The instant Jayce was released from that crystal bracelet, he came to a terrifying realization. While he was asleep, his internal clock was frozen and it was impossible to tell whether it had been minutes, hours or even days since he’d last been lucid. Jayce didn’t have time to dwell on this for long though, because he saw his new master, Mize, and another woman standing in front of him.

Taking another look at Mize Goldscale, Jayce saw that she was even younger than he’d thought. While she wore an elegant black dress with golden accents and large frilled sleeves, something that Jayce imagined a high society lady might’ve worn over a century ago, her face and build suggested that this young lady had only just reached her teens. Unlike her father’s dark and rough complexion, Mize’s skin was soft and white like untouched snow. Her hair was predominantly black, but it was speckled with golden dots in a way that simply didn’t exist for humans—even with dyes. That hair had been expertly coiled up at the back of her head while a few curled strands were allowed to fall past her face and rest on her shoulders. Between those curls were two polished black horns that curved inwards at a sharp angle.

Jayce blinked as he took all of this in in an instant. The most shocking thing about Mize’s appearance was how her aura had changed drastically since their first meeting. When she was with her father, Mize’s expression was stiff and lifeless but now her thin red lips were curled in a childish smile. Her black tail was also swishing around in a lazy manner. Clearly, she was feeling at ease.

Glancing to his left, Jayce peeked at the woman standing by Mize’s side. She was clearly a servant of some kind, since she was standing a step behind the young lady. However, this woman didn’t look servile or weak in the slightest. She stood ramrod straight and her scaly tail was lifted in an elegant S-curve by her back. She looked to be in her late twenties and her black and gold hair was cut short and simple. Also, like Mize and her father, her sclera was black while her pupils were gold. While they weren’t thin like a serpent’s, Jayce felt a certain pressure under her gaze, and he imagined a hare might feel similar when being glared at by a snake.

As for the room he was in, it was a bright velvet place filled with drawers and vertically long cabinets. There was a two-and-a-half-meter tall mirror at one end of the room, which confirmed Jayce’s guess that this was a dressing room of some kind.

Jayce tried to open his mouth, but apparently he still wasn’t allowed to speak. Meanwhile, the taller woman furrowed her brow and turned to Mize.

“As a lifeform, you cannot allow him to walk around in rags. While he is a slave, he still represents you to some extent.”

Jayce’s ears twitched as the force translating her words seemed to have trouble with the word ‘humanoid’.

“I understand. Erilin, fetch him some male servant’s clothes.”

“I’ve already prepared some, my lady.”

The woman named Erilin bowed to Mize and then produced a set of clothes out of nowhere. She tossed them to Jayce, along with a pair of shoes. The two looked at him while he stared back, dumbfounded.

“Put them on already.” Mize snapped.

The moment she spoke, Jayce found he had no choice but to obey. His limbs moved mechanically to strip off his t-shirt and the pants that were still around his ankles. Meanwhile, the two ladies continued to watch him. One with mild interest and the other with folded arms and a cold stare.

‘None of this is my fetish!’ Jayce protested in his head.

“Ah, so humans’ tails are on their front.” Mize observed.

“No, those are reproductive organs.” Erilin replied. She at least had the sense to look away while a bit of color touched her cheeks.

“Eh, do black salamanders have those too?”

“Males have something very similar. Let’s not talk about this, my lady.”

Since Mize’s orders made it impossible for Jayce to freeze up in embarrassment, the strip show ended quickly. He felt a little gratified that Erilin seemed to realize that treating him like a random animal was a mistake. His physiology was closer to theirs than she had expected, which gave Jayce some questions about the women in front of him that he quickly shelved.

Turning to face the mirror, Jayce examined his new clothes. He didn’t need any extra instructions when putting them on because they were familiar to him. At its core, it was a butler’s outfit. He had a black coat and vest, both with glittering golden buttons, a white shirt and pressed dress pants. Coming as a bit of a culture shock was the diamond pattern on the coat that made it feel like snakeskin and the deep creases in his shirt which made him feel like he was wearing a folding fan.

