Adam had no interest in asking Frank why. He simply laid out his own idea: "If you're willing to be my test subject, the lab can fund a high-grade mechanical body for you. But before you switch over, I'll need to modify it myself. I can't guarantee the modification's success rate. It might solve your problem, and it might also..."
"...kill me?"
"Probably. Or make it worse," Adam said with a shake of his head.
"Using your new research results?"
"Mm."
Frank swept his spiritual power across his whole body, feeling his life force dwindling and the faint, constant discomfort radiating from within, and fell silent.
Adam was in no hurry for an answer. Even if Frank refused, he could modify a mechanical body himself, and as for a test subject, he could simply buy a slave. Choosing Frank was, more than anything, a bit of a perk for an old member of the lab.
Besides, there was a great deal of preparation to do before the modification—at the very least, some precision alchemy equipment had to be purchased first.
"You can think it over. Give me your answer within three days." With that, Adam turned and walked out.
Before Adam could reach the door of the observation room, Frank made up his mind. "I agree."
Adam turned his head. "A wise choice. Come to my office shortly and sign a new contract. Then you can pick out a mechanical body for yourself—under ten ether crystals."
Adam then left the laboratory, turned a few corners, and arrived at the door of Mage Kino's alchemy laboratory.
The visiting card had been delivered to Mage Kino beforehand, so Adam got into the laboratory without any trouble.
Unlike last time, when the place had been empty and strewn with alchemy puppets, this time Adam saw several apprentice assistants in the laboratory. He didn't recognize them, but every one of them was looking at him with an odd expression.
He hadn't noticed it before, and only learned it recently: he was the only apprentice in the entire academy installed in the Elemental Experiment Building. The distinction had earned him no small amount of jealousy, but Adam kept to himself and still carried a faint reputation from the old days, so no foolhardy idiot had come looking for trouble.
"Mage Kino is inside waiting for you," a female apprentice assistant said as she walked over to Adam.
Adam thanked her and was about to head in when a snide voice drifted over: "I really don't know what the Review Department is thinking, letting an apprentice set up an elemental laboratory just like that. What's the difference between that and throwing the funding down the drain?"
"Ha, maybe the fellow really does have some talent?"
"Hmph. More likely he fooled the Mage with some trick or other."
The apprentice leading the way looked embarrassed. She turned back and gazed at Adam helplessly, then said softly, "Please don't mind them..." She didn't know Adam, but an apprentice who could set up a laboratory on his own was bound to be proud and powerful. She was afraid Adam would clash with her companions right there in the laboratory, which would only draw Mage Kino's wrath—and not only the two sides in the conflict, but she, the guide, would be punished for it as well.
Adam didn't even turn his head. That kind of low-grade emotional venting couldn't draw any of his attention.
Most of the apprentices in this laboratory carried a fluctuation of psychokinesis—meaning they were cultivating the meditation method Adam had created, and then turning around to look down on him, its creator.
The laboratory was saturated with the metal element. If Adam wanted, he could kill every last one of them in an instant with ease. But Adam wouldn't do that—not only because it would anger Mage Kino, but because their provocation came from envy—Adam had received better treatment without producing corresponding results. This was an academic struggle; resorting to force would only make him look like he had something to hide.
"Please, go on leading the way."
The female apprentice breathed a sigh of relief, and her eyes even held gratitude as she looked at Adam. She hurried her steps and led him deep into the laboratory. "That's Mage Kino's room." That said, she turned and fled as if escaping.
The door slid open automatically, and Mage Kino waved Adam in.
Adam sat, performed the proper salute, and Mage Kino said with a smile, "How does it feel to be looked down on? I thought you'd have a hard time holding back from striking out."
Clearly, nothing that happened outside could escape a Mage's eyes; Mage Kino's tone was thick with teasing.
As a full-fledged Mage, he knew how important Adam was now and what had happened to Adam. And when it came to results, nothing outweighed a piece of advancement knowledge—it meant that any number of apprentices might become Mages because of it.
Adam shook his head and offered no opinion on the matter, and Mage Kino didn't mind.
"Little ones always have to go from foolishness to wisdom. A small lesson is for their own good," Mage Kino said kindly—or rather, in the Mage's mind, Adam was already a being he could converse with as an equal.
"So then, what brings you here?"
Adam had come prepared. From his personal storage space he took out a sheet of paper listing everything he needed to order: ultra-precision machine tools, micro mechanical arms, and other instruments capable of precision machining, as well as puppet robots with built-in alchemy rune groups.
Mage Kino scanned the list, and his expression turned strange. "I recall your research direction is the electrical element?"
Adam nodded. "Yes, Mage Kino. But I have some new ideas—if I can put them into practice, results should come quickly."
"Very well. Mage Victor tells me you're on the verge of advancement. If you want to enter the trial, then continuing research on the electrical element really doesn't suit you."
Mage Kino simply assumed Adam wanted a change of pace and was looking for something else to do. In any case, with the academy's support, Adam could do as he pleased during this period. He said nothing more, handed the list to the alchemy puppet beside him, and ordered it to prepare everything, then said to Adam, "The cost will be deducted automatically from your laboratory account. If there's nothing else, you may go."
Adam left as instructed, still paying no attention to the apprentices' gossip, and went straight back to his own laboratory. Mage Kino was highly efficient: in under an hour, every instrument Adam had ordered had been delivered to the laboratory.
Adam ordered the alchemy puppets to open up a new room to house the instruments, then asked Frank, who was sitting silently off to one side, "Within three days, I want you to have a new mechanical body ready, and to be prepared to separate from your current parts.
The process will be very painful—you can place an order with Elliot in advance for neural suppression potion."
James still had no idea what had happened. He was struck dumb for a moment, then blurted out, "A new mechanical body? Frank, have you forgotten that your body can't survive another replacement like that?"