Chapter 31- Exposed Plot

Dubs once again found himself in the training rooms with Alt, practicing his control.

Upon arrival, Dubs immediately began to channel some energy into his hands, and to his surprise, a much larger number of magical particles began to gather in his hands.

6 balls of magic formed in Dubs hands, each ball a different type of magical energy. If they were connected, the lines connecting the centers of the balls would form a hexagon that was rotating about its center.

Each of the balls was not a whole ball in of itself, but rather a nucleus with particles orbiting it, forming a sphere. 5 particles orbited the central, larger particle of each type of magic.

Dubs controlled all 6 of the spheres simultaneously, and they lined up forming a 'rainbow', beginning with the white light magic, followed by the flaming red fire magic.

The air magic particles were no longer clear, but rather a yellowish color, and they sparked like electricity.

Following this was a mix of green and grey particles, the green ones which resembled chloroplasts, and the grey ones which resembled a fine granite.

After this was the sphere of water, which looked like a number of raindrops swirling about, except that they were as blue as the ocean.

Finishing off the 'rainbow' was the final sphere. This one was significantly larger than the others. Each particle's radius was approximately twice the size, however the radius of the overall orbital remained the same, therefore the density of the sphere was much greater.

Alt snickered. "Looks like after synchronizing between the training and the mission, your control for each type of magic has increased sixfold!"

"What are the numbers looking like right now?", Dubs pondered.

Alt laughed. "By looking at the numbers alone, you would still look pathetic compared to your squadmates. Previously, you were at 0.025% mastery for each skill, and you've improved to 0.15% mastery for every skill, set aside dark magic, which you've improved to 0.3% mastery."

Dubs looked down, a bit disappointed. He had made significant progress, but still couldn't even compare to the skills of his squadmates, who began with skills around 20 times higher than what he had right now.

Even so, this didn't concern Dubs too much, because he had improved physically far beyond his squadmates, and combined with his resistance to magic, he was unbeatable when it came to a fight.

Alt smiled. "Going by the numbers, you have a mana of 10.5. The reason your mana is only a few times lower than your squadmates is because of your mastery in all fields of magic. If you're progressing in everything at once, of course the individual progress for each type is going to be slower."

This made Dubs feel a bit more confident, but what Alt said afterward was what made the largest difference.

"The thing is, there is once more statistic we haven't taken into account. Mana and control determine how much magic you can handle at a time, but energy density is what determines how potent the magic you control is."

Dubs turned towards Alt, eager to learn.

"Do you remember when you took off that dummy's head?", Alt asked Dubs.

Dubs nodded, remembering back to the destruction his small ring of particles had caused to the dummy.

"Now think back to the mission with Drodus- when he cast the flame blanket spell, it covered a large amount of ground, but only managed to singe the boots of the thieves who were walking through it until I increased the power. Do you know why that is?", Alt questioned.

"Because the temperature of the flames wasn't high enough?", Dubs guessed.

"Basically. The energy density of the magic wasn't very high. The higher the energy density, the faster the particles are moving in a small volume, and the more destructive they are when they make contact with another object.", Alt lectured.

"On the contrary, if the energy density of the particles is put to an extreme low, while the volume density of the particles is maintained at a very high value, this creates an extremely hard substance that can be used like an armor or a barrier, since the particles are extremely resistant to movement."

Dubs nodded, understanding. It was like in physics, how the greater the temperature of a gas, the greater the pressure would be exerted, and similarly, the colder the object was, the more solid it became, to the point where it would even exhibit properties that it didn't exhibit before, such as conductivity.

"I assume that is how you managed to create the body you inhabit?", Dubs asked Alt.

Alt responded "Exactly. Your energy density is much greater than that of your squadmates, and as such your spells are much more deadly than theirs. Keep practicing and you will be able to control much more of these high energy particles."

Dubs continued practicing for the rest of the day, with the help of Alt. Upon finishing for the day, he exited the training room and once more headed to the dining hall, where he saw his squadmates sitting together with Lilith and her squadmates.

