Volume 1 Episode 5

Lin was deep in thought. He had to figure out what had gone wrong. He had taught that the process went really well. Well, up until the explosion happened. He thought that he had done everything right. So what was the problem?

He thought about reviewing what had happened with the kid that had been bitten. He wanted to figure out what was the difference between his process and what the kid had gone through. What was the key difference between his experiment and what the kid had gone through to have such a difference in results?

"Think, what had I done wrong? Obviously, the experiment had worked. Even though the explosion had happened, the fact that the man exhibited magical powers was enough to show that his experiment, although ended in disaster, was still a step in the right direction."

As he thought about what had happened in the room, he decided to once again check the events that had transpired before and after the kid had been bitten by the beast.

"Wait! There was indeed something different." Lin suddenly had an epiphany. He checked the full detailed events that had happened and figured out that the boy had been given a potion for him to heal. That was the key difference between his experiment and the event with the boy.

"That must be it! That potion must be the difference that caused the flames to go out of control and explode. But why? What is the specialty of the potion? Why was it effective in stopping the destructive powers of the transferred magic?"

Lin tried looking into the potion more. As he searched for the description of the potion, he couldn't help but raise his eyes. The potion was basically equivalent to a vaccine in the original world. Although the potion is not made from a part of the disease causing material as a vaccine would, it did show an increase in resistance to diseases by increasing the effectiveness of the antibodies to completely focus on the issue that the host's body might be facing, including injuries. Although the first stages of taking the potion were considered to be painful, the overall outcome was supposed to be worth it. The downside of the potion was that it could only be taken to care for a single type of injury, as it causes the body to completely focus on only it, which might leave other types of injuries or diseases that the host has to take control of. This caused the price of the potion to go down significantly.

"So the body treats the unlocked magic power, or the 'X factor' as a foreign element at first huh. It's kind of like grafting; this is surprising. Even though the body is supposed to have the 'X factor' in it already, it treats it as a foreign object and even as a threat when activated. Does this mean that my hypothesis was wrong? But that can't be right, I do have the information hint, which makes my guesses pretty much accurate. So that can only mean that the key to unlocking the 'X factor' is foreign to the body, but not too foreign enough to cause death."

Lin thought about the various reasons for why importing the key didn't kill the host. Even though the potion is used, the body still contains the foreign object, so how does it accommodate the new element?

"Perhaps the key element stays dormant while outside of a host. It could only activate inside the host, and the activation is the reason for the uncontrollable release of energy which caused the explosion. This hypothesis means that it was the activation, not the foreign element that caused the death of the previous experimental subject. So does that mean that there is no foreign element, but instead the activation happens by the introduction of the already activated 'X factor' of the donor with the dormant 'X factor' of the host?"

As he reached a possible conclusion to the problem, and adding that his guesses tend  to be more accurate, he moved on to write them down. Lin then looked at the description of the potion and he couldn't help but smile. The potion was one of the cheapest and the weakest among the rest, and yet it proved to be the most important in unlocking the secrets of Magic itself. Ironic.

As the next batch of lab rats arrived, he did the exact same procedures as last time. He added the potion each time the transfusion took place and one extra time at the end of the procedure to ensure that the body will have enough to recover from the activation.

The man, who woke up after a while, felt drained of energy. He looked around and, having found that he had been trapped in an unknown room, shouted angrily.

"Well, this guy is more angry than scared. He must be a tough one amongst his peers. Let's see if he can keep up the attitude." Lin, laughing at the lab rat, pressed a button which caused one of the doors to open. As the man looked at the opened door confused, a figure slowly came out through the door, growling at its supposed prey.

"Now, shall we get back to where we left off?"

Sure enough, it was a Greymur Panther, a larger one than the one before. It looked at the 'food' in front of it and waited for the other party to make a move.

The man on the other hand seemed to be frozen stiff by the panther. It looked like he couldn't comprehend the situation he was in. But after a few seconds, he came to be and slightly moved to the side without looking away from the Panther, locking eyes with it.

The panther also moved slowly along with the man, still keeping his eyes on him.

Silence.

And then, the man ran to the bed near him. The panther followed swiftly as the man neared the bed and flipped it one side, moving to the corner of the room and blocking the panther from getting to him using the bed.

The panther seemed to understand what he was doing, and jumped over the bed, to catch the man. However, the man appeared to have expected that, and he, having broken one of the legs of the bed, held it in his hand and stabbed it with it.

The panther, surprised by the sudden attack, was caught completely unprepared and got stabbed in the shoulder, and scratched at the man in resistance.

The nails of the panther clawed through the skin and flesh of the man's arm, exposing white bones through the opened wound.

The sudden wound caused the man to lose his balance, which made him fall down, and the panther, seizing the opportunity, jumped on top of the man, fully intent on finishing his prey off.

As the man's eyes started losing hope, he moved his hands and tried to punch the panther as a last minute attempt. Suddenly, a ball of flames formed in front of his arms, and flew towards the panther.

