“Duck.” The cold voice commanded.

Ryder immediately sensed danger behind him and crouched down with his hands around his head, just to feel a powerful heat above him moments later.

After a moment, he looked back up to see the hybrid missing half of its body. The creature’s intestines spilled out from its grotesque body as it dropped onto the floor with a squelch.

Ryder shuddered at the disgusting sight and turned around to avoid it. There, standing in the hallway, was a handsome man dressed in elegant robes. His blonde hair and blue eyes complemented each other, making up for his stoic, expressionless face.

The man slowly lowered his arm which still had smoke coming out of it and turned to gaze at Ryder.

“Who are you?” Ryder asked, his voice trembling slightly. He wasn’t sure what the man did just know to kill the hybrid. Was it magic?

However, instead of answering, the man scanned the room for any remaining threats before walking away. Or at least, it seemed like he was walking away, Ryder couldn’t hear any footsteps at all. He looked at the man’s foot only to be met with nothing.

‘Is he floating?’ Ryder thought. ‘If he’s floating, does that mean he could fly?’

Now, he deeply regretted being born in a body with no magic. Being unable to fly has got to be one of the most demoralizing things ever.

At this point, Brigitte has already recovered and walked over to Ryder.

“I bet he was part of the reinforcement team sent over by the organization.” She said hoarsely.

“Uh huh,” Ryder replied half-heartedly. But then, he glanced at Brigitte before saying, “hey, why don’t you use magic?”

Brigitte looked at him as if he was stupid. “I don’t have any time to train as a researcher, heck I never even became a beginner mage.”

“I see,” Ryder nodded.

At first, he thought that as long as you had magic, you would be able to become a mage. But things are not as simple as just that.

“So, what now?” He asked.

Brigitte shrugged before replying, “I don’t even know where we are now.”

Ryder stared at the dead hybrid’s corpse in front of them. It was true that they had to run in random directions in order to try and shake off the creature. Now, the two were lost in an unknown part of the laboratory.

“Let’s find a chamber for now,” Brigitte suggested. “It’s not just one hybrid that lost control, so it would be too dangerous to wander out. The other researchers should have all evacuated towards the main chamber.”

Thus, the two of them cautiously walked through a couple of corridors while slowly peeking around corners. Ryder didn’t know if they were lucky, but they didn’t encounter another hybrid again.

Slowly, the two found an empty chamber and sought refuge in it. Since the two had run far away from the disaster, it was unusually quiet in the room.

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Ryder didn’t know what to say, so he just kept quiet while looking around the chamber. It seems like this one was for researching about magical runes, which he had no understanding of. Piles upon piles of what seemed like glowing rocks scattered around.

Finally, Brigitte broke the silence.

“Hey Ryder?”

“Yeah?” He looked at her. Brigitte seemed to be in low spirits, which contrasted with her usual eccentric behavior.

“Sorry for not helping at all and leaving you to fight the monster by yourself,” she apologized.

Taken aback, Ryder did not expect such a reaction from Brigitte at all.

“It’s fine, you were tired anyway,” he said. “You would have gotten hurt if you had tried to help.”

To be honest, during the time he confronted the hybrid, he was so focused that he forgot Brigitte even existed for a second. But the fight also reminded Ryder of how vulnerable he was back there as well. He didn't have any abilities or strengths he could have used to defend himself besides his bare fists.

“Still…!” She started, but seeing Ryder’s serious gaze, she couldn’t bring herself to continue.

Ryder sighed. “Actually, fighting that thing reminded me of how helpless I am as well.” He looked down and clenched his hands, feeling a surge of frustration. “If it wasn’t for that guy saving us, I would’ve died.”

Brigitte walked up to him before placing her hand on his shoulder. “It’s ok, you did your best.” Her expression softened.

“Yeah, but that’s not enough.”

Not knowing how to respond, Brigitte could only watch as Ryder slumped down onto the ground. A tense silence fell between them again, but it was less heavy than before.

A while had passed, and suddenly, the alarm stopped blaring. An intercom was heard throughout the lab, stating how everything was under control once again.

Finally able to lower their guard, the exhausted duo found a flat area of space and slept.

A couple of days had passed since the incident, and Ryder was now working by himself in a chamber specialized for genetic research. The main goal of the intruders wasn’t disclosed to him, so he didn’t know what happened during the time he and Brigitte were trying to survive.

However, to say that he didn’t change from the incident was an understatement. First the kidnapping, and now experiencing a near death encounter with a hybrid have made Ryder realize just how dangerous this world is. His initial carefree and procrastinating attitude about learning more about the world was gone, replaced with his determination to get stronger.

The problem was, he didn’t know how nor where to begin. He remembered the ways Valerie told him to activate his bloodline genes, but they were out of the question. Obviously, he had no enhancement elixirs as they were too rare and expensive. The other way, which was devouring the flesh and blood of demons was also out of the question since the ones he had access to were simply too low ranked.

The higher ranked demons were all given to the upper echelons of the laboratory. Anyway, that didn’t matter as much since he learned from Brigitte that it takes way too many high ranked demons to activate the bloodline genes.

Giving up on that aspect, Ryder shifted his focus to a more “reachable” way to get stronger. That is, by getting stronger physically. Exercising every day does help, but that’s not what he wanted. Even Olympic level strength wouldn’t help in a world where magic existed. Basically, he needed power that was beyond the level deemed humanly capable.

Thus, he sought help from external sources, like nanotechnology. This was a complex field that even Ryder had a hard time grasping, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what to do. He also assumed that this world wouldn’t have nanotechnology as well, as what use would they have when magic was prevalent?

But Ryder knew just how handy nanobots are, thanks to his experience back on Earth. Simply put, nanotechnology involves the manipulation of matter at the nanoscale, which is one billionth of a meter. He wanted to implement these nanobots into his body so he could obtain superhuman strength.

Of course, he couldn’t do that back on Earth since he would have definitely been assassinated if he had to expose his research in this field. Thankfully, strength beyond human measures was common in this world so Ryder was not too worried about not being able to cover this valuable tool up.

On his table consisted of a variety of high tech equipment and materials. For now, his goal was to create nanobots that would have basic functions like enhancing his muscle strength and healing capabilities.

Ryder pulled up his sleeve to get started.