The piggy finally surrendered and decided to play nice. To be fair, seeing multiple copies of me spooked it half to death, and while it was not my intent to traumatize it, I couldn’t change what had already happened.
I went back to gather my stuff and again took the position of sitting on its stomach as the swine remained motionless, leaving me to study.
The complexity of what I wanted to make was significant, yet that was not really a problem. As I began drawing out the design, I realized how stupidly huge the modified web of inscriptions was. While I was making it larger for the sake of brevity, it quickly became clear that I had to simplify it significantly if I ever hoped to inscribe it on a living beast core.
When the creature was dead, it didn’t matter if part of the spell matrix became embedded in its core, but with a live specimen, such a thing was impossible as it would interfere with the design. The lattice of inscriptions would use the core as the anchor as well as its power source, and that needed stability that could only be found on the surface of the core.
And even then the entire design had to be modified to compensate for the random surges of Qi as the creature went about its day.
As I was working on the problem, it became increasingly clear just how much of a pain in the ass the project was, and why nobody did it before.
To be fair, people probably tried it in the past, but going through so much effort just for a minor quality-of-life improvement simply wasn’t worth it. I was already second-guessing myself if I should even finish the job.
In the end, I pushed the distracting thoughts to the side, though that didn’t make the work any easier or speed it up. The clones and I had to really focus, sorting through thousands of lifetimes' worth of memories, just to find the obscure pieces of knowledge that only certain individuals knew, to help me construct the perfect design.
Ultimately, after what was probably weeks of mostly uninterrupted work, it was done.
It took dozens of iterations to shrink it down and make it compact enough for what I needed it to do, yet even then the design nearly covered the size of a football field.
Looking at that mess of papers, I sighed. I was not looking forward to inscribing that onto the core of a living being. Not once but twice. At least. Once for the swine and once for me.
[Alright, get over here you big hairy ball of lard.] I called out to the beast.
The large Void Lightning Reaper, as I have learned it was called, obediently came to me with cautious steps. The last thing we needed was for the big guy to step on some papers and ruin my work.
[Alright, this is probably going to take a bit of time and it’s not going to be pleasant, so you best go to sleep.]
The swine’s eyelids immediately drooped and it began swaying dangerously on its feet. Before a second was over, it was already unconscious, and I pushed it away from the drawings with Telekinesis where it collapsed into a heap of snoring flesh.
[Great!]
After taking a moment to mentally prepare, I got to work.
Qi flared inside my body, swirling and gradually building up as a Soul was consumed. I was going slowly. The last thing I wanted to needlessly mess up and kill my guinea pig.
A long blade formed above me, and my copies formed a semi-circle around the sleeping swine, some of them expanding into giants to be better able to help.
The Qi in the energy blade got compressed, my Intent wrapping around it, and the edge, thinner than a hair, plunged into the belly of the beast. The fur was pushed to the side and a deep, long cut was made, slicing perfectly through the skin and fat, yet avoiding damaging the muscle and organs.
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Multiple hands clasped the Void Lightning Reaper and unfolded the skin. Warm organs threatened to spill out, but my helpers held them back with their power. There was very little bleeding thanks to our perfect control over the entire operation.
I slowly reached into the stomach of the sleeping swine and pushed organs to the side with a gentle stream of Qi, careful not to damage them. However, my caution was overblown, as the beast was not that weak to spontaneously die, though it was still better to do things properly.
With the entrails out of the way, the beast’s core came into view, hidden behind the stomach. It was a deep brown color with a shade of purple and streaks of bright turquoise. The lightning bolt-like veins pulsed gently in sync with the beast’s heartbeat, giving the beast’s insides a real trippy look.
Folds of fat and tendrils of flesh surrounded the core, making me frown.
[Ah, balls…]
I was prepared for it, but the sight still soured my mood. The core had to be attached somehow, but every creature was different, making it impossible to fully plan in advance. It just so happened that I had underestimated how much of the core would be covered, and so things would be really tight.
I pulled the core out as far as the flesh around it would allow and then formed a tiny blade out of pure Qi. I glanced one last time at the field of papers behind me and steeled my resolve. I had made all the preparations possible, it was just time to execute the plan.
A barrier formed around us, an impenetrable shield fueled by the souls of the Dead, and then did the first, confident cut, on the path towards greatness.
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The operation lasted… a long time. Days, probably. I was honestly too preoccupied with the task at hand to really notice or care. Because of the unpredictable nature of the beast’s core and how it was anchored into the body, the process took much longer than predicted, but eventually, everything had to end.
I healed up the sleeping giant, merging back together the skin so perfectly, not even a scar remained. I then gradually released my influence over its mind, allowing it to wake up.
The swine slowly opened its eyes, confusion quite clear on its otherwise expressionless face, and shakily got up.
I observed it for a while, looking for any signs that things went awry, but nothing much happened. It was quite anticlimactic. [How are you feeling?]
The large pig gave a confused snort as an answer and then began sniffing around for food. It had been quite obedient for the entire time, so I awarded it a large piece of another Spirit Beast.
[Eat.] The swine didn’t even have to be told twice before it began devouring the carcass, bones, and all. Nothing went to waste. I waited for it to finish and then waited some more, observing the Void Lightning Reaper for days in case any changes were delayed.
After a week with no accidents, I finally allowed myself to push things further. I took over the creature’s mind and connected to its core. My exploration soon brought an interesting discovery. A part of the beast’s core began to change. Extra tendrils of flesh began growing over it, covering the inscriptions I so carefully carved into it.
It was like the body was assimilating a new organ, building an entirely new structure around it to facilitate its growth.
I tentatively triggered the activation sequence for the space pocket, and something did happen, but not exactly as I predicted. Magic swirled in a pattern as it should, but then the new growth began twisting it in ways it shouldn’t.
Instead of opening a connection to a separate space, the energy began wreaking havoc on the swine’s body. I immediately stopped the experiment and began repairing the damage before letting the original owner take back control.
[Unexpected problems…]
I left to get some privacy to think and chewed on a Spirit Sword as I walked. The fleshy growths were not entirely unexpected, but predicting them was impossible. Even though I changed the design around to accommodate the unforeseen changes, the body still changed in the end, interfering with the design.
Starting over was out of the question. I couldn’t just wipe the inscriptions and make new ones. They were carved into the core. They were permanent. I could disable them and then wait for a new layer to grow over to try again, but that would most likely take decades.
[Or, I could just do nothing…] I murmured to myself as a piece of metal was getting crushed between my teeth. I still had enough swords to last me years if I ate one every few weeks, not to mention that as time went on I felt less of a need to eat one. It was probably because I wasn’t growing so quickly anymore.
Doing nothing wasn’t just something I came up with for no reason. The body was doing something with the new core, I just wasn’t sure what. I could feed the swine for a while and just observe to see what would happen.
Could I win by doing nothing? Maybe. It certainly was one of the possible outcomes. Better than redesigning the entire thing again. That was not something I wanted to do ever again.
So, I decided to just wait and see.