After Rano was given the potion he administered it to Oscar immediately. In a few minutes some noticable changes occurred, his body temperature reduced, his breathing was also becoming stabilized, he was only shaking slightly.
"Haah..." Rano heaved a sigh of relief.
"You ugly runt, I'll deal with you soon enough." Rano spoke, feeling annoyed about the whole thing.
'Should I kick him again?' Rano thought to himself but decided against it.
While Rano kept contemplating about beating a defenseless boy a noticable change occurred.
Oscar's body started shaking violently, his muscles were involuntarily contracting. Anyone would notice, the boy was having a seizure of pain. Blood was coming out of Oscar's eyes, nose, ears and mouth.
"Oh no!" Rano freaked out as he exclaimed.
Anna and Torren arrived at the scene.
"What the fvck?" Anna expressed shock.
"What the hell is going on?!" Torren cast a suspicious gaze over Rano.
"I-I didn't do anything, I only gave him the potion and a few minutes later he started doing like this. I'm not responsible for this I swear."
"You couldn't have done this, what's happening is related to his abilities." Clifford stated.
"What?"
"How?"
Anna and Torren asked almost simultaneously.
"A few minutes ago I felt the aura of a mage, a strong one at this location but it died off the moment it came." Clifford said as he walked over to Oscar's side, inspecting his body but not doing anything to stop the spasms.
"I think this boy tried to awaken his core by himself but he failed, even if he survives this he is bound to become an invalid."
'His former abilities would be lost, he would become a total non-mage.'
'His former abilities would be lost and he would become a non-mage incapable of using whatever affinity he has before.'
These were the thoughts of Clifford, a syne-three fire mage.
Seeing Oscar cast flame spells without possessing any magical aura was something of intrigue, but that was all it was to him.
The people who staked their hope on finding out more about his power before they reached the knoll territory wore expressions of gloominess.
"Is there anything we could do to alleviate this, Boss?" Anna spoke.
"At this point we can only wait and see. If we interfere, he will die."
"...!!" Anna, Torren and Rano were collectively shocked by this piece of information.
"By noon, we will set out."
"What about the boy." Torren asked.
"He is coming with us, obviously. You'll carry him." Clifford replied then left the camp to hunt.
After Clifford left, Torren and Anna both looked at Rano who casted his gaze downwards.
"If you didn't do anything you wouldn't feel guilty. Your foolishness is your own undoing." Anna spoke up, Torren had informed her about his misbehavior.
Rano did not utter a word, he knew they were pissed and saying something at this point would only worsen the situation. So he kept quiet.
They ignored Rano and chose to observe Oscar's state. He had stopped shaking a whole ago and the blood had stopped leaking but his breathing was getting weaker.
***
After I established contact between the mana core and my heart I lost control of everything. My senses, my perception, even my feeling of pain was blocked. I think it may have been my brain's defense mechanism kicking in. Trying to shield me from pain that was excruciating enough to kill me.
In this moment, I don't feel good or bad. I can't feel anything. Like I was thrown into a dark, bottomless hole. I just kept falling.
The merging process should have begun, I thought I could oversee the process and control it. Now I have no clue of what is going on.
The collision between them should have ruptured some vessels, causing me to bleed both internally and externally. I didn't think things through enough.
It's either I die or I don't...
Wait... I'm starting to feel something.
Heat...in my chest.
The core is being assimilated, my heart... absorbing it.
The merging...a success.
I have found...a path.
The new path.
No one has ever treaded on...
I can still feel my core, it has been encapsulated into my heart. The integration worked.
My body is being strengthened, I can feel it healing, all the torn muscles and ruptured vessels are being repaired.
More than that, I can sense mana. I could compare them to atoms or in this case molecules.
There are different molecular structures, a lot of them in the atmosphere, it is all around me. I don't have to open my eyes to know out of the many molecules present, about six or seven stand out. These may be the seven magical elements.
Only one out of these groups is attracted to my being. I feel a natural affinity with it.
I can't pull the others even if I tried. It's like a natural repulsion with them.
That is not a problem, in fact the results were better than I expected.
I just hope the effects of my actions have not been too conspicuous to the scavengers.
(Too late...)
***
For the past two minutes the jaws of Torren, Anna and Rano have been open in reaction to the visible changes that occurred in Oscar's state. They were in a state of disbelief.
At first, they were engaged in an argument with each other until Anna noticed Oscar's breath ceasing completely.
Their expressions darkened, Torren came to Oscar's side wanting to help resuscitate him. Placing his ear on his chest, he was rather surprised to notice that Oscar's heart was beating vigorously.
'but he is not breathing? How??'
The surprise did not end there, he noticed Oscar's body was rapidly healing, the bruises and cuts he had incurred started to close up.
His bronze skin which was a shade paler, began to regain colour. His breathing returned, while his fingers started to twitch.
(Zombie oof...)
This phenomenon was visible to the group.
"Is this boy human?"
They all thought the same thing but the first to ask the question, voicing out their concerns was Rano, he was visibly shaken.
It's no fault of his, when did a person on the verge of death, bleeding and dying slowly, ever make a miraculous recovery in an instant.
Mages had the power to heal and regenerate, but that was only depending on their conditions and the state of their mana levels.
This boy on the other hand achieved a recovery equivalent to the ability of a syne-three light mage.
Now the question unanswered...was he human?
"I'm not sure anymore." Torren replied.
"What do we do when he..."
Accompanied by gasping sounds, Oscar regained consciousness and sat upright. He looked wide-eyed, his brain was still trying to register where he was and what was happening.
Oscar didn't speak, he just stared at them.
He didn't radiate any aura to show that he was a mage but with what they have seen he couldn't be far off.
"..." They kept staring at themselves in silence.
Rano audibly gulped, he was worried about Oscar's next action.
Torren tried to speak.
"Ho..."
"Where is Clifford?" Oscar cut him off before he could utter a word.
"Umm...he went to hunt."
"I see."
Oscar looked at himself, because of his seizures and spasms they removed the chains. His body was in a mess and he had lost a lot of blood.
Oscar stood up and looked at them.
"I'm hungry."
"Um, why don't you wait for Clifford to come back from the hunt, he's not going to be long." Rano said trying to cajole Oscar into waiting.
They didn't have the power to stop him so they tried persuasion instead.
"Do you want me to eat you?"
"No please!" Rano replied instantly, moving quite a distance away from him.
Oscar was actually serious this time. He was hungry to the point where he could even chew grass. He was controlling himself from not going berserk out of hunger.
The others stepped aside. Letting Oscar go was the best option for now. The look in his eyes spoke volumes of compelling desire for food. None of them wanted to get in the way.
Oscar marched on and left the camp.
"What do we tell the Boss?" Rano inquired.
"What else? We tell him the truth." Torren answered.
"And what's that?" Anna asked.
"The boy is a monster in human form."
Oscar left the camp looking for one thing in particular, food. Not just any food. Meat, he had an enormous craving for meat, magic beast meat.
He wasn't looking for the small fries, what he wanted was a big animal, one that could satiate his hunger.
That desire was what made him hold back in the camp. The craving he had was instinctual, his mana levels were high but the blood loss was borderline anemic, he had lost a lot of blood through that procedure what better way to regain it than to eat.