Turrel put his hand on Jack's shoulder and turned him down a path he hadn't walked down before, towards another building that looked almost identical to all of the others minus any windows. It looked like a giant white box with a few doors along the bottom of it.

  Jack gauged the size of the building as they approached; it seemed to be getting bigger the closer they came. He guessed it was at least four or five storeys high.

  Turrel didn’t talk and simply opened the doors and ushered Monty and Jack inside. They continued through a few more doors, two of which needed to be opened by both Turrel and Monty due to the size of them.

  The whole process seemed to give space station containment room vibes, Jack let his curiosity grow. As they walked through the last set of doors they emerged into a giant space, looking like an indoor sports stadium. The ceiling seemed to be almost the entire height of the building and the room was at least forty metres long and twenty wide.

  “Okay then, Monty can you head over to the panel and make sure the extraction system is turned on. Jack, come with me,” Turrel said as he walked to the centre of the room reaching into a pocket in his jacket as he did so. He pulled out a strange orb and spun it in his hand.

  The orb was made of a silvery material, there were inscriptions running over the entire surface of the device seemingly etched into it with a tiny point. When they reached the centre he stopped and placed the device that was about the size of a baseball on the ground into a divot that seemed a little too big for it.

  “In the spirit of keeping this brief, what happened during your test yesterday was that a very specialised device focused a very tiny amount of mana into streams of different frequencies. It then forcefully exposed your body to each frequency.

  “Mana can be absorbed by a body even if it hasn't been “Inducted”, but it is dangerous in larger quantities. A body once inducted is changed slightly and is more compatible to both absorbing and processing mana. It is also adapted to be able to resonate at compatible frequencies to connect and manipulate mana.” Turrel said as he looked at the device on the ground.

  “All good to go, extraction is up and running. I’m ready when you are. Don’t stress I’ll keep him safe,” Monty said as he took up a position behind Jack, meaning he had to physically turn his body if he wanted to see the man.

  “Okay... Jack. The “Induction wave” brings people here where they learn what to expect and how to cope once the Origin Wave arrives. It is mostly theory and a chance to scan compatible life for outliers like yourself, either to keep them safe or to exploit them.” Jack heard a slightly amused grunt from Monty behind him but kept his eyes on Turrel as he spoke.

  “It will make sense later but I think it would be worse than that for you. I don’t think you or anyone deserves that. For now, this device is designed to emulate the “Origin Wave” which has two main parts. The first is a much larger burst of mana, the mana from this wave will be full spectrum and for you it will be extremely dangerous, hence Monty being here.”

  “Yep” Monty piped up from behind Jack.

  “The second part that makes up the wave is the Origin Essence. The Origin has a presence, no one knows what it truly is. Is it a god, a construct, a primal force, or something else entirely? We do know that everyone that comes into contact with its essence is connected to it and changed.” Turrel again looked as if he wanted to keep explaining but made a face as he decided against it.

  “It will be easier to let you experience it yourself; we can explain more after.” Turrel stopped himself from continuing as he reached down to the ball and pressed a button on top of it. As he did some of the inscriptions began to light up and the orb increased in size, more like a basketball and now fully filling the divot in the ground.

  “Politics and drama can wait. Let’s get you inducted. Honestly, I am sorry for how rushed this is, Jack; one day I hope you will understand and appreciate it.” Turrel said as he stepped back.

  Jack was about to ask where he should stand as a giant flash of light originated from the orb and he was knocked backwards.

  His body felt hot, thousands of sensations, some familiar and some new, all flashed across his skin at once. One sensation was much more prevalent than the others. He felt the kiss of sunlight against his skin the same as last time. It grew, and then it just kept growing, overpowering the other sensations at an alarming rate.

  Jack’s body felt as if it was heating up from the inside and only now did he consider what it might mean to be overloaded with mana. The heat kept building until he was sure his skin was burning, but then something else seemed to collide with his body.

  Something small and dark and slightly oily seemed to flow all over his new mana sense slowly encompassing everything and shutting off the sense completely. A strange sensation of timelessness overcame Jack; he wasn't sure when he had closed his eyes but he felt them opening and all he could see around him was black.

  He felt like he was floating in an ocean of black water, there was a sensation of being surrounded by pressure, he tried to breathe and realised he couldn't open his mouth and his nose seemed to be blocked. Surprisingly he didn’t feel the need to breathe.

  Something flowed across his body and he felt as if his entire being was being analysed. As fast as it came the sensation disappeared and he was left floating alone.

  “Hmmmm” A deep rumbling voice seemed to echo all around him.

  “Compatible. Be connected.” The strangely gravelly voice spoke and as the final words were spoken, Jack's body changed.

  The pressure around him seemed to flow into his body, absorbed into him. There was a feeling of something running through his veins, and a burning sensation followed.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  It felt like flames were running through his body, burning up everything. In the flame's wake another sensation followed, as if chasing it. This one felt like a cold flash, passing over the burns reducing the pain. The two waves raced through his body while it felt like his body's internal structure was being rewritten.

  The flash of flame through his veins seemed to finish, after the excruciating pain compounded in his brain.

  As his thoughts returned through the echoing pain he thought it was over.

  Then he felt something inside his bones, as if they were being packed with something, all of the blood and marrow inside them being replaced with whatever was now flowing through his veins.

