Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

When they left behind the Dungeon, the moon was high in the sky and shining down on them. A dozen streets over, laughter and cheering could be heard as food and drink were consumed in massive amounts, but here there was nothing of the sort. The windows of the houses were dark, the street was empty, and it was likely that nobody would be there until the sun rose once again.

“A quiet end to the day,” Alin commented, after handing over the papers detailing their dive to the Dungeon Guard. Even with their status, it was still a requirement to have every visit written down in detail. “Not a terrible thing, with how hectic it was down there.”

“You could say that,” Elijah agreed. However, he noticed the mildly nervous expression when he looked over at Grace. And that smile on her mentor… It was a little too bright. “Do you have anything you want to ask?”

“Sharp eyes as always,” the Earth Mage gave in immediately. “As you know, my apprentice has graduated from being a mere student and joined the ranks of scholars. While finishing her thesis would normally be followed by starting on another even more complex project, I’ve received a formal request from her to—”

“I want to leave the city with all of you,” Grace cut in, her tolerance for the flowery language reached. “Alin told me you’re leaving in two days. I want to come with you.”

… Elijah supposed this had been planned from the start. It was strange how easy it had been to get the Earth Mage to escort them into the Dungeon on such short notice. He’d expected that it would have to wait a day before there would be an opening, but no such thing was needed if Alin had already hoped to do just that.

Making Grace fight the monsters alone hadn’t just been to judge her technique. It had been to prove that she could handle herself and show that she wouldn’t be a burden if brought along.

Nevertheless, Elijah could still remember the young girl who had twisted her ankle trying to run down the stairs, the over-enthusiastic Wind Mage who had been bedridden for days after pushing her magical abilities too far, and the very same woman who had been halfway to breaking down after killing a peer to save herself and Elijah.

But she had grown beyond all of that.

“I assume that those above have allowed this addition?” Elijah asked, to which Alin nodded. “Figures.”

“More importantly, Grace, are you sure that you want to do this?” Aleksi questioned. “You will be away from the city for almost three weeks. For somebody that has never ventured outside the walls, that can be a very long time.”

“I know, but I also doubt that it’ll be as traumatic as what happened inside,” Grace replied. She smiled, but neither of the two old men could manage to mirror it. “And it’s not that I’m hoping to go alone. It’s with you.”

“Even then—”

“Yes or no,” she cut in before Elijah could offer any form of rebuttal. “I won’t be a burden to you.”

…

Elijah looked at Aleksi for advice. The giant provided none, looking as conflicted as Elijah felt.

That wasn’t what Aleksi was supposed to do. He was meant to be the lenient one, to press Elijah to allow the younger folk to try out new things. Instead, parental instincts took over, and neither of them wanted to risk her life.

They’d been attacked on their last journey, after all. Yet Grace still wanted to follow in their footsteps.

… Maybe I am getting too lenient with age.

“Make sure your mother knows that this was your choice,” Elijah finally said, sighing when Grace ran over to hug him excitedly. He was already regretting this. “We’re leaving the day after tomorrow during the early morning. Make sure you have clothes and other personal items to last you for a full month.”

“Yes, sir!” Grace just about shouted in reply, mock saluting before laughing once again. “I’ll get everything sorted out before you know it.”

“As long as it’s done before we leave the city, I don’t care.”

Not long after, the group split up. Grace was more than ready to race back to her mother’s inn to deliver the good news, and Alin had another stack of reports to go through before heading to bed.

As for the two otherworlders… Elijah had expected both of them to join him and Aleksi and return to the old shop, but both had differing opinions. Sasha felt no need to sleep just yet and was planning to leave them for the brothel and spar with Cas. Elijah almost questioned why she thought that man would be awake at this hour but the answer was obvious.

When it came to Jack, the man ‘had to’ figure out the limits of this new upgrade of his. Since his dealings with Lugh granted him a key to the smithy, he was planning to both practice and sleep inside that workshop.

Did Elijah think that either of the two was smart for such choices? Not at all, but it wasn’t as if he had ground to stand on.

“That way you looked at me when you picked up the apple,” Aleksi said, the instant the door to the shop was locked and there were ears that could listen in. “I take it you have an idea?”

“More than just an idea,” Elijah corrected. Carefully, he pulled the last half of the Idun Apple out of his pocket. Even when cut up, the energy contained within the fruit was magnificent and of such unending complexity that he doubted he could replicate it on his own. “The Dungeon gave me quite the lesson in manipulating flesh. Enough to make changes to a certain organ of yours that’s been problematic, though I don’t have the strength to keep you alive on my own.”

