Bear School Astartes

Chapter 416. Rapid Growth

"Whew!"

The Demon Hunter was on the verge of collapse, kneeling on the ground in the laboratory, gasping for breath.

Cold sweat from the pain covered his exposed, well-defined, aesthetically pleasing muscles with a sheen.

In the center of his back, at the spine, a small incision was slowly healing.

Not much blood flowed from the cut, but it was still enough to slide down his back and stain the waistband of his pants.

Lann still felt as if the sensation of a blade cutting through muscle and grazing bone remained embedded in his body.

The surface of the bone is rough, and the blade makes a gritty "shhlk" sound when scraping against it.

The spine contains the body’s rich neural system, and the tremor of the blade against the vertebrae can be intensely felt by the nerves.

Operating on oneself, the pain is one thing; the other is having to endure the strange feeling of a sharp foreign object contacting the inside of the body.

Mentos’s surgical guidance was exquisite, and Lann’s execution was flawless.

As for body structure, Lann’s surgery was merely akin to making a four-centimeter-long, three-centimeter-deep incision in his back.

The cuts are all in easily recoverable muscle, without injuring other difficult-to-repair biological tissues.

The severity is about the same as having a cut on the arm.

So after implanting the [Skeletal Reinforcement Organ] onto the spine, a bottle of [Enhanced Pure White Rafad] quickly healed the wound.

"Bleeding has completely stopped, and the wound is generally closed. Do you need to drink [Enhanced White Honey] now?"

Mentos assessed Lann’s postoperative state while asking.

"No." The Demon Hunter tentatively arched his back, confirming the wound indeed had not torn. "Let the potion’s toxicity precipitate in the body for a while, first kill off the bacteria that entered the body during surgery, then detoxify."

This is what’s good about a Demon Hunter’s body; bacteria and fungi that would infect an ordinary human’s body are less resistant than their own body cells under the fierce toxicity of potions.

Therefore, a Demon Hunter can even work in plague-ridden areas without protection.

Lann wasn’t concerned about the toxicity; he was more worried about how the implanted organ was doing inside him.

"Judging by memory, the [Skeletal Reinforcement Organ] is functioning normally, sir."

Sensing the host’s thoughts, Mentos projected dozens of real-time scrolling data streams onto Lann’s retina.

It knew that with the host’s ability, he could fully understand what the data meant.

"It has started monitoring my bone condition... huh, it’s clearly a non-intelligent organ, but under the integration of the gene seed, it can display intelligence—truly amazing."

As Lann stood up and put his shirt back on, he analyzed the data flow that Mentos had provided.

The tubular organ that had just been integrated into Lann’s body, though complex in structure, absolutely lacked intelligence.

The bone monitoring ability it now exhibited was provided by the gene seed.

The gene seed is the most important and core aspect of the Interstellar Warrior surgery. Without the gene seed, the rest of the surgery is merely stuffing a bunch of ordinary enhancement organs into the body that won’t form a system.

"The hormones have started secreting; they’ll continuously impact my epiphyseal growth and bone development... how quick the response is!"

The [Skeletal Reinforcement Organ]’s speed in collecting data on bone conditions in his body made Lann suspect that the gene seed had real-time records of his physical data.

Upon organ integration, it directly called on the bone data from the gene seed.

Faintly, Lann began to feel a growth sensation emanating from his bones.

Over the next period, he estimated he would enter a rapid growth phase.

"I’m not sure if I should rush to find advanced armor designs so soon."

The incision on his back now left only a trace of new growth, and Lann lightly jumped twice, complaining to Mentos.

"According to our calculations, I might grow to be around two meters forty to two meters fifty tall in the future. The armor made now will definitely need modifications."

Mentos, like a nagging mother, said patiently.

"Altering the size is minor. After all, we’re not short on funds now. What’s important is not getting stabbed because of poor equipment when you’re in another world!"

The core message: Stack that armor up! No matter the cost, are we the kind of people who can’t afford it?

What’s doing business for? To spend!

Lann was just complaining offhandedly; he was quite serious about upgrading the armor as well.

"Let me recover for a bit." Lann twisted his body, allowing his spine to move freely. "We’ll set off in a few days for a trip to the Amel Mountains. I hope the Dwarves there are as easy to talk to as Shilton."

But maybe because of his ingrained knowledge of the Bear School, Lann couldn’t help but feel that negotiating with Dwarves associated with the Bear School wouldn’t be easy either.

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"You still carry the scent of blood."

Margaret leaned in to take a gentle sniff at Lann’s neck.

She then discretely took out her perfume from her handbag and sprayed it around, masking the smell of blood.

The two passing apprentices showed no signs of noticing anything strange.

In the Female Warlock’s academy, all sorts of expensive and cheap fragrances would interweave and mingle.

"Ah, my bad." Lann, walking alongside Margaret, headed down to the lower levels of Airetusa.

"Besides, I don’t carry any scented items in my Alchemy Pouch that can mask the smell... but I do have some monster dung meant to repel beasts."

Margaret rolled her eyes elegantly.

Undoubtedly, female warlocks and demon hunters use scents in entirely different manners.

Their position kept descending, soon reaching below the first-level Luoxia Palace.

This area can already be considered the interior of the large reef serving as the foundation of the castle.

"These past days, I’ve created a passageway for you, a secret entrance for later entering the academy."

Margaret turned and said, raising her hand and giving a wave, instigating a beam of light to appear in her hand, illuminating a dark path.

"Wow..." Lann muttered as he walked, his fingers brushing past the walls as they moved. "Magic is indeed efficient; this is quite the project."

Margaret ignored the Demon Hunter’s envy over magic and continued speaking.

"This is not just a passageway; I’ve set up a room at the end-point. If you return, you can also rest there for a few days. We need the outside world to know you have a good relationship with the academy, but we also don’t want them to know your every move."

"So, with this passage as a buffer, as long as I don’t show my face, no one should know when I’ve returned."

The Demon Hunter rubbed his chin, analyzing.

"... Tell me straight, Rita. When did you and Tishaya start arranging this?"

The Female Warlock gave no answer, merely biting her teeth in irritation and giving Lann a light kick on the calf.