In the afternoon, in which Serina and Calb returned from their hunt, they had their usual afternoon practice spar, in which Taron evaluated Calb’s growth as a martial artist. Serina, being a veteran martial artist, was no match for Calb, but as a veteran and as Calb’s personal trainer, she knew just how much force was too much for Calb. She also knew when Calb’s mana had just about run out. It was at such moments that she would push Calb just a little bit more, to make him want to squeeze out that extra little heart felt cry for mana.

What is the reason? In order to make Calb frustrated! Frustration is the key to success. It is a fuel that promotes personal growth, and it is a sole indication that one is alive! One can breathe the elixir of life and consume food of the Gods, but if one is never ignited by the sparks of frustration that says, “There has got to be more to me than THIS,” that individual is no different from any other animals or beasts that roam the Earth. It would be just as well if that individual becomes a vegetable, to be swayed by the wind and grow only when the Sun comes out.

Calb was tired of being helpless, and he was tired of being small in his mind’s eye. He wanted to grow. He wanted to yell to the world that he is alive! He cried to his soul, berating it to give him just a little bit more mana, to make him feel alive! He yelled his heart out to give one more solid swing!

>>>>>>

Calb felt a sudden warmth on his left wrist that quickly permeated to the rest of his body, and without knowing that he had it in him, sudden power surged to his legs and it ran up his spine, then to his arms, and what resulted was an overwhelming force that struck Serina’s oncoming staff and pulverized its core as it split it into two parts.

Surprised at what just happened, Calb took a look at his left arm to find the source of that fleeting warmth, and what he found was that he had, somehow, regained the lost technology from the world that he had left, the world of science. What he regained was the PIDO! However, this PIDO was a bit different from what he was used to, in that, there were no metal or any other solid implants. Instead, what he found was drawings of bunch of intricate lines and symbols that covered the exact same area that his original PIDO used to be.

“T-This is a PIDO?!” Calb cried out.

Minus the general shape, it looked nowhere near how it used to look before, and the only reason he knew it was PIDO was because of an obscure sense of “knowing” that had surfaced into his core, consciousness from the back of his neck. It was like he had reattached the sensation of PIDO that he had lost upon crossing over to this world, but at the same time, he felt that something was missing, thus the obscureness.

“Did you say PIDO? Isn’t that magic device from your old world that you were talking to me about earlier?” asked Serina.

“Yeah, it is, but at the same time, it is not quite the same PIDO that I knew. PIDO that I was telling you about is a metal piece, but what is on my forearm is a drawing that somewhat resembles PIDO. I don’t quite understand what is going on, but it is just my instinctual understanding?” Calb looked baffled.

“Hmmm, let me have a look at the drawing Calb.” Taron grabbed Calb’s arm to have a closer look. He, first, touched the drawing, and then, he poked and pinched the drawing lightly. Finally, he put his palm on the drawing and concentrated. “It appears to be some kind of a magical inscription. I can sense great gathering of mana around this drawing as if I would from another magical inscription. However, it gives off additional energy that is foreign to me. In addition, it seems like Calb’s overall mana flow around his body has increased. What do you sense Calb?”

After a brief pause, internally scanning his body, Calb answered, “It is just as you have said. I definitely feel more mana around me, and it seems as if my internal mana pool has increased also…, and I have this understanding that it is a PIDO. Well, more accurately, it is as if I am back to my old self…as if, I regained the part of me that I have lost when I crossed over onto this world.”

What Calb was explaining was the sensation of dependency that all human beings feel for something of theirs that they take for granted. For those individuals that have had prolonged career as soldier in the Galaxy Star Federation, having PIDO on their forearm became natural thing to them, and all the sensation, awareness, and habit forming behaviors that developed as a result of having PIDO on them for that extended period of time became like a second nature to them to the point of them forgetting that they weren’t born with it. In other words, what Calb described was a sense of permanence of an exterior object that gets incorporated into our daily bodily senses, that if we lose that exterior object, for whatever reasons, would generate a sense of loss in our bodily senses as if portion of our body has been amputated. So, when we regain that lost exterior object, our body will, in a sense, celebrate reestablishment of that long forgotten exterior object being reincorporated into our daily bodily senses again.

