Vitmori POV

I was getting rather annoyed at just how much work went into removing the metal slag that had melted into and around my wooden flesh. Having taken out a few daggers I had collected from the foreign raiders, I had been meticulously digging into my wood with the tips of the blade and literally carving the metal out of myself.

The whole act of digging what amounted to shrapnel out of myself did bring some memories of close calls and bad falls to mind, and I'm not embarrassed to admit I was hesitant to actually start doing this work or that I had initially flinched each time I stabbed into my wood for the first few minutes. I just kept expecting to feel something, anything as I rooted around my shoulder and freed yet another shard of slag from my body.

The process ended up taking a couple of hours at least, and I was left with a body pockmarked full of missing chunks and pieces just about everywhere I looked. My body had already started repairing the damage I had inflicted on myself, though it'll likely take awhile for it to all fade away.

My legs on the other hand were a lost cause outright, the metal having fused into the wood overall and some of the wooden tendrils from the legs having grown into the metal itself in an attempt to repair the damage that was done.

In the end, after ruining the third dagger in my attempts to peel away the metal armor, I just resorted to removing my legs outright and used water magic to cut myself in half at the waist.

Even if I had been planning on doing it to myself this time, it was physically disorientating to suddenly lose half of my overall weight, causing me to lose my balance as I fell backward on the bed with a notable thump while my legs limply slumped to the ground.

Despite jostling the large bed with my sudden movement, I could see that Basmori was still sound asleep in a very deep rest as vague notions of dreams tickled the edges of his unconsciousness; but I didn't attempt to pry and left him to his rest.

Focusing back on myself, flashes of memories run through my eyes as I recall the crawling forms of some of the zombies who had lost their legs at some point throughout their unlife, as well as the truly terrifying variants and mutants who had evolved while in that unique state. Some of my closest calls came from those bastards as they were the few zombies who mutated into truly patient ambush predators.

Shaking off the memories of my old life, I focused on my vessel, doing my best to charge the wood of my avatar as I slowly worked to rebuild my legs from scratch. Despite all the mana I've no doubt expended today along with all the mana I've gained in exchange; I could tell I still had a rather considerable well to draw from and that I likely wouldn't have to worry about running out anytime soon.

As I worked on the act of rebuilding my legs, my mind couldn't help but wonder as I considered what would it take to cause me to run out or at least run low on mana. How hard would I need to push myself or how big of a spell would it take for me to run through it all? But even with that in mind, I know for a fact that I'm nowhere close to being the most powerful thing around since all I have is capacity with nearly none of the knowledge to use it all effectively. It's like the difference between a flip phone and a smartphone. Sure they're both able to send texts and make calls, but the smartphone can also stream movies, run an accurate GPS and so much more.

That's not even considering the elves and dwarves who have surpassed the limits of the short-lived races, or the other beings out there that surpassed most mortal limits. Beings like the fey, fiends, or even the dragons; not that I'll ever go out of my way to try and cross any of them if I could help it. Hell, as I am now, an errant bottle of acid could ruin me if I wasn't careful enough.

Before I knew it, my legs had fully regrown, the realization of that allowing me to focus back on the moment and distract myself from my little doom spiral of worries and doubts. Looking myself over again, the rest of my body had healed itself as well in the meantime, leaving me with spots and streaks of clean-looking wood amidst the gross brownish maroon of dried blood that remained on the upper half of my body.

Looking between myself and the tub with the small wooden jar of what I could assume was supposed to be soap, I could already tell I was gonna need something more heavy-duty if I wanted to clean off all of this blood in any meaningful way.

My eyes wandered over to that innocuous-looking rope beside the bed, I suppose if anyone had what I needed, then it would likely be the maids; at the very least they would know where to get it perhaps.

Moving to stand, I do take a moment to test my brand new legs by taking a few steps before committing to walking around the bed towards the rope. For some reason, I hesitated while reaching out, not exactly sure if there was anything else I needed to do beyond simply pulling on the rope in question. I quickly got over it though and gave the rope a firm tug; in the near distance, I could hear what sounded like a bell being rung once.

