Cyrus woke to find himself back in the hospital bed, unsure of how he got there. Looking down at himself it seemed he didn't have his equipment or armor on. Just another hospital gown took its place. He opened his inventory to find he didn't have any of his old stuff except for the sword obtained from the Withered Dragon. He also noticed another tab had appeared after claiming the Withered Dragon Egg.
[Summons 2/2]
[While Shackled, only half the summons are available]
[Level Intelligence to increase capacity or acquire skill crystal]
[Young Fenrir: Chaos Level 1 (0/200)]
[Withered Dragon Egg: Egg (Chaos Energy 40/50)]
It seemed that after obtaining the second summon had unlocked the tab. While he was looking at how many he could summon, seemed that being shackled was also limiting his summons as well. Lifting up his right arm, he inspected the shackle. Strange markings and symbols appeared on it when he investigated it. When he went and pressed one, it seemed to show a digital dial of two images. A wolf and an egg, which then prompted a window to appear.
[Would you like to summon or feed one of your summons?]
Staring at the screen he decided it was best not to summon them. But the option to feed the summons caught his attention. "Maybe the system is saying I can feed them directly or maybe from my own Chaos Meter? I could test it to find out?" He pondered the question, looking directly at the egg icon. He selected one to feed:
[Which beast would you like to feed?]
He selected the dragon egg, then he could feel his right arm grow hot as chains wrapped around his arm.
[Feeding Withered Dragon Egg to allow it to hatch.]
[Chaos Meter: 65/120]
[Withered Dragon hatched!]
[New summon: Withered Dragon Hatchling Level 1 (0/200)]
He felt the energy drained from him as it consumed his own Chaos Meter to level bring up the level of the Withered Dragon. Once the egg hatched, the chains returned back to the shackle and let go of his arm. Cyrus could feel the sudden loss of the energy, but he now wished to figure out what it would look like. He took off the blanket covering him and leapt out of the bed. The Daily Training had reappeared and he started on it right away.
The training was basic soldier training like when he was back with the FOG, or Fenrir Operations Group. Everything from the "Daily Training" were routine to him. But because of the shackle, his stats were like that of a normal human. Except his DEX stat, which was now always at 2 points. Meaning that the his running speed was back to what it would be if he had doubled his output for the next minute. However, he could just remember that he wasn't supposed to do that. For using your ability to basically cheat your body wouldn't do any good.
For the next few hours he had done the first three parts of the training. Now all that remained was the 200km run. Leaving for the door, he was about to open it as it opened for him and there stood the nurse. She was looking down at her clip board when she walked forward and bumped into him.
"Oh uh, excuse... me..." She looked up at Cyrus who was slightly taller than her and her face blushed. "Oh I am so sorry! Please forgive me, I just came in to check on how you were feeling and to see if you were... why are you sweating?" Cyrus just smiled and watched as she looked him up and down visibly.
He replied, "Physical therapy, have to make sure all is working properly. May I go outside for a light jog?" The nurse nodded and stepped aside. Looking at Cyrus as he walked down the hall. Then he stopped and turned around. "Uh... where is the exit?" She pointed the down the other way of the hallway and he scratched the back of his head. Without looking super sheepish, he walked to where she pointed and headed to the first floor. As he got outside the building, he realized he didn't have any shoes on.
"Well, no sense in stopping regardless of shoes or no shoes." He stretched then proceeded to begin jogging around the building. Which covered 3 city blocks for it was one of the Red Cross buildings that supported Rift Divers. Average people and awakened individuals worked at the Red Cross organization for were the only group that didn't discriminate on who had powers or not. This allowed anyone to enter the medical field, however some had trouble comprehending how some awakened people could recover faster than others. Seeing lost limbs, broken bodies, or even incurable poisons or diseases were common place in the Red Cross buildings.
*****
However, as word had traveled around with the doctors and nurses from other buildings. It soon reached one of the head doctors inside the clinic of New York City. That a man who was the sole survivor of a Chaos Rift that worked for the Fenrir Operations Group had made a full recovery and looked completely uninjured. The head doctor overheard and brought up the files from a friend of theirs.
The doctor pulled up the file and sure enough, there was Cyrus' picture, which made the doctor stand and begin gathering their things. As they were about to leave, they picked up a photo that showed a happy family before the first Chaos Rift opened. Showing a young boy with ashen hair, with grey eyes, and lightly tanned skin. Next to him was a slightly taller woman with copper brown hair and holding the boy in a headlock smiling with him.
"Time to visit my little brother..."
*****
[Stats:]
[Chaos Level: 4]
[Chaos Meter: 5/160]
[HP: 14/14]
[STR: 6 (3)]
[DEX: 5 (2)]
[STM: 4 (2)]
[INT: 4 (2)]
[CEP: 14/14]
A few days passed, Cyrus managed to maintain a quick routine of his Daily Training and getting rewards for it. He had collected 9 points, a loot chest, and the skill crystal. His points came from the daily training and leveling from 2 of the extra Chaos Meter points. This also included the additional 3 points from his Penalty Zone first hour escape.
