Two humanoid creatures of the same race were placed on the experimental platform by Nidhogg. After setting up some basic restrictions to prevent unknown dangers, Nidhogg solemnly took out his notebook and began to flip through its pages.
After a moment, Nidhogg sat quietly in front of the experiment table, his eyes vacant as he delved into thought.
"The last experiments with frogs and white mice had terrifying results when Salmacis was introduced. According to my hypothesis at the time, the mysterious and irregular double-helix light orb sensed and interfered with by Salmacis within the host cells should be the true form of the life code. This is the fundamental life information at the core of every cell in a living organism. Each cell's life information bears its own survival will, and together, these wills form the soul will of the being."
Pausing, Nidhogg gently shook his head and added, "However, it may be that those weak creatures cannot withstand the transformation of life information by Salmacis. Therefore, human trial on humanoid creatures is necessary to verify my hypothesis."
Nidhogg stood up and first looked at the female humanoid on the experiment table. He extended a finger, and slowly, a rice-sized Salmacis was extruded from his skin. Since they were linked by soul, the symbiotic creature was like one of Nidhogg's own organs, causing him no discomfort as he inserted Salmacis into the female humanoid's body to propagate.
The humanoid creature’s mental waves had been sealed, rendering her incapable of resistance, like a vegetative state.
Seven days later, after completing other experiments, Nidhogg returned to the experiment table. Within his mental perception, the humanoid's body was now host to tens of thousands of mature Salmacis. This quantity met the requirements for Nidhogg's further experiments.
Nidhogg first preserved some experimental samples taken from the female humanoid, and then took out a mid-level magic stone to replenish his magic power for sustained use.
Taking a deep breath, Nidhogg revealed a trace of solemnity in his eyes. He placed a hand gently on the abdomen of the female humanoid on the experiment table. Her skin was smooth. Gradually closing his eyes, Nidhogg fully stimulated the Salmacis parasitic within the experimental subject, pushing its innate ability to affect the life code to its limit.
As Nidhogg persistently activated his magic, the Salmacis inside the experimental subject began to emit its unique mysterious power, continuously stimulating every cell within the subject.
A day later, Nidhogg, pale-faced, left the area around the experiment table, gazing with some horror at "those things" within the restriction around the table.
The female humanoid creature first grew a large mouth on her palm, biting her own neck with sharp teeth until it was shredded and then entirely severed. Next, her tongue crawled out of her mouth and wriggled like a snake, followed by her eyeballs which sprouted legs, legs that grew multiple tentacles, and her abdomen bulged with unknown pulsations...
"As expected... fully stimulating Salmacis causes the life code to collapse," Nidhogg murmured to himself, pale.
Calming himself, Nidhogg retrieved various items for casting curse spells and took out the samples collected from the creature as mediums for the spell.
A moment later, as he executed a simple curse spell he had mastered, he observed the "things" within the experiment table's restriction remained unresponsive. He commented solemnly, "It seems the life information has been completely altered, and these things no longer belong to the original female humanoid."
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
He recorded the experiment results and reflections in his notebook when a burst of inspiration struck him!
If...
If one could master this ability to alter life information, wouldn't it mean immunity to any curse spell? Moreover, if using the mysticism inherent in curses as a clue, could he alter parts of his cells to match the life information of his adversary? Wouldn't that allow him to curse them instead?
With this inspiration, Nidhogg had a breakthrough in his research.
Another seven days later, Nidhogg turned his attention to the male humanoid creature on the experiment table, whose body was similarly infested with mature Salmacis.
After extracting some life information from this subject, Nidhogg carefully took out a bottle of cloudy liquid. This was a substance derived from the Wild Crane's body to effectively resist the mutative interference of Salmacis. Feeling no sympathy for the experimental subjects, Nidhogg injected the entire bottle into the male humanoid.
"Now let's see if, with full Salmacis activation, this substance can prevent mutation," he thought, once again fully stimulating the Salmacis within the male subject.
A day later, Nidhogg observed the male subject, adorned with various bizarre organs and tentacles, with thoughtful eyes.
Although mutated, the additional organs did not behave like those in the first female subject, acting on their own instincts. These mutated organs still seemed to obey the subject's soul instincts, avoiding self-cannibalism.
Nidhogg also cast a curse on this subject, to no effect.
"Perhaps the quantity of the origin liquid controls the degree of mutation?" Contemplating this, Nidhogg almost without hesitation gave the subject another injection of the origin liquid. Moments later, the subject returned to its original form, lying quietly on the experiment table.
Nidhogg was astonished.
After consideration, he cast another curse spell on the subject, which this time elicited a significant reaction.
"Hiss…"
Nidhogg's eyes gleamed with wisdom as he murmured, "Does this mean if my body could regenerate the origin liquid, I could autonomously control my life state? It would not only ward off curse spells but also serve as the ultimate disguise technique!"
Euphoric, Nidhogg rapidly arrived at a decision.
He would immediately start studying anatomy, aiming to modify, evolve, and transplant the organs from the Wild Crane that produce the origin liquid! Thus, his unique ability to immunize all curse spells and perform profound life disguise could be named "Nidhogg's Grand Divergence of the Sacred Body"!
Just as he was about to leave, the third demihuman experiment prompted another burst of inspiration much like a wellspring.
Nidhogg paused, contemplating the whimsical inspiration.
Moments later, with a peculiar look in his eyes, Nidhogg returned to the male humanoid subject and extracted a Salmacis. Communicating soul commands to imprint the previous life code, he implanted the Salmacis into the female demihuman's body for propagation.
"In a week, we'll see the results," Nidhogg thought, heading to Peran Ornos’s room to seek guidance on anatomical knowledge.
A week later.
Using the life information of the male humanoid, Nidhogg cast a curse spell, thrilled to see the female demihuman reacted!
Did this not prove Salmacis could indeed memorize life codes? If so...
In a flurry, Nidhogg rushed to his quarters, retrieving a vial containing a few drops of Sun Child's blood from a frozen container, and promptly implanted a Salmacis within.
The Sun Child Mina's body was described as a "body of flames," considered a talent. According to Nidhogg's wizard knowledge, a "talent" refers to those unique evolutionaries among species, mutative adaptations to nature.
However, if Nidhogg could alter some of his own life information, making parts of his cellular life code match the Sun Child's mutated code, then couldn't he grant himself the same flame body talent?
If successful, Nidhogg might become the wizard world’s most talented sorcerer, unparalleled past and present! Not for any other reason than the ability to exploit others’ talents and graft them onto himself.
Of course, all this was early, speculative ambition. All needed subsequent experimental validation.
Yet by natural laws, such wanton exploitation of others’ talents should be impossible due to inherent constraints.
Otherwise, it would severely disrupt species life balance.