Taking on the nurse's advice, Icarus rested for yet another four hours. The sunlight coming from the windows slowly dimmed as the star went below the mountains, putting Red Waters in its dusk time.
'Now this feels better.'
With newfound strength, the Half-machine pushed himself off the bed. While his muscles were still slightly dormant, they had enough strength to walk without looking like jelly.
Rubbing his eyes and running his fingers through black and short hair, Icarus warmed up his legs a bit by striking against the floor twice.
Then, he started walking down the hallways between the beds.
In his path, he came across Alice, the nurse that assisted him.
"Oh! Have you taken a rest?"
"Indeed," Icarus smiled. "I'm good enough to get going already. Have a nice day, Rank 2 Half-machine. Thanks for taking care of me."
Bowing to her, she laughed and did the same.
"It's just my job. Have a great day!"
"Likewise."
Bidding goodbye to Alice, Icarus made his way out of the hospital—a massive facility with different department depending on one's necessity. It ranged from physical care to nanobots' special necessities.
Stepping out, Icarus took a deep breath and noticed that the air—somehow—tasted different.
He furrowed his brow.
'Wait, it's not different…' he clicked his tongue twice. 'I just can taste more things?'
A small insect cricked two meters away from Icarus, making the boy snap his head. It didn't sound overly loud; in fact, it was the usual intensity for such a small animal.
However, he reacted a bit faster than he anticipated.
Blinking twice, Icarus massaged his temple.
'Alright, this is supposedly normal. I think. The body of a Half-machine is bound to have some upgrades, so… let's just take it easy.'
"Hey, look! Another one's up!"
Looking at the source of the voice, Icarus met eyes with a boy who was quickly approaching him. He had orange hair and eyes, the latter striking Icarus firmly.
The eyes looked artificial in a way as if it was done by an AI. They were both too perfect in color, size, and form.
Raising his hand, he said.
"Hey there. Nice eyes."
The boy was surprised for a second but laughed nonetheless.
"Yeah, right? Yours aren't too far off. What a good blue tone you have. I'd have loved getting those."
Icarus went with the flow but abruptly stopped his head mid-nod and widened his eyes. He tilted his head slightly.
"Wait… did you say blue eyes? Don't I have brown eyes?"
"Yeah. Blue. Dark blue in specific. Don't worry; I think that none of us really checked ourselves in a mirror. Come, let's hang out while more Rank 1s come out."
Being dragged by the boy, Icarus could only comply with his request. He didn't understand why the sudden friendliness, the main reason being his lack of social interest.
It would serve as a good way of passing time since he was feeling everything but sleepy, being the exact same as his other companions.
Which, speaking of, were oddly divided into small groups.
Icarus paid some mind to this, and so he went to confirm his suspicions as he arrived at the main pack. He quickly got the conversation going.
"Hey there. How did you guys fare."
"As good as any other," a teen sporting black hair with purple strands and violet eyes replied. "Name's Cebrian. Guess we're stuck with each other now."
Cebrian bowed with terrific accurate precision, to which Icarus replied.
"I'm Icarus. Hope we get along."
"And I'm Eber," he bowed as well.
Releasing their hips from that tension, Cebrian began.
"You have been sleeping for quite a while. You got good results?"
"Yeah, I did."
Icarus mindlessly answered, to which he met with two expectant stares from both Cebrian and Eber. He understood what was going on from that point forward.
Tilting his head, he said.
"Uhh, is there anything else beyond my blue eyes that's too striking?"
"Hmm?" Eber replied. "Oh, no. You still have your black hair, as far as I know. So, what Affinity did you get? Got anything good?"
Icarus laughed: "Come on, can't a man have some mystery? Even so, I'd still like to hear both of your Affinities first."
Cebrian raised an eyebrow but replied.
"Well, it's only fair since we are the ones interested," tapping his bracelet once, Cebrian quickly opened his emails and showed Icarus the exact number.
His first thought was:
'Well, this pretty much says that as long as an Affinity is not too high, there's not a chance of any assassination attempt as Merovea said.'
Reading the email only to realize that he had received the exact same speech, Icarus focused on the last line that contained his Affinity.
'Grade C Affinity of 58%. So close to Grade B.'
Icarus clicked his tongue.
"Edging the border, huh."
Cebrian closed his eyes as his lips dropped a bit, clearly demoralized because of that fact. Eber was hesitant to do so, but he complied in the end.
Opening the email, Icarus read a Grade C Affinity of 51%.
"Well, at least you're beyond the 50% mark," he tried encouraging Eber slightly. "Alright, it's my turn."
