章 4: Chapter 4: Magic and Aptitude
Seeing how none of the children dared to volunteer, the cloaked man showed an unsightly expression, his face showing irritation.
Frowning, he spoke,
"Whoever comes up first will be able to get more food."
With the cloaked man's words, a weak-looking child had built up the courage to go first. He was starving and was enticed by the promise of food.
Seeing this, Lord Thel nodded and spoke, "Good. Come here."
The boy listened and walked towards the altar.
"Give me your hand." Lord Thel asked, however, he didn't even wait for a response as he snatched the boy's right hand.
"Ah–" The boy lightly cried out in surprise.
Suddenly, the man pricked the boy's index finger with his dagger as a droplet of blood landed on the altar.
The man had then swiftly let go of the boy's hand. After chanting a few strange sentences, he observed the altar. However, the altar showed no reaction.
As each second that passed, the cloaked man seemed to be even more displeased by the results.
Frowning, the man murmured.
"Tch. Your life essence is too weak."
"Stand still, I'll check for your aptitude now." The man spoke.
"Close your eyes," He instructed.
The boy obediently followed his commands.
Once the boy closed his eyes, Lord Thel pressed his index and middle finger onto the boy's forehead.
Luck could vaguely make out the cloaked man's utterance of unintelligible words, which had caused a strange black energy to flow out of his fingertips and into the boy's head.
The boy seemed unaffected at first, but Luck had noticed how his body seemed to be slightly shaking. Furthermore, within the dim light, he saw blood leaking out of the boy's orifices — flowing out of his nose and his ears.
Witnessing this scene, Luck breathed out a breath of cold air.
'This... This was magic! It must be! A strange energy that could influence the very laws of the world! The kind you see in fiction!' Luck inwardly exclaimed, his original view of the world completely shattering.
'Could that have been the cause for my transmigration?'
Surprisingly, Luck had accepted the existence of magic quite quickly. With all the supernatural things that were happening to him; a medieval world, his transmigration, his Alpha Cells and now magic, it wouldn't make sense if he was still in disbelief.
'Magic...' Luck had a thoughtful expression. As a scientist, the very concept of magic sounded ridiculous. Yet here he was, witnessing a cloaked man manipulating a strange dark energy.
Realising he might be in a dangerous world where magic and powerful entities exist, his plans drastically changed. His confidence in his abilities had significantly decreased. His knowledge wouldn't be as valuable if there were people who could fly and cast fireballs with a wave of their hand!
After a few seconds, the man had removed his hand from the boy before speaking.
"Child, what did you see?"
However, the frail boy didn't respond. Instead, the boy's expression seemed extremely fatigued before he suddenly collapsed onto the cold stone floor — his body seemingly lifeless.
The man simply watched with cold indifference, not surprised by this outcome.
"Hoh? It seems the boy had a negative reaction to my mana. No matter... This aptitude ceremony isn't a proper one, so there are bound to be some accidents..." Lord Thel lightly mumbled to himself.
The children watching this scene became even more fearful towards the strange altar.
Seeing everyone's anxious expressions, the cloaked man quickly broke from his thoughts as he kindly reassured them.
"Don't worry my children. Your friend here is just... sleeping... yes sleeping! He had exerted a lot of effort. He will get plenty of food later. Can someone else volunteer?"
'Sleeping?' Luck lightly scoffed.
The boy's health was almost as bad as his before he went to the altar. After the man had injected the strange energy into the boy's head, the boy's vitality had decreased drastically.
After a few more seconds of silence, the cloaked man began to feel annoyed once again. He felt that he needed to take a more ruthless approach.
Suddenly, before he could use some of his sinister means, a voice suddenly emerged within the crowd.
"Is everyone here a bunch of frightened mice? I'll go next!"
A tall boy with a healthy complexion had suddenly walked up towards the altar fearlessly.
'Oh? It's one of the five.'
Luck had easily remembered him due to the aggressive way he was eating, devouring all the food like a starved beast. His brown hair and blue eyes had given him a somewhat heroic feeling — a born leader would be most people's first impressions.
Luck was casually watching how everything played out. He definitely wouldn't be volunteering any time soon until he assures his safety. The boy that had gone to 'sleep' had made Luck extremely wary of the cloaked man's abilities.
His Alpha Cells definitely didn't make him invincible. Even he still wasn't sure of what it was capable of. Perhaps he would die if his heart stopped or someone decapitated him.
When experimenting on the lifeform, he only took small samples and never tried anything extreme on the main body. After all, it was one of a kind. If he accidentally killed it, he would have been labelled the greatest idiot throughout history.
Now that he knew that he was in a magical world, he definitely wouldn't easily expose his abilities. Especially to a magic user with a personality disorder like the cloaked man. Thinking about how he might be trapped in a cage and experimented on for all of eternity caused Luck to feel a small chill.
Luck lightly laughed at this thought.
'Perhaps this is karma for my previous life doing all kinds of experiments on various lifeforms.'
Hearing a child willingly volunteer made the man quite pleased.
