Jyorta stepped foot in the principal's room, watching Madam Mary buried under a pile of work. Her five psychic arms were visible, continuously flashing to and fro as they performed five different tasks. Held in her hands was a book she leisurely read, upon a closer look, it was a storybook.
The book had the picture of a fairy with transparent wings, wearing a yellow gown while sporting a stupid grin. Drooling from her mouth was honey while she hid the honey jar behind her, in an effort to hide it. Leaves danced about, each big enough to hide her face.
'The Gluttonous Fairy of Honeywood. It's a fairy tale.' Jyorta was confused for a second, the oddity of the situation and the sharp contrast making him speechless. Madam Mary's psychic arms were working at such speeds that they were a blur, unable to be discerned by the naked eye. But she, on the other hand, was relaxedly reading a storybook.
Jyorta only figured the presence of the psychic arms thanks to sensing five concentrated psychic energy fluxes around Madam Mary. Seeing his gaze, Madam Mary smiled, "I'll become a great-grandmother soon. So, I thought of making some preparations beforehand."
'One of my cousins had a child?' Jyorta thought of the children of his uncle Hubert, and aunt Havita that were of the potential age, unable to determine who the person was. His uncle Hubert had three children, the same for his aunt. Of them, two were of marriageable age. If one of them had married while he was in the academy, then there was a chance they might be expecting a kid soon.
"Ma'am, who got married?" Jyorta inquired.
Madam Mary smiled, motioning at the chair before her, "You'll know when you graduate. Matters of the family will not be mentioned here, unless they are of the utmost urgency. Now, take a seat."
Jyorta did as told, sensing one of the five dense fluxes of psychic energy disappear. A second later, a large rectangular apparatus lay in the principal's room. Lights flashed all over it, highlighting the glass structure of its upper half.
"There are two points you must take note of," Madam Mary said, "First, I'll be weakening you to the utmost limit. Two, when you lay in the apparatus, unleash your Caterpillar and place it right under the hole in the middle. That is the only hole so you won't mistake it for anything else."
"I won't interfere with the process, since the moment I do so means the process is a failure. So, everything will depend on you. Endure and never lose consciousness." She gazed at the rectangular apparatus, flashing beside it before clicking a button on it.
With a clack, the glass-structured shaft opened, revealing a berth inside. The berth seemed perfect for his figure, as if made for him. On noticing his curiosity, Madam Mary said, "The berth will be custom made for every individual. As for the apparatus, there are many units of differing sizes. We'll make do with the most fitting ones and perfect the rest using the berths."
A glass flask appeared on her hand as she motioned for Jyorta to lay on the berth, "I will first be weakening your physique using my aura."
Jyorta laid in a comfortable posture, facing up as he nodded at Madam Mary. Madam Mary unleashed her aura, controlling the intensity, perfectly outlining Jyorta's body. Not even a tinge of it leaked out or affected the berth he lay on.
Her aura gushed into his body, combating his aura. His aura resisted it with all its might, getting expended in the process. After the fight on the previous day, he had yet to accumulate much aura. So, everything he possessed was swiftly expended within a minute, making him feel weak.
Madam Mary delicately controlled her aura output, expending Jyorta's aura while ensuring not even a tinge of her presence remained in him. "You will feel suffocated now. Try to endure."
Jyorta nodded as the shaft closed. The machines in the apparatus whirred to life, sucking away the air within. Jyorta's breathing grew laboured, the reduction in air straining him. By his second breath, he was already exhausted, the air inside the apparatus had been fully sucked away.
Even though fear crept up his being in such a situation, Jyorta mustered every ounce of his courage to completely exhale all the air in his lungs, noticing it too be sucked away. There was no more air for him to inhale or exhale.
Jyorta adjusted his right hand, facing the palm towards a hole in the apparatus. His body trembled while the nerves protruded on his skin, turning blue. Piercing pain originated from his heart, forehead, temples, and neck as tendrils of blood seeped out through the pores on his face, forming a long line as they condensed into a sphere above his palm.
The tendrils of blood wriggled like worms, each seemingly having a life of its own. Seeing their actions, Madam Mary's eyes widened in surprise, 'Impressive, no wonder he was picked. His potential is boundless.'
