Nose

Alice stared silently at the mess of swollen tissues, torn blood vessels, broken bones, and mangled cartilage that was her nose and its surrounding areas. All in all, the organ was in a really bad shape.

The impact of her face against whatever mushroom tree she had hit while being carried away by the flash flood had managed to damage the delicate system of cartilages that gave her nose its form, pushing them down and against the thin nasal septum that divided her two nostrils, forcing it all the way to the right and completely blocking one of the two ways the air used to reach the rest of the respiratory tract.

The second nostril, instead, had soon been filled by the massive nosebleed that had followed the impact, slowly congealing into a thick plug of blood and mucus while she lay unconscious on the ground.

If that had been all, she would have been quite relieved.

Alas, it was not and the biomancer was forced to stare at the mess with an ever deepening grimace.

The collision had either been particularly intense or, possibly, her bones had yet to recover from the large ‘donation’ of calcium molecules that she had forced while recreating the skeletal structure of her arm; whatever the reason, the thin layer of osseous tissue that separated her nasal cavity from the brain had fractured into multiple splinters which had then cut through her flesh like the shrapnel of a grenade.

While most of the bone shards had done next to no damage, stopping against a thinner, second layer of bone, a particularly sharp piece had instead managed to punch past it, slashing the first of the three membranes that surrounded and protected the brain and pushing through its thick and durable mesh of cells before stopping mere millimeters from actually shearing through the other two and entering her very delicate cerebral cortex. She could only thank Lady Luck for that.

The gash, however, had immediately started leaking a thin stream of the clear fluid that circulated between those membranes. The same fluid that protected the spinal cord and filled some of the internal brain structures was now gently flowing down her throat and pooling in her stomach.

While her brain was continuously producing more, Alice was sure that the stalemate wouldn’t last much longer as she could feel the sensation of mild swelling that had taken over her entire brain, pushing against the torn membranes as if asking for freedom.

Her Biomagical Instincts skill told her that it was still safe but she didn’t want to risk it.

Finally, and to top it all, as it detached from the main structure, the dastardly piece of bone had also managed to completely sever the two thick strands of nerves that, from the receptors within the nasal cavity, sent all olfactory information to a small area in the frontal cortex of the brain. She was now unable to smell anything.

For a long time, Alice stared in silence at the devastation in front of her eyes, a single thought ringing in her mind as she watched her cerebrospinal fluid trickle down her esophagus.

Fuck. That’s not nice.

She quickly got working.

The biomancer’s attention immediately focused on the sharp, fingernail-sized fragment of bone that was deeply embedded in what she was sure was the first of the three meningeal membranes.

With all the care in the world, the determined girl made sure that no important vein or artery was in the vicinity before slowly calling upon the thinnest possible stream of Lumen to steadily dissolve the bone, working almost cell by cell to prevent any further damage to her brain.

An unknown amount of time passed but, in the end, the last sliver of collagen and calcium disappeared from the wound, leaving her with a large, open laceration that was nonetheless much easier to work with.

When the shard was finally removed, however, the disappearance of the obstruction resulted in a steep increase of the flow of cerebrospinal fluid out of the tear, giving her a very strict schedule that she was incredibly keen on respecting.

She activated her Biomagical Instincts skill and immediately started the rebuilding process.

Alice’s first task consisted in repairing the paper-thin membrane that had somehow managed to stop the deadly path of the shard, carefully rebuilding the fibrous tissue that formed a transparent spiderweb over the brain and marveling at its incredible structure, filled with snaking filaments that then burrowed into the final layer of cells before the cortex proper.

Next, once the first partition had been resealed, the young woman tackled the thick, fibrous mesh of very elastic cells that protected the two thinner barriers, separating them from the hard bony structure of her skull.

Here, the amount of torn tissue was much larger and she also had to repair a very wide portion of the interconnected blood vessels that crisscrossed its surface and that had been cut open during the impact.

Thankfully, her body had worked hard to keep her alive and the veins had managed to reach a very basic hemostasis before she could die of blood loss, or worse.

Slowly, the hours passed and while she worked, the young and very tired woman fell into some kind of trance, her mind strangely detached as she gradually created a dam to prevent a further loss of the precious cerebrospinal fluid and carefully brought the meninges back to their original state.

As she bound proteins and reformed previously severed connections, Alice could feel the alluring song of rest that was being sung throughout her body by the clouds of hormones flooding her system, continuously pumped by her glands as they tried to lull her tired body into a deep and restful sleep, away from the pain, injuries and worries that haunted her wake.

