Devoured Eccentric - 9 Seeking Refuge

Time: ~ 3PM

Location: South of the Village Thorna, past the clearing

“Well, that took longer than I expected” Nero exhaled, feeling slightly tired after taking care of his longest ever Nature’s call.

“alright Kowalski, now that that’s out of the way, analyze my body and tell me what happened just now?” Nero was extremely curious as to why his Dan was able to absorb this ‘life’ from other creatures. After the absorption, he felt so physically fit, he could run a few miles at top speed for his current body without breaking a sweat. He felt ‘alive’ as if his source of energy was boundless.

.The user has Unlocked: The Dan.

.The Dan: A completely new organ made up of matter with similar density to tissue, however, with the unknown fluid passing through. The Dan has the capability to absorb these new particles into the bloodstream only when they have interacted with only the user’s brainwaves.

These absorbed particles are then transported throughout the body after chaining up with the other blood-like fluid in the blood vessels.

The Dan has other capabilities such as compressing and expanding like a muscle, hypothetically allowing an increase in the surface area of the inner walls of the Dan, leading to an increase in the absorption rate. This also works for a faster rate of absorption when the amount anomalous particle is little, so compressing the Dan would lead to a higher rate of absorption.

The user can absorb the unknown particles in their core form via breathing. This also involves the Dan as the second function of Dan is to act as a heart for the other chain-forming fluid in the vessels.

The user’s brain has also increased in the rate of processing compared to before by 9%. As the user has the brain of a child, ordinary speeds of functioning were already comparably higher than to an average adult’s brain.

The User’s cellular structure has been very slightly tweaked, in that the chains of cells that make up tissue have been completely revitalized as well as renewed.

The current weight of the user’s body is estimated to be 20 – 23 Kilograms. The previous weight was estimated to be 24 – 27 Kilograms. The User digested an estimate of 700 grams of Food earlier, which means the other estimated 2 Kilograms of excreting was dead or dying cells from inside the body.

Complete Report:

The Body: Excellent (improvement in reaction time by 2 milliseconds, an increase in muscle density by an estimate of 5 – 10%)

The Mind: Good (slight fatigue)

Perception and Processing: Excellent (rate of perception increased by 9%, the total functioning rate increased by an average of 7.9%)

.

“At least tell me before dumping a fuck ton of information like that, I know I have perfect recall but still, it takes time to process a Giant dump of info like that.” Nero definitely felt fatigued after the report he was given.

.Understood.

Some of Nero’s questions were answered but even more arose.

After some exercise and Stretching, Nero was ready to be on the move. Standing over 3 feet tall, Nero wore a crudely-made Straw-Hat that looked like it was about to collapse in on itself any second, an uncomfortable set of deep green & off-white-colored striped shirt and shorts made with what felt like badly processed cotton. under his feet were, contrary to his expectations, decently made rubber sandals, that were oddly comfortable and fit incredibly well.

Moving wasn’t an issue with the footwear and Nero had already gotten used to his clothing. He was yet to know what he looked like but knew his hair was a deep shade of crimson after plucking out a few.

Before playing through Aldin’s memories he was thinking of finding a place to stay the night, preferably a place with a roof. Staying cautious of the unknown was never the cause of downfall.

‘I keep getting sidetracked because of all this new stuff… My to-do list has grown by leaps and I can’t even keep my priorities straight.’ he sighed deeply. There were many commands given to Kowalski that were left unattended to.

Kowalski couldn’t just analyze and process, but also the ability to control its host’s body, of course only with the permission of the user. However, it didn’t have any capability to control the user’s thoughts. In essence, it was a command system the user could input commands into and have them processed at near light speeds, no matter how long they are, but light years slower for processing new and complex commands, having to use ‘hardbreaking’ to get anywhere. Eventually, with enough experience, methods for hardbreaking would be refined and complexity wouldn’t matter, rather the content of the given command.

‘Okay Kowalski, first let’s make some changes. Instead of sending me the information straight into my brain stem, send it to my visual processor in the brain so I can just read it instead of having to listen to it unless it’s urgent or I’m busy doing something else.

Also… Map everything around me, in as much detail as possible, all the time and show a mini-map that comes into focus when I think I need it in the top-right corner. Then place estimated points on the map for inhabitable places near me.’ he made a list of things to add and change, basically defining the communication between him and the AI.

