novelraw Chapter 71: Experiment.
Chapter 71: Experiment.
The Alchemy Lab of Bastion was located in the basement of the central keep, two floors above the dungeon. It had once been a wine cellar, but under the "management" of Valac, the Witch of Greed, it had transformed into a chaotic workshop of metal, glass, and volatile magic.
Pipes hissed with green steam.
Beakers bubbled with liquids that defied gravity. In the corner, a pile of gold coins was being melted down not for currency, but for their conductive properties.
Ash stood in the center of the room, arms crossed, looking at the device Valac had constructed.
It looked like an iron coffin, standing upright. It was covered in intricate copper wiring and studded with mana crystals—the B-Rank ones Satanachia had "tested" earlier. Thick cables ran from the coffin to a central generator that hummed with a low, headache-inducing vibration.
"It’s shiny, isn’t it?" Valac asked, tugging on Ash’s coat. The little girl was covered in soot, her teddy bear, Mr. Bear, wearing tiny welding goggles. "I call it the ’Make-Better Box’!"
Ash raised an eyebrow. "The name needs work. But the function?"
"It forces mana into the pores!" Valac explained, mimicking an explosion with her hands. "Boom! Pushes past the skin barrier. Forces the heart to pump mana instead of just blood. Success rate is... um... calculating..."
She counted on her soot-stained fingers.
"Thirty percent survival! Seventy percent... pop."
"Pop?"
"Like a balloon," Valac giggled.
Ash looked at the iron coffin. Thirty percent.
In the corner, hovering on a cushion of air, Echidna yawned loudly.
"Boring," she complained. "Why are we awake? Science is hard. Let’s just use necromancy. Dead soldiers don’t complain."
"Dead soldiers are slow," Ash countered. "And they take extra damage from Holy Magic. If we are fighting the Church, I need living, thinking warriors who can resist purification."
Ash turned to the group of slaves standing by the wall.
There were five of them. Men. Former laborers. They were thin, scarred, and trembling. But they weren’t trembling from fear of Ash. They were trembling with anticipation.
They had seen what Ash could do. They had seen the Witches. To them, this wasn’t an experiment. It was a baptism.
"Step forward," Ash commanded.
One man stepped out. He was older, perhaps forty, with the rough hands of a miner.
"Name?"
"Garret, My King."
"Garret," Ash said, looking him in the eye. "Valac says there is a seventy percent chance you will explode. If you die, you die for nothing. Do you still want to enter?"
Garret didn’t hesitate. He fell to his knees.
"I was a slave for twenty years, My Lord. I dug rocks until my fingers bled. I am Level 2. I have no class. I am nothing."
He looked up, his eyes burning with a desperate hunger.
"If I die, I die. But if I live... I want to be strong enough to kill them. The masters. All of them."
Ash smiled. It was the answer he wanted.
"Get in."
Garret climbed into the iron coffin. Valac hurried over, strapping his wrists and ankles into the metal clamps. She closed the heavy iron lid.
CLANG.
Only Garret’s face was visible through a thick glass viewport. He looked terrified, but he didn’t scream.
"Valac, start the injection," Ash ordered. "Echidna, stabilize his mind. If the pain drives him insane, the System will reject the Awakening."
"Fine," Echidna grumbled, floating over to the viewport. She placed her hand on the glass. "But you owe me a nap. A week-long nap."
"Done."
Valac pulled a large lever.
The machine roared to life. The mana crystals on the casing flared with blinding blue light. A deep thrumming sound filled the room as raw, condensed mana was pumped from the generator directly into the coffin.
Inside the glass, Garret screamed.
It was a sound of pure agony. The mana wasn’t just surrounding him; it was being forced into his skin, tearing through his veins, burning away the impurities of a mundane human body.
[System Alert]
[Subject: Garret]
[Mana Overload Detected.]
[Vital Signs: Falling.]
[System Rejection: The subject does not meet the requirements for Awakening.]
"The System is rejecting him," Ash noted, seeing the invisible notifications. "It says he lacks the aptitude."
"The System is stingy," Valac spat, adjusting a dial. "It hoards power! I say we take it!"
"Echidna!" Ash barked.
"I got him, I got him," Echidna sighed. Violet energy seeped from her hand, passing through the glass and wrapping around Garret’s thrashing head. "Shhh. Pain is just information. Ignore it."
