Jack felt the tug on his mana once more as Monty siphoned the excess mana and directed it to the orbs behind him. This time he filled two out of the three devices. The large crystal ball-like orbs held a strange black fluid inside that, as they were filled with mana, started to glow as it resonated with the mana. In this case the glow was a vibrant green. While Monty’s hulk smash venting method was impressive it lacked the scientific control they needed.

  Jack was beginning to love the rushing feeling of power as he pulled mana through his body. Even the burning sensation when his body was teetering on the edge of being overloaded was becoming almost welcoming. With every cycle of filling and purging, he understood his body’s new pathways a little better. He barely needed to hunt for the frequency anymore. He reached out, and the connection snapped into place.

  With Turrel’s science-based balls in place they took a different approach to try to establish a baseline for how much his body could amplify and endure. They tried every combination they could think of. Turrel even tried to teach him to pull in the mana he was venting constantly, but it was beyond him at the moment.

  They timed and measured each attempt, initially, it was hard to tell if it was Jack’s capacity increasing or not. After re-running the tests for a third time it was clear that it was increasing, just slightly, which honestly with the time they had been practising was impressive.

  Inside the windowless training facility, time seemed to fade away. Being constantly charged with mana and healing left Jack feeling fresh and energised. He was locked into a state of hyperfocus, his mind being engaged and excited for the first time since he arrived. He would have likely kept going until he collapsed if Turrel hadn’t finally called for a break.

  “Jack, you need food and sleep. Healing like you have been might make you feel refreshed but mana can only substitute so much.” Turrel mentioned as they left the training room.

  “I’m good man. We only have a day, I don’t think sleeping is the best use of time at the moment.” Jack argued, reaching for the door handle. His hand missed the latch, his fingers trembling slightly. He stared at his hand, taking offence at its choice of timing.

  “Jack, Turrel is right. You are running on fumes right now. Your body and mind have been through a lot today. Life mana can act like a stimulant, you can’t trust what your body is telling you right now.” Monty said, his voice taking on a softer tone as he reached past Jack to open the door for him.

  “You only just had your pathways etched today. We put more mana through your system than most people experience in months. A few hours of sleep is probably the best thing for your mind and body, you need to give it time to adapt.” Monty continued.

  “I know, I know. I just … I finally feel like I have some agency in this whole thing you know? There is something I can do. Something I have control over and a goal to work towards.” Jack sighed and regretted speaking out loud.

  “Ahh it’s fine, food then sleep. Not too much sleep though.” Jack conceded.

  The longer he had gone without mana flowing inside him, the more he could feel the fatigue starting to creep up on him. Some of his thoughts crept out before he could mask them, which he knew meant he needed rest. Feelings and emotions scared Jack, he knew he had been putting off dealing with everything but that was how he managed in the past. He took a deep breath and pushed it all back down, leaving the two men staring at him as he tried to escape their looks of pity and concern. He just had to make sure he kept moving forward.

  —

  Lord Montarg (Monty)

  Montarg looked at Turrel as Jack walked away. The two men shared a look and waited until he was out of earshot before talking in hushed voices.

  “It’s easy to forget how hard it must be going through this alone. He doesn’t seem the type that is going to ask for help though.” Turrel mentioned as they stood to the side of the door.

  “After today… I honestly don't know what to do, assuming the plan works and we can fly him under the radar. I like him, but I don’t know him. His potential is scary, Turrel… He could become an absolute monster. He is picking things up so quickly and the amplification shouldn't work the way it is.” He looked very concerned.

  “He could be dangerous if the wrong people get their claws in him. Part of me thinks the safest option might be just to…” Montarg shook his head as he avoided saying the words.

  “I couldn’t do it, not now, he is too much like a young me.” He accusingly looked at Turrel.

  “Which I can’t help but assume was part of the reason you reached out to me.”

  Turrel stared back but didn’t say anything.