“And that apple can do it?” the giant asked, to which Elijah nodded. “... It’s enticing.”

“I know,” Elijah agreed. “It’s probably why the Dungeon gave me that apple to begin with. It felt the desire.”

“Oh, so you just want me healthy so I can be your bodyguard again?” Aleksi teased, laughing when Elijah gave him a jab on the shoulder while walking by into the laboratory. The giant followed without hesitation. “Don’t act like it’s not a part of why you want to do this.”

Where did I put those damned medium beakers?

“Of course, I want you able to defend me,” Elijah fired back as he went down on his knees to rummage through the lowest shelves. Other than dust, the homes of a few spiders, and broken vials he’d procrastinated throwing out, there was nothing. “I want you to be able to run, to hold an ax and actually use it, to throw a full-grown man like he weighs nothing because I know how much you loved it. I— Oh, thanks.”

“Not a problem,” Aleksi assured him, giving him the medium beaker that he’d somehow located before Elijah.

Taking a few vials from his jackets and emptying them into the beaker. It was just a few variants of healing liquids, focused around different types of injuries. Some worked better for muscles, some for cuts, and one or two focused on keeping a body alive no matter how much damage it caused to make that happen.

“We’re old,” Elijah continued. “The medication I’m making for you on the regular might keep your heart beating steadily for now, but I don't know how many years that might continue. You might have accepted that fact, but I haven’t. I—”

“No need for that now,” the giant cut in before Elijah could finish that sentence. “Remember the deal we made. I keep you safe from the world, and you make sure my body doesn’t stop moving.”

That blasted deal.

Dual-Channeling of [Breathe Life] and [Plant Bond] has been activated! Current cost: 21MP/sec

The wave of truths regarding the mixture in the beaker brought Elijah out of his spiraling mind. It was a gracious gift from the world, made even better by him being able to combine the different liquids until he was sure they would all work together to hold the body stable.

“So you won’t mind if I alter your heart so it can beat for a long while more?” Elijah asked, beaker in one hand and the apple in the other. “There is a risk I might mess up.”

“There’s always risks,” Aleksi countered with a grin. Elijah had always hated that side of the giant. He was too willing to wager his life for a promise of something better. “I trust you.”

“... Fine,” Elijah said, handing the larger man the beaker. “Drink this.”

Aleksi downed it without question, the drink disappearing into the giant’s gut. Elijah saw as it traveled through the body, as it began to activate and allow its effects to flow through the flesh until it reached the heart.

But it didn't act just yet.

“Feels tingly,” Aleksi commented, a shudder flying through the giant. Elijah didn't offer a reply, just passing the man the Idun Apple next. “So, what, I just eat it raw?”

“Since anything I could do to it would only degrade the effectiveness, yes,” Elijah confirmed. Aleksi looked at him for a moment before just shrugging and taking a bite. “How does it taste?”

“Like if some freak decided to fill a perfectly good apple with a bucket load of sugar,” the giant said, grimacing at the sheer sweetness. “Wait, you didn’t even know what it would taste like?”

“It’s not exactly the most vital detail for the fruit.”

“Well, go and write it down somewhere after this. The next poor fool to eat one of these needs to be prepared.”

Elijah just rolled his eyes as he watched the man chew through the last parts of the apple. The fruit was already starting to awaken as it went down the giant’s throat, as could be seen by the golden glow starting to escape the skin.

Now comes the hard part.

Having already emptied the main table of anything of importance, Aleksi was made to lay down on top of it. The giant barely fit, the feet going a bit over the edge, but neither cared.

“Any chance of a pillow?” Aleksi requested with a grin. Elijah didn't reply in words. A short stare of judgment was more than enough. “Just checking.”

… Dawn, could you make him a pillow?

‘Yes!’

With a flash of gold and green, the duck appeared in mid-air. Without much free space on the table, however, she was forced to land on the ground.

A minor inconvenience nowadays, since Dawn had no problems dealing with such a height requirement. In a single breath, the duck form had been shed in favor of a human one.

“Crazy stuff,” Aleksi muttered, raising his head when Dawn used her new hand to nudge it upwards. With her fingers now below the giant, a pillow-shaped bag containing hundreds of fake feathers began to grow, expanding until they were about the size of the pillows on their beds. “Damn. You could sell these.”

