Ch. 41 - Anatomy

Adam came back to the lab, and James and Frank were still attempting to use telekinesis.

Ever since he obtained ownership of the lab, he never returned to his dorm---he even set up his own room in the lab. When he walked in the lab, he ignored the two and returned to his office to try to hatch the egg according to the incubation methods in the book.

Adam conjured a tiny wind blade and sliced his finger, opening a small wound. As blood flowed out continuously, Adam didn't even flinch; he pressed his finger on the eggshell to establish the master-servant contract.

As expected of the egg of demonic origins, it greedily devoured the blood while resisting the contract. However, the contract runes were being erased by the egg, which made it difficult to form the contract.

"Be good," Adam became impatient and used his psychic power to strike the egg. He held back his strength, though, since he needed whatever was in the egg to stay alive so that he could study it.

The egg flinched in pain and tried to bounce away from Adam's psychic strikes. The egg telepathically cried in Adam's brain; he was surprised that the egg had this ability.

After the egg's resistance weakened considerably, Adam continued to use telekinesis to strike at the egg, not caring for the wellbeing of the beast within.

Adam wasn't in a hurry as the contract still needed time to form. According to the book, the master-servant contract was like a tug-of-war and the mage needed to repeat this process until the creature in the egg submitted to the mage.

Adam used psychic energy to heal his wound and came to the operating table.

He needed more flesh and blood.

The demonic creature can only be fed with power stones. The more powerful creatures needed ether crystals. Adam was rich in power stones, but flesh and blood was required to ensure the creature grew healthily.

"Civilization and barbarism are intertwined," Adam muttered to himself. He placed an order---ten low-levelled alien slaves with the price of a hundred power stones.

Slave trading was normal in the world of mages. In addition to plundering resources from other worlds, mages also captured the natives and made them into slaves. Apathetic mages didn't care as most of these planes did not have an established civilization. They would slaughter and plunder foreign planes with no remorse, bringing their spoils back.

Even if some planes had a semblance of civilization, the mages wouldn't become lenient. Instead, these planes would be forced to submit to the mages and become the colonies of a trans-dimensional mage; an ascended mage would keep them as their "private wealth." No revolts ever happen---if they resisted, destruction would await their world.

The strong preyed on the weak.

Mages were the predators of universes.

...

The slaves that Adam bought wouldn't arrive right away. The system estimated that they would be delivered to the lab tomorrow morning.

In the afternoon, Adam studied the rune that the Dean gave him, which allowed him to create a portable space where he could store items. He tried to analyze the structure of the runes so he could copy it, however, the rune was too complicated for him. He was unable to accomplish this.

Adam reluctantly sighed and still drew the rune to activate it.

There weren't any fluctuations in energy, nor were there any changes in space and time---this fascinated Adam.

Space was suspended one meter away from Adam, and he discovered that he could not put living things inside the portable space. Adam placed several contracts, broken ether crystals, and magic items into the space. He also wanted to store the egg, but it started to panic and bounced away from his hand.

Seeing this, Adam sighed and decided to not put the egg in.

The next morning came. Adam woke up and unlocked the door to the laboratory. Outside, James and Frank could be seen waiting obediently everyday for Adam to unlock the lab for them.

When Adam opened the door, he found that they were talking to William. James and William knew each other, and William would never expect that his Rune Studies tutor would be working under Adam.

William was shocked when he arrived and saw the ten alien slaves bound by ropes, kneeling in front of the lab.

They were similar in size to humans, but had longer limbs and strange purple skin. They were completely naked, which made it easy to judge that this species was separated into two genders, male and female. They did not attempt to resist nor did they respond to William poking them.

James and Frank remained silent upon seeing the slaves. However, William's curiousity only rose. After he signed his contract with Adam, he couldn't help but ask, "Are those... Are they your test subjects?"

As Adam was about to order the alchemy puppet to make a room where the mess wouldn't bother them, he heard William ask this. Adam simply replied, "No, they aren't test subjects. They're... consumables."

Adam instructed William with a task, "Try to build the meditation runes by yourself---if you have any questions, ask James. When you're done, come to me."

He led one slave to the newly constructed basement, which was accompanied by stairs that spiraled in a descending manner to reach.

William shivered as he looked at the nine remaining slaves. Consumables? They looked like humans, could they really be used as food?

Adam ignored William's gaze and continued to lead one slave to the basement. He had never seen an alien like this before. He had to study it.

Only Adam was allowed into this basement. Connected to the newly constructed room was a tiny room with an operating table, which was accompanied with small instruments used to record data.

When Adam led the slave to the operating table, the slave's eyes widened and he let out a harsh scream. The slave garbled out unknown noises. 'It's their language,' Adam thought.

Adam guessed that he was afraid and begging for mercy.

Despite the slave's resistance as he struggled in his bonds, Adam held onto the rope tighter.

After Adam grasped the slave using telekinesis and set him on the operating table, a robotic arm extended from the operating table and firmly held the slave down.

Adam put on an apron and pondered, 'If the alien is able to speak, then it means that it's sentient. It has a soul.'

Adam felt that this was a worthy study and didn't care about this.

Adam conjured ten psychic arms and used six scalpels at once to operate.

During this process, the slave screamed violently and his muscles shook uncontrollably. Adam tuned the screams out and continued to cut and pierce his skin. After a while, the slave's struggles weakened before he lost consciousness---his eyes glossed with fear and hatred.

"Looks like the alien's brain works similarly. It rendered itself unconscious in extreme pain, not unlike a human," Adam recorded.

"It has a simple brain structure---low intelligence and no sign of a soul."

"Muscle fibres are thicker than humans, and they seem stronger than ordinary humans."

"Body structure differs from humans---their heart is located at the centre of their chest, rather than the left side; their kidney rests under their heart, and their stomach hangs on the right side."

"No respiratory tract."

"An unknown stone-like organ was found. The organ emits faint energy."

"Reproductive organs are similar to humans, consistent to those belonging to mammals."

Adam dissected the slave with precision and speed, and recorded all the information obtained. After two hours, the dissection and study was completed.

"Their vitality is stronger than that of humans, but they possess low intelligence," Adam muttered as he ordered the alchemy puppet to clean the laboratory and dispose of the corpse into the blood pool. "Sure enough, wisdom is the reason for power. Mages have wisdom, so they are powerful enough to become the predators of the world."

Adam took off the apron and walked out of the laboratory, finding that William's eyes were still affixed onto the door to the basement. When William saw that the alchemy puppet's hands were bloodied, he couldn't help but shiver. His impression of Adam changed immediately---admiration, dissatisfaction, hostility, and other complex emotions converged into one---Fear.

"What a monster..." William muttered.

Frank stood up from his seat and walked over to Adam. "Do you need help?"

Although he knew what Adam was about to do and that it was not going to be pleasant, he felt that as an assistant, he needed to do his duties.

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