However, refamiliarization with the PIDO wasn’t the only thing Calb was sensing at the moment. Calb was initially enveloped with intuitive understanding that there was more to this magic version of PIDO than the metallic nano-PIDO that he had been carrying around inside his forearm for 60 years in the scientific world. Nano-PIDO of world of science was a unique implant device that, due to its coordination with the nanobots from the nano-brain, allowed Calb to access big percentage of its functionality via thought only, but the fact still remained that he didn’t have full access to all of its functionality, as it still required some input through physical contact. The same didn’t apply for the magic version of PIDO.

“It definitely is a PIDO, but I have a general ‘knowing’ that there is more to this PIDO than what I was accustomed to with my old PIDO,” puzzled Calb. “For example, I can access all the functionality of this PIDO with mere thought alone, whereas my old PIDO still required physical manipulation/access for many of its functions. Not only that, I can tell that there are additional functions to this PIDO, but for some reason, I am currently unable to unlock much of those functionalities. It is as if I don’t meet the pre-requisite for unlocking certain capabilities in store. However, I do have full access to the basic functionalities.”

“What functionalities are you talking about?” asked Serina.

“Well, for instance, I am able to do this.” Calb turned his palm face up, and from his palm, a 3D holographic map of the surrounding came up for all to see. Taron and Serina was a bit startled by the holographic map, but at the same time, they were intrigued by what they saw.

Looking at the holographic map, Serina shouted, “Grandpa, this is a model of the Imea mountains! Look at the center, that is the Maze Canyon, and this is our house. There is the waterfall and the meadow down below….” Serina pointed at all the familiar landmarks of importance to verify that what she was seeing was really the map of the surroundings.

“That’s not all,” commented Calb as he brought up his finger to point at something in the map. As he pointed his finger, the model gradually changed to amplify the area where Calb pointed. “Do you see this little dot? You see how it moves?” Calb looked at Serina.

“Yeah, you are right. It is moving. What is that Calb?” Serina asked while curiously looking at the moving dot.

“That is a boar. Here, let me zoom in.” The 3D image expanded in to show a general silhouette of an animal that resembled a boar. “It won’t zoom in any more than this, but I am sure you can make out an outline of a boar. See how it is digging around that boulder?”

“Yeah you are right. That boulder is the one where we saw bunch of hoof marks earlier today. We couldn’t find the culprit that has been digging around that boulder, but there it is.” Serina looked amazed. “So this thing is not just a model of the surroundings, but it can even track animals!”

“You know what that means right Serina?” Calb gave Serina a sly smile.

“Huh?” Serina was too preoccupied by the strange hologram that she couldn’t quite catch on to what Calb was leading on.

Calb stuck his chest out nonchalantly and said, “I guess certain someone,” pointing his thumb at himself while feigning ignorance as he looked side to side as if he was trying to find that ‘someone’ he was referring to, “will win all the hunting bets from now on don’t you think so?” Calb continued his scanning of the imaginary person as he turned occasionally to look at Serina to give mischievous smile.

Finally catching on, Serina retorted, “Hmph, well, that certain someone can do all the hunting from now on since he will be so good at it won’t he?” Serina looked straight at Calb to make a point.

“H-Hey, hey, hey…What are you looking at me for? I am looking for that certain someone still. Don’t you see me looking? Hmpf! Besides, I am sure that certain someone still lack in other areas of hunting. R-right? Huh?” Calb started looking more uncomfortable by the second as he tried to come up with some deficiencies in his hunting skill.

“Oh, really? Then what was the thumb for? Huh?” Serina kept on boring at Calb with her eyes.

“What thumb are you talking about? Something was stuck in my wind pipe and I was kinda feeling it out with my finger. Hmmm…hmmm…HMMPH! T-there, I feel better now.”

Before Serina could return with her response, Taron cut in. “If you love birds are done squawking let’s return the conversation back to what’s more important shall we?” The two suddenly turned red and Calb was left wordless while Serina was struggling to find a right explanation to refute what was just said by her grandfather.

“What we need to figure out is,” Taron continued on, not wanting to be sucked into discussion of feigned denials. “What is it doing here, and how it suddenly appeared on Calb’s arm.”

