"Hey Nathan, what do you normally get for lunch?" Asked Raul, one of my acquaintances and classmates. I smiled at him and replied that I normally got the cafeteria's daily special, so as to better understand Honduran cuisine. He was one of several people walking with me to the school's cafeteria during our lunch break. 

Raul was one of the few people almost as tall as me. He had previously towered over me, and I didn't mind that I was now the tallest person in my grade, standing just over seven and a quarter feet tall. My height had actually been taller previously, but during the walk I had shortened my height and modified the memories of everyone who had seen me earlier so that I wasn't so obviously superhumanly tall. It didn't help much, but it was indeed a bit of help to mask my supernatural and superpowered nature.

My classmates gazed at me with admiration and it felt odd to know that that was in part because of my aura, which I knew for sure due to my powers over minds and memories. That said, knowing what I knew about them was something that I didn't really mind.

My powers were partially responsible for this, as some of them allowed me to detach myself from my emotions, to the extent that they wouldn't inhibit my growth as a changeling and as a superpowered being. I didn't mind that, but I still opted to stick to having a moral compass, though in the back of my mind a small part of me wondered how long that would last, or rather... could last.

The real world was where morality went to die, and that was something I knew from having had a childhood in multiple countries, each of which was either in a war at the time that I was there, or recovering from such a conflict. The sights and sounds one witnessed in such environments often birthed cynicism. That said... With these powers I could help people. 

As I ordered my lunch, surrounded by friends old and new, I began to rigorously question the system. I needed to gather information as quickly as possible to make effective use of my enhanced mental faculties.

One train of thought in the back of my mind was freely communicating with the system. It asked it important questions, and filled me with confidence. 

"I take it that when you mentioned that my changeling abilities could be improved and upgraded you meant my 'Attribute Drain' and my quasi-appraisal power right?" I asked, speaking directly to the system within me. I was attempting to fish for information, and so I paid special attention to the words of the voice in my head. I had replayed every sentence it uttered to me, and isolated pertinent parts for me to use as the basis for gathering information and making inferences. 

"Well yes and no. You are an infant changeling, one who has just reached one of several largely arbitrary dates that the humans of your world consider to be critical to becoming an adult, but among changelings you are but a toddler. Changelings are widely feared and hated by other supernatural entities, for their abilities to steal powers and take on the forms of other supernatural creatures. You are not limited to your appraisal and attribute-theft abilities." The system began. 

"Changelings have a considerable number of 'Physiology' abilities which allow them to take on the strengths, and critically, not the weaknesses, of a very wide range of supernatural races. Members of your race can take on the powers of beings like angels, demons, dragons, vampires, and other races, and can even undergo the same growth processes as them, allowing you to gain the strengths of greater, more evolved variations of such creatures, such as seraphim, demon lords, alpha dragons, blood lords, and other, incredibly powerful beings." The voice added. For a moment my mind was filled with images of especially powerful monsters, the sort seen in manga and web novels. 

"These physiology powers must be considerably expensive..." I mentally remarked, even as my physical form grabbed a plate of carne asada, a delicious dish that I knew would have satisfied my appetite, had I still had one. 

"Some of them are. In order to become an angel, or a dragon, for example, it costs over two thousand points across a spectrum of attributes, and the acquisition of a few handy abilities as an additional prerequisite. That said, two thousand points is not quite as costly as it may sound, provided you are willing to do what it takes to become stronger." The system revealed, which made me chuckle. I was already formulating plots as to how to farm points. Fortunately for me, there were ample opportunities for me to farm points. 

"Hmm... What about the points needed to acquire power over the school of healing magic?" I asked, hoping to master that incredibly potent school of magic as quickly as possible. I knew that if I could gain even entry-level spells from that school of magic I could perform actual miracles quite freely, saving lives, and earning the gratitude of regular people. 

"To earn access to such spells it only takes a few points across a range of attributes and the ability to acquire faith, one of the special attributes that has been mentioned previously. Coincidentally, a certain number of points in faith is also a requirement if you wish to purchase the 'Angel Physiology' power." The voice explained, casually. 

"So the 'faith' attribute is one of those special ones you've mentioned? I know that if I can drain it I'd probably need to upgrade my abilities..." I thought, casually.

"You are correct! Faith is a potent attribute that has a number of traits but relates, generally, to the sort of charisma and wisdom religious leaders of all sorts have and the faith that they can cause others to experience. By having points in faith you become a more charismatic and religiously awe inspiring figure, which combined with your current levels of charisma would make you incredibly faith inspiring." The system revealed. 

The rest of the school day was filled with intriguing, rather informative discussions. 

