A dim light of a single desk lamp flickered in Rion's sparsely furnished apartment with only the sound of his distant traffic filtering in through the windows.
He flexed his fingers, his palms tingling with a familiar sensation. With a deep breath, he focused, and thin blue arcs of electricity danced across his skin. The bolts sizzled faintly, their light flickering like tiny fireflies before dissipating into the air.
"It's getting easier," he muttered, his voice tinged with satisfaction. He held his hand up, staring at the residual origin energy flickering across his fingertips. "Still not perfect, but better."
Straightening up, he grabbed a towel from the back of a chair and wiped the sweat from his face, his thoughts already settling on his latest obsession. The thing that had both plagued and fascinated him since his arrival in this strange world— his Resonance adept ability.
The journey to this point had been anything but easy. Since he had begun to grasp control over his new body, Rion had thrown himself into hours of rigorous experimentation, pushing his Resonance ability to its limits. The small table in the corner of his apartment bore the scars of his efforts—charred wires, cracked circuit boards, and half-melted components piled in a haphazard heap.
Rion walked over to the desk, picked up a small device resembling a handheld radio, and turned it over in his hands. His experiments were methodical, each one building on the last, driven not just by necessity but by an unrelenting curiosity. He wasn't content to simply use his ability; he needed to understand it. The fundamental principles behind how it worked fascinated him.
He placed the radio down, pulled closer a notepad filled with messy scribbles, and flipped to a fresh page. "What did I want to write again?" he mused, tapping the pen against his chin. "Oh yeah, the new theories on conductivity…"
As he wrote down some of his new findings, his thoughts wandered back to that fateful day when Raph had first analyzed his ability. He could still hear the instructor's voice, calm and clinical, explaining how his Resonance interacted with devices. It wasn't magic, though it might as well have been to the people of this world.
Unlike a plebian like his former self who accepted this at face value, he was very different. He had come from a very advanced world where things like this would be considered fantasy at best or escapism at worst. This is why he was interested in understanding the true nature of his ability. He was not content with merely using it; he wanted to know it. He wanted to understand the fundamental principles that allowed him to manipulate reality in such a way.
And with all the experiments he had performed, his understanding of his ability had deepened immensely. Essentially, his Resonance enables him to interact with the core mechanisms of suitable devices—such as circuits, magnetic fields, and energy conduits—to amplify their output, efficiency, and overall performance.
His experiments were meticulous, each step guided by his methodical nature. He started small, testing his ability on simple devices—a flashlight, a handheld fan, a basic heater. He would close his eyes, letting his senses reach out to the core mechanisms of each item, feeling the subtle hum of their electronic and magnetic components.
This way, he confirmed some of the base guidelines related to his ability. For example, he couldn't just connect a normal household knife to an energy source and expect it to cut sharper or something. But he could slightly amplify the signal strength of a communication radio to overcome interference.
Some time after he jotted down the aim of the day's experiment, he dropped the notebook and sat at the table, a small clock in front of him.
"Let's see what you can handle," Rion murmured, eyeing a small electric motor he'd scavenged from the junkyard.
He got to work dismantling the motor, carefully extracting its components. His fingers moved with practiced precision, the tools an extension of his will. As he worked, he muttered to himself, verbalizing his thoughts in a stream of consciousness.
IfI adjust the wiring to reduce resistance... and reinforce the casing with a heat-resistant alloy... maybe it can handle a 5% boost without frying the system.
Minutes passed in a blur of activity. By the time he stepped back, the motor was reassembled, its internals gleaming with the polished components he'd salvaged. He connected it to a power source and held his breath as he flipped the switch.
The motor hummed to life, its steady rhythm a soothing counterpoint to his racing thoughts.
"Alright, that's the baseline," he muttered, noting the motor's speed. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and activated his ability. A faint hum filling the air as a gentle pulse of energy flowed through his body to his fingertips, discharging thin continuous arcs of electricity that suffused the motor.
He opened his eyes and observed the rotor's slightly increased motion. "Two percent boost, maybe three," he muttered. He adjusted his hand's position and frowned. "Feels stable. Let's see if it can handle more."
Shifting gears, he attempted to carefully increase the intensity of his energy, but his efforts were met with failure. A familiar rush surged through him, his muscles tightening as raw energy coursed through his body. The arcs of electricity thickened, their luminosity growing brighter with each passing moment. The motor fed on this increase and whirred louder, its speed escalating at an alarming rate.
"Oh shit! Not again!" he muttered as the motor operated at a level it could not handle. Then, with a sharp pop, smoke billowed from the motor as it seized up, its internals fried.
He coughed, a harsh, ragged sound as he swatted at the acrid smoke. The once-focused bolts of electricity, now wild and uncontrolled, continued to lash out at the table, their energy dissipating harmlessly. After a brief amount of time, the display of power faded, leaving behind a trail of charred remnants. His muscles, taut and aching, protested against the exertion. Gasping for air, he struggled to regain control of his labored breathing.
