It started with a shiver under his skin. Then, Lazar felt some of the tension in his muscles ease, and when he adjusted his posture, his footing felt steadier.
Almost without thinking, he put his body through a few small tests : a twist of each wrist, a shift of his shoulders, then one prudent step forward.
At first glance, nothing fundamental had changed in the way he moved. And yet, there was a subtle but undeniable sense of greater control, as if the hand holding the reins of his body became firmer.
Suddenly, a mild irritation prickled at his eyes, while the faint hum of the ventilation above his head became more distinct.
As the stinging sensation subsided, Lazar shifted his gaze toward the kitchen on the other end of the hallway, and, as if a thin veil had been lifted from his vision, the interior seemed a little easier to make out than before.
A grin flashed across his face.
The changes were subtle enough that, had they come gradually, he might not have noticed them at all. But because they had arrived all at once, he could feel their full weight.
'Good thing I didn't blow all my points at once.' He thought, and for more than one reason.
To begin with, before spending a single point at his disposal, Lazar anchored himself in one simple fact : he had no idea what increasing his attributes would actually do to his body.
So, as tempting as it was to throw three points into one attribute at once, seeing what a single point changed first remained the only decision that made any sense.
Another reason for his caution was that, for all he knew, increasing an attribute might leave his body needing time to catch up with itself, and if, for example, he was caught in a fight during that window, that would be the last thing he needed.
At that point, what should have been an improvement would instead turn into a handicap. And if a single point increase could already cause a disruption, it stood to reason that the problem would be increasingly worse with a bigger increase.
That said, now that he had seen for himself what a single point increase in two different attributes actually did, Lazar had reached a conclusion : the transition was manageable enough that no true adjustment period seemed necessary before he could function normally.
That made the points he had kept in reserve considerably more valuable.
Rather than dumping them right away, Lazar chose to hold onto them for now, intending to spend them only when the next problem he would face cornered him into choosing the one improvement that could actually tip the balance in his favor.
That kind of flexibility was valuable in itself.
All things considered, Lazar had perhaps expected a bit more from the attribute points. Their effects were modest, enough that a greedier man might have felt scammed. Still, he wasn't going to spit on more power, no matter how small it was.
What mattered was the long game. Small as the improvements were now, their cumulative effect over several level-ups promised something really impressive.
Point by point, Lazar could already picture himself becoming something that would leave the human scale far behind.
And that prospect made him almost eager to see what came next.
But, as tempting as it was to dwell on the promise of growing stronger, a far more immediate concern quickly shoved its way back to the front of his mind.
When he chose not to follow Mamma and Viktor down that street, it wasn't because he didn't want to, but because he knew he had to go somewhere else.
And later, under the shower, when the only sounds left were the running water and his own thoughts, Lazar reached a conclusion about what was his top priority right now : whatever came next, he needed to reach Boston as quickly as possible and make sure his adoptive mother was unharmed.
He couldn't pretend he had ever been much of a son to her, mostly because he had never fully allowed himself to think of himself as her son in the first place. Even so, the second he got out of that street, his first instinct had been to reach for his phone and try to call her.
The problem was, the call went nowhere. The network was dead.
Without wasting another second, Lazar snatched Viktor's folder from the same dresser where he had set his weapon earlier, then headed for the door.
'They probably gave up on this floor and moved on to check the others, hoping to find someone who knew something.' He told himself after seeing no movement through the peephole and hearing not so much as a whisper beyond the door.
As soon as he opened the door, He went straight for the elevator.
BIP
He pressed the elevator call button and lifted his eyes to the glowing number above the doors.
'Fourth floor.' A flicker of irritation crossed his face. The elevator in this building was excruciatingly slow, and the longer it took to come, the greater the odds that someone would corner him with questions he couldn't be bothered to answer.
'Fuck it. I'm taking the stairs.' He gave up on waiting the instant he heard hurried footsteps break out behind one of the apartment doors nearby.
Fortunately, when Lazar began descending the stairwell, not a single sound hinted at anyone's presence. And by the time he reached the door to the underground parking where his car was parked, nothing had happened to prove him wrong.
The only problem was that, as he reached for the door, his eyes caught on the pool of blood spreading across the threshold.
He withdrew his hand, deciding against opening the door now that there was a very real chance something dangerous was waiting on the other side.
However, he had not entirely abandoned the idea of going into the parking. If the danger waiting beyond that door proved manageable, he would deal with it.
How was he supposed to determine that? He had something in mind, sort of...
Lazar headed back up one floor and stepped into the lobby again, where he called the elevator.
About a minute later, it finally arrived, and the doors slid open.
Without setting foot inside, he pressed the button for the underground parking and left the elevator to make the trip alone while he took the stairs.
When Lazar found himself standing before the door again, the sound of hurried footsteps moving away reached him from beyond it.
It was a revealing detail.
When the elevator started going down, whatever was on the other side of the door had immediately understood what it implied, and the hurried retreat suggested it did not like the implication.
'A human, not a monster.' That was the conclusion he leaned toward, without fully ruling out the other alternative.
Lazar cautiously cracked the door open, only to realize the situation on the other side was far more complicated than he had pictured.