Useless!

His body still sore and fatigued, Roland got woken up by the guard.

"Follow me" the guard said.

Roland was confused by this but he complied. On the hallway Roland wasn't the only one who was brought out of his cell. 

"Who are you people! Where is this place! Quickly release me." A boy with scarlet red hair, shouted besides not far from Roland. The boy looks to be in his late teens.

'Looks like his new.' Roland thought when he saw the boy's relatively clean face, whereas everyone else was covered in dirt.

The entire floor was filled with captives and guards alike, there were about fifty captives and twenty five guards, it was crowded. Following that, the guards blindfolded everyone.

"Shut up you!" A guard walked up to the boy and smacked him.

"Do you know what my father will do when he hears about this?" The boy kept shouting and causing a ruckus.

"Just cover his mouth, we don't want to be late." One of the guard said as he quickly passed a cloth over and the boy's mouth was gagged.

Quickly a line was formed and the prisoners were escorted away. 

An ability Roland recently discovered was that, when he closed his eyes, he'd be able to 'see' where [fabric substance] was located. 

In front of the crystal wall Roland was able to see a hug red wall with criss crossing line and the other walls, Roland was able to see tiny specs of red, which he figured is what he needed.

After doing some research; Roland discovered that the distance was limited to thirty meteres, plus if there was a wall in front of him but behind the wall was a 'fabric substance', then only the red would be visible.

So in the midst of walking Roland got the habit of trying to memorize the path he took. So although Roland had only walked a few times towards the crystal wall, as most of the time he was dragged there, he was confident he knew the way there.

They walked for a good while before they all stopped in front of a door.

When the blindfolds were removed, Roland looked around in confusion, because when his eyes were closed, there wasn't a spec of red/hint of fabric system but he seemed elsewhere underground.

They were inside a large skyscraper-tall cave, behind them was a blinding light which seemed like sunlight, in front of them was a large mansion. 

"Move!"

The gates opened the gates and escorted them inside.

Forest green grass, fruity trees, and grass sculptures, decorated the front yard. Everything stood put from one another. 

"Psst, human cub Roland, where do you think we're going." Artic whispered behind Roland. Their cells were besides each other so the were close in line.

"I don't know?" Roland answered in a whispered.

"What happened to you yesterday?" Artic inquired again.

"It's a long story, and it's not the best time." He looked at Artic and shook his head.

Roland and the others didn't have much time to admire the place as they were quickly brought in front of a warehouse besides the mansion.

Roland was in the front of the line, so him and four others were taken into the dark warehouse.

They quickly arrived in a lab like room, glass containers filled with fluid, some of them had limbs, this looked like a scientist's lab. There was a single crystal on the ceiling that lit up the entire place.

In the middle of the room was a horizontal operation table with straps. The most striking thing about the bed was that it was covered in dried up blood. 

'Did they bring us here to kill us?' Roland and the others nervously stood still but the guards quickly 'encouraged' them to move forward.

Standing in the room was Lilly who stood by the table and Elder Lu who was facing the other direction. 

They were both wearing what looked like scrubs or protective clothing that was stained with blood.

"Please step up to the table." Lilly's sweat voice sounded.

'Step up to the table? The one covered in blood? Is she crazy?' They were shocked to say the least, Roland reacted quickly and went to the back of the line, the others tried to follow suit but they were all pushed forward.

"Lilly!" From the back, Elder Lu's annoyed voice sounded.

Lilly dissapeared and in the next moment, grabbed the first guy and quickly tied him up to the bed. Incidentally it was the new guy with scarlet-red hair.

"Ay! Ay! let me go! Let me go!" The poor boy wasn't willing, he squirmed and tried to break free but all of his struggling were in vain.

"If you keep making noise again your gonna regret it." Elder Lu's chilling voice sounded as she walked up to the operation bed.

"Let me go you old hag! You guys made a big mistake! Do you know who my father is! Huh!" The boy didn't seem to understand his situation and screamed out.

'Damn! she looks angry, is this new guy dumb?' Everyone, including the guards had simular thoughts as they all took a step back.

"Hmph."

*Pa*

Elder Lu smacked the boy across the face, some bloody teeth flew out and landed some distance away. If one looked closely at the teeth, gums could be seen still attached to them.

Instantly the room quieted down, the boys mouth was dripping with blood, his eyes wide open.

"Ahhh that hurts! I'll fu-" the boy continued but...

*Pa*

Another slap landed on the boy's other cheek, and then another and another. Elder Lu's gritted teeth showed as she slap the boy over and over again.

She had enough strength to decapitate him but didn't.

