Chapter 19: The price of survival

"This is your room," Vex said as he showed Cerdic the room covered in dust. There was only an old bed, a table and a shelf inside. But Cerdic was happy as long as he wasn't inside a prison cell.

"By the way, which country are you from? Riverbend?" Vex asked.

"Veylan," Cerdic replied.

"That's quite far from here." Vex said, still keeping a serious expression.

"Is it?" Cerdic asked surprised. "How far exactly?"

"Over a thousand miles I guess." Vex said, feeling unsure.

Cerdic was taken aback. He didn't feel like they have travelled that long, not when they were flying.

"I have to go back. Here, this is for you." Vex took out a scroll from his robes. Cerdic curiously opened it.

"Ancient Resonance Method?" Cerdic read the title loudly.

"It's a cultivation technique." Vex said. "But don't get your hopes high. It's a bit different from the ones genuine cultivators use."

Cerdic curiously read through the scroll. But as he did, he was just confused. There were many terms and phrases which made no sense to him.

"Confused?" Vex smirked.

"A bit," Cerdic replied, forcing a smile. "What does it mean by harmonizing your breathing with the natural flow of surrounding spiritual energy to awaken spiritual resonance along the meridians?"

"As expected," Vex laughed. "That's the same question I asked lord Marlowe when I first read it."

"Well... what is it then? How do you harmonize your breathing with the natural flow of spiritual energy?" Cerdic wasn't in the mood to laugh and repeated the question.

"It's not something that can be taught; you have to feel it." Vex pointed at the bottom of the scroll. There was an explanation of the initial rhythm you had to breathe in. But the ideal rhythm varied based on your body conditions and surroundings. One could only figure it out on their own.

"Lord Marlowe will help you out if you manage to gain his trust," Vex said. "Until then, you can only depend on you."

"Understood," Cerdic nodded, reading through the rest of the scroll. The scroll still contained many terms foreign to him. But he decided to find out more once he settled down.

Before leaving, Vex also gave him a bottle of pills, which he described as Awakening pills. He reminded them that it was something to take only after he mastered the ancient resonance method. Cerdic was cautious about consuming unknown pills. So he put it away and started to focus on cleaning his room that was covered in dust.

***

A month passed since Cerdic was brought to Marlowe's facility. He was summoned by Marlowe on the very next day they arrived. To Cerdic's surprise, the old man oversaw his first meditation session and helped him sense spiritual energy. This made even Vex, Hob, and Milla shocked. When they were brought in, the old man made them go through brutal torture to break their wills, and they were forced to cultivate the ancient resonance method on their own. But Cerdic was being treated entirely differently. It would be surprising if they didn't feel pissed.

Cerdic didn't mind their anger. He was cautious about anything that Marlowe made him do. That included the cultivation technique that was given to him. But he couldn't ignore practicing it either. Because if he failed to practice a day, Marlowe would somehow figure it out. The only time he slacked off, Marlowe warned him firmly. Yes, he just warned him. No punishment. Cerdic was confused about this. But he didn't ask. If he was lucky enough not to be cut open like the rest of them, why would he beg for it?

On this day, Cerdic was still in his room, deep in meditation. He had already learned the perfect rhythm he had to follow in order to get the most out of the ancient resonance method. Every time he practiced, he felt the spiritual energy nourishing his body. The feeling was like a gentle stream flowing through his veins. It was very comfortable.

After another hour of focused breathing, Cerdic opened his eyes. He felt very strong and energetic, like he could stop a charging bull in its tracks.

Cerdic got back to his feet and slowly breathed in. Smells of different kinds pierced his nose. The smell of dust, the smell of herbs, most likely from his pills, and the smell of aged wood, which came from the old furniture in the room. He also felt a faint smell of blood. It was present all over the facility.

Then he focused his ears. He could hear footsteps from outside, despite the door being closed. He heard someone murmuring from outside. Clear and perfect.

"The old man's pet is yet to come out. How long had he been inside?"

"Keep your mouth shut, Hob. His senses should have been enhanced by now. He will hear you."

Cerdic's lips curved upwards. He could recognize these voices. Hob and Milla, unlike Vex, had been hostile towards him from day one. Especially Hob. He was irritated by Marlowe's favoritism.

"If I had any idea why that old man had been favoring me." Cerdic chuckled. He then opened the door and stepped out from his room.

Hob and Milla were approaching from the far end of the corridor. They weren't close by when they were muttering about Cerdic earlier. Just that, Cerdic's hearing was enhanced enough to hear them from far away. That was the case for his other senses too.

He could now discern smells that he didn't even notice before. He could see much smaller details from a greater distance. He could see well with very dim lights. These changes happened to him after he started practicing ancient resonance method. From what Vex told him, it was the first effects of stepping into the cultivation path.

"Ren!" Milla purred. "You've been hiding inside for hours. I was starting to miss you."

Cerdic didn't respond to her flirtation. But Milla wouldn't give up so easily.

"Made any progress, Ren?" She asked getting a bit too close.

"Close," Cerdic replied taking a step back. "I can feel myself getting stronger. I will step into the realm of a false cultivator in a week at most."

"A week?" Hob scoffed. "Hmph! It took me twenty days to enhance my body. You had been here for a month. And you still need a week?"

"Maybe I am not as gifted as you, Hob." Cerdic smiled as he replied.

"Or maybe, you are useless without the old man's favor." Hob said coldly.

"Forget about that, Hob." Milla intervened. "Don't scare away our playmate."