Garret’s screams turned into wet gurgles. Blood began to leak from his eyes and ears, smearing the inside of the glass.
[Vital Signs: Critical.]
[Heart Failure Imminent.]
"He’s popping!" Valac squealed, sounding fascinated. "Pressure is too high!"
Ash stepped forward. He placed his hand on the iron casing of the machine.
He closed his eyes and reached into his own soul, tapping into the [Monarch of Sins] class.
"I am not asking for permission," Ash whispered to the invisible laws of the world.
He activated [Sin Resonance]. He didn’t pull power from the Witches this time. He pushed his own authority into the slave.
[Skill Activated: Slave Contract (Override)]
Ash’s dark mana flooded the machine, mixing with the blue mana. It acted as a binder, a dark glue holding Garret’s disintegrating cells together.
"Garret!" Ash’s voice boomed, projecting directly into the coffin. "Do not die! Use your greed! Use your wrath! You want power? TAKE IT!"
Inside the coffin, Garret’s eyes snapped open. They were no longer brown. They were glowing with a faint, unstable red light.
The desire for revenge. The hatred for his former masters. It latched onto Ash’s mana.
CRACK.
The glass viewport fractured.
The machine shook violently, bolts rattling loose. Valac laughed maniacally, shielding her face from flying sparks.
Then, silence.
The hum of the machine died down. Steam hissed from the vents.
Ash stepped back.
"Open it."
Valac unlocked the clamps. The heavy iron door swung open with a groan.
Smoke poured out, smelling of ozone and burnt flesh.
Garret fell out of the coffin, hitting the stone floor hard. He lay there, smoking, his skin red and raw, covered in strange, vein-like black tattoos that hadn’t been there before.
He didn’t move.
"Did he pop?" Valac asked, poking him with a wrench.
Garret’s hand shot out, grabbing the wrench. He crushed the metal tool in his grip.
Slowly, painfully, the man pushed himself up. He looked at his hands. The muscles in his arms had doubled in size, dense and corded like steel cables.
He looked at Ash.
[System Notification]
[Subject: Garret]
[Awakening Successful.]
[Class Acquired: Sin-Soldier (Variant: Wrath)]
[Level: 1 -> 15]
[Strength: +40]
[Endurance: +35]
Ash grinned. It wasn’t a standard class like "Warrior" or "Swordsman." It was a variant class, mutated by Ash’s influence.
Garret stood up. He felt heavy, powerful. The weakness of forty years of malnutrition was gone, replaced by a burning engine in his chest.
"My King," Garret rasped. His voice sounded like grinding stones.
He dropped to one knee, the stone floor cracking slightly under the impact.
"I feel... I feel like I could tear a wyvern in half."
"Not yet," Ash said. "But soon."
Ash turned to the other four slaves. They were staring at Garret with wide eyes. They didn’t see the blood or the pain. They only saw the power.
"Who is next?" Ash asked.
All four of them stepped forward instantly.
"Me! Choose me, My Lord!"
Ash looked at Valac.
"Can the machine handle the load?"
Valac was already tightening the bolts, her eyes shining with greed. "If we add more cooling pipes... and maybe more mana crystals... yes! We can do them all! We can make a whole army of shiny soldiers!"
"Good," Ash said.
He walked to the door, leaving the scientists to their work.
"Process them all," Ash ordered. "I want fifty Awakened soldiers by the end of the week. Satanachia will train them."
He paused at the doorway.
"And Valac?"
"Yes, Master?"
"Build a bigger machine."
Ash walked out into the corridor. The screams of the next volunteer began to echo behind him, a symphony of progress.
He pulled up his interface.
[Sub-Quest: The Awakening]
[Status: Complete.]
[Reward: Class Unlocked - Legion Commander.]
Ash dismissed the notification.
He had his spy in the capital. He had his economy. And now, he had the means to mass-produce super-soldiers.
The board was set.
Now, he just had to wait for Lucas to make his move.
Author’s Note:
The factory is open for business! Science + Dark Magic = An army of Sin-Soldiers.
We are moving fast now. Next Chapter, we check in on Lucas arriving at the Holy Capital and seeing how his "acting" skills hold up against the High Priests.
Also, do keep in mind there would be no Chapters coming in next month. I am highly disappointed in myself for not being able to keep up with this book.
I would like to redeem myself, so please be patient for my next work.