Roland and the others watched on in horror as the boy's blood flew into the air. At this point the boy seemed unconscious as he wasn't screaming but Elder Lu kept smacking him ruthlessly.

"You think your smart huh!? This is what you get for scheming! This is what you get!" Elder Lu's eyes looked like that of a madman.

"Madam please calm down. The restraints might not be able to keep him alive!" Lilly who was very close voiced out her concerns.

*Pa*

"Shut up!" Elder Lu turned around and smacked Lilly and sent her flying and crashing on a wall.

'I need to call down. That bastard Edward has me all worked up. What's important now is the auction and the merchandise.' Elder Lu took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

Roland unclenched his fists, as he calmed himself down, he shook his head to clear some thoughts.

"Lilly bring the testing equipments." Elder Lu instructed as she washed her hands.

"Yes madam." With her usually expressions, Lilly got up and brought over a tray of scary looking devices. Besides the syringe, Roland didn't know what the others did.

Elder Lu first picked up the big syringe, that was the size of a small can of soda. She stuck the needle in and pulled the syringe back to it's full capacity. 

'That's a lot of blood!' Roland and the others shared the same thought, they felt their hearts start beating faster.

Elder Lu took the syringe and went to the side to work on the blood for a while. While working, she kept noodling her head while muttering,"good stuff".

Her mood changed entirly.

After a bit she came and took the second device. It was a sharp crystal needle with a gauge on the other end. She took it and directly stabbed it into the boys chest.

!!! 

The onlookers gasped, anxiety started to build up as beads of sweat appeared on their foreheads.

Elder Lu looked confused as she took out the needle and stuck it back in, she asked, "Is he dead?"

"Madam his people have their hearts in the centre of their chests." Lilly softly said from the side.

"Oh yeah, i forgot." Elder Lu exclaimed as she stuck the needle again, this time the crystal needle started to glow with a blue light. 

"..."

'Forgot!? She's careless.' Roland was shocked, he felt his heart start to throb.

Elder Lu went to the side and wrote something down.

She came back and used the rest of the tools, each time she used a tool, she struck fear into the hearts of the onlookers.

After that Elder Lu came back with a paint brush and wrote 'five million gold coins', she seemed happy when writing that number.

'Are they pricing us?' Roland and the others felt angry but the scene of the boy getting slapped instantly replayed in their heads. Plus the boy's 'artistic' face was there for everyones 'interpretation'.

"Good who's next?" Elder Lu turned to them and asked.

Like a never-ending storm that can't be escaped, anxiety ate up the captives.

Although it seemed counter-intuitive, Roland with his still beating heart stepped forward. 

They guards quickly removed the boy, and Roland was tied onto the bed. 

*thump* *thump* 

Roland's heartbeat could be heard by everyone in the room.

'She won't think I'm making noise won't she? Will she cut out my heart to shut me up?' Roland's thoughts ran and made his heart beat even more loud and fast.

"Good this increases the blood flow." Elder Lu came back with that big syringe, the worse thing was that it came back with some blood in it.

"Aren't you gonna clean that?" Roland asked. 'I don't want to catch some weird disease.'

"What? No, I'm not." To Roland dismay, Elder Lu answered.

"Aren't you afraid of getting the wrong information?" Roland spoke quickly as Elder Lu arrived in front of him.

"Ahh-." She didn't listen to him and just stuck the needle and drew out some blood. 'What wrong information, I do this all the time.'

Roland scremed out a bit but stopped himself.

Not only was the syringe hug but so too was the needle, the needle looked like the one's used on cows.

Roland felt light headed for a bit, as his blood filled the syringe. Elder Lu went to the side and worked on the blood while writing something down. 

The wound on Roland's arms started to slowly close up. 

'Wait, my body can't normally heal with these restraints. Is it the syringe?' Roland calmed down significantly.

"What is this?" Elder Lu's confused voice sounded from the side. 

"Lilly bring me the blood quality scale." Elder Lu commanded with her head still down.

Lilly dissapeared on the spot and came back moments later with a crystal-clear looking device, it was designed like a laptop with a flat and an upright surface connected together. 

The flate surface had a circular hole on it. While the upright surface had a gauge that numbered from one to a hundred.

Elder Lu used the syringe and filled the hole with blood. The blood started to seep into the device and quickly disappeared.

The device flickered with a white light before it remained still.

"What is this? Is this thing broken?" Elder Lu asked inquired in, she poured the blood again and the same process repeated itself.

"Lilly pour in some of your blood." Elder Lu said, she used a cloth and wiped away some of the blood.

