Divine Path System

The life of a slave was miserable, in both physical and mental sense.

A prison slave was worse.

A lab slave, however, was treated slightly better. It's done in hopes they'd live longer and continue the experiment chain a little more.

Yet, they died the fastest.

Even the most tenacious didn't survive a month if their origin was experimented on.

"And I think you might just break that record."

Varian's contorting face froze for a moment and he glared at the elder man standing outside a thin blue energy wall.

The room was a fusion of sleek metal with futuristic while and glowing runes that spoke of ancient tales.

Working together, they created a white sphere of light that swallowed him with ease. With powers sealed and body suppressed, Varian remained still as the advanced formations tried to influence his origin.

The absurd part was that they were succeeding.

His fingers clenched and he tried to thrash out. Blood splashed between his teeth and hints of red began to show in his eyes.

"If not for this experimenting needing a raw subject, I'd have given proper drugs to calm your temper." Aion shook his head with a regretful expression, but his gaze remained fixed on a transparent screen bombarded with the test data.

His lips curled up and he clapped his hands in joy, a gesture that undid his image as a stern elder.

"Your origin is really something else! You might live for two months! An origin subject living two full months. Wonderful, just wonderful!"

With a gesture of his hands, the formations ceased and so did the force holding Varian in place.

He crashed to the ground, spasming and coughing blood. His lips quivered and he looked like he might die at any moment.

Aion frowned and tapped on a few options on the floating screen.

A few runes lit up in the room, far fewer than before and waves of vitality drowned Varian.

(This is three times more than normal. He's really scared you'll die. Great acting!) Samsara's mischievous voice rang in his mind.

'You know, I might really die.' Varian allowed his body to recover under the healing but in the mind space he created, he sat crosslegged in the void, watching the world outside with a wry smile.

Everytime an experiment began, he'd let his body function on its own for the most part and study the runes in the room.

In just a week, despite the terrible learning environment, he gained a preliminary understanding.

Since he had ample of time to think between experiments, Varian concluded that he didn't really travel to the past.

"Hasn't even reached celestial ranks at 6. Some of the newer generation are really worrying."

"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Varian nearly choked on his saliva at those words.

"Huh? Did your condition detoriate?" Aion turned back to him in a hurry, brows frowning.

"I'm fine." Varian said, gaze remaining unfriendly.

"I'll give you another round of healing after we go back." Aion placed his hands behind his back and moved forward.

The way he walked and kept chatting with the passerbys showed he held absolutely no defense against Varian.

It'd have been the perfect chance to ambush if only his power wasn't sealed.

Even though Varian looked normal except for the slave uniform, he was heavily sealed. And the seal put on him was something incredibly special—it's also the first experiment he had to go through.

The seal wasn't on his body or in his soul, it's directly imprinted onto his origin. Since they initiated this sealing process, not a single person managed to break out.

Perhaps Aion wasn't being arrogant by keeping his guard down, he's just showing his confidence in the seal.

As they entered a large store, Aion purchased some materials and turned around.

'These things all have a piece of divinity in them.' Varian was alarmed. 'They don't belong to a rank 2 creature.'

Noticing Varian's keen interest in the items, Aion smiled. "Curious?"

He nodded stiffly.

"Barbarians won't understand anyway."

"..."

Varian wanted to smash his head. Using the slivers, he could break the origin seal in seconds.

'Calm down! Calm down! I don't have to get angry at a projection. He's just a projection!'

Clenching and loosening his fist, Varian followed him to the townsquare.

Aion considered Varian to be helpless. But after studying the runes, he gained enough understanding of them to break away from the lab.

He didn't do so for a simple reason. Once he escaped from this city, he wouldn't be able to study those runes again.

And sneaking in again was impossible since he still hadn't figured out how they modified their Origin.

The experiments sucked, sure. But the benefits he's reaping through the secret study were enormous. And staying with this talkative old man was giving him a lot of information.

"Elder, they've called for you!" A middle-aged guard ran through the heavy crowd on the street and saluted Aion. "It's about to begin."