As this period of weakness began to wane, he leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the charred remnants of the motor. The acrid smell of burnt electronics lingered in the air, a familiar companion to his late-night experiments.
"Overclock's still too much for low-grade components," he muttered as he rubbed his temples. "I need better materials. This junk won't cut it."
He jotted down notes in his pad, detailing the experiment's outcome. Yet, there was no anger, no frustration. Failure was a part of the process. Each burnt wire, each shattered component, brought him closer to understanding the limitations—and the potential—of his Resonance ability.
He had taken to naming the two modes of his ability—[Normal] mode and [Overclock] mode—though the names were more for his amusement than practicality. [Normal] mode was when he activated his ability in its base form. For its duration of about 52 seconds, it gave any connected devices a slight boost in efficiency, a minor enhancement of about 2% to 4%. It was useful, reliable, and didn't tax his body too much.
[Overclock] mode, however, was a different beast entirely. Activating it was akin to unleashing a torrent of raw energy, a surge of origin energy that coursed through his veins, pushing his body to its absolute limit. For a fleeting 22 or so seconds, any device he infused with his ability would experience a dramatic surge in performance, its effectiveness amplified by a staggering 8% to 10% beyond its average operational capacity. It was a breathtaking display of power, a glimpse into the extraordinary potential of his Resonance ability.
Yet, this power came at a steep cost. The intense energy surge could cause devices to overheat or suffer structural degradation based on the quality of the materials used to make it. More importantly, once activated, Overclock mode was a relentless force, consuming his energy reserves at an alarming rate. He could not simply deactivate it at will; it would continue to drain him until his energy was completely depleted.
The physical toll was immense. As the last vestiges of his energy faded, his body would feel as if it had just completed a grueling marathon.
A big part of his training was geared at finding a way to seamlessly switch between both modes, kind of like adjusting a volume dial on a sound system.
He tapped his pen against the notepad, staring at the rough sketch of his ability's interaction with the motor. The diagram was messy, but it captured the essence of what he'd learned tonight.
As soon as he finished writing, he packed up the note and went to sleep.
As the weeks passed, Rion's understanding of his ability deepened. He discovered patterns in how Resonance interacted with different materials. Non-conductive ceramics and certain alloys barely responded, while high-conductivity metals thrived under his influence. He also confirmed something that had been nagging at him since Raph's analysis: the enhancements his ability provided were uniform across devices.
A three percent boost to a water heater might seem trivial, but apply that same boost to an industrial generator, and the results were staggering.
"It's like… a flat multiplier," he mused, jotting down notes in his journal. "The scale doesn't matter, only the mechanism."
This uniform enhancement opened up a world of possibilities. It meant that his ability wasn't constrained by size or complexity, only by the material properties of the device.
Of course, the actual mechanism behind how his exotic ability even worked in the first place was still a mystery to Rion. However, in his opinion, it was more important for him to comprehend its limitations than embark on a research direction he was currently ill-equipped for.
The most egregious limitation that he could think of, apart from the duration of his ability, was the sluggish pace at which his internal origin energy replenished. In stark contrast to the rapid recovery he experienced during his training session with Instructor Raph, this prolonged recharge time severely hampered his training process.
With each use of his ability, he was forced to endure an extended period of recovery, significantly reducing the amount of effective training he could accomplish in a given day. This limitation not only hindered his progress but also frustrated his desire to master his newfound power.
"Could've been the room… or that potion," he grumbled. "Seriously, what the hell was in that stuff?"
Despite the setbacks, Rion pushed forward, his determination unwavering. He trained relentlessly, his body growing stronger and more attuned to his abilities. He practiced switching between [Normal] and [Overclock] modes, trying to smooth the transition. Each attempt left him drained, but the progress was undeniable.
Outside of his experiments, Rion's days were a blur of training and reconnaissance. By day, he attended classes at the mechanic college, blending in with the other students as he absorbed the basics of this world's technology.
With renewed vigor, he spent countless hours in his workshop, delving into locally accessible blueprints and dissecting the intricacies of machinery he could get his hands on. Then, he experimented with different configurations of devices, and pushing the boundaries of what was possible.
By night, he explored the city more, venturing into its darker corners in search of information. The criminal underworld was a tangled web of rival factions and hidden agendas, but Rion navigated it with the same methodical approach he applied to his experiments. Every conversation he overheard, every detail he observed, added to his growing arsenal of knowledge as he pieced together the threads of the city's power structure.
Minor cosmetic changes allowed him to move undetected an leave no trace. To him, it was a necessary façade, a way to gather intelligence without exposing his true identity.
As time passed and his mastery over his body and skills grew, so did Rion's confidence in navigating the treacherous path he had chosen. His understanding of the world—and his place within it—deepened with each passing day. He was no longer just a stranger in a strange world. He was carving out a place for himself, one experiment, one fight, one step at a time.
He had built a foundation for the future he envisioned, though there was still much to do. The path ahead was fraught with challenges, but Rion welcomed them.
In this way, six months quietly passed since he arrived in this new world.