Lowly Ascent

Cain and Austin were sparring in a yard.

A worker from the Obsidian group entered the yard in a hurry but stopped when he saw the two fighting.

Austin relentlessly attacked Cain, slashing non-stop, trying to breach Cain's defenses and land a hit. Cain simply dodged or blocked the attacks easily. When he saw the worker, he quickly quickened his pace and narrowly dodged Austin's attack, closing the distance.

Before Austin could react, a dagger was against his neck, and he raised his hands in defeat.

Cain then walked to the worker, who he noticed was holding back tears of sorrow as a few tears passed down his cheeks.

"Sir, I have a letter from the Mayor. It came with a package. Here you go, sir," he handed the letter and gestured to the package which was being brought in by a primitive trolley.

Cain thanked them for their work, opened the letter, and read its contents.

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Hello, Mister Cain. I hope this letter finds you well.

It seems I have had some luck recently. I was informed that some of the apparatuses you wished for had entered the underground markets. I was able to obtain them all, but they still don't make the complete set.

I will inform you in the future if I have any luck finding the rest.

=======================

Cain smiled and immediately opened the box. Inside were an assortment of microscopes and beakers of different sizes. They looked brand new and of high quality.

"I am going to set these up in my laboratory.

"Don't worry too much about losing. You are almost at the level to take up a leadership position in the syndicate. Then you can start gaining real experience and truly grow."

Austin bowed low. "Thank you, Lord!"

Cain wasted no time responding and simply left for his laboratory. All that was missing now was some specific equipment.

On the top floor of one of the Obsidian Group's main buildings, Cain entered a large room with a circular roof. Moonlight entered through some of its windows and illuminated the whole room.

There were large bookshelves containing books Cain had transcribed himself. Tables with vials and beakers, as well as some lower-quality equipment for simple experiments, littered the room.

The walls had a nice brown color, and the floor was made of oak.

Cain went to the edge of the room where his main setup was located, he put the apparatuses down and his face distorted into extreme happiness.

"With this, I can finally start some of the experiments!"

Cain quickly headed towards a bookshelf and pulled out a book. Behind it was a switch. Like before in Barch, he turned the switch and moved the bookshelf to show a hidden compartment where he stored his viruses.

For now, he focused on the longevity vial. Not only would this solve his aging problem, but he also planned to make a weaker version he could give as a reward to his servants.

This would effectively make them more zealous and allow these good servants to live longer.

He set up the vial, poured a bit out, and began his research. He studied its structure, experimented on animals, and began the process to understand its secrets.

Two weeks of uninterrupted research led Cain to a breakthrough. He finally grasped how the virus extended a person's lifespan.

From what Cain found hidden in its genome, the longevity virus was originally genetic. Cain's research found that this virus was man-made. But originally, it was a mutation in human DNA that allowed the DNA to recover to a younger state on the molecular level, causing a renewal in aging cells.

The mutation caused the DNA to mutate and added the equivalent of a line of code. This code made it so that some of the younger DNA code was saved. When the body ages. the younger stored code overwrites the old.

This effectively slowed the aging process to a standstill.

It is important to understand that people age due to DNA slowly deteriorating, or at least it is a big part of the aging process. What happens is that cells get tired and start to mess up in their jobs, causing the body to age due to these errors.

The errors cause an exponential increase in cell decay. The mutation Cain hypothesized, caused a hidden factor in the genes that caused the DNA to renew itself during the aging process, fixing some of the cell decay. This process couldn't be messed up because the young 'code' was being preserved and replicated somehow.

This wasn't a perfect process, but one of the Union's ancestors must've found out about this person and researched their DNA tirelessly until it turned into a virus that acted independently from the DNA.

Creating the virus which held its own code that would copy the DNA and later replace it to make the user younger again.

However, Cain found this inefficient, as this process could only be done once per a set amount of years and required a massive amount of this virus.

The virus didn't keep someone young but reset their age to a younger model, they would age again and have to reuse the virus again and again until the body became resistant enough to make all attempts fail.

Of course, virus's code could also change, causing lifespan to increase as well.

Cain had recently been trying to find a way to make this process permanent and gain immortality in a sense. He eventually made two conjectures on how to achieve this, both relying on other viruses he had.

The first was to not use the longevity virus and just not overwrite the body, only the mind, when using Animum. This allowed him to take over young people and live forever, but he would have to start his augmentation over and over every few decades.

Or, he could begin working on the virus in the undead tissue. He had already conjectured that to be able to add more viruses to himself, that virus was the key.

It had the illogical property of creating balance through consumption. It seemed to react with what it devoured, but Cain couldn't find this connection yet. He still needed a full set of equipment and a long amount of time.

There was also the possibility of this virus being a ploy on Numineer's part.

Hitting another wall, Cain sighed and stopped his research, putting away and cleaning up his workspace. He left and went to check up on Austin.

He found Austin talking to a few division directors about the trading group.

Cain felt fortunate with this pupil. Not only was he loyal, but he was also competent beyond measure. He was quick to understand and quicker to put his understanding into action.

After Austin was done, Cain pulled Austin aside.

"We will spar one more time. If you are ready, then I will bring you to the syndicate meeting tomorrow and install you as one of their leaders."

Austin's face lit up with zeal, and he nodded. The pair went to the yard again, and Cain commenced their duel once more.

Cain was a little exhausted from all his research, which gave Austin an edge. Cain also quickly realized that Austin had been training heavily these past two weeks.

His muscles were more toned, and his movements were fluid, his attacks connected one after another.

It got to the point where Cain had to retreat a bit to make some room. He was impressed with this development. But he had to put his pupil in his place. Cain initiated the 4th form of the Wistful Shadow technique.

Austin saw his lord become ethereal. His attacks seemed to pass through Cain.

Before he knew it, a blade passed through his arm and materialized next to his neck. Like before, he raised his arms in defeat, and Cain smiled.

"Meet me here tomorrow night. I will bring you to the meeting."