(Warning, as said in synopsis, this chapter contains normalization of violence. Please know that this is a novel.)
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"Te-teacher... Be gentle. It's my first time."
"Don't worry, little one. I will be as gentle as possible." The woman smiled.
"How many times have you done it?"
"Plenty, so don't worry and let me do my thing."
"Then can I know why you're holding that scalpel so shakily? You look so excited..."
"Shush, it's just in your mind. I am an expert, I am a professional. I won't be so amateurish as to accidentally kill my dearest test sub- ahem, student." Her eyes were burning with excitement.
As I lay on the steel table, she started carefully cutting through my arm skin. For some reason, since yesterday's event, I felt something growing in me.
A feeling. Like a candle that fell to the side, slowly burning the table. It was a feeling that made me want to be stronger, to trample over everything.
With this train of thought, I decided to make a risky choice. "Teacher, you can do whatever you want with my body as long as you can make me stronger. I won't die unless you touch my brain or I empty my mana."
I informed her in a calm voice. This surprised her. Who in their right mind would make such an important decision on the spot?
She then started being suspicious. "Do you have a skill that can keep you alive or something? If so, you may actually be a 'superpower holder'."
Her smile then beamed even more as she learned that her dear test subject wouldn't die so easily and that he was even rarer than she expected.
"Are you sure? I can make you become stronger, but you may be traumatized for life even if you don't suffer from pain." She asked worriedly.
"Don't worry, I have seen worse." He will come to regret this decision.
...
In a dark forest, noise could be heard. Not any sound, but that of steel smashing into steel.
A small train-sized alligator-like creature was trying to bite into a small human. It felt frustrated as it wouldn't land a single hit on the human.
The human had white hair and gray, hazy eyes. In her hand lay a very long sword. She was very agile and fast. Every time the creature tried to land a hit, she would turn into a blur and dodge to the side.
When the creature missed, it would feel doom from the next attack and activate its skill. Before the blow would land on its skin, its scales turned a shade of yellow as the sword bounced off.
The white-haired girl looked annoyed, probably not the first time this occurred. She had, however, noticed that it couldn't move during its skill and decided to take advantage of it.
When it deactivated its skill, it saw a tree slowly falling on it and decided to back off. Before it could dodge, it saw its vision fall on the same level as the ground.
The flow of blood spurting like a river.
Sylph then landed on its body. She was just slightly panting. Her hair and face were covered in blood.
It was raining, so the blood was getting washed away pretty quickly. She then jumped off the carcass and dug with her sword toward the monster's heart.
After a while, in her hand lay a bright red core. Then, instead of storing it in her pouch, she put it in her mouth and then gulped it.
Her wounds healed quickly as she started walking toward the center of the forest, in search of more prey...
...
Nyx, the girl with jet black hair and blue eyes, was studying and practicing her magic in her room. After some time, she decided to head toward her friend's
room to relax herself.
On her way, she saw a commotion. Curious, she tried to see what caused it. After making her way through the crowd, she took a peek between two students.
What she saw was not what she expected. The pale boy with black long hair and grey eyes was walking as if it was a normal day. However, he was covered in blood and entrails from head to toe.
This shocked her, as she had never witnessed blood in her life because of her noble family. She then, like everyone else, just watched him walk away.
Even if she didn't care at all for this lowly stranger, she decided to satisfy her curiosity and followed him from behind.
After a few seconds, when she deemed no one was around, she tried to ask why he was like that.
Before she could make the slightest movement, Iris, their teacher, caught him by the hand and with a smile, walked toward her office.
Nyx, of course, found this extremely suspicious as the teacher who was always angry and irritated at everyone showed such a side to this boy.
A boy whom she didn't even remember his name and was very weak...
...
"Teacher, quick question, isn't creating artificial creatures, homunculi, prohibited in this kingdom?"
Dante, hanging by the ceiling, asked emotionlessly. Even though he was hanging by some chains and the fact that he was missing all his limbs and half of his face.
Anyone who saw this scene would faint on the spot. A limbless and half-faced boy just looking at them without any emotions. As if it was normal.
At first, he was extremely hesitant. Even if his emotions had diluted and he couldn't feel pain, he was but a human after all. Everyone would be scared to lose a leg or arm.
At the beginning, to familiarize himself with the feeling, he let his teacher make incisions on his arms. He then remembered that he could easily heal them.
After some time, he let his fingers, then his hand, and then his whole arm. He had forgotten that he had an extremely deranged mind.
His teacher was even more shocked at the boy's indifference. Pain or not, it was mutilation.
"It is, but who will know? A wizard's work and research are his greatest valuables. He wouldn't, in any case, want to divulge such life-important research to anyone."
"That's why they install so much security that it becomes crazy. That's what people said when they tried to enter this lab. And the academy wouldn't even dare to take a look here as they are practically begging me to stay and teach here." She said with a small chuckle.
She was holding magic tools and was working in front of a table. On it were two legs and arms...
I had let her take them so she could work on them while I wasn't here. I could always regrow back everything, even if my lower torso were to be cut off.
I was tied to chains on the ceiling because we were testing my skill. We discovered that it had a passive ability to try to keep me alive. We were trying to see how far it could go.
So far, this is pretty damn cheat. Even the teacher started to be startled at how overpowered this skill was. However, I doubt in the slightest that it is a hobgoblin's skill. Or at least, was.
If it was this overpowered, the hobgoblin race would literally be immortal. In a fight, you cut its arm, it retreats, regenerates, comes back to fight again. This continues until it has no mana.
On the ground, there were four pairs of severed arms and legs. We had tested how long it takes to
regenerate a limb, and we found out it took around a minute if I used the skill while doing other things like fighting or using mana on something else.
It would take, however, around ten seconds to regenerate if I concentrated on it and fully focused on using all my mana into it.
I also encountered Iris's pet and assistant, a small gray puppy, chewing on one of my severed calves...
"Hey, could you refrain from consuming that? I don't care if you eat my limbs, but I don't know what will happen to that leg as it was regrown with mana." I asked it.
As if understanding my intentions, it let go of my half-eaten leg and walked toward me to lick my face. It was such a cute pup.
"You're a good boy." I praised as flesh tendrils grew out of my severed right arm toward the puppy and started petting and playing with it.
I had, of course, cast Appraisal on it just in case, and it confirmed my doubts. This puppy was strong because I couldn't see its status.
The existence of the snake-like red tendril had been kept secret. Even though I somewhat trusted her, it wasn't to the point of absolute loyalty.
"Alright, you can heal yourself and go back. Your flesh is really weird... I can't describe it, but my instincts are telling me that there's something else to it." She put her hand on her chin as she pondered.
"Teacher, can you heal me? I have no mana left." I monotonously asked. It seemed that I could regrow my limbs six to seven times with my current mana pool.
I also started feeling weird toward my teacher. I couldn't describe it, however...
...