Cebrian laughed as Icarus opened the email: "I thought you'd bail on us."
Icarus shook his head.
"I'm a man of word. Here you go," he flipped the email and let both Rank 1s read it.
Their eyes widened as Eber shouted.
"Grade B?! What good luck!"
Icarus cringed at his shout.
"Grade B? There's another Grade B here?"
"No way, who is it?!"
"How lucky, I was just a percentage away from it!"
Before Icarus could realize it, the trio had been surrounded by a swarm of Half-machines wanting to meet the new rare addition to the Grade B group.
Glaring at Eber for a moment, Icarus saw him covering his mouth—having made a mistake. He didn't know if it was genuine or not, but it still pissed him off.
He thought that since they were also close to being Grade B, it meant that the curve would begin to fall beyond the 70% mark.
How the hell was he supposed to know that it fell at 60% instead?!
"Wait, I think read 61%. Did I see that right?"
Cebrian replied.
"Yep, the guy was off the mark by a percentage. Tough luck, Clovas. Seems like someone took your fortune away, haha."
Clovas pulled a bit from his white hair upon confirming his suspicions. He even knelt on the floor, having met someone close to falling down to Grade C.
He was the one that had exactly 60% Affinity.
"You… You lucky dog!" Icarus simply glanced at Clovas, who was trying his best to control his anger.
Icarus replied.
"Luck is luck. Don't worry about it too much."
"Yeah, easy for you to say it! You're not the one on the verge of ascending an entire Grade!"
Inwardly sighing and knowing that he wouldn't escape the situation just like that, Icarus simply let time pass away as he began answering all sorts of stupid questions.
When he started, there were 3 Grade B, 10 Grade C, and 23 Grade D in the group around him. The other Grade B's tried taking some load off his shoulder to the best of their abilities by leaving Icarus some space.
They were rather pleasant to talk to as well.
As time passed, the last Half-machine stepped out of the hospital.
Several Grade D's joined in the end, rising up to 55 and taking more than half of the class. While they were the most discouraged, they still found the strength to praise those with higher grades.
Or at least they thought it was strength.
Icarus knew it was subconscious boot-licking.
He had lived that situation as well enough to identify it.
Grade C raised up to 37, taking more than half of the remaining 45. It was at that moment that Icarus realized how far off the curve's peak he was.
It seemed like 60% was a major turning point, as 12 of those Grade C had that Affinity!
Then, the Grade Bs arrived.
There were only 6 Grade Bs, including Icarus.
He engraved their names fiercely since they were most likely going to become the powerhouses of this new Red Waters generation.
Those were: Tahir, Basil, Lonna, Nia and Ardiv.
Icarus had the lowest percentage of them all at 61%, while the rest hovered between 65% and 72%.
Just from that group alone, any Faction could see that Red Waters had gotten extremely lucky with their batch. If correctly cultivated and guided, they'd become the Faction's next leaders after all.
'Well, not let's see what else comes out of those doors…'
Icarus and the other Grade Bs were sitting on the only large bench in the area, gracefully given by the others Half-machines.
It seemed that, at a larger scale, the boot-licking was the exact same as on Earth. He had long learned how to put up with it, so it didn't bother him as much as it did to the others.
However, after some time, the entire group was shocked after two Grade A Affinities stepped out at the same time!
The first was Ephras, a Grade A, 83% Affinity brown-haired boy. From his awakening, some of his acquaintances could tell that his body had been greatly improved, as his appearance was far more striking.
The second was Rain, a Grade A, 82% Affinity aqua-haired girl. She had most of the boys drooling due to her perfect body and face, their hormones going on a rampage.
'That close… it seems like curves always go down at the jump to each Grade. Perhaps there's more to Grades beyond just having x percentage.'
After the group gave them some time to breathe, they began chatting with each-other. Their Affinity seemed to have played an enormous role in the way they spoke to each other.
Not long after, Rank 4 Merovea appeared from the hospital, accompanied by Red Waters Ayzic and Nuveth.
With a smile, he said.
"Well, we must say that this generation's batch is beyond perfect! Two Grade As and six Grade Bs, we have truly been blessed."
He bowed to the group.
Straightening his back, he said.
"Tomorrow, Nuveth will begin explaining to you the basics of what it means to be a Half-Machine. After a week of intensive lessons, you'll go with Ayzic beyond the Faction's wall to learn about the outside world."
The teenagers' faces brightened up, including Icarus.
He yearned to get himself deep into the Half-machine world ever since he got to know about it. And now that he had the opportunity, his emotions were bubbling out of control.