Dante

Just as the man was staring blankly at the interface in front of him, his phone started ringing.

"Ah. Nurse, could you please get that for me?" He politely asked.

"Sure thing." One of the nurses entered his room and picked up his phone.

"It's your parents." She said, propping the man's phone against his ear.

"Dante, the doctors told us you came back from the dead." A voice came out from the other side of the phone.

"I sure did."

"Now that you're fine you should hurry up and come home, your father and I can't keep up with your siblings and work anymore." The woman sighed. "But we're still very happy you woke up, it's just that without you around our workload is astronomical haha."

'Sure they are. Their disappointment is probably through the roof right now. Me waking up snatched the opportunity of a lifetime for them, now they can't collect any insurance money.' Dante thought. 'Oh well whatever, I finally get a break.'

He hung up the phone and stared at the interface in front of him.

'A system? Close interface.' He tried commanding the screen but to no avail.

'Fuck off.' That seemed to do the trick as the interface closed and shifted to his peripherals again.

He summoned it again with a thought to look at the message displayed.

'So I have a gift now? Not only that but I can get more by doing quests. Cool.'

He looked at his current quest. 'I have to get shot though. Oh well, maybe I can just regenerate. Speaking of, I'm not in any pain, probably because my gift healed everything.'

He twisted his body and limbs around, expecting to be met with resistance and pain yet his body only felt lighter than before allowing him to stretch in ways he didn't think were possible.

Jumping out of bed, he took a few steps and confirmed his suspicions. His body had changed, and drastically at that. He jumped around on the balls of his feet, testing his agility, strength, and magic. Both his strength and agility improved leaps, yet his magic remained the same if not slightly worse.

The doctor walked in again, staring wide-eyed at Dante.

"Well, I guess this is to be expected. People who awaken often find that their physical capabilities have been slightly altered." The doctor said as he grabbed the stethoscope he forgot next to Dante's bed. "If you'd like, I could give you an analysis of your gift."

It was Dante's turn to stare at the doctor. "You'd do that?"

"Of course, I'm also a bit curious about your abilities, maybe they can be used to heal others too. So, what do you say?"

'That makes sense, but do I trust this doctor with my secret? But at the same time, he already knows, so what's the harm in learning a bit more about my ability.' He reasoned.

"I'll do it."

"Good. Seeing as you're already healed, you can follow me right away." The doctor said.

Walking through the white corridors of the hospital, Dante noticed the signature sterile smell of hospitals. A smell he hated with every fiber of his being.

The two men arrived in front of a regular door labeled 'Dr. Alvares'. As they walked in, they were met with a neatly organized office. A desk with a large chair behind it stood in front of them with other chairs stationed in front of the desk.

"Please, take a seat." The doctor sat down in the large chair behind the desk while pointing Dante to one of the chairs in front.

"So this is what we know so far. Your gift allowed you to regenerate whole organs and even repair damaged heart tissue. I don't need to be a cardiologist to tell you that's abnormal.

All this leads me to believe you have been granted a self-regenerative power. But if that power works by stimulating stem cell production or if you have been granted a healing factor, I can't say.

So, what do you say about testing that hypothesis?"

"Test? How?" Dante asked.

"Simple." The doctor reached in his drawer, pulling out a syringe.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Oh please, I've cut into you enough times by now. You'd think we'd be a little closer, no?"

The doctor walked up to Dante and looked at him.

"Fine," Dante said, his excitement to learn about his power outweighing his fear of needles.

"I knew you'd come around. I do hope you'll keep this a secret." He said as he gently inserted the needle into Dante's forearm.

The moment he took it out, the doctor looked at the wound, or rather lack thereof in shock.

"Huh, I guess I was right." He said.

"What just happened?"

"Your wound healed itself as soon as I took the needle out. Simply amazing. And without a cue either, a passive gift." The doctor said. "Anyway, that will have to do for today. I drew a sample of blood and tissue that I'll have sent to the lab. In the meantime, let's get you discharged."

"I feel like a lab rat."

"You should." The doctor laughed.

*****

After the experiment, Dr. Alvares signed Dante's release forms and then returned to his office to send the sample over to the lab.

Dante took the papers from the doctor and went back to his room. The clothes he came in with were neatly folded in a duffel bag next to him so he grabbed it and headed to the bathroom.

He took off his hospital gown and stared at himself in front of the mirror, his long blond hair had grown disheveled and his jawline was dotted with stubble that made him look years older than he was.

He looked at his body and a frown formed on his face.

'I don't remember ever working out properly.' He thought as he looked at his now defined muscles that weren't there before the accident. Before, he wasn't skinny, but he didn't have any muscle either, now his entire body looked lean as though he'd been working out for a few months.

'System.'

The transparent video game-like interface popped up in front of his eyes again as Dante looked at his status.

[Strength: 17.]

[Current quest: Get shot.]

'Maybe that's it. Or maybe it's the gift. Who knows.' He sighed. 'Anyway, how do I even go about getting shot.'

He quickly put on his old clothes and walked to the reception, handing the man standing behind the desk his release forms.

The man nodded and let him go.

Dante stepped outside onto the busy street and took in a breath of fresh, unsterilized air.

'Ok, let's go get shot.'