Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 8 | Day 14

I narrow my eyes at the small orb for a few seconds, only to be broken out of my thoughts by the sound of another knock on the door, followed by Amelia’s voice once again.

“Are you sure your okay? I thought I heart the start of a shout…” she tentatively asks from the other side.

Without wasting a second, I quickly grab the strange orb and place it into my pocket, ignoring the odd tingling sensation that goes up my arm after making contact with it, before rushing to the door and unlocking it.

“Yeah, don’t worry,” I tell her after opening the door. “Dad was just surprised by how well I’m doing in my duels.”

Which is technically true. He was surprised when he first heard about that.

Although not necessarily for the reasons she might think.

I think he was more surprised by the fact that I was dueling in the first place.

Anyways, she narrows her eyes at me for a second before sighing and saying, “If you say so.” She then hoists her bag strap over her shoulder and turns around while saying, “I’m heading out anyways.”

“Alright,” I tell her with a single eyebrow raised.

Not sure why she even came here in the first place. Especially considering that she only stayed for a very short period of time.

“See you tomorrow!” she calls out over her shoulder while leaving the small suite of rooms.

I lock the door after her before waiting a few minutes and entering my room. I then reach into my pocket to grab the orb again, just to not find anything there.

“The… heck?” I mutter while looking around at the floor of my room.

Where did it go?

After not finding it anywhere in my room, I move to the living room area and begin searching there.

Several minutes go by with no success before I eventually give up and sit down on the couch with my arms sprayed out on either side of me.

Well, that’s just great.

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I reach up with one hand to run my hand through my hair to calm my nerves, just to notice something on the palm of my hand that definitely wasn’t there the last time I checked.

Uh… what is that?

For some reason, a small red circle is imprinted on the center of my palm – one of the same color as the small orb that the doctor tossed onto my bed. It has what looks like small sparks of red energy coming off of it, along with what appear to be red veins streaking out through my hand with it as the source.

“Are you kidding me…” I mutter while staring at my palm out of both irritation and curiosity.

Several seconds pass by before I realize that it’s still there despite my immortality turning my body back in time.

Just how the heck did the doctor manage to do that?

Did he have a breakthrough that he didn’t-

Actually, he’s probably had plenty of stuff that he’s learned about my condition that he hasn’t told me about. So there’s no reason to be surprised now.

At least this explains what that tingling sensation was earlier. Although I’m kind of surprised that it didn’t hurt.

After all, it looks like whatever the orb was that the gave me burrowed into my hand somehow and is still there.

Sounds like something that would hurt.

I’m also glad that she didn’t see my-

Wait, could she have seen my palm and just not point it out?

My brows furrow at the thought, but I’m distracted as my palm begins to heat up before a flame bursts out from it, making me stumble backwards in surprise. However, the flames just follow me and form a small screen above my hand that looks eerily similar to the screen on the id cards, making me narrow my eyes.

Did that bastard of a doctor really insert some sort of magical terminal in my hand?

Why the hell would I-

The screen suddenly changes to show the doctor’s face as clear as day, once again making me stumble backwards from surprise.

“What the hell is going on?” I ask him, barely hold myself back from shouting.

Leodmir just stares at me with his usual emotionless face as he answers, “This is a custom-built magi-tech terminal that allows a one-way connection to the hypernet, unlike that id card of the academy that uses a two-way connection. You’ll need this to keep in contact with me after you leave the academy.”

I open my mouth to speak, only to get shot down as he says, “You won’t be able to contact your parents with it, or anyone else for that matter. So don’t even bother trying.”

I close my mouth again in response before furrowing my brows in thought.

“Is there any particular reason for it? Other than the fact that no one will be able to tap into our calls,” I ask him, hoping to get some more information out of him.

And surprisingly, it actually seems to work as he answers, “Yes. The reception for your id card won’t be able to reach where you will be going after leaving the academy.”

My eyes widen at that, but the doctor just says, “Try to find a glove to cover it up,” and hangs up the call before I can say anything.

I’m then left staring at a home screen made out of flames with several different applications scattered through it.

He really just… seriously?

I mean, yes, this is normal for him. But seriously?

Just drop a random piece of what looks like brand new, breaking-news technology on me and not even bother explaining anything about it except for why?

That’s just…

I take a few seconds to think of something before letting out a sight and beginning to mess with the screen, which responds to my fingers just like the other screen. Surprisingly without actually hurting me from the flames.

Guess it’s up to me to find out what this thing can do.

I glance down at my palm, which is facing straight up.

And to find some gloves.