With that done, I turned away and made my way over to the bathtub and looked it over. It was a strange little thing since it wasn't just a wooden tub if the shelf with some kind of crystal command key mechanism was anything to go by.

I didn't get to study the device for all too long when a knock at the door caught my attention. "Great Mage, how may I serve you?" A feminine voice called out in a rather pleasant way, it didn't sound like the large orcish woman from before, so it was probably a different maid altogether.

I took two steps towards the door before I realized that I currently looked like a filthy stunt dummy from a C-list slasher flick. "Uhh, give me a minute, I'll be right there." I called out, reaching into my storage space and pulling out the pants that Miriam had made for me and using the cut of rope I started with to secure the pants around my waist; before finally allowing the undoing of the suppressing effect I had placed on my vessel as the illusion of skin finally returned to my wooden body.

Finally making my way over to the door, I unlocked it before opening it up for the maid; though it was only then that I realized my old legs were still sprawled out on the floor, so I quickly closed the door just a little bit before the maid was able to take a full step to come inside.

The maid, who turned out to be a human woman with sun kissed tanned skin and pale blue hair, looked fairly surprised by the sudden opening and partial closing of the door but quickly gathered her composure as she offered me a pleasant smile. "How may I serve you, Great Mage?" She asked again while her eyes briefly wandered my chest and stomach, admiring the small glimpse of my sculpted musculature and scars from between the gap of the door for only the briefest of moments.

I just flashed her a small, rather sheepish smile as I chuckled a little awkwardly. I wasn't sure why I was so embarrassed, but it was likely because the idea that I was trying to hide something as ridiculous as an extra pair of legs just seemed absurd to me considering everything that happened today. "Hi... Umm... Sorry to trouble you, but do you have something to get blood out of wood?" I asked directly enough, figuring it was best to be straightforward with her if I wanted to get exactly what I needed. After all, with such a strong focus on might and power, not to mention just the way this world was structured, getting blood out of things was likely a common enough occurrence.

The maid looked thoughtful before nodding intently as she smiled again. "Ah, of course, you likely have a lot of blood that needs cleaning from your equipment... Do you just need it for wood or is there any other equipment that needs tending to?" She asked curiously before holding her arms out as if readying herself to take some things from me. "If you like, we'd be happy to clean your equipment for you and bring it back to you once they're done." She offered pleasantly enough.

I just smiled a bit, deciding to mess with the woman just a little to help get me out of the mood I was in earlier as I casually reached around to my left arm, going close to the left shoulder when I carefully cut off my arm before holding it out in front of me; the dirty maroon wood now clear as day. "Ah well my sword could use some cleaning, but my main focus is this." I explained casually as my arm now limply hung before the woman. "And I'd rather clean it myself."

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I could tell she was rather surprised by the display, sensing the briefest sensation of her being startled but she ended up playing it impressively cool as she flashed a smile before nodding intently. "I see, well if that's the case I'll go gather some cleaning materials for your arm. Though I'd still insist on letting us work on your blade. You are our honored guest, it would be the least we could do." She explained rather dutifully, lifting her arms back up and opening her hands more pointedly.

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit, and I was only just a little bit disappointed that I didn't get more of a response out of her like those kids back in the training yard at the guild. But regardless I took a moment to reattach my arm, carefully fusing it to the stump that hung off my shoulder. After that, I pulled my blade from my storage space and held it out to the maid; placing it in her hands with the unsharpened side facing down.

The maid, for her part, seemed rather experienced around blades, handling it well enough as she lowered her head in gratitude for the apparent trust I showed in her by allowing her to take my blade. "I'll be back with the cleaning supplies for your prosthetic if you'll excuse me." She said as she turned to leave.

I was about to let her off before a thought struck me as I spoke up again. "Actually, if you could give me double whatever you were planning on preparing for me? I've also got a leg that needs cleaning too." I mentioned as I lightly tapped my left calf against the doorframe.

