I cracked open my tired eyes and blinked up at the plain tan ceiling of the apartment. Valerie must have moved me to my new room, because I found myself laying under the covers of an unfamiliar bed.

  I yawned and stretched my arms before rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I’d gotten a full night’s sleep, but the quality was lacking. The horrors I had experienced in the last 24 hours had plagued my nightmares. I was keenly aware that a single mistake was all it would have taken for both of us to have been killed.

  But, against all odds, we made it out alive. Even if we had new problems to solve. Since I couldn’t do anything in my current state, my first priority was to increase my strength. And the best way to do that was to understand my situation.

  The encounter with the tunnel monster showed me just how vulnerable we truly were down here. Our lack of strength was obvious, and it’d be the first problem I would have to correct.

  I didn’t believe in the term ‘knowledge is power’, it was much more nuanced than that. Instead, I held firm to the idea that knowledge was, and is, a force multiplier.

  For example, if you had power but no knowledge you could still make a name for yourself through your own strength. But if you had knowledge, but no way to use it, that knowledge was effectively useless at best, and dangerous at worst. Because someone with power could steal that knowledge from you.

  But by combining the two, you could use your knowledge to enhance your power, making you far stronger as a result.

  This meant that I needed to both bring my body back up to a functioning state, as well as learning all I could about this new and hostile world.

  Luckily, both were things that were well within my current capabilities.

  I strained my weak arms as I brought myself into a sitting position on the bed and stopped in surprise as I saw myself in a wall mirror for the first time since waking up in this world.

  Two black horns sat atop a head of silvery hair that fell all the way to my mid-back. My face was thin from my time in the coma, but had a strong facial structure that I was sure would turn me into quite the beauty once I filled out. White scales with tinges of pink crested along my cheekbones, not quite reaching my nose, highlighting my violet eyes. There were scales that ran on the outside of my forearms and hands and ended in sharp claws that stood in place of my nails. My lower legs and feet shared a similar structure as my arms. The scaled tail that I had almost forgotten existed sprouted from my lower back and extended for about five feet before tapering to a point.

  It was strange, seeing an unfamiliar face in my reflection looking back at me. I knew the girl staring back at me in the mirror wasn’t me, but for some reason, I only felt familiarity at the sight instead of the guilt I’d experienced earlier. Like this was how it should be.

  Why did I feel that way when I looked at myself?

  Myself… huh, it seemed I was already thinking of this body as my own.

  I shook my head and looked away from the reflection. I wouldn’t get any answers by sitting around and speculating. It was time for action.

  I gradually lifted myself from the bed, nearly collapsing on my trembling legs as my feet touched the floor. I had to quickly lean against the wall to avoid falling over.

  I didn’t know how long it would take to get my strength back, but I had to start somewhere. It would also ease Valerie’s workload if I could get around without her help. So I carefully made my way out of my small, nearly empty room and into the main apartment.

  It was almost surprising that there wasn’t any sunlight coming in through the window, but then I remembered that we were underground. A place where sunlight never reached.

  Valerie must have already left for the Aether’s Flame, because her door was open, and I didn’t see her inside or anywhere else in the apartment. I shrugged and got back to my simple exercise of moving around the room.

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  It was a struggle. My body stubbornly refused to cooperate, forcing me to steady myself after every step, but something was strange.

  My body didn’t feel sore from yesterday’s events.

  No, if anything I felt just a tiny bit stronger. Was it because of the nanite swarm the strange text mentioned?

  I made my way over to sofa and lowered myself down into the soft cushions.

  Could I get it to pop up again if I tried? But how would I do that? I hoped I wouldn’t have to go around saying ‘show status’ to get it to appear.

  Closing my eyes and focusing on what I remembered about the text, it showed up in my vision, sharp and clear even with my eyes closed.

  [Nanite Swarm Efficiency: .5%]

  I blinked open my eyes in surprise, but even with my eyes now open it stayed in view. Was it just the nanites tricking my brain into believing that I was seeing something that wasn’t there, or was it really floating on the edge of my vision? I guess it wasn’t very important, probably best not to dwell on it.

