As Jacob and Doctor Katz fussed over me I thought back to when I had explained that Jacob was the Master Fleshcrafter to Doctor Katz and the rest of my team.

“Michael, the knowledge Jacob has is too much,” Doctor Katz said. I nodded at this. “I get he is smart, but there are several things he has developed that require research. You asked me to watch his research.” We were traveling to another zone after having stopped at Purgatory to pick up supplies and make sure things were running smoothly.

“This is considered top secret, but he is from the Dragon Empire,” I replied.

“Really? You let someone like that survive?” Michelle asked.

“It is worse than that. There was one individual who disappeared, with no word on if they were alive or dead. Everyone else at a senior level was killed off, or there was some kind of confirmation on their deaths. I know since I spoke with Clarissa on this,” Doctor Katz said while staring intently at me.

“Jacob was formally known as the Master Fleshcrafter,” I calmly replied. There was silence at this.

“And you let him live? He attacked you?” Captain Francis asked.

“There is no way he is trustworthy,” Doctor Katz added.

“It seems like a big risk,” Michelle added.

“He is too useful. And there are standing orders that if I die, he goes as well. He is watched, his research is reviewed. But as you admitted Doctor Katz, his knowledge of biological energy interactions is beyond anyone else's knowledge. It is something I decided.”

“Michael, Emperor Michael. That man is evil. What he has done…it is horrible beyond anything I can say,” Doctor Katz said.

“I know and it is decided. We can’t afford to throw away anything useful even if it is evil.”

“And when he bites back? When he betrays you?” Doctor Katz challenged me.

“Self-preservation. He isn’t evil, merely lacking in morals and he has a desire to survive. I trust his survival instinct. And his knowledge is important. In the end it is my risk to take,” I said. Captain Francis and Michelle didn’t have anything more to say.

“It is your choice, but we fought a war,” Doctor Katz clearly wanted the last word.

“We were fighting against the Divine Empress. She was the root cause of all the problems and now she is dead. He will repay his debt by putting all the knowledge he has gained to good use.”

I was grateful that I had made that decision to keep Jacob around. He was a horrible person, but if anyone was going to be able to fix me, it would be him. If I died, he would die as well. It was that simple. Jacob was only around due to how useful he was. I had neither forgiven him nor forgotten about his actions. Doctor Katz and the others could be upset with him, but their opinions didn’t matter in this instance.

The knowledge he had and his insight into energy and biological material was a key component in Purgatory’s security and advancement. He also complimented Doctor Katz in terms of healthcare amazingly well.

“We have cleared the sphere’s energy area. It is decreasing it looks like, we need to descend and watch out for flying monsters,” Jacob said. I felt the air boat shifting. Jacob then came over to me along with Doctor Katz.

“Try again now,” he said and I closed my eyes. The massive headache was still there. “The spread has stopped, there is some minor corrections.” I let out a gasp as I blacked out for a moment.

“Can’t,” I said. My breathing was still impacted.

“You will have to keep trying,” Jacob said.

“Headache,” I gasped out.

“Doctor Katz, can you make sure his brain doesn’t hemorrhage, but you need to keep trying. Curse damage sets in the longer you wait. You know this. You have to push through,” Jacob insisted. I focused again, trying to feel my stats.

Before it had been as easy to flip a switch to use my stats and have a sense of them. Now it was like broken pieces of glass digging into my brain, while I was trying to push those broken pieces back into place. I blacked out a second time and was quickly woken up.

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“Blacking out like that is a bad sign,” Doctor Katz said.

“It is, but he lasted a few seconds longer. If it was anyone else, I would say it isn’t worth it, but Emperor Michael, can’t be left a cripple,” Jacob insisted.

“Fine,” I muttered.

“If you want to stop, we will stop. I can’t say if you are pushing things that will do brain damage. I am using Imbue Life. But that is no guarantee to mental or non-physical effects. You won’t die from a brain bleed,” Doctor Katz said, and I focused once more.

It was painful. I stopped right before blacking out. Focused on my breathing and tried to feel the mental controls I used for my stats once again. After ten minutes, I was completely exhausted mentally.

“You need to keep going,” Jacob said. I just closed my eyes. “Michael, you need to keep going. It is painful, but the damage is too extensive for a restoration from the store. If you don’t keep pushing yourself now, you will be permanently crippled.”

“Tired,” I muttered. I felt a slap on my face and glared up at Jacob.

