"The operation is complete" Vane whispered, his voice cracking slightly from hours of dehydration and pure, unadulterated focus.
The surgical assistants around him stood frozen for a beat, completely paralyzed by the sheer impossibility of what they had just witnessed.
They hadn't seen the glowing shroud of aura, but they had felt the sudden, heavy shift in the room's atmosphere.
When Vane smoothly tied the final suture and stepped away from the table, a collective exhale swept through the operating room.
Up in the gallery, the senior doctors didn't even know how to react.
The man who had snorted in disgust just hours prior was now staring at vane and didn't have any words to define what he just witnessed- it's not completion of surgery that impressed him but the process. It was like he was watching a senior doctor perform surgery with decades of experience.
Vane walked through the automatic sliding doors of the operating room and entered the scrubbing area.
The moment he was alone, a wave of staggering exhaustion slammed into him. His knees buckled, and he had to catch himself against the cold stainless-steel sink.
The strange, warm layer of energy was still tightly hugging his skin.
Vane frowned.
"What is this?"
The door behind him opened with a sharp click.
Vane turned his head slowly. His father stood in the doorway, but his sharp eyes were locked onto the faint, shimmering translucent layer outlining Vane's silhouette.
"It's Nen," his father said, his deep voice echoing slightly in the tiled room. He walked over closer, "And you closed the nodes instinctively and learned "Ten", Unbelievable.
Vane frowned, looking down at his hands, which still vibrated with the invisible weight.
"Nen... what is that?"
"That is your life force, Vane. Your aura," his father explained, turning on the faucet to wash his hands.
"It is known as Nen. Normally, individuals train for years under strict mastery to open aura nodes safely. But you... your absolute, maniacal focus on that brain tissue forced your body to bypass the limits. You broke the lock from the inside."
Vane listened intently, his analytical brain immediately categorizing the information.
"You are no longer just a doctor, Vane," his father said, turning back to him with an intense gaze.
"You have stepped across the threshold. Now that you have awakened it, you will be needing training. I will teach you the basics, but the medical board's license won't be enough anymore. You're going to need a different kind of license."
His father reached into his pocket and pulled out a sleek, metallic card, letting the light catch its distinct triple-X logo.
"A Hunter License."