Axel woke to the sound of the city’s hustle and bustle. Lying in his arms was Aria, who was wrapped around him as if to soak up all the warmth he generated. It surprised Axel that her feet were even under the blanket, ice cold, and she seemed to be trying to keep them warm while wrapping around him. Axel gently untangled himself from her limbs and wings to get his morning going.
After getting clean and preparing breakfast for them, Axel woke Aria with a kiss and received a tight hug in welcome. Axel then just enjoyed a quiet morning breakfast with Aria before she cleaned up and went to get ready for the day. Axel then checked on Lyra’s room to find that she was already up and ready, doing cleaning and repair work on her armor.
“Want to meet in my and Aria’s room later to figure out where we are going?” Axel asked from her doorway.
“When do you want to do this?” Lyra replied from her room, putting her armor on a rack to dry from oiling the leathers.
“I was thinking after lunch, as we never made plans for this situation before,” Axel replied while rubbing his right eyebrow, trying to relieve the tension that was building in his head. “It will also give me time to deal with these changes that the Goddess did to me. I assume that you are also dealing with some yourself?”
“More than a few, but my gift is allowing me to adapt quickly. You doing okay?” Lyra asked in concern while looking at Axel rubbing his forehead.
“My head still aches some, but it has been lessening over time,” Axel replied in a strained voice. “It didn’t help that I got very little sleep last night.”
“Axel, most of the people in the area around your room got very little sleep last night,” Lyra said in a contrite tone, much to a deep blush that was fighting its way up Axel’s neck and ears. Lyra gave Axel a sharp grin at his discomfort. She then reached out a hand and took Axel's, closing her eyes in concentration, in which Axel felt the pressure decrease at a quick rate.
“Thank you,” Axel said after a little while.
“From what I see, your Journal needed an adjustment in how its new systems are growing. That is what we Goddess-Blessed Healers must deal with, along with growth planning for people’s bodies. I will need to keep an eye on you for the next few days to make sure you are growing correctly. The Goddess added a whole new system near the base of the brain stem, along with what looks like the Journal extending to other locations in the brain. I would assume that these are for what she told me are the mental command system,” Lyra explained.
“Well, we will need to also give Aria this and explain it to her,” Axel said. “I will also see what I can learn about this, and we can exchange notes on what we have found.”
Lyra nodded and then agreed to meet at lunch before going back to her room to explore what the Goddess had done to her. With his only self-imposed task, Axel returned to his shared room to wait for Aria to see what her plans were and, being reminded by Lyra, to repair his armor after the trial. Axel gathered all the discarded pieces scattered around the room in the hurry of last night. The wait did not take long as Aria arrived only a couple of minutes after Axel had gathered his armor, in her normal clothing, not her scouting gear or the fancy dress that she had been in the last week.
“What are your plans for today? I know we talked a bit during dinner last night, but me, you, and Lyra need to start making a more solid plan,” Axel asked while sitting at the one table in the room, working on his armor.
“Aria needs to work with Foster Mother this morning and for the next several days as repayment for the help given. Today should only be this morning, as Aria will need to help the little ones with lessons to help them get better at scouting and close combat fighting. Foster Mother thinks the youngest has a gift with daggers,” Aria explained while still drying off her damp hair, then began to comb it.
“So, a segue here, why do you call Sapphire Foster Mother? Why not her name or drop the foster from the name?” Axel stopped his work and then turned to ask.
“Well, Aria could not call her mom or mother as that feels like betraying my mother who died. Calling Foster Mother by her name feels disrespectful, and so Aria decided to call her Foster Mom to keep her distinct in Aria’s life,” Aria explained in a soft voice and stopped brushing her hair to hug herself. Seeing this reaction, Axel went over and hugged Aria as he saw tears at the edge of her eyes.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to poke a sore spot,” Axel said while holding her. “Let’s get to the original subject. I plan over lunch to work through what we plan to do.”
