Chapter 13: 13 Mad Scientist
John was greatest by the excited cries of his classmates as he returned to their housing unit. Juno was the first to respond "we heard that you exited the test this afternoon, but you were whisked away to the magic academy! We had no idea if we were going to see you again."
John smiled as he saw the look of excitement on his fellow classmates faces. "Its true that they whisked me away as soon as I exited, I was recruited as a part time student at the magic academy, and will be spending my afternoons there after I have obtained the cultivation method of this school. Apparently I can't learn magic until I have a complete cultivation method."
"You already received a cultivation method for magic?" Juno asked
"Yea! Your sister and I had to meet with a tutor, and we went through a weird ritual that injected our souls with our cultivation method. Oh! I have mine here on my arm. " John lifted up his sleeve to show the branded runes on his upper arm.
"That's crazy! Instructor Rose won't let us learn our cultivation method for our sub class or auxiliary class until we have mastered the marksmanship part. He says it will mess with our cultivation."
A deep voice came from behind them. "That's exactly right, your major needs to be learned and take form before your minor or auxiliary classes be learned, or it will cause a deviation. This deviation had a small chance of being useful, and a high chance of being far less powerful or even useless."
Instructor Rose walked into the room, and the students immediately stood at attention, saluting him. John was the only one out of the loop, standing there alone as the others had formed two lines. "Its good of you to actually join us private Enders. Don't think that just because the magic academy had accepted you as a part time student that it rids you of your obligation to the marksmanship academy. From this moment on you are just another maggot to be trained into something useful."
Instructor Rose looked over the students and nodded. "The rest of you are dismissed, get some sleep. The mornings training will be brutal as always. Enders you come with me, let's see how much those damn mages have jacked up your potential."
The other students scattered to their respective dorms as Instructor Rose led John out of the building. Their destination was once again the giant spire at the center of the academy. The instructor spoke is a low voice as he walked. "You have seen the splendor of the number one academy, I'm sure that our last place academy seems far inferior in your eyes now. In a way it is, they receive the lions share of the resources, while we only receive scraps. But magic is a new thing, powerful, but not well explored. Marksmanship has been around for centuries, the cultivation methods we have and the skills we can learn far outstrip the newly arrived discipline. The truth is, we do not need the resources they get, not nearly as much as they do anyways. Don't look down on our academy, and don't let others look down on it either. We might be the last place academy in name, but even the strongest of men quake in fear when we are brought into battle."
When they entered the spire, they completely ignored the first floor, and bypassed the second floor, which seemed filled with books, and directly entered the third floor. The third floor seemed to be a mixture of offices and apartments as they wandered through it, eventually arriving at a giant steel door. "This is as far as I can take you kid, beyond these doors is the brains behind our academy, but she is a little... eccentric. Don't be afraid, she doesn't bite... much."
The giant steel door opened, and instructor Rose pushed him inside. Behind the doors was dark, but in the distance a weak fluorescent light could be seen. John walked down the dark corridor, his footsteps echoing against the lanolin flooring. In the darkness he could not help but think of the stories of the old days, when electricity was abundant, and not powered by magical batteries. When it was available to all, but the most unfortunate.
It did not take long for John to reach the end of the corridor. The florescent lights casting illumination through the clear plastic windows of the double doors that separated him from the source of light. He did not hesitate as he pushed the doors open, though he immediately regretted his decision as a high temperature heat been flew towards his location. He lifted his hand, the source of heat melting into his skin, and a feeling of comfort filled him.
A short, elderly woman appeared before him. Her face seemed covered in soot and burn Mark's, and the goggles on her head seemed to have seen much use. She scratched her nose as she looked at John. "What's a fucking mage doing in my laboratory"
The next blast that came his way had an electrical discharge, he had no time to think let alone dodge as the shot hit him square in the chest. He could feel his body convulsing as he blacked out.
When he woke he found himself strapped to a sheet of metal, the metal submerged I water. A large electrical current flowed above him, attached to some kind of metallic arm. The crazy woman stood a few feet away, a clipboard in her hands as she muttered to herself.
"Normal response to most stimuli, electrical and water based attacks work normally. Metal seems to melt as it approaches him, and fire is simply absorbed. It seems those mages were correct in their actions, he would have suffered greatly if they had not awakened his elemental body. It's a shame that his talent in marksmanship is mediocre at best. Whoever repressed his flames really did a number on him. Either way his previous armament has been absorbed into his soul, causing the excessive heat fluctuations. I have yet to understand the excessive amount of sulfur that lays within his body. "
"The armament that was artificially awakened during the ritual seems to have been effected by his original armament. It is no longer capable of regular shots, only magical fire ammunition. The traditional method of marksmanship cultivation will not be effective on raising him, as he is not a traditional marksman. I have been needing an assistant for my branch of research into elemental ammunition, and his body is the perfect battery, he would not need to carry the cumbersome battery packs that I have to."
The ramblings continued on like that for awhile, she seemed unaware that John was awake and listening to her monologue. He had yet to move, and his body was crying out as the cold water produced steam when in contact with his body. He could hold out no longer as he began to shiver. The sounds of his teeth chattering seemed to rouse the old woman from her thoughts, her eyes falling onto him.
"Its about time you woke up boy, consider yourself lucky that I had been warned of your arrival, or this small discomfort you are feeling would have been a whole lot worse." The woman pushed a couple buttons on a panel next to her, raising the metal plate out of the water, closer to the electric current above him. "Don't try anything funny or you will be bathing in 10 thousand volts of electricity."
"You have two options. The first is I put a bullet in your head, and the second is you wish I had and you become my assistant. I'm aware of your circumstances and will release you each day to go to mage u university for your training. You also have to train with your class here. So in the mornings you will go with your classmates, the afternoons will be the mages and evenings will belong to me. That leaves you six hours to sleep. Do you accept? Or do you want a bullet?"
John accepted.
— New chapter is coming soon — Write a review
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone