left the bakery and gradually made our way back to the center of the market, where Karen was waiting for us.

Without a word to each other, we set the packages on the ground, opened them, then took three of each item for ourselves. All I had to say was, “Let’s dig in!” and all three of us started chowing down in plain view of everyone. Not that we cared. These elusive foods were plentiful here, and with each one I ate, I felt myself grow a little stronger.

---

Right as Karen, Yegelos and I finished eating and started dividing the remaining food into sets of thirty to fit into our bags, the clouds in the sky suddenly started to merge together of their own accord, turning dark and sinister and whipping up powerful winds.

The clouds parted in the center to reveal an image of Alex in the sky, with the seven other Warriors and my nephew’s party laying on the ground behind him, bound by chains of pure Psynergy.

“Ah, hello there, Felix!” Alex’s voice boomed, echoing through all of Ponyville and catching the attention of all of the town’s residents. “I just wanted to let you bear witness to my attainment of absolute power! With this last bit of power, I’ll be so powerful, I could grind the Wise One himself into dust! By the way, you look absolutely ridiculous in that form. As does everyone there, actually. My, a world of equines? Why, without hands or Psynergy, how could they possibly ever hope to build a civilization like what existed in Weyard’s Golden Age?”

“Alex, I’ve made friends here, and I won’t allow you to insult them like that!” I roared in anger.

“Oh, hush,” Alex replied with his signature smug grin. “Now, pay attention, Felix!”

“Felix…” Isaac choked out as Alex picked him up and threw him onto the ground in plain view of the viewing window. “Don’t give up! You’re the real hero! Not me!”

“Oh, shut up!” Alex said before kicking Isaac in the ribs and filling himself with immense amounts of Psynergy. So much that it could be felt and heard even by non-Adepts.

“You know where all the Psynergy Vortexes came from?” Alex sneered. “I created them! And I will use another one for one last time, to finish what I’ve been doing for the past few days!”

A black and purple vortex materialized in front of Alex, who forced it into Isaac’s chest, causing my old friend to scream in agony.

Suddenly, the Vortex rose out of Isaac’s chest, colored red. It floated over to Alex, who drained the Mars Star’s energy from the Vortex and dispelled it, cackling insanely.

“At last! I have it!”” Alex laughed. “Eternal life, and limitless power! This time, the Wise One couldn’t stop me! I’ve done it! Now to—”

He cut off at the sound of powerful Psynergy smashing down a metal door in the background, followed by a female cry of, “Alex! We’ll destroy you!”

“What’s this?” Alex said quizzaciously, “Two last heroes have come to try to stop me? Well! A Sol Adept and a Luna Adept! I’d flee right now, if I were you. I’m all-powerful, now.”

“You assisted the High Empyror!” the female voice snapped, drawing closer. “You’re his right-hand man, and when I drag your battered, beaten, barely-living body back with me to Tuaparang, I’ll show him I mean business and free my people from life as nothing but a nation-sized army!”

“I did work for him for a time, yes,” Alex replied as a fully-armored pink-skinned woman wearing a black dress with a diamond pattern, as well as sporting twin demon-like horns stepped into view, with a golden-furred wolf Beastman next to her, wearing light armor, a tattered cloak, and wielding a pair of razor-sharp claws that practically shone with a light of their own.

“Then your defeat still has meaning,” the Tuaparang woman stated as she lifted a mace from off her back. “We’ll destroy you!”

The Beastman gasped and pointed, drawing the woman’s attention. “It’s Queen Sveta!” he breathed in disbelief before turning to snarl at Alex. “The Queen of my people is being held captive by you, huh? For such an act, I’ll tear you apart!”

“Fine then,” Alex chuckled. “I’ll indulge you with a battle.” Turning back to look through the viewing window, he said, “Observe how powerful I’ve become, Felix! The Fundaments are even mightier than the Elements! And yet, these two will still just take a minute or two to get rid of!”

“Terror, come forth!” the woman shouted, calling forth a kind of djinni I’d never seen before. It was black and purple, had yellow eyes, and a crescent-shaped tail.

“On it!” the djinni chirped in a strangely gravelly voice before summoning a black fog that managed to seal Alex’s Psynergy.

“You brat!” Alex snapped. “You’ll soon see that Psynergy isn’t my only power! Take this!”

Alex retaliated with a punch that sent the Luna Adept crashing into a wall.

“Penta!” the Sol Adept cried before shouting, “Purge, come forth!”

A white djinni with yellow eyes and a sunburst-shaped tail materialized and cried with a heroic-sounding voice, “He’s going down!”

The djinni unleashed a powerful beam of pure light, knocking Alex back an inch.

“Well, you’re a smidge stronger than I gave you credit for,” Alex chuckled. “But the damage I’ve taken is meaningless when my life is endless!”

“Prison, come forth!” The Luna Adept, apparently named “Penta”, commanded, and another Luna djinni appeared.

“Stop him in place? My pleasure!” the female djinni said with a voice as equally-gravelly as the previous male one had. Suddenly, a cage of darkness surrounded Alex until it bound itself to him, locking him in place.

