It didn't take long before Akraptor woke up. Groggy and tired, he didn't question why he was lying in a soft bed. Suddenly, his mind awoke from it's stupor and his eyes widened as he didn't recognize the ceiling or the material of the bed.
The smell of eggs started to waft in his room, making his mouth water. Wiping the drool from his lips, he quietly got out of the bed, he still had all his clothes on, saving him from thinking stranger thoughts. Step by step, he inched closer to the door as the smell started to grow stronger.
Arriving in a corridor, there were two doors down the hall. One was open, the place where the egg smell originated from, while the other was closed. While Akraptor wasn't a mage any longer, he had been taught how to think like one.
Since he was caught in an unknown environment, it was best to gather as much information as possible before looking for a way out. Taking the initiative, he crept to the closed door, only to find it was locked.
'I can probably force the lock, but then my position would be given away.'
Faced with the choice of continuing on or returning to the bed, he hesitated slightly. Without any magical powers, he was useless. 'I should've followed that stupid training schedule.'
Despite Osaragi's best efforts, Akraptor simply never mustered the motivation to bother strengthening himself. Now in a precarious situation himself, he wished to the Demon God he was as strong as his trainer, for at least it would make his fear dissipate.
'Damn it all!'
While frustrated with himself, he didn't retreat as he went to the open door. Pushing it slightly open, it was suddenly pulled back entirely, revealing a large demon.
"Ah, you're up! Come eat, you stick," Osaragi's big smile scared the living hell out of Akraptor.
"God! I-I- Damn...", his brain couldn't even string the right words together as his heart almost jumped out of his chest.
"What's up with you? You look like you've seen a ghost?"
'You're not far off,' feeling a massive relief he wasn't in the home of a mage, he felt like collapsing in a chair. "I can't remember much. What the hell happened?"
"You showed me how weak you were, that's what happened!," Osaragi laughed out loud despite Akraptor's somewhat pale face. "Fainting after having the air drained out of you for a bit? Come on! The fucker wasn't even that strong, a single punch was enough to dislocate his jaw."
Grabbing Akraptor by his shoulder, he dragged him to the dining table, upon which two plates filled with eggs and bacon were placed. "Now eat, you twig!"
Watching Osaragi eat egg after egg, Akraptor felt inclined to join him as he started to scarf it all down. Seeing his hungry appetite, Osaragi laughed, "Hahaha! That's more like it! Here, I'll get you a few more."
Standing up from the table, Akraptor suddenly made a simple request. "Osaragi, I want to become stronger, you have to help me."
Facing his back, it was hard to tell what his expression was, but the massive grin he flashed as he turned around said more than enough.
As time passed, things hadn't changed all that much for Akraptor. He still visited the gambling dens and arena's, but now, every two days he visited Osaragi to train his muscles to the extreme. In the beginning there was barely any difference, but after a month or two had passed, he started to look like a proper demon, despite his bad habits.
"Well, I'll see you in two days, goodbye," waving him goodbye, Osaragi was left alone in his house. As the fake smile turned into a frustrated look, part of Osaragi complained he was still in public.
Closing the door behind him, Lucas couldn't hold in his frustration any longer, "Damn it! You said that this stupid acting thingy would be over in like a few days! It's been months, you fucker!"
'How would I know Akraptor felt close to Osaragi? I didn't expect him to gain motivation to train after getting his ass kicked. I was hoping to pick him up from the gambling dens, not this.'
"Then fix it already, I'm starting to get tired of this shit."
'You know it won't be much longer. We've almost got it.'
"Yeah, yeah, almost got it, almost got it, you know how many times I've had to hear that stupid line?"
'Around 148 times I believe.'
"Fucker."
A disguised Lucas moved to the bedroom as he unlocked it. Stepping inside, he moved his bed to the side to open a latch that was on the ground. Taking a ladder, he moved downwards for some time until he reached a large open space.
Magical torches kept the place lit in a dark blue light, yet still remained somewhat dark.
Walking up to a nearby table, he moved some scribbles out of the way as he stared at a light construction he created himself. In the light construction, a single cracked core was floating. Seeing it from all angles, Lucas heaved a heavy sigh.
"What now?"
'We continue to work.'
Turning away from the visual he had stared at for hours, he stood still for moment, to watch over his work. The room stretched far and wide, only the entrance had a desk for his study.
The rest of the room was created to keep his experiments. Rows upon rows of beds with bodies were laid upon them. There had to have been at least a hundred bodies present, no bed was empty.