"Ah, my dear Faylen." The cloaked man spoke with a hint of doting, a clear difference in attitude compared to the rest of the children.
Seeing all the children's gazes on him, Faylen gave a snort before arriving in front of Lord Thel.
He exuded an aura of arrogance that made all the children bow in worship. All the children here had witnessed his strength firsthand and perhaps had even faced off against him in the Crucible, losing miserably.
Luck indifferently watched. He wasn't sure what the boy was capable of, nor cared. Apart from the language of this world, he didn't have any other memories he inherited. It was like he only received the most useful information in this body, discarding useless things like the previous owner's emotions, memories and attachments.
Though, he would have found it useful if he had some memories about this world.
Luck currently had all of his attention on the mysterious altar and what the cloaked man would do next.
Without having to be asked, Faylen extended his hand as Lord Thel pricked his index finger like he had done previously.
The droplet of blood this time had caused the runes on the altar to lightly glow in a pale green light, causing the man to give a nod of approval.
"Excellent! As expected of such a talent. You have a very high life essence." Lord Thel praised.
"Close your eyes now, I'll check for your aptitude."
Faylen was a bit anxious as beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He tightly clenched his palms knowing that he might end up like that boy, however, he obediently obeyed his instructions.
Lord Thel had once again injected the strange energy into the boy's head.
Unlike the previous boy, Faylen seemed to be fine.
What was different from the other boy who had gone up was how Faylen seemed much more calmer. His body didn't shake nor show any negative reactions towards the strange energy.
After a few more seconds, Lord Thel removed his hand before he spoke.
"What did you see?"
Faylen's eyes slowly opened, slightly taken aback by what he had experienced.
Briefly thinking about what had happened to him, he responded.
"I saw lots of stars! They were surrounding me until I couldn't breathe!"
When Faylen had closed his eyes, he suddenly felt his senses disappear, he couldn't feel the outside world — incapable of even twitching his fingers. He had then witnessed a myriad of black stars forming before suddenly surrounding and attacking him.
"Hahaha. I see, excellent! It seems you have an innate connection with dark mana. Good, good!" The man laughed sinisterly. He knew his aptitude ceremony wasn't ideal, however, it served his purposes. As he was injecting his personal mana onto the children — directly affecting their consciousness, he clearly knew of the risks. Only when they have a high aptitude towards mana would they suffer less backlash, and if they had an affinity towards dark magic, none at all!
An aptitude towards magic, even the littlest amount, was a one in a hundred chance.
Having a boy that not only had an aptitude towards magic, but a strong connection with the element of darkness was a stroke of luck! His goal was almost within his grasp!
As for the children without an aptitude and had a low life essence, they have a high chance of becoming retarded or potentially dying from shock.
He had checked the first boy's pulse and knew he had died.
Despite the boy's death, he didn't even bat an eye. From the three months he had been cultivating them, such results made him extremely annoyed.
His time and resources were being wasted on such mediocrity!
"Well done Faylen, I expect great things from you." The man spoke with an ugly smile.
Faylen gave a nod.
"Thank you for your praise!"
Faylen felt his body loosen up. He had expected to experience something worse, but it was surprisingly a nice experience — apart from him suffocating for a few seconds at the very end.
He felt a strange connection with those black stars which had made the experience somewhat euphoric.
Walking back to his spot, he cast a gaze around him.
Seeing all the children's look of worship, reverence and fear they had towards him, he felt great!
Ever since he was born, he had always been looked down upon. Growing up in the slums, he had to constantly fight and steal to survive, oftentimes being caught and ruthlessly beaten.
But ever since Lord Thel had taken him, bringing him to the Sanctuary, his life had turned into what he imagined those nobles had lived like. Since he was always fighting, he immediately thrived in this place where strength was revered and rewarded.
Apart from four others within the Sanctuary, no one was his match. All the children had to pay their respects to him.
As he was walking, he sensed a pair of eyes locked onto him. Although many people were looking at him, he felt a small chill for some reason. His senses as a stage three practitioner were much greater compared to the average person, developing into what's called in the book an 'Animal-like Instinct.'
Casually turning his head, he spotted a pale boy among the group of children staring at him.
His expression didn't reveal any worship, fear or even acknowledgement towards him, completely contrasting from everyone else. Instead, it felt as if he was looking at him like he was a unique creature. His expression seemed more curious than indifferent — looking as if he wanted to dissect him.
"Isn't that the lucky kid that had somehow survived till now?" He lightly mumbled. He remembered in the second trial when groups of children had to fight a starving wolf, he was the only one that returned alive from his group.
Apparently, the wolf had killed everyone, but due to all the injuries it had sustained from the group, it couldn't finish off the last one — before succumbing to its injuries and dying from blood loss.
Faylen felt disdain for people like him. The kind of people that only had their luck to rely on, whether that's being born a noble or being rich due to circumstances. He hated how he had to work hard whilst everyone was given a good life from the start.
Luck casually looked away from Faylen as the cloaked man continued the aptitude ceremony.
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