06 – HUMAN

The tunnel was sloping upwards, gently going towards the surface. Mateus remembered walking along this path with his own two legs, back when he had them, alongside his fellow heroes. Now, instead, he was bouncing around in his nanomachine body, jumping high into the air and ricocheting against the ceiling and the ground to propel himself forwards. It was fun, and definitely a fast way of moving in an enclosed space like this.

Every time he hit a surface, he felt his whole body squish and react elastically, sending him flying away. During one of those bounces, he noticed that he could see some light in the distance.

The light was white, blinding and almost forgotten after so much time in the dark. He could feel relieved already, knowing that he was not going to be stuck in here for much longer. Jumping even farther than before, he rushed towards the opening of the cave. Before he could reach it, however, a blob of blue barred the way.

Mateus bounced closer to it. The two blobs, one of silver and one of translucent blue, studied each other for a moment. Then, the blue slime started creeping towards Mateus, extending blue tendrils towards him. He too replied in kind, but armed his own body extensions with sharp edges as thin as one single nanite. When the two clashed, the slime could not oppose any resistance, and was mercilessly cut by the sharp blades.

With each cut, it lost a part of its mass, mass that was then absorbed by Mateus himself. The more they fought, the more he grew while the slime shrunk. Eventually, all that was left of the little monster was its crystalline core surrounded by a thin membrane of blue. He made a little hammer of nanites, and crushed the core.

Can I eat it?

Computer did not reply, but immediately the nanites set to work to absorb even the core. That was answer enough.

After the snack, Mateus propelled himself towards the exit. From the vantage point of the cave entrance, he could see all around for several miles. What he saw, however, was disconcerting. A wasteland, extending as far as his eyes could see.

It was not like this when he got here. What he saw right now, he concluded, must have been the effect of the mana device when it detonated.

I just hope nobody died in the explosion.

In the distance, small silhouettes of trees and other greenery dotted the barren landscape. Choosing one direction at random, the one that seemed to be closest to the trees, he set out. It took several days to reach the closest tree, days during which he also killed a wide variety of monsters and small critters that inhabited the seemingly barren wasteland, but eventually the trees grew bigger and bigger.

As soon as he arrived next to the edge of the forest, he could already feel Computer salivating.

You could eat a tree.

It said, and indicated the most useful tree to eat in the close vicinity. Mateus sighed, but decided to comply, since he was aware that his mass was still too low to assume a human form. With this tree, Computer predicted, he would be able to take on his previous form from when he was still alive. Alive in the strict sense of the word, of course, because he felt definitely alive even now.

He approached the plant. When he was within one meter of distance from its bark, his body morphed into a silver carpet that extended upwards until it covered the whole of the tree. Then, it adhered to the wooden surfaces and began to shrink down. A few hours later, there was no tree left. In its place, a young teenager stood shakily on his legs.

“Computer, a hand here?” he asked.

Computer made some alterations to the movement process. It took several tries, and a few falls on Mateus’ part, but eventually they got it to work while standing. Then, they managed to achieve walking, running and all the other normal human motions.

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By the time the sun went down, Mateus felt that finally his return to civilization was coming. He only needed to find out his whereabouts relative to the closest city, and then he could go there. Even if he was lost, however, he was overjoyed. After so much time spent looking like an alien, like a monster, he was human once again. He could go back!

He jumped in happiness. The jump propelled him several meters in the air, and he landed with incredible grace thanks to his movement process. It was like a feather touching the ground, or gently kissing the surface of a lake.

“Whoo! It feels amazing!”

He felt so full of energy and strength. He wondered just what this body could do. He approached another tree, and punched it with all his might. The large trunk disintegrated under his fist, the bark exploding outwards in a shower of splinters. The few splinters that reached him were immediately absorbed by his own body, ready to be digested and turned into more nanites while he walked.

“Amazing!”

He felt like the hero he always dreamt to be. He felt like he could go back now, and finally make his father and family proud. All he needed to do was to go back home now.

He set out to walk towards where the forest was thicker. With his new body he didn’t need to eat or sleep, so he could keep walking until he found some landmark with which he could orient himself. Also, Computer told him that if he wished to maintain this form then he could stop eating biomass, or he would become too heavy and sink into the ground.

Hearing this news was both good and bad. On one hand, it was a relief knowing that he didn’t have to keep eating and eating forever. On the other hand, though, he felt like he was going to forego one of the cardinal things of his new body. He felt that if he didn’t eat, then most of his potential as a reborn human-machine mind would be wasted. And he felt that the sensation of hollowness, the undertone of hunger, would never go away. Beyond that, there was another, deeper desire. He wished to eat things, because then he would know them.

Eating things was the most intimate way to understand them. To perfectly comprehend them. How would he, without eating, understand more?

There may be another way. It should be called ‘scientific process’. I will research on that.

At least there was this possibility, however remote and odd it seemed.

But, the thought of home washed all these worries away. He walked through the forest all night, a skip in his steps, and whenever he felt down he just thought of home. He crossed a river, and found a narrow path amidst the trees. It was a sign that he was getting closer. Looking around and above, he saw that the stars shone brighter than ever before in the night sky, and that the forest was green and vibrant even in the darkness.

It was beautiful. Looking at life, at the world, was beautiful.

The first light of day was beginning to illuminate the vast plains, and Mateus emerged from the thick forest to gaze upon this landscape. The plains were host to vast meadows where flowers and colorful weeds bloomed in all seasons, and the thick scent of flowers reached his sensitive nose.

Even in this chill winter, where the snow covered the little patches of shadow, bright blue and red flowers still thrived and enriched the world with their colors.

In the distance, beyond a small ridge across the river, Mateus noticed a few little plumes of smoke rising from behind the hill. He could not see what laid beyond the hill itself, but he had a really good feeling that the plumes of smoke were not something natural. Someone was there.

He started walking in that direction. As he got closer, he could see the smoke more clearly, and by the time he was on the top of the small hill, he could also see the fires from where the smoke was rising. There was a small caravan, four wagons in total, on the side of a small dirt road. Next to the wagons, people were cooking meats and chatting around their campfires.

He felt his heart fill with joy. He had found civilization, and he was one step closer to getting back to the capital. The way would be long, for sure, but at least he would no longer be lost. He descended the side of the hill, his feet firmly planting into the loose dirt that made up this side of it, and arrived at the river itself.

He ran towards the water, and dove. He tried to swim.

He found that he could not. He was too heavy, and he was sinking. In a panic, he tried to move around, wildly flaying his limbs in an attempt to gasp some more air as not to drown. He failed however, and saw the surface of the water grow farther and father away from him.

He closed his eyes. His feet hit the bottom of the river. Nothing happened.

He opened his eyes back again, which after having assumed human form were the only places from where he could see, and immediately noticed that he was still underwater. The light from the sun was blue and the tiny waves on the surface created dancing patters and fractals on the silt at the bottom.

He looked around in amazement. He could not feel anything wrong with him, any discomfort coming from his body. He soon realized why. He didn’t need to breathe, because his body wasn’t human anymore. Barely spending a day and a night in this form had already made him forget, but he didn’t need any air to survive.

Slowly he put one foot after the other, and walked all the way to shore.