“Um, Ben? You doing okay there?” Thera asked, practically able to feel the despair coming off of him.
"Oh yeah, I’m fine, I’m just going through every moment between now and when I first sealed away Inux’s soul to figure out when exactly I got trapped into the bit of tunnel vision that kept me from seeing your very good point. It was immediately, by the way, which is a decent warning that some of the ideas and misperceptions I may have had before awakening my mind for the first time may have stuck around as it grew in a way I didn’t notice, and how I still very much need other people and their ideas in case I have any blind spots.”
“But for the rest of us, what would you be talking about?” Inux asked, Thera looking to Ben as he shook his head.
“This is your show now.”
“Alright,” Thera nodded, seeing her boyfriend was still dealing with the mental blow of missing something that, once pointed out to him, felt exceptionally obvious, had caused. “Well, like Ben was saying, your current body can’t grow, but it’s not like the body Ben made you is the only option. Without really any difficulty, we could grow you a living body, and Ben can make tools that would let your soul inhabit it. Depending on what you’d want from it, we could get it done in as little as a few minutes or as much as a day, depending on how many changes to it we’d need to make.”
“I see,” Inux said, looking stunned at the prospect of having living flesh of his own, as a stranger sort of excitement went up around them that Thera didn’t notice and Ben decided to ignore until later. What mattered was that she was correct, and depending on what it was exactly he wanted from it, Ben could already think of dozens of ways a homunculus could be built that would go far beyond anything currently out there.
“So, should we take it you’d want to look like one of the maliae in proper?” Ben finally asked, hiding the intense look of defeat he was feeling. “If we take from a few different samples around town, Thera can make something that should suit whatever you’re looking for. Hell, we can actually make you a ton of duplicates too. I could put them into storage, and as you age out of whatever one you’re wearing, you’d be ready with backups on standby. Beyond that, we can add some modifications to whatever body you have if we go out to gather some samples. Make it stronger, faster, better senses, whatever it is you’re looking for.”
“You’d be making it from a collection of samples?”
“Thera would, but yeah. We’re talking a proper homunculus, not just an empty clone.”
“Then could we use some of your blood as well?”
“Hmm? I don’t mind, and it actually might not be the worst choice to get some of me into the mix, all things considered, but can I ask why?”
“It’s nothing too complicated. You’ve worked hard to help me in a way no one else was able to since I came to this world. Even before I woke up with this new form, my last memories are of you working yourself to exhaustion trying to save me. If you don’t want to, then it’s no bother.”
“No, I’ll do it, but is there nothing else you want out of a living body?”
“I’ve never had one before, how could I say? I’ll trust whatever you think would serve me best.”
“What would serve you best, huh?” Ben muttered before nodding. “Okay, sounds good. In that case, I’ll gather the bits we’ll need, and then we can get started if that works for you, Thera?”
“I’m ready when you are,” she agreed.
“Cool, then one minute.”
Materializing a few structures that would look like small, biting insects, Ben observed everyone within the range of his soul before selecting his targets, choosing five of the town's men who were in good health with good physiques to take samples from, to ensure that the homunculus that would be created wouldn’t look too close to any one of its citizens, he flew the samples back for Thera to grow into usable and stable clumps of cells to pull samples from in case they required more than one attempt, before providing her with his own blood to work with as well, seeing that she was about to start before he held her back.
“Wait, two things,” Ben said, materializing and ignoring the notification that came through his mind with it.
<ABOMINATION PRODUCTION HAS AWAKENED TO ABOMINATION SOURCE>
<ACQUIRED TITLE- DESTINED HOLDER OF ABOMINATION PRODUCTION>
Thera though, was less willing to let the change in him go uncommented on as she took the things that had seemed to have provoked that awakening, seeing two vials of what appeared to be a thick paste and looked at them with concern.
“Do I even want to ask what these are to have just gotten you that?”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Vial one is technically an organelle I’d like you to add to the cells when you build the homunculus. Honestly, just consider it a biological upgrade because that’s probably some of my finest work. It should substantially strengthen his body while at the same time reducing his food cost, along with enhancing his body’s growth rates too. If I could modify my own body to get those in all of my cells, I would.”
“No trying to figure out how to make that happen; I don’t want to know how a change like that would affect all of the other nonsense in your status,” she sighed. “And the other one?”
“A biological specimen to be mixed in, same as me, only way, way more valuable than anything I could contribute biologically. If I designed it right, it shouldn’t have a significant effect on the final form you make, but it’s going to lead to a substantially more unkillable body. I’m talking about something that will be able to start regrowing limbs the second they’re lost, with a few handy other features to it too. Genuinely, in the last few minutes, I really went all out with these designs.”
