The walk back to Borin's shack was silent and tense. Elian, after one last terrified glance at Riku's blood-soaked but unmarked chest, had hobbled off in the opposite direction, promising through chattering teeth that he'd never speak a word. Riku didn't blame him. He'd just seen a walking corpse.
Riku stuck to the deepest shadows, his senses screaming. Every snap of a twig was an assassin returning to him. Every rustle of leaves was the Ascendancy's net closing around him.
The floating golden UI bobbed along, a constant, surreal reminder of his impossible survival. He willed it to disappear, and after a moment of intense concentration, it flickered and vanished. Good.
He slipped into the shack like a thief. Borin was snoring loudly in his cot. The familiar scent of dirt and old straw was suddenly the most comforting thing in the world.
He collapsed in his usual corner, his body trembling not from the aftershock. He had died. Again. And he had come back. He focused inward, and the UI reappeared.
[Vitals: Stable]
[Nega Capacity: 5% - low]
[Nega Reserves: 12% - Replenishing]
[Status: Lingering Shock]
Nega Reserves. So that's what the energy was. And he was running on fumes. The self-heal had drained him dry. He focused on the [Lingering Shock] status. A new line of text appeared beneath it.
[Analyzing…]
[Cause: Catastrophic Physical Trauma & Forced Cellular Regeneration]
[Recommended Action: Rest & Caloric Intake]
It was a diagnostic tool. A incredibly advanced one. He wasn't just seeing a health bar; he was reading the source code of his own body. The implications were staggering. If he could read it… could he edit it?
He thought of Elian's leg. A broken bone, poorly set. In his mind, he focused on the UI, imagining a new command.
[Scan External Biological System.]
Nothing happened. He was thinking too vaguely. He needed a target. "Hmm… I need a… a user." He muttered, looking over at the snoring Borin. "No, too risky. I need to understand the limits first."
He held up his own left hand. He focused the intent, picturing the UI extending its analysis to his palm.
[Scanning: User (Riku) - Left Hand]
[Status: Optimal]
[Minor Abrasions Detected.]
A list of data scrolled past his mind's eye - bone density, muscle fiber integrity, minor inflammation markers from his training with Kayra. It was overwhelming. But at the bottom was a simple line:
[Minor Abrasions: Initiate Repair? Y/N]
He mentally selected 'Y'.
A tiny, almost imperceptible warmth bloomed in his palm. It lasted for a second. The line of text for 'Minor Abrasions' vanished from the scan results. The cost to his Nega Reserves was negligible, a drop from 12% to 11.7%.
His breath caught. This wasn't just a tool for survival. This was a path to power they couldn't even conceive of. While others were out there consuming fear, sorrow and all other stuff to make bigger fireballs, he was learning to rewrite his own biological script. This was definitely of the charts. This was arguably the best power he could ever ask for in such a world.
The door to the shack creaked open.
Riku flinched, the UI vanishing as he scrambled to his feet, heart in his throat.
It was Kayra. She took one look at him - the torn, blood-caked tunic, the wild look in his eyes, the paleness of his skin - and her hand went to the knife on her thigh. "What in the blighted forests happened to you?" Her voice was a low, dangerous growl.
"Forest… yeah, you could say that again." Riku muttered. "Well, I… had a disagreement with some people on the way back. Got a few slashes and bla bla bla," He said, his voice hoarse.
"People?" Kayra's eyes narrowed. She stepped closer, her gaze sweeping over him, missing nothing. "The looks say it. Professional work. You should be dead." She paused, her head tilting. "Why aren't you dead, Riku?"
There was no point lying to her. She'd see through it. And he was already tired of being alone in this.
"I fixed it," he said simply.
"You fixed a sword wound?" she scoffed, but the skepticism in her eyes was covered in a dawning curiosity.
"Not the wound. The… the result of the wound." He tapped his chest. "I used my power. On myself."
Kayra blinked, "Am I supposed to understand that? Show me," she commanded, her voice barely a whisper.
Riku took a deep breath. He focused, pulling the UI back into his visual field, but this time, he pushed it. He made it visible. A soft, golden rectangle of light materialized in the air between them.
Kayra took a sharp step back, her knife half-drawn. She stared at the floating text - [Vitals: Stable] - as if it were a venomous snake.
"What is that?" she breathed.
"It's my design," Riku said. "I call it a User Interface. It tells me what's wrong with my body. And… I think I can use it to tell my body how to fix itself."
Kayra stared from the UI to his blood-stained tunic, then back to the UI."You fixed a sword wound by… reading a book?" she finally said, her voice dangerously low.
"Not a book. A status screen," Riku corrected, his own voice raw. "Turns out, coding your own health bar is a lot easier than making a wall of light."
"Who was it?"
"No evidence, but it's definitely the Ascendancy. Sent them after I was about to sulk my way here."
Kayra's gaze flicked from the screen to his blood-soaked tunic, then back. The pieces clicked. Her knuckles were white on the knife's hilt. "They tried to kill you because you failed a test? Don't insult my intelligence."
"No," Riku said, the memory of Kaelen's venomous glare crystal clear. "They tried to kill me because I saw the farm of spirits." He gestured at the UI. "Finding out I can do this will bring even more assassins."
Kayra finally sheathed her knife. She stepped closer, gesturing at the screen.
"Hide that," she commanded, her voice a whisper. "Never. Show it. To anyone." She met his eyes, and for the first time, he saw genuine alarm there. "Now that you're not just a failed aspirant, their priority will be to patch you out."
She looked at the door as if expecting it to be kicked off its hinges.
"Your training," she said, turning back. "Forget the 'we'll do it gradually' plan. We have until they realize their 'complication' is still breathing." She grabbed his arm, her grip like iron. "Let's get going. Now."
"We? You're helping me?"
"I'm not helping. I'm recruiting. Your brain was a solid reason for me to, but I needed you to be able to at least defend yourself. But with this? I don't 'want to', I 'need to' recruit you." She turned to him. "In other words, I landed a jackpot named Riku,"
"Wow. That's brilliant. Telling me you're using I'm being used for your needs like it's normal. Bravo." Alex blinked, deadpan.
"You'll understand we have similar goals soon." She replied.
"Whatever. Well, where are we going?"
"Somewhere you can scream without Borin complaining about the noise."
He didn't like the sound of that.