Much like all others were stunned, Richelle was even more stupefied.
Three... No, four affinities!
The others might not understand, but to her, this was basically a miracle.
For years, she had been pulling strings, so that the moment Sean clocked eighteen, he would already be in Elysium. And with her wealth, cybernetically enhancing him, would be a piece of cake.
Mana awakening, was already a lost course to her, and genetic enhancements were too dangerous for her to accept, so for her, this was the best route. Though she never said any of these to Sean.
Sean was by heart, a boy with a deep sense of pride, agency and responsibility, trying to help him in such a way, after rejecting his countless pleas for a genetic enhancement, rather than help, would instead, be counterintuitive.
But now, the two things she saw as a loss, Sean had achieved by himself.
The fact his mana cells triggered an awakening was the most stupefying thing for her.
Because she could recall that event correctly. The moment Sean became a power obsessed child. Three years ago when he had his awakening test.
Awakening tests were things that were readily and easily available, and something actively pushed forward by the government.
Once a child was twelve, they just had to go to a government owned hospital... The only accredited and approved institutions to carry out these awakenings... At least, any other place outside of Elysium.
The awakening worked by infusing energy enhanced currents into the body.
Just like the static electricity charge that was used to determine a body's complete internal condition after a genetic enhancement, like the one that was just used on both Sean and Thorne. Only that this one was more charged, and wasn't static.
These charges worked to excite every cell in the body, to their limits where they almost denature. By pushing these cells beyond their limits, of course the body suffered immense stress and caused pain, not to talk of the active electric shock.
However, the most important thing this achieved, was pushing these cells, past their threshold frequency. At this point, practically the body was open to any chemical and physical reaction.
Thus, this was where the mana carried by these charges came into play. Since the cells were already excited, it was easy for the mana cells to resonate with the mana in said electric charges, and then the mana in the atmosphere.
At least that was how it worked in theory. In practicality, most people's mana cells remained unresponsive to the mana in the charges.
Sean's case was even more baffling, his mana cells had not even been excited during the enhancement. And because his mana cells did not surpass their threshold frequency, knowing what affinities he had, was impossible.
That was the event that shaped the Sean she knew into a power hungry child, to the extent he became fiercely rebellious.
It was also when the relationship began to strain somewhat. Whereas she became overprotective, trying to fill in as both mother, therapist, and sister, Sean became more and more driven by agency and independence, that it appeared her efforts began to suffocate him, causing him to take this drastic step.
Sean on the other hand, was even more shocked, but for a different reason. The fact that he had four affinities, was shocking no doubt, but what he was more concerned about, was that he as a reader, was also lost for what affinity he had.
All recorded mental affinities in this world, were all clustered at the brain stem, and they gained massive insights on how to use their abilities, basically like how they learned to use their body. There did not need to be an active thinking process involved.
This one was located in his cerebrum, and if he was just by the logic of how mental affinities worked, he could narrow it down to abilities he needed to actively process, learn, know about, before he could even begin to utilize it.
And from many of the books he read, he knew none that fell under that condition, and was still mind related.
But if he did not know, and others too did not know, he knew someone that definitely did, the only problem now, was how to reach him.
"Genetic Enhancement, Integration phase." Devon's voice, pulled every body out of their stupor, and this time, even Richelle could not hold in her shock.
"What?" Richelle gasped. "That is impossible."
Devon was silent for a few seconds, as though clarifying with his head, if it was playing tricks on him. But it was there all clear and displayed on the monitor for all of them to see.
To Sean however, all of it just confirmed what he had deduced and suspected about himself, while washing up.
"But he just went through the process today," Richelle muttered in disbelief.
Michael reacted to her words as though struck by lightning. "What the fuck did you say?"
However, his question received no response, but no response was all the response he needed.
"This... What the actual fuck?" He muttered.
"His genes are really something else. They're clearly the genetic makeup of a human being but are very strange. From what it appears, they're particularly dominant genes, that they can suppress other genes in reproduction, even if they carry the recessive trait.'
"While this is particularly a biological anomaly, that's not the important thing here. What is astounding is that, his genes basically, rather than being forced to be recalibrated by the beast's genome, "devoured" it if I may say, and distilled it into usable materials to evolve, basically skipping the infusion phase altogether."
"It is almost to figure out what kind of beast had been used in his enhancement."
At the end of his analysis, Devon's eyes were practically shining like torches. Although he didn't say it, if this thing could be replicated, then Sean's body, was basically a biological treasure.
"I need a blood sample," Devon said hurriedly, rising from his seat towards Sean.
"What're you doing?" Richelle reacted fiercely, like a mother hen protecting her chick. She too knew the implication of what this meant.
"Relax, I won't do anything to hurt him I promise," he said, raising his hand up in a sign of peace and surrender.
He was genuinely intrigued now, and if it meant sucking up to the White Witch to get what he wanted, he was willing to do it.
Without waiting for a reply, he continued towards Sean, and pressed a button in the pod.
Through the thin tubes imbedded into Sean, his blood began to flow out in collect into a small bag.
After getting a small but sufficient amount, Devon stopped, and collected the blood in the bag into a syringe, all eyes following his movements to the letter.
He walked back to his seat, and poured the blood into what looked like a flask. A device that was used to break down genetic makeups to its simplest form.
The next second, HORUS' voice echoed in Thorne's ears, sounding more life-like than ever before.
[Impossible!]