I wake up in the infirmary. I guess I passed out after that last bit of thought. Stirring a bit, I feel someone glom on to my side. Chi senses tell me someone is there alongside 2 other signatures in the room. Turning on unseen eye I can’t see anything… Why did they completely wrap me up?

“Hello?” I feel the one on me hug slightly tighter.

“You’re okay! Oh, thank goodness!” I recognize that voice.

“Li? Is that you?” I hear a slight gasp from someone else in the room.

“Yes… I… I heard what happened and rushed here to make sure you were okay… I-is there anything I can do? You’re smart… you can fix yourself, right?” I mean… I just lost my eyes and arms to a magical god like being… I don’t know if he’ll let me graft a new pair on. They would likely just unravel like the last pair.

“I’ll think of something… for now though? I think I’m done.” Gently being sat up by someone else.

“What do you mean done?” Li’s voice sounds concerned and sad?

“I’m just going to leave the country for now.” I can hear a gasp from one of the other people in the room.

“I assume that was my mom?” I feel Li nod into my chest.

“Well mom, you should know I don’t want the throne. This is what being the best candidate got me. Imagine if I actually took it.” She still doesn’t understand that thought process. Does she seriously expect me to keep going for it like this? If I didn’t have skills, I’d be almost completely unable to do any work.

I hear mom speak up. There is a slight anger? In her voice. “You…. You can still try right Jiang? You just need to be subordinate to one of the ones that do… but can you even work without your eyes and hands? Are you even able to help the clan anymore?” I feel a slight anger well up inside me.

Before I can speak back though the last voice identifies itself. “With respect lady Du, please shut up.” Su defends me… that’s the first time I’ve ever heard her speak up against my mom.

I can almost imagine my mom’s embarrassment. “Wha- SU! That is unprofessional! I am your lady! Do no question how I raise my son!”

“With respect again lady Du. He just saved my child… I have helped raise him all these years and trained him into a young man… Seeing him like this? It hurts me too. But I do not hold the responsibilities of the clan. I see that he could do great things but is held back by our clan… I wish you best young lord.” I… I don’t know what to say to that.

I hear mom flounder for a bit before steps walk out of the room with a slam of the door.

“How is Xin? Did he wake up yet?” Last I saw him he was moving on the floor a bit.

“…about that… he’s been a little… different since you brought him back.” Different? What does that mean?

“He’s been very… wiggly?” What does she mean by that?

“Just take off some of my bandages. I’ll give him a look.” I feel the body on me freeze and Su also seems to not move towards me either.

“Young lord? We… have some unfortunate news about your eyes…” Oh… oh this is going to be great.

“Yes? They are covered in bandages. Can you please remove them so I can see?” Neither of them move.

“Sir, you lost both of your eyes in the incident three days ago…” Three days? Holy… no that makes sense I lost a lot of blood, and we don’t have the best bedside care here.

“What? No that can’t be come on stop with the jokes. Just remove some of the bandages and I’ll show you.” Su and Li seem to move next to each other for a moment before one of them moves up to me and starts unraveling my bandages.

Finally, being able to see… I’m covered in a thin grime from between my bandages and skin. I can still see through parts but I’m caked in a cream of some sorts. My lips also feel a little numb…

“What’s in this cream? Also why do my lips feel a little numb?” I shouldn’t feel numb… poison resistance should fight against this.

“Well… you looked restless in your sleep so we gave you more and more morphine until you settled down…” …if I didn’t have poison resistance I’d be dead…

“That kills most people…”

“Yes, but you aren’t most people… now, do you believe me about your eyes young lord?” Su is hovering in front of me a bit. She… isn’t wearing her mask. The dark brown eyes covered in a mat black circles I’m used to seeing are joined by a mature sharp face with black hair, her thin lips currently in a slight grimace…

“Oh, so that’s what you look like.” The look of utter confusion that twists on her face makes it worth it.

“l-lord? H-how are you? You just made a guess didn’t you?” Li on the side looks at me hopefully but then gags slightly at the sight of my empty sockets.

“Nope… I can see just not through my eyes.” How do I explain it to them?

“I can see through chi in my skin.” There that’s close enough.

