Ivar's hands shook as he looked at the drawings depicting frog men's body parts being put into humans! Ivar's guess was confirmed now!
The fear that he was just an experiment subject was just real.
'As long as Puggy is with me I can't run. Is this it? Is this the end?' Ivar's thoughts were only natural. After all, he had seen how fast Puggy was. The main lab door was closed too, which he was too weak to even open.
'Calm down. Calm down.' Ivar took a few deep breaths to calm his heart down but that didn't stop a few drops of sweat from landing on the stack of paper in his hand.
His attention was diverted to the paper as he carefully looked at the procedure of refining the leg muscles of frog men to fit that of a human. He started intensely reading every single detail in the paper. It was better to know what was going to happen to him.
Time passed quickly as Ivar read through all the processes involved including the actual transplantation process on the last page. The process of extracting muscles, refining them, and storing them was longer and more complex than the actual transplantation.
After finishing the last page Ivar put the stack neatly back in its place but suddenly a thought came in his brain!
He turned the bundle over and saw those horrifying words.
'Survival Rate: 0%'
Below those words were the names of people and besides those names was the time. It didn't take a genius to guess what the time was for. It was for how long they survived after the transplantation.
"10 hours… 49 hours… 6 days… and 2 weeks" Ivar audibly said those words.
Of course, there were more than 4 people's data but that didn't matter to Ivar, what mattered was the fact that the person before him only survived for 2 weeks.
Various thoughts ran through Ivar's mind. If only he wasn't talented. If only he hadn't left that day. If only he stayed at Oraburg.
'No. Those are all excuses. My only mistake is that I am weak. And I will die weak at this rate.' These thoughts started plaguing Ivar's mind.
"Oh Puggy, You stayed guard?" A familiar voice interrupted Ivar's monologue, "Isn't that Ivar? Did you read the papers?"
"Yes, lord elder." Ivar absent-mindedly said, which didn't go unnoticed by Vector.
"Is that so? Then can you tell me what is step five of refining the frog men's muscles?" Vector curiously asked.
What was just a casual remark for Vector lighted a spark in Ivar. A spark of Hope. Maybe if he answered all his answers correctly, the first elder would see his intellect and let him go.
It was a desperate hope to cling to. But It still provided him the light that he much so needed.
"We… we first culture the centoed bacteria and then dip the muscle in a sterilized tube filled with the mixture made up of 5% vital pill essence, 2% Dejit, and the cultured bacteria along with an 8:1 mixture of sendol and water." Ivar quickly showed his intellect.
The first elder was slightly surprised but he smirked and asked again, "So do you know what centoed bacteria is? What is Dejit and sendol?"
Ivar's face darkened as he looked on the ground. Of course, he didn't know! The paper never had that information.
"Haha, I was joking with you. Now strip and wear this cloth" The man pulled a long white cloth and continued, "And lay with your back facing up on that white table."
"But–"
"Alright. Just sit on the table and let me tell you something." Ivar was surprised at how readily the man agreed to his request.
Ivar walked to the long white table and sat on its edge, facing the first elder directly.
"Are you Cohen's friend?" The man casually asked Ivar.
"Yeah. I consider him as one." The man smiled at Ivar's remark.
"Do you know how rare an ability is and how strong it is?" Ivar was going to say something but was interrupted by the man, "Let me tell you, among the more than a dozen billion people living on Primis right now, there are only about 50 to 70 ability users, including the hidden ones."
Ivar's eyes widened but the man didn't stop speaking, "But what is even more amusing is that in all of the known history of Primis, which includes records of hundreds of thousands of years before the demon sect has formed, only one person could beat an ability user at the same realm."
"Ivar. As you are right now, you will never be strong. You will always be a frog in a well. Sure, with your talent you might be strong among the Path of Aura followers but as soon as an Ability User arrives, you will have to bow." Ivar saw the man's taunting smirk.
But Ivar couldn't deny the truth. He had personally experienced the might of an ability user through his daily duels with Cohen. If Cohen wanted to kill him, then Ivar wouldn't have survived. Although, Cohen would be similarly injured too.
The man looked at Ivar's face, reading him like a book, "Don't you want to become strong? I am sure that with someone like you, the transplant will succeed. The strength enhancement you will immediately get, and get over time as you advance through the stages will be huge compared to others."
Ivar couldn't deny that. He had seen the anatomy of the frog human in the papers. They were inherently stronger than humans. With how the circulation stage worked, he was sure what the man said would come true.
"If you don't want to remain weak and bow down to ability users forever then agree to follow my project! Project Chimera."
Silence engulfed the room for a while. Ivar was the one to end the deafening silence.
"Lord first elder. I will agree." Ivar had no other choice. The man was too strong for him to try to escape and he couldn't even deny his words.
Also, his heart was telling him to follow the man's suggestion. What he said made sense after all!
The man slightly smiled looking at Ivar's eyes, "Just call me Lord Vector from now on."
"There are some more materials and some food in the other rooms inside this lab. You are free to explore them for a day. Also read the experiences of the subjects before you, if you want to succeed that is." With that said Vector and Puggy walked out of the room and lab #45 entirely.
Ivar laid on the white table, shocked, for a while. After that, he continued to mindlessly look at the tubes where the body parts of the frog men were stored.
'Did I just agree to his proposal?' Ivar thought to himself and walked out of the room and moved in front of another door in the lab.