A Risky Gamble

Zack couldn't believe his ears for a second when he heard Andrey's response.

"What's with that expression? You don't want to?" Andrey asked while amused after seeing the stupified expression of Zack.

"Ah, not that, just wait a minute," Zack said and nodded his head towards his senior who had been looking towards him.

Seeing the signal from Zack, Ron double-checked things with him as according to him no one with a bright future of becoming a warrior would attempt to take such risks.

"I hope you've thought clearly on this matter," Ron's voice entered Andrey's ears as he approached him from the side.

"Yes, I will have no regrets no matter what," Andrey said.

Hearing this Ron didn't try to further dissuade him because even though this experiment carried a very large risk the benefit was also quite high.

An average warrior who has just become familiar with the red energy typically requires at least a year to become a low-level warrior but if this method proves successful then the individual would be considered a low-level warrior the moment his body accepts the dosage.

Ron soon brought out a set of documents from his briefcase and gave it to Andrey while explaining to him the terms written on it.

It was basically just documents to confirm that he was giving his consent to be experimented upon and that his future developments as a warrior would be closely monitored for research purposes.

Andrey didn't care about all that and quickly picked up the pen to sign over it. Before he could proceed though he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Andrey, don't do it, this method is way too risky. It's much better to go the traditional route," Mrs Smith, the Vice-principal arrived beside him and tried to change his mind.

"Thanks for your consideration ma'am...but there's one thing that I'm certain...these people here won't be suggesting something like this to us students if they had enough time to wait for us to develop slowly..." Andrey's words silenced Mrs Smith as what he said was indeed quite true.

Mrs Smith could only sigh in defeat after hearing his words. She used her hand to brush Andrey's messy hair and said "I hope you succeed and everything goes well," 

Andrey smiled towards her because of her affectionate gesture and said, "Don't worry, ma'am I'll survive this," 

Andrey's smile seemed to have somehow calmed her worried mind and seeing this Andrey proceeded to sign the papers.

Seeing Andrey getting so much attention from the selectors and the vice-principal it was natural that several discussions started happening between the students.

Some sneaky fellows even attempted to close in on them to hear out their conversation but Miss Jane was quick on her feet and pulled them back to their seats by their ears as a result everyone was still in the dark as to what was happening between Andrey and the selectors.

Seeing Andrey signing onto some documents both Jacob and Jenny grew concerned while Alex who had not pulled his sight away from his rival for even a second raised his brow in confusion.

"All right, let's begin," Zack said after getting the nod of consent from his superior.

"Mhmm" Andrey hummed as he saw Zack placing the deep crimson-red vial inside the casing of the syringe and after flicking the needle tip with his finger like usual he proceeded to inject it in Andrey's upper arm.

Andrey clenched his teeth when he saw this and prepared his body for whatever was to come.

He had one thing clear in mind, the moment he felt that he was going to lose consciousness he was going to rewind the time.

Unlike the diluted versions of the medium-grade stone the concentrated version, that too of a high-grade stone, took effect the moment it made contact with Andrey's body as a burning sensation ran all over his body.

"ArghHH" Andrey grimaced in pain as he clenched both handrests of the chair on which he was sitting tightly with his two hands and continued to try to forget about this scalding pain.

Unfortunately for him, the scalding pain which he was feeling became far and more intense with each passing millisecond as he felt like a separate pathway was being forged by the liquid that had entered his body.

His blood was being pumped at a speed like never before and one was clearly able to see all his blood vessels bulging out of his skin and wriggling as if trying desperately to handle the immense flow of blood within them.

It had only been around three to four seconds since his initial grimace but the pain after that was so intense that it gave Andrey no chance to use his vocal chords. He was almost at the point of losing his consciousness.

Seeing Andrey's current state the Vice-principal was praying profusely while Ron and Zack had a serious expression plastered on their faces.

The ever-increasing pain finally felt like it had hit a plateau and without a second thought, Andrey used all of his will to retract his mind that was so adamantly focusing on the pain his body was experiencing in order to think about his rewind skill to end his torment.

However, fortunately, or unfortunately another fresh pang of pain right near his chest spoilt all his efforts and pulled him back into his misery.

Seeing Andrey whose body seemed to be on the verge of breaking from the extreme stress his body was going through Zack and Ron had almost lost their trust and were preparing themselves for the inevitable but suddenly they noticed a red radiance of light emitting from Andrey's chest.

Both of their eyes widened upon seeing this.

"The Red core is forming..." Zack muttered in surprise as a ray of hope suddenly took over his expression. The same ray of hope also appeared in Ron's and the vice-principal's eyes.

The sudden pang of pain that Andrey felt earlier was so intense that it would be not wrong to say that he should have lost consciousness by now but somehow he still persisted.

'Re-' Andrey had finally managed to find a gap in his pain and was about to truly rewind time when all the painful sensations in his body disappeared altogether making him open his tightly shut eyes in a stupor.

"What the hell..." Andrey muttered the moment he opened his eyes. 'Was he dead already?' Was the first thought that entered his mind but the coldness coming from his sweat-drenched shirt made him realize that it was not the case.

"Congratulations!" Ron congratulated Andrey for succeeding in the experiment while trying hard to keep himself from jumping around to express his joy.

"You did it!" The Vice-principal embraced Andrey's head in her arms as she said "I thought I almost lost you...I'm glad nothing happened to you, Andrey," 

"Y-you're holding me too tightly ma'am," Andrey somehow managed to inform her about the deadly grip with which she was embracing his neck.

"Oh! I'm sorry I didn't hurt you did I?" A voice filled with concern soon entered his ears.

"It's nothing, ma'am. I'm really alright," Andrey couldn't help but be reminded of his mother from the caring nature of his Vice-principal.

The Vice-principal was relieved to know that Andrey was fine and congratulated him soon after for his success.

Zack then informed Andrey that a few low-grade red stones would be delivered directly to his house by evening.

"Your Core has just been formed and is in a quite a weak state. You'll need to nourish it for a week or so in order to stabilize it. So absorb them well," Zack said. His tone was much better than earlier and it also carried a hint of excitement in it.

"But I don't know how to absorb..." Andrey raised his doubts.

"You'll get your answers in the evening," Zack said and then reluctantly told Andrey to go back as there were still plenty of students to be tested.

Andrey could only do what he was asked to and returned back to his classmates.

"Andrey" Jacob rushed towards him along with Jenny and asked him about what the hell had happened.

"What did those people do to you? Why were you in such an extreme state?..."

A flurry of questions escaped his mouth but Andrey had no way to answer them all in one go so he told Jacob to calm down first and slowly explained to him what exactly had happened.

"Ouch" Andrey exclaimed as Jacob knocked his head in anger as he said, "You crazy bastard, are you trying to get yourself killed or what?"

"He's right Andrey, this isn't a game where you can just decide to risk your life on a whim like that," Jenny voiced out with anger clearly laced in her voice aswell.

"That knock was unnecessary though..." Andrey muttered as he rubbed his head in annoyance.

Seeing this Jacob once again tried to knock his head to insert some sense into him but Andrey managed to dodge it as he said," I get it alright! Stop with the knocks or I'll really end up in some serious state,"

Jacob put down his hand after hearing his words. He clearly remembered how pained Andrey looked a few moments back which forced him to stop.

"Just don't do stupid stuff like that again you understand? Don't treat your life like you're an anime protagonist you'll get yourself killed you bastard," Jacob said in a serious manner to which Andrey could only nod in order to placate Jacob's mood.