Chapter 10 Part 1 of 3 (Patreon)

Jen and the rest of the body tempering team had been working in shifts for the last three weeks.

“The last of his organs appeared to be tempered ninety percent,” one of the assisting medics said.

“Your tempering by system has worked incredibly well,” Melissa Bouchard complimented.

“Thank you,” Jen said as she looked at Erik’s body. They had tempered his blood first, then his bones, then his muscles, then his lungs, heart, all of his organs including skin.

Erik’s cracked, blackened skin had flaked off, revealing his natural skin, but it seemed duller than before, pressing on it was like pressing on chainmail. But it was so incredibly small one couldn’t see it with their own eyes.

His bones had turned grey as well, greatly increasing his bone’s natural strength. His blood was thicker but his heart was much stronger. His heart beat came slowly, deep and bassy that one could feel with their fingers.

Erik’s body had been torn apart. The harsh inorganic metal attribute clashed with his constitution. There had been multiple times he’d been close to death.

“Okay, let's remove the necklace,” Jen finished checking the different healers, formations, different medical machines and alchemy concoctions that were being fed into Erik’s body.

A medic unscrewed the heavy necklace.

The formations turned off.

Silver flooded Erik’s neck, racing under his skin and into his head. The lower half of his body remained the same. Like shattered ice, the cracked black skin raced up his neck and across his face.

Erik’s hair started to fall out as he started to bleed on the table.

“Healing!” It had been less than a second but Erik was being torn apart.

Healing formations, healing spells, healing concoctions were all poured into Erik’s body.

A rumbling noise came from within his body as ambient mana from the surrounding are surged upwards.

“Stamina?” Jen yelled

“It’s good!”

What a monstrous body to supply so much stamina.

Erik’s body was fighting as well, the cracked skin started to flake off as the silver lines under his skin returned to blue.

“It appears to be working, his bones, blood and skin are all repairing at advanced rates!”

“Brain?”

“The metal attribute is combining with the brain, the healing seems to be fusing them together.”

Jen used a scan to look at the brain.

“We thought that the brain would be the hardest part, the most dangerous part. I wonder if because of the mana gate at the top of the head, the third eye and base of skull means that he has actually passively tempered his brain?” Bouchard thought aloud.

“I’ll take it,” Jen said as all of the medics were pouring in their healing spells. The rumbling noise grew louder as more energy from the Ten Realms flowed into Erik’s body, through his mana gates, through his very skin. The energy was drawn into his bones and blood, spreading through his body and reaching his brain.

Still there are so many mysteries, so many things we don’t understand yet.

“He is coming out. His body is burning through the concoctions to keep him unconscious!”

***

Pain.

Erik gritted his teeth as he forced his way through the pain that had spread through his being.

He circulated his mana. He felt the familiar flow even as his breathing was painful and labored.

It feels like my skull is expanding and contracting on my brain. Erik smacked his lips and moved his tongue as he suddenly tasted something awfully similar to a concoction gone wrong, it changes to sweet and then sour and then disappeared.

Erik tried to open his eyes but he couldn’t get them open. There was just darkness with faint light peeking in.

Come on body, pull it together! Erik could feel the weakness that pervaded his body. He increased his mana circulation and healing spells. He felt filled with energy, but as if there were weights across his body.

Panic started to set in a little.

Pull it together. Your body is just heavy. You’re tired. Come on, work on the problem! Erik felt his body becoming alive. The ‘weights’ throughout his body weakened and then disappeared, like a band snapping power flowed into his body. Erik roared in triumph, feeling like he had put up a new record in the gym. His body, to his very cells, was in joy.

Sound snapped into existence.

Noise flooded in painfully.

“Check the restraints!”

“Erik, calm down!”

“Sixty percent of his brain has been tempered, its accelerating!”

“Quiet, please, stop screaming,” Erik forced out. He could hear everything within the room. He could hear people picking up IV bags, the trickle of potions in the tubes, his own heart beat, the heart beats of others in the room. Those that were outside the room, the elevated breathing of his protection detail.