Dubs sat between Tirian and Drodus, and Tirian greeted him. "Dubs! Good timing, we were just introducing our squad to the other group that is training under George.", he stated loudly.

Lilith waved at Dubs, who gave a light smile back at her. Samuel took the lead.

"My name is Samuel. I have joined the resistance after my mother was sold into slavery due to the actions of my brother. I cannot forgive an empire that blames the innocent for the actions of those who are related to them!", Samuel pronounced.

The group all nodded and mumbled in approval of Samuel's goals, and Tirian took the next spotlight.

"I am Tirian, a former son of a noble. I was sold into experimentation by my corrupted family! I am here to rid this country of human experimentation."

A similar applause occurred, and Tirian sat.

Lilith stood next, and stated "I am Lilith, and I am in the same situation. I am a noble who was sold into experimentation by my corrupted family, in exchange for power, and I cannot tolerate the experiments that are going on!"

Lilith sat, and once again everyone agreed.

Drodus stood, and began to speak. "I am Drodus, here to investigate the takeover of dwarven towns. I suspect that many dwarves have been taken into slavery."

Enferia stood, and said something similar. "I am Enferia, and I too am here because I fear that many elves have been taken as slaves by the empire."

The goblin female and the dwarven female both stood, and the dwarf spoke. "I am Rakaria, and this is Urbolg, and we both are here for similar reasons. We fear our races are being weeded out, and used as slaves, and if the empire is not stopped, then humans will rule over the other races of the underworld with an iron fist."

The two sat, and the group once again nodded and clapped. Finally, the two elven twins stood.

"I am Poractias, and this is my brother Aractias, and our elven village was attacked a year ago. We were both taken captive, and put under harsh experiments before being rescued by the resistance. We also wish for the empire to cease their practices of slavery and human experimentation!"

The crowd clapped once more, and the two took a seat. Everyone who was a member of the resistance had two things in common- the first was that in one way or another they had been exposed to magical radiation, usually through experimentation, but sometimes by traveling on the surface (such as Samuel), and being exposed to it there.

The second thing they all had in common was the overall goal of these resistance members. All of them were set on taking down the empire in order to rid the underground world of the discrimination that the nonhuman races experienced, particularly to eradicate the slave trade and other forms of forced labor.

The slave trade was not limited completely to nonhumans, as traitors or those who were linked with traitors would be disposed of promptly. This was the case for both Samuel's mother, who had become a concubine, and for Dubs' family, who had been killed for being suspected of hiding power from the empire.

Aside from forced labor and prostitution, however, even more were sent to become human experiments, both humans and nonhuman races.

Every member sitting at the table agreed that between slavery, forced prostitution, the death penalty to suspected traitors, and human experimentation, the empire was exercising the rights of an absolute dictatorship, and this was not to be tolerated.

Dubs stood up and took his turn. "My name is Dubs."

Dubs eyes turned bloodshot, and the veins on his face began popping out. A horrifying smile crawled across his face, and Dubs began to drool with bloodlust. Alt, who was behind Dubs in his shadow form, was mimicking this stance.

Speaking like a madman, Dubs continued to speak. "I am here to rid this world of all the people who are rotting it to the core."

Dubs face went back to normal, and he sat down, still giggling to himself like a madman, who was envisioning his grand scheme. His arms twitched, and he began speaking to Alt, in front of the others, as if he was talking to himself.

"When we have finished our plot, the garbage at the top will beg for us to kill them. But we won't, oh no. We will use them as human experiments- the same garbage who looked down upon the weak and used them for their own benefit."

Alt laughed hysterically, and held up his hand. "AHAHA! Look at what you've done, Dubs! Now I'm going to have to erase their memories!"

Particles from each of the brains of the members sitting around Dubs flowed into Alt's hand, and were then replaced with different ones.

Dubs, who had calmed down, realized what had just happened.

"Looks like I really am going nuts, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.", Dubs thought.