"W-What are you even talking about?", the tall man asked in a shaking voice. He didn't know why but just looking at Beta made his legs tremble.
"I'm saying that you will be here for a substantial amount of time. So, you might as well call it your home, right?", Beta answered, his warm smile almost letting them forget about the predicament they are in.
"Do you think you can win against the four of us, boy?", one of the henchmen said fearlessly.
In response to that, Beta willed his soulpower out, letting it take on the shape of a skull with glistening eyes which seemed to suck in their surroundings. The skull was formed by Beta's death elemental soulpower, enabling them to see it, and the eyes were filled with void elemental soulpower, letting them feel as if the skull was sucking in their souls.
With the danger of death before them, they didn't dare to oppose Beta anymore and instead gained the docile look of domesticated dogs.
"S-So this i-is-s our ho-home from now on? I-it's not too bad!", the henchman that opposed Beta earlier said, stuttering several times.
"Don't worry. I will not mistreat you four. After all, you promised to take care of my mother!", Beta said after recalling his soulpower, his warm smile reminding them of blooming flowers in spring.
At the beginning, they were visibly relieved, but once they heard the second part, they felt a coldness go down their backs as if they were facing the grim reaper. His warm smile suddenly felt like one of a deadly beast they only get to hear of.
"Now, why don't we talk a little? My apologies, I didn't have the time to get some chairs yet, so you will have to do with the tables behind you.", Beta said nonchalantly.
When the four looked at the mentioned tables, a bad feeling welled up inside them. Nonetheless, they still sat down on the cold tables. They didn't dare to disobey Beta's orders at all.
"Alright, why don't you tell me everything you know about this city and its surroundings?"
"Eh? Besides the slums, we don't really know much...", the woman answered with teary eyes. Since they couldn't fight him, they might as well obey for now and try to do something later on.
"You frequent the bars around here, right? I'm sure there are some things that you've heard.", Beta said patiently. He wasn't expecting much from the beginning. Someone who had to rob little kids definitely wouldn't have much influence around here and thus, have not much information.
A few hours passed by in which Beta interrogated them and got all of the information they knew of. As expected, it wasn't much. Of the little things that they knew about, an almost negligible amount was useful. But one of the things they revealed, interested Beta. Apparently, a certain noble sneaks into the slums every now and then to visit a certain house. Usually, it wasn't something special for nobles to take a trip into the slums. But this particular house was known to be an orphanage which was supposed to be something most nobles despised.
In there, poor dirty children clung to them and begged for money. The last thing a noble would want was to get soiled by dirty hands and snot from those children, thus, they avoid the place like the plague. And yet, some noble actually went there? So, what exactly was the reason to go there? Was there an illegitimate child? Was the noble actually adopted? But then, if that was the case, why come back? Beta noted it down in his mind and thought about using Brian's kids to pry into this matter later on. This could be a great opportunity for his situation at the moment. If he could extort a noble to get some funds for traveling and other means, it would be ideal.
As the night came to an end, Beta finally prepared to leave. Just when his four hostages started to relax and plan their escape, Beta stopped in his tracks.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, if you try to escape, you will die a horrible death. I've set up several traps to ensure that. If you stay in here quietly, I will come back to you tomorrow and even bring you supplies. If not... well, let's just say that you won't need any supplies anymore.", Beta said with his usual warm smile.
Right after that, he left the small underground room which became a cage with the subjects inside, closing it up properly. This time, with even more dirt. What he said about the traps was a simple lie. But after the four saw his powers, they wouldn't be too sure about that. What if he had really laid traps there? The only other choice would be to dig through the ceiling, but if they did that, the whole space would collapse, burying Beta's secrets for good. So, they couldn't help but accept their karma for trying to rob a random kid at night.
The next morning arrived, as usual, Brian knocked on Beta's door. It took a few minutes before Beta finally opened the door and stepped outside.
"Sorry, I was just taking a shower. Let's go, we can't be late."
