Chapter 53: Human Experimentation

Chapter 53: Human Experimentation

February 2nd, 2089

In my cave lab, I have taken out a set of materials that would be considered stuff of myth and legends. 7 items in total and they are all valuable beyond measure. Most of these items I acquired during my travel while the remainder I managed to buy at great personal cost.

The reverse scale of a Titanic Desert Dragon, the ashes of a Heretic Phoenix, a seed of a Cloudy Skyward Tree, a vine of a Voracious Abyssal Strangler, water from the Tearful Maidens Spring, a completely pure Inspirational Light Crystal and of course the Celestial Spirit Steel were all in front of me. The crystal and steel I had to buy at great cost while the other five I gathered after encountering them or their remains in my travels.

Back home I had faked having the flu and had Rin mimic my form to fool my parents. I have 3 days completely to myself to conduct my experiments. I plan to first fully examine the properties of the materials here, particularly the Celestial Spirit Steel.

After a days worth of analyzing I believe that I have gotten this Celestial Spirit Steel at an absolute bargain. My examination into this metal can be summarized as follows: it has near-perfect mana conduction, it has the consistency of quicksilver, and most importantly it can be considered a living metal. It can grow and self-repair and even mutate given the right conditions, materials and enough mana. The legends were right on the money which is somewhat surprising.

It will be the perfect anchor for the magic ritual I am going to perform. Other than the unattributed Celestial Spirit Steel, each material I have here represents one of the 6 elements of the world. These elemental particles are not directly used by normal wizards, we use unattributed mana which is an even composite of the 6.

To access the elements for spells we have to convert unattributed mana, which is somewhat inefficient. Some wizards actually choose to specialize in an element, they intentionally create an imbalance within themselves and accumulate pure elemental particles in their body instead of unattributed mana. They are called elementalists and although their spell selection becomes more limited due to the imbalance they gain incredible control, power and efficiency with their chosen elemental specialization.

I plan to take advantage of this by accumulating all 6 kinds of elemental particles in my body while still keeping my unattributed mana. In other words, my plan is to become an elementalist with all the elements. This will only be possible by fusing the 6 elemental materials I have to myself. My augmented body will then naturally accumulate elemental particles so I wont have to cause an imbalance in my own mana pool. The Celestial Spirit Steel will be the most important item because it will alter and augment my body so it can handle the strain of the additional elemental particles.

I stuck to my simple style, making a large seven-pointed star to represent the seven separate stages of the ritual, a smaller circle within to circulate the mana, and an even smaller square within the circle to stabilize the reaction. Each point of the large star had a smaller five-pointed star where the materials were placed along with the mana sources for the ritual.

I lied naked within the square as I braced myself for the beginning of the ritual. My mana surged outwards, causing all of the mana sources to break open and flooding the magic circle with mana. The first 5-pointed star to shine was the one with the Celestial Spirit Steel, it evaporated into a white-silver mist that enveloped me and seeped into my entire body. It hurt like hell and I started sweating out a goop comprised of various colors as the Celestial Spirit Steel molecules replaced every biometal and inorganic molecule in my bodys cells and even integrated itself into my DNA.

The second star started shining and the reverse scale of the Titanic Desert Dragon crawled across the ground and started being woven together with my own skin. It felt like I was being skinned and I had to start yelling wildly due to the pain. This torturous experience didnt stop as the third star started to shine and the ashes of the Heretic Phoenix turned into a bullet that pierced into my heart. My heart felt like it was burning as the life force within the ashes was ignited by my own lifes blood.

The fourth star shone and the seed of the Cloudy Skyward Tree was sucked into my lungs, where it started to grow and tear apart my lungs before it too was integrated into my body. The fifth star shined brightly and the vine of the Voracious Abyssal Strangler regained life as it snuck under my skin and intertwined itself with my musculature and was absorbed.

I was barely holding onto my consciousness as the sixth star lit up and the flask of Tearful Maidens water burst. It quickly flowed into me and was sucked up by my bone marrow. I could feel my blood go cold as it started being purified. The last star finally shone brightly and the Inspirational Light Crystal shattered in a burst of brilliance that seared my eyes and went right into my brain. The seven stars were shining brightly as I thrashed about in agony for who knows how long. I finally lost consciousness as the ritual continued to remake my body down to my very DNA.

I awoke with a start in the dark cave. The pain had thankfully vanished, but that wasnt what I was concerned about. I stood up and looked into a conjured mirror. And to my shock I saw nothing different. I looked almost the same as before the ritual.

Rather than becoming hideous, I seem to have had my looks improve. My hair was silkier than before and my skin had a nice gloss to it. I gained about an inch to become an even 6 feet tall and my muscles were bigger and had better tone than before. I seemed to have acquired a pleasant smelling natural musk and when I spoke I could tell my voice had a more musical chime to it.

But in stark contrast to the minor superficial changes, I felt that the changes within me were enormous. My mind was clear and working faster than ever, my senses were sharper and every part of my body felt like it was overflowing with power. I could feel the elements coalescing inside of me just like my mana. Fufufu, the fusion of sci-fi and fantasy was a truly brilliant idea on my part! I might be able to defeat Jupon after all. With that hope in my heart, I vanished from the other world.