Next on my list of quests is a set of risky...risky quests. I decided to move to the nearby Verdant Forest to prevent any distractions/interference/interruptions. The original quest requested by the Werebeast clan was to find a cure to their "disease" or "curse" depending on the Werebeast. There are two general types of Werebeasts:
1. Those who look human most of the times and can change when needed
2. Those who are permanently transformed
Make sure, however, you don't confuse the second category with Beastmen. Beastmen cannot change into a human no matter what cure is used. Anyways, I digress. Now, some would like to have a cure at hand in case they have to merge in with the Human society while others would like to use it to permanently rid themselves of their Werebeast status so that they could enter the Human society to live as humans. Naturally, there are those who do not want to become human so the cure wouldn't apply to them. Anyways, I can not test experimental cures on the Werebeasts...who knows what kind of dangerous side effects can occur and if a Werebeast were to die because of the experiments, that would be detrimental to the trust of our prospective clients/allies. So, the guild has issued a prerequisite quest in order to take on the quest made by the Werebeasts...turn into a Werebeast. Why this is risky? Well, do you have confidence in creating a safe cure? I know I don't.
Now, there are many different ways for Non-Werebeasts to become Werebeasts:
1. Get bitten
2. Get scratched
3. Consume Werebeast blood
4. Get cursed to become a Werebeast by a Witch
5. Eat Beast and Human meat that were sacrificed in front of a demon altar
6. Contract a pact with a demon
7. Eat the petals of a Beast Flower grown by using a Werebeast as fertilizer
8. Werebeast potion
9. Lastly, the more dubious method...drinking the water collected at the footprint of a Werebeast in its transformed state
All these methods for becoming one...yet there isn't a safe way to cure it. Now what did I mean by "safe" cure? Well, there is a known cure so far...and that is to kill the one who turned you into a Werebeast. Of course for those who are born as Werebeasts, the only way is to kill the original Spirit Beast God Therian. However, there are two problems to that:
1. It is near impossible to accomplish this feat
2. Once Therian dies, all Werebeasts will become human even those who do not want to change...so you can see the opposition in that.
Anyways, back to becoming a Werebeast. I guess I'll take the third option - consume some Werebeast blood. Now, in my storage ring, I have some Werewolf corpses that have been kept fresh. So, I took one out and drew out a shot of blood. The blood was watery and black...like ink. Here goes nothing...with a flip of my head, I downed the glass of Werewolf blood. Grimaced at the bitter and sour taste, I anxiously wait for the transformation to begin. Suddenly, my heart started beating very hard and very loud. My eyes bulged as blood started rushing to my head. Feeling dizzy, I fell on my knees. Pain shoots out from every corner as I knelt there on the ground on all fours. Without warning, my muscles began to move and change...my bones began to change. My eyesight blurred a while as hair start growing from every part of my body. At a climax moment, I tilted my head backwards and howled as my transformation neared completion. Once completed, I collapsed on the ground exhausted.
After becoming a Werewolf, I developed a sudden urge to run...to hunt...to kill. Logic and reasoning escapes my mind as I start running through the forest. After an hour, I woke up...how...when did I fall asleep?...I turned around to look, it was dark outside. I could taste something wet...furry...iron.... Oh fuck...please don't be human. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I scanned the ground...until my eyes landed on the corpse near me - half eaten and...thankfully only a deer. Whew! I looked at myself and found that I am still transformed. I guess I passed the prerequisite...turn into a Werebeast complete!
Once I calmed down and began to think rationally. I decided to first clean myself. After I finished washing myself in a nearby stream, I opened my Maker's Domain. Thank goodness I can still use my skills otherwise things would have been awkward and depressing. With my Maker's Domain activated, time becomes irrelevant inside. Thousands of years inside the domain is barely half a second outside. The timer on my blackouts and such will not be affected...thankfully, I won't have to worry about blacking out again while in my domain. With this thought, I can research a cure in peace.
