"Your humor response is intact as well, that is good."

"..."

Lucian just stared at this woman with a hollow look on his face.

"Alright, go sit."

The doctor pointed at the bed again.

Lucian looked at her one last time—

"That was really just a test?"

"Sit."

She repeated, this time more strictly.

Lucian sat down, a technician walked in and placed a tray near the bed. The tray held needles and small glass tubes, and that made Lucian raise his eyebrow.

Dr. Sable put on gloves.

"We will begin with a medical examination. Basic physical structure, organ stability, healing response, reflexes, and sensory sensitivity."

"You make it sound like I am a machine."

Lucian frowned.

"You are not a machine."

"That is comforting."

"You are an unknown biological risk."

"That is... less comforting."

Lucian just stared at her. Dr. Sable shrugged.

"Lie back."

Lucian did as he was told and the tests began.

At first, they were all normal, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, eye response, breathing.

Then they became... less normal.

A machine scanned his body from head to toe, making a low humming sound, numbers appeared on a screen, Dr. Sable read them silently.

Her face did not change, but the technician beside her stiffened.

Lucian noticed that.

"What?"

Dr. Sable did not answer immediately, she tapped the screen twice—

"Muscle density is far above human level."

"Yeah, I noticed."

Lucian nodded.

"Bone density is abnormal."

She continued.

"That sounds bad."

"It would be bad if your organs were being crushed under the structural change."

"Are they?"

"No."

"That sounds good."

"It is... strange."

She seemed confused, Lucian just sighed.

"You people should try saying good things as good things."

Dr. Sable just ignored him.

"Heart stable.

Lungs stable.

Liver stable.

Kidneys stable.

No organ rejection.

No internal tearing.

No tumor-like growth.

No demonic tissue bloom."

"Wait wait wait, demonic tissue bloom?"

Lucian blinked.

"It’s something you don’t have, don’t worry about it."

"You can’t just say that and expect me to not worry about it."

"I can. Watch."

She turned back to the monitor.

Lucian stared at her with a deadpan look on his face.

The technician looked like she wanted to laugh but she controlled herself.

Dr. Sable then took a small blade from the tray.

"What is that for?"

Lucian didn’t feel good.

"Healing response."

"You are cutting me?"

"Yes."

The doctor answered calmly and he widened his eyes.

"Have you heard of the word consent?"

"You signed a temporary evaluation form at registration."

"I signed a form?"

Lucian blinked.

"You gave your name and wore the band."

"That counts?"

"In this building, yes."

"I’ll sue you guys."

"Sure, the courts would welcome you with open arms."

"..."

Lucian just turned silent.

Dr. Sable took his hand and made a small cut across his palm, Lucian hissed slightly, more from surprise than pain, dark red blood rose from the cut, then shortly, the skin began closing.

It didn’t happen in an instant.

But it was fast.

Enough for the bare eyes to see the repair happen.

The technician leaned closer.

"Thirty-two seconds."

"Regeneration confirmed."

Dr. Sable nodded.

Lucian watched it all happen and his stomach twisted for some reason, any other moment, he would have grinned at how awesome it was but...

Realizing that this ’power’ came at the cost of his parents’ lives changed everything.

Dr. Sable then tested his reflexes.

A small light flashed.

Lucian’s eyes followed it easily, almost too easily.

A rod dropped without warning, his hand caught it before he actively thought about it.

The technician stared as if she couldn’t believe the person in front of her was a human.

Dr. Sable was relatively calmer as she continued writing it all down.

"Reflexes heightened."

After that came the sensory test.

They played sounds too high for normal ears, Lucian heard them. They released faint scents from small tubes, Lucian identified most of them, metal, smoke, blood, vanilla, wet stone.

Then, there was something he couldn’t exactly name. It was similar to the scent he smelled from the woman, the one he thought was desire, but it wasn’t exactly the same.

"What did you smell?"

"I don’t exactly know."

Lucian answered honestly.

"Describe it."

"Uhh...

Like sweat but not exactly that, a little warmer...?"

Dr. Sable looked at the technician, the technician wrote something quickly.

"What was it?"

Lucian asked.

"Adrenaline response."

"How did you even collect that...?"

He had no idea.

"We bottled sweat from someone who was afraid."

The doctor just shrugged.

The medical test continued for nearly an hour.

At the end, Dr. Sable stood near the monitor and reviewed everything.

Lucian sat on the bed, his sleeves rolled up, small marks from needles already fading from his skin.

"So?"

He asked.

Dr. Sable did not look away from the screen.

"Your body is no longer normal human."

Lucian didn’t say anything, he already knew that.

"Muscle density, bone density, reflexes, senses, and healing all confirm alteration. Your organs are stable, no rejection symptoms, no signs of collapse, no signs that your body is dying."

"That sounds good."

Lucian nodded to himself.

"It is not normal."

Lucian just laughed at those words.

"I saw talking stones today, doubt anything here is normal."

Dr. Sable, however, did not laugh. She looked at Lucian with a solemn look on her face and—

"The demon blood did not poison you, Lucian.

It rebuilt you."

"And?"

Lucian could see from their expression that this was not good, he just didn’t understand why.

Would they rather have him dead?

Honestly, even now, Lucian didn’t trust these people. He didn’t like how they were conducting tests on him like he was some sort of experimental rat, he had read too many conspiracy theories to be able to believe these people.

He wouldn’t even be here if he didn’t want their resources to get stronger and tear that bastard apart.

Revenge for his parents’ death.

That was all Lucian cared for at this point.

And for that, if he needed to be an experimental rat, he would do it.

"A blood test will give us a proper answer."

Dr. Sable answered as she removed her gloves.

"There’s a blood test as well?"

"There are a lot of tests."

She smiled.

Lucian just stayed silent and moved to the blood test room.