Time and time again, the girl almost let them win, barely shaking herself awake at the last second and furiously forcing her glands to cease the production for just a bit more. She couldn’t allow herself to sleep yet. She had too much work to do.

Only once the leak had been sealed, did the biomancer allow herself a small break, observing the now intact membranes and preparing for the next herculean task in front of her.

Stifling a yawn, she started by numbing the many pain receptors that were still connected to her brain, numbing the entire area she wanted to operate on.

Next, Alice carefully added more glimmers to the thin and glowing tendril she was controlling, thickening it just enough for it to be able to prod and move the displaced fragments of her nasal bone, which it did by entering her right nostril and consuming the thick plug of dried blood within it.

The girl ignored the very unpleasant sensation of the tentacle slithering through her nasal cavity and instead forced the Lumen to interact with the bones and cartilages without actually consuming them, basically using the tendril as the most controllable surgical instrument of the world, following the instructions sent directly to her brain by her magical skills and ever so slowly reconnecting the very gory puzzle hidden inside her flesh.

When all the remaining splinters were back in their place, the girl quickly accessed the unusually large storage of vitamins she had available, and formed a thick layer of collagen over the thin fractures between the different fragments and, more than anywhere else, over the gap left by the piece that had almost damaged her brain.

Since she was there, the biomancer took her time to copy the same fractal structure she had utilized for the bones of her arm, strengthening the preexisting osseous tissue or creating it from scratch where it was needed. She wanted to avoid more nightmares like that one, and the key to that was completely overhauling the entirety of her system.

Finally, Alice found herself staring at the sad, frayed ends of her olfactory nerve, stopping abruptly on their way to the numerous smell receptors that were slowly dying just a few centimeters away. She was running on fumes and the sole idea of tackling yet another reconstruction caused a ripple of tiredness to wash over her once again.

Tomorrow. I’ll do it tomorrow. She promised to herself while slowly coming back to consciousness.

When she opened her eyes once more, the young woman finally allowed herself to lay down on the somewhat soft and wet surface of the large oyster mushroom she had chosen as a hideout, ignoring the numerous and colorful treefrogs that had slowly sauntered towards her, a couple of the bravest ones literally jumping over her body and settling there with a few contented croaks.

Whatever. She thought while turning on her side and tuning out their loud calls.

For an instant, while her eyes were closing, Alice felt the potent poison of the frogs as it seeped into her skin and was promptly destroyed by her enhanced physique. She was snoring seconds later, a shrill whistle escaping her deformed nostril every time she exhaled.

No level? Dammit. That would have probably been very useful.

Alice had just been woken from her well-deserved rest by a slimy and suction-y shape crawling over her face. Batting away the adventurous, bright red tree frog and ignoring its offended croak, she sat up with a sigh and inspected her surroundings once more.

She was filled with relief when she found herself still in the same nook she had crawled into a few hours before; after the previous day’s horrible awakening she didn’t even have that certainty any more.

The world outside had turned dark and quieted down while she slept, the only sounds she could hear were the barely-audible murmuration of running water and the shuffling of multiple creatures rushing through the mushroom stalks below. The tadpoles were likely on the hunt once again.

They either don’t enjoy light or simply have a very sharp sense of time. Either way, I really wish I still had the light core of the Rocktopus. That would have been very useful.

Shelving her wishful thinking for the time being, the young woman jumped back into her body to check up on her healing process, a small smile appearing on her lips when she noticed that some of her injuries had been resolved overnight by her tireless body.

The most important change had been in her brain tissues, their swelling having thankfully disappeared during her slumber along with the nausea and dizziness that had turned her legs into jelly and caused her to puke her guts out.

She couldn’t help but exhale a very long sigh of relief when she also noticed that the migraine and the fuzzy vision had also been greatly reduced, now more a nuisance than a real issue.

Nonetheless, Alice didn’t let herself sleep on her laurels. The young biomancer took her time to thoroughly inspect the rest of her body, finding a crowd of small and large wounds that necessitated healing before they too started affecting her life. Aside from her still injured nose and a few cracked ribs that she somehow barely felt, the most worrying issue seemed to be the one in her right shoulder, where her ligaments and muscles had somehow been torn and damaged from the inside. The wound in itself would have normally been a very easy fix but it was the reason behind it that deeply worried the girl.