Relieved to be on a different topic, Calb responded, “I think it has something to do with what God said. After the thing with my neck, God said that I will feel more of such moments further down the road, and this time felt sort of similar to the last time. Also, he told me that my mana cultivation will quicken with every new future ‘moments,’ and it seems to be the truth, as I feel like I have recovered much of my depleted mana quicker than usual today.”

“Hmmm, you are right. I do sense greater mana flow around you than before the spar,” commented Taron.

“So it seems we should be expecting more of this phenomenon in the future?” asked Serina.

“Right. That is my guess,” Calb responded with an unease look.

“What’s wrong Calb?” Serina looked at Calb’s disturbed face.

“Well, it seems like I am missing something. I felt like I almost had it, but I lost it. I had this aura of understanding, but as soon as I focused on it to get a better look, I lost it.”

As if he understood the meaning behind what Calb was trying to say, Taron asked, “Is it something related to the special circumstances in which God chose you? Didn’t you say that God told you there is something special about you, how you are the only one that is capable of doing what He had planned?”

“Yes. It was related to that. I was just reminded of that line from God, then I was thinking about what made me special…then….” At this point, Calb’s eyes opened real wide and he had an epiphany. “That’s it! I know what is special about me!”

“Well, what is it, Mr. ‘Oh I am so special?’ Share with us.” Serina looked at Calb with a little, extra wide smile so that Calb wouldn’t mistake the intended sarcasm.

“It is kind of ironic, really, but what makes me special are what I was self-conscious about back in my old world, and that is the fact that over 70% of my body was artificial. I have had numerous surgeries that replaced my original body parts because of the injuries acquired during my times in combat. I think that, since those artificial body parts became a part of who I am, they are manifesting themselves in my body in a form that is more compatible with this world, such as this inscription.” Calb looked at this forearm, falling into a little daydream about how something polar opposite to magic adapting itself into a conduit for mana.

“If that is so, why aren’t there any changes in the rest of your body now? If 70% of your body was artificial, shouldn’t we see more than what is shown on your forearm?” Taron asked, pondering more to himself than to the group.

“Well, I think that relates to what God told me about the ‘future moments.’ The impression that I got at that time was that there will be many more of these ‘occurrences’ in the future so my guess would be that, in time, I will regain rest of my artificial body parts.”

“Then I would guess the next obvious question would be to ask whether these so called body parts that are returned to you, though with modifications, are returned at random.”

“In regards to that, I am not sure, considering such happened only twice now, but it seems like the occurrences are following the order in which I obtained them, as the nanobrain was the very first thing I have obtained that was introduced inside of me, and PIDO was the very next.”

“Hmmm, interesting. Interesting indeed.”

“Okay, now that we got that problem solved, what else can it do?” Serina was brimming with anticipation as she stared at Calb’s PIDO like a little kid seeing a brand new toy. She had gotten so comfortable with Calb that she nearly about claimed his arm as her own. As for Calb, he felt a bit uncomfortable, looking at Serina’s face, at a realization that his arm can no longer be his and his alone, at least for a while anyway.

The instant that he thought about its functionality, Calb was able to intuitively access the PIDO just as it was intended to be, back in the scientific world. As he scanned all the functionalities that he can currently access, he saw something interesting and looked at Serina with a smile. “I can look and see, but before that, I can’t give you my arm so you will have to settle for this.” Calb pointed his left index finger at Serina’s arm and with but a minimum access to his mana, a red beam shot out of his finger onto Serina’s arm like a flash!

Serina felt a little tingle where the light hit her, and all of a sudden, weird sensation enveloped all over her body and a clear mark of miniature PIDO shined briefly and phased away into her skin at the initial sight of contact. As the PIDO signature disappeared into her skin, the sensation that overlapped her faded away also.

“W-wh-What did you do Calb?! Serina was frantic. She had experienced various forms of magic in her lifetime, but nothing ever entered her body and caused such a weird sensation. At this point, Serina acted like any normal human beings should when something unknown to her enters her body and causes a sensation she has never felt before, but she was not just any normal human being. She was a martial artist that honed her inner self to remain unfazed regardless of the surprise. She looked at Calb with a frightened face. No longer was she the confident and fearless martial artist that she prided in.

Enjoying the new look of Serina, Calb calmly looked at her and said, ‘This.’ Calb smiled at her.