At that, the maid did look properly surprised as she considered the revelation that I supposedly cleared out around a hundred soldiers while having two plain-looking prosthetic limbs. Though she quickly collected herself again and nodded once more. "Yes, Great Mage, I'll keep that in mind." She offered cheerfully enough before finally making her way off.

Now locking the door once more, I quickly made my way back to my ruined legs and just stashed them away to get them out of sight. With that taken care of, I brought myself to look over the tub once more, studying the mechanism some more and reading the command crystal as well as some simple-looking dials. From what I could gather, this was here to heat the water. There was a faintly glowing crystal already slotted beside the command key which likely served as the battery to keep the device running once it was activated.

Now this is what I'm talking about, a heated bath is truly a modern luxury that even I haven't had the privilege of enjoying in the last couple decades of my old life without a lot of effort for what only ended up to be a mostly lukewarm bath. It's only a shame I likely still wouldn't be able to properly enjoy it beyond just feeling the water be hot.

For now, I just go about filling the tub with water; holding my hand out as I focus on conjuring the freshwater as I get a feeling for just how much mana around two hundred gallons of water would need. By the time I finished and worked out how to actually turn on the water heater, another knock at the door alerted me that the maid was back with the cleaning supplies in hand.

Making my way to the door with more composure than before, I opened it all the way this time and flashed a smile. The maid managed to return my smile quickly enough, though her eyes briefly wandered my body again now that I wasn't hiding behind the door this time. She then held up a wooden jar with a twist-off cap and a brush with rather coarse-looking bristles. "Here you go, Great Mage." She stated simply as she passed off the items to me, letting me take a moment to look things over before continuing.

"For the best results, scrub the paste into the wood thoroughly and let it sit for at least twenty minutes, afterwards, you're going to want to soak it in hot water for half an hour before scrubbing the paste off and rinsing the prosthetic again." She explained dutifully when she offered another smile. "Are you certain you don't want any assistance? I'd be happy to help someone as powerful as you relax and unwind." She offered and I could tell she wanted to do more than just help me 'relax.'

A younger me might have been excited by the proposition, but as I am now I just couldn't help but offer a polite smile as I started to slowly close the door on her. "No thank you, I'd rather just have my privacy." I explained simply before piping up again. "In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing how well you tend to my blade."

Even after I shut and locked the door, I got the lingering impression that she was hoping to tend to my other 'blade' for whatever reason as she stood outside radiating disappointment for a few moments until she finally turned to leave.

"What a strange country..." I couldn't help but say to the open air while walking over to the tub and setting the cleaning supplies down. I know might, money, and merit are the most important qualities around here, but is that really enough for random women to make such advances on complete strangers? I mean... I'm aware of the notion that harems are commonplace on the continent in general, even among the nobility in Ferodias' empire who take on multiple wives. Maybe I'm just stuck in the sensibilities of my old world, but one woman is more than enough for a man like me.

Now finally left to my own devices again with nobody to interrupt me, I suppressed the illusion of my skin and began scrubbing down. There wasn't much to it, and I did my best to zone out for the next twenty minutes after scrubbing down the upper half of my body with the surprisingly gritty paste. When it finally came time to soak in the tub, the water was already emitting a steady but light steam from the surface, showing that it was as hot as it could safely get.

Carefully stepping in and sitting in the tub, I quickly came to realize that I was rather buoyant, so I ended up needing to stretch out, placing my hands and feet along the walls of the tub before outright submerging myself.

It was... An odd sensation. I ended up instinctively trying to hold my breath before eventually realizing I didn't need to do that at all. I just... Laid there under the water while staring up at the surface.

Gradually the water got cloudier and cloudier as the minutes ticked by and the paste dispersed into the water around me. My thoughts wandered more as I was forced to just lay here and wait without being able to do much at all.

Eventually, I decided to at least try and practice some magic while under the water and went about attempting to conjure a flame just to see if I could do it while under the water. The results were interesting to say the least, as I was forced to turn up the output of mana with each attempt. However, by the end of it, I managed to conjure a small ball of fire and maintained it with only mana as its fuel source.