After a couple of minutes of investigation, Alice had finally noticed the difference between the newly-improved tissues and the ones she had yet to modify with her powers. To her dismay, she discovered that they didn’t interact well with each other as the new ones seemed to exert too much force for the ones she had yet to modify, basically straining her entire system.

She would need to overhaul it in its entirety before she would be able to use it to its full extent, which meant a very long process that would necessitate a huge amount of resources and that couldn’t be kept waiting any longer.

Before that, however, I need to solve my nose issue. She thought to herself, frowning a bit more every time she heard the shrill sound coming from her nostrils.

After checking up on her nutritional reserves and finding them still at an acceptable level, the young woman proceeded to carefully reset the structure of the nose to its previous position, sealing the few remaining cracks in the bone and then straightening or rebuilding the various cartilaginous parts that gave it its shape.

By the time the first rays of sunlight had sliced through the darkness, Alice’s nose was almost back to its normal shape, and the color of the tissues surrounding it had already faded from a scary purple and blue shade to a very ugly, but also quite reassuring, greenish-yellow hue.

She, however, had decided to leave the severed olfactory nerve as it was, an idea too alluring to be ignored bobbing in her brain.

A silent Alice walked through the mushroom stalks, her attentive eyes scanning through the underbrush and inspecting the ceiling of mycelia over her.

Her feet were once again protected by the resilient chitinous shoes and she was clutching her mace with both hands, ready to swing it at any would-be predator.

The weapon was still damaged, one of its flanges irreparably bent after one of the many impacts it had received. She frowned while eyeing it, a damaged weapon was a less effective one and while it still contained a very precious core, she couldn’t let herself get caught by an enemy with an even larger disadvantage than normal.

I just wonder what’s the sense of the core. Chillushrith can’t have done it for the sake of it. There must be a reason.

She had tried accessing it before, to harvest the power contained within it but the metal itself seemed to be a very good magical insulator and had remained completely inert under her forceful prodding.

She now attempted one more time, grasping the head of the mace and trying to feel the roiling lake of energy it should contain.

Dammit. She sighed, surrendering after a few minutes of huffing and puffing, not a spark coming from the hidden marble.

She kept pushing through the fungal sprouts, her feet sinking slightly into the spongy ground.

She had left the oyster mushroom and its amphibian denizens a few hours before, electing to get closer to the opening in the cavern’s wall while the tadpoles still slept and sparse rays of sunlight shined a bit of radiance in the otherwise dark world beneath the toadstools.

She had briefly thought about trying to walk over the forest as she had likely done before encountering the water bug, but one of her very fuzzy memories had been of a swarm of large dragonflies and she wasn’t keen on meeting them once again.

As she walked, Alice made sure to fill her belly with dozens of different mushrooms, sampling the incredibly vast selection and identifying the ones she liked the most by tasting their somewhat bland flavor, somewhat regretting her decision of keeping her olfactory receptor severed as it was like eating something while nursing a cold.

In the span of an hour, her belly was nonetheless completely full and she had been forced to stop putting the mushrooms into her silken sack since it was becoming too heavy to be carried around with ease.

Once she felt the first load of nutrients enter her bloodstream, the young biomancer finally gave her very ambitious process a go.

A large portion of her attention still on her surroundings, Alice started gradually improving on her entire skeletal system.

As opposed to her previous attempts, however, this time she wouldn’t rush it or leave it halfway done.

By copying the recursive and microscopic structure of her radius and ulna, the girl carefully moved from bone to bone and used the continuous stream of vitamins that came from the fungi she ingested to weave a mesh of collagen that she gradually added to the intact bones, entering their labyrinthine structure of osseous cells and filling them with a system of recursive supports wherever it was needed.

The process wasn’t fast.

Time and time she had to stop and let her powers rest, the reservoir of her warmth getting low despite the almost constant regeneration that took care of the nutrients in excess.

Despite that, by the time the last insectile chirrup faded from the top of the mushroom caps, the entire skeletal system of the girl had been affected and was now sporting countless small collagen strands within its harder supports, their sticky surface waiting expectantly for the calcium that would coat them and make them as sturdy and resilient as the ones already there; more, even.

When the final thread of protein had been placed, Alice stopped on her tracks in the middle of a small, dark clearing. A thin, predatory smile appeared on her face as she changed the grip on the mace, her enhanced ears catching the first few squelching, bipedal steps coming in her direction.

It was time to get her calcium in a much more direct way.

*****

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