“Huh?” Serina looked at Calb with a surprised look and quickly turned her head to her right and then to her left. She then looked at Taron expectedly, and what she saw was a confused face of her grandfather.

“Did I miss something? Why are you looking at me like that?” asked Taron.

“You didn’t hear that?”

“Hear what?” Taron was even more confused and looked at Calb to see whether he understood what his granddaughter was going on about, and what he saw was even more perplexing. Calb was smugly looking at Serina as if he was enjoying this unusual moment where all of Serina’s perfect guard was broken.

“What did you do Calb?” Taron asked, unable to stand the confusion any longer.

“I just talked to her in my mind,” Calb replied with a smile.

“Huh? You talked to her with your mind?”

“Yes”

“So that voice was yours?” Serina was flabbergasted.

What people do not realize is that the voice of the people they hear is due to the inflexion caused as muscles around the vocal cord twist and slide to move the vocal cord. As such, there is no way a voice that is generated inside a person’s mind would make a sound that is identical to what is generated from a physiological process. No wonder Serina was not able to pin point the source of the voice.

‘Yep, that was me.’ Calb looked at Serina and responded to her with his mind. Taron, too, was surprised at what he was hearing, but at the same time, he didn’t know whether to believe it or not. Not knowing what to say, he looked back and forth between Serina and Calb, realizing something was happening between the two.

“You really answered! You really answered in my mind!”

“How can this be?” It was Taron’s turn to be shocked out of his wits. “I have never witnessed such magic before! Can you elaborate on its function?”

“Well, what I did was I shot her with a miniature copy of my PIDO, and it acts like a temporary transponder that will stay inside of her as long as I desire, or if Serina, forcefully, expel it out with her own mana. I said transponder, but it is a bit more than that. For example, I can communicate with Serina with my mind, and she can also respond with her mind as well. For now, that is all this will allow, but I suspect its functionality will evolve in time, perhaps when I am capable of accessing more mana? I am not quite sure about that aspect.”

“That is something to look forward to….Do you have access to more functions, or was that the last one?” asked Taron. Even though Calb’s demonstration of the PIDO made an impression on him, Taron was not too drawn to it except for the sake of information, but the demonstration of its communication utility was something that was so out of the ordinary that Taron was pressed to find whether there were any other unique functions stored in PIDO.

“Well, there seems to be many other functions, but most are not accessible right now, and out of those that are accessible, transponder was the most eye catching function. The remaining functions are just utility type functions such as storing of the physical objects as well as just plain information or knowledge, and, as you have seen already, visual projection of the surroundings. The key feature of the surround projection is that it can be used to predict movements of the animals or people appearing in the projection. Since it was mainly designed for the purpose of military campaign, it is supposed to predict enemy maneuvers.”

“Of course the most important thing that came out of this is that I have better mana flow, and I can also tell that my mana pool have increased, as well as the access of it. That means my combat prowess just got a little upgrade since I have more mana to utilize. In other words, I will make it more difficult for Serina to humiliate me during sparring times.” Calb finished the last part of the statement with a little self-satisfied smile.

Seeing Calb’s confidence getting a little boost from the new phenomenon, Serina couldn’t resist to say, “Oh ho! Our Calb just got a confidence boost. Wanna have a go again?” Serina’s warrior spirit ignited.

“Are you sure you are ready for this Serina,“ Calb pointed at himself with some of his usual flare from his old world, ”especially after you having let your guard down just a little while ago? Huh?” Calb shot back with a sly smile.

“W-Why are you talking nonsense? Who let who’s guard down? I don’t know what you are talking about.” Serina’s face turned bright red due to embarrassment.

“Speaking of which,” Taron jumped in. “You did let your guard down just a few minute ago didn’t you? You got all flustered at the Calb’s new skill and lost all your warrior’s composure. And here I thought you were ready to go challenge the Continental Tower once again, but I guess I was wrong.” Taron gave Calb a wink.

“What are you talking about grandpa? I am ready. I have BEEN ready! I can go clear my way to the tower right now!” Serina, realizing her momentary weakness, frantically tried to regain her grandpa’s confidence in her, and not seeing the desired response from Taron, Serina turned to Calb and said, “Here, Calb. Let’s have a go right now, and I’ll prove to you grandpa that I am ready!”