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There are many directions I can take to cure Werebeast-ism...or the more scientific term - therianthropy. For the methods of turning, methods 1, 2, 3, and 7 can be seen as a transferring of a virus and can be considered curable via medicinal means. Methods 4, 8, and 9 can be seen as a curse and can be considered curable via magical means. Lastly, methods 5 and 6 can be seen as a demonic possession of sorts and can be considered curable via exorcism. Each of the three main categories can be branched off into countless of subcategories. Given my current capabilities, I think going with the medicinal direction is the best possible choice. Besides, some Werebeasts want a cure at hand so something like exorcism or magical which requires immediate use might not be appropriate.
Having decided to choose the medical approach, I began extracting some of the Werewolf blood and started studying it. Then, using advanced Blood Manipulation, I was able to find that the blood contained three main components:
1. Regular blood
2. Wolf-type genetic material
3. An unknown substance...which I believe must be the Werebeast virus
The wolf-type genetic material seems to be in a symbiotic relation with the Werebeast virus. When I separated the Werebeast virus from the wolf-type genetic material, the genetic material denaturizes and becomes inactive. Next, I was able to extract the strain of Werebeast virus...or mutation if you preferred to call it that...and placed the strain in a vial. To make a cure out of the virus, there are two known ways to use.
The first way is to weaken the virus where the virus is weakened so that it becomes dormant but there is a chance that this method will not produce the necessary result and would further boost the immunity towards similar cures. Thus, I shook my head and decided not to use this method. The second method is to use destroy the virus by making a cure that only targets the virus. This method generally uses a different types of valuable and rare plants to make the cure and thousands of years to test it...but I don't have the resources for such an expensive experiment, so I decided to use the more painful option - lots and lots of heat.
Now...how much heat is enough to fully destroy the virus? I take the vial containing the virus and held it in place. Then, I started to heat the vial. Generally, if successful, the virus will denaturize and disperses into harmless components. However, how much heat will it take would depend on the strength of the virus. After heating the vial to an unbelievable intensity of 1000 degrees or about as hot as lava, the virus finally denaturized and dispersed. Now we're getting somewhere.
While in my domain, I cast out a few fireballs and started to manipulate the Fire Essence of the fireballs and extracted the essence out. Then, I started to manipulate the extracted essence in order to make it hotter. In addition, I removed the Flames of Wrath in order prevent any mishaps from occurring. Once the Fire Essence reached about 1000 degrees, I added some of my blood filled with Maker's Essence and started kneading the mixture. After compressing the mixture while chanting many incantations, I made a pill. This pill, when consumed, will burn the Werebeast virus away...however, there is a problem - the pill is too hot. We don't want the consumer to die from internal burning or lighting up with fire so to speak. So, I reached in my bag and grabbed a large chunk of Eternal Ice. Take a small piece from it, I extracted the Ice Essence from it and increase the coldness to about -1000 degrees in order to counteract the pill. Then, I mixed the essence with a few drops of my blood filled with Maker's Essence. After some more chanting and mixing, I finished the liquid. Taking out a small piece of wood and some string, I made a necklace. I marked the necklace with the liquid while chanting incantations of binding and fusion. The liquid spread evening on the necklace before fusing into the necklace.
Finally done, I deactivated my domain and put on the necklace while eating the pill. Immediately, I feel the effects of the pill as it started to target the virus within me. Without the necklace, I can see that I would burn to death if I didn't have high fire resistance. The necklace was perfect in counteracting the heat of the pill without disrupting the actual purpose of the pill. After a few minutes, I revert back to my human form. To make sure that the cure is permanent, I stayed in the forest for a few more days. Luckily, the cure was permanent. Finally, I opened my domain again and start mass producing the pills and necklaces until I produced 200 pills and 200 necklaces. I name the pills - Therian's Bane and the necklace - Summer's Relief.
Done, I head back to the guild to report my success. Werebeast cure complete I told them...made 200 Therian's Bane pills and 200 Summer's Relief necklaces which can be given to the Werebeast clan when they need it. I'll leave it with the guild for safekeeping for now.