Lilly didn't waste time and bit her hand, and poured some blood on the device. She didn't need to fill it up before the device started flickering with a purple light and the gauge on the device started moving, before it stopped at eighty-five.

'This thing works just fine, it's not the problem. I've never seen it do that before. Since there wasn't much reaction and the gauge didn't move, does that mean that the blood is useless?'

'That also means that his not a special Dragon. This means I can't over exaggerate the price, che useless!' Elder Lu reaction quickly grew annoyed.

She went to the side and wrote something down while muttering, 'useless'. She came back and took the second device and stuck it into Roland's chest.

Roland involentary stiffened his body but the needle still went in, the second device also glowed a bit before returning to normal.

"Che useless, even the average dragon gets a red color reaction." Elder Lu muttured under her breadth but everyone heard her.

'Does blood play a hug role in training?, che you don't have to call me useless.' Roland felt hurt. 

Elder Lu continued to use the other devices, each time, Elder Lu seemed to get more and more annoyed.

She continued to do the test and at the end she wrote, 'two million gold coins' On Roland's restrains. While writing she muttured, "Blood, body, genetics..... everything is useless."

'It can't be that bad right?' Roland's self esteem took a blow.

"Who's next?" Elder Lu asked in an annoyed tone

Seeing that Roland was still alive, Artic moved forward to volunteer. 

He got tied up to the bed and his blood was drawn, his blood was poured on the device and it reacted. The scale glowed purple and the gauge moved up and stopped at seventy fifty.

"Finally, something worth the effort". Elder Lu said enthusiastically. Following that, all her efforts were done with a smile.

_thirty minutes later_ 

Roland and a few others were blindfolded before being escorted back to their cells. They arrived back in their cells and finally got their meals.

Roland's door closed and he anxiously went to the corner, he knocked on the floor a few times.

"Fifi hasn't checked up on me in about three days now! Have they forgotten about me? The fool moon is suppose to be in a few days?" Roland started sweating.

He didn't want to be sold at auction as he didn't know that outcome and his master was his only other way out?

'No calm down, they won't leave without me. I'm his disciple afterall. Maybe they just ran into trouble that's all.' Roland layed down and took a breath.

He couldn't just start a new tunnel as no other surface in his cell allowed him to absorb it. 

Suddenly the door opened by a guard, he said "let's go!".

He grabbed Roland and they both dissapeared .

'Next time don't make it sound like it's an option, if your gonna grab me and run like this.' Roland thought in displeasure when his vision went blurry.

He was completely helpless.

Roland began to wonder, 'Why does it seem like we're sneaking around.'

Moments later his vision returned and his restraints hit the ground. He was back in front of the crystal cave. His body felt healthy as soon as the restraint hit the ground. 

"You know what to do, I'll go prepare some food." The guard left these words before he dissapeared.

Roland arrived in front of the wall, the wall had turned into a narrow corridor, the ground had a thick layer of 'black powder'. Roland wanted to take it with him but he didn't have a way to take it.

'Focus! There's a mission in front of us' Roland hyped himself up.

The prompt rang and Roland accepted....

[Absorbing Pure Fabric Substance, system booting process at 74.20%]

[Absorbing Pure Fabric Substance, system booting process at 74.21%]

[Absorbing Pure Fabric Substance, system booting process at 75.32%]

....

_An hour later_ 

Roland was still going strong, his body was covered in sweat but it wasn't as crazy as usual. The guard came back with a bunch of food.

"Stay here and don't wonder around or you'll be killed for trespassing!" The guard left these words before he dissapeared.

'I wonder where his going.' Roland thought as he carried on with his work. He looked behind him and saw the delicious food calling for him.

*grrr*

The beast inside his stomach encouraged him to hide the food in his mouth.

'Nope, we'll eat when were done!' Roland shook his head to cleared his thoughts, he distracted himself by singing a few songs.

_Thirty minutes later_ 

Roland hit the ground, exhuasted and fatigued. His arms could barely move but they weren't swollen like before. 

'Looks like my body is adapting, I'm not useless.' Roland picked himself up.

The food was as delicious as prior and as energizing. The food decreased as Roland's stomach grew. 

He devoured the food like an animal. He wasn't even savouring the taste but it still registered. The milk washed away any stubbornness the food had.

After a few minutes, Roland got up and did some stretches.

He placed his hands on the wall and the cycle repeated itself. 

[Absorbing Pure Fabric Substance, system booting process at 77.20%]

[Absorbing Pure Fabric Substance, system booting process at 77.21%]

[Absorbing Pure Fabric Substance, system booting process at 77.32%]

...

'The progress is getting slower and slower but I'll keep at it, because I have to.' Roland closed his eyes and concentrated.