Joren woke up strapped to the chair once more. He looked around, groaning in pain as his head throbbed by the beating he took from those guards.
"Ahh, you're finally awake. Bold move you pulled there, you almost escaped." Trey was fidgeting with his tools as he spoke to Joren.
"I almost lost a valuable lab rat and that would have made me sad. Tell me, do you want to make me sad? Because when I'm sad, I do things I regret!" He stabbed Joren's leg with a large knife and started cutting the muscles.
"Arghhhhghhhh!!!!!!" He threw his head back in pain as he felt his muscles being cut into pieces.
"Whoops, sorry, sorry. My anger got the best of me. I was really upset when I learned that you almost escaped so I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen again."
Placing a hand on Joren's chest, he pumped his mana into Joren's body at a rapid pace.
"Ughh!! W-What are you-! ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!" The foreign mana started merging with his mana core which caused him severe pain. It wasn't like how he connected his mana to others to form his sigil, no, Trey was actively destroying his mana and overriding it with his own.
"Hahh, this never gets old." He dished out more mana into Joren's body putting it under a lot of stress. Because of the restraints and collar, Joren couldn't even fight back as the foreign mana was destroying him from the inside. It was then that he felt something that he never wanted to feel in his entire life, his mana core started cracking.
"Y-You! Wait! P-Please! D-Don't do this." He begged, tears rolling down his face.
"I want you to realize that you are in my hands now. Whatever I say, goes. If I want to do something to you, obey, and if you don't, then suffer the consequences. Let this experience be a lesson to you to never defy me ever again."
As Joren's mana core reached its limit, it shattered, releasing all of the mana he'd accumulated for the past eight years. He was now completely cut off from mana and could never use it again. He was back to being normal.
"Hahahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Seeing the look on Joren's face gave Trey absolute pleasure. He loved breaking people and seeing them in despair. He was so excited that he decided to torture Joren with more brutality than normal. And for the rest of the day, his cries and screams of pain were heard throughout the dungeon.
...
Strapped up to a table with his arms by his side, a boy was convulsing in pain as poison rummaged through his bloodstream. He wanted to kick, flail his arms, and scream at the top of his lungs, but the poison paralyzed his body, barely allowing for movement, but allowing the person to feel all the pain.
"I see, so it's a paralyzing agent. Hmm, the effects aren't that strong as your body can still move because of the pain you're experiencing, but judging by the fact that you can't even open your mouth or hands means with a higher dosage, the entire body will be completely paralyzed." Trey wrote down the effects as glanced between Joren and his clipboard.
"Okay, let's cure you and move on to the next one."
It had been six months since Joren became Trey's lab rat and every day, his life was a living hell. In the morning, Trey would torture Joren for his own satisfaction. Then from the afternoon until night, he would test all sorts of concoctions, herbs, poisons, and harmful substances on him.
"Apparently, the stomach acid of the horned-finned yellow fish is highly corrosive and can eat through human flesh." He picked up a bottle that contained a yellow liquid. "Let's test it shall we?" He poured the liquid on Joren's belly.
"AGHHRGHH!!!! FRHARGGHHHGHH!!!" Screaming as the acid was poured on his belly, Joren felt his skin dissolving as the acid moved to his flesh and then muscle, dissolving everything in its path.
The pain was unbearable, almost making him pass out, but once he did, the pain would jolt him back into reality.
He felt the acid break down parts of his ribcage and severely burn his stomach and intestines. Once it reached that point, Trey healed Joren so he wouldn't die. Just as the relieving sensation washed over his body, Joren passed out.
"Tsk, what a weak child. I'll continue tomorrow." He left the room and returned home, leaving Joren on the table.
The next day, Trey woke Joren up with his daily torture, something that he always looked forward to. Once he was done, he rubbed his hands with a cloth and proceeded to heal Joren.
"H-Healing magic doesn't make any sense," Joren spoke weakly.
"Hmm? What do you mean?" Trey, not usually one to indulge in conversation unless called for was a bit intrigued by Joren's statement. After all, not only was he a healer, knowing healing magic, but he also had the wood element and knew how to brew healing potions.
"Aura makes sense b-because it's m-mana taking psychical form. E-Elemental magic makes sense because t-there is elemental m-mana. B-But healing magic doesn't have any of t-that so I've always thought i-it was stupid." Joren wasn't mindless speaking, he was trying to understand how healing worked to see if he could learn its properties.
Ever since his mana core was destroyed, the guards didn't even bother putting a collar on him as it would serve no purpose. They told him that once a mana core is destroyed, it can never be reformed so there was no worry about him getting his mana back, but Joren held out hope and attempted to cultivate every chance he got, even If it was pointless.
"Heh, ignorant fool. You don't understand how the body works nor how mana works."
"W-What?! I-I was literally in the 2nd circle, h-how could I not know h-how it works." Joren retorted.
"Arcane magic you fool! Arcane magic as a whole is the process of bending mana to your own will, forcing it to act the way you want it to act." He walked over to his desk and grabbed a small vial that contained a dark purple liquid.
"Aura and Elemental magic are different because they are found in nature. If the wind blows, you classify that as a breeze. If it blows at a certain speed, you classify that as a windy day. If blows even faster, it's now strong winds, and maybe a storm is on the horizon. But that doesn't change the fact that it's just wind. That's Aura and Elemental magic." He grabbed a syringe, poked it into the top of the vial, and started sucking its contents into it.
"This is why the majority of people who are Arcane mages are scholars or scientists. Studying, testing, researching, trial and error, all of that comes into play when dealing with the Arcane arts." He walked over to Joren and put the syringe close to his neck.
"So healing magic does make sense. By studying the human body, you learn that we heal naturally. So, someone thought that it could be possible to stimulate the body's natural healing process with mana which resulted in healing magic. As for the more advanced healing like restoring lost limbs, well, our body contains information and the healing magic takes that information and uses mana to stimulate growth from it." He injected Joren with the purple liquid.
"Phantom snake venom. Highly toxic and dangerous. I wonder if you're going to be alright after this." Trey smiled
"Argg!! Fffshhhhh!! Ughhh!! Ahh!!" Joren tossed and turned his neck as he felt the venom circulate around his body. There was a burning sensation, like he was overheating, and started sweating profusely. After a while, his body temperature plummeted drastically and he was shaking while his teeth chattered.
"Fascinating!"
Joren's body temperature stabilized after a few minutes, but once it did, his body started breaking out with rashes and blisters. His eyes, ears, and nose all started dripping blood as he started to hallucinate.
"Argghh!! G-Get away!! Get away!!!!"
"He's hallucinating! Amazing. I never expected this to be so potent and have so many effects. If I can dilute it, then I can make versions of this venom that only have one effect." Trey turned to his clipboard and started writing as Joren continued to squeal and scream. He got so caught up in his work that he completely forgot about Joren.
"Grhgllglgg!!! Grhrgggleege!!"
"Hmm? What kind of noise is that?" He turned around to see Joren choking on his blood, gargling it as some splashed on the floor. "Oh yeah, I forgot you were still under the effects of the venom." He healed Joren, smashed his face with a hammer, and left for the day.
On his way out, Trey asked one of the guards If they found any clues about the seven people who escaped six months ago and the guard shook his head.
"Sigh, I hope Lady Bia doesn't hear of this or that's my head."