Dissecting a scithian body is, perhaps, among the more disturbing things I’ve ever done.
To other people. I don’t particularly mind.
Luckily, Richard offers to help me. How truly kind of her. Maybe Jess would have been better at this, given [Dissect], but I think it might have been too far for her. But, frankly, it’s the guard’s fault. If he didn’t want me to take a look at his bones, he shouldn’t have carved runes into them.
Now I just have to wonder. Is it a skill mutation? From an epitaph? Is that how his mantle manifested? Did he enchant them with internal mana manipulation? He didn’t seem that skilled. Sure, he was strong, and swift, but more in a martial way, rather than in a magical one.
So, Richard and I set to work.
[Respitia the Pure gazes upon you in horror. She calls you a disgrace to all healers, and insinuates that your regard for life is so low you might as well kill yourself.]
I look at the message, and then promptly ignore it. I know that Respitia knows where I am. Even though I’m currently in a black box, I have no delusions about whether that stops the Eyes. No, it’s a cover to make it so she can’t tell anyone about what I’m doing. This is purely to convince the tower that no one without extreme sight abilities should know.
So, it does protect me. It protects me, because if Respitia just sends her high-levellers, the tower will get upset. It’s the same reason Flamando hasn’t found me. Flametouched knows where I am, but cannot tell their avatar.
“Don’t eat that,” I chide Richard, and she quickly drops the arm of the guard again, giving me a sheepish expression. Her chelicerae poke into her lips, but she nods all the same.
“Alright. I would like to eat him after, though,” she says, calmly.
[Crying out in horror, Respitia the Pure recoils.]
I tilt my head. “Why?”
“My class. Eater. I can get stronger if I eat strong things,” she says, then slowly licks her lips, six eyes blinking at me as two of her arms trace his skin. “And he looks strong.”
“Fair enough,” I say with a shrug. “You can have everything that doesn’t have runes on it. Leave the bones intact. Maybe once Amelie comes up she can reuse them.”
[You hear a distant scream of disgust.]
[The Fleshsmith turns an Eye on you, regarding your curiosity with faint approval.]
I tilt my head at the notification as I strip more flesh from bone, looking at it with interest. Another Eye watching me, though this one seems to be more on my side. Actually, should I be concerned about that? All the Eyes that are on my side seem to be creepy or weirdos. Which is strange, because I’m clearly a completely reasonable person.
With a shake of my head, I decide to disregard the morality of the people watching me. There’s no way that my “audience” is indicative of the kind of person I am. Probably. Surely.
[The Deceptive Manipulator praises your gaslighting skills.]
Once more, I ignore the message, prying the man’s femur free and letting Kuro slither across the bone to clean it up. Richard regards the gluttonous shadow with a small amount of jealousy. I look between them. “If you two start fighting over this guy, I’ll get annoyed,” I tell them quietly.
Instantly, both of them turn to each other, and in small glances and gestures, have a conversation I cannot parse. But, by the end, it seems decided. Richard will get any bigger chunks, and Kuro gets to do any cleanup jobs and keep the floor free of blood.
Shaking my head, I focus on the pale-yellow bone in front of me. I slowly press my finger against the runes, tracing them. They’re cold and dry, absorbing the moisture on my skin. But the runes are very, very interesting.
With my knowledge of imbuement, I can abstract my own skills into runes, somewhat. But these are more advanced than that, they must be from a stronger healing skill. In fact, I’m almost certain they’re from a heart epitaph. Which means I want to steal them even more.
Already, my healing skill is strengthening every time I pick apart a new one. I’ve learned from so many lovely teachers, some more voluntary than others. The Tower, who I stole from. Philia, the Darkbreaker, who I killed. Ezekiel, who I murdered. This guard, who I butchered...
Really, if Respitia was any less set on killing me, I’d think she’s trying to feed me insights on healing.
[Your audacity has reduced Respitia the Pure to groaning in frustration.]
I smile at the message. Even the Eyes can still be teased, then. What silly critters they are.
Tearing off another bone from the flesh that it still clings to, I trace those runes, too. I remember them all, making sure to note them down in [Annexation]. The skill is stronger than its components - allowing me to not just store things in a kind of mental pinwall, but also letting me learn from them faster.
It’s supercharged my pattern recognition, basically. Which means that when I come upon a pattern on the bones that looks a lot like the healing marks I designed for application in my own body, I instantly notice.
[Annexation 2 > 3]
With careful study, I compare. Once more, I learn, I steal, and I grow.
A day passes like that, until we’ve fully disassembled the entire skeleton. Richard seems content, and I feel mana flowing off her as her body changes from the power she’s absorbing. She grows dense, stronger. As for me? I learn more about healing, of course.
[Biological Restoration 25 > 27]
And as faint white-gold crawls underneath my skin… I feel just a little bit more of my arm beginning to regrow. Absent-mindedly, I scratch at the spot, smiling faintly. “Soon, Sylves,” I whisper. “Soon.”
- - -
Raven doesn’t take the defeat well. They tell me to bring them even more items, and they offer to pay even more. But I let them prepare their vendetta. They’re paying me enough for it, after all. And if we do kill them, we’ll need some other way to get tokens. Bribing the guard is hard without connections.
Comparatively, we hear nothing from Bloodline. It’s perfectly quiet. No pokes at the borders of our territories, no trouble caused to any of us, just silence. Almost unsettlingly so.
Not that I’d have called things boring. After all, just two days after our little feud, someone approaches me. It’s a zoof. “Yuki,” they whisper conspiratorially. “There’s-”
“Who are you?” I ask, tilting my head.
“I- I guess I didn’t introduce myself last time. I’m Bofoy. Lars, the human who threw fireballs around in here, hurt me.” They pause, then lean even closer, whispering. “You healed me with that item of yours.”
For a moment, I tilt my head, then I remember. “Right, right,” I nod.
They give me an awkward smile through the thick fur. “So, there’s some info you might be interested in. Respitia has found a healer on the fourth floor - he’s being carted up soon. Tomorrow, I’ve heard. Human, a child.”
I frown. “Anyone with him?”
“An old lady,” the zoof provides helpfully.
My frown deepens, because I know who they mean. “Jean,” I say quietly. He got caught by Respitia. I sigh, softly. How am I gonna get him out of this one?
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