“Aria can be back in time for this,” Aria confirmed and finished brushing out her hair.
With that conversation finished, Axel worked on his armor and just enjoyed the time together with Aria until she left. After Aria left, Axel put his armor on the rack to let the oil settle sat in a meditation position, and began trying to access his upgraded Journal.
“Journal Menu,” Axel started by trying a verbal command, receiving no response. He then visualized "Journal Menu" in his mind, and it appeared in front of him, floating in his vision much like his health data and core level.
Journal Menu:
* Health Data
* Core
* Powers
* Index
* Journal
Thinking of the Health Data, the menu expanded, making it appear in his vision, containing a lot more information, including oxygen levels, sugars, minerals, materials for building, etc. This information even included things like allowed and modified lactic acid levels to build muscle mass. He was even getting alerts for low dopamine levels and high levels of stress hormones. These levels kept fluctuating as he struggled to get a handle on his new interface. He was beginning to get alerts while going through the menus; he even got an alert that his blood pressure was rising and that he should look into getting it lowered in non-combat situations.
While many of the terms for the alerts Axel was getting were familiar from being around Lyra and his mother, the data was overwhelming him. Not knowing what to do with the new setup was making him wish it would return to the simpler setup he had before. The large amounts of data then began to minimize and started to only give him more generalized information, helping him understand it much easier.
Looking over the new information interface, Axel found that he was happy with this and concentrated on putting it back into basic mode on the side of his vision. This happened, but after three tries, it kept trying to put it in other locations in his vision that he found distracting and uncomfortable. Then it would change location based on where he was looking, only to then change into what was called RGB mode, changing the colors when he cursed in his mind at it. Axel then needed to bring the whole menu back up as it closed the whole thing when he was looking over the Health Data and getting the setting to a place where he wanted it to be.
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After bringing up the Menu again, Axel opened Core with a thought.
Core:
* Novice Core: 150 CP
* Core generation: 1 CP per minute
* Body Reserved power: 40 CP
* Passive Reserved for powers: 40 CP
* Total Available: 60 CP
Axel tried to focus on CP, and a smaller textbox appeared over the term.
“CP stands for Core Power. This is the unit of power measurement for the core system. This is what the body uses to activate powers and keep the system running. Higher levels of body enhancement can lead to larger sets of power to be reserved for the function.”
Axel concentrated on closing the strange popup explanation and closed the whole menu. With a sigh, Axel returned to the menu as it closed out the combat display of his core energy levels, now called CP, he guessed and went to work putting back a core level on the side of his vision. This time took five tries, a warning about stress levels from the health system, and a broken chair that he hit in frustration before he could get something that looked like what he had before. For some reason, the gauge kept trying to look like a circle filled with a blue liquid that had over half grayed out. Axel then focused on setting his preferred bar to a permanent setting but was unsure if he succeeded in this as he did not want to test it anymore.
Fearing what he would see next, Axel thought "Powers" to see what was in this new menu.
Powers:
* Proto Core: Master Tier Berserker
* Novice Cycle 1: Regeneration (Lesser)
Axel was almost relieved on this one as it was simple until he focused on Proto Core, which brought up another menu with more details about the power.
Proto Core: Master Tier Berserker
* Description: None Available as this is a new case being studied.
* Active Powers:
* Enhance Strength by 4.5 times at the cost of 10 CP per minute.
* Reduced pain perception while power is active
* Single-minded focus while power is active
* Passive Power:
* Enhanced Body: Enhances the body’s durability passively. Holds 20 CP in reserve to maintain this
* Increase body strength by 2.5 times at the cost of 10 CP in body reserve.
* Backlash:
* Due to the concentration of this material, the body is locking away enhancements as it cannot sustain them with current Core power levels, but the user will still experience enhanced anger issues until the body gets to the level that is meant to handle this material.
