Zephyr slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring at the wooden ceiling. His vision wavered for a second before easing up, then he tried to sit himself upright.
'Second day I'm waking up feeling out of it,' he rubbed his temples, expecting pain from sitting upright, but there wasn't really much pain. In fact, whatever little disorientation he felt upon waking was rapidly fading away. His mind was sharpening into clarity, he had never felt this good in his life.
"What's going on?" he muttered, staring at his hands. His thoughts drifted back to the previous night and the black liquid that had seeped into his body.
'Is that what's making me feel different?'
'Oh yeah!' What about that foreign thought I felt in my head?
He focused and tried sending out a general probing thought directed at his own mind.
'Hello?'
'Hello, host'
"Whoa!" Zephyr recoiled in shock. The experience was weird, almost trippy even. The interaction had been instant. It wasn't like thinking in complete sentences, more like transmitting pure intent and receiving a response in return. It was seamless and natural, like he was just thinking to himself.
He sent another thought. 'Who— What are you?'
'I am Aegis Nexus 09, an artificial general intelligence repurposed to specialize in being of service to you, host.'
'Artificial general intelligence?' He frowned in confusion. This form of communication allowed him to grasp meaning exactly as it was intended, but he had no reference point for what those words meant. He could get the intent, but there was still some loss in translation. It was an understanding without true comprehension. So he pushed forward, sending a questioning intent trying to seek more clarification on what Artificial general intelligence meant. But the moment he tried, he felt a push back.
'Access denied. Current user privilege insufficient.'
'Uhh... okay?'
'What do I have access to at my current level, then?'
'Host can only know present things. Access to my origin and history requires higher privileges.'
'Okay? How can I increase my user privilege?'
'Access denied. Current user privilege insufficient.'
'What?' Zephyr groaned in frustration
'Can I at least know what really happened to me last night?'
'Compiling the extent of the changes to your body in a quantifiable format.'
'The black viscous substance that invaded your body was a mass of very little things called (nanites). And the pain you felt was a result of nanites embedding themselves deep into your very cells in a process called nano-symbiosis. You are now a nano-enhanced human.'
"Hoo..?" Zephyr shrugged off the covers and stood up from the bed, clenching and unclenching his fists.
"Yeah. I feel really different," he murmured.
Each movement felt more fluid than ever before, his muscles were more responsive.
A grin spread across his face as he marveled at the sensation. There was nothing like this anywhere in the world. He was certain of it. This was something entirely new, which begged the question- who exactly was his father?
Aegis Nexus 09 continued. 'Quantifying the changes to your body with numbers, where your previous body status was 1:'
[Attributes:
Strength: 3
Speed: 3
Agility: 4
Endurance: 4
Acuity: 5
Dexterity: 4
Healing: 10
Perks:
Nano Resilience - Increased resilience to toxins, diseases, and foreign substances.
Regenerative Burst - Rapid healing with a surge of nanites on a small area over a short period of time.
Enhanced Metabolism - Improved energy utilization.
Pain Suppression - Reduces perception of pain, allowing continued function despite injuries.
Memory Enhancement - Improved memory capability, leading to better information storage and recall.]
"Damn!" Zephyr exclaimed. "This is crazy. This is what nanites can do?"
The word "nanite" translated in his mind to something more like "enhancers." So the sheer magnitude of the transformation stunned him. This was way more than just enhancing.
The door creaked open, and Old Bjorn strode in.
"Ha! You finally decided to get up, eh, kid? I thought I'd have to get the smelling salts out or something."
"Huh? Wasn't it just last night? How long have I been asleep?" He asked in confusion.
"Boy, this is the morning of the third day! You would've missed the call to duty if you had kept sleeping through the day!"
That's not right, Zephyr thought, puzzled. "I'd be starving by now if it's really been three days."
Releasing pain receptors. He heard in his head.
All of a sudden, an overwhelming pang of hunger hit him like a hammer. He doubled over, clutching his stomach.
"Urghh! Old man, I need food!" he yelled, rushing past Bjorn's squat frame and straight down the corridor in search of food.
Bjorn followed after him to the kitchen, chuckling at the sight of Zephyr scrambling to devour anything remotely edible. He tore through food like a starved beast, shoveling it in as if his stomach was a bottomless pit. The extensive transformation of his body had evidently drained him more than he realized.
Zephyr made a mental note to Aegis Nexus 09 to never suppress vital signals like hunger without explicit permission.
When he finally finished, he looked around at the wrecked kitchen, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head where he sat on the ground.
Old Bjorn, rather than being annoyed, stepped forward with gleaming eyes. "So? What was it? What did that thing do to you? How do you feel?"
Zephyr studied his expression carefully. "Bjorn... who was my father?"
Bjorn paused, then leaned back, sighing with a resigned expression.
"...Truth be told, I'd be lying if I say I know nothing. I have my suspicions, but that man was always a mystery... We weren't close. In fact, I kind of hated his guts— with the lazy self-assured expression he always had on his pretty face..." he muttered. "It was your mother I was closer to." His gaze softened. "She was my friend."
Zephyr listened attentively. He had never known anything about his mother beyond her elven heritage. Bjorn also never talked about her. All he knew was that she had died giving birth to him, even her face was a mystery.
Bjorn looked at him fondly. "You're so different from her. You take after your father in looks and mannerisms, but every now and then, I see glimpses of her in you."
He shook his head. "I don't know much about your father. I don't know where he came from or what he really did. I only know he and your mother met, and then you came along. But he knew he was going to die. That much I'm sure of. He prepared ahead. Even leaving whatever that thing was for you, but on the condition that you awakened your mana core."
A beat of silence passed between them with each lost in their own thoughts before Bjorn asked, "So? What was it?"
Zephyr stood, stretching. "Some kind of body enhancer. I can do things I never could before. I'm stronger now, faster..." He squatted then burst across the room faster than anyone his age and tier should be able to move. "My body moves with my thoughts so fluidly now."
Old Bjorn's eyes gleamed with an almost feverish intensity. "I knew that man wasn't normal," he muttered.
"What else can you do?"
Zephyr hesitated. He considered telling Old Bjorn about Aegis Nexus 09 but ultimately decided against it. Some things were best kept secret.
"That's basically it."
"Did anything change with your mana core?"
Zephyr checked inwardly but his mana core remained the same, pulsing steadily and absorbing ambient mana from the air.
"No change."
Bjorn nodded. "Well, that's great and all... but you still need to report for duty. Today's the call up day, in fact you're already running late."
"Yeah, I'll go pack up quickly," Zephyr said as he began to move towards his room.
"Hey! Who's going to clean all these up." Bjorn called out as Zephyr scampered to his room.
"Sorry old man, like you said, I have to report for duty as soon as possible, his voice echoed down the corridor."
"Damn kid!" Bjorn cursed as his mind went back to Zephyr's father and his suspicions about the man's origin.
He was trying to play it cool so as not to spook Zephyr, but whatever that thing was, he knew there was nothing like it anywhere in the world. Not from powerful houses or even from the most secluded tribes. He was sure of it because he was someone that had travelled far and wide, yet he'd never seen or heard about anything like that.
His mind began to wander towards dangerous possibilities about what this could mean, and the origins of Zephyr's father, but he suppressed it.
He knew he should caution Zephyr not to reveal anything about it but he trusted that the boy had that much sense on his own, at least from his short probing he was sure Zephyr wasn't telling him everything, and that was to him who had practically raised the kid.
"He'll be alright," Bjorn thought, looking towards the chaos Zephyr wreaked in the kitchen as he sighed.