"Alright. I'll call it, I know you've held back all this time though. Haven't you?"
"What are you even talking about?"
Father looks genuinely confused, but he could guess it if he just thought about the other obvious difference between the two of us. The difference that existed only yesterday, but not anymore.
The second blessing that came after my memories and "power", I longed for them to prove I had a right to be alive. Neurograms, further proof that I am special, and the mark I bear that engraves that proof visibly onto my body.
I lift my left arm and turn it over and trigger the sigil to illuminate. The golden glow attracts my father's whole gaze. For once in my life, his eyes didn't look so tired, they seem almost hopeful now.
"You know what I mean."
My words break my father's stupor and stare as he looks at the ground and sighs.
"If you know what that means then it should be obvious that I could never use those against you."
"Then how can beating you like this, be enough, If I don't even know how to fight against someone else with Neurograms?"
"Heh, that's the first time I've ever heard you care about knowing how to fight. But if you're that worried, I guess you can say I have a couple presents for you, it's your birthday after all."
Father promised me all the family wealth if I ever beat him in a sparring match. I knew it was just his way of getting me to try harder, not that it worked. But I don't think he's referring to that for a present.
"Hmmph, so what? Are you planning on holding out on me till after the party?"
"Naturally. Though I will say they aren't all from me, your mother had one for you too."
A shiver runs down my back and suddenly I focus more intently hoping to hear more from father. Instead he simply turns with the practice sword he picked up and heads back to the house. I lose patience and blurt out a childlike plea.
"Come on! You can't just leave me hanging here, at least tell me what they are."
Father stops in his track and turns to speak.
"Heheh, fine I can say this much, it's about her studies, "magic" if you've read about that before. She and I both didn't want you to get into that before you were ready, which you are now."
"Then why wait to hand that kind of stuff over for later tonight? I'll still be here tomorrow morning."
"Well as you said you'll still be here tomorrow morning, so it's better to wait for then instead."
Father gives me a sly smile, it's almost like I gave him a 'get of jail free' card by admitting I'm staying an extra night. Almost makes me feel like resetting things to have him hand them over immediately. But knowing him he probably would've admitted needing more time by the end of it anyway.
"Suit yourself then, old man. How about teaching me about neuros at least since we've both got some time to spare?"
He looks a little surprised before nodding his head.
"That I can do."
***
Father set up a couple of dummies and stares at tree for a brief moment. Then dad clears his throat and begins his lecture.
"Are you familiar with how neuros work?"
"They're bestowed upon humans once they reach the sufficient maturity to wield them. And for the most part you need to have descended from a Neurovant in order to even have the chance to become one yourself."
"Correct, but are you aware that-"
"The neuros you get are most likely inherited from the parents, meaning most people have the same neurograms as their parents?"
I interrupt, trying to skip through his lecture a bit before I realize my mistake.
"If you already know that much is there a point for me to teach you?"
"Huh? No I mean I know at least that, because I spoke with Japhy, I asked you specifically because you're my dad. It's obvious you and I may have the same neurograms, but I don't know what they are. You never really taught me about them like that."
Once I finished speaking, father makes a strange long stare to nowhere. My best guess is he thought of something from the past.
"That's right. I have to apologize for that, it must've slipped my mind to mention my neurograms to you at some point. I wonder if you even recall some of the stories I used to tell you before you turned fourteen."
"You mean from back when they called you a 'hero'? Yeah, I remember a lot of those stories, with the things I've seen today, and felt they don't feel like just stories anymore."
"Oh, so you're catching on already?"
"I mean it's not like I understand the limits or mechanics behind your feats, so basically still on square one."
"Okay. Then let me begin, my five Neurograms include Piercer, two forms of the Shot neurogram, weapon enhancement and strength enhancement."
"That's really the names of the neuros? "
I look at my father with narrowed eyes. That shit sounds goofy as fuck. Then again I was never too into the names of skills in the RPG video games I played, only their effects. Sometimes the skills or abilities were just what's on the tin. Burning, causes burning on enemy, so passive damage after being set on fire, and penetration causes the projectile to pass through one enemy, that kind of stuff. Then again neuros might be named in that same lens of genericism.
"No, the real names are based on the level of the neurogram so it changes the higher it is. I was trying to simplify them to explain what they do. But that does sound more confusing, I get that. Right now mine are called [Steel Piercer], [Rapid Shot], [Uninhibited Shot], [Weapon Symbiosis], and [Mystic Strength]."
Father waits a second to hear my reaction.
"It does sound clearer that way, rapid meaning speed and uninhibited, I can't tell what that changes from the other shot variant, but please go on."