Axel looked over the new information that he never had before and was shocked. He had never had such a clear idea of what his proto-core was before now. He guessed this had something to do with his Journal having access to the Goddess’s store of knowledge. Axel then focused on bringing the menu back only one step and was back at the Core menu. He then focused on Novice Cycle 1 to see what he would find.
Novice Cycle 1: Regeneration (Lesser)
* Description: This is the combination of the Regeneration (body) and Regeneration Fixed State. This ability seemed to have mutated into Regeneration (Lesser) due to materials found in the proto core that met the requirements of ability change.
* Active Power:
* Limb Regrowth and Organ Repair: The user has the ability to regrow lost limbs and repair major damage to organs. The cost of power is variable due to the severity of damage. Power does not have the ability to completely regrow complex organs, and the return of a lost limb can take days to recover. This ability is also limited in that it cannot repair a damaged core.
* Passive Power:
* Faster body recovery from injury through the regeneration rejuvenation effect. This holds 40 CP in reserve at all times.
* Backlash:
* None at this time as the body is handling the power at optimum performance levels. Possible backlash symptoms are uncontrollable bouts of lust or the need to mate.
Axel again brought the menu back but ended up closing it again as he brought it back too many steps. The last thing he had the time or energy to check right now was what had changed in his Index.
Index:
* Beast Index
* Communication Subrouting Index (Admin Locked)
Axel could not access the Communication Subrouting Index, so he opened his Beast Index. This had rows of files on every beast he had researched, each looking like a book in the interface. Axel did not seem to have issues turning this one back into basic mode as it was set up right the first time. With the time saved, Axel peeked into the Journal menu, it looked the same as before, but he was running out of time and getting stiff from sitting on the floor. Axel then closed out the menu and went down to the common room to pay for the damaged chair.
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Axel went to the training center nearby to blow off some of his frustrations from dealing with the upgraded gifts that the Goddess had given him. The training center was a bustling place, filled with people honing their skills and pushing their limits. Axel found a corner where he could focus and began his routine. After going through three sets that would have tired anyone out, Axel noticed only that he was covered in sweat and his power level had dropped, but he did not feel tired.
Axel wondered if this was normal as he was wiping the sweat from his brow. Not knowing if this was a good or bad thing, Axel consulted with the Storm Lord on duty, a seasoned human warrior with a stern demeanor and a wealth of knowledge showing through the scars on their face and body telling of a hard life of fighting.
"This is common with people who have regeneration (body)," the Storm Lord explained. "It's both a blessing and a curse. You can work out nearly constantly if you want, but you'll need to turn off your power if you want to make any body gains this way and that is not possible with regeneration (body) unlike human's Fixed Point regeneration. Your body will still grow through the cycle as the Goddess’s blessing builds it, but working out will only be for muscle memory and practice for you."
“Most people need to get used to it once they start hitting the higher Adept tiers as normal training gear you see here cant push the body without power are really forced a struggle to make any natural improvements” the Storm Lord finished.
Axel nodded, absorbing the information. He also learned that his appetite was likely to skyrocket as his body was now always burning more energy, not just his core but his metabolism, which was not an issue with the power he originally planned for.
Leaving the training center in a state of confusion, Axel returned to the inn and cleaned up in the bathhouse. The warm water helped soothe his body, but his mind was still racing with thoughts about his new abilities. Axel made a mental not to talk to Lyra about these issues and see if there was anything he could do.
Now clean and armed with new information, Axel went out to buy some paper and a pencil as he realized he had neither and would need them for the meeting his group was about to have. Thankfully, there was a store nearby that sold those supplies, so Axel did not need to hunt for them. With tools in hand, Axel returned to his room and stood at the desk, as it no longer had a chair, to begin writing out plans, issues, and future goals.
As he wrote, Axel's thoughts drifted to the future. He listed out potential paths they could take, the challenges they might face, and the resources they would need. The process of writing helped him organize his thoughts and calm his mind.