Smells bloomed as he could smell the metal in the air, the sweat of those in the room.

Damn, is this the no shower club? Not much soap or perfume between them all!

Erik never stopped circulating mana and healing himself. He felt as if another band had been released, energy flooded through his being. In just a few seconds, it felt as if he had just woken up from a revitalizing sleep that had washed away all of his fatigue.

The light coming in through his eyelids brightened and faded colors started to appear.

Erik moved his hand towards his face.

“Erik, you’re all hooked up! Don’t move!,” Jen said, a medic holding his hand.

Erik barely felt the medic on his arm. He nodded and lowered his arm after a moment. I’m really tempted to just try and lift it and see just how strong I have become.

Erik felt a grin spread across his face. hHis body rumbled. His blood started to speed up, his heartbeat sounded out, he felt it through the table.

My senses have been heightened massively, to a painful degree, but just with my senses I can tell what is going on within my body with my medical knowledge. My senses reach out to thirty meters. A regular human can focus up to a hundred meters reliably, though most of them have a highly defined area of sensing of two meters, passive up to five, beyond then, they need to scan, relying on their eyes to study things in the distance.

Erik moved his face, forcing his eye lids open and closed. Okay that should have opened and closed my eyes, but I

Erik felt a ripple through his body as if he was being coated with armor. It was like wearing a comfortable, thick-close skin sweater. It was comfortable and flexible, barely noticeable. Though it also felt like he had just donned body armor. He felt like a human tank.

Okay, so I might be blind right now. That should get fixed.

Erik pinched his thigh. It was supple but thick.

He moved his shoulders, opening his chest and breathed in, mana flooded in from the surrounding area.

“Erik, you crazy bastard!” Jen hissed.

“Seventy perce-Seventy five!” A panicked watcher yelled.

I’ve been feeble and weak for too long. It’s time I woke this body up!

Erik circulated the surrounding mana, he didn’t refine it. The mana was heavy with the metal attribute. He drew it deep into his body. The Fire and Earth mana was drawn out, nourishing his cells, some of the Metal was strengthening his body, the rest of it was tempering his body. Unlike before, his body was fighting back. Just who would be consumed and used as fuel for the other was no longer definite. Erik’s body forced the metal attribute into submission.

With the power of the attributes Erik’s body wasn’t just surviving anymore, his thin and emaciated frame started to expand. Stamina concoctions and mana supplied the energy. The healing spells and tempered body converted those energies into repairing power. Erik’s muscles started to recover at a visible rate.

Erik had stopped paying attention to the other medics, silently apologizing.

He opened his eyes. His eyes wandered around, as colors and shapes came in from his surroundings, he could feel his eyes tearing up as more power was released from his body. It was like different systems were coming back online, injecting new life and power into the whole.

The colors turned and sharpened, Erik focused on one thing, feeling nauseous. Then the sharp colors softened and Erik saw the tops of heads, the ceiling above. Lines filled with concoctions hooked into his body, he traced one with his head.

He grunted as a wave of pain ran through his skull.

Focus, still tempering.

Erik, secure in knowing he could see, turned his attention to his body.

My mana circulation is stronger. I guess it is because the container is stronger.

“I’ll take care of the body, you deal with the head,” Erik said.

He continued to circulate and heal, repairing his body.

“Alright,” Jen said, he felt a shift as formations were refocused.

Erik felt a disconnect. He kept feeling oddities, flashes of things in his brain, not memories, but pain, anger, love, the world would be beautiful, then green, then turning, then still. And then sounds would change or become silent or a different wavelength he’d never paid attention to.

These kinds of flashes were less than seconds long, creating a background noise to his being. Focusing on his mana circulation gave him something to hold onto.

Erik finished with his neck down, he continued to circulate his mana, waiting.

Then it was like the pressure popped at the top of his skull. In a rush of energy Erik felt an electric shock that started at the base of the neck, then raced down his spine, radiating out, through his nerves, reaching out through his entire being.