Another Variable in Talent

....Jayden wore an exasperated expression, for a second unable to process what the old man said. 'Did he just call me stupid?'. He looked at the old man's face only to see a stern face looking back.

The edges of his mouth slowly lifted before the old man suddenly gave a loud chuckle.

"Ahahahaha I'm obviously joking, you really need to loosen up kiddo"

"In this circumstance?" Jayden muttered gritting his teeth in annoyance.

"Okay okay, it's not you that's dense it's your innate mana crystal"

'Huh, that's a thing?' Jayden could clearly remember not being taught anything to do with mana crystal density during school.

"It's a new and emerging topic that is closely guarded by top officials of the system, it's not wrong that you've never heard of it," the old man said, almost as if he read Jaydens thoughts. "I saved you because I believe that you have a very dense innate mana crystal if I'm right it should be around a grade 8 if we grade it from a scale of 1-10. I'll be upfront kiddo, I'm not a nice man. I chose you because I want to run experiments on you to figure out more about mana crystal density".

"Will it help me save my family?" Jayden replied without hesitating. Without his family he had nothing to live for, he would never be able to sleep well without knowing that at least Michaela was safe.

"Hmmm, you're really fearless aren't ya kiddo. Sure, with my connections, I could probably find out who captured them, but I don't have the leverage or power to save them" The old man turned around and started walking back towards the broken door. "I won't force you to become part of my experiments either".

Jayden closed his eye for a few seconds, thinking intensely about his decision before finally steeling himself. He stood up straight and faced the old man's back. "STOP, if your experiments can make me stronger, I will become your power, the power to save my family".

The old man stopped just before the door. "Fine kiddo" he replied. "But I warned ya, don't cry to me when it gets too painful". The doctor suddenly turned around aiming at Jayden another rectangular box. It almost instantaneously created a two-layer spell construct that propelled a tiny needle, which pierced Jaydens' neck.

"What the hell...." Jayden muttered before falling asleep almost instantaneously.

Jayden opened his eyes once again only to see a bright light above him. Shielding his eyes as a stood up he found himself in an unfamiliar room. It was almost entirely white and was massive at around the size of a large swimming pool. It was filled with tools and odd machines that look like they belong in a high-end hospital.

"Urrgh I need to stop waking up in weird place" Jayden groggily said, still feeling the aftereffects of the sleeping agent in his system.

"Ah, you're finally awake! If you had slept any longer kiddo I would have injected into you a waking agent but you wouldn't have been able to sleep for a week because of it!". The old man popped above from behind one of the machines he seemed to be working on. "There is a lot of experiments I want to run through you however right now you are both weak physically and no experience in mana usage, if we are to get started we need you to get stronger naturally and quickly.

"That's fine by me" Jayden replied, he was ready for anything, some working out and practice wasn't going to faze him. "I just have a quick question before we get started".

"Hmmm what is it? If it's not a worthwhile question I ain't gonna answer it kiddo" The old man responded grumpily. He seemed more interested in putting Jayden to work so he could get his experiment started as soon as possible.

"Where did mana come from? We were taught that mana naturally appeared over 400 years ago and changed civilization but other texts and resources I've found numerous contradictions with this explanation. I'd find it highly unbelievable that a so-called person of high power such as yourself wouldn't know the truth" Jayden said looking at the old man dead in the eyes. This was a burning curiosity of his ever since he first came across the contradictions.

"Huh you really are smart kiddo, but being too smart can get you killed, in the real world". The old man cleared his throat and prepared himself for a speech.

"You want to know what really happened, fine, I'll tell you, but I'm only going to say this once, so I don't any interruptions or questions do you understand?"

"Fine" Jayden replied.

"Alright, let me start from the beginning. Over four hundred years ago in 2060, mana suddenly appeared in this universe. We believe our universe intersected with another universe at this time, converging our universes together and changing the fundamental laws of our universe and introducing mana everywhere. As you learned in school, mana is a special form of fuel that can be transformed into numerous types of known and unknown matter and energy. It exists mostly in an invisible gaseous form. The sudden influx of mana on earth created irregularities in its unbalance which caused countless disasters all over the earth. Due to this, over 74% percent of the human population was eradicated within the first week, mostly due to the large population concentration in cities. The gaseous mana also interfered with the electrical forms of communication, causing people to fend for themselves. Eventually, the mana displacement became balanced over time and the world settled down"

"It was during this time when animals started mutating and gained the ability to harness mana. After years of fighting with these monsters, we discovered the existence of innate mana crystals. They exist within every living thing brain and can naturally harness mana. As humans slowly learned to control it they produced miracles and incited the great mana age. It is theorized that innate mana crystals always existed within living things, even before the great intersection, but they were too small to see and they didn't react to the technology at the time"

"Now in 2492, we have advanced the use of mana by leaps and bounds with the introduction of mana circuits and spells and spell constructs. For now, we know that a larger innate crystal allows wizards to use more mana while a specific attunement means wizards can convert their mana into their specific attuned element significantly easier than other elements. Because of this Wizards typically specialize in spells and spell constructs that are based on their attuned elements"

"Now the earth is separated into districts with a total of 35 districts, with their ranking based on their general advancements. Being in district 33, we are literally in one of the poorest and dirtiest districts out of them all, hell, the rich folks here would be as poor as the poor folks in district 20 and higher. It's easy to move down districts but its much harder moving up districts. Now let's get started!"

Jayden sat still, pondering on the large amount of information he just took in. He already remembered every word the old man said due to his incredible memory.

"Wait" Jayden suddenly said.

"It better not be a question kiddo" The old man grumbled.

"I actually don't think I ever got your name sir" Jayden replied. He had no idea who the man still was all this time.

"Hmmm I'll let this one slide" he muttered.

"Remember it well, although you naturally should because of your memory. You may call be Dr. Rogendoff"