“Since the material will be severely degraded within a week, I don’t believe so,” Elijah countered. He took a deep breath, feeling the final threads of Mana inside settle down within his grasp. Everything was ready. “I’m going to start now. Don’t move until I’m done.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

A sarcastic remark, one that made Elijah roll his eyes as he retreated from the physical world and allowed his mind to dive into the giant’s flesh. There was a brief moment of resistance as he did, Aleksi’s body detecting his foreign presence and trying to fight against it, but the healing liquids he’d made the man drink minutes before calmed down the system quickly.

It trusted him, just like Aleksi.

Good.

Dual-Channeling of [Breathe Life] and [Flesh Bond] has been activated! Current cost: 42MP/sec

The depth was instantly dialed down, bringing the cost to an average of 16 MP per second. Barely a minute and a half to work with, if he only used his personal reserves, but the air inside the laboratory and Dawn’s presence could extend the window to around three minutes.

With the Idun Apple already calling to him, and lowering the price even further… he couldn’t say.

‘Reject your ways of life,’ he ordered the flesh that sat inside the giant. It listened to him, listened to his words as if they were the words of a higher being, and they moved at his orders. ‘You have weakened this vessel for long enough.’

With his senses giving him a full view of the body processes, he could only grimace at the sights seen. The heart was as enlarged as ever, with higher blood pressure, a reduced flow rate that came from the valves not being able to close properly, and those tears on the sides that would only spread if true strain was forced on the organ.

And that edge of the green in the veins which surrounded the left and right ventricle… Scars from the old life of a berserker. Elijah loathed that elixir, and the damage it had caused, but he knew that there was nothing to be done about the past. He could only work towards improving what was here now, and make sure that the future was a little brighter.

‘I call upon the favor you allowed,’ Elijah sent to the Idun Apple. It accepted his words instantly, the legendary energy flowing through the body and covering the heart. Anything that would be done would be kept stable by the fruit. ‘Thank you.’

The apple welcomed the praise but hurried him to accelerate the changes.

Elijah did just that.

With his knowledge of the muscles that were contained within the human body, he could spot the flaws and inconsistencies rather easily. To alter the bonds to strengthen the fibers and increase the endurance of the heart was trivial, but this alone would do nothing in the long run. A larger resistance to the strains of the body would only do so much if the damage would still accumulate over time.

No… he needed to go deeper. The flesh had to know how to heal itself properly, and how to repair the damage. While it could already do plenty in the ways of regeneration, there were limits. Elijah pushed past those, teaching the muscles their ideal states and how to reach those.

Aleksi would need a more protein-rich diet after this, to bear the extra load, but Elijah doubted the giant would mind.

Further on, the size of the heart was reduced. Not by much, since the flow still needed to be kept high, but the effectiveness was drastically improved. At anything higher than 180 beats per minute, the organ had proved itself unable to properly synchronize its beating, causing all kinds of side effects.

Unacceptable, when the elixir brought it over 200 as a standard.

Human hearts weren’t meant to sustain such a rate, of course, but that was why the elixir wasn’t intended to be used for more than a few years. It brought the bodies to the apex and then threw them away when they could no longer handle the strain.

What Elijah wouldn’t give to strangle the creator of the recipe.

Calm yourself.

Taking a deep breath, he kept working. The ability to handle sudden bursts of rapid beating was dealt with, tissues were strengthened to accept adrenaline more easily, and the adaptation to outside stimuli was likewise improved. Within a few seconds, Aleksi would be able to reach peak strength, and less than a minute after he could return to a calm state.

Hopefully.

‘Hurry it up,’ Elijah encouraged, feeding the flesh more and more of his Mana while he oversaw the changes. He could feel his own Core starting to run empty, but the changes were yet to have been completed. ‘Flaws are not— Damn it!’

He could hear Aleksi gasp as a tear in the left ventricle suddenly appeared. With the pain came adrenaline and an increased heart rate, leading to more tearing until the wall of the heart threatened to burst.

“Dawn,” Elijah forced out through his teeth, as he increased the output of Mana to focus on the problematic heart chamber. The flesh was fighting to keep itself together, and with his help, he could just barely keep it that way, but there was no chance to revert the damage on his own.

‘On it!’

Another grunt of pain left the giant as she slapped both her hands onto his chest, small roots rapidly growing from her fingers and into his chest. Elijah couldn’t imagine the agony caused by the action and neither did he have time for it, as he guided Dawn to the left ventricle.