  “Point five percent efficiency, huh.” I muttered in thought. Did that mean that it could get better? Even as it was now, it could heal a wound from a piece of rebar tearing a hole in my arm, I wondered how strong it could get in the future. Maybe it would heal faster?

  Closing my eyes again, I thought back to how I had originally got the pop-up, it was just after killing that tunnel monster. That must mean that it would get stronger the more creatures I killed, right?

  I sighed and opened my eyes. I was in no state to hunt down monsters even if I had a weapon. I should continue getting physically stronger before attempting anything dangerous. I didn’t even know how much damage the nanite swarm could heal yet. Or if there was even a limit. It might even have negative effects that I didn’t know about, so better to stray on the side of caution.

  ———

  I spent the rest of the day working on various light exercises to increase my muscle strength. I had the realization that, with the nanites healing me, even if they took a full day to do so, I could increase my body strength many times faster than a normal person doing the same type of workout because I didn’t need to worry about recovery time.

  It would’ve been foolish not to abuse such an advantage.

  I could already feel it working as the day neared its end, though I didn’t get any more pop-ups from the nanites, which basically confirmed that the efficiency they mentioned would only increase after killing monsters. I wondered why they were designed that way, but dismissed it just as quickly. It was a mystery to save for later.

  I was currently taking a break on the sofa, eating some leftover pizza, and attempting to find out more about the pop-ups and what else they could tell me. I wasn’t having any luck though as the door clicked open, revealing my sister’s haggard face as she stepped inside.

  “Hey, Nyxia.” She smiled once she noticed me in the room. “I hope it wasn’t too boring for you on your own?”

  “I kept myself entertained,” I replied, looking her over. “I’m more worried about you though. You look more tired than you did yesterday.”

  She nodded briefly and set her card down on the table before approaching the sofa and sinking tiredly into its softness.

  “Yeah, it will take some getting used to.” She yawned and rubbed her eyes, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out two hand-held devices that looked like glass cards with metal outlines. Come to think of it, they reminded me of the hologram thing I saw back in the hospital. “Zerava was telling the truth about it paying well though. I was able to get us both new shards.” She continued, handing one to me.

  “Thanks, but what’s a shard?” I asked curiously as I looked it over.

  “Ah, sorry. I keep forgetting about your amnesia. A shard is a piece of tech that you can use to access the Global-Information-Network. Everyone just calls it Genie or G.I.N. though, its full name is far too much of a mouthful. It can also do this,” she tapped her shard a few times, and I felt a slight pull of magic flow from her into it.

  Mine started vibrating a few moments later and two icons appeared on the screen. One to decline the call, and another to accept it. It was so similar to a modern-day phone that I had to wonder if there were people other than me out there who came from earth.

  I tapped the ‘accept’ icon and the screen shifted to show Valerie sitting next to me.

  “Hello!” her voice duplicating due to our proximity.

  “That’s pretty cool.” I muttered as I looked at the device for some kind of camera, but found none. It must be running on some kind of advanced tech I didn’t understand.

  “Now you can call me if you ever run into trouble.” Valerie smiled as she hung up and tucked the shard into her pocket.

  “Thanks again, Valerie. This will help a lot in getting me up to speed.”

  “There’s… one more thing…” Her eyes fell downward, turning almost glassy as she hesitated. “Could you call me Val? I know this is still hard for you, but that’s what you used to call me before… well… before the incident.” Her voice became soft, almost fragile, like she was expecting me to turn her down.

  A lump formed in my throat as a wave of guilt hit me. I still wasn’t sure if it was right for me to call her that. But… with all the effort she was putting into this, the least I could do was call her by a nickname. Even if I would have to grow into it.

  “Sure thing, Val.” I forced a smile, playfully punching her shoulder, bringing a surprised smile to her tired eyes.

  “Thanks, Nyxia.” A relieved sigh escaped her lips as she returned my forced smile with a genuine one.

  I chose not to mention anything about the nanites, she had enough on her plate without me adding to it.