Anatomy

Adam returned to the laboratory. James and Frank were still working hard to construct telekinesis.

Ever since acquiring the laboratory, Adam had stopped returning to the dormitory entirely. He ate and slept in the lab. Ignoring the other two, Adam returned to his office and began incubating the egg according to the method described in the book.

Adam sliced a large gash across his fingertip with a Wind Blade. Blood streamed out without end, but his expression did not change. He pressed his finger against the eggshell and began inscribing the contract.

It truly deserved its reputation as a life-form known for chaotic evil. While greedily devouring his blood, the egg instinctively resisted the contract runes. That resistance was extremely obvious—the shell writhed faintly, constantly erasing the runes as they were inscribed, making the process exceptionally difficult.

"Behave yourself." Adam grew impatient. Telekinesis surged out of his body and dealt the egg a vicious blow. Adam was more curious about this egg than anything else. Whether it could improve his strength did not matter much to him; as an external object, it held greater research value. Getting a living specimen would naturally be best, but if he could not, a corpse would be acceptable as well.

The egg actually projected an intent filled with pain. Adam clearly sensed the shell contracting violently, followed by a piercing shriek in his mind. It was still in the egg stage, yet it already possessed such an ability.

The egg's resistance weakened considerably. Once Adam realized this method worked, he continued attacking the egg roughly, utterly unconcerned with whether he might kill the creature inside.

Even so, inscribing the contract still took him quite some time. Adam was in no hurry. According to the book, inscribing a Master-Servant Contract was a tug-of-war. The mage needed to repeat the process every day without pause until the Abyssal Creature submitted.

Adam accelerated the division of the cells in his finger, and the wound healed at an astonishing speed. Then he walked over to the Control Panel.

What he needed next was a great deal of energy and flesh.

An Abyssal Creature like this, one that could only grow to Level Two at most without an opportunity to "mutate," only needed Energy Stones to be fed. Higher-level creatures required Aether Crystals. Adam did not lack Energy Stones, but flesh and blood...

"Civilization and savagery intertwined." Adam let out a hypocritical sigh and placed an order through the Control Panel—ten low-level Other Plane slaves, worth a total of one hundred units of Energy Stones.

The slave trade was not concealed at all. It was displayed openly on the trading list alongside every other resource, with clearly marked prices and no deception. Adam had long been curious about it, but he had never purchased any because he had not needed to. This time, because of the egg, he was finally satisfying that curiosity.

Slave trading was a "legal" business in the Mage Plane. When large numbers of mages waged war across Other Planes, aside from plundering specific resources, the most valuable and easiest things to acquire were slaves. In the eyes of mages, planes that had not formed social systems possessed no value for communication. Mages could slaughter and plunder such planes without the slightest psychological burden, then use astonishing methods to conduct a Plane Sacrifice of the entire world, providing Backfeed to the Mage Plane.

Even if certain planes had formed social systems over the long course of natural evolution, mages' methods were not necessarily any gentler. Those planes had to submit and become the colonies and private property of some Transcendent or even True Spirit Mage. From then on, the plane had to develop entirely according to the mage's will. If they dared resist, only destruction awaited them.

Only when creatures equivalent to True Spirit Mages appeared on an Other Plane did they gain the qualifications to speak with the Mage Plane.

This was the posture of plunderers.

The slaves Adam had purchased would not arrive immediately. If he placed the order now, they would be delivered to the laboratory punctually the following morning.

Adam spent the entire afternoon fusing with the Personal Space. He tried to decipher the rune's structure, only to discover that without the support of knowledge and theory, the rune was like a heavenly tome, leaving him nowhere to begin. After repeated experiments yielded nothing, he could only obediently fuse with it.

The fusion process was simple. He only had to peel back a patch of skin anywhere on his body, place the materialized rune upon it, and then the Personal Space belonged to Adam.

It happened as lightly as clouds drifting in a clear sky. There were no fluctuations of energy or space at all, yet Adam was fascinated. This technology was simply astonishing.

Adam could open the space by any method from anywhere within one meter in front of any part of his body. It seemed incapable of storing living things, however. After placing several contracts, shattered Aether Crystals, and the magical items he had seized inside, he tried to put the egg in as well. Yet incomparable terror and resistance came from within the egg, as though entering it meant stepping into a domain of death.

Since the egg still had much value left to be extracted, Adam could only give up regretfully. He decided to find a living creature to put inside someday and see what happened.

Early the next morning, Adam opened the laboratory doors. Test Subjects were not allowed to remain in the laboratory overnight, so James and Frank waited outside the lab early every day.

