Chapter 13 Awakening

Lucas opened his eyes for a second time, but now he was back in his familiar torture chamber. He saw Venion still thrilled at his achievement of forcefully awakening someone. "Lucas! I have done it, you're now an official awakened. I could see your core's color for a moment, but it looks like you got a pure yellow one. Congratulations, this means you'll excel in light magic, a rare talent indeed!"

'It's not pure yellow, I know that much' he thought, recalling the big red eyes. He didn't know what happened with the being he just had contact with, he asked for power yet nothing changed. The biggest difference was in how he thought, but that came from the experiments alone. His way of thinking was enhanced and boosted, but besides that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Now that he was awakened he could feel the mana floating around in the air and he could visualize his core. It looked like a small yellow sun was planted right below his heart between his lungs. It was in the perfect center of the body.

"We must go and tell the baron of this fantastic news, come follow me."

It seemed that now that Lucas wasn't a simple commoner anymore, Venion was a lot more friendly, or he was just enthusiastic about his experimentation. Either way, Lucas got some clothes handed to him that were a lot fancier than his old clothing. "You need to look like a mage now that you are one." Venion had a certain image of mages that every mage must try to uphold, which was ridiculous according to a part of Lucas.

They arrived at the baron's office where Havi looked very nervous. When they entered, he immediately shot his questions.

"Venion! Did it work? Can you replicate it? How early can you start? Why is the brat here?" he asked one question after another, not giving Venion any time to respond.

"Calm down Havi, I've done it, I can awaken your son as well now. He'll painlessly awaken into a mage. I've brought Lu-"

"Aaaah thank you, sir, thank you, please get started as soon as possible!"

"Of course, but before that, what should we do with Lucas now? He survived and was the reason I succeeded in creating a procedure, he's also a fully awakened mage now."

The baron quickly turned to Lucas, he started to think like a baron again. 'He's the result of human experimentation, if that gets out, I'm done for. Let's see what he wants, if it's not doable, execution is the only option'

In the world of Aurora, the Order of Light had forbidden any human experimentation and use of dark magic. If someone was found out to have dabbled in these practices, he will be executed or forced into slavery by the elite group of the Order. The consequences also reach the closest members or family that person might have. For Havi, it would mean losing everything, his riches, but also his family.

"Tell me, Lucas, you have helped me, what do you want?"

'Asking for freedom will be my end, dark magic and human experimentations are forbidden, if I escape and tell someone, they'll get in trouble. I need to be oblivious to their crisis'

"I want to become a powerful mage in order to serve you, sir." Lucas said while kneeling in some strange way. He never learned etiquette but the baron knew what he wanted to convey.

"I see, that can be arranged. Are you willing to sign a life contract for that?" the baron didn't want any loose ends, if Lucas signed one of those contracts, he would have a budding mage in his grasp.

'Shit, we can't sign such a thing, I don't know what it does, but the name says enough.'

'I know, but on the other hand, we don't know if he has such a contract on hand, and perhaps there are loopholes we can exploit.'

Pondering his situation he discovered something. 'Wait, according to Venion he's an awful merchant, and he shouldn't be the smartest. Would he even have thought about what to do with me?'

'Hmm, probably not, but still, giving the ok now, will result in you signing such a contract, there's no way out of it. For all we know Venion has one.'

'Didn't we already agree on signing it?'

'I'm still against it, but that's fine, we'll find a way to escape this place, and then we'll give them a present or two.'

"Of course sir, anything to prove my loyalty." Lucas said with a bit of a forced smile. After he said that he noticed his mental capabilities were enhanced by a lot and he could quickly deduct information from limited clues and make complex schemes. Next, his behavior grew a lot to the point he would be seen as an adult. 'Is this a gift from that thing? Or merely a result of what happened?', yet he didn't get a single response.

"Fantastic, Venion do you have such a scroll on hand?"

"Those things cost a lot even for me, especially the more powerful ones. Even for a budding mage, you would need to fork over at least 3 low-quality magic crystals if you want one."

'Tch, that's a lot, but to do such a thing in order to get a potentially powerful puppet, I'll take that loss.'

"The price is no problem, I just want to know if you're willing to sell one."

The moment Venion heard that the baron was very giving, he immediately got a lot looser, "Of course, I'll give it to you for 4 low-quality magic crystals, I'm willing to work in installments."

"No I'll pay upfront, I want to get this over with."

"That's a very smart choice sir, shackling down any potential problems is the way to go. You have surprised me with your intellect."

'How much can you lie to someone's face like that?'

'Are you surprised by how vile and hypocritical people can be? Hahaha, c'mon, we've already seen enough bullshit to know that people are too opportunistic for their own well-being.'

"Sir Venion, you're flattering me, installments won't be necessary, I'll bring them this afternoon, could you prepare the contract for tomorrow?", with a simple nod Lucas' fate was decided.

"Sir Venion, I would like you to start teaching both my son, when he awakens, and Lucas magic the moment you're capable. Lucas, you'll have to choose now, would you like to continue you're knight training as well?"

"Sir Havi, I don't think combat training is necessary for a mage, he should focus on pure magic."

'And be stuck with you the entire time? I'd rather go back to that hellish training.'

"No, he always asked to become a knight as well, I'll give him that option."

"Then I'll gladly split my time between magic and knight training. Thank you sir."