  The pressure inside each of his bones felt like it was growing to the point it might explode, the burning sensation much worse than before. Again the cold sensation rushed through his body just as he thought he was about to black out and numbed the pain.

  The pressure kept building and spreading, it got to his skull and began to pulse, growing and growing until finally the pressure seemed to ease. Whatever was being pushed into the bones being absorbed and compressed.

  “Good. Very compatible. Interesting creature” The voice sounded and shook Jack out of his pain-induced stupor.

  “You. Grow, Trust… Less. Close Rift. Enhance”

  The last word seemed to resonate for a moment and then the sense of timelessness was gone and he was back in the room with Turrel and Monty.

  He still felt the remnants of pain like his body was on fire, but as his mind assessed the situation he noticed his sense of the second skin was much more active, his mind was able to perceive much more through it.

  As he focused he could almost differentiate different vibrations across this sense, and one of them stood out more vibrantly than the others. He tried to follow it, flowing across this ‘skin’ it felt as if it was being pulled towards his heart, as if the waves were congregating there on the front of his body.

  As he followed a wave, it seemed to be pulled into his body over the top of his heart, the same wave then re-emerged in the same spot but from his back, much more energetically than it did going in. Following that wave again as it flowed across his body, it was pulled back towards his heart.

  It then flowed back through and was even more energetic on the other side, as he watched it flow through a third time he started to understand how this could be a problem. It had only been a few seconds, and the flow was increasing constantly.

  He wondered why he wasn’t feeling the pain he experienced in the void anymore, but decided not to worry for the moment. His mind felt strangely active and alert. He didn't feel like there was any danger.

  Jack glanced down at the orb which was still pulsing mana; the pulses seemed to be slowing down. He turned his head to look at Turrel who was staring at him with a look mixed with shock and concern. He turned to look at Monty whose expression was very different.

  Lord Montarg POV

  Montarg looked at the short man as Turrel reached down and pressed the button on the orb, commencing the induction process. Jack was a little strange but Montarg sensed an assertiveness about the man that he liked.

  While Turrel was an amazing teacher, he more often than not was overly cautious and spoke too much. Montarg liked to be direct, cut to the point and move forward. That was probably why he had been a part of hundreds of rift closures and had achieved his Tier 10 modification recently and gained the title of Shardlord.

  He believed Jack was much more like himself than Turrel and if what Turrel had said was true, he would need a little recklessness if he was going to retain agency over his own life.

  Haaa, a prismatic amplifier that could passively increase the mana concentration in their environment, he would have to see it with his own eyes to believe it.

  Turrel finished his last-minute rant and as the man was about to speak the orb released its first pulse and sent the man tumbling backwards before he caught himself.

  Montarg focused, the induction process normally only took a minute, most people's bodies failing in the first part of the modification, needing to absorb energy from a rift shard to complete their bodies' adaptation.

  Sending his senses towards Jack, he filtered out all the frequencies except for Life. He immediately saw the amplification vortex over Jack’s heart kick into action and it was something to behold. Even before his body had adapted, the vortex was almost perfectly shaped, the flow was smooth, and it was working faster than expected.

  Jack’s body reached its capacity for Life mana after only a few seconds, and it began to burn him from the inside.

  Montarg was intrigued and reached out with a thin whisper of his power, not engaging his own prime frequency but simply activating a simple healing weave. He then attempted to attach it to Jack’s mana pathways to use some mana and reduce the strain on his body.

  It worked and reduced the flow rate long enough for the Origin Essence to hit his body and begin his modification.

  Montarg watched his weave as the process continued. Jack’s body was experiencing excruciating pain as the temporary mana pathways were burned into his veins paving the way to make them permanent.

  The weave maintained itself and continued to heal Jack as the process continued. As his pathways were changed, the mana passing through them increased. The vortex improved. The weave was maintained.

  Montarg stared in shock, the weave, even if connected to Jack’s flow should have burned out by now with the increased draw due to the modification. But somehow it almost seemed like the drain was being matched by the increased mana flow and improvements to his vortex.

  Jack’s entire mana pathway was etched. The weave was self-sustaining at this point, he was generating more mana than it could use.

  Montarg waited for Jack to wake up having completed the normal Tier 0 induction modification.

  Then his body started to undergo the second phase of modification and Montarg's eyes widened as he looked over at Turrel.

  Turrel looked back in shock.

  “Montarg... what did you do?” He asked.

  “I… I just attached a simple healing weave to his pathway to ease the pain a little. I didn’t think I needed to drain him yet.” Montarg shook his head.

  “It is somehow sustaining itself and has done through the entire process…” Montarg said.

  Montarg looked back at Jack, sending his senses enhanced with Life mana into Jack’s body to observe the physical changes.

  “I don’t understand, it shouldn’t be possible but… his body is almost completely modified. He's going to be at the same level as a Tier 1 but he hasn’t gotten a shard yet.”

  “Montarg… how am I going to explain this… it was going to be hard enough before... but now... this is impossible.”

  Both men stopped their discussion as Jack’s body moved; he tilted his head slightly and Montarg could feel him tentatively touching his mana flow. His head turned towards Turrel who was staring right back at him in confusion. Jack turned to Montarg, and despite it all he couldn't help but smile amid the confusion. He was sure the look on his face was a terrifying mix of shock and excitement as their eyes met, Jack took a step away, almost in fear.