.Acknowledged.

.Adding a new function: Maps.

.Process completed.

.Mission accomplished.

There was now a blurred minimap in the corner of Nero’s vision. The instant he thought of it, the map came into focus. At the moment, all of Nero’s current surroundings were filled in as the AI had looked into Aldin’s memories to find Nero a suitable place to live temporarily.

And it had successfully done so. To mark the places on the minimap, the AI placed an ‘H’ to show whether the location was habitable. It also showed several paths to the location, making them shades of red to show the danger and possibility of finding monsters.

Yes, monsters.

Nero knew of the existence of these creatures after looking through Aldin’s knowledge bank. Apparently, they were ordinary animals that carelessly attempted to make use of the unknown ‘godly power’, as Aldin thought, eventually falling to their demise and losing their minds, however successfully gaining the ability to mindlessly control those particles with rage.

The AI had also overheard a few warriors talking about these monsters from Aldin’s old Village, saying how the weak ones were straightforward and easy to predict, whereas, the strong ones were unpredictable and more in control, both, nonetheless, full of rage and incomparably stronger to their original calm form.

Aldin had once evesdropped on a conversation between a traveler and the village chief. Aldin guessed they were trading goods and information, like how it would be normally.

The traveler had traded general information of nearby villages in exchange for residing in the village for a few days. He had also gifted a vibrant sky-blue orb which Aldin did not know of, but made an educated guess of its high worth as he could see a sudden shift in both the demeanor and tone of the lanky old man as he placed his gaze upon the item. Aldin had been an avid climber since birth, so climbing onto the roof and peeking inside of the two-story building was of no issue.

The village only had buildings made of ceramic and wood, this made having slits on the roof a great way to illuminate the inside with the radiance of one of the great gods in the morning. Glass and other transparent materials did exist but the people believed that the radiance from the gods above was best left unperturbed.

Aldin had seen the Old chief almost immediately show respect after the orb was unveiled. It was quite a sight for him as the chief was revered in the village and was a man given much respect to, even by some other travelers.

From this particular memory, the AI had made a map with relatively accurate details of Thorna and the surrounding villages and inhabited land. For Nero’s current position, he had to walk about 3 miles south-west, to a place despised by others due to their complete monopoly on the largest known mineral cave in a 50-mile radius, the renowned village, Pinnacle.

Over the years, many allied attacks had been carried out to secure this mining site, but to this day, not one had succeeded. The villagers in Pinnacle each had enough wealth to buy a decent village due to their exchange with Urban city-dwellers, but had strict rules to stay to themselves and to never involve anyone into their community from outside, thereby making the possibility of an information leak zero.

The traveler had said that the village size was about 15 miles (60 WROs in their measuring units) and had an estimated population of 100 to 150,000 people.

All of this information was provided to Nero on an information board visually in front of him, one that disappeared with a single thought.

While on his way to seek refuge, Nero contemplated more about the human qualities his AI had started to display.

‘Anyway, how do you ‘feel’ about your name right now? Do you like it? Is it pleasing enough?’

.I do not currently ‘feel’ any reaction towards my name but practically speaking, it’s too long and circumstantially, I would prefer a shorter, and easy to say, identity.

‘True, I did kinda name you Kowalski as a joke… How about something more defining, something new… something feminine. I want you to feel elated by your identity because then the person who named you would also feel elated, simply sharing happiness as normal humans do.’

‘So… you like the name candy?’

.Impractical as the ending is stretched.

‘Then… something more human, like Alina perhaps?’

.I consider myself as a separate species to humans, celestial objects would be more suitable as a name, in my opinion.

Nero takes a while to run through a list of planetary names, sorting them based on his preference and their practicality.

“Aha, I’ve got the best name for you. Ready for this? ‘Nova’… It’s great, isn’t it? I love it, What do you think?” Nero was almost sure the AI would consider it as a proper identity.

…I like it.

.It fits all the criteria.

.I am now Nova, pleased to meet the user, Nero.

“Please to meet you too, Nova.” Nero felt great about himself, mainly due to his previous doubts in the ‘aptitude of naming’ being completely washed away. He almost felt… insecure, but not anymore.