Jayce grimaced. These clothes were quite handsome, but they didn’t fit him at all. His pant legs were bunched up, covering most of his thin black dress shoes. Meanwhile, his jacket sleeves covered his gloved hands.

Before he could turn back to the girls, Jayce felt a hand grip the back of his collar. In the mirror, he saw that Erilin had come up behind him at some point. She pinched a glittering white tag on his jacket and the entire ensemble flashed with light. When Jayce could see again, he looked in the mirror and saw that his clothes now fit him perfectly. They weren’t even stiff anymore. It was as if he’d worn them for months. He also noticed that the tail flap in his pants had been sewn shut.

Jayce turned around and looked up at Erilin, who was half a head taller than him. Her terrifying eyes looked him over appraisingly and then she nodded.

“Decent. Is there anything wrong with the fit?”

“They fit great. The only issue is that they’re kind of heavy.”

“Heavy?”

“Ah, it’s not that bad, I guess.”

Jayce felt like he’d gained an extra five kilograms with the jacket alone. All of his clothes, even his shoes and gloves were inexplicably heavy. It made Jayce curious if they could expand to fit someone twice or even three times his size.

“Hmm.” Erilin cocked her head from side to side, apparently thinking carefully.

One moment, Jayce was watching her perform this cute gesture. In the next, he was lying on the floor with a mix of blood and bile crowding his throat and a searing pain in his stomach. In between, there had been a loud bang, which his brain was only just registering now.

Jayce sputtered and groaned while pain tore through his rational mind. Any thoughts he tried to form crumbled as primal feelings of terror and confusion reigned. If he had the ability, Jayce was sure he would have tried to run away. Fortunately or unfortunately, he couldn’t even manage to crawl as his assailant walked up to him.

A small ovoid object suddenly appeared in Erilin’s empty hand and she thrust it into Jayce’s unwilling mouth. Its thin skin burst on his teeth and the liquid inside ran through him like a burst dam. Jayce could feel his body pulling itself back together in real time and the experience was both wonderous and terrifying. In seconds, Jayce was breathing heavily and his broken ribs had fully healed. He chanced a glance at Erilin and saw no trace of malice in the tall woman’s eyes. Though, Jayce now found her appraising look to be even more hateful than a sneer.

“So this is why they’re only C-Rank. A human’s physical ability is quite low.”

“The other two are B and A-Rank, so it’s manageable.” Mize cut in, waving her hand dismissively. “Besides, he hasn’t even been baptized yet. What’s the point in testing him now?”

“The benefits from classes scale with their owner’s base ability.” Erilin replied coolly. “With this kind of strength, giving him that medicine is a complete waste.”

“I’m not paying for it, so it doesn’t matter. He’ll recover soon, right?”

“I was careful when I injured him, so he’s already mostly recovered. By the time the medicine is ready there won’t be any difference.”

“As expected of you.”

Mize waved her hand and Jayce found himself flying into her gemmed bracelet. He quickly fell unconscious again.

An indeterminate amount of time later, Jayce awoke in a dim stone chamber. Before he could get a good look around, bestial cries assaulted his ears. The hairs on Jayce’s neck rose. Those weren’t the kind of howls that could be heard in nature. Only an animal undergoing unbearable torture could make such terrifying sounds.

Turning his head, Jayce saw his two slave ‘comrades’ writhing on the ground and spewing blood from their orifices. Whether it was the plant-like centipede or the feathered dragon, their skin was flushed a deep red and their eyes were bloodshot. They cried out in pain while Mize and Erilin stood off to the side, watching calmly. As he stared at this scene, Jayce almost failed to notice when Mize tossed something in front of him.

“Eat this.”

Jayce’s hands trembled as every cell in his body resisted the order, but it was no use. He grabbed the object, a dark red leaf that wrapped around several unknown ingredients and brought it towards his mouth. The packet smelled like bloodied flesh and was about the size of his palm. Nevertheless, Jayce pushed it into his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed.

The moment he did, Jayce felt his organs start to squirm, as if they couldn’t stand to live in his body for another second. His skin bulged and tore while his mouth alternated between spewing howls of pain and bloody viscera. The pain that Erilin had casually inflicted earlier had completely vanished from his memory. What he was currently feeling was hundreds of times worse.