While I conversed with the system the rest of the school day passed without any real hitches. I opted to participate in classroom discussions at the level of a college student, hinting at my boosted intelligence but not doing anything truly exceptional just yet. This school was filled with students who possessed intense intelligence, coupled with having the advantages afforded by wealth. Many of them were capable of achieving the same feats of intelligence as I was achieving at the moment, but for them it'd be the upper end of their intellectual performance.

When the day ended I quickly and quietly walked up to the bus driver who'd normally be taking me home. The man was an older fellow, a local of the city and a long-term employee of the prodigious school I attended and he wore a moderately professional looking uniform. He nodded at me and listened attentively as I began to speak. 

"Good afternoon Francisco. I just wanted you to know that I won't be needing to take the bus anymore." I explained. He gazed at me, looking up at me despite the fact that I was outside of the bus and he was seated there, waiting for students to begin to trickle in. 

"Nathan... Are you going to be driving?" The older man asked me. I smiled at him and nodded, preparing to activate one of my newfound powers as I did.

"I am! Here is my license." I told the man, even while fiddling with my fingers just enough to make the somatic gestures needed for me to cast a spell to create an illusion of a Honduran driver's license. As I did that the power of "Silver Tongue" activated. The power of "Silver Tongue" made people automatically believe my lies, provided they didn't know of evidence to the contrary.

An example of synergies across powers was that power, coupled with mind-reading. By mixing the two I could easily fool people into believing virtually anything, if I was clever. I could easily scan someone's mind, mix their knowledge with mine, and know what sort of lies they wouldn't have known of evidence to the contrary and so be able to weave lies as easily as I could breath, all of which would be believed effortlessly.

I could sense the turning of the cogs in the man's brain as my power took hold. My lie was difficult to discern, since he didn't know my birthday, which would have made it hard for me to lie to him in this way, since you need to be eighteen to be able to drive, legally. 

"I see... Well, I know many students will miss you." He told me, nodding sagely at me once he was satisfied that I had my license. I chuckled and thanked him for having spent a considerable amount of time taking me to and from school, and then began to walk a safe distance away. Once I was out of eyeshot I closed my eyes and began to use my fingers to make a series of gestures that were rhythmic and subtle. After a few moments I finished the somatic gestures for the magic and felt myself begin to fade from view. I had just cast "Invisibility" for the first time!

I gazed at my surroundings and smiled. Now that the school day was done I was able to really take advantage of my powers. I began to float into the air, activating my "Levitation" power before actually beginning to fly. I was slowly lifting off the ground and for not the first time I was quite thankful that I possessed "Natural Harmony" which erased the learning curve I would have had to struggle with if not for its power. 

I floated into the air, proceeding upward at quite a decent pace. The higher up I got the faster I rose, and when I was high enough to reach out and touch the clouds I chuckled and oriented myself towards the rest of the city. As I did I gazed at it curiously. I studied the city carefully, knowing that I had an important choice to make. 

In the coolness of the sky I relaxed and allowed my immense sensory capabilities to really shine through. I could effortlessly hear well over one million voices and as easily as I could hear their voices I could hear their thoughts, now that I was fully opening my mind to the true potency of my powers. I could both hear every individual voice, and heartbeat, in the city, I could also read every single mind in the city, though at the moment I chose not to do so. 

As I considered reading the minds of various people throughout the city I sensed that I had a limit of about twelve million minds at one moment, which was a mind-bogglingly high number of beings to mind-read at once. And beyond that, I could effortlessly utilize my other mind-based powers on that number of people at once. That was more than the entire population of Honduras, and in fact was the number of people in more than several states back in my native homeland of the United States of America. It wasn't more than the total population of Colombia, and it wasn't anywhere near the total population of the United States, but it was still more than enough to change history. 

One of the more awe-inspiring things in the back of my mind was the knowledge that my powers, all of them, had the power to increase in scale. Be it my flight at speeds that, if I wasn't attempting to tire myself out, managed to reach mach 200. I was capable of lifting buildings effortlessly. I could hear voices, in the back of my mind, in other nations, without attempting to focus on my hearing.

For now, as I listened to various voices throughout Tegucigalpa and beyond, I realized that the first thing I really needed was to begin the process of establishing myself. To really do that, I would need to make a point to spend a part of today visiting a number of rather interesting places, but I'd go ahead and begin it by doing some farming. Some attribute-score farming that is. I took off, at a casual pace, towards a prison in the area just a few kilometers away from Tegucigalpa.

A small part of me was excited to go ahead and begin farming. And with my mind-reading power I could selectively target vicious criminals while also making the insides of the prisons safer places to be for those who were either wrongfully imprisoned or don't deserve to suffer inside of a jail cell for the crimes they may have actually committed! My hand ached, greedily, as I considered the sort of activities I was about to do.