“Whatever you’re doing—”

“Don’t talk,” Elijah cut in before Aleksi could move around his chest more. The giant shut up after that, though it was obvious that the pain was getting to him. “We’re fixing it.”

The small roots split off into hundreds of smaller ones, weaving together the muscle fibers around the heart chamber and forcibly binding it together. Each beat of the heart was an attempt by the body to rip away any amount of progress, but both Elijah and Dawn were unrelenting.

‘Become new.’

He wasn’t sure if it was through their work, or if the world had deemed their willpower enough to manifest a miracle, but the organ began to calm and the muscle hold steady.

For the moment, at least. The moment that Dawn began to retreat her influence, the force of the flowing blood would once again be too much.

Elijah had made the left atrium too powerful, not just in the sense that it could sustain a strong current of blood moving through it, but also without the ability to update to the internal pressures. From what the heart could understand, it was performing at ordinary levels, regulating without knowing the modifiers in place.

It was an issue that took less than ten seconds to fix, but even then it brought him dread. Such a minor inconsistency could cause such devastation…

“Are you still feeling any pain?” Elijah asked as he retreated to let his reserves be restored. The Idun Apple took over in the meanwhile, holding the organ steady together with the remaining energies from the concoction.

“Other than a slight headrush, I’ve got no complaints,” Aleksi replied. A few more minutes of observations confirmed the statement, the giant not having any obvious consequences from the alterations. “Are you done already?”

“Just about,” Elijah said, stopping Aleksi from getting up just yet. Checking the insides again revealed that the organ was operating as normal, with nothing malfunctioning just yet. “I’ve patched everything together, and your heart should be able to handle the tensions of life now, but going by my word alone means little.”

“So we have to make sure it can hold up to that claim,” the giant concluded. After getting permission, he sat up on the table. “... No instant death for me, it seems.”

“No discomfort?”

“Quite the opposite,” Aleksi assured him, as he got back on his feet. As expected, the man towered over Elijah, with his back straight and face in quiet contemplation. “No weird pangs coming and going, my lungs are light, and that pressure on my chest is gone.”

Not a bad start, though just standing wasn’t a good indication of how the organ would respond to stress. Not before long, Elijah had the giant doing pushups, squats, and moving some furniture around while they were at it.

And, while moving the kitchen table certainly wasn’t a trivial task, at no point did the giant have to even breathe deeply.

“That felt lighter than it did last year,” Aleksi commented, as they moved the chairs back to the table. “Muscles haven’t changed in size, though.”

“I suppose your heart was holding you back,” Elijah replied. “The residue of the Idun Apple in your system is likely aiding as well. Even if I made it concentrate on the heart, just the presence should’ve made your muscles be in perfect condition.”

“Yeah, that probably did it,” the giant agreed, flexing his fingers. “Ready for the next step?”

“Not like we can postpone it.”

Aleksi rummaged through the hidden side pocket inside his jacket before fishing out a green vial. It was one of the smaller ones, a quarter of the usual dose, but still more than enough to show off the effects.

“Cheers,” was all that was said before the contents were downed and the vial was given to Elijah who absentmindedly handed it to Dawn who stood beside him. “Not feeling anything immediately, but— Oh, no, never mind, there it is.”

It started at the throat, the jugular veins transforming into a mildly bioluminescent green as they expanded. From there, the green lines spread out further, first traveling upwards and making the eyes gain that same coloring before going further down to the chest.

“Yeah, I’m not sleeping tonight,” Aleksi declared, shaking his arms while keeping his core body steady for Elijah to study. “Still no pain. This is just hitting much harder than it should be. Is this your doing?”

“Perhaps,” Elijah said, not sure about the logistics himself. From what he could tell, however, the heart was dealing with the increased heart rate flawlessly. Even when it was steadily ramping up to 200 beats per minute, and the breaths of the giant became deeper, there was no hint of massive strain. The blood flowed, the valves opened in perfect rhythm, and the elixir had no issues complimenting the improvements. “Slight increase in mass.”

“Whole body is gaining a bit of width, actually” the giant agreed, flexing his right bicep with a grin. Elijah was unamused. “Is it getting bigger than it’s meant to?”

“... No.”

“Then I guess you’ve just done the impossible,” Aleksi said, laughing as he lifted Elijah from the floor.“Oh, I’ve missed this feeling!”

Elijah noted that the standard dosing for the vials needed to be lowered if this was what a quarter did to the giant’s mental faculties.

… Or I could alter the body’s response to elixir.