A Failed Experiment

Holding his growling stomach with both his hands, Dorian starts shuffling back to his "home". In all honesty it was just a couple of boards piled on each other, even so, it's the best Dorian had.

The sun was setting and it had been an entire day since he had last eaten. As an orphan living in the city furthest from capital where crime was rampant and food was scarce, he had no one to rely on but himself.

Honestly, it was miracle that he was still free and with all his body parts at 16 years old. Usually people his age living in the slums would have either been forced into slavery or prostitution to make ends meet.

As he was walking down an alley, Dorian started expressing his inner hatred to the world.

"Damn it! This sucks. What did I ever do to deserve this. Screw you world! Is there any justice left?! Damn the hierarchy! Damn everyone who-"

*SWOOSH*

A giant wooden club came flying right into Dorian's face knocking him out along with a couple of his teeth. The last thing he saw was a man in a dark hooded cloak standing in front of him.

....

*Drip* *Drip* *Drip*

'What's that sound? Is that... water droplets?'

I slowly open up my eyes and observe the surroundings. It's dark and cold. I can't see anything around me, and my clothes... my clothes are gone?!

I'm suddenly wide awake at the thoughts of my clothes disappearing and try to sit up when I realize my arms and legs were bound by something.

*CLANG*

"What the hell is going on?! Why am I bound up by chains! Where are my clothes damn- Ugh! My teeth..."

"Oh, your awake!" A strange sounding voice resounded throughout the room. "That's quite the pleasant surprise."

The voice sounded quite old. It was a bit cracked and almost shaky, like the person speaking was in their elderly years.

As if responding to the voice, the the dark room instantly became brightly illuminated.

"Umph!" The sudden change in lighting causes a quick pain to shoot through my eyes as I close them reflexively.

"I was just wondering how I should wake you up," the elderly voice sounded again. "It seems that before I could break any bones, you woke yourself up! Quite a pleasant surprise indeed."

'Before he could break any bones? What does breaking bones have to deal with waking me up? Don't tell me he was going to break my bones to shock me awake right?'

As my eyes adjusts to the light, I look toward the source of the voice. It's an old man with balding white hair wearing a brow lab coat. He has a monocle over his right eye and a spectacular well groomed white mustache. Standing 6 feet in height, the old man was tall, yet, he was surprisingly gaunt. Holding a toolbox in his left hand and a metal pipe in the other, he began walking forward me.

Gulping down the lump in the back of my throat, I feel my heart pump faster and faster. "This might be a bad question but what did you mean when you said 'before I can break any bones'?" I ask with a forced smile, attempting to stay calm.

"Well my young friend, you were sleeping quite soundly but I needed you awake for my experiment. Thinking that you wouldn't wake under normal circumstances, I figured that the fasted way you would wake would be to inflict some pain upon you, thus, I was going to break some bones with this nifty tool in my right hand." the old man replies back a nonchalant tone, shaking the metal pipe in his hand.

I feel cold sweat running down my back as a number of thoughts ran through my head.

'What can I do? How can I escape? Time... I need to buy some time!'

"So can I ask what I am doing here? And who you are?" I ask carefully.

"Of course! You are here as a participant of my experiment. As you may or may not know, the human body can't contain nearly as much mana as other creatures, this means that we need to rely on external magic sources, such as potions and crystals to match them. I am here to fix that problem, and you are here to 'help' me with it. After all, I can't operate on myself can I? Oh yes, you can call me Dr. Rush, I am an alchemist, one who is specialized in mana research."

I finally realize that I am actually strapped onto a operation table. Observing the area around me, I notice that I am in some sort of underground cellar, maybe 20 square feet large.

Glancing down, a sinister looking magic circle emitting a slight black and red glow that had been drawn on the ground to the right of me.

Turning my head and looking at the wall, I take note that at least 3 Magical Sentry Guns are aimed at me. I quickly become aware that I can't escape.

"Last question, what are the chances of me still being alive by the end of the experiment?" I ask with a shaky voice.

Dr. Rush frowns, "I have attempted this experiment 27 times, all of which resulted in failure meaning so far this operation has a 100% death rate."

"But don't worry," the alchemist continued, "This time I applied a mana seal. It should prevent the mana from leaking out the crystal and into your organs. I would think your chances of survival would be a little bit higher than 5%."