As the incoming ball of flames grew bigger and bigger, it hit the face of the panther, completely burning it's face and soon devouring the body as well. The panther, now terrified, started running around the room hoping for the flames to die down and soon after, it took its last breath.

"Wh-what is this power?" The lab rat looked at his hands, unable to grasp the situation. His surroundings were covered with fire, and the panther that attacked him had been burned alive. He couldn't believe what had just happened. As he looked at the burning body of the terrifying creature in front of him, he started laughing.

"Hahahahahaha… I have power! I finally have pow-"

That's all he could say as a sedative dart pierced his neck and he passed out.

"Well, that was worth it. Now to see whether or not the body can support more than one type of magic blood," as he looked at the unconscious lab rat, Lin's face formed a satisfied smile. 

He had finally done it.

He achieved success.

He can now change his destiny.

*************** 6 months later ***************

"Welcome to Drakon Academy of Magical Arts. To all the people who have arrived here to attend the entrance exam; whether they came from far away lands or nearest towns, the Principal and the faculty wish you the very best of luck. I'm sure some of you will be selected to attend the school and some of you shall go home empty handed. But one thing is certain, you're fate isn't decided by where you get admitted nor where you didn't. It is always the results of your actions that decide your fate. So people who will be selected, don't get too cocky; and the people who are not selected, this is not the end. That is all."

As soon as the School leader's speech ended, the hall became incredibly noisy. A number of people had come to attend the entrance exam for the Drakon Academy, a prestigious school only for the richest of the rich. 

As he looked at the kids in front of him, Lin thought about the last 6 months. He had tried various methods to incorporate many types of magic powers into one body, and after countless experiments, he had finally succeeded in engineering a lab rat with two magic elements. It was noted from the experiment that the immunity of the test subject had to be increased to the extremes before the transfusion procedure and had to be maintained before starting the experiment. But in the end, he had succeeded, creating a test subject with two elements. Unfortunately, the safety procedures on the double powers were still going on to ensure no problems to the host, so he couldn't still implement it on himself. But he did have enough time to test out mono power transfer and its safety, having successfully used it on himself 2 months ago.

He wasn't the old Lin anymore. He wasn't the Lin who was worthless. He was reborn. And he would prove it to everyone who looked down on him.

"Well well… if it isn't Mr. Lin Hamill. Why are you doing here cripple? Oh, applying for the non gifted category probably. I forgot that such a category existed. Well why would I give a shit about such a category anyway?"

A sneering comment flowed into his ears,  causing Lin to furrow his brows. Luke. The dumbass cousin of his had also come to join the academy. 

Why is he making a ruckus? Doesn't he know that the family will probably punish him for openly talking about the secret?

Or does he think that it's actually worth it to see me get humiliated? Even so that's still dumb.

As Lin thought about how to deal with the fool, a cute voice came to his rescue. Lin furrowed his brows again. 

She's here too huh. Makes sense.

"How dare you say such words to my friend! Apologize to him right now," an angry Rin protested. Lin looked at the ongoing verbal fight and thought about why Luke came to pick a fight with him, and why Rin came forward to support him.

Does she think I can't defend myself? She does know he can't actually attack me right? I'm a member of the Hamill family, so we can't attack each other, especially in front of crowds. The only way we could even fight is using words, and I would easily win at that. So why did she interfere?

The reason is simple. Because I'm normal. And normal people, no matter how good and better they try will always be looked down by the Gifted. Didn't matter whether they could defend themselves or not. Didn't matter whether they could do better than even the Gifted at times. As long as you weren't blessed with the magical powers, people will think you're JUST NORMAL. But I'm not. Not anymore.

While the verbal fight continued, Lin moved to get the testing done. The testing for magical powers was one of the many parts of the entrance exam. As he moved through the crowd, he could hear whispers from people who doubted him.

"Did you hear what Luke said? Maybe it's true."

"Oh that'd be really funny."

"Would that mean I'd be better than a member of the Hamill family?"

"I almost feel sorry for him."

"You shouldn't. He has more wealth than most of us combined. It's almost like justice to us if he really has no gift."

Lin moved through the crowd ignoring the comments made about him. He had heard it all before from his family members. They wouldn't say it to his face, but would whisper behind his back. He knew there would be no stopping to it unless he showed them that they didn't have the right to talk about him. And the best way to do that… 

is by directly shutting them up through actions.

"Mr Lin, please place your hand on the crystal here." As the faculty member instructed, Lin placed his hand on the colorless crystal.

"Oh, look everyone, he's going to prove my words in front of you all. Lin Hamill, a member of our respected Hamill family, the one who is supposed to inherit the fortunes and the head position, is a cr-" the gloating words of Luke were cut short by the bright red color emitted by the crystal, as the light enveloped the whole room, blinding all.

After a minute of silence, the faculty member announced.

"Lin Hamill, Gifted with Fire Magic."