I am not sure how long it took for the Mr. Book to complete the so called ”bestowal,” but what woke me up was not any form of unbearable heat, it was instead bone chilling cold.

“Guagh .. COUGH COUGH”

Choking on a steady stream of ice water, I forced myself to sit up properly. As I did so, every nerve in my body ached from having endured something that no human should ever have to go through. It did not help that the cold made my body shiver, causing a perpetual cycle of new soreness to pulse throughout my body with every movement.

“God damn, what was that for?” I shouted in indignation and frustration. Due to being forced awake, my eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the light.

“Ha! I have never seen such a lucky pervert in my life. You should be grateful that you can feel anything.” a condescending voice that was several octaves higher than mine reached my ears.

It was soon followed by a powerful and ancient sounding voice that almost felt like the rumbling of thunder, “try to be nicer Rurika-chan, he is an important test sub.. COUGH, guest. Right, young man, what is your name?”

Hey, you were totally calling me a test subject! I screamed to myself, but I burried my dissatisfaction and let loose a small smile. “Nice to meet you, my name is Hitsugaya Yuta.” Unable to see, I bowed in the direction that the old voice came from.

“Grandpa, didn’t I already tell you what this punk said? Even if he is the only success out of the past three hundred testers, he is a deviant that should not be permitted to learn magic!”

As my eyes finally adapted to the light, I saw that I was currently in a white room and sitting on an operating table. Gulping down a bit of saliva, I looked to my right and saw the girl that was at the bookstore. Now able to get a good look, she was even prettier than I remembered. Her long black hair was tied in a ponytail, and the rather ordinary school uniform was replaced with a fiery red t-shirt that was clearly too small for the two large spherical mounds that threatened to burst out at any moment, and skin tight blue jeans that seemed to be a second layer of skin.Yup, she has the curves in all the right places.

Standing in front of her was a tall man with long and unkept gray hair. When i say tall, I meant it, he had to at least be past 6’ 5’’ from the looks of it. When compared to his counterpart who was at best 5’5” on a good day, this man's height could put professional basketball players to shame. He too wore a red skin tight t-shirt and blue jeans. In fact, one might even argue that they only difference was the size of the clothes. His clothes also seemed to be close to bursting, but he was curvy in very different way. No, it was more correct to say that he was bulging.

Although he was not as muscular as a bodybuilder, he was not that far off, and on top of it, it seemed like each muscle was sculpted by master craftsmen from the finest marble. Each and every part of him radiated an overbearing pressure that resembled the feeling of confronting a feral bear in the wild. Not that I would know. In other words, he was a total behemoth, if he had green skin I’d probably confuse him for the Hulk.

“Gulp.”

I swallowed another mouthful of saliva as I slid backwards to the end of the operating table.

Noticing my discomfort, the muscular old man shifted his gaze onto me. I freezed in place from the sudden attention. Not good! I thought as I prepared myself for the worst.

Contrary to what I expected, his eyes held no ill will whatsoever. In fact, if I had to compare his eyes to anything, it would undoubtedly be a puppy’s. Like his granddaughter, the Hulk had dark brown eyes that resembled pools of dark chocolate. The only difference was that his eyes seemed to have a glint of a curious and slightly mischievous light.

Stroking the stubble on his chin, the Hulk let out a chuckle.“Ho ho ho! No need to be nervous Yuta, I promise that we have no ill will towards you. In fact, I wish to congratulate you in becoming a bona fide magician!”

Since when were we so close that we are on a first name basis? Hey mister i don’t even know your name! And what the hell do you mean I’m a magician? Did you take one too many pills this morning gramps?

I was confused by his words for a bit, until I remembered the promise that the damn book made with me. If I survived what he coined as the “Bestowal,” I would be able to use magic and have my most desired wish granted. In fact in conjunction with the aching feeling I had, there was another source of pain. It was a sharp cutting sensation that traveled my veins throughout my whole body, but each wave always started from my heart.

“No doubt about it, you have the initial linings of spiritual veins. I bet you are experiencing a prickly feeling traveling through all the blood vessels in your body. This is truly fascinating, the structure of the lining is totally different than someone who was born a magician .” Said the hulk as he reached out and pressed his right hand against my chest. “It seems like a djinn is a little lacking when compared to a succubus in quality, but the durability of the lining seems like it could even rival natural born geniuses! It’s too bad that it died after completing the bestowal.”

Djinn? He must be referring to Mr. Book.

Unable to handle any more unfamiliar jargon, I lightly tapped the Hulk’s forearm with my left index finger to attract his attention. “Um, sorry to interupt your train of thought, but do you mind explaining to me why I’m feeling such intense pain. It’s not really a prickly feeling, it hurts more than that. Like my blood changed into shards of glass.”

Looking me up and down, the man in front of me pondered a moment before responding. “Well that is a bit of a surprise. You did however just go through a giant change in many ways. A minor unecpectedoutcome is to expected. You must have some unrefined mana circulating in you. I will have Rurika here explain the details to you as she will be in charge of your introducing to you the basics of the magic arts and the etiquette of one that wields them.”

Retracting his hand, the bear like man turned around and exited the room while muttering about having to make preparations to collect all sorts of new data. This left only two people in the large white room; which I am slowly beginning to believe it to be a surgical room within a laboratory.