"The Behemoth was defeated by Bob earlier, right? However, after only a few minutes, he got back up. Why do you think it could heal so quickly?" Nathan asked.
The family looked at Nathan for a moment as if asking for an explanation. "Why?" Adrian asked, breaking the silence.
"It is because Mana can emulate living tissues. Repairing, or healing emulated tissues is much faster than healing a real human body. In short, he did not need to wait for cells to grow. The Behemoth could reconstruct the injured area with Mana. However, without a specialized spell, the process is still not instantaneous. The Behemoth simply stopped bleeding when he stood up. It’d take another day for his wound to fully heal. However, rather than his healing speed, for Bob’s case, what I am actually interested in is his ability to fully recover from any wound without severe repercussions."
Winnie noticed a squirrel nearby, she pointed it out to Adrian.
Nathan, noticing that the family’s mind was drifting away, said "In short, I can transform Bob into a human, Leviathan and Behemoth hybrid. Bob, would you like to give it a try?"
"Oh, what? Is it time for dinner?" Bob, even though his eyes were open, suddenly woke up and asked. Tiffany gave him a slap on his back. "Ouch! My wound… owww..."
"He asked whether you want to become a human, Leviathan and Behemoth hybrid in order to fully heal your left arm." Tiffany said.
"Ok." Bob thought a bit and said. "Will I need to keep a humanization spell activated all the time?"
"No. Appearance wise, you will be fully human. You will gain the ability to transform into a beastman, similar to Julie’s dragonoid form." Nathan said. "However, I am not sure if you will be able to transform fully into a godly beast."
"Interesting. Will I get stronger?" Bob asked.
"Yes, definitely." Nathan answered.
"Can you make sure I can fully transform into a godly beast?" Bob asked again.
"Um…" Nathan paused for a few seconds. "Theoretically, yes, I can. However, we will need some more time to study it and to make sure you can transform." Nathan answered.
"Fair enough. Let’s do it." Bob said.
"Ok, please lie down." Nathan said. "Also, Adrian and Winnie, come here. I can use this chance to heal you."
"What are you planning to do?" Tiffany asked, as she put her arm around the children and stopped them from moving any closer to Nathan.
"The amount of Mana Leviathan and Behemoth left behind is enormous. Bob doesn’t need all of it. After the children cast Resurrection, they depleted all their Mana and suffered some internal injury. So I plan to use a demonic blessing to heal them."
Bob and Tiffany had always taught Adrian and Winnie to be faithful to Goddess Liliana. The term "demonic blessing" struck Tiffany's nerve. "Would it turn them into demons?" Tiffany asked.
"Yes, but you are a demon too, aren’t you? I am surprised you are still alive all these years despite your multi-cast ability being known to the Kingdom." said Nathan.
Tiffany’s face darkened with guilt. She was reminded that the family was going through all these perils because of her.
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"Sorry, I said too much. My apologies." Nathan lowered his head and bowed to Tiffany.
"Nathan, no, please raise your head. You are right." Tiffany said. "Thank you for saving us. There is no use for us to be so devoted to Goddess Liliana, isn’t it? I was too naive to think that if we were avid believers, the Kingdom would leave us alone."
Bob put his hand on Tiffany’s back. "No problem. I will get even stronger to protect the three of you."
"You are already strong enough defeat a godly beast and you still want to get stronger?" Tiffany smiled.
"Apparently, I am not strong enough." Bob answered seriously.
Nathan nodded and said, "Let me continue. Since Adrian and Winnie awakened Resurrection, they are demons too. So, it is fine if they cut ties with Liliana's Divine Power from now on."
"Right." Tiffany nodded.
"Ok, let me begin the procedure." said Nathan.
Nathan carefully took off Bob’s bandages. He took out his notebook and put one hand on Bob. In the next moment, the family could see silver glyphs lit up on Bob’s body as Nathan edited them. The procedure only took a few seconds. Nathan then did the same thing to Adrian and Winnie, as they watched him with curiosity.
He drew some unknown glyphs in the air and activated a spell, which drew the Mana in their surroundings into Bob, Adrian and Winnie, making them feel a warm sensation.
Adrian watched with amazement as his father’s wound literally disappearing in front of their eyes, albeit slowly. Behemoth’s horn started to grow on Bob's head and light blue dragon scales appeared on his arms and chest, glittering from the light of the glyphs.
"Behemoth’s horns and Leviathan’s scales." said Tiffany, looking amazed. "How exactly did you do it?"
Seeing Tiffany’s amazed expression, Nathan smiled and said, "I can give you a longer explanation if you are willing to listen."
"Ok, I need to listen." said Tiffany.
"I need to listen too." said Bob.
"Don’t space out this time, it is not polite to Nathan." Tiffany said to Bob.
Nathan smiled, "My ointment makes him drowsy, so it is okay."
After the procedure was done, Adrian and Winnie walked around and flexed. Nathan, however, was still operating on Bob. In the next fifteen minutes, Bob’s body continued to shine with silver colored glyphs. Nathan closely monitored Bob’s transformation and sometimes he would add a glyph here and there on Bob’s wound.
"I am slowing down the process of healing, to make sure your body wouldn’t become dependent on the artificial tissues made by Mana." said Nathan in the middle of the procedure.
"Ok." Bob said, but apparently he had no idea what was going on.
Gradually, Bob’s partial beastman transformation receded.
"My wound doesn’t hurt anymore." Bob commented."Why didn't you do this earlier? It could have saved us so much time doing surgery."
"First, you were unconscious and I did not have your consent. Second, going through with the surgery first will help mitigate the effects of this procedure's side effects."
"What are the side effects?"
Nathan created a whiteboard and said, "Please sit down in front of me."
Bob, without chanting, cast a spell that replaced the stone bed he laid on and created a stone couch using the Earth element. "It feels so easy. I feel so strong."
"Yes, you just experienced something called Level Up." answered Nathan. "Now, Bob and Tiffany, would you like a long explanation or a short one." Nathan asked.
"Long." "Short." Tiffany and Bob said respectively. They looked at each other.
"Long" Bob corrected himself.
"Everyone's body plan can be represented by a glyph. Since our bodies are inherited from our parents, skills can also be inherited through these glyphs." Nathan said. Bob’s family nodded in agreement as they knew about the inherited skills.
"An injury means that your body's glyph is damaged. If it gets damaged to the point where some parts are missing, you will be weakened or crippled. This is what Bob was experiencing." Nathan said as he wrote on the board. "Therefore, in order to completely heal your wound, I needed a spell like Resurrection, which can repair your glyph." said Nathan as he looked at Adrian and Winnie.
"Now, what is Resurrection?" Nathan said.
"The glyph of a human body is too complicated to be written from scratch. This is why it is impractical to heal a person by editing and drawing glyphs like in rune crafting." Nathan explained. "Resurrection is a spell that can
1) Read your body's glyph and infer the missing parts.
2) Create artificial cells and tissues with Mana.
In other words, it creates artificial tissues to heal you based on your glyph." Nathan wrote on the board.
Adrian and Winnie did not seem to understand, so Nathan added. "It is like filling in the missing parts of a puzzle, where the puzzle is the body." The children nodded upon hearing that.
"Unfortunately, I cannot cast Resurrection and the children do not have enough Mana for it. So, I used a demonic ritual called Level Up, which I learned from an ancient demonic textbook."