'Only 5% chance of living? Damn it, this isn't a joke!'

Snapping out of my thoughts, I realize that Dr. Rush is already standing in front of me.

"I'm going to have to gag you for the experiment. Wouldn't want you to keep screaming. It would be distracting otherwise."

"Wait no- vonf!"

Before I could even finish, my mouth was stuffed with a rag and another was tied around the rag in my mouth to keep it in place.

"I will explain every part of the procedure to you. Hopefully you can understand a little of my genius," Dr. Rush began.

Dr. Rush placed his toolbox down and took out a scalpel. Upon closer observation, I could see that the scalpel was covered in runes and was enchanted.

"The first step is to expose the mana circulation organ of the human body, also known as the heart. Unlike other species, which have individual mana circulating organs, humans don't and that is one of the biggest drawbacks to the human race. As it is a 2 in 1 organ, humans don't have a very high mana capacity and can die quite easily."

Suddenly a huge spike a pain shoots through my body, and I can see the scalpel cutting through my skin and muscle, exposing my rib cage.

"Uhahb! Uhahdb! Uaadsa!"

'It hurts! It hurts! God damn it! Why! Ahhh!!!'

"Quit screaming, you won't die, at least not yet. The scalpel is enchanted with an hemostasis effect. You won't die from bleeding."

Even as he talks, his fingers doesn't stop. Quickly and efficiently, I see and feel him taking out my rib cage. With every cut he makes, a pulse of intense pain shoots through my entire body.

As he took out my lungs, he replaced them with a smaller machine that seems to be made out of a black metal substance. It is shaped like a small box with tubes and it is stabbed directly onto my heart.

"The second step is to implant the High Grade Mana Crystal into your heart. You must not faint! If you do, your body will reject it and you will die of mana backlash."

'Damn it... putting me through this pain wasn't enough? Now you even want me to stay awake to take it all?! Are you a sadistic?!'

Tears start to roll down my cheeks. The pain is unbearable. It feels like 10 thousand needles poking into your body at all times. I stare daggers into his eyes, but he just shrugs it off. It seems as if he doesn't care at all.

I see Dr. Rush digging around his toolbox and soon after he pulls out a slightly glowing light blue crystal. It was emitting some sort of odd energy.

I see him bring it over into my almost empty chest cavity and insert it into the small box that connected to my heart.

The moment he inserted the mana crystal into me, a pain greater than everything I had experienced so far suddenly pulsated from my heart. Every time my heart pumps, a wave of pain stronger than the last will arrive. With each pump my entire body twitches in pain.

I can't even scream. I could only make gurgling noises and foam appears around the edge of the gag.

I lifted my head up with all the strength I had left. I looked down at my chest cavity. I could see my heart beating and I could see it turning... blue? Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the alchemist startling at me with a wide smile, his mouth full of yellow and stained teeth.

After an entire hour, the crystal fully implanted into my heart. Sometime in that hour, I fell into a semi-conscious state, only partially aware of the things happening around me.

I can still feel the pain but at that point, my brain barely even registered it.

Everything felt numb and everything was ringing. I couldn't even keep track of what was happening.

"The third step..."

"The fourth step..."

"The fifth step..."

....

I looked down into my chest. It was nothing like it was a few days ago. My previously empty chest cavity was filled with all sorts of metal tubes and boxes.

The pain never stops. Even now, every time my heart beats, it hurts. Eventually, after the 4th day, I had no more tears to shed and no more strength to resist.

"The final step is the synchronization of the heart, gate, and the Artificial Mana Storage Organ. Even if your mana capacity has increased substantially, your gate won't accept the mana stored within the mana crystal so long as it isn't synchronized."

The chains on my arms and legs were released after all these days but I had no strength to struggle and run even if I wanted too.

Dr. Rush grabbed me and threw me on the magic circle on the ground. I had no more power left in me. Frankly speaking I lost the will to live anyways.

"This magic circle that I invented should be able to do synchronize everything, though you will feel some pain when synchronization starts. Then again, you already suffered this much pain, why not a little more?" The alchemist laughed viciously.

Dr. Rush bent over to the magic circle and begun to power it up. I could see the magic circle lighting up, but I just lied that motionlessly. I just wanted everything to be over.

I closed my eyes and waited for the pain, however, instead of pain, a sudden chill shot through my body for an instant. I had died.