At first, there was only silence.
No weight. No pain. No light...
and then too much of it.
When Ethan opened his eyes, he found himself standing once again in the white room.
Endless, pure, blinding white that stretched in every direction like someone had erased the universe and left only this single space. The ground had no texture, the air no scent. It was familiar in a way that made his skin crawl.
He frowned, brushing dust from a coat that wasn't there. "Not again…"
His voice echoed softly, swallowed by the stillness. He remembered this place — the strange void where Aimi's voice came from when he lost consciousness the first time he created a mana explosion. It was like standing inside his own mind.
"Where are you, Aimi?" he called out.
The air shimmered. Light rippled like disturbed water and then, something formed in front of him.
Not the usual swirling cluster of blue light he expected, but a figure.
A girl.
She couldn't have been more than ten, small and delicate, with short black hair that framed a translucent blue face. Her eyes glowed faintly with the same color as the energy threads that connected his magitech devices. Her body wasn't entirely solid; it flickered, as if a hologram made by cheap hardware.
Aimi smiled, "Ethan."
He blinked, startled. "You… have a body?"
"I do now," she replied, tilting her head. "Your mental links have stabilized beyond previous parameters. After the last battle, your brain's mental power increased by four hundred and twelve percent."
He stared. "…You're saying my near-death experience gave you legs?"
"Among other features." She glanced down at herself, turning her hands experimentally. They flickered faintly. "I can change this form if you wish. Different height, different…"
"No," Ethan cut her off quickly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Just stay as you are. The glowing blob was fine."
"Statistically speaking, this form is more comforting to human perception," Aimi replied, crossing her arms like a scolding teacher. "You're welcome."
Ethan sighed. "Show me my status panel."
The air before him warped, and faint blue text appeared, hovering in midair.
Designation: Ethan Vale
Nickname: deleted!
Origin: City- Valeria Country-Solaris Planet- unknown
Classification: knight initiative
Affiliation: Young Master of the Vale family
Current Status: ACTIVE - System Unlocked: 30%
Strength: 103/100 (adult) = 1.03
Agility: 105/100 (adult) = 1.05
Constitution: 101/100 (adult) = 1.01
Perception: 102/100 (adult) = 1.02
Intelligence: 343/100 (adult) = 3.43
Mana: 254/100 (adult) = 2.54
Luck: Luck variable not available in data base
Cortical Strain: 5% (LOW)
[SYSTEM TASKS]
Mission 15: Find a proper breathing technique
Timeline: None
Reward: System unlocks knowledge of advanced programming
Penalty for failure: none
Ethan exhaled softly. "So I am at the same level of any D rank rookie minus magic."
"Technically yes," Aimi corrected, "but with your near death experience and new magitech core mk1, you can take down most C ranks with careful planning and little bit of luck"
Ethan blinked. "That's… comforting."
"I thought you'd want the truth,Host," she said simply.
He studied the numbers again, the mana especially. More than one hundred percent increase. The mana explosion clearly changed something to his body, but he can't keep on throwing himself in explosions now can he.
"What about Kael? Did you scan him?"
At the mention of Kael, Aimi's expression turned thoughtful. "I detected something unusual when that happened."
"What kind of unusual?"
"Unknown data." Her voice shifted slightly, taking on a fainter echo. "When Kael triggered his outburst, a secondary energy frequency emerged. Not mana, not electro magnetic flux, but… something that mimicked both."
Ethan frowned. "Hybrid energy?"
"Closer to a harmonized waveform. It appeared just before Kael's final attack. And now…" she looked up, her gaze following something unseen above them "...it's here too."
Ethan followed her eyes. For the first time, he noticed faint motes drifting through the air… tiny points of golden-black light. They pulsed gently, like fireflies under water.
"That wasn't here before," he whispered.
"No," Aimi agreed. "They weren't. These particles resemble ambient mana particles from the physical world, but instead of having red, blue, green color these particles have balck golden color"
"So this place… isn't just my imagination anymore?"
"No idea host, maybe studying Kael will help us understand more"
Ethan studied one of the lights, holding out his hand. A particle floated toward him, brushed his fingertip and dissolved into his skin like warmth.
He shivered. "Feels real."
"It is real," Aimi said. "Or becoming so. That's why I advise you to learn to enter this space voluntarily, without waiting for your body to fail."
"Enter it consciously?" he asked.
She nodded. "With training, yes. Consider it an extension of your neural field. If you can navigate it awake, you should be able to control this space as you want"
Ethan rubbed his chin, thoughtful. "That… doesn't sound impossible. But I don't have any meditation method nor I know how to enter lucid dream"
Suddenly Ethan remembered the manuals for increasing magic output. He never paid them much attention. He could not even move his mana, there was no point reading about how to enlarge a fireball, or increase the volume of water stream.
