Jack looked at the expression on Monty’s face and had to take a step backwards; there was a hunger mixed into the strange smile on his face. He was still coming to grips with his senses and was trying to understand the changes to his body. Despite the pain he felt as the change happened, other than a few small echoes and twinges he felt amazing.

  His body felt different and as he turned to look back at Turrel, he realised he didn't have to look up as much to meet his eyes. He looked down at his arms which seemed longer, and more defined. He checked his entire body and realised this must be it.

  This was his new world makeover. He looked strong and he started to understand how Turrel must have achieved the physique he had. He was shaken out of his inspection by a conversation between the two men he was with.

  “It’s still there… Turrel, it is still there, this is impossible. The vortex is …” Monty’s voice sounded out from behind him.

  “Jack, forgive me for this but I have to test something.” Jack heard Monty continue as he turned to face the man, he watched as he reached out towards him with a finger. As the finger approached, it looked as if the nail grew an inch and a strange green glow surrounded it. Monty then swiped the finger across Jack’s arm, pain flared as he stared down at a small gash left in the finger's wake.

  “Ahhh, what the fuck, man?” Jack exclaimed as he reached over with his other hand to put pressure on the wound. Monty's eyes however were strangely focused on Jack, his eyes had a strange green glow about them as they appeared to look inside Jack rather than at him.

  “Sorry,” he absently said as he continued to look. “Turrel, this is amazing… It is self-regulating. His vortex changed, it increased its amplification to power the weave and then reverted. There is just enough flowing through his system to keep it running.” Monty looked up and met Jack’s eyes, and as he did his eyes widened for a second.

  “Jack, I am so sorry. I got caught up. Your arm should be healed already, I should have warned you or asked for permission first. Truly I am sorry.”

  Jack was confused but he moved his hand and checked his arm. Other than some blood he wiped away, the arm was fine, there was a tiny mark but the skin was fully healed. He wasn't sure if it was because of the changes to his body but if so that was amazing. Thoughts raced in his head about what had happened to him and what it meant. He resolved to make sure he paid more attention the next time Turrel went into exposition mode.

  “Wow, random acts of assault aside... this body is amazing” Jack mentioned as he looked over his body once again.

  “Haha… If only you knew the half of it, Jack…” Turrel mentioned, as he rubbed his temples with one hand.

  Jack looked between the two men, and got the feeling his “Induction” might not have gone as expected. Mainly due to the completely out of character reactions of the two men.

  “Okay, look I get it. I’m pretty special but I’m still a bit in the dark about the why. Is being able to amplify mana really that big of a deal? Also Turrel you made it seem like I would explode the minute I was exposed to mana, but I feel fine. I feel better than I did during the first test.” Jack started as he looked between the two men, trying to glean some piece of information from their posture or facial expressions.

  Turrel looked at him with a blank expression and simply blinked. Long and slow, before he tried to explain.

  “Jack, we normally have months in between the first test and the Induction you just went through, most of which is mainly education about mana and how our world works. We skipped a lot. Yes, amplification is impressive, even when it is at a lower rate.” Turrel walked over and put a hand on Jack's shoulder as he continued.

  “Amplification at the level we saw during your test however is amazing. There are limited areas in our world that produce mana, rifts are the main one and the others are still being studied but they are generally very rare. Rifts normally will only have a certain subset of frequencies that they produce mana for and as you know not everyone can use all frequencies.” He motioned at Monty, who still stood there with his eyes aglow as he stared at Jack.

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  “If our friend with the staring problem over here wants to use his immense powers, he needs to have access to one of the frequencies he can manipulate. If the environment doesn't have that frequency his only option is to utilise an item like the mana gem we used to power the test machine. Those are not cheap and most of them have a very small capacity.” Turrel looked expectantly at Jack for a moment and he waited.

  “Okay, okay, so …. I’m a big deal because I can make a little bit of mana into a bigger bit? I’m normally not a dumb guy but I guess I’m missing some foundational information” Jack responded, still a little confused.

