I lay on my bed with Darina sat next to me; my initial thought had been to sit cross-legged on the floor, as this was how I normally meditated, but it had quickly occurred to me that if it was even a fraction as painful as the last time, I would probably just end up falling over. When I had first burned my channels in, I had been strapped to – and nailed to – a chair in the process of being tortured, which had kept me upright. Since those things did not seem like an option right then, it has not left me with a lot of options, when it came to my positioning.

“Any time you’re ready, Hunter.”

I nodded, sweating despite the absolute lack of cold I felt; my heart was beating fast in my chest in anticipation of what I was about to try. I remembered the pain all too well, and while I had experienced more since, none had ever really topped the sensation of thousands of flames burrowing into and through my flesh.

Closing my eyes, I sent my awareness inward, to hover above my Core with its little statue of me inside, and the sigil inscribed on its surface. Recalling my experience in scribing that magical circle, I took a deep breath and drew out a line of Paxis from my core, following it along my channels until I reached my right arm. Splitting my attention, I did my best to observe both of my arms at once, the real and prosthetic. I had a pretty good idea of the pattern, but I did not yet know which parts did what, though I had a hunch. I wanted to replicate the efficiency aspect, but not the strange kinetic mirror, as if I had understood DUK3 correctly, flesh could not hold enough power to reliably power it, even with Praxis.

I took another deep breath, focusing on the task at hand, and wrapping my will about the energy I had brought from my core, began the process of burning the pattern from one arm into the other.

The moment I began, the world turned white around me and began to ring like a bell, and then becoming pain. I felt myself thrash, but even as the pain demanded I focus on it, I held myself to my task, if barely. I could feel small hands on my arm and head, but any energy she sent into me to monitor my condition was lost in the agony, my awareness of her touch incidental as I bent my whole being to the task I had set myself.

Line by line I swept the Praxis through my arm, burning baffles and channels that expanded, contracted and turned back on themselves, my intent set with a single concept; efficiency.

The near-phantom channels of my crystal arm created a sort of three-dimensional sigil, and it was this that would hopefully allow me to replicate what I wanted, leaving the pure design of DUK3 alone. There seemed to be a logic and pattern to it, much like the destructive force sigil on my Core; while I did not know enough to design my own, it gave me enough insight to be able to make some decent guesses when it came to what was and was not a part of the larger design.

I was about a third of the way done when I felt a pain in my chest that shot out and along my arm; I gasped a short breath before going back to gritting my teeth as I felt Darina’s hand shift from my head to my heart, and the additional pain melted away like ice in warm water. There were many injuries that took longer for the apprentice to heal, such as complex breaks and nerve damage, but to magic, it seemed a muscle was a muscle, even if it beat like a Big Rig.

My memories beyond that are hazy, like a fever-dream that was mostly pain and flashes of the inside of my body and burning, boring energies. When it was over, I came back to myself slowly, my inner-eye staring blankly at the inside of my arm. My return was followed by a mental flinch and another convulsion of my body as I waited for the agony to flood in, but when none came, I felt myself shudder in relief, and I may have shed a tear or two, though it was tough to say amid the rivulets of sweat still running off me.

After several moments of gathering myself, I moved my mind’s eye about, checking my work; the pattern seemed fairly sound, missing the big bits that were obviously – to me – involved in the shield, though I could not actually fathom how that part worked. There was a difference however, though it was only noticeable on closer inspection; the channels themselves seemed slightly larger and smoother than they did normally; I could not tell whether this was due to something about the efficiency sigil interacting with flesh, or whether it was the result of using Praxis, as the process was initially done with base Experience.

Of course, whether it turned out to be one of those reasons, or something else entirely, there was not much I could do about it at that point. In theory, should something be wrong, once I had my Lesser Regeneration working properly again, I could try to cut off the energy flow through the new channels and allow them to heal, but that was supposedly also pretty painful, not to mention a long process.

With a mental shrug, I returned my awareness to the outer world again, opening my eyes and sitting up on the soft bed, the fine sheets clinging to my drenched skin.

“You died fourteen times.”