“You insects!” Alex growled as he was unable to act and the Sol Adept stepped up.

“Get him, Fangrick!” Penta cheered.

“No sweat!” the now-named Sol Adept replied before shouting, “Photon, come forth!”

Another Sol djinni materialized, and with a feminine voice that was equally as heroic as Purge’s was said, “This’ll be a cinch!” before launching a barrage of powerful light particles at Alex, causing him to cringe slightly.

“We’re making progress!” Penta cheered before shouting, “Plague, come forth!”

Another Luna djinni appeared, and with a gravelly male voice said, “Hey, Alex! Don’t get too attached to that power! You’re gonna lose some right now!”

A filthy fog enshrouded Alex, and he suddenly wasn’t as confident. Even from the other side of the window, I could tell his offensive Elemental and Fundamental powers were weakened.

“You dare weaken my power?” Alex roared, no longer enjoying himself. “You’ll pay for your insolence! Alchemy Storm!”

Rays of multicolored light shot out from Alex’s hands and pummeled the pair of Adepts, but they held firm, badly wounded, but still standing.

“Life, come forth!” Fangrick shouted, calling forth another Sol djinni.

“Oh my, you two look really hurt!” the djinni said with concern. “Here, let me fix that!”

With a wave of pure white light, the djinni healed most of their injuries and disappeared.

“We’re getting there!” Penta shouted, nodding to her teammate before shouting, “Savage! Come forth!”

At the command, another Luna djinni appeared before enveloping Penta in black energy. She then leaped into the air and struck Alex in the face four times, extremely hard.

“I’ll do you in yet, maggots!” Alex growled. “Punish!”

Alex became engulfed in black energy himself, then struck Fangrick hard, smashing him into the ground after sending him flying.

“Nice shot,” the Sol Adept groaned as he got to his feet. “It’s too bad for you that we’re just about ready. Aura, come forth!”

Another Sol djinni appeared, applying a shield of invincibility to Fangrick.

“No attack can hurt me with that up!” Fangrick howled with delight. “We’ve got you now, Alex!”

The two nodded to each other, and Penta cried at the top of her lungs, “I summon Jormungandr!”

A massive wicked-looking snake burst through the ground and eyed Alex for a few seconds before biting him over and over, then finished by throwing him to the ground and firing a beam of black energy at the wicked Adept before burrowing back underground.

“You really think you have me cornered?” Alex chuckled with a shake of his head. “Not even close, children. You see, I’m a god now. And you can’t kill a god. Dispel All!”

A wave of emptiness flowed through the area on the other side of the window, erasing all changes to status in any way, shape or form.

“My shield!” Fangrick gasped in horror.

“Yes, you thought you could hide behind it and heal yourself, didn’t you, little pup?” Alex sneered. “Unfortunately for you, my powers have an answer to every possible situation.”

“We have to hit hard and fast!” Fangrick exclaimed. “If he knocks me out, revive me with a Water of Life! We can do this! I summon Odin!”

A massive bearded humanoid with a missing eye descended from the heavens, carrying a golden staff. He raised the staff over his head, then brought it back to the ground, creating shockwaves of pure light that pummeled Alex over and over before the being returned to the heavens.

“Oh, it looks like using all those djinn made you slower than me,” Alex taunted. “Well that’s just too bad. Djinn Storm!”

The terrible wave of red energy that I had had to deal with a few times before and still haunted my nightmares washed over them, draining all of their djinn, rendering them almost powerless.

“Umbra Nova!” Penta cried out frantically, causing a massive explosion of dark energy to occur right where Alex was standing, but he didn’t even bat an eye.

The two Adepts looked at each other in panic before Fangrick screamed, “Luminous Cannon!” causing a sphere of white light to rise into the air, pummeling Alex with a beam of searing white light firing from the sphere, but Alex was still unfazed.

Alex stepped forward, his haughty demeanor restored, sneering at the now-cowering Adepts. They had fought valiantly, but it hadn’t been enough. As one would expect from such a sinister Adept, Alex had just been toying with them the whole time.

“I let you get the upper hand on me for a while so that your utter despair before your defeat would be all the more enjoyable,” Alex chuckled. “You never stood a chance. You really should’ve ran when I gave you the chance. Now you will never see anyone you love or care about again. I won’t kill you. I’ll just isolate you in worlds where no one knows you, you’ll be treated like freaks, and will be outcasts forever. Farewell. Alchemy Storm!”

The multicolored light pummeled the duo again, but this time, they didn’t have the power to resist it and were thrown back into a wall, passing out from the impact.

“Oh, Felix!” Alex chuckled as he held up the unconscious forms of the downed Adepts. “These two are going to the void, just like you did! But don’t think for a second that I’ll allow you to encounter them! I’ve found the perfect worlds to send these two to, so I should be able to control where they end up this time! You will never gain their help. Oh, and remember this: I’m coming for you, very soon!”

