The first genetic talent: Reabsorption
The Grey family's home was a 65-square-meter apartment with two bedrooms on the third floor of an old building. It was quite small for a family of four.
Two years ago, Damon chose to sleep on the couch at night so his sister could have her own private space. It was the least he could do to support his working sister at the time.
As usual, Damon woke up at 8:30 A.M. on the couch and started to stretch his body.
++ "Good morning, sleepy bear...."
Damon, still dizzy, replied in a hoarse and sleepy voice:
+ "I'm not a little girl anymore? Good morning to you too."
Damon could feel the mischievous smile on Asharaa's face.
++ "Hurry up and get yourself together. We have to go search under the bridge early, and if we don't find anything, we'll go to the city..."
Damon stretched again.
+ "Just a little longer, our body hasn't accepted that it's awake yet..."
After a few minutes, he finally got up from the couch. After bumping into the corner of the sofa and the wall a few times, he made his way to the bathroom with half-closed eyes and took a quick shower.
After showering and eating a hasty breakfast, he left the house in a hurry and walked toward the bridge.
The Fringe, or the edge of the city in the Empire, referred to an area located one kilometer away from the main city, designated specifically for the working class. This part of the city had little order or law and was generally divided and managed by various gangs.
Damon passed through the narrow alleys as fast as he could until he reached the Fernandez Bridge and breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the alleys of the Fringe are generally safe and passable during the day, nothing is guaranteed, and Damon had no interest in tangling with the 'Red Viper' gang. Additionally, he despised the constant stench of garbage and vomit that filled the alleys. As he reached the spot where he had intended to end his life the night before, he paused and stared sadly at the stone guardrail. ++ "Fate has led you to this decision so that you can merge with me. Don't dwell on the emptiness... think of it as fate granting you what you've always wanted... me, the magnificent Asharaa... heh heh heh."
+ "Heh heh...you're right, it just gave me a bad feeling. If I hadn't held the necklace in my hand He took a deep breath and made his way down the emergency stairs that connected the bridge to the riverbank below, setting foot on the red, damp soil by the river. The scenery was beautiful. The sound of the water, the smell of wet earth, the grass, and the scattered trees created a special sense of peace.
+ "Such beautiful nature exists so close to home, and I never even thought to come and enjoy it," he reflected.
++ "From now on, there are not only Mars but many other planets that we can visit to enjoy their nature..."
Damon spent a few more minutes absorbing the scenery, taking deep breaths, before he started searching the river, which was not very deep.
After about fifteen minutes...
+ "There's nothing here; they've probably just taken the bodies away. I think we have to go the hard way. We just got our clothes wet for nothing..."
++ "Don't rush it. Search a little more. It's not like bodies fall from the sky here. Oh, wait... move your head a little to the left... a little more... Yeah, that's good. I think there's something behind those rocks. Look between them; it looks like a hand..."
On Damon's left, about two or three meters into the river, there were two sharp rocks that could easily hide an adult between them.
+ "Yeah, I think you're right. Do we really have to do this? I've never touched a corpse before... You know, I don't feel good about it."
++ "Aw, is the little girl scared?"
The phrase "little girl" had become Damon's weak spot; each time Asharaa called him that, it felt as though someone had dealt a heavy blow to his pride.
+ "Okay... if you promise not to call me 'little girl' anymore, I'll go over to that corpse and touch it so you can connect to its holo-watch. Deal?"
But Asharaa replied with complete calmness and composure.
++ "No, my little girl, no deal. You need to touch that corpse unless you've changed your mind about the Military Academy. However, I can try to call you that less, if you step up and do what you have to do."
Damon kicked the dirt hard, sending several rocks tumbling into the river. With clenched fists and anger boiling inside him, he headed toward the probable corpse.
The cold water sent a shiver through his body. With a frowning face and heavy steps, he approached the rocks. As Asharaa had guessed, a large, male hand was trapped tightly between the two sharp rocks.
Damon circled the rocks and stood beside the body and The sight turned his stomach. The man's fall had clearly been brutal. His head was twisted at a grotesque angle, almost completely severed at the neck. A ragged wound gaped open where his right shoulder met his head. His jaw was shattered, a pulpy ruin, and the right eye was nowhere to be seen.
Damon took a deep breath and tried to push back the feeling of nausea that was attacking his throat.
Seeing a corpse was a normal thing for the people of the Fringe, and everyone in their life had seen more than dozens of corpses abandoned in the alleys or addicts who had overdosed from excessive use of
++ "I get it if you don't want to touch the corpse. Seriously, I do."
Damon took a few more deep breaths and replied:
+ "No, this is the best opportunity we can get...."
Damon took the remaining two steps between himself and the corpse, pressed his hand on the man's chest, and fought with all his might with the feeling of throwing up all the breakfast he had eaten an hour earlier.
The familiar tingle of Asharaa's connection, the same sensation he felt when linking with his holo-watch, ran through him, momentarily pushing aside the nausea and focusing his mind.
Just as Asharaa's connection to his holo-watch had caused a strange mental image of it to form in his mind. now he could also feel the corpse of the dead man's too.
The general structure of bones, muscles, skin, and various organs, even the exact part of the brain, where the man's symbiote was located, he could see all of them in his mind.
+ "It seems that, as I guessed, citizens commit suicide too..."
Damon did not pay attention, because he couldn't, all his focus was concentrated on the energy he felt from the man's corpse. A kind of warm energy that caused a feeling of invincibility and self-confidence to flow throughout his body.
The more he focused on the energy, the closer he felt to the warm and powerful energy...
[Congratulations user...you have successfully awakened, your dormant genetic talent.]
[ 'Reabsorption', gives you the ability to absorb the genome, components, and cells of the dead bodies, to strengthen, heal, and regenerate your own body.]
[The lock of the genetic talent window was forcibly unlocked by the user.]
[+50 XP / +5 GP]
The blue windows and their white text began to open one after another in front of Damon, surprising both Damon and Asharaa.
+ "I think it's not just you who's awesome, I've forced the system to open one of its locks for us..."
++ "Yeah, it seems you really are a clever little girl...but seriously, what an awesome thing, this way you don't have to be afraid that we'll die from kidney failure, our weak body will also be strengthened a bit after using 'reabsorption'.... what are you waiting for? hurry up and activate it."
At the exact moment when the system messages began to appear, a special and new feeling awakened within him. A feeling that he could not describe at all. But this new feeling made him know how to use 'Reabsorption'.
Damon quickly tore open the man's wet shirt and pressed his hand against the man's bare, cold, and clammy chest. instinctively and without any thought, the same warm energy he had felt moments before, began to move from all over his body and gather in the palm of his hand, then entered the man's corpse.
He felt like the man's skin was sticking to his hand, or more precisely, a kind of attraction was keeping it close. Nothing special happened for a few seconds, but then...
An intense heat entered his hand, forearm, arm, and then his entire body. His heart rate intensified and his breathing became rapid. He could feel the change in himself, as well as the dead man's body, which was becoming thinner and darker moment by moment.
For about ten seconds, Damon remained in the same state, his hand stuck to the man's chest, but suddenly, everything stopped, and his hand separated from the man's body.
A feeling of power, lightness, and vitality filled his entire being. Even his senses had become better and more precise, and he could see the surroundings more vivid and brighter. In ten seconds, his world had completely changed.
[Congratulations user.... The first genetic talent has been successfully activated.]
[+2.2 Strength / +2.1 Speed / +0.4 Dexterity / +3.4 Vitality / +1.3 Senses / +3.3 Neural endurance / +10 XP]