Published at 22nd of November 2022 5:56 pm

Chapter 609: Body-Modification

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“Body-modification? What d’ya mean? Do you want to replace more limbs with prosthetics?” Armodeus asked, and since he figured that the dwarf wouldn’t understand, Eiro quickly started to explain, “Tomorrow afternoon, a kid from the academy is coming over. To sum it up, he used flesh-magic to save himself and his sister from starving, but in the process, his sister broke the taboo. I’m helping them reverse the effects of the taboo, and in return, I plan on somehow gaining access to the boy’s flesh-magic. And once I do, I will be able to manipulate my body in different ways than possible until now. I can fuse materials with my body, but that’s about all for now.” Eiro explained, and Armodeus quickly started to think about what the Demon could mean. After a few moments of stroking his thick beard curiously, he looked Eiro in the eye.

“D’ya have some examples?” Armodeus asked, and Eiro quickly nodded, “Of course. It’s a bit risky, but it’s mostly related to trying to integrate the cards into my body. The three of swords, I want to turn into my claws, and I want to place the mirror of duplication into my eye. I plan on creating extra pockets or fake organs into my torso to store the potion of invisibility, and I want to increase the efficiency of the bloodstone already fused into my heart.”

The dwarf looked at the demon as if he just heard the ramblings of a madman. Because that was basically exactly what it was, “Are you absolutely insane? Why would you ever do something like that? Just take the damned things out of yer treasury like ya normally would, ya madman! In the first place, what you’re planning on doing is totally impossible, beyond being insane. The bloodstone was possible, since it’s just a gemstone with unique properties in the end, and the three of swords might work too, since the blades are already able to fuse with practically anything, but… placing the mirror into yer eye? The cup into your stomach? Just… why?”

“Well, obviously, I wouldn’t be using the original versions for that, at least not for now. Maybe in the future, but even I’m not that idiotic. The only reason I used the original bloodstone is because I can easily split it off of my body again when I want to, but I don’t plan on meddling with the other artifacts. No, I will be using duplicates of those versions, using a lesser duplicated mind to take care of the task of keeping them intact at all times once I’ve done so.” Eiro pointed out, “Since I’m the owner of those cards in the first place and the duplicates will be on, or in, my own body, there will be practicaly no noticeable difference in their effects, with the exception that I can control them more easily should something go wrong.” Eiro explained to quickly calm Armodeus down. Of course he had thought about things like this before, he had gone over it many times already.

“Right… right, of course, that makes sense.” Armodeus replied with a sigh of relief, “But well, what’d ya need my help for then? Ya can do all that on yer own, surely.”

“I could, but your opinion would really help. Since I only have a surface-level grasp of most types of materials with the exception of wood, I need your help to improve my method of fusing them into my body before I attempt at doing something that could cause long-term after-effects. I appreciate your eye for certain intricacies too, and since I want to make use of artificing-based principles to make the duplicates artifacts meld into my body and mind fully, your experience will be more than just helpful. I have nearly all the theory in my mind, and while I’m a fast learner, compared to you and the practical grasp of your superior skills, it would be just as insane for me to not ask for your help as it would be to fuse the true artifacts into my body.”

Armodeus looked back at Eiro perplexed, confused and surprised after hearing those words, “That… well, I… did not expect to hear that today. But thank you, either way.” The dwarf said, trying to hide how happy he was to actually hear this from Eiro. He cleared his throat, and sat up straight, placing his hands on the table, “Let me take a look at how ye fuse yerself with things. Just use some metal first.”

Eiro quickly nodded, and quickly drew the metal that was already fused into his body into one of his left hands, so that he could show this to the dwarf properly. It became harder for him to move that hand, but for certain purposes, it would still be enough. For example, a strike with his hand like this would certainly do more damage. And of course, the defensive aspect couldn’t be ignored either. Eiro held his hand over in front of Armodeus, who quickly grabbed it and ran his fingers over it.

“Hm… it’s fused perfectly, at least. As expected… this is the ability of a royal, there is no way for there to be a fault there. However… it feels weirdly rigid. What parts of your hands did you infuse this into?”