When he opened the loot chest he had received from the Penalty Zone, it contained two Gamma Crystals and a pistol magazine. When holding the Gamma Crystals, the system again asked him if he would like to devour the crystals. He decided not to for he could also sell them for some cash. Which reminded him that he also had acquired a Beta Crystal from when he killed one of the wolves back in the den. The memory made him shiver only for a brief moment.
When looking at the magazine he got the details of it immediately, which seemed to be quite useful:
[Gunslinger's 9mm Mag: Spend 1 CEP to conjure a Chaos Bullet. These bullets get a bonus damage value based off your INT. Shackled and Unshackled effects apply.]
The next item he wanted to check out was the skill crystal. It didn't have a name of an ability or power. Only when he held it in his hand a prompt appeared:
[Would you like to unlock one of this shackle's skills?]
Selection [Yes] brought up a skills tab that had the name of the shackle on it.
[Shackle of Fenrir's Skills: 1 Unlock Point]
Before he decided what skill to unlock, he decided to store the Gamma crystals, causing them to be consumed by purple flames as they were added to his crystal stash. Looking at the abbreviations of all the crystals, he saw that the system already added the Beta Crystal to his inventory.
[GC: 2 || DC: 0 || BC: 1 || AC: 0 || SC: 0 || UC: 0]
With every now in place he had been given a new set of clothes. A plain white T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of shoes. The system just called them, "Common Clothes" detailing them by their color and where they came from. He found it funny as they all said, "Made in China" on the bottom right of the details. With his release from the hospital he decided to head home and contact his superiors that he will likely be returning to active duty.
But as he was about to exit he stopped and saw a woman in a white doctors cloak, wearing a black dress underneath, had long brown hair, and stood almost a foot taller than him. Who he was looking at was his sister Myra Reinhard. She waved towards him and came inside the building giving her little brother a bear hug.
"Great merciful heavens above I am so happy to see my little storm cloud alive!" She squealed, people around them all turned their heads as he was squished into her chest. This was an unfortunate fate he had as his sister had a tendency to invade his personal space in public. "I saw the medical report and rushed over here as fast as I..."
"Myra," Cyrus cut in, "you are squishing me in a public space!" She looked about and let him go, smiling and giving him a wink. "Now, as impeccable time you always have, I was about to head for home." She grabbed his hand and started pulling him outside.
"Good, then I will drive us there and you can tell me all about what happened!" He told her that he had yet to get all his belongings and had to claim them back at reception. She knew this but couldn't wait any longer. "I will have them send it to your house in the next few hours. Just come on and get in the car already!" As pushy as ever, she dragged him to her car and put him in. He couldn't resist her over energetic nature when it came to her wanting something.
However, he always got strange looks from people that didn't know they were brother and sister. The size difference was the main thing and they looked almost nothing alike. She more took after their mom while Cyrus was told he took after their father. When he was in the car she told him to wait right there and not to go anywhere.
She left to go into the hospital, disappearing around a corner and went to the reception desk. About 5 minutes passed as she returned with a big smile on her face. The sound of her black high heels clicking against the ground until she opened the car door and got in. She started up the vehicle and pulled out of the hospital, driving off to his apartment.
"So," Myra started as she was driving, "mind telling me what happened to you? I read the report and took notes on the situation you were found in." She looked at him briefly, "Why were your clothes damaged but not your body? There were signs of loss of blood on your right arm, yet no injury. What is that shackle for anyway?" Myra was inquisitive and always asked many questions. He didn't know where to start, or how to tell her anything.
Cyrus looked at the shackle and then to his sister, "So, you know how there is always a very rare, almost next to impossible, chance an Aberrant could show up?" She slammed on the breaks, causing the cars behind her to swerve out of the way as they saw her breaking hard.
As the people drove by and swore at them she looked him dead in the eye, "You are not pulling my leg are you?" He looked at Myra and then looked down away from her. Then she raised her voice, "You went up against an Ab..." She looked forward and turned up the music and continued to drive. She decided to stay quiet and scrunch up her face in thought. For Cyrus could see her trying to wrap her brain around it.
They pulled up to a building complex and parked her car in the visitor parking space. A gentleman came over and she showed him her ID card. He nodded and went on his way, while she turned off the car. They sat there in silence for a bit, before Myra turned to look at her little brother.
"Did you... manage... to um..." She was struggling with her words for a moment. Still wrapping her brain around the fact that a Standard level, her brother, managed to kill an Aberrant. "How did you do it?" He explained to her in much greater detail of the events that had happened during the Chaos Rift. Mentioning he had been sleeping less because of a nightmare he had the previous nights before the incident.
She listened and would pose a question to him, "You said you watched it kill the others without batting an eye, but when it looked at you it would wait until you were able to fight back?" He nodded, "And then as you did, you managed to kill it by sacrificing your own arm to defeat it?" Again, he nodded in confirmation. She sat back, "So, did you manage to unlock a power? Aberrants are unique to the world of Chaos as they usually grant someone an ability or summon outside the normal ones that most awakened people have." She pointed at the shackle on his arm.
"Is that what the Aberrant gave you?" he nodded and suggested they go inside to talk.