"Welcome! You must be Marko! Come, come, sit here." A very outgoing voice immediately blasted the mother and son as soon as they entered the room.
Trex, who's still possessing Marko's body, reacted slowly until Eliza tapped him. Shaken awake, Trex immediately went to the chair the man pointed at.
"You, still don't know your name that well, huh?" Michael Sherman asked.
Trex nodded timidly.
"So, it's like this," Michael suddenly took out a large book from his coat. Such a gigantic book but not even bulging at the least in his coat, Trex felt like somewhere within him, a bunch of errors popped up.
Like Illana's notepad, Michael's book began to float and flip through the pages until it stopped on a specific one. Afterward, a spell circle with nine runes appeared below the book. His eyes began to glow blue, and so does his necklace.
"Let's begin with our diagnosis shall we," Michael spoke with a smile.
"Oh… okay…" Trex answered in a trance.
Under the combination of a hex, a spell, a mojo, and a cantrip, Trex's mind short-circuited in an instant. Even his connection to OS or the memories from Jonathan, it was completely detached from him.
Michael then held his necklace as it glowed even brighter.
In contrast, Trex's skin became translucent, slowly too did his muscles and bones leaving only his red blood vessels and the blue mana vessels.
Eliza was already aware of the diagnostic process, which is why she immediately kept mum on the side. Staring at the doctor's solemn face, she couldn't help but feel nervous.
Still, even though she had no background in medicine, she could at least tell that her son's mana vessels are in excellent condition, in the exterior at least.
And she was right.
After that, Michael brought out a cube that looked like a jewelry box. The box began to glow with the constant flow of Michael's mana.
Facing towards the blue and red veins, Michael opened a box that released a blinding flash. The moment the flash dissipated, he closed the box.
Flicking his fingers, the words 'MARKO RHEMI' appeared on top of the box.
Michael Sherman nodded as Trex's clothes, bones, muscles, then skin returned to color.
At this moment, Trex finally woke up.
The moment he reconnected with the smart mind's operating system, a barrage of red text flooded the right side of his vision.
[Connection Error.]
[Connection Error. +99]
[Electromagnetic field around the user is distorted.]
[Light field around the user is distorted.]
[Physical body is experiencing ???]
[Foreign energy was absorbed by the body, contents, and effects unknown.]
[Fatal Error. Metal World is experiencing glitches… +56]
[Vygdrasil's light went down. Error. Error.]
[Smart Mind shutting down]
[Off Log: Turn the smart mind back on.]
Trex could barely read the warnings as waves of dizziness still chaotically disrupts his head.
After organizing all the scanners and imaging tools he used, he talked to Eliza for a bit. Due to his massive headache, Trex couldn't understand a word they were talking about. But he could tell that the doctor was giving some paper that was probably also pulled out from his coat and some gems.
In front of Trex, Michael brought out a small pocketknife. With his glowing fingers, the pocketknife also began to glow.
"This would only prick for a bit," he warned Trex.
Still dizzy, he wasn't able to react at all even after getting pricked.
As Trex's blood entered the knife, Michael immediately turned to Eliza, who already had her finger pointed out. Pricking her too, the pocketknife also absorbed Eliza's blood.
Afterward, Michael shook the knife as the glow slowly faded. At the tip of the handle, a small white crystal was formed.
Seeing the clear crystal with practically no impurities, the mother and doctor looked at each other, relief visible in their eyes.
Michael then nodded to Eliza, and she replied with a smile.
It was only then that the massive nausea invading Trex's head disappeared.
Feeling his stomach churning, Trex placed his hands on his chest as he began to vomit. With a quick reaction, Michael caught the vomit with his hex which he quickly disposed of.
"Are you feeling better now?" Michael asked, clearly much more relaxed compared to earlier.
However, Trex did not notice the change in attitude and could only nod.
"I... What happened?" Trex groggily asked.
"I had to do some very extreme diagnostics on you," Michael explained as he brought out a different cube labeled with Marko.
"A week ago, you've arrived here completely battered and ragged. Your mana veins were inflamed and close to the point of breaking down. Do you remember the spell you casted at the time?"
"I…" Trex suddenly tried to recall as he was pretty sure that smart mind was able to record some things about the event. Unfortunately for him, the smart mind was currently off. As of right now, he had no idea how to turn it on.
"Nothing. I can't remember anything later than yesterday," Trex honestly stated. Which is now actually true. Whether it was the memories of Jonathan, Marko, nor his time as Trex OS, he couldn't recall anything. The only thing that was kept in his mind is the fact that the actual smart mind exists, and he played all night till morning.
Seeing the solemn look of Trex, Michael's tone softened. If earlier he doubted the boy in front of him, after using different mojos and hexes, nothing terrible actually came up. No signs of possession, no cloning, nothing; he was very clean.
"How about this," Michael said as he fished out a marble from his coat. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, pointing to the blue marble in his hand.
"I… I'm not sure… I think that's a mana crystal, right?" Trex answered after a short deliberation.
Michael felt his blood rush. "Could it be?" he thought.
"Why do you believe it to be that way?" the doctor queried.
"I saw it on the game I was playing last night. Spellworm's mana increases every time I spend a turn absorbing mana crystal," Trex answered concisely.
Michael at once deflated. Eliza, on the other side, was calm. Now that most of her doubts are gone, her thoughts went something like, "that's my son! Such a genius, learning actual magic applications through a game!"
"Alright, seems like even without your memories, your love for games didn't disappeared," Michael quipped, which resulted in Trex feeling embarrassed. After few chuckles, his expression changed into one of a professional. With a soft smile, he added, "this would be the last test for today."
Taking out a thingamajig from his coat that certainly looks like a headset, on top of the headset-like thing was a bunch of runes and an indent deep enough to slot something the size of a marble.
"This is called an ARI Headgear, ARI stands for arcanic resonance imaging. We're going to put this in your head to scan and check if there are any more abnormal activities in your noggin'. Maybe we can even find the reason for your memory loss."
Trex nodded. As he was trying to stand up, he asked, "Do I have to…"
Before he could fully stand, Michael beckoned him to stop and sit. "There's no need for anything, I'll just put this in your head, activate the mojo and we're good to go. It won't take long."
Michael stood up and went over behind Trex. Gently, he placed the ARI headgear on Trex's head and slotted a white gem on top. "This is a jade, it's capabilities in storing thoughts are incredible."
"What we're gonna do here is for you to try and recall anything beyond yesterday, even if its fragmented. As long as there is an image, the headgear would be able to save an image of it." Michael explained.
Trex's heart palpitated. If he thought of the metal world or smart mind, wouldn't that show up?
"We'll begin now, alright?"