Seed of Titan-Chapter 66: Main Procedure: A Critical Problem Occurred!

In Ravi’s mansion, Drai and Ravi were talking in the sitting room.

"Are you really sure that you’re fine?" Ravi questioned with furrowed eyebrows.

"I am, Professor. How can I lie to you when we’re about to proceed with the research?"

Ravi eyed Drai for a few more seconds before he finally decided to trust the boy’s words.

"If those rascals ever put you in danger again, I’ll ask the rector to cut off their budget. Let’s see how they fare without the academy’s support," Ravi commented, looking displeased.

"Come on, Professor. You know it’s not their fault that we stumbled into that place," Drai said, trying to avoid implicating his seniors any further. Whenever Drai passed by his higher-ups at the headquarters, he noticed their weary faces, perhaps overwhelmed by the aftermath of the venture.

"Yeah, but they could at least assign some upperclassmen to accompany you first-years. I know they’re trying out new stuff because of the unprecedented influx of newcomers, but with how your venture had gone, it’s safe to say that there probably wouldn’t be any new applicants any time soon."

"Sigh... I guess so."

Drai had learned from his friends that most of the gossips among the students were centered around how dangerous Valiant Ventures’ activities were, with Drai’s first venture being the proof.

The Faculty of Magic students were likely the most affected by this notion since Auri had missed her classes when she was hospitalized. Many of Soluna Academy’s students were quite ambitious, and they didn’t want an extracurricular activity to disturb their academic learning that much.

"Anyway, what’s the thing you want to tell me before we proceed with main procedure one?" Ravi asked.

"Oh, right. I wanted to tell you that I’ve leveled up again, Professor. I don’t know if this will affect your procedure’s preparation since you were dealing with my data when I was still level two."

"What?! You’re actually level three now?!" Ravi exclaimed, slightly jumping from his seat due to the shock.

"Yes. I happened to level up during my venture," Drai replied, scratching his head awkwardly. He didn’t expect for the professor to make such a fuss about this.

"Boy, you didn’t even tell me that you were already level two when we did the initial testing!"

"Ahaha, sorry, Professor. I didn’t think it was a big deal since you’re collecting my data anyway before the procedure."

Ravi looked at Drai with a complex expression before sitting back down and calming himself.

"You’re right. It isn’t that big of a deal in terms of my research. But objectively speaking, you’re a peculiar case for being level three when most of the first-year students haven’t even leveled up once. Honestly, it makes me want to conduct a separate research on you, boy. I’m curious to know how this could happen and if your circumstances can be applied to others or are completely unique to you."

"Uhm... One of my friends said that it might be related to your research, Professor. Do you think he’s right?" Drai said after recalling Christo’s comment a few days ago.

"Hmm... It’s possible, but only for your recent level up. For your first one, didn’t you level up by yourself?"

"Yes. I leveled up after the welcoming ceremony."

Drai could clearly remember the moment he leveled up in the middle of his conversation with Auri, Christo, and Jian. At that time, he had not met Flo yet and had only seen Natalia from a distance at the entrance ceremony.

"Then there must be some other variables that affect your development rate. Hmm... Let’s just put the matter aside for now since we must deal with the main procedure first. We can delve into it after you’re done with all the procedures," Ravi said.

"Okay, Professor."

"That being said, with your recent level up, I believe there’s a high chance that we’ll be able to cut the procedures short. Instead of having two main procedures with a downtime between them, a single procedure with an increased dose seems plausible.

"Of course I’ll have to adjust the data later and make sure that it won’t cause detrimental effects for you, but will you be okay with the change if it’s doable, Drai?"

"Sure. I think it’s better for me too if we can complete it sooner, Professor."

"Very well. Then let’s not waste time," Ravi concluded.

Standing up from their seats, Ravi and Drai proceeded to head straight to the basement lab.

"We’re going to update your parameters first, Drai. Go lie on the table as usual," Ravi instructed.

Following this, Drai went through the usual examination and data collection. This didn’t take too long, and soon Ravi was already busy dealing with the collected data in his workstation.