'As someone fated to stand against Rhachis Ancestor Parasite, Regen is not suitable for him. His offensive power should be stronger. Thankfully, Atika made some arrangements within the Unranked Skill in regards to this. In the future, it can be swapped out for the Unranked Skill she has been preparing for him.' She thought, inserting the glass flask in a cylindrical bore in the apparatus, twisting it clockwise.
Contained within the glass flask was a viscous solution, radiating lustre that varied across all colours of VIBGYOR every second. Suspended in its centre was a neuron, pale blue in colour. The nerve endings were white while electricity flashed across it, alternating between blue and transparent.
The nucleus was jet black, seemingly absorbing the light the viscous solution radiated like a bottomless hole. The neuron was alive, displaying sentient behaviour. The nucleus was like a face, staring straight at Jyorta.
When Madam Mary twisted the glass flask clockwise, the viscous solution began to flow through a tube, heading towards the interior of the apparatus.
A groove formed on the blood sphere, dividing it into two halves, with each hemisphere rotating in the opposite direction. Tendrils of blood wriggled, joining together to create segments, patterns, etc. on the hemispheres.
The two hemispheres rotated to unravel a cylindrical column, segmented into six. A pair of arms popped out from the second segment while tendrils of blood wriggled to form a triangular-shaped hair patch on the first segment.
A set of humanoid facial features formed on the front, partly resembling Jyorta. The face scowled upon forming, imitating a third-rate gangster, while a wine glass and a cigar manifested in its arms. It lifted its wine glass, enlarging as it hoisted it up, watching a drop of the viscous solution drip out of the hole and into it.
It brought the wine glass near its nose, taking a sniff, intoxicated by the aroma of the viscous solution. It swerved its head, gazing Madam Mary as it threw its cigar into its mouth, clamping it perfectly to strike a cool smoking pose. It lifted the free hand, pointing at Madam Mary, flashing a thumbs-up as its other hand brought the wine glass to its mouth.
The moment it sipped the viscous solution, it became less lively, its expressions dulling. It gulped the contents in the vine glass and dissolved the cigar into its body, taking up a comfortable position on Jyorta's palm.
It was Jyorta's Caterpillar.
The Caterpillar changed the structure of the wine glass, turning it into a funnel, with the smaller end placed into its mouth that it opened wide. The viscous solution began to drip faster, sending two drops every second.
The drops slid down the funnel and ended up in the Caterpillar's mouth, making some changes in its body. A stream of energy gushed into his body as Jyorta's consciousness slipped away, the lack of oxygen making his head spin.
He had been holding his breath for a considerable duration already. The vacuum also caused him pain as the internal pressure in his body sought to break past his frame and expand into the wider world.
'Its growth has already surpassed its peers. Six-seven months later, it would surpass all Tier 2 Wisdom Parasites. There is a good chance it would be capable of speaking the moment it evolves into Tier 3.' Madam Mary thought, increasing the dripping speed of the viscous solution the moment the Caterpillar's actions turned dull.
The viscous solution dripped with increasing speeds, soon turning into a thin stream that entered the Caterpillar's mouth. Contained within a drop was the pale blue neuron, falling in the funnel.
The Caterpillar instinctively resisted upon sensing it but was unable to move, helplessly watching the pale blue neuron enter its mouth, head into its stomach, and initiate a chain reaction. A rush of energy entered Jyorta's body, akin to an electric shock that brought back his fading consciousness.
Jyorta mustered every ounce of his strength, directing it at the Caterpillar, Willing it the moment Madam Mary nodded at him. The Caterpillar dissolved into tendrils of blood as they flowed across the air, seeping into the pores on his face.
For a moment, his suffocation became unbearable, knocking him out cold. The shaft opened as a gust of air gushed in, forming a mini vortex as they occupied the vacuum. Jyorta gasped for breath, greedily inhaling the air.
Unable to endure or complete the process, he exhaled, inhaling again mid-way, instantly exhaling without finishing the cycle. He inhaled and exhaled haphazardly for a whole minute before his breathing stabilised.
Clarity returned to his mind as Madam Mary's smiling face came into his vision. "Congratulations, Jyorta Bone. You have successfully obtained the Unranked Skill, Regen."
"You now have access to boundless strength."
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