But, he had noticed Kael doing strange poses for hours, and the small, miniscule improvement of his lightning voltage afterward.
The manual is worth a try. Aimi could assist him filter out useless information.
....
Time had little meaning in the white room. Whether minutes or hours passed, he couldn't tell. But as his mind steadied and the earlier pain faded, his curiosity began to replace exhaustion.
He sat cross-legged on the blank floor and asked Aimi to summon a projection of all his creations. A swirl of holographic blue lines appeared before him, resolving into a circular blueprint: the Magitech Core MK1, his latest invention, the very thing that had saved his life.
"Alright," he muttered. "You and I have some bugs to fix."
He began to redraw circuits in the air with his fingers. With every gesture, the design changed, components reformed, energy routes straightened, feedback nodes optimized.
Aimi circled him curiously, watching as he worked. "Your processing speed has increased," she observed. "You're visualizing Maxwell's equations without an external interface."
"Yes, the four hundred percent improvement to mental power is insane" he murmured. "Of course I still need your help solving the vectors, my extra brain."
"I prefer the term partner."
"Fine, partner."
Aimi's lips curved a little bit.
After upgrading the Magitech core mk1, the instability factor has reduced to less than 1%.
Ethan paused, tapping one of the projections. "But "the hand of thor" And a crossbow aren't enough. If I want to increase my damage output. That means…."
"More training?"
"Huh? Why? Let's build an exoskeleton. We can make the model now"
Ethan started noting down things he wants to integrate.
"Strength. Agility. Shock absorption."
Aimi's eyes lit faintly. "What about a hydraulic system to improve your punch and kicks?"
"Exactly." Ethan smirked. "Something that lets me punch through a wall without breaking my arm. Though it will need an accumulator to store energy first then release at once"
The blueprints unfolded around him 3-D sketches of limbs, servos coiling like circuitry beneath translucent plating. The design was crude but alive, the first draft of something that would one day reshape the battlefield.
For a long time, neither spoke. The white room glowed softly around them, illuminated by lines of his imagination turned schematic reality.
Finally, Aimi's voice broke the silence. "Your recovery is accelerating. Soon, your physical body will wake."
Ethan glanced at her. "How soon?"
"Less than twenty minutes."
He sighed. "Always when it's getting interesting."
Aimi smiled faintly. "You can come back. Next time, on purpose."
"Yeah," he said softly, rising to his feet. "Next time."
The lights began to dim. The white faded into shadow. Aimi's transparent form flickered once, and then vanished like a reflection in disturbed water.
Ethan took one last look at the floating blueprint, committing it to memory.
The Magitech Core MK2 pulsed once in blue light and the world dissolved.
When he opened his eyes again, the ceiling above him was no longer white.
It was gold.
Ethan gasped as air rushed back into his lungs. For a moment, the world tilted, sound returning in waves: the faint chirping of birds outside, the whisper of curtains stirred by wind, the soft breathing of someone near him.
Aimi's voice crackled faintly in his head, calm as ever.
"Welcome back. Consciousness restored. Try not to move too fast, your body's still recalibrating."
Looking to the side, Temari was asleep on a chair near his bed, farther on another bed Kael was also sleeping like a dead log.
Ethan's movement woke Temari, she first looked at Ethan through half closed eyes and kept on yawning. But realising Ethan was awake she flustered "Oh You are finally awake? Wait here and don't move. I will call mother and physician Remi"
Before Ethan could say something, she was already outside the door like a wind.
"Brat, at least give me a glass of water" Ethan climbed down from his bed, throat dry.
While sipping water from a cup, Ethan came closer to Kael
"Show me Kael's status panel"
Designation: Kael Vale
Origin: City- Valeria Country-Solaris Planet- unknown
Classification: D rank
Affiliation: Bastard of the Vale family
Strength: 4.67
Agility: 4.02
Constitution: 3.78
Perception: 2.82
Intelligence: 1.06
Mana: 5.35
Luck: Luck variable not available in data base
Magic element: Electricity (from observation)
Ethan sprayed water all over the floor. "What? This 11 year old has basic stats of guards of our house? Last time I checked Kael's stats averaged near 1 right?"
"Positive host. It seems the last outburst clearly changed his body. And I have found the strengthening is still continuing. With this rate he will have average stats of 5 by one month."
Ethan looked at Kael with envy, shit why don't I have such a cheat. Just because you have an above average face? Or is it the blond hair?
While Ethan was contemplating if he should take some blood samples from Kael, Temari rushed in with Safrene and Remi at tow.
"Ethan! Didn't I tell you to not get down from the bed?"