Not that I understand the naming scheme either, it still sounds a tad bit silly. What is this a video game world? Actually this basically is, there's skills in neuros, there's dungeons in rontovaults, and the entire 'divine-spirit' guiding humanity through it and its surrounding rituals and phenomena is called 'The Syneonex', legit it's just one step away from being called the system. Heh.
I'm only aware of it because of its frequent mention throughout many tales, and the fact its responsible for granting humans the neurograms, knowledge and clearly it's also connected to the special altars where the rituals are performed. The test of blood being the most infamous I can recall at this moment.
"Very well. Now, watch my demonstration closely to see how my neurograms work rather than theorize about it. First, look at the way I'm holding this wooden sword right now. Both hands on the hilt, and with my whole body a forward thrust."
As father speaks he mimics all the movements, obviously heavily telegraphed and unimpressive at the moment since he's thrusting in the open air. Then he turns to face one of the standing dummies, and with the same exact motion without the slightest bit of extra effort, repeats it. Except this time the thrust goes right through the dummy like a hot knife to butter.
Father slides the sword out of the dummy equally as easily.
"Can I try?"
"By all means, although you may not have inherited the skill, but there's no harm in trying. I will say that you can't activate [Steel Piercer] through a slash only through thrusts like the one I showed you."
"Alright."
Following father's advice I concentrate on the thought of the wooden sword going right through the dummy. I don't even allow the image of the sword bouncing off the dummy form.
With only the effort needed to lift the wooden sword and a graceful thrust I feel the surge of an unfamiliar sense flow through me as I pierce into the dummy. Just as father had done.
"Good. You're a natural, I'll continue with the 'two' shot neurograms."
Father picks up some stones from the ground and holds them in his palm before once again facing another dummy and continuing his thought.
"The first one, [Rapid Shot], makes it so you can fire off or throw at an impossible rate, without compromising your aim. The other, [Uninhibited Shot], ensures the maximum amount of force throughout the arc of the object thrown, and even digging through objects until the full force is dispersed."
As he states, father fires off the entire handful of stones towards the furthest dummy, each of them rip straight through the wooden sack decorated obstacle. And each shot went through the exact same hole as the first, in fact I can hear the stones travelling through the air and hitting the tree line past the dummy as well.
I could see a slight bit of smoke or vapor that was coming from the perfect hole in the dummy's head left by father's use of his neuros. If he can do that with just stones, what kind of... No, I remember more of the stories now. In the south, warriors in the empire witnessed his feats and titled him the 'One-man Army'.
A lone mercenary connected to no other registered band, held back the march of over a hundred-thousand and slew the strongest among them that attempted to force their way through.
Adding to the awesome power I'm witnessing now, is my realization that Father didn't even need to move or rather it didn't even look like he had thrown anything. He simply opened his palm and the stones shot right where he had intended.
"Tch, sorry, I forgot to show you how to do it yourself, but I'll still guide you. Just go ahead and pick up any old rock you see on the ground."
His words snapping me out of my head, I follow father's instruction and pick up a rock.
"So, just throw it like normal?"
I ask, but father shakes his head.
"I want you to toss it as fast as you can. And concentrate on the flow of the force you're putting into it, imagine going full force, without actually doing so."
Trying my best to understand and follow dad's advice I toss the stone in a sideways sweeping motion from my chest outwards. Right as the stone is leaving my grasp I imagine the full force my body could've mustered if I had thrown with proper form and a full arm swing.
That same unfamiliar sensation envelops my arm from the very start of the throw all the way to the last contact I have with the stone. The stone flies and starts drilling into the vague target I imagined on the center mass of the dummy.
The stone maintains it's placement and crushing force onto the dummy for a couple seconds longer, before finally sliding out of the groove it made and falling to the ground below the dummy.
"Is that how it's supposed to work?"
"At your level? Yeah, that's about right. As for the remaining two neurograms, they're a lot harder to show. One is fairly simple, the other is a bit more complex and requires a bit of understanding of other concepts. [Mystic Strength] makes me stronger. [Weapon Symbiosis], is a lot more complex, and to start to explain it I have to tell you about a couple of other things."
"Is it about magic?"
Of course at this point, one could say the whole aspect of neurograms, and 'The Syneonex', are magic.
"Wow, you really are looking forward to that. However, what I'm meaning to explain to you is that qualities you wouldn't normally think about matter a lot for this neurogram. How much you care about your weapon, how weak you are in comparison to the inherent sturdiness and durability of the weapon, or even your current state of mind and body."
"Oh, so that neuro kind of binds those qualities between the user and the weapon. Does that also mean the weapon inherits even other neuros as qualities from the user?"
