Dawn of the 13th Era

DISCOVERIES

After returning to his lodge, Orion went straight to his room and checked his hand only to find out it was completely fine.

‘Well I guess the timer is a bit short.’

He dropped his bag and walked out to look for his next guinea pig.

Knocking on the door next to his for a few moments without a reply, he banged on it even harder and shouted,

“Emma, come out. I need your favor for a moment.”

A few seconds later he could hear the slow shuffling of feet from the other side of the door, then the door opened, revealing a disheveled Emma rubbing his eyes, staring at Orion with such intensity it felt like he was trying to bore a hole through him.

“What’s it now?”

Orion looked at him without caring about the expression on his face and replied,

“Stretch out your hand. I learnt something interesting so I want to check it. I promise it won’t take more than a minute.”

Looking up, Emma glared at Orion like he was about to jump out and strangle him.

“That’s it? You woke me up from my nap because you wanted to check something on my hand? I was just about to realize my dream of dating Elizabeth and you cut my dream short!!”

“Give me a good reason to spare you and not slam the door shut right now!”

Listening to Emma blabbering and fussing over his destroyed dream of dating his crush, the school belle of Helios University, Orion kept quiet knowing he’d stop and listen to him soon.

As expected, soon Emma stopped ranting, then took a good look at Orion and revealed a stunned look.

Orion looked at him like he had lost it when Emma said,

“Why do I feel like your scar has another branch?”

Listening to this, Orion remembered the recent scar he got the day before and found it reasonable that no one noticed since it would be weird if such a deep wound suddenly appeared as a scab, besides his signature hood x mask combo prevented anyone from noticing anything different. So it was totally normal that one wouldn’t focus on it. But Emma still felt something was weird about his scar, so Orion quickly replied,

“Nah, when has my scar ever changed? It seems you’re too deep in it bro.”

“Really? It does seem like something changed though. Alright, what do you want?”

“Your hand.”

“I’m not gay.”

“And neither am I.”

Without wasting another word he took Emma’s hand, stared into it deeply, this time trying to observe the black clusters carefully and discovered the connection between the clusters in Jerry’s hand was different from Emma’s.

The sizes were also different from each other, but just the first incident the black balls in his hand rushed forward like a tide towards Emma’s hand then returned swiftly after a few seconds.

He let go of Emma's hand and placed it in his pocket with a smile.

“Thanks bro, you can go back to sleep.”

“Like I’ll be able to sleep now.”

"I pray you meet her again!"

Locking the door, Orion watched as the black balls changed form to blue and a light shade of red then intertwined together and the others also changed color to blue and red.

At that moment, he thought about what would happen if he could make some of the black clusters change colors and retain it till it was actually needed. The black clusters were essentially the reason his hand morphed so it was a pretty feasible idea.

‘Emma surely packs a bigger punch than me. I wonder if I would be able to replicate his strength.’

He lifted his normal left hand and slammed it against his right hand, barely feeling anything, then slammed his right hand against his left before feeling his left hand tremble for a moment.

‘This is amazing. I copied only his hand and I was able to pack this much punch. Looks like he’s stronger than I thought, but what if, just what if I was able to copy strong wrestlers? I would become one of the best wrestlers.’

‘Or if I copied football stars or a lot of other sportstars'

Looking at his hands again, he felt like he had opened the door to a new world before thinking.

‘Wait, why would Emma’s punch hurt me so much while mine felt like a pinch? Looks like he’s been going to the gym lately.’

‘Well that’s none of my concern, but what if I could copy a professor’s brain to the exam center? That would be a straight ace.’

Leaving those thoughts behind, he took two packs of instant noodles to cook just to satiate his hunger, thought back to what he had discovered earlier about the animals and plants who also had the glowing little clusters.

The only difference were the thickness that differed and it seemed the clusters wouldn’t respond no matter how much he touched them.

This filled him with disappointment since the shape-shifters in stories and movies could turn into anything, some could even turn into swords and shields, but it seemed he couldn’t copy anything other than humans.

Although this discovery disappointed him a little, he was still enthusiastic and maybe, who knows, he might be able to extend his limits in the future.

Just as he was packing up and washing the dishes he decided,

‘The best place to test my abilities without being noticed are crowded places where I can touch people and blend in, and I can also check if I can transform my whole body!’

Right then he decided the best place with such features, which would be his next destination.