  “Regardless, I am invested now. I will take him under my wing even if it is only to keep an eye on him and to try to keep the vultures away for now. You will be coming with me as well though, emotions and details are you.”

  “You know I can’t leave, I am caretaker of this facility. Once he leaves he is on his own, or in your care if you choose to do that.” Turrel sighed as he responded.

  “I would love to be involved, he is going to cause waves. There are so many unknowns. But it’s not possible.”

  “Haha my friend, you forget I am a Shardlord now, I have my own vessel and a little pull and a vacant research position. Enough of that for now. How likely is the first part of this plan to work? Is he generating enough mana?” Montarg asked as he glanced and saw Jack walking to a table with a bowl in each hand.

  Turrel just laughed at the question and looked at him.

  “Ohh you were serious… I thought you knew and kept it quiet to motivate him…” Turrel responded with a puzzled expression.

  “One of the orbs he filled would be enough to destroy the testing mechanism without a doubt. Two will likely destroy the entire machine. Do you realise how much mana each of those orbs holds?” Turrel demanded as it started to dawn on him that Montarg’s perspective might be skewed due to his absorption primal frequency.

  Montarg looked a little sheepish as a grin spread across his face.

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  “A lot?”

  Turrel shook his head as they headed over to get food and join Jack.

  —

  Jack had to admit, he felt much better when he woke up. He had two meals and chatted with Monty and Turrel for a little while before heading off to get some rest. He was a lot less reluctant after they told him that filling one orb would easily be enough to destroy the machine.

  He grabbed some more food and then they headed back towards his little white training box room.

  “What’s the plan now, are we doing the test or keep filling me up?” Jack asked.

  “Hmn,” Monty snorted. “We are going to have a test run and make sure we feel ready and then we go straight to the test and get this done.”

  Jack nodded, feeling a little relieved and apprehensive at the same time. The second test marked a milestone for him. He had realised part of his feeling off was because he had no goal. It was a new world and there were so many things he could learn but there was nothing to strive for, no goal in mind. So he latched on to the first thing that gave him a clear goal. He would pass this test, destroy the machine and learn to control his amplification before the third time came around. He was at some point going to force Monty to teach him the hulk smash fist as well but that was probably less important, still it was good to have goals in mind.

  They entered the training room and Monty pulled a crystal from his pocket and handed it to Jack.

  “Draw in from this if you can, just a little initially to get the flow started. We should be fine to keep going after that.”

  Jack looked at the crystal, noticing it was similar to one that Turrel used to charge the testing device. This one was much bigger and had a distinct green glow about it. He took a breath and tried to find the zone he was in yesterday, feeling for mana on his skin. He couldn't feel any around his body, but in his hands where he held the crystal he felt a buzzing. He focused and slowly matched his heart to the buzzing rhythm. After his testing yesterday he could tell there was more mana in the crystal than he wanted to pull in all at once. His only association so far with absorbing mana was to imagine breathing, instead of a large breath he imagined a short half breath. Mana flowed into his body, not in a rush as he was expecting but in a more gentle stream.

  “Hmm that was easier than I expected” Jack said, as he handed the crystal back to Monty. Monty was looking at him, both eyes squinted slightly but made no comment.

  “Jack, your intuition is impressive. Are you sure you don’t have some hidden trait for mana? No, forget about it. We will let the room permeate a bit and then I’ll put the weave on and do a dry run.” Monty said.

  “You guys keep talking like I should know what hidden traits I have. It’s not like there's an interface that will tell me.” Jack looked between the two men as their eyes widened for a second and Turrel turned away.

  “That would have been something that would have been pretty useful to tell me at some point right? I know we are skipping a lot of stuff, but… there's no way you skip that right? Turtie, you wouldn’t skip that right?” Jack rambled, not taking his eyes off Turrel.

  “Jack, we have a lot to focus on now, and I think we should talk about what weave we want to go with first.” Turrel responded, still not turning towards Jack.