  “Look Jack, Turrel tends to overdo things sometimes. We thought you were a big deal because after you absorbed mana from the environment and it was amplified by your body, you had more than was in the environment in the first place. If someone had access to lossless mana that would be immense in a practical sense.” Monty shook his head in shock.

  “You had better than lossless access, technically someone could sit you in a room, feed you some Life mana, and they would essentially have an endless supply just from the mana your body vented naturally.” Monty said as he cut in before Turrel could continue.

  “No Turrel we don’t have time and Jack needs to understand. Jack, that is why Turrel wanted to rush all of this. If your results got back to the centre, someone powerful would have you locked up in a room somewhere being used as a human battery and there is nothing we could do about it.” He looked at Jack directly in his eyes, not having to tilt his head down as far anymore. His expression was serious.

  “The world is a harsh place, the only check we have against powerful people and their personal agendas is other powerful people and their agendas. Uninducted life, whether intelligent or not, has little to no agency or rights in our world. A life form inducted to the Origin has a lot more, but that wouldn’t be enough by itself to keep you safe. Our plan was to induct you to the Origin and give you the bare minimum training to not die or kill yourself. I was then going to take you to a rift that just formed nearby and help you clear it so you could absorb the rift shard at its core.” Monty smiled while shaking his head as he continued.

  “Being inducted starts a body modification process to make you more suitable for manipulating mana. It burns permanent pathways into your body and then it normally ends. The Origin’s presence stopping the modification before the host's body dies under the stress of change. When someone absorbs a rift shard, they are connected to the Origin once again, how or why I don’t know, Turrel can talk to that later.” Monty gestured as he continued.

  “This connection allows the Origin to finalise the body modification, essentially leaving the host body in the most optimal state to utilise mana. People that finalise this transformation are referred to as Tier One Shardholders, meaning they generally have absorbed one rift shard.” He laughed to himself.

  “Jack… I let curiosity get the better of me during your induction, and in a stroke of luck, whether good or bad I am not yet sure. Your body completed the full modification already.”

  Jack tilted his head a little letting this sink in. He recalled that there did seem to be two distinct phases to his experience but not knowing what to expect he gave it no thought. It did make him wonder what Monty had done, but then he remembered the feeling of the second wave that followed the burning sensation in his veins and opened his mouth to ask about it.

  “But Jack, after or during your modification, I don’t know when. Your amplification changed, this is no longer a simple case of getting you some basic training and safety. I thought you were important before but now... your body and amplification are something that should not be possible, it is able to vary itself.” Monty’s eyes intensified.

  “I don’t expect you to understand but on top of all of that you have the Life frequency, which is right in the middle of the spectrum. Powerful people will fight to get a hold of you as soon as they are aware that you exist. You could potentially change everything but only if you grow more powerful. Some people might want to help you do that and others will kill you as soon as they find out about you.”

  With a stern face he looked at Turrel and shook his head.

  “My influence, while fairly substantial, is not going to amount to much in this case. In all honesty, Jack, if I didn’t feel partly responsible for this I would be apologising to Turrel and wiping my hands clean of all of this.” He stepped forward and clasped an arm around Jack's shoulder as he pushed them both toward Turrel, who was still rubbing his head and seemed deep in thought.

  “I can’t see any way for this to go that doesn't end up with all of us bending some rules a little bit and likely in some deep trouble. Now while Turrel enters his mind palace to think up some options for us we are going to need to fast-track your training a little, regardless of what we do. Now I have seen how your body can heal. I have a few ideas on how we can speed things up but it might be a little… unorthodox, so you have my apologies in advance.”

  Jack felt things slipping away as he was pulled away with Monty, looking over at Turrel who momentarily gave him a slightly apologetic look and shrugged his shoulders. It all just seemed like a lot but he was still reeling from trying to understand his new body, let alone mana and its renewability. He took a breath and chanted his mantra for the last few days, reminding himself to go with the flow and deal with it all when it became a problem, one step in front of the other.