“You shouldn’t have done that,” Melissa said as Zane pushed her wheelchair.
Zane gritted his teeth. “I didn’t like that they want to make you quit,” he grumbled. “You’ve done so much...”
After Zane’s interference, Elfina had just left without another word. She didn’t say anything and just walked out of the hospital room with her driver running after her, leaving Zane and Melissa.
“It was unavoidable,” Melissa stated. “I can’t perform my duties like this.”
“Why not?”
Melissa sighed. “You didn’t know this, but the other subjects barely cooperate with their handlers. Simply giving them a checkup is a challenge. They’d be lucky to get it done once a month.”
Zane raised an eyebrow. “But you give me a checkup every week.”
“I’m lucky to have you,” Melissa smiled. “You may not have liked all the tests, but you cooperate.”
Zane looked away. Melissa didn’t know, but Zane only cooperated because Melissa was the only one that treated him like a normal person. It may have been subtle, but everyone around him knew he was Subject Z.
In their eyes, Zane was nothing more than the dragons’ preserved food. If it weren’t for Melissa keeping an eye on him, Zane was sure he would have been subjected to harsher treatment. Instead, he was given the bare minimum.
“Zane,” Melissa spoke.
Zane turned to Melissa and noticed that she looked serious. “What is it?” he asked nervously.
“How did you get so strong?”
“H-huh?” Zane began sweating nervously.
“You think I wouldn’t notice when you literally smacked a guy across the room earlier,” Melissa’s eyes narrowed at him.
Zane sighed in defeat. “The dragon heart. I bonded with it,” Zane revealed, then she noticed Melissa’s eyes widening before she fainted.
“Melissa!” Zane panicked.
------
“I did not expect you to tell the human you bonded with the dragon heart.”
“I won’t hide anything from Melissa,” Zane stated as he came out to the rooftop of the hospital. “She deserves to know.”
“Who knows does not concern me.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Zane asked.
Averin scoffed. “You may not realize just how valuable a dragon heart is.”
“It’s a heart. You need it to live,” Zane grumbled as he began stretching.
“Fool!” Averin’s voice boomed in his head, making Zane flinch in pain. “A dragon heart basically makes you no different from a dragon!” Averin revealed. “You may not have noticed it, but soon you will grow strong enough to rival a dragon in power. That’s the only reason I chose to give you the task of my revenge!”
As Averin ranted, Zane clutched his head in pain. “Could you not scream in there!”
Averin sighed. “Keep this in mind boy. You will make countless enemies,” Averin warned. “Not because you’ve wronged them, but because they will see you as a threat. That’s the curse of the strong.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Now, start running.”
------
The dragon heart came with a lot of things, but Averin provided a lot more. Zane couldn’t deny that the dragon heart was nothing compared to Averin’s gift.
The dragon heart gave him abilities. That’s amazing.
Averin gave him knowledge. The first thing Averin gave him was the ability to view his progress in the form of a mental voice.
Physical strength has increased
That voice. It was different from Averin’s commanding and powerful voice. This one was more robotic and sometimes even glitchy. The second gift Averin gave was the sensitivity to mana. Mana was forcefully injected into Earth by the dragons, so they could use it in their way. Even more mana was injected by the God-like beings and when the otherworlders moved in.
Thanks to Averin’s gift, Zane was able to feel the mana in the surrounding. That related to Averin’s third gift, training. Averin thought him a method on how to form a mana core in his body.
A mana core is what mages use to be able to use magic. It’s needed to create a magic circle and manipulate the mana in the surroundings to cast magic. Mana cores are ranked by stages with higher stages signifying a stronger mana core.
Right now, Zane only had a stage one mana core.
“Keep running,” Averin ordered.
Averin’s training didn’t end with the mana core, it also included Zane being able to use the mana core enhancing method constantly. That included while sleeping, eating, running, walking, or anything else.
“As long as you’re alive, keep gathering mana into your body.”
Zane gritted his teeth as he kept running. Averin was bossy, but Zane knew following everything he said would make him stronger.
“How long do I have to keep running?”
“Until your legs give out.”
------
“Why are you here Elfina?”
Elfina stood in the center of a room where five thrones faced her direction, all of them having a projection of a person sitting on them.
She was in the presence of the New Earth council. These people were the representatives of the five factions running the New Earth governments. The elven faction, Nilfeim. The Amazonian faction, Therasia. The original human faction, Pangea. The technologically advanced human faction, Albertian. Lastly, the magically advanced humans, Aether.
“One of the Cryo subjects has bonded with a biological type dragon trigger,” Elfina revealed.
Elfina noticed the expressions of the people in the room turn from shock to warry. Years ago, it was discovered that the reason the subjects were put in a preserved state was due to them being the test subjects of the dragons.
The experiments conducted on them was never found out, and none of the tests revealed anything unique about their bodies. After fruitless efforts, the council had decided to separate all the subjects and keep them monitored.
“How certain are you that this subject has bonded?”
“I felt Draconic mana around the subject,” Elfina answered. “The subject also displayed enhanced physical abilities during our encounter.”
“We must capture the subject.”
“No such thing will happen.”
“We don’t know where this could lead!”
“Abusing our authority could incur the wrath of the divine beings.”
As the council argued, Elfina was deciding on what action to take as well. Even though the cryo subjects were not deemed as hostile, it wasn’t impossible for them to harbor a grudge.
Upon their discovery, they were confined by the council for a decade. They were released when the council received a warning from the divine beings. They were imprisoned for ten years for being the victim of dragons. It would be weirder if they didn’t harbor resentment towards the council.
And one of them just obtained a powerful weapon.
------
Zane panted as he lay on the rooftop. His legs finally gave out from running, but his mana was still circulating through his body. After weeks of this training, circulating and gathering mana had become a passive habit.
“Is this good enough?” Zane asked.
“It will suffice,” Averin responded in his head. “Now that you can passively gather mana, you will need to learn a draconic combat style.”
Zane raised an eyebrow. “Dragons use martial arts?”
“Not in our dragon forms. It is not rare for a dragon to adapt a humanoid form depending on the situation.”
Zane nodded. “How are you going to teach me?”
“Focus your mana on your mind.”
Zane looked confused, but did what he was told. He gathered the mana inside him and directed it to his head. “Now what?”
“Brace yourself.”
Zane’s eyes widened. “What?” That was the only thing he could say before his whole body erupted in pain. It felt like everything was being ripped apart once again like when he bonded with the dragon heart, but this time was a lot worse. The pain was constant. It was like he was being healed then ripped apart repeatedly.
“Teaching you through words alone would be impossible, so I will transfer the memory to your body. I will bestow you the years of training within seconds, so survive.”
“RAAAHHHHH!”