“What will beating up someone that just started learning martial arts just a few months ago prove? Enough of this nonsense! Just face the fact that you have let down your guard. The fact that you let it happen means that you need more training! Besides, even if you are ready now, I won’t send you off just yet. I have a mission for you. Actually, it is for the both of you. I need to send you two off on a little journey to the Chamea Falls, but the detail can wait until tomorrow. Go wash up for today and we can talk tomorrow.”

“Okay grandpa….” Serina hesitantly turned toward the house. Just hearing what her grandpa had to say dampened any of her usual playful response that she would normally throw at her grandpa’s orders.

Chamea Falls is the location where the chief overseer of the Continental Towers was residing. As for him being the chief does not necessarily mean that he is most powerful of the five overseers, but because he was at the center most part of the Garmea continent, he was designated as the overseer that would keep all other overseers informed of all the pertinent information floating about in Garmea, thus the title of “chief” being assigned to him. The fact that Taron was sending them to Chamea Falls meant that there is something important that was happening in Garmea.

“Oh, Calb, hold on a minute. Let me talk to you a little bit.”

“Yes sir.”

“Besides what you have already said regarding that PIDO of yours, do you feel any different with your body or your feel of your surrounding?”

“Now that you mention it, I do feel a bit refreshed and at ease, as if my body had gotten lighter, but that is not exactly correct. It is almost like I am feeling something grander than myself. Not only that, field of view has changed a bit. It is as if things sort of slowed down for me. I can see every aspect of movements of any sort more clearly than before. For example, the birds flying over there….” Calb pointed at a pair of birds flapping away from them at an angle. “As of now, I can see every aspect of their wings, whereas before, I probably would see faint blurs where the wings are flapping due to the speed at which the birds flap their wings. My guess is that I am seeing little more of the details is because I am processing things at a faster rate than before.”

“So you see things a bit more distinctly….” Taron looked up into the sky to consider something and he continued. “Do you see anything else, maybe something that sort of connects your physical senses with what you see?”

“Emm…No. Not that I can tell.”

“I see. Okay, that just about does it for me. Go ahead and you get some rest too. It seems like you have gained much with the appearance of PIDO, and considering your lack of confidence resulted from having such a small amount of mana, this addition of extra mana should boost some of your confidence. However, just because your mana pool has increased, that does not mean that all of your skills will be upgraded with it. You still have to get used to the different amount of mana, and you also have to understand what changed inside of your body as a whole, resulting from that excess mana before you can produce higher performance that is befitting of your mana pool. Also, it is definitely a possibility that you may find some changes during your meditation. Something should feel a little different than usual. That is a natural result of sudden change in mana pool. Be sure to explore that aspect of your training too. Do you understand what I am getting at?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. I don’t know what other kind of transformations you will experience in the future, but you will not always have someone like me to make you be aware of things at every step. As I have said, I am sending you and Serina on a trip to this place called Chamea Falls. It is a place that Serina have visited on few occasions so there shouldn’t be any problems, but unforeseen things are known to happen from time to time. Though the distance is not that great, circumstances may pop up along the way may to make the trip be much longer than usual, and if any new developments arise within your body while on the journey, your ability to adjust to the change and making the new development work for you may save your life someday. Never take anything for granted. You must keep that in mind!”

“Yes sir.” Calb turned around and headed for the waterfall. Unlike Serina, who took baths inside the house, he was still learning to be “in tuned” with the nature and taking baths under the cold waterfall was the usual practice ever since his training began 4 months ago. Calb wished he would at least make some progress soon. At the rate he was going, he had doubt whether he would ever graduate from having waterfall as his private bath house.

‘Enjoy your luxurious bath Ca~lb!’ Serina was peaking outside of her bathhouse to see how long the two will talk, and when she saw Calb heading to the waterfall for his usual bath, she remembered the miniature PIDO.

Not wanting to respond to Serina’s tease, Calb withdrew the miniature PIDO from Serina.

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Hello Readers!

It has been a long time since my last post. I have had some very important thing to take care of so I had to concentrate solely on that task. I am done with that task, as of now, but I am afraid I won't be posting my chapters like I have done in the past. Therefore, I will only make monthly posts from now on. I know many of you were waiting for the result of the new occurrence in Calb's body, and I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time.

-----MooShoo-----