CHAPTER 468: SLUG LIFE

"...Alright." Lane finally agreed, albeit with a heavy sigh.

Whatever hesitation he might have felt, Ava’s last argument finally convinced him.

That’s right, there was still Oscar, that Esper from the Allen Guild. The last person whom Lane had possessed before revealing his true identity to Damien. Still bed-bound, in the hospital, affected by a ’mysterious illness’.

How many months had it been?

To be honest, Lane had already mostly forgotten about him. After possessing so many people in the past, he was quite detached from it. Whether it was his coping mechanism or whatever, he was able to push the people out of his mind. They were all strangers, anyway, and Lane usually hadn’t had many interactions with any of them, save for when he approached them to create the connection necessary for his ability. He had purposely done it this way, as it was easier to treat strangers as ’disposable’. Easier to crush any guilt he might have felt.

But Oscar was special. In a way that he was still alive... And Damien knew about it.

And, while they never talked about it since then, Damien probably remembered. Perhaps he even felt guilty about it, even though it was none of his fault.

So, at least for his sake, if not anything else, Lane should try his best.

No matter how disgusting the idea of possessing slugs felt.

"Great!" Ava clapped her fingers. She had already finished picking the slugs that would take part in the experiment. She still had to move them to new terrariums, so that all the subjects from each group would be next to each other - it would make managing the experiment easier - but that could wait for later. Since there was a risk that some specimens could die as a result of Lane’s ability, there was no point in transferring them ahead of time.

"Let’s start here." For now, she led Lane to the terrariums marked with ’1’, which were her first testing group, she opened the lids, giving Lane access to the slugs. "Use your Plunder on them."

"Okay..." Lane sighed, reaching inside and picking a slug. This part was easy, as he was not disgusted by touching them. It was only the idea of possessing a slug that seemed appalling.

His finger had already stopped bleeding, but was still skinless, so Lane scraped it with his fingernail, damaging the sensitive tissues further to draw some blood he could feed to the snail. Then, holding it tightly, he pressed its mouth against his injury...

And there it was again. That familiar feeling.

"Is it working?" Next to him, Ava was observing the scene excitedly.

With her tablet in her hand, the camera lens pointed at Lane’s hands, recording everything. When conducting an experiment, it was important to keep records of the whole process!

Lane glanced at her, but didn’t say anything. He just nodded his head. "Mn."

His wavelengths swept through the slug, plundering its ability.

"Alright, next one!" Ava wasn’t wasting time. She didn’t even give Lane a moment to test the new ability.

Not that there was much to test. Since Lane already had the ability to create electric current within his body and release it, the slug’s ability should simply strengthen it. It wasn’t as bothersome as the spiders’ threads.

Lane picked up slug after slug, following Ava’s directions. Because they had a multitude of slug monsters within the lab, Ava could afford to include a large number of them in the experiment... And so she did. The more the experimental subjects, the more accurate the results should be.

It suited Lane just fine, anyway, since it allowed him to boost his ability...

But nothing good lasts forever, and the time came for the second experimental group.

"Alright. So now, plunder, and then possess it," Ava instructed.

Lane stared at the slug in his hands, before letting out a sigh, and plopping down on the floor. His body was going to collapse, unconscious, the moment he switched, so it was better to sit down first... Ava would have probably caught him (since he wouldn’t want the slug to get injured from the fall), but it was easier if he simply stayed down from the start. Once he was seated, with his back rested against one of the terrariums, he quickly plundered the slug’s ability, creating the connection between them. Then, he took a deep breath, and...

???????

...

Ava crouched next to Lane, observing him carefully. Her tablet was now set aside, recording from a distance, to catch everything on camera. She had seen Lane take a deep breath, trying to focus, after which his head dropped, his whole body turning limp...

Did it work?

Ava tilted her head, her eyes scanning Lane’s face. It didn’t look like he was pretending.

She then turned her eyes to the slug. It was still moving, slowly climbing up Lane’s hand.

"Hey, are you there?" She poked the slug, to which it wiggled. Was that a yes? "Alright, then stay like that for a moment..." she said, as she turned on the timer, setting it for five minutes.

It was still unknown whether the length of possession made any difference on the outcome. Thus, she was planning to have Lane possess most of the slugs for five minutes, then two to four of them for half an hour, to make a comparison. It would have been better if she could have more subjects, but... That would have to wait, since it would have taken too long. And Lane probably wouldn’t comply. She couldn’t imagine that he was having a good time as a slug...

Rrrring! Rrrring!

The timer rang, signaling that five minutes had passed.

"You can switch back now," she nodded at Lane. That is, the slug.

But...

No reaction.

"Lane?"

Ah...

Ava slammed her hand against her forehead.

How stupid of her! Slugs didn’t have hearing. And, since they lacked the sound receptor, Lane most likely wasn’t able to hear anything as a slug either!

So, she tried nudging the slug with her finger.

Still nothing.

Well, the slug reacted to her touch, and was still moving... But Lane was not waking up.

"Uh-oh..." Ava bit her lip, staring at her unconscious friend. It seemed that something must have gone wrong...

She reached her hand, pressing two fingers against Lane’s neck, feeling for a pulse. It was still there... Barely. Extremely slow and weak...

That wasn’t anything alarming, though. That’s just how it was during possession. Since Lane’s body had to somehow sustain itself for extended periods of time when his consciousness was away, the bodily functions were always slowed down, fueled only by Mana. It was normal, and Lane being like that meant that the possession was successful.

But... Why wasn’t he returning then?

Could it be that because slugs didn’t have a brain, Lane wasn’t capable of forming coherent thoughts either? Did he not remember that he was human, and had to return?

"...Ooops."

Ava had been so excited about the experiment that she forgot to take it into consideration.

She wasn’t too worried, though. At the end of the day, as long as Lane’s real body was fine, he should be able to return eventually.

What now, though? She couldn’t return Lane to his boyfriend like that, now could she? Or... Actually...

"Pfft." Ava couldn’t help but chuckle, imagining Damien picking up Lane the slug from ManaTech and bringing him home. She knew that Damien was already aware of Lane’s ability, so she wouldn’t have to worry about how to explain things to him...

And the idea was just too funny!

"Hey. Turn back, if you don’t want your boyfriend to see you like that," she nudged Lane the slug again.

But to no avail. Lane clearly couldn’t hear her. If he could, then there was no way he would stay silent, and not even kick her with electric current or anything... Ava was wearing protective gloves, so it wouldn’t have worked, but still. There wasn’t even any attempt.

...Should she really do it? Ava considered it for a moment...

In the end, though, she decided against it. Funny as it was to her, if Lane were unable to switch back on his own, they would eventually kill the slug to free him. And, if she was in any way right about Damien Lennox... Killing Lane the slug would be emotionally painful for him. Even if that meant getting back Lane the human. Because no matter who or what Lane was possessing... He would experience all the pain that this form suffered.

Including death.

She let out a sigh, picking up the slug and putting it in the terrarium, where the environment would be more suitable for it. She wanted to give Lane a bit more time to try to make it work on his own before moving to a more... drastic solution.

An hour, let’s say. If Lane was still not back in his own body by then, she would put the slug down. But for now, she just set the timer, and moved on to set up the terrariums for the experiment. For the control group and the Plunder group, since whether they were going to have a Possession group or not was still unclear...

It was when the timer was down to less than five minutes. Ava was already done with the terrariums, and was sitting by the desk, going through various data recorded on her tablet. When all of a sudden, the peaceful silence was interrupted by a loud gasp.

"Haaah... Haaah..." Lane gasped heavily, grasping his chest, his eyes unnaturally wide, blankly staring forward.

He was... back?