I had called Nilah over and she had turned into her katana form. I had made a multi layered bubble around my head, a tail in my mouth and nature energy circulating through my left arm. I had some frost magic skills lined up to freeze myself an arm out of frost and stem the bleeding. All I need to do is cut off my arm.

This was one of the worst ideas I’ve ever executed but I don’t think there were any better alternatives. I prepared myself. I would count down from 3 and cut off my arm on ‘Go’.

I started the countdown in my head and cut my arm off at the count of 2. At least I could fool myself, the pain wasn’t something I could do anything about. I tried to keep the noise down and was rolling on the floor of the pain. My frost arm had replaced my severed arm but my severed arm was still bloodying my couch.

I should have thought about that but I was too busy trying to fight the pain.

“What in the world is going on!” Jyno rushed down wrapped in a towel. “What in Bellia’s name did you do! Hold on a second, I will call for someone to reattach your arm!”

No! please don’t!

The pain suddenly stopped. My spirit had left my body. Well, isn’t this convenient? I sat next to my unconscious body.

“Don’t tell me the last step is that you have to kill yourself or something?”

No, I just need bones from a living being.

“We could have hunted down some animals for you…”

This is fine… I actually have a question. I only realized now. Why do you guys hunt if most of you are vegetarian?

“We do use the pelts and some spirits consume meat. Actually a lot do, their diet is similar to those of humans.”

And what about the other elven forests?

“That I don’t know. I think the vegetarian population is lower under the other elven villages though.”

Weirdo’s. How long do you think it would take for a body to stop being in pain after cutting off an arm?

“How should I know?”

Not very helpful, are you?

“You are unreasonable…”

I returned to my body and the pain was bearable.

Ugh, I hope I can make a large batch of spirit bones with this because 0/10 would recommend.

I froze the blood and picked up my dismembered arm. I tried to vaporize the flesh off the bones but I have a stupid high fire resistance so that doesn’t work.

Well, isn’t that annoying? My own overpoweredness is hindering me. Oh, I have an idea. Jyno, back off this might get dangerous.

Jyno dove behind a couch and observed.

I wrote the primal rune for ‘Fire’ on my dismembered arm. I had to get ready to kill the fire the moment all the flesh had burnt off. I made sure to inspect my bones properly and cast some illusion layers on it in case I messed up.

Agnis!

The arm heated up and ignited. I controlled the fire. It felt strange burning my own arm. It smelled just the same as burning humans. I had to keep reapplying the fire with primal runes as it only lasted for about a minute.

Jyno didn’t take the smell well but I was used to it. Just something that every fire user would have to get used to. I killed the fire when only bones were left.

Open the windows please.

Jyno pinched his nose and opened the windows. I connected to the air leyline currents and used small [Counter Spins] to ventilate the house.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I separated all the bones from their joints and burnt whatever ligaments and flesh was left. Jyno stayed outside because this was a bit too much for him as he had already forcefully ejected his last meal.

I put the bones in an Ichor Pneuma bath and made small currents in the Ichor Pneuma to keep the liquid moving.

I reread the section of Rignef’s research. This flushing process will cause the marrow to form into a new Spirit Bone marrow, the Ichor Pneuma is responsible for this but also the regenerative qualities of a 9t. Both Rignef and I used bones from a 9t so this applies to my situation too. I don’t have to keep cutting off my arm. That is good. I just have to flush this for a month…

I am finished with the body. It doesn’t feel like I’m finished. I sat down on the couch and looked at my left arm. It was indistinguishable from a real arm. It should fully regrow in 3-4 hours.

I applied the [Spirit anchor] on the Ichor Pneuma. It didn’t look or feel different but only Bywen could use this batch. I had so much Ichor Pneuma. I had enough to make 10 more vessels for Bywen and of the basic Ichor Pneuma I had enough to make over 100 generic vessels.

This was good because Ichor Pneuma was the biggest pain in the ass to make. I don’t want to ever make this again unless I have to. I should tune some Ichor Pneuma a bit more to myself but I could always do that later. It was time to take a long nap. I left some instructions on the table for Jyno and went to take a long sleep.

I had the same dream again. No new details the dream just seemed so real. But I didn’t get any rest after this dream finished. I got the other nightmare with Hablena in it. It also added the part where I got cursed and Greg had to babysit me to make sure I didn’t die.

What’s the point of sleeping if I can’t even get rest when asleep?

I got another strange dream after this. It was how most of Bywen’s spirit tethers restored after I fed her the Ichor Pneuma. I had almost forgotten about that. I woke up.

I lost grip on time, I had no idea for how long I was sleeping. Maybe I should make some Ichor Pneuma tuned to myself to restore my spirit tethers. I went downstairs and found 2 elders eating all my peaches.

You guys never learn, do you?

“We came to check up on you but you seemed to be sleeping so we helped ourselves. No onions this time.”

I sighed.

My arm had regrown by now. It felt more familiar to me than my old left arm. I would have to practice some Dragonvein and sword fighting after this. I had neglected this for quite a while… how long have I been here in this village?

Hey, what month is it?

“It is end November.”

I slept for that long, eh?

“We were worried.” They said but they kept eating my fruit.

I recalibrated my internal clock which was a complete mess. My internal clock doesn’t normally get out of whack but it seems these blackouts are mainly responsible for this. That is why tuning this Ichor Pneuma is important.

Well, I’m still alive, that doesn’t mean you can eat all my peaches!

“Don’t worry we bought these ourselves!”

Then eat them at your own home!

The elders continued doing their thing and I started to gather the materials to tune some Ichor Pneuma to myself.

Where is Jyno?

“He is spending time with Rynne”

Who?

“His partner… how long have you been his friend…”

Oh so that was her name. I’m a bad friend.

I created various tuning mixtures. They were all those that I expected to work on me. I created many illusion layers and started testing them on myself and shattering a layer if it had side effects and didn’t work well.

I found the best solution 3 days later. I mixed it in the Ichor Pneuma. Now this Ichor Pneuma isn’t 100% suited for me because it’s infused with Bywen’s spirit energy. But she is a life spirit, it makes a great basis for any other spirit. I have no clue on how to dump a massive amount of spirit energy in the raw Ichor Pneuma so it’s not like I could create something more suitable for me even if I could.

I then dissolved the leyline energy powder in it and it gave off that special energy. The elders seemed impressed. All that was left was having my spirit tethers absorb this.

Bywen had a positive reaction to it.

I dipped a broken spirit tether in it and it got sucked up. It felt as if I was drinking something chilled and extremely refreshing. Any form of fatigue disappeared. I felt my spirit energy welling and I observed as how most of my spirit tethers restored.

It restored them… I guess I won’t have this problem again.

I made note of this specific recipe and spent the rest of the week making batches suited for Bywen and myself. This would keep us going until the spirit vessel was complete.