“Mostly into my skin, but to strengthen my muscles, I infused some into them as well.” Eiro replied quickly. The elder dwarf quickly let out a deep sigh, “Yer really mistreating the metal here, lad… this is all wrong, as if I’m looking at an amateur’s work.”

Eiro raised a brow curiously, “Didn’t you say it’s fused perfectly?”

“Of course, because it is. But only when we’re talking about it from the pure material’s view. Yer level of accuracy in smoothly spreading the metal around is astonishing, to say the least. But that’s not where the problem lies, it’s the way you treat this perfect material you create, and how ya use it.” Armodeus explained quickly, his earlier hesitance and nervosity completely disappearing, being replaced with just a hint of annoyance, “Metal has many properties that one has to make sure to take into account, and it can act vastly different if mixed with other materials, so of course that would be the case when fusing it with a living being’s body. You need to make sure to know the perfect ratio of metal to flesh for whatever purpose you want. If necessary, use other materials to adjust the metal’s properties further, and make it more stable.”

“I see… Thank you, I will-“

“I’m not done yet, lad.” Armodeus quickly interrupted Eiro, continuing immediately, “To begin with, as a Demon, ye’ve got incredible regeneration. But, while often flexible, metal is not supposed to move to this degree. Yer flesh stays intact, since it’s used to it, but the metal will be forming natural, minuscule cracks. While yer body can create new flesh to make up for this, it can’t create more metal, so the cracks will be filled in like that. Right now, the fusion may be perfect, but over time, it will naturally turn sloppy, and you may even damage your body in tiny ways over time. Of course, yer strong enough to not worry about that, but I think it would still be better if you improved your methods a bit more, especially if you want to do something as ridiculous as placing artifacts into your body.”

Eiro didn’t even have to think about it, he knew that what Armodeus was saying was true. However, he didn’t know how he was supposed to prevent the metal from cracking in those minuscule ways. Maybe he really just had to play around with proportions, as Armodeus said. However… could he really do that in the case of the artifacts? Sure, he could change their properties to an extent since they would just be duplicates anyway, but that would also further decrease their potency, “I think what you need to do is make whatever part ya infuse with metal undergo specific heat-treatments for a while. The only issue is that, once ya get into a fight and use your magic, the metal might heat up again and ye’d have to redo it every time. But… I might be able to help with that.”

“What do you mean?” Eiro asked. Although he already had an idea what Armodeus might mean, he really just had to be sure. He wanted to hear it from the mouth of this legendary craftsman.

“Eiro. Will you let me apply my skills on yer body?”

—

“Haah… finally, it’s done…” A voice exclaimed, echoing through these large halls. It was filled with annoyance, and showed a sense of bother in what had been achieved, “193 to go…”

“Eh~? Only that few?” Someone else asked curiously, her voice coming as a surprise, “Have you read all of the others already?”

The man turned around, looking into the eyes of the woman floating in the water in front of him. Her body seemed to practically meld into the space around her. She was a spirit, “Y-You… someone new passed the test?”

“Yup~!” She replied bluntly, and the man quickly stood up from the ground. Surprisingly, it seemed like his body was pulled to the floor, and he was able to walk around normally, even if a bit slower as people on the central elemental plane, “I didn’t think spirits cared much for literature. But it’s nice to not be alone anymore.” The man said, stretching out his frog-like hand, which was quickly received by the spirit’s, “Nice to meet ya, but I’m not actually the one that passed the test. My contractor did.”

“Contractor..? Wait, what? People in this plane don’t form contracts with spirits.”

“Right, he’s from the central elemental plane.”

“…Then how did he get here?”

“Simple. I just stepped through the gate.” Said another voice, appearing from seemingly right behind the man. He turned around, startled, but didn’t end up seeing the man that he thought he would. Instead of another man, it was a small fish, and from deep within its body, the voice started radiating out, “I’m Eiro. We’ll be sharing this space for the next few weeks, nice to meet you.”

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