Su’s eyes slightly well up with tears as she moves in for an awkward hug… she pulls away soon afterwords. A slight blush across her cheeks as she readjusts to be professional again. “Ahem, very well young lord. I shall escort you to see your head guard Xin.” She picks me up in a bridle carry.

“What about your mask?” She falters for a moment before grabbing it from a seat nearby and placing it back over her face.

Before leaving Su pauses at the door. “Young lady Lin do you wish to join us?”

“Um… sure? I’d like to make sure big brother is okay… even if he says that he can still see… I don’t want him to get hurt by thinking he’s fine.” Sweet kid. I’m glad that I helped her out…

“Very well, follow me.” We quickly make our way through the hallways, several servants staring at me but quickly look away after receiving a glance from Su. We eventually make it to a separate medical room. Inside is the sleeping form of Xin. He looks… a little different. First of all, he now has a few odd scales across his neck and face. His neck muscles and jaw also look significantly larger than I recall seeing before… Did I combine Wiggles with Xin?

“Please set me down… this is peculiar.” Su doesn’t set me down but instead holds me next to Xin much to my annoyance.

“Has he woken up?” There is a long pause in the room.

“No… though he is for the most part fine. I was hoping that you may have a method of waking him?” I’ll need to check over him to see if there is anything I can do. Treatment’s detection isn’t finding anything so I may just be shock from the event. He was just revived from death, he’s allowed a little sick time for his body to readjust.

“So, what exactly did you do to Xin my lord?” Su finally asks… It sounds like she wanted to ask before, but I’d passed out.

“Well… he was dying. I used a method I knew of… using Chi to keep him from getting worse for 1 minute. That transmutation circle was for human transmutation, with the right parts I could make a complete human on there. So I figured to just heal someone it would work even better. I didn’t want to chance anything to I pulled all the stops… part of the circle was the spirit with a snake surrounding a heart… His had stopped beating so I included my tested beating heart and the snake was wiggles…” I try to gesture towards him but realize that it’s just phantom limb… Pausing for a second to process that I continue.

“I… I think he was dying just as the transmutation was occurring. So rather than just healing him it dragged his soul back into a body… it dragged wiggles and the heart too… Wait was the container for the heart left behind or did that get absorbed too? If so where in his body did it-“

I’m interrupted by Su “Young lord is that really important at the moment?” I guess she is just worried about her kid and me…

“Anyways… I guess when someone attempts to do anything with souls… they need to pay a price. In this case my hands and eyes. In exchange though I also gained some knowledge…”

There is a long pause “…Knowledge from who my lord?” Her voice almost sounds… scared?

“Well… God?” I’m almost dropped before she catches me again.

“I-I see, very well my lord. What does… how can… will we be able to help Xin reawaken and what sort of ramifications might have occurred due to the… revival?” She seems to be trying hard to not let the existance of a god affect her.

“Well, that depends on a few things… for one has he broken out into rashes anywhere? There may be rejection from tissue since they may not have the same blood type. He’s also got a bit of a cold-blooded creature in him so I have no idea how that works. I’d also like to know if he has the metal in him. It’s stainless steel so it likely won’t have much rejection if it’s somewhere inside him but I may need to remove it through surgery or get him on a prescription of antihistamines if that’s not viable…”

“Where might we find antihistamines?” Su asks slow… likely not understanding most of what I said but latching on to the one thing she could help in.

“We have a few lessor ones I don’t know the side effects of. I can make a special blend with some ginger, turmeric and other spices for now. I’m a uh bit disarmed at the moment so I can’t exactly make it myself though.”

This time Li jumps in. “I’ll be your arms for now! I can help out! We also grow both of those at my clan so I’m used to working with them!” She seems proud to be able to help in anyway she can.

“Very well… Um as for the metal. We don’t know if it’s all of it but…” She gently sets me down on my feet keeping one arm around me to keep me steady. The ground feels cool on my feet that I hadn’t noticed were bare.