Each life had long been snuffed out except for one. All the other bodies in the room were covered in a slight air bubble to contain the stench.
Walking along the corpses, each one had a few notes next to their heads. 'You take over, I ain't doing this shit.'
'Fair.'
Stepping to the last bed with a living subject, her arms and legs were tied down with magical chains while her mouth was propped full with cloth.
"Excuse me for your rough living conditions, this place was all I got from him. Now, before we begin, I believe it's respectful to explain why you're here. I know you don't want to do this, but you're far from the first, and hopefully the last."
The woman was tied to a bed, completely nude, she felt fear of what was about to happen next. She tried to shake herself free and scream, to no avail as Lucas cared little for her struggle.
"As you may have heard from a previous attempt, I'm trying to figure out how to fix broken cores. So I will break your core and then try to fix it. You were chosen because you were convicted of murder before."
Frankly, Lucas knew full well that it didn't matter what she did past or would do in the future. All he needed were subjects in the present. Perhaps choosing convicts, he was trying to lighten the load on his mind, but if he couldn't find any more, he would just take random people.
"Now, please try to stay conscious. I have a theory that the core is like a heart or lungs, parts of our body that move and act without our will, but can be manipulated using certain techniques. What I need from you is to try to keep your core together."
Lucas didn't bother flashing his usual fake smile as he placed his hand on her belly. Using his mana, he instantly pierced her body, refusing to even bother taking her pathways, he damaged her tissue directly to get to the core a lot faster.
"I've found a way to break the core quite easily. Frankly, despite the powers it can conjure, it's very fragile. Just like the heart and lung can make fighters achieve great feats, a simple scratch can completely destroy them."
As his mana started to form a minuscule needle, he used his strength to pierce the core. The woman started to scream out loud as Lucas held her body down to stop her from ruining his movements. He lost too many subjects because they made too many erratic movements.
Scraping his needle across her core, the woman kept screaming in pain, the tears rolling down her cheek. Yet Lucas was so focused on the damage he was performing on her core, it was like he was creating a work of art.
After he was finished, she kept up her screaming, which despite the cloth in her mouth, was still very audible.
Lucas gave a slight sigh of relief, "Perfect. You wouldn't want to know how many tries it took me to replicate it so well. Now that the damage has been done, I'll give you some time to rest. I'll clean you up, I can't stand the smell."
Removing the waste she let go off, he also dried her body of the sweat using a thin layer of darkness and wind. He did it so well, all her sweat was removed in an instant, it terrified her to see him being so proficient.
Fetching a plate with a few items on, he walked back to her bed. "Thank you for staying awake. I've noticed that when the subject stays awake, the chance of success increases. That's why there's more females in this place, they seemed to have a higher pain tolerance. Of course, I could probably trick a few men into wasting their adrenaline to stay awake, but it's too much of a hassle, women are easier to work with."
Smiling at his own words, his conversation partner didn't seem to appreciate it, nor did she seem all that talkative.
Using healing magic, he restored her flesh to its original state, not that her core could be fixed so easily.
Placing the plate of tools next to her, he place her hand on her belly again, making her instantly try to retract it, but it didn't matter as Lucas pushed his hand deep into her stomach.
"Can you use mana right now? Try to conjure a spell. I know you can't release it, but I'll heal the damage afterwards."
Her eyes screamed anything but compliance. 'Free her for a second, she'll fight back.'
'I don't want to loose such a good sample to test that.'
"Nevermind, I'll just drain the mana from your core. I need to replicate the circumstances perfectly. After you core is empty, I'll try to fix it with pieces of a core someone here donated."
Performing an excruciatingly practiced Life Drain on specific parts of her core, Lucas sucked the mana out without too much trouble. He had failed tens of times before he got it to work. He would make rookie mistakes no more.
Taking a moment to calm his nerves, it was time to perform the hardest part of his task, fixing the core. As he stared at the dozens of broken cores on his plate, he started to carve them into smaller pieces.
During his work, he noticed the woman seemed to have calmed down. Letting his eyes wander over her body, he eventually arrived at her eyes, which seemed to be dead.
Lucas flinched, placing his hand over her breast, he heaved a sigh of relief. "Goodness, I though you died, what's with the dead eyes? If I succeed in my work, I'll let you go. So please work with me, and we can both be happy when I'm done."
Despite his best efforts to cheer her up, she wasn't exactly in a position to trust him. Then again, it was better than nothing. Blinking once or twice, she closed them indefinitely, as if giving him a sign to continue.