Chapter 240 Filial Dante
Chapter 240 Filial Dante
The three of them looked at each other with amazement before they began feeling their changes and renewed bodies with shock. Dante himself was the most amazed as his parents now looked 30 years younger.
Looking at David Alighieri, he was no different from Dante himself, especially that his hairstyle was more tame and conservative. Dante had his spiky and plentiful hair to thank from his lovely mother, who also gave him soft and feminine features due to her Eurasian background without tarnishing his masculinity.
Even before coming to the Eternal Universe, Dante had been a well-built pretty boy. The delicate balance of his two forbears' genetics had come together to sculpt him, and now they themselves had received a boost, the source of Dante's advantages easily showed.
What was most surprising was his uncle, who still looked older than the two but had sprouted out a head of thick afro-like hair. Compared to his previous bald self, the new him looked like a fellow out of the 80's, some Black Dynamite-looking fella.
The three couldn't help but burst into laughter at Uncle Peter's expense, but he seemed to be happy about it and kept rubbing his new hair while laughing. The scene was truly harmonious until Aileen pointed out that she wanted to change, to which Dante understood since they might be feeling uncomfortable clothed like this.
As such, he had the bots bring them exosuits that were not as powerful as his - as he did not have the right to buy such proprietary technology - and they wore them. These exosuits could also function as daily clothes and change their appearance freely since they used nanites.
Given their fashion tastes, the three immediately switched to what they normally wore at home and seemed to be pleased. Dante then beckoned for them to follow him into a wormhole he opened up, which led to another part of the base.
The three unhesitatingly followed him in and discovered they were in the lounge they had chatted with Dante at before going under. Immediately they sat down and began feeling comfortable, relishing their much more youthful bodies and how their joints didn't creak or groan as much anymore.
"Firstly, you guys should activate your AI chips and let them sync with you," Dante prompted with a smile.
Dante's parents - as well as his uncle - looked at their son/nephew, then at each other, nodding in unison as they were filled with curiosity about these new AI chips and the benefits they could offer.
David was the first to activate the one in his body, and his eyes shone with a blue light as the complex binding of tiny quantum processors was completed in seconds. Aileen and Peter were right after him, and the trio showed the same expression of wonderment and surprise that Dante did when he first accessed his AI chip all those months ago.
"Alright, you should be receiving a wealth of information in the form of a packet from the base AI. Accept it and get yourself up to speed with the current state of Earth, the universe, as well as the Eternal Universe," Dante instructed them while leaning forward.
The three did so, and immediately they seemed to become dazed as their minds were processing all this information and ratifying it. Dante called an AI bot with his chip to place two metal chips on all of the three's temples, which acted as a sort of coolant for their brain by expelling unnecessary heat.
After all, while Dante might have great stats at the moment, he didn't forget how it felt to have only 2 points in each field and have to deal with huge information dumps with his weaker brain at the time.
No child wanted their parents to suffer, so he naturally prepared something to help them. It seemed to be working too as the faces of the three, while dazed, never showed discomfort. Even crazier was that one could see invisible heatwaves radiating outwards from the 'ejector' part of the coolant device on their temples.
Soon, his parents were done with the information, and they way they looked at Dante changed as they understood the cause and effect of everything. Aileen and Peter were the most excited, while David was calm as usual.
"I can't wait to explore the void of space! Nephew, can I have a sub-fleet to go out and conquer parts of the galaxy for you?" Peter asked impatiently.
Dante smiled knowingly. "Haha, Uncle Peter, don't think I've forgotten how much Star Trek you made me watch as a kid."
Peter blushed and passed a hand through his scalp, then remembered he was no longer bald and smiled. "You don't need to out me like this, Dante. Yes, it's been my fantasy to explore the universe like The Enterprise's crew and have adventures with my own crew."
"Also, I'd like to find an alien wife for myself. Since human women have disappointed me time and time again, I would like to try romance with another species." Uncle Peter stated seriously and humbly.
David patted his brother's back while Aileen looked awkward, because she was precisely a human woman. However, she already knew what Peter had gone through, so she could only pinch her eyebrows and remain silent.
"Don't worry, Uncle Peter, you'll be free to take any path you want after we're done here," Dante assured the man with a smile.
David interrupted with a casual cough. "You must have brought us here for a reason, son."
"That's right. I have these fruits that may or may not grant superpowers to you as long as someone else does not also have them, so you have to select one of them to try." Dante revealed as he sent the list of 23 fruits and their abilities to his parents and uncle.
They were surprised and excited to receive such a comprehensive list, and they even knew how lucky they were compared to denizens of the Eternal Universe as they had received a full information packet from Dante.
For people on the other side, getting a single fruit was a hurdle and you often didn't have time to care about the power within and whether you could choose. Even if it was useless, a superpower was a superpower, but one had to deal with the 'success' rate of activation.
Here, they could pick and choose, even having a relatively brief summary of what power they could get. As such, they were grateful but overwhelmed with favor. In the end, Dante could only force them to choose in the end as they kept glancing at him with pride.
They were silent as they contemplated their future plans and desires contrasted with what the superpowers offered before making their final choices.
"I choose the Ability Silence Fruit," David said casually.
"I choose the Infinite Knowledge Fruit," Aileen clapped her hands with excitement and requested.
"I choose the Morphic Seed Fruit," Peter decided with a deep breath.
Dante glanced at the three of them and assumed their reasons without asking. His father was a man of few words and preferred little to no noise, which was a habit Aileen, who loved music, had to adapt to in their marriage.
As for his mom, she was a typical geek. Well, given her revealed history, she was not typical at all, but pretty much a genius young lady who ran away from home. Wanting knowledge was exactly the kind of thing she would desire because in her hands, knowledge was truly power.
As for his uncle, well, he just made clear he wanted to travel the universe and gather and pursue the alien beauties in the universe. Some alien beauties might not have the same biology as us, so it would be better for him to be able to transform into them, no?
Dante first destroyed the replicated versions of the fruits and re-replicated them on the spot so that they obtained his compatibility trait, then handed them over to the three older generation family members. As they knew that the fruit needed to be consumed, they each swallowed the fruits whole and then waited.
Dante himself was curious because apart from the Golden Ape, this was the first time he would be seeing how a person unlocked a superpower. He could feel waves of Zero Energy throbbing from the three as their faces suddenly changed, and they closed their eyes to focus on visualizing something.
Immediately some aspects of their superpowers manifested as the area around David became silent as if in the void, whereas Aileen's eyes shone in a bright golden color much like Dante himself, while Peter's skin seemed to boil as many parts changed and shifted haphazardly.
Eventually, all the phenomena came to an end as the trio settled down and came to, the marvel and understanding they felt completely different from before. They could feel the change within and how they could affect the world without.
Superpowers were like bloodline abilities; you didn't necessarily need to know how to use them and could just use them, at least until the higher ranks.