Wanderer's Realm, somewhere...

As I was trying to cheer myself up, I kept walking until I arrived at the entrance door. Taking a few deep breath to calm my frayed nerves, I proceeded to knock on it, hoping that everything would go well. As I was waiting outside, thanks to my enhanced senses I could hear my mother's steps coming towards the door. When it finally opened, I saw her with a look of puzzlement on her face. She then asked me. “Hello. Can I help you?”

Great! She didn't recognize me. Here we go I guess. “Coucou maman! [A/N: Hey mom!] It's me Lucas! The most handsome, smart and humorous man on this planet and additionally your son!”

She shook her head while saying. “Look, it's useless to try to prank me. I know my son very well and he doesn't look like you at all. Don't get me wrong, I love him very much, but he's not the most attractive man around, if you know what I mean. At least, he's objectively a lot worse looking than you.” I was frozen in shock at hearing her words. My right hand moved to rest on the left side of my chest where I could feel my poor heart metaphorically breaking. My mother was so talented that she could both insult me and compliment me by using the same words in the same sentence. Was she even my real mom?! God damn it!!

You know what? Let's just forget it and move on or the misunderstanding will never be cleared. As I internally gave up any notion of correcting her, I decided to prove my claim by saying. “Maman, it's really me. I can prove it to you. You just have to ask me a question that only I know. Actually, you can even ask me multiple questions...”

I noticed her narrowing her eyes at my demand. I could see that although she wasn't convinced, some seeds of doubts sprouted in her mind. “Alright then, mister allegedly my son. I can do that to make sure you are who you said you are. Of course, if it happens to be the case, then you better have a good explanation for... Everything I guess.” I nodded solemnly and replied. “That's why I'm here. Because what happened to me is too unfucki...” “Language!” *Cough* “Right! Sorry, mom. I meant that it was unbelievable.” She nodded and said. “I can guess... Come in then. Don't forget to close the door. Electricity is not free.”

Right. It WAS pretty cold outside. It was winter after all, so nothing surprising there.

To be honest, with my upgraded body, what others considered cold was pretty much room temperature for me. Well, not exactly. It was more like I could feel the slightest change of temperature, humidity, wind, etc. But, it didn't affect me the slightest bit. It went with the whole 'enhanced sense' thing coupled with my physical resistance shooting through the metaphorical roof. I was not complaining at all though. Not having to care about the weather outside when you had to choose what to wear was a blessing. Admittedly, my situation was a bit special, what with my transforming armor and everything, but I wasn't one to refuse something given to me for free.

Anyway, in case you were wondering about the comment on electricity, it was because of the inside heater 'heating the outside'. Back to the previous situation, I entered the house that I've known for more than a decade now. Looking around made me feel a bit nostalgic to be honest. Of course, I hadn't lived there for a long time overall. I'd say at most a few months? Something like that. But I did come back from time to time, which was nothing really praiseworthy since we both lived in the same city, unlike my other siblings.

I didn't want to go into too much details about my life story, but if I had to sum it up, I'd say it would begin with my whole family living in a small village in the west of France and then moving to Nantes (Around 300,000 inhabitants) during my last year of high school. Following that, my parents got divorced and as the three of us siblings reached 18 years old one after the other, we left the family house to go our own way.

So, yeah. Nothing extraordinary about my life's story. There were worst and better situation. So, I couldn't complain. Even if I did sometimes. What could I say? I was not perfect. Haha. Anyway, let me describe briefly the house for future reference. It was a small 100 square meters house (around 1076 sq feet) with two stories (ground floor and first floor). Upstairs were three bedrooms and one bathroom. Downstairs was the open kitchen and the living room. On one side of the house was the street and on the other was a small private garden and slightly further was a 'communal garden' that was accessible by all the houses around. All in all it was a cozy house for my mother now that she was alone, but it was a bit cramped when we were all living there.

Anyway, end of the description!