.Attention, the user is close to his destination, please proceed with caution.

“Got it.” Nero intensely breathed, forcing his body to shake off all the previously felt carelessness.

In the last few hours, he had traveled into and past a lusciously green mountain hill, and knew his current altitude was a few hundred meters higher than before. What he didn’t know was that the Village he was going to seek refuge in was built inside a hollowed-out mountain with large holes on the top to let natural light in.

Slanting cliffs surrounded the village and there was an upward slope as one went deeper into the village up to the center, where a stone temple laid bare. At night, dazzling rays of light shot out from the bare stone into the sky, mysteriously invisible to people outside. It was as if a god was born.

By the time Nero had reached an entrance, the Sun had finished descending, natural light became scarce and 2 of the 3 full moons were fully visible as if rising from the ground. Moonlight pierced through all the tree branches, giving everything overhead a twinkling outer glow.

‘Holy shit are those some bright little moons… I should’ve put more attention into cosmology because this is a sweet view’ Nero mentally berated his emotionless self for his lack of attention in anything other than particles and human recreation.

At that moment, he could see most of the village, it looked like it was made inside a meteor crater. lights glimmered from little houses everywhere throughout the village, making it hard to zoom in anywhere.

After making way down the crater pit, he found a tall arc-shaped entrance with traders and residents lined up, or in the process, outside. He silently joined the queue, trying to draw as little attention as possible, to himself.

Unfortunately, he forgot to think about his clothing condition. The moment he came into people’s view, he could feel the gaze of countless eyes on him, making him feel embarrassed. Head pointing downwards he joined the long, organized queue.

Sometime later, it was his turn to get permitted in.

“Ei Sonny, where ye from?” Nero looked up to find a 2-meter tall burly man with a dark grey bushy beard wearing a helmet with a long sharp horn speaking to him from his post. His deep, loud voice rattled him to the bone.

‘Nova, translate whatever I say into the Norm’s language for him’ he quickly commanded his partner.

“Ah, Hello” Nero replied, looking up to man, forcefully increasing his eye’s size to look innocent.

“I’ve been traveling for a long time… my village kicked me out because I did what the

big warriors were doing” He pouted as if he was sad and confused.

“HUHHH!? What village ye from Sonny? What ye did?” The burly man’s face showed fury, he couldn’t believe there were people who could throw away such an innocent-looking child.

“I-I, I was trying to do what the warriors did with their hands” he proceeded to pull his flat palm out and commandingly willed his whole body to gather around his hand. His brainwaves sent the command to all the absorbed particles inside his body, a trick he’d learned on the way there after asking Nova in detail about his limit to control on these particles. He knew those particles phased through his skin and tissue, if in that weird ‘life’ form, but would about their core form?

He concluded that his body released those core particles that he breathed in through pores in the body, so he simply willed everything inside his body to form on his hand. Because his will didn’t affect his cells but only the core particles inside his body, a weak, red hue started to form around his hand. He had experimented with their interaction on other objects and understood that he was completely unphased by them, however, its effect on other objects was mindblowing.

The hue could slice through anything less dense than wood, right through.

Anything.

It was like it could cut bonds between substances.

The burly man was stunned. Completely.

“Ha-HAS ye Noble’s Blood!?” he asked, gobsmacked.

A few people behind Nero had also witnessed his little show and also had their jaws dropped equally low.

“I-I don’t know” he had the look of shock and surprise on his face, but internally he was calm, questioning his actions.

‘I’m gonna take a guess and say I either fucked up or… I hit the jackpot.’ he internally smiled viciously.

“M-my parents chased me away from the village” he gave Nova a sharp command to make him sob in the most scared and innocent way possible.

In the few seconds, since he started sobbing, people had gathered around, whispering to each other rumors of a Noble child who had been chased away.

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Nero’s face current face was quite possibly the saddest and most innocent they had ever seen.

“Am I -Hic- M-Mo-Monster? They all called me a De-Demon, Am I a Demon?” from there began the finale of his show,

A complete breakdown.

He had already planned to get into the village by sympathy, but it needed a crowd, preferably people with power, and a show of emotion.

He had performed his part…

Now, it was time for the Judges to decide.

. . .