Hob snorted. Milla turned to Cerdic again.

"Ren, you remember the new toy that arrived this morning. We are going to play with it a bit. Come with us."

Cerdic's stomach twisted. The toy that Milla mentioned was a young girl that Marlowe brought in this morning. No more than sixteen.

"What? Feeling pity for her?" Hob smirked seeing Cerdic's hesitation.

"No... I will come." Cerdic said, forcing a smile.

"That's my Ren. Then follow us. I have some new ideas that may need an extra hand." Milla winked excitedly.

Cerdic nodded and followed her without a word. Hob glanced at him and snorted before walking along.

***

Six months passed. Cerdic kept cultivating, learning, and assisting with experiments. Marlowe still didn't perform any surgeries on him. Cerdic didn't know why. But he wasn't going to complain about his body being intact. On the other hand, he was treated more like an assistant to Hob, Vex, and Milla.

At first Cerdic only stood with a scroll and quill to the side, recording the details as Milla or Hob performed the experiments. Milla worked with cruel enthusiasm. She sometimes performed surgery on victims without sedatives. She seemed to be turned on by their screams, and treated it like music. She would tell Cerdic and Hob to hold them down as she cut them open. Hob had no reaction, he just did his part. He was completely indifferent to all of these.

Only Vex felt different. He looked like a man who had accepted this nightmare. But not like one who enjoyed it. He kept to himself most of the time and always looked tired.

Cerdic on the other hand, was struggling with guilt and disgust. There were many sleepless nights where the screams kept echoing in his mind. He had nightmares constantly.

"This is to survive," Cerdic kept telling himself. "This is not who I am."

But day by day, it was getting harder to tell the difference.

***

A year passed since Cerdic was brought to the prison facility by Marlowe. He no longer trembled at screams. He no longer had nightmares. But that only made Cerdic feel worse. He felt like he was turning into something he didn't recognize.

He hated how steady his hands had become. He hated how the screams that haunted him at first now faded into background noise. He hated how he could now walk into one of these vile experiments and not feel repulsed.

And worst of all, he knew Marlowe wanted this. That old man now looked really satisfied when he looked at Cerdic. And Cerdic hated that.

"Ren, you are different from the rest," he would tell with an eerie smile. "I have high hopes for you."

Cerdic felt a chill whenver he was talking with Marlowe. Like Marlowe was some kind of predator and he was the prey. The favouritism Marlowe was showing him, Cerdic was sure it's due to some ulterior motive.

Behind these mental conflicts, Cerdic also had some physical transformations. His senses were already enhanced wirhin a month after his arrival. He was now able to sense and use the spiritual energy to strengthen his body. He wasn't sure how strong he had become. For he didn't have any chance to test it out. But his punches were now strong enough to crack a stone wall. He aasumed he can kill a grown man with a single punch.

Of course, he wasn't planning to spend his entire life here. He looked for a way to escape. Going out of the building wasn't forbidden. But he soon found that it was useless. There was a vast spiritual formation set around the hill the facility was located in. It acted as a barrier that blocked their path beyond a certain distance. Only Marlowe could go beyond it.

Furthermore, Marlowe had placed several corpse puppets, animated puppets refined from the bodies of dead test subjects, to guard the surroundings. They were stronger than what Cerdic could handle with his current strength.

Even if he somehow got past the barrier and the puppets, there was still the forest surrounding the hill. Which, according to Vex, was infested with demonic beasts that took no less than a genuine cultivator to take down.

As days went by, Cerdic started to feel hopeless. He felt there was no escape from this madness. That he would either become one of Marlowe's corpse puppets or just fall into that madness like Milla or Hob.

***

A year and eight months after Cerdic's arrival into the facility. Cerdic, now close to ninteen, could now perform many of the experiments on his own. Marlowe started to use him as a personal assistant in his experiments. That spot used to belong to Vex. But it seemed he trusted Cerdic more now. Vex didn't seem to mind it and even looked relived.

That day, Cerdic was outside the facility, sitting on a rock, looking into the distance.

"Still can't find a way out of here," Cerdic thought as he sat feeling melancholic. "I wonder how Aldric is doing."

Then came a call—

"Hey Ren, lord Marlowe is looking for you."

It was Vex. Cerdic sighed as he stood up. Cerdic gave Vex a thoughtful look as he walked past the young man. Vex was the one Cerdic considered less insane among the trio. He sometimes thought about asking him if he is interested in escaping. He was drawing a blank, trying to figure it out on his own. But he knew, if Vex betrayed him, he would in for a fate worse than death.

Cerdic followed Vex and entered Marlowe's chamber. The old man was standing before a large glass container full of a transparent liquid, staring at it excitedly. Cerdic noticed something like a tiny sphere, pulsating inside it. Cerdic felt a strange sensation near that sphere, like the spiritual energy was gathering around it. It was as if the sphere was attracting the spiritual energy.

Marlowe noticed Cerdic only after a long time. He quickly approached him.

"Ah, Ren," Marlowe laughed. "Come here."

He dragged Cerdic along and took him near the glass container.

"Look!" he said excited. "Didn't I tell you, that the path to success is paved with corpses? What you see now, is called success!"

"Success?" Cerdic looked at Marlowe in puzzlement.

"Yes, Ren. Success," Marlowe laughed maniacally. "My lifelong experiment finally bore fruit."

He pointed at the pulsating sphere inside the glass container.

"Behold boy, result of my five decades of effort. The world's first artificial spirit root."