As I entered the house lost in my thoughts, I heard the command “Door!” which I promptly executed while replying. “Yes, Ma'am!” After having closed the door, I turned around to see the ruthless general seated on one of the two sofa in the living room, gesturing to me to sit on the other one. Preparing myself for being called a lunatic, crazy and many other qualifier, I pushed myself to walk towards my designated seat.

Once I had my now very attractive butt firmly set on the comfortable sofa, my mom started to talk. “Alright. You say that you're Lucas. If that's the truth, then you should be able to answer my question.” I did not like her smile. Like at all. I was certain that she would ask something embarrassing. So I did what every normal child would do in my place. I begged her of course. “Mom, please. Ask a normal question. Not something embarrassing.”

“Tch! You're no fun!” She mumbled under her breath. You know I can hear you, right? Nevermind, she probably did. “Fine. A normal question then. Do you remember what happened when you were younger and I forbade you from using bad words at home? It happened a few times, so it should be easy to remember.”

Easy my a... *Cough* Vague question to be sure, but thankfully my memory was leagues better than what it used to, so I could answer it. “I said something like 'when I'll be an adult, I'll do whatever I want and you won't be able to command me'.” She nodded with a smile which told me that she wasn't done with her teasing. “And what did I answer?” I knew it! “You said that even when I'll be in my sixties, you would still be my mother and you would still make the rules in your own house.”

I rolled my eyes at her chuckling with a proud face from her successful 'prank'. I really wondered how moms could be both adorable and annoying at the same time. Although, to be fair, children were the same, so it felt a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. Haha.

A few seconds later, she asked. “I was right, wasn't I?” I rolled my eyes a second time at her antics. Would I have an eye problem because of it? Hopefully not. “Yes you were, mom. Now, instead of making fun of me, why don't we go back to something more serious? Like what happened to me. I'm pretty sure you're convinced now, correct?”

As I was talking, I could see her becoming more serious. When I finished , she nodded and said. “I was already half convinced when you talked to me at the entrance. After all, I made you and raised you, so I'm pretty familiar with your body language and verbal tic. Our conversation finished to convinced me completely.” She took a deep breath and stared at me intently. “So what the heck happened? Why do you look so different?”

I took a page of her book and took a few deep breath to stabilize my mind and think about how to explain the crazy things that happened to me during the previous few days. “It's gonna sound crazy, but I swear that what I'm gonna tell you is the truth. It all started last Friday night when I was going back home from the bar where I was previously with my friend. I was walking when...”

I kept recounting the story while skipping on the details of the body remodeling. After all, her knowing exactly about how painful it was would do her no good. Just like I hated the idea of any of the other three (Mother, brother and sister) getting hurt, I knew that it was a reciprocal feeling. None of them would enjoy hearing about it. So, I decided to just describe it as 'it was painful but I survived'.

Technically, it wasn't a lie. But we all knew that it was much more than that. And I could see in her eyes that she had some guesses about it, but she kept them to herself. Honestly, I was glad about it. Reliving that torture, even if it was only in memories, made me shudder. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a coward. But that particular pain... Anyway, it was better to avoid it. At least for now. As they said: 'Time will ease painful memories'. Hopefully those people on the internet were right...

“...and that's why I came today to explain everything to you in person.” I stopped talking a few dozens of minutes later, my throat very... not parched actually. Long live my superhuman body! “I see. It's true that it would have been harder for me to believe you through the phone. To be honest, it sounds like one of those superhero movies or fantasy novels that you talked to me about.”

“So, you are a... cultivator you said?” I nodded. “And the Earth will... Grade up? Which will introduce cultivation everywhere?” I said. “Exactly! That's why I want you, Ju' and and Mat' to start cultivating as soon as possible. I know that by allowing everyone to cultivate, some maniacs will appear and it might get dangerous. Of course, guns can still stop Level 1 and with higher calibers, even Level 2 cultivators would not be safe. But once you reach Level 3, only powerful weapons on the level of tanks or higher would be able to kill those people.”

