Kyne did not hesitate at the edge of the nest.
His body launched itself into the void with a powerful push, like a diver. For an instant, he hovered in the air, suspended between the cliff, before gravity claimed him.
The wind was the first sensation, a screaming roar that began as a whisper and quickly turned into a deafening thunder.
It struck his naked face, pulling his skin back, filling his lungs with icy air. His hair, which had never mattered much to him, flew like a black banner against the dawning sky.
The view was spectacular.
The forest stretched beneath him like a blue carpet embroidered with points of silvery light. The lake he had spotted earlier shimmered, reflecting the first rays of sunlight.
The green aurora still danced in the east, its ethereal ribbons blending with the pink clouds of dawn.
Kyne opened his arms, feeling the air rush between his fingers. It was not like flying but like being part of the sky. Like a human meteor, a shooting star made of flesh.
He twisted in the air, first facing the ground, then on his back, watching the cliff he had jumped from rapidly recede.
The Steel Eagle had disappeared, hovering at a certain distance, watching with those dark eyes that now seemed more curious than predatory.
"HAHAHAHA!" The laughter escaped him before he could contain it, stolen by the wind, yet still echoing within his own mind. It was pure euphoria. Absolute freedom.
For a moment, he almost forgot the inevitable destination. Almost.
The ground rushed toward him at a terrible speed. The detailed view of the forest turned into a blur of colors, then into indistinct shapes, and finally…
The impact.
It was not like the previous fall from the tree. That had been an accident, a surprise. This was a choice, a planned encounter with death.
Kyne felt every millisecond.
First, his feet struck the highest branches of the trees. They did not break, they exploded. Bone fragments tore through flesh and muscle like shrapnel.
The pain was instantly overwhelming, but his mind remained clear, observing.
Then his torso slammed into a thick trunk. His spine snapped with a crack he heard more than felt. Internal organs were compressed with such force that some simply ruptured. His lungs collapsed.
The fall continued, his body now a sack of broken bones smashing into branch after branch. Each impact brought a new wave of pain, a new fracture, and a new rupture.
But the worst was yet to come.
The ground.
The final impact was so violent that Kyne did not feel it as pain. It was annihilation. His skull disintegrated against a moss-covered rock.
His brain, that marvel of morbid curiosity, was reduced to a red and gray paste.
Consciousness persisted for a fraction of a second after what should have been the end. Long enough for one last thought.
'Perfect.'
…
[You died by throwing yourself from a high place.]
[Fall Resistance updated to Rank F]
[Impact Resistance updated to Rank F+]
[You will resurrect in 3… 2… 1…]
Kyne woke up laughing.
It was not a controlled or restrained laugh. It was a fit of pure hysteria, a storm of laughter that shook his newly resurrected body against the forest floor where his fall had ended.
"HAHAHA! THAT! THAT WAS—!" He could barely breathe between laughs.
"BETTER THAN ANYTHING I COULD HAVE IMAGINED!"
Tears streamed from his eyes, not from pain, but from pure ecstasy. He rolled onto his back, staring up at the sky through the canopy of trees, still laughing as he caught his breath.
After a minute, the laughter faded into broken chuckles, then into a wide, satisfied smile.
He sat up, brushing dirt and leaf fragments from his body. Intact, perfect, as always after a resurrection, and then he murmured.
"Status."
The screen appeared instantly.
————————————————————
[Immortal Adaptation System — Status]
Name: Kyne Fritz
Age: 18
Talents: Immortal Adaptation (Unknown Rank)
Rank: F-
[Adaptations] (-)
{Spatial Pressure Resistance (A-), Slash Resistance (F+), Piercing Resistance (F+), Impact Resistance (F), Fall Resistance (F), Mana Affinity (F-), Poison Resistance (F-)}
————————————————————
Kyne studied the changes. His resistance had improved significantly. Slash Resistance and Piercing Resistance were almost at Rank E. Fall Resistance and Impact Resistance were at Rank F.
It was tangible and measurable progress.
"This is truly incredible." He murmured, his fingers passing through the air where the letters floated.
"How can something like this exist…?"
An idea occurred to him. He cleared his throat and spoke clearly.
"System, are you there?"
…
No response. Only the static screen, floating impassively.
"Interface, is there any intelligence operating you?"
Silence.
"Looks like there isn't." Kyne concluded, somewhat disappointed but not surprised.
"This system doesn't have any kind of intelligence to answer me or clear doubts. It seems to be… just a tool. A mechanism."
He closed the screen with a thought and stood up. His legs, which moments earlier had been reduced to fragments, supported him perfectly.
Kyne looked at the ground. He had not fallen in a random place. During the fall, even amid the euphoria and imminent pain, he had managed to orient himself slightly toward the direction where the lake he had seen from the cliff was.
Now, he was only a few hundred meters from the shore.
But before moving on, something bothered him. His throat was still dry. His stomach still growled with hunger. He touched his own stomach, frowning.
"Do I come back exactly as I was… at my first death?"
The thought appeared suddenly, but it made sense in his mind. His body returned perfectly. Without wounds, without damage, but his physiological needs persisted. Hunger, thirst, fatigue… all of it remained.
Perhaps the system restored only physical damage, but not physiological states. Or perhaps there was a "default state" to which he always returned.
The state he had been in during his first death in the apartment. Slightly hungry, moderately thirsty.