A human’s voice joined the animalistic howling, and it was no less fierce or pained than its comrades.

During a moment of lucidity, he saw Mize looking down at him with a twinkle in her eye. Meanwhile, Erilin’s cold expression looked a bit stiff and her eyes were unfocused. She seemed to be remembering something unpleasant.

“I’ve always admired a Bloodrager’s abilities.” Mize muttered. “It’s too bad a baptism can only happen once.”

Erilin shook her head. “Though they’re both classes, Golden Blood is far superior. Especially for the black salamander race. And without the baptism relaxing the Nexus’s conditions, it would be impossible to survive the ritual.”

Mize raised an eyebrow when she noticed Jayce’s bloodshot glare.

“Heh, it’s ridiculous, looking at me like that. Even for those born in the Upper Bound, there are many people that would kill to get what you just ate. Well, the medicine itself isn’t that amazing, but special class formulas are the backbone of any powerful clan. This is simply the most efficient way to complete the Bloodrager ritual.”

Jayce’s agony continued for an unknown amount of time. Whether it was half an hour, several hours or even a day, Jayce only knew that it felt like he had been suffering for weeks. When the pain finally began to fade, Jayce was only a hair’s breadth away from crossing over. At that moment, information flooded into his mind.

You have completed a special action and unlocked the special class: Bloodrager.

Your baptism to the Nexus system has ended. Class unlock restrictions will return to normal.

You have gained an ability: Bloodrager – Bloodrage.

Bloodrage

Cost: Mental Energy

Your physical strength, aggressiveness and pain tolerance will increase by a base amount and then increase further based on how much blood you have lost. Some abilities will be strengthened while in this state.

You have gained an ability: Bloodrager – Bloody Vitality.

Bloody Vitality

Cost: None

Your wounds will naturally heal faster, and your body can produce blood at a much faster rate. By drinking blood, especially blood of a being from a higher life order, you can temporarily accelerate your healing and blood production even further.

Jayce barely had time to think about what he’d just learned before Mize pulled him back into her bracelet. Unwillingly, he quickly fell into a state of torpor.

When he regained his senses, Jayce found himself falling through the air. Half a second later, he had plunged into a vat of water. Instinct took over and Jayce pushed his aching body towards the surface. As he swam, a few wriggling silhouettes darted around the edges of his vision. A tingling sensation on his arm drew his attention, and Jayce nearly drew in a fatal breath when he saw a milky white grub crawling on him. The disgusting creature was munching on his clothes. Instead of tearing the fabric, it was sucking out the blood and other miscellaneous liquids that stained it. To his horror, Jayce noticed several other grubs on various parts of his body. They crawled around with a strong sense of purpose, as if their lives could only be complete once they’d devoured the meal in front of them.

A multitude of bubbles reached the surface, but Jayce’s scream was muffled beneath the water. His eyes went red and he subconsciously activated his new Bloodrage ability to help him tear these disgusting creatures off him.

“Stop that!” Mize’s voice rang clearly in his head.

Jayce’s resistance crumbled and he drifted meekly to the surface while the grubs continued to crawl on him. When his eyes breached the surface, he saw that the centipede and dragon were also floating idly nearby. Grubs were crawling all over both of them and they were just lying there like spent candles. After Jayce deactivated his Bloodrage ability, he also felt like an arrow at the end of its flight. Memories of that horrific torture pierced his consciousness and he wished to dig them out of his skull.

At the edge of the pool, Jayce saw Mize kneel down in front of the shredded remains of a grub. After being injured by him, that grub was now being mercilessly devoured by its siblings. Jayce almost choked when he saw a look of pity on Mize’s young and pretty face.

“Poor cleaner worm. It was just doing its job.”

Exhaustion forced Jayce’s eyelids shut. As he drifted around the pool, a crushing sense of despair welled up within him. This was the first time he’d been able to catch his breath since he’d been transported to this world, but Jayce couldn’t bear to think about things too deeply. In this state of half-lucidity, a thought crossed his mind.

‘I was crushed when I saw that our indexes were different but now it’s given me a slight amount of hope. Please, don’t let me find Emily in this world.’