Beta doesn't know when, but at some point, Domian had arrived next to them as well. It even made Beta think of him as a potential assassin. He also thought that if Domian was going to be a part of their team in the future, he should think of plans if he can hone him to be the best assassin.
Class, again, wasn't anything special. All they had to do was read books and train their control of their soulpower. It was boring, but necessary. Beta, who already had supreme control over his soulpower that surpassed everyone, just focused on reading books. He read about medical knowledge, mysterious beasts, and the various kinds of soulpowers in particular. Although he didn't really learn much from the medical books, he was at least able to confirm a few things and broaden his horizons a little.
At night, Beta once again visited his hideout. When he entered, he noticed a difference though. There were only three people and a pile of earth at one of the sides. He directly knew what happened.
"He tried to escape and was crushed, huh? Too bad.", Beta commented, leaving the remaining three stupefied.
Of the four people, the one who had opposed Beta was missing. He feared Beta would give him a 'special' treatment since he had offended him. Therefore, he tried to escape. It didn't take long before the tunnel collapsed and crushed him. The worst thing about it was that it didn't directly kill him. He still had to suffer through suffocation after his body had already been crushed, his lungs slowly filling with earth.
"Looks like you won't get any food today..." He then added, "Anyway, it's about time that I start my experiments!"
"!!!"
This terrified them. Experiments? Just what is he going to do to them? But before they could voice out their thoughts, they suddenly lost consciousness. Beta had chopped at their necks with full control of his strength, ensuring that they'll only faint and now stood above them. He then laid two of them down on the operation tables and dragged the woman to a corner.
"It's time to start!"
Beta washed his hands with water from his personal space. He then stood in between his two operation tables. A flower appeared in his hand, which he fed to the both of them as it is. It was a bit hard to make them swallow it in their unconscious state, but after trying a bit with the help of his soulpower manipulation, it worked somehow. This flower was something Beta had picked up in the wilderness. The flower's use was to sedate them for a few hours. It wouldn't be as effective against someone who had soulpower, but luckily his test subjects were normal humans.
Beta slowly cut open their chests in a practiced manner, setting free their organs. Next, he took out their livers expertly and simply switched them. His first test was regarding blood types and organ tissues. He was able to easily identify the blood type and tissues by the use of his eyes and soulpower, not to mention his countless experience together with his father's experimentation lectures. It's just that, he wanted to try the limits of his Surgeon's Rule, which according to its instructions, should be able to ignore these differences.
This was something really important to Beta, as it would mean that he would have no troubles at all when taking someone else's body parts. Before, it was possible due to the enemies in the arena all having the same blood type and tissues, but that wasn't the case in the outside world. After he stitched up their organs, Beta let his soulpower flow through them. As long as he didn't want it to be harmful, it wouldn't be. He circulated it through their bodies in a certain way, at least going through every vein once. Once he finished with soulpower stimulation, he felt something in their bodies change. Both bodies' reaction towards the new organs was a lot better than he expected. All of the natural cells which promotes regeneration was put into action, helping with the fusion of the unknown livers.
These effects truly marveled Beta, as he knew just how incredible this was. But he didn't have the time to enjoy it much as exhaustion overcame him. Guiding his soulpower through another person's body was no easy feat. Especially when it had to be in a certain pattern and even done to both bodies at once. Sweat was streaming down his body without end. He quickly stitched up both of their bodies and rested a bit. Not long after he left to head back to his dorms again, where he fell asleep right after.
Days passed by with Beta spending time on a certain routine – school, training, studying, hideout, experiments, sleep, then back to school. Sometimes they also get to head outside in teams to train in the wilderness. Beta was also the one who gave approval to the other teams who wanted to train outdoors and assigned groups to handle challenges against other classes. He didn't join any fight together with them since he deemed it unnecessary. They were still Class S students after all so they were already strong on their own. Ever since Beta defeated a senior, no upperclassmen bothered to issue a challenge again due to being scared of their reputations being ruined while some thought of it as a waste of time to fight against freshmen. Therefore, Beta was able to enjoy his school life with a lot of freedom, as he spent all his time with whatever he wanted to do.
Soon, a year had passed.