Thinking about how he almost kissed death's ass, his expression couldn't help but darken:
"And that incompetent captain of mine should have surrendered and survived since I don't think I heard the gunfire go on after my car was blasted. I hope he rotes in the hole they will put him in. I just pity those who were in the same car as him."
Shaking his head, he concentrated on his present circumstances. He furrowed his brows before raising his head to estimate the time through the sun's position.
"There should be about two more hours to go before sunset but..."
He found it weird that he was not tired at all. He had been walking for hours already and he did not even feel the temperature to be unbearable.
"Either this is the end of the world with the climate disorder reaching a new peak or, I am starting to feel the changes brought about by my near death experience."
Now that he thought about it, even the wind felt comfortable to him despite its dryness and the grains of sand it was full of. And speaking of the sand, it was like as long as he had his feet on it he could be a perpetual motion machine or maybe biological machine?
It was a disconcerting experience but at the same time, it was like he was made for the desert and the latter was made for him, welcoming him. It made him feel at home and much more.
Hence, he concentrated on himself, what he was feeling and on the desert.
Since the desert changed him, if he wanted to understand those changes, he could only observe the desert, feel it and interact with it.
He could only count on himself since the old man had not been straightforward with him and he doubted that present common sense, logic and theories could help him.
So, continuing his relentless walk but now without his thoughts running around, he gradually started to feel more and more comfortable, unbothered even by the changes of temperature between day and night. Remarking how his sight was better than ever before, he couldn't help joking to himself:
"I wonder if I got red pupils or white eyes with those changes. I will have to check that as soon as I get my hands on a mirror hehe..."
With his condition, he decided to avoid people as much as possible so, seeing fire in the distance announcing a camp, he deviated a little bit and continued on his way.
This went on for days and nights that he did not bother to count. Without thirst and hunger, with just him and the desert embracing each other, he almost had the impression of being alone in the world, if not for seeing some signs of life from afar from time to time.
With every day and night, he knew the desert better and he made discoveries about himself and his changes.
When he started paying attention, his first discovery apart from his now incredible vision was about his height. He seemed to have taken a few centimeters, going from 1.75 m to about 1.80 m, causing a change in his perspective.
Secondly, he felt as if his skeleton, his body framework had been perfected or at least improved greatly. He felt a sense of stability from his whole being, stability and balance. It also brought a feeling of strength, making him confident in beating his previous self even with atrophied muscles.
Digging deeper, he found the sense of strength he was feeling not manifested by the ability of lifting 100 kg of weight contrary to his previous 50 kg. It was more about a better transmission of force, a better coordination and also a better explosiveness consequently.
For example, to start a sprint or a jump, you need to push against a surface to produce a counter-reaction that will allow you to explode into action.
The improvements Lucas was feeling was about intrinsically better levers arranged with few to no flaw and made to move with better fluidity and harmony. So, with better transmission, there is less consumption for the same movement(stamina, he might last longer), better preservation of the force during transmission from point A to B(strength and speed) and maybe better absorption of things like shock(defense).
"It seems that the main changes or their manifestations are in the bones. It brings some ideas about the possible changes of the next element and their manifestations. I just wonder if there are other changes like density, hardness and other. And, will I maintain my state of not needing water and food outside?"
Thinking about that, he actually already had a preliminary answer to the density questions.
When he started paying attention to himself and the environment, he noticed the wind push affecting him more easily even if he found it comfortable and combining that to his footsteps that were only about half as deep as when he first came to the desert, he could only stay speechless at having weight close to female models.
Stopping lingering on that, he decided to take advantage of it to go back to human civilization faster after all, his days were numbered.
Thus, whenever the wind started blowing from behind him, he would start running while adjusting himself to its rhythm and staying tuned to the desert.