There were more people today. Before Adam opened the door, they had been speaking with William. James knew William, and he had never expected that this instructor of rune knowledge had now become willing to serve as Adam's Test Subject, just like him.

Aside from the Senior Apprentice, what shocked James even more were the ten slaves tied up with ropes and lined outside the door like Walking Corpses.

They had builds similar to humans, but their Limbs were longer, and their skin was an eerie purple. They were completely naked. Judging from their physical features, there were both males and females. They showed no intention of resisting, and even William's curious touches received no reaction.

James and Frank were not curious about this, but William was different. After signing the contract with Adam, he could not help asking, "Those..." He did not know how to address Other Plane slaves and could only gloss over it. "Are they Test Subjects too?"

Adam was about to order the Alchemy Golems to construct a container resembling a blood pool. Hearing this, he answered, "No. They are not Test Subjects. They are Consumables."

Adam then calmly instructed them, "First, try constructing the Rune Array yourselves. If there is anything you do not understand during the process, ask James. Come find me once you succeed." With that, he personally led one slave deeper into the laboratory.

William looked at the remaining nine slaves and felt an icy chill rise from the depths of his heart. In an instant, it pierced through his entire body and stiffened his movements. Consumables? They might look different, but their faces were still similar to humans. They were actually being used as Consumables?

Adam did not care what William thought. Though these slaves were low-value Consumables, they were also samples he had never seen before. Adam was very interested in the bodily structures of these humanoid creatures from another plane.

The room deep within the laboratory belonged exclusively to Adam. It contained several small precision instruments, as well as an operating table.

Adam led the slave over, intending to place him on the operating table. At that moment, the slave who had seemed utterly unresponsive all along suddenly erupted with intense emotion. He let out a shrill scream, his voice carrying obvious tonal fluctuations. It was presumably their language.

Adam guessed that he was afraid, begging for mercy, or perhaps cursing.

The slave began to struggle, turning to flee from the laboratory, but it was futile. His resistance was intense, yet his strength was negligible. All he could do was pull the ropes taut.

Adam restrained him with telekinesis and sent him onto the operating table. Mechanical arms extended from around it and firmly secured him in place.

Adam changed into another set of clothes. The material was immaculate and would not be stained by blood. At the same time, he thought that since they possessed language, they possessed Thoughts. In that case, what did the souls of Other Plane Creatures look like?

That question interested Adam even more than their bodily structures, but he currently had no means of observing souls.

Shaking his head to scatter his remaining Thoughts, Adam condensed his telekinesis into ten tentacles. Together with his own hands, he manipulated six scalpels at once.

Throughout the process, the slave screamed shrilly, his muscles twitching uncontrollably. Adam turned a deaf ear and continued cutting. Finally, after one slash, the slave lost all signs of life. What flowed from his eyes was bone-deep hatred and terror.

"This was death caused by pain exceeding the body's self-protection mechanism, resulting in a collapse of will." Adam recorded coldly.

"The brain structure is simple. Intelligence is inferred to be low. No soul was observed."

"The muscle fibers are thicker than those of humans. In peak condition, it possesses greater strength than an Ordinary Person."

"The bodily structure differs. The 'heart' is in the center of the chest cavity. The 'kidneys' are below the 'heart.' The 'stomach' is on the right side and very large. The intestines are sturdy and powerful. Metabolic functions are inferred to be strong. No other internal Organs are present."

"No respiratory tract was found."

"An unknown stone-like organ was found. It carries a faint Energy Aura. Its Energy Level is extremely low."

"The reproductive Organs are similar to those of humans. It is a mammal."

The dissection proceeded at a rapid and steady pace. Adam dissected the slave inch by inch, recording every piece of information he obtained. Two hours later, he finally completed the entire dissection.

"Greater vitality than humans, but low intelligence." Adam ordered the Alchemy Golems to clean the laboratory and throw the unrecognizable corpse into the blood pool. Then he thought, As expected, intelligence is the reason power can be gained. Mages possess intelligence and the power derived from intelligence, allowing them to become plunderers. As for them, they can only endure passively.

Adam changed his clothes and walked out of the laboratory. William had been staring uneasily at that room. When he saw what the Alchemy Golems held and then saw Adam, he could not stop himself from shuddering. At last, his tangled feelings toward Adam—admiration, defiance, hostility, and more—had transformed into pure fear.

What a monster! What a monster... William lowered his head deeply to hide his fear and screamed inwardly.

Frank rose to his feet and said, "Need any help?" He knew what Adam was going to do, and such a task clearly was not pleasant. Out of the self-awareness of an "assistant," he volunteered himself.