Arcane Academy: The Divine Extraction Legacy Chapter 2 Activation

A bitter smile touched Lesley's lips as she sensed Kyle's life force vanish completely.

"Another potion gone to waste... Dex, retrieve the token and move this corpse to the third chamber." She spoke with the indifference of someone who had witnessed this failure countless times before calling for her subordinate.

In an instant, a hooded figure materialized without a sound. His mouth was sewn shut with dark thread, rendering him mute. Although his flesh was covered in patches and bruises like a reanimated zombie, his movements remained as fluid as a seasoned worker.

Despite his grotesque features, he lacked any scent of decay and appeared strangely well-kept.

As Dex hoisted the body, a sudden thought caused Lesley to revise her orders.

"Wait, I nearly forgot this one lacks any elemental affinity or talent. Wexor won't find any nutrition in this. Just toss him into the mortuary... perhaps he can serve as fuel or something similar."

Dex hesitated briefly upon hearing the change in plans. Without offering a sign of acknowledgment, he bypassed the basement and headed toward the back exit where an airship stood waiting.

Every recruitment outpost was equipped with an Academy airship, designed to ferry successful enrollees to the school grounds.

Lesley remained at the station for another hour, eventually shaking her head in disappointment.

A full week of work had yielded only two recruits for the upcoming academic term.

"It is no wonder this mission is so unpopular... finding five viable candidates in this desolate region is a fool's errand. Tsk." Lesley grumbled, her annoyance clear.

She had originally accepted the task thinking it was a simple way to farm contribution points, but the pathetic quality of the local population had thwarted her plans.

With one final, dismissive glance at the crowd outside, she abandoned the recruitment site. She boarded the vessel to return to the academy, accompanied by her two new students and her collection of corpses.

***

Thud...

Kyle’s limp form was tossed into a frigid storage unit crowded with other deceased youths.

Time lost all meaning for Kyle, but the moment his consciousness flickered back to life, a sensation of drowning overwhelmed him. He struggled to shift his limbs, realizing he was buried in an awkward heap.

'W-what is happening?'

Total darkness surrounded him. He feared he had lost his sight, yet he could still feel the biting chill of the room and the rigid, cold bodies piled on top of him.

He clawed his way out from under the mass of flesh, finally gasping for air. Though he was shivering and famished, the realization that he was alive brought a surge of relief.

Before he could orient himself, several glowing panels—resembling the notification windows from the games of his past—flashed before his eyes.

[ Congratulations! The Divine Extraction System has been activated. ]

[ You are now capable of extracting and acquiring the mystical properties of this world. ]

This initial message was quickly replaced by a secondary set of notifications.

[ You have died. ]

[ Your soul is foreign to this world. ]

[ Your soul has been rejected by the laws of death. ]

[ Restarting life cycle. ]

[ You have returned from the abyss. ]

[ Remarks: Utilize the system to absorb the mystical properties of this realm. By doing so, you will establish a tether to this world, and your next death will be permanent. ]

"What? Rejected?"

Kyle stared at the text in utter confusion.

"Is this real?" He rubbed his eyes hard, but the floating panels remained fixed in his vision. This was no hallucination.

Swiping the previous messages away, he noticed a new prompt appearing.

[ Human remains detected. Do you wish to perform an extraction? ]

"Hmm? Extract what exactly?"

By now, Kyle’s vision had adjusted to the gloom, allowing him to discern the outlines of the cold storage room.

He saw the rows of corpses, and the only source of light came from a shimmering necklace worn by a dead boy slumped nearby.

Kyle hesitated to answer the prompt echoing in his mind. He needed to weigh the consequences.

First, the nature of the extraction was unclear. Was he supposed to harvest something physical from these bodies?

"Urgh..."

A wave of revulsion hit him, but he quickly recalled the system's first promise.

"No, it said I can obtain mystical properties... but does using this mean I'll truly become part of this world?" Kyle whispered to himself.

His survival was a fluke of cosmic rejection, likely by whatever entity governed the souls of this realm.

If he activated the system, he would be bound by the world's laws, meaning his next brush with death would be his last.

"Tsk... regardless, where have they put me?" Kyle muttered. He was trapped in a massive, freezing chamber filled with the dead.

He noted that the other victims were roughly his age, between twelve and fifteen. Their deaths looked identical to his own experience, with blood having leaked from every facial orifice.

Strangely, the sight of the corpses didn't trigger a panic attack. In his previous life, he hadn't even possessed the stomach to look at his uncle in a coffin. Now, he felt oddly detached.

"Is this an aftereffect of that potion?" Kyle wondered, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

Looking at the bodies again, he pieced the situation together.

They had been discarded in this cold room, likely destined for an incinerator or to be used as anatomical tools for Vermont Academy.

A school that murdered its own applicants surely had dark uses for the remains.

Thud... Thud... Thud...

The sudden grinding of massive gears vibrated through the floor. Within seconds, Kyle felt the entire room begin to rise.

His eyes widened as the realization hit him. He was currently aboard the Academy's airship!