The water bubbled and sizzled visibly and I could hear it even through the distortion of the water. It reminded me of a blowtorch in its intensity and I could tell the water had eventually been brought to a boil soon enough. Yet despite the heat, I felt no pain or discomfort.

After what I felt was enough time passed, I finally let myself sit up, reaching out for the coarse brush and just thoroughly scrubbing my wood as the water around me became a more opaque and muddy maroon color as the dried blood and paste mixed into the practically boiling water.

I didn't waste much time after scrubbing off the paste, quickly draining the tub into my storage space before standing as I experimented with my water magic now; conjuring and maintaining a ball of water as I got it to float in place above my head. After that, it took some focus but I managed to get it to start raining down on me like a shower.

To think my first proper shower in decades with 'running' water would also be in another world... Truly, magic is such a wonderful luxury.

By the time I was all finished, the color of my upper body was finally close to that of my lower body and it looked like I was as clean as I was gonna get at this point. Using some water magic once more, I pulled the excess water from my body and stashed it away with what remained in the tub after turning off the water heating mechanism.

It was only as I pulled on my pants again, using my proper belt with the loop for my sword, that I suddenly became aware of a set of eyes focused on me. It was Basmori of course, and he seemed to be curious about something. "Good morning sleepy head, did you rest well?" I asked as cheerfully as I could while still fastening my belt before finally looking over at him.

Only... What I saw was a brown-skinned beastkin boy who had mostly human features with pitch-black hair and rounded feline ears. Under his long and scraggly-looking hair which almost covered his eyes was a piercing green gaze ripe full of curiosity and wonder as he looked around the room. Behind him was a long feline tail that curled in the sheets behind him; at some point he had pulled on my poncho, clutching it close to him as he watched me.

Basmori didn't verbally respond to me, but his thoughts radiated with curiosity as he wasn't sure what to make of our surroundings. He then began checking himself out, looking over his hands and flexing them while wondering where his claws were. But as he continued to think about his claws, shadows in the shape of clawed gauntlets manifested around his arms as he delightedly concluded that he had found his claws again.

Slowly, I made my way over to him, watching him just sitting on the bed. I couldn't help but smile as I watched him flex his shadowy claws. However, when he noticed me start to approach him, the shadows receded as he looked at me curiously, and within his thoughts, I could hear him use a word he had heard the children of the Haven use when referring to one of their parents... He... He called me Dad.

It was only then that I remembered a deep-seated regret from so long ago... Seeing Basmori now just made it all come flooding into my mind like a tidal wave. I... I regret never giving my parents grandchildren... Though at the moment, I could do nothing but smile as I sat beside Basmori and gently ruffled his hair. "Hey, l-look at you! No wonder you were so tired, so this is the path you chose?" I mused to him, just grateful that this body of mine was unable to physically show emotions because I'm sure I would be a wreck right now, crying tears of joy at how much my son had grown.

Basmori just flashed a toothy grin, his rounded ears wiggling at the hair ruffling while his heavy feline tail lightly thumped at the mattress behind him as it flicked a few times. It seemed he still couldn't talk, but I could tell that wasn't a big deal for him as he leaned into my touch before slowly draping his arms around me.

I was surprised by the hug, even though I could tell it was coming as he thought about the things the other kids did with their parents. I didn't leave him hanging for long, draping my arms around his smaller frame as I gave him the hug he was craving.

Despite suddenly 'growing up' he was still so small... It's wild to think he was able to fight at my side and keep up with me this morning despite the chaos that surrounded us. "Just wait till your mother sees you, she's gonna be so proud." I mused to him while slowly rubbing his back.

Basmori just chuffed with delight as his ears continued to waggle with joy, a smile on his face as he gently nuzzled the top of his head against my chest.

We sat there for a while, the seconds turning to minutes as Basmori eagerly relished in using his new arms to give me the biggest hug he could manage.

I wasn't sure how long we sat there, but suddenly there was a knock at the double doors, and a familiar voice called out. “Uhh boss? It’s Krys, I’ve also brought Legosi and Freyli.”