Thaedric knew he had a strong Bloodline, so his core should be pretty solid. His mother was sitting on Tier seven after all.

"What he’s doing is trying to force a constant amount of mana through your core and body without stopping for hours. And then keep adding more. And more."

"How do you know that?" Thaedric asked. A chill settled on him. No way anyone was surviving that. When you intentionally take mana from the air, you circle it through your body with your specific type of meditation.

Doing so will make any impurities leave your body and make the passage of mana through the body seamless when you need it. And also, maybe more importantly, it acts as a stimulant for the core.

It refines and condenses mana with its use, becoming smaller and harder.

What Orso was doing is like overloading a battery and then adding more and more in a short amount of time. Thaedric shivered as goosebumps rose from his body.

Theoretically, it should work to advance a core in a short time but will the said core be usable? "That...it’ll shatter the core and tear the body apart," Thaedric said.

Number One nodded. "Now you know. Why do you think Orso himself didn’t try to do something like that? And the risk only becomes dangerous the higher your tier. That’s why he uses tier one like us."

Thaedric was silent. He studied number One, her face was half hidden in shadows but her eyes were on him and it was wide. "How do you know so much about this?" He asked.

She shook her head and looked away from him. "Most of us have lives before becoming an experimental slave. Mind your business."

Thaedric stopped himself from pointing out that she might as well talk since they were going to die anyway. But he said nothing. Even he was not ready to share anything.

He turned his mind to other things, like ’how did Orso build something like the dark room? It’s not something that would be easy. And more importantly, how did he get himself a massive amount of mana?’

’Did he have a mana-rich space? Maybe there’s a place with an unnaturally high amount of mana here but how was he harnessing it?’

There’s always mana to be gotten from the air but it’s low and most just use it for filling their cores and not bother to circle through their body and stimulate their core.

They sat in shared silence, each thinking about their thoughts. What was there for them to say? It’s not like they could do anything to change their current situation.

They sat there until a noise started ringing through the whole underground prison. It was the clang of metal on metal. "What’s that?"

Number One sat up and smiled. "Food!"

’Food?’ Thaedric thought. But he shouldn’t have bothered because they soon reached their cell. Two guards carried a large metal bucket between them.

Clang! Clang! Clang! One of them slammed the iron spoon in his hand against the bars, and he grinned. "You poor bastards! Time to eat!"

Number One stood, she went to the side where there were several discarded metal plates. She kicked two to the front, and the guard put something that resembled wet cement inside.

She carried one for herself and dropped another on the floor in front of Thaedric. "We get to eat."

Thaedric didn’t find any joy in that because when he looked at the grey slop of food the last thing he wanted to do was put it in his mouth but his stomach growled.

The food tasted as bad as it looked but one thing about it was that it filled the stomach. "What do you do for fun..here?"

Number One looked up from where she was polishing the last food on her plate. She looked surprised as if Thaedric just asked when they would get free from here. "Fun? What’s that?" She paused. "Oh, I know! We do this!"

Then she turned and lay back on her bed to sleep.

"Fair enough." He muttered.

They returned to silence again, broken only by the regular sounds of the prison. Thaedric tried to sleep but the strong smell of the bed was getting to him, he didn’t want to sleep again after he just spent hours doing so earlier.

So he sat there, reliving memories both his own and not. ’I suppose the memories of the previous body owner are mine now though’

Just then two guards passed in front of his cell and their conversations drew him.

"The fighting beasts will enjoy this one. They always enjoy them when they bust open with mana." One said.

"I don’t blame them," the other one growled. "Mama rich meat is always the best."

Thaedric looked at what they were dragging behind them. It was the body of the previous number One. And it was horrible. The chest up to the head had bust opened, ribs standing white and broken as if something had made it explode forcibly from the inside out. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The guards continued talking as one of them dragged the previous One on the floor like a bothersome burden.

"That’s it." Number One said she was looking at Thaedric."They will come for me next. Time to get ready for death."

"Maybe you’ll survive it." He said with hope he didn’t truly feel.

Number One snorted. "Yes."

And true to her words they came. Just one bored guard who peeks into the cell with disgust. "Well, it’s your turn."

Number One stood up, her eyes were dry but her legs shook as she walked forward. "I’ll save you a place if there’s a place after."

Thaedric tried to smile. "Right. Thanks."

The guard looked at Number One with a frown. "Who are you?"

She hesitated. "Number One."

"Oh, that. Not today." He pointed deeper inside, at Thaedric. "You. Come out, you are going into the dark room."

"What?!" Thaedric and number One said at the same time.