Around twenty minutes later, Ravi suddenly exclaimed, "It’s viable! Your current stats are enough to break through the previous threshold that forced us to divide the main procedure into two stages!"

"That’s good to hear. So are we going to proceed with the procedure now, Professor?" Drai asked from his chair.

"Only if you’re ready. I’ve completed the procedure adjustments and the simulations’ results looked great, so we’re good to go."

"I’m ready, Professor."

"Okay then. Move to the stimulant administration set up that we used last time, Drai."

Drai complied. Shortly after, he was already in position, lying down on the equipment table while surrounded by countless tubes and needles.

"It’s likely that this will be more painful than before. Are you prepared?" Ravi asked, making sure that Drai hadn’t forgotten about the excruciating process that he would have to endure during the procedure.

"I am," Drai replied without hesitation. Pain was his longtime lover, so how could he not embrace it wholeheartedly?

"Superb, my boy. Then let’s begin. Main Procedure 3.0, commencing stimulant administration."

Just like what happened during the initial testing, the countless needless soon buried themselves into Drai and released the stimulant.

"FUUUCCKK!!!"

What the professor predicted was true; the pain this time was several notches higher than it was before. Even after the increase in constitution, Drai still felt his whole body being torn from inside. In addition, there was a particularly stinging pain stabbing his head.

"Hang in there, boy," Ravi quietly encouraged as he closely monitored the data.

Minutes passed by as Drai was trying his best to endure the agony. But unlike the rest of the pain, the splitting headache was getting even worse. Drai felt as if something was drilling inside his head.

"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!"

Suddenly, silver light burst out from Drai’s orifices. His bellowing expression was frozen and his howls turned silent.

Drai had lost his consciousness.

This sudden turn of events didn’t escape Ravi’s notice. After spotting Drai’s change, he quickly inspected the data while making minute adjustments. However, his eyes suddenly froze.

"What is this..." Ravi murmured as he stared at the huge spike in Drai’s cerebral activity. His shock was understandable, as the lost of consciousness should have resulted in the cessation of neuronal activity instead.

Ravi frantically adjusted the procedure, but the readings didn’t seem to respond.

Seeing that the graph had spiked so much, Ravi realized that if he couldn’t let this go any further since Drai could end up as a vegetable even if he didn’t die.

"Fuck! There’s no choice!" Ravi shouted as he proceeded to terminate the procedure. There’s a part of him that wanted to delay the termination in case things return to normal, but he truly didn’t want to end up losing Drai due to a moment of hesitation.

However, what followed turned Ravi pale from horror.

Instead of ceasing, Drai’s cerebral activity kept on rising. And the worst part was that the stimulant administration had not stopped despite the termination command that had already been inputted.

"Shit!" Ravi cursed as he immediately jumped over his workstation and ran to Drai.

Upon getting a closer look, he saw that the liquid stimulant kept flowing into Drai through the numerous tiny tubes.

"Fuck me! Why did it choose to malfunction at this fucking time!?" Ravi furiously screamed as he tried to pull out the tubes manually.

Yet, to Ravi’s dismay, the tubes weren’t budging. It was as if Drai’s muscles refused to let the needles go.

"Fucking shit!!!"

Realizing his futile attempt, Ravi immediately raised his hands and released a surge of mana. The countless tubes finally ceased their injections as all of them were instantly cut loose by Ravi’s spell.

Having done this, Ravi hurried back to his workstation. Upon seeing the virtual screens, his heart dropped as he noticed that he had failed to stop the procedure in time since almost the whole dose of stimulant had been injected already.

And the final nail in the coffin was Drai’s neuronal readings that were still spiking. It was now multiple times higher than normal.

Ravi’s whole body quivered as he approached Drai who was lying motionless on the table with his frozen expression and silver light that was still emanating from his orifices. Countless needles were still stuck all over his body, their cut off tubes protruding out of his skin like spikes.

"W-what have I done?!" Ravi mumbled before dropping on his knees beside the unconscious Drai who seemed to be suspended in time.

***