"Please sit here."
The doctor with the syringe said, gesturing for Noah to sit by patting the seat in front of him. Noah placed his cloth sack against the wall nearby.
He took a seat before the doctor asked him.
"What you are going to see might seem unbelievable but it's real and you should prepare to have your mind blown. You are to listen to my explanation and make an informed decision to stay or leave."
Not giving Noah any room to say anything, the doctor explained the situation.
What followed was a summarized repeat of what Imari told him. The doctor only explained the Astar Mark, Blaze, and Exceed in what can only be described as terse explanations. The doctor's summary paled in comparison to Imari's lively descriptions.
It appears the doctor is a bit tired to repeat the same thing and that's why he adopted this attitude.
Indeed, if one were to repeat the same thing at every injection, it wouldn't take long before even a professional would tune out from his job and get annoyed.
Noah patiently waited for the doctor to finish. He compared the doctor's words versus Imari's explanation. After finding no significant variance in both explanations, he nodded.
"I understand and agree to accept the Astar Mark, becoming an Exceed in the process."
"Very well."
The doctor smiled and he raised the needless injection gun.
"The process might be painful, try to endure it. You will not become an Exceed if you cannot manifest a Blaze."
The doctor rolled up Noah's sleeve and he pulled the trigger with the injection gun pressed against Noah's arm.
Splish.
The liquid in the gun emptied at a visible rate.
Noah can feel something entering him, it felt like a wave of substance that suffused his body in no time at all. The foreign substance started spreading in Noah's body.
Zwing
Noah felt a tinge of pain in his chest. A tattoo that looked like intricate stars whirled outwards on Noah's chest. He felt like his skin got singed.
"Guh."
The burning sensation spread throughout Noah's body. He subconsciously groaned as the pain stopped his breathing for a second.
At the same time, the Astar Mark spewed forth flames that engulfed Noah.
Woosh woosh
Literally covered in flames, Noah endured the immolation while clenching his fists.
If he didn't experience multiple Gastrea Virus-induced growth pangs then he would be screaming in anguish right now. His heightened tolerance of pain allowed him to resist the pain with only his veins bulging in his stout arms.
The doctor is also shocked to see this display of iron will.
He has seen Astar Mark recipients screaming in agony or outright fainting. He has never seen someone like Noah, enduring the pain while not contorting in pain. He can't remember an instance of something like this despite participating in multiple injection drives.
Noah felt his body transforming further, albeit the improvement is minimal.
While the process can make a superhuman out of average Joes, the process only marginally improved Noah since he already forged his body through inhuman training and Gastrea virus doping. In other words, Noah's body is already superhuman.
However, the Astar Mark can also enhance a person's mental state. Gastrea Virus doping couldn't do this.
Noah's magic power rose as if summoned by this external stimulation. His magic power swiftly increased in volume. Noah took this with delight as his mental state improved alongside his total mana pool.
It didn't take Noah long to confirm the theory between magic power and the user's psyche. The greater the mental state, the greater a person's will and fortitude. Thus, improving mental state leads to magic power growth. A stronger magic power means stronger magic output. His spells should be more potent now.
This is an unexpected boon but Noah's power-up doesn't end here.
There's still the last stage of Astar Mark integration, the manifestation of a person's soul, Blaze, a weapon that mirrors a person's soul.
Alas, it would seem Noah's luck ran out here.
Boom
The flames covering Noah suddenly exploded outwards, rising in intensity more than 10 times over, covering half the infirmary.
"Uwah!"
The doctor who was watching the show almost got dragged into the maelstrom of fire. He backed away in a hurry.
Noah grabbed his Astar Mark while bending down. His eyes went wide with agony.
Only Noah knows what is going on within him.
His enhanced mental psyche called out to his soul. It tried to manifest his soul in the form of a Blaze. But, the Astar mark got stopped by an iron wall. To put it bluntly, the Astar Mark isn't potent enough to manifest Noah's soul. His soul overpowered the external boost.
The sudden explosion was a result of the Astar Mark attempting to breach this soul barrier with greater force.
Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh.
The flames raged on, telling everyone how hard it is trying to awaken Noah's soul.
Soon, the Astar Mark's physical and mental boost got integrated by Noah's special bodily constitution.
The absorbed supernatural powers and nano-machines manifested themselves in a ball of flames that surged into a certain part behind Noah's back.
Noah gasped when he saw this phenomenon.
The flames wrapped around his modified revolver!
Fwoosh whoosh.
The revolver got turned into a ball of flames and it went into Noah's body.
The cloth sack containing his arming sword got burned away along with its sheath. Only the crystalline arming sword got turned into a ball of flames. Just like the revolver, the ball of flames returned into Noah's body.
The white arming sword and black revolver, two entirely different weapons melded into Noah's body due to the Astar Mark's unique interaction with Noah's weird body. Instead of manifesting his soul, Noah's soul absorbed the two weapons.
In a sense, the sword and revolver substituted Noah's blaze because his soul is too strong to be summoned through conventional means.
The flames receded back into his Astar Mark.
Noah touched his chest while remaining speechless.