With her free hand she reaches over and pulls down on Xin’s lower jaw. Inside all of his teeth seem to be made out of metal…

“How the… that’s not how it should work? If anything the metal would be caged around his heart or something? I mean that’s good news at least. Teeth are less likely to reject metal than other parts of the body but still… Maybe it put all the metal in one of the only places it would be healthy?” Looking closer there doesn’t seem to be any inflammation of his gums or a rash breaking out anywhere on his neck or lower jaw…

“Interesting… well I’m tired… but Su while I rest can you have a servant go fetch those herbs and a few others… I don’t want to keep my hands idle.” I smirk at the end there. Su doesn’t seem to enjoy the humor though but leads me back to my room. Li follows along trying to help me where she can. It’s not long until she’s making a few small pills. I’m surprised to learn that she’s been learning Alkahestry, but it makes sense because of her family’s access to herbs. Regardless I have a bit of fun giving her tips along the way.

Eventually it came time for her to finally leave though. “Big brother…”

“Yes little Li?” I set my head on top of hers as she give me a hug.

“Are you sure you are going to be okay? Do you really need to leave?” I let out a long sigh…

“Yes, I’ll be okay… As for leaving yes to that as well. I’ve learned all I can here. I also just don’t want to deal with our siblings. Most of them will see this as the chance to try to kill me for good because I’m weakened. You better watch out for yourself too Li. I don’t want you dying while I’m gone.” I awkwardly pat her head with my jaw much to her amusement.

“I just… I’ll miss you!” She says before finally letting go.

“I know, but you’ll do fine! Just keep up with practice, learn Alkahestry and make sure to take care of your clan. I might come back between visits to other countries. I’ll bring by souvenirs from anywhere I go for you alright?” She gives a small nod.

“Will you be okay going out into the world like… this?” She gestures towards me.

“Hah, if I want to make it a fair fight for the world maybe I should lose my legs too?” She punches my thigh.

“Don’t you dare even joke about that.” She puffs her cheeks at me.

“Really though, I’ll be leaving with Xin once he’s better. Don’t worry so much about me.” She finally leaves for now. She’s likely going to see me again before I go anyways. It’s not like I can go before Xin wakes up anyways.

Finally with a few moments to myself I look at my status…

Name: Jiang Du

Titles: Prodigy, Bookworm

Age: 15

Carried over skills: Rebirth, Mindscape, Unseen Eye, Treatment+

Health status 60/100

Afflictions: Sleep deprivation, Disarmed, Eyeless, Slight starvation

Inventory: First Aid kit, Custom Firearm, Chunk of gold

Current skills

Reading lvl 99 (Inborn skill) Chi manipulation lvl 49 Disease resistance lvl 99 Poison Resistance lvl 80 Engineering lvl 74 Empty Empty

I gained a lot of levels in Engineering from putting a human back together apparently. I also gained a few levels in poison resistance… Were they trying to kill me with the pain medication?

Something even more weird is treatment…

Skill: Treatment+ level 110

Description: wounds treated by you heal 5% faster per lvl.

Lvl 25: Improves treatment effectiveness by lvl% (example binding a wound decently would make it well bound to prevent bleeding. Or something that would only help with partial recovery of functionality will improve the amount recovered by the % more amount. Kind of a nebulous odd skill.)

Lvl 50: Approximate proper treatment. (Essentially while looking at an injury know what method would work best based on current known knowledge and accessible materials. Whether it’s within your ability or not does not matter to the skill.)

Lvl 75: All harm caused by a treatment heals naturally to perfect health rather than become permanently harmed due to the treatment.

Lvl 100: Stabilize, by pressing both hands against a target after a rudimentary treatment they become stabilized for one minute. Target can still die in this time from injuries, but they will not bleed, poisons do not progress, and organs do not require oxygen or blood for the duration. Target must be willing to receive aid and mentally shuts down for the duration.

It went over level 100… is that what the plus means? I guess when it leveled to 100 it didn’t say max, but I was a bit busy at that moment. Bringing someone back from the dead is a fantastic way to level up the skill at least. Will it stop at 125? Or will it keep going until 200… If it keeps going up the healing speed will keep climbing.

Putting that to the side I look at my notifications. Most are just level ups and a warning about being poisoned.

Story quest: Revive Xin complete!

Reward: Skill fusion point

Another skill fusion… I still don’t even have my two last skills. I should probably choose those soon. If I’m going to go explore, I might need something. But first where to even go? Pulling up a map and considering my options… Amestris seems like a good option. They are known for prosthetics and alchemy which I’d like to investigate more…. I can also swing through Xerxis the rumored origin of Alkahestry. It is through a desert… but looking at the map it doesn’t look like that far of a distance.