I stopped for a second before adding. “And the three of you don't have guns, so it's not a good idea to rely on authorities for protection. Also, there are many other benefits that you could get from cultivating, so it'd be a win-win situation for the three of you.” I could see her pondering about my offer. Why wouldn't she say yes anyway? There are only upsides and no downside, or maybe only some minor ones like the time used to actually cultivate of course. But that was inconsequential.

“I can't deny that it's a very enticing proposition. Especially since it's inevitable anyway. I hope that there won't be too much violence when everyone get access to that kind of power though.” She sighed, a bit disgruntled at the future that I described to her. I could completely relate, since I was never a fan of violence in the past. Sure, it sounded exciting in books, since it was mostly imagination and thus there was no consequences. But in reality? Except if you had mental training, your psyche might be hurt because of your action. Maybe even then. I would know, what with the whole getting your entire body destroyed and rebuilt over and over again for days. Good times, I'm telling you!

“Unfortunately, violence is inevitable. Mom, we talked about it before. How a majority of people are pissed off at the current society, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The former having rights that the latter don't possess. Knowing that, once those guys get as strong as those superheroes in movies, then they would definitely attack those 'upper-class' people. And blood will flow. Unfortunately, it's very probable that some innocents may get caught in the crossfire...”

As we were both imagining how it would turn out, I added. “But you don't have to worry too much! Although I won't be able to stop everything from happening, I already have a plan in mind to minimize the damages. After all, I don't want Earthlings to become savages like those people in those Mad Max movies.” She didn't see the movies but she understood the reference, so she nodded and asked me what was my plan. I then had to explain to her about the cultivation association that I thought about creating.

As we exchanged ideas about it, I started to flesh out some parts of the plan, which, let's be honest, was nothing more than 'Let's make a powerful organization that can more or less police every Earthling alive' at first. An admirable idea, sure. But a bit light on the details if you caught my drift.

However, I felt relieved while we were discussing, since I realized that I didn't have to plan everything by myself. As the saying goes 'If one doesn't know something, they can ask someone who does'. What? No one said that? Of course, someone did... It was me!...*Make an internal proud pose*

As we finished our conversation, something suddenly came to my mind. “Right mom. Let me ask Ali if she has good cultivation scriptures for the three of you. Also, you should call Ju' and Mat' to explain to them my situation. That way I can ask my partner to send them their respective scriptures directly into their mind. It would make things a lot simpler.”

She nodded and said. “Don't worry. I'll call them tonight.” She paused for a second while a teasing smile appeared on her face before she asked. “By the way. You spoke about that lady called Ali. Do you have feelings for her? Can I meet her?” When I heard her questions, I felt defeated. It was official. Mothers are the bane of their sons.

As I was thinking some nonsense in my head, I replied. “Mom, I just met her. How is it even possible for me to have feelings for her or her for me? Also, don't forget that not only is she vastly stronger than me, but she is also vastly older. Not that I have anything against it per se, at least in the physical perspective. But think about everything she has lived through compared to me. It would be akin to an adult wanting to date a newborn. Something completely ridiculous.”

I added after a moment of silence. “At least, it's the current situation. As for the future? Nobody knows. But I won't harp on the subjects for now.” When I finished talking I turned my face towards hers and noticed the expression of pride on her face which puzzled me a bit. My confusion was soon resolved though, as she said. “Good! You've grown up a lot. At least you're not complaining about it without doing anything like you used to do with all the girls that you liked. And you're right. If it happens in the future, then it's great. If it doesn't then you'll find someone else. It's not that important. Especially now that our lifespan will keep increasing, you'll have plenty of time to find yourself someone to share your life with.”

Despite the embarrassment that I felt at her compliments, the warmth that appeared in my heart made up for it big times. It felt so great to have such an amazing mom. Even if I wasn't religious, I did feel blessed at that moment.

As the two of us were basking into a comfortable silence, each lost in our own thoughts, I suddenly heard Ali's voice in my mind. [Hey Lucas. Do you mind if I asked a few questions to your mom for her scripture?] Great! She heard every embarrassing details of that conversation. SO AWKWARD!