“I am sorry for hitting you, but you need to keep trying. It will only get harder. Now again, focus on the Body stat, that is the worst one and the most critical,” Jacob said. I was focusing on the Body stat. Trying to increase its use around my chest area was impossible. Other areas hurt so much. It was telling that no one told off Jacob. I didn’t know if that was a sign the people nearby cared for me or didn’t want to get involved.

I focused once more. The pain was immense. “Hold that there,” Jacob said. It was hard. Maybe he should try doing this instead of me. “The damage is correcting thankfully. Very slowly, but if you can keep doing what you are doing, then in a couple of days, the damage should be minor.”

Days?! I didn’t feel like I was getting better. But I had to keep trying. I couldn’t afford to be crippled. I had worked so hard, suffered so much. I wasn’t going to let a little pain stop me. My vision began to get blurry.

“Imbue Life. Imbue Life. I can’t keep up,” Doctor Katz said. I stopped and was gasping for air. “Cloth,” he said and began wiping my face. I noted there was blood.

“How bad?” I asked.

“You were bleeding out your nose, ears, and eyes. The pressure on your brain was too much,” Doctor Katz said.

“He needs to continue,” Jacob insisted.

“And he will stroke out. I can’t keep up with the healing, and there could be mental impacts. Short bursts in twenty second intervals with one minute breaks. You handle the timing,” Doctor Katz told Jacob.

“Alright, start,” Jacob said and then called out for me to stop. “Any issues?” he asked Doctor Katz.

“None. You can increase to thirty seconds,” Doctor Katz said, and I repeated the process once more. Doctor Katz had me stop at forty seconds of pushing on my stats and taking a one-minute break. I felt like my brain was going to explode out of my head.

“There is nothing else you can do?” Clarissa asked Jacob.

“No. Anything, I would do would pale in comparison to the System. It is self-correcting the damage to a certain extent when Michael focuses. He will need to keep up this regimen at all times. Breaks over, again,” Jacob said.

“You mentioned days? Will it really take that long?” Clarissa asked.

“That was with constant focus on his stats. Now it could be weeks, since the damage will be harder to repair. It won’t get easier. He is just developing more tolerance from what I can tell,” Jacob said.

“How can you even tell that?” Doctor Katz asked.

“Previous experiments. Disrupting the stats has been something I have looked into. For the purpose of enhancing stats. Again,” he said the last bit to me.

“And how many of those people didn’t deserve their fate,” Doctor Katz said.

“All of them didn’t deserve what happened. But I had no choice. And if that knowledge wasn’t gained, then Michael wouldn’t have a chance to recover now. His survival is built on the backs of those test subjects,” Jacob countered.

“Enough. Focus on assisting Michael and watching him. If he is adapting the time, he tries to access his stats can be increased?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes,” Jacob said.

“No,” Doctor Katz replied. “The cranial pressure is immense. His brain needs to relax and let the pressure decrease.”

“And that will just let the curse damage set in. Curse damage like this is far worse than brain damage. Brain damage can be fixed, curse damage, once it sets in, will be impossible to correct, specifically curse damage to stats. He isn’t fixing the damage. It is self-correcting. But that correction will get worse over time. That is why he can’t be allowed to slow down,” Jacob insisted.

“Increase the time to the very limit of his physical ability. Michael, I know it hurts, but you have to keep going,” Clarissa said.

“Yes,” I muttered out. It was still very hard to breathe, and my head was killing me. But Jacob was right. I couldn’t let myself become crippled. I refused after all the suffering I had been through. I focused again, pushing myself to the very limit. Hopefully my brain didn’t explode.

After a minute and a half, I passed out. I woke up fairly soon after passing out by being shook awake. I then forced myself to continue. It was the only thing I could focus on. I drowned out what the other people were saying around me.

I kept working on pushing my stats again and again. Not taking breaks. I heard people talking loudly, but I needed to fix myself as soon as possible. I blacked out again and woke up to my face being cleaned off with a bloody rag. I got right back to work to pushing against the stats. If I bled out, then I bled out. But the headache was bearable now.

No matter what I would continue. I couldn’t afford to be weak. I needed to show my strength and to push past the pain and the hardship. I wasn’t useless. I was going to survive. All the years of investment would not be thrown away. So even though I felt terrible, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.

“Michael! Michael!” Doctor Katz was right in my face. I stopped to listen to him. “Good, you are looking at me. You need to stop. You are losing too much blood. I can’t keep up. You need to rest now. Listen, don’t argue. I get that you are worried about the curse damage, but it won’t matter if you are dead.” I had my eyes closed, and I could feel the blood running down my face. That wasn’t good. I would stop trying to fix my stats for now.