"You may not know it but you certainly picked up some things from your mother, sharper than mithril."
I try to think of something to respond with, but even father understood the somber feeling it invokes in me. I bury the thoughts as he continues.
"Although, to clarify, a weapon can only inherit neurograms and abilities from the user that it can apply based on if it's feasible to do so mechanically, for example a sword like this one made of dead materials doesn't have muscles to contract so it cannot apply neurograms like the two
'Shot' variants or [Mystic Strength]. "
"Mm, so what neurogram can you apply a weapon with?"
Father gives a slight grin before continuing.
"Here, I'll show you the process. It's fairly simple, by focusing on the weapon and thinking on the neurogram I wish to apply, the sword itself will produce a hue and..."
Just as father states, the wooden practice sword, glows softly with an amber color, before returning to the same dull brown color of the wood. Father then handles the stick in one hand and lightly whips it through the dummy. Instantly the post it was standing on is slickly cut and the torso topples to the ground. The thud makes me strangely fearful for a moment.
"You put the [Steel Piercer] on it?"
"That's right, while it's connected to me through [Weapon Symbiosis] I can use that neurogram without needing to follow the motion I showed you before. Too bad you can't really take it off once you've grafted the neurogram's power onto the weapon. So, I'll have to dispose of this now since it's too dangerous to train with."
Without any prior warning father holds the wooden weapon from the middle of its fake edge and hilt and snaps it in half. I'm speechless at the sight, even though I could likely do the same without a neurogram. Dad who looks as scrawny as he does in his old age doesn't even look like he broke a sweat from breaking it.
"Go ahead and give a go yourself."
Father tells me as he finishes mincing the wooden practice sword with his bare fingers.
I take a deep breath and stare at the practice sword in my hand, the sensation from before begins to reach the tips of my fingers wrapped around the hilt. Ok, go on and inherit my piercer. I think as if the sword could hear me. The dark wood, like father's did, suddenly emits the same amber radiance and then quiets back to its original appearance.
"Alright."
Walking up to the remaining dummy I hold the sword above my face and then lightly let it drop vertically through the dummy from head to post. No resistance whatsoever and the tip of the wood blade cracks the ground a bit before I lift it back up.
The power of a neurovant is way scarier than I initially thought. What would happen if I tried to touch the edge would it just slash my hand clean off too? What could it do to a regular person if I wasn't careful?
"Here, I'll take of that one too."
Father's words jolt me back into focus, I hesitate to hand him the deadly tool. But, dad just grabs the point end of the sword and has me let go of the hilt.
"It's going to be fine, Relwing, any weapon in your hand will only obey what you wish. It won't activate against something you don't want to pierce through, and even then I'll be fine if you did it by accident. It's not at a level where it could hurt me."
"Right, but I'm just really surprised at its effectiveness."
"Well you should get used to it if you want to get stronger and master it. There's no need to rush but don't be so cautious."
Father breaks my sword apart as he finishes advising me.
"Alright, so for the most part I have just about every neuro you have, do you remember any of mom's?"
It's only natural I'd ask about mother. Not that I ever need an excuse to ask, I never miss the chance to ask about her. Even then, I hardly know anything about mom, she was a neurovant, she was a 'magician', her favorite food was anything with meat in it.
She died soon after I was born, I used to think it was because of me but father kept telling me, women don't die of childbirth, ever. The notion sounds insane to me now more than ever considering what I recall from Earth.
"I do."
Father, tight lipped as always, did not say another word after that.
"I guess I'll just wait to see her present then."
I know for a fact it doesn't matter what I say, no matter how many times I try to pry him for more information on the topic, he doesn't budge. What's so painful about talking about her that he'd never dwell on the thoughts? Did he actually hate mom?
"There's a lot I want to say and a lot I don't, Relwing, that's the name she gave you. I'll tell you more about her tomorrow. She's a hard person to describe but she loved you for as long as she knew you, don't ever question your worth."
Father's foreboding words echo in my mind as he walks away. I fight the tears back, fuck, any little thing can get to me like that. Maybe it's because I didn't have a mom last time and she certainly didn't love me.
The sun begins to tilt over the ring moon of the world. It is getting late.
"Alright, I won't. I'm going to head to the Smith's house they're probably still getting ready, might as well help since it's for me anyway."
"Take care, and have fun, my son."
Father finishes saying before quietly walking inside of the house.
Quicksave.
[Overwrite Quicksave?]
How curious, it asks for confirmation? What is "it" though? Maybe a question for later. Yes, overwrite.
[Quicksave Completed.]