With a cackle, Alex created a hole in the floor of his location that led straight down to the abyss, cast transformative Psynergy on them, then dropped them in.

“If only there were a way to make them end up here!” I cried out. “We could use help from Fundamental Adepts!”

“Good luck with that one, Felix,” Alex said right before Discord suddenly materialized in Ponyville and looked up at the window in the sky.

“I think I can manage that for you, Felix!” the Draconequus said before flying right through the viewing window and appearing in Alex’s location.

“What are you?” Alex demanded. “Stop this at once!”

“I’m a friend Felix made in the world you sent him to,” Discord replied. “I have something to do though, so I’ll be right back.” Discord snapped his fingers, then disappeared.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Alex roared before channeling so much Psynergy that he looked like he was made of pure energy. “You’re not getting them there, you… thing!”

Suddenly, Discord reappeared in front of Alex and said. “I just did. You made them end up far away from where I wanted them to be, but they’re still in my world now. Anyway, I think Felix’s friends here would like to get out of here, so, if you don’t mind…”

“Actually, I do mind!” Alex snapped.

“Sucks to be you, then!” Discord chuckled before snapping his fingers again and causing the imprisoned Adepts to warp somewhere else.

“Goodbye, now!” Discord said before diving through the window again and returning to the pony world.

“This will not go unpunished, Felix!” Alex seethed. “You die, right now!”

Suddenly, the window shattered, and Alex himself was hovering in the sky above us, glaring at me, his very presence sending the townsponies into a panic.

Applejack came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. “S-Sugarcube, is that…?” She trailed off, the fear imminent in her voice stopping her from finishing her question.

I nodded grimly before giving her the answer she obviously didn’t want to hear. “Yes, that’s Alex. He’s here.” Turning to my companions, I shouted, “We have to flee! We can’t fight him here!”

“Why not?” Yegelos asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Because he’ll destroy the whole town just to kill me!” I replied. “I won’t put innocents in danger to fight him!”

After we madly stuffed our items into our bags, the other two Adepts held onto me as I channeled Psynergy into my Teleport Lapis and screamed, “TELEPORT!”

Alex dove for me, but right before he could grab me, the three of us vanished, rematerializing in Canterlot, immediately bolting for the castle to alert the Princesses.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the wait! Here's Chapter six! Please don't be mad at me…

*Ahem* Anyway, now things are getting more serious! Alex now has the Full power of the Mars Star, He's dropped two more Adepts into the void, and now he's in Equestria, bent on killing Felix! This can't be good…

Please let me know what you thought of this chapter. What did I do right? What could've been done better? Just remember to keep things constructive, okay?

See you in the next chapter! Later, Adepts!

Comments

[Twilight_the_spy]

DUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUNDUN

While saving those two adepts, Discord inadvertently started the war early.
Alex may have left him for a little while longer if Discord hadn't done what he had done. NOT that I'm saying what he did was bad (because it was good), but Alex may have left them alone for a while longer if he did nothing.

[Dolphy Blue Drake]

7478534 Eh, money may be no object, but it does depend on how much you level grind before beating the game. That, and once I found out that the store in Prox sold Mist Potions as a regular item instead of as an artifact, I couldn't resist buying lots of them.

Also, I didn't use a password. I used a link cable so I could even transfer the things that you can't do with a password.

[Dolphy Blue Drake]

7712382 Instead of hiding behind videos that send weak and hard to understand messages, how about using an original in-depth argument of your own? Really, calling this "cancer"? What are you, three? Grow up and do what grown-ups do: talk things over civilly. If you can't do that, you're welcome to leave. No one's making you read this fic. You reading it was your own decision, and no one's going to stop you from making the decision to stop reading it. If you're going to criticize, tell me what I did wrong so I have something to work with so I can improve. I like to write quality material, but calling it "cancer" doesn't help anyone. Now, let's talk like adults, or you can leave.

[Scarce]

[Dolphy Blue Drake]

7728550 Well, that solved absolutely nothing. All you're doing is showing how immature you are. Telling me to kill myself? Grow up already! I'm willing to discuss things like adults if you are. But to do that, I require you to be mature and civil. This isn't helping anyone. I'm not learning what you don't like and you're only damaging your own image to others. If you can't stop hiding behind videos, then just leave. Be original. Use your own words for once. Anyone can post a video in the comments. That doesn't make you look smart, it makes you look lazy. So, if you're going to keep spreading garbage like that, I suggest you take it somewhere else. You aren't accomplishing anything except for destroying your own respectability. So, cut the destructive criticism, or get out of here., Your choice.

[Scarce]

7729407 This story was interesting to me. I really like the setup. But, The power thing makes no sense.

[Dolphy Blue Drake]

7729639 You mean the Psynergy of Adepts? Well, it's really hard to explain, to be honest. It makes perfect sense to those who have played the Golden Sun games, for this fic uses Golden Sun as a base. If you could be more specific, maybe I might be able to explain some things. But to explain Psynergy and Alchemy in full all at once is a really difficult task. Heck, even the games spread out the explanation of both topics throughout the games to prevent information overload.