ORION'S MANSION - UNDERGROUND LABORATORY - DAY 14 - 10:30 PM
Orion sat at the dinner table with Cassia and Nyla, eating carefully prepared food that Rene's kitchen systems had made, and he found himself genuinely enjoying the simple normalcy of family dinner despite the extraordinary changes happening to his body and capabilities.
"You look different," Nyla observed with the blunt directness of youth, studying him across the table, "not physically different exactly, but like you're more somehow—is that the third ring?"
"Third ring complete," Orion confirmed with a slight smile, "and yes, I'm enhanced again—sixteen times baseline human capability now, which means I'm stronger and faster and more capable than I was this morning, but the real difference you're sensing is probably the foundation improvements I made before cultivation."
"Foundation improvements?" Cassia asked with interest, setting down her fork.
