Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 10 | Day 16

I can’t help but break out into a wide grin as my latest spell finally works. This one is a fragmented fireball. It flies out before exploding a certain distance determined by a variable in the script that I can change with ease on every use, where it turns into five more fireballs that go out at angles which are also determined by a separate variable.

“So you finally figured out the simple spell, did you?” a certain skeletal roommate’s whispered voice echoes into my head. “You’ve been here for 34 days already, and you’ve only been able to script three spells in this time?”

Just like always, I ignore the bonehead to focus on my terminal. Over this time, I’ve spent most of my time training my mana arcs with the device or scripting new spells, but I also spent a decent chunk of time working on breaking into the terminal’s systems. But I haven’t had that much luck so far, outside of cracking the encryption on a couple of documents that were on it that I’m pretty sure the doctor wanted me to decrypt.

“If you keep ignoring me, then you’ll never find out what those vials do,” the skeleton whispers temptingly in my ear, raising my interest. So I lift my head from my terminal before looking off in the direction of the skeleton’s lab a few floors below me.

“Tell me what the mutagen does, and I’ll stop ignoring you,” I ask him, not really expecting him to answer. But to my surprise, he actually responds with, “Come to my lab and I’ll tell you.”

I stare at the floor for a few seconds before deciding why not and getting up.

It can’t hurt to take a bit of time to rest my mind.

“What am I looking at?” I mutter after reaching the lab to find the skeleton lying face first on the ground in the middle of the ashes, which I can’t help but assume is his own.

Is he still aliv- err, undead? Okay, I’m not sure what term to use. But is he still there?

“Don’t mind this great one,” the skeleton says without getting up from the floor. “As promised, this one shall now tell you what the great Mutagen does.”

I blink twice in confusion.

Is he going to keep referring to himself with such arrogance and superiority while lying face down on the ground? Because that’s not a very… nevermind. He’s gonna answer my question, so I shouldn’t judge him right now.

I can leave that till after he answers.

“That substance was created in my lab with the help of two other Class S magicians, one of which was a poison magician and the other a space magician who are now both long dead,” the skeleton begins, surprising me a little by the revelation of another space magician besides the doctor. Even if this one is apparently dead now. “The poison magician and I both used our own mana in its creation, while the space magician opened a rift to the plane of time to draw out time mana from it and merged it with their own spatial mana.”

Interesting. Whatever it does, it must have a strong effect on whatever drinks it.

“We made three different vials of the mutagen, but we weren’t able to nail down any exact effects of it,” he continues.

“Why not?” I ask with a frown while walking up to the cage before kneeling down.

A few seconds pass, following which the skeleton begins to float into the air. He then answers, “We tested two of the vials. The first failure of the two tests of them turned a human into some sort of half human half serpent incomplete shapeshifting monster. They had two forms that they could shift between and gained strength far beyond a regular human being without using mana to enhance their bodies.”

My brows furrow in confusion.

If they gained so much strength, then why was it a failure?

“I’m sure your tiny little mind is wondering why that would be considered a failure,” the skeleton says rather condescendingly, making my eye twitch with irritation while rotating its body to land on its feet in an eerily slow manner. “The test subject would randomly shift back and forth between the forms, and neither form was purely human. One of them was fully serpent, while the other had a combination of several claws, a tail, and scales coating random parts of their body with no real balance to the human and serpent parts. But the final part of the failure was that it made their body age faster and require the flesh of the living to sustain itself.”

Oh. Yeah, that would be a pretty big failure.

“And the other test subject?” I ask, not really sure if I want to know the answer considering how poorly the first one worked out.

By now the skeleton is standing in the center of the ashes again while staring at me with the flames in its eye sockets.

“That one had a completely different reaction to it. The test subject – also a human – turned fully into a beast. They transformed into an enormous bear, spanning over three meters in height, but lost all of their intelligence in the process,” the creature explains, and I can damn near hear the frown in its voice despite it not having a face to frown with. “We ended up coming to the conclusion that since none of us can actually direct the time mana used in the concoction, we can’t control what it does. So we had to stop using the time mana entirely.”

I frown at that before looking down and crossing my arms.

So the mutagen has no set effect, outside of it having something to do with transforming the consumer into a beast in some way. Which means it’s not something I ever want to try.

Not that I’d planned on it to begin with.

Especially since I don’t know what it might do-

My thoughts are cut off as the skeleton’s eyes flare slightly and it says, “But with that spatial and time mana within your body, who knows what it would do to you?” in a not-so-friendly sounding tone.

Uh, that doesn’t sound nice. So, I’m gonna leave now.

“Thanks for the info,” I tell him before immediately turning around and leaving. I’m not too surprised that he knew about the time and space mana in my body, considering that he is a S Class magician despite him being locked up.

Surprisingly, the skeleton stays silent as I leave. Which is a first.

But he’s still locked up, so it’s time to go start scripting a new spell.

Also, I know there's another element in that mutagen besides those four, and he didn't mention that. So it makes me wonder why? And what is it?