  “The biggest, why risk anything lower? We know with Monty there I can handle the biggest one for long enough. If the machine senses the weave it won't matter if it goes boom so bigger is better.” Jack said, while Monty nodded his agreement.

  “Yes I agree if that was the only concern we go with the biggest. The problem we have here is scale. We only need to make sure the machine breaks. If we send too much mana through then parts of it could explode and well… you are going to be inside the machine.” Turrel stated, still not facing Jack.

  “Fair… that machine was a bit scary… Monty will be there though and he's like a level 100 healer right so he should be able to fix me up if anything happens? How likely is the machine to explode really?” Jack said tentatively as he remembered the torture machine that did his first test.

  “Jack, Shardlord is the correct term, we don’t do levels just tiers, I am Tier 10. Also I am not really a healer… I can heal but that’s not my speciality. Still I think I can sort out some damage from a little explosion” He said looking over at Turrel, who was finally turning back towards the group.

  Turrel threw his hands up, but he had a smile on his face.

  “Fine fine, who needs caution. Let’s just go with the biggest one. You get ready here and I will set the test machine up.” Turrel started to head towards the exit.

  “Yoo wait, you didn’t answer my question, how likely is the machine to explode really?” Jack asked a little shocked that Turrel let a question pass unanswered.

  “You are a pretty lucky guy Jack, let's not put a number on it and just leave it up to chance?” Turrel smiled as he left the room.

  Jack opened his mouth to respond but conceded the point to Turrel again and scrunched up his face as he turned back towards Monty.

  —

  An hour later Jack was strapped into the medieval torture device once again. He had the strongest healing weave that Monty could manage circulating mana through his system and he was quietly confident if a little upset. He had asked if they would have to restart the test and sit through the hours of mana exposure again and Turrel had confirmed his fears.

  He sat in the machine for the next few hours, now with a much more familiar knowledge of his own mana sense. He was enjoying trying to pick differences between each of the frequencies as they hit him. They all had a very different feeling to the life mana he was now so familiar with, something told him his heart wouldn't be able to match their frequencies. He added another item to his list of goals; Learn to manipulate other frequencies.

  The hours dragged on and on, they had agreed he would skip the break this time in order to push through. The Life frequency was right in the middle and if things went well they wouldn't have to complete the second half of the test.

  He could slowly sense the frequencies approaching the one he was more used to, and as they got closer he knew Monty would be watching as well. Monty said he would be able to see when the test was approaching the middle frequency and just before it did he was going to undo the weave. This would leave a large amount of mana in his system circulating right as it was hit with the life mana beam.

  Jack felt the weave fade and the pull on his core lessened for a second, mana flowed but had nowhere to go.

  The machine's beam changed and hit him with a short pulse of life mana, it merged into the stream inside him. A single drop added to a river as it was pulled through his vortex and amplified. It was pulled along as the torrent raged looping through his body and being amplified over and over.

  There was a pull from the extraction arm over his body, it tried to pull a small stream of mana from his body. It was flooded as instead a flood of mana was pulled into the device.

  The arm was surrounded by a bright neon green glow. A warning siren sounded but was drowned out by the mechanical shriek of the device overloading.

  Jack felt the air around him change as it started to feel charged, the hair on his arms starting to stand up.

  A whining sound right above his head started to intensify and Jack felt the machine begin to shake. Still the mana kept flowing out of Jack.

  The shaking intensified and something cracked. A green light flashed from somewhere inside the machine.

  There was a sound like breaking glass and then an explosion sent a thunderclap directly behind his head. Debris rained down, bouncing off the device all around him. Jack flinched, squeezing his eyes shut as a wave of heat washed over him.

  Silence returned, broken only by the sizzling of ruined electronics. Jack opened his eyes, his heart hammering against his ribs. He turned to look for Turrel, but his gaze was intercepted by a jagged spear of metal driven into the cushion beside his ear. The extraction needle. It was buried deep, vibrating slightly from the impact. He stared at the lethal piece of metal, wondering if even Monty could have healed that. Good thing he was a very lucky guy.