With both of them stemming largely from his experiments with the biology of his god’s lost world, even if they’d include some of his own personal flourishes mixed in that never would have been found on Myriad’s old planet, meaning that the resulting biological system included not only mythril, but the ability to convert normal iron into it if needed.
It wasn’t like such a thing would mean Inux would be producing mythril on a profitable scale, even if he somehow figured out a way to extract it from his body, but it would be akin to Ben’s own mythril blood, giving benefits to how the body itself would take in and use mana on top of all of the other features that it would provide.
And it means that a little bit of Myriad’s old home gets to exist on the world to a small extent at least, Ben smiled, happy to have done at least that much. Even if, if Myriad saw what those cells would have grown into, he never would have recognized it.
With that explanation though and a dubious look still on Thera’s face as she wondered just how worried she should be about Ben’s growing mastery of biology, she got to work, taking the various biological samples and merging them with her soul magic while Ben materialized meat to grow them on as all of the onlookers watched the new body grow.
While Thera did that, Ben focused on moving a screen around it to keep things tasteful until he could materialize clothing for it properly, given that Mora and Delair were both watching too and he didn’t want to have any uncomfortable talks with Fontesh when he got back, much to their chagrin as they tried to see what was happening, until finally, it was done.
A simple outfit materialized onto the body, they all took in the sight of the new man, looking only an inch shorter than Inux’s original form but still far taller than the rest there, and by all accounts seemed to be one of the maliae. It was obvious that there was something a bit foreign in his heritage, the cells Ben had created had at least left the body’s skin tone looking more red than anyone else there, while Ben’s scarlet and violet eyes made their way through, leaving them both to match in that regard, but given the history of that world, such things wouldn’t really stand out. There were plenty of people who were almost pure members of the species they identified as, with one or two distant ancestors a thousand years back peeking through in subtle ways distinct from the rest of their kind, but that was all, leaving only the need for Inux to try that new flesh on to see how it felt.
“You ready?” Ben asked, Inux nodding as he stared at the homunculus before him.
“As I can be. If you’re moving my soul, should I sit down?”
“If you would.”
When Inux lied down, Ben opened his chest once more, pulling the crystal it held out of it and prepared to materialize a new band to put it in before having a thought and added a quick enchantment to its outer shell, materializing a compass to connect it to through the bind that had merged into his soulcraft.
There, something to find him with in case anything ever happens, Ben told himself, making a mental note to give it to the oracle later and explain its purpose before going to do what he needed to, only to have another thought.
There were two ways he could make a tool that would let a soul inhabit a body. He could, as with Dewdrop, use his soulcraft to create the link, or instead he could use a beastform skill, with Ben instantly wondering just what would happen if he did.
A beastform skill would warp the body of the wearer to match the soul, after all. It did with all of the forbidden gods, so what would happen if he did it using Inux? Would it be like his strengthening bracelets that used the souls he would materialize, which would yield no changes at all, other than a boost of attributes, or would something unexpected happen? After all, the god that made him surely couldn’t materialize souls himself, meaning Inux had to have come from somewhere, so just what would happen?
He couldn’t resist, and, feeling the chance to satisfy his curiosity, Ben materialized a collar around the body’s neck with a beastform skill and a spot to hold the crystal, watching to see what would happen when the soul met flesh.
Oh, now that’s interesting.
He hadn’t known what he’d been expecting, but the moment Inux’s soul saturated the flesh, it changed subtly. His features shifted in a way that was barely perceptible, and he grew a little taller, bringing his appearance just a bit closer to how he’d looked when Ben had first found him in one of Anailia’s back alleys so many years ago, and no matter how subtle it was, the change didn’t go unnoticed by those who’d devoted their lives to his care.
I guess my work with the forbidden gods has shown that, with enough time, a soul can change to reflect its vessel. Interesting to see that hold true with an entirely artificial body as well.
“Well? How does it feel?” Ben asked, watching as the other man took his first few breaths while experiencing a body of flesh and blood.
“It feels incredible. Sensations across my… skin? Like never before. But also strange.”
“It can take some getting used to,” Mora chimed in from the side, the only one there who could properly understand what such an experience might be like to wear flesh for the first time.
“And you’ll have plenty of time,” Ben told him. “But, we’re not done yet. Since we have your body set up, we should make you some backups, plus containers to store them in so you don’t need to worry about time ravaging them, a few more collars to put your soul crystal in, in case anything ever happens to that one, and now that you’ll be fighting with flesh, I need to make you some armour too. Still plenty of finishing touches to work on to make sure your new body lasts.”