I turned to face Darina, who was now sat behind me; she looked pale and tired, dark rings under her eyes; I had only noticed the healing of my heart the first time, but she must have done a lot to put her in that state, which I supposed was obvious if I had died fourteen times. The number was shocking; I felt like I should have died more than once the first time around, but the number she suggested for just an arm left me dumfounded. It was possible that it was due to the sheer number of additional circuits – a normal cultivator had what amounted to one large tunnel that carried energy throughout their body. It was only insane people like myself and the apprentice healer that tried for more, and apparently paid a heavy price for it. I could see why such an experiment was not more common; miracle elixirs that prevented death and healers trained by Apexes were in short supply, even with all the magic my new home was packed with.

“Are you okay, Dee? You look like crap.”

“I am tired and very low on energy, Hunter. You died fourteen times; If you had passed a few more times, I would not have had the strength to revive you. I hope it was worth it for this special arm of yours.”

“Well... we’ll see. I’m sorry it cost you so much energy, I didn’t think it would take so much.”

“It takes a great deal to reignite a mind and energy system. Do not make any more of a habit of it than you have already. Now, test your arm before I go to rest and meditate, fool. I need to start as soon as possible, as I do not think my abilities will go unneeded in the coming days.”

“Alright... I guess I’ll save the cleansing pill until after, in case my arm explodes?”

I tried to make my words sound light, but I was apparently more tired than I had thought, as they came out deadpan causing Darina to raise an eyebrow at me.

“Right. Trying now.”

Before Focusing, I checked one last time to see whether the normal circulation of Praxis was having any problems, but it seemed to be flowing past and through the new additions without issue, which gave me some hope.

Taking another calming breath, I Focused as lightly as I possibly could, doing my best to draw the power through myself slowly; my practice on the dead world was coming in very useful that day, and I sent a silent thanks to whoever was in charge of... everything.

Praxis-born lightning crawled along my channels as I worked my will to restrain it, though finally it entered my fleshy arm and I tenses as I felt a certain kind of metaphysical pressure building. Gazing inwards, I saw the energy building at the chokepoints and baffles and at the ramjets I had built inside myself, the strangely smooth channels bulging outwards. This was not something I had come across in my crystal arm, but it occurred to me as I watched that my crystal arm was made out of crystal, a material specifically chosen because my original prosthetic had exploded. I felt a fresh round of sweat burst out of me as I remembered the black and red arm fracturing and bursting apart, my face a mask of growing horror and morbid anticipation.

But the arm did not explode. After several moments, as the energy finished making its way around the circuit of the three-dimensional sigil, the pressure began to ease rapidly, until there was no more than I experienced normally. Reluctantly, I loosened my mental grip on my lightning and allowed it to run through my energy system normally, the rampant coruscating line of electricity returning to my core to start the journey over again.

I kept my gaze on the inside of my arm, watching for any sign of failure, but it seemed to be holding up, and did indeed appear to be functioning in the same way as my other, though perhaps a shade less efficiently. I recalled that the majority of the work done to stop my arm exploding again had been done in the form the design and sigil, and was not exclusively due to material strength, finally letting out a breath I had not known I was holding as relief poured into me.

Next, I tapped my Exemplar, stepping onto my Path and allowing time to slow around me, observing the effects in and around my new additions. Once more, it seemed to be functioning fine, and this time without even the pressure I had felt at first. The field around my hand did seem to cost less which had of course been my goal.

With a grin, I cut the power to my abilities and for the second time that day pumped my first into the air with a cry of triumph.

“I assume that it worked then?”

“Yeah! I think it’s slightly less effective than the original, but it’s working! We need to do this to the rest of me, and to you! To everyone!”

“Slow down, fool! You said you had one of those serums to prevent death? The rest of us would need my Master, and that’s if we’re willing to go through the pain. It did not seem... pleasant.”

“Oh, yeah, it sucked. It really sucked, but if we can make everyone stronger while reducing the cost so it doesn’t cost more to be strong..., that’s a massive advantage! Think about how fast you could regenerate, or heal!”

“I will think about it. Perhaps we should leave mentioning it to the others until we meet my Master again, as I would prefer not to need to spend energy in elective modifications right now, when I may need to actually save people. I only assisted you as to do otherwise may have left you useless. More useless.”

The last was said with a quirking of her lips, a tiny smile to let me know she was joking. As much as it had impacted the city, and I was sure many had already lost their lives, I was glad the idiotic field was gone. It felt good to be less... angry.

“Now, I’m going to meditate and sleep. You should too.”

“Right! Thank you, Darina. Really.”

With a casual shrug, the healer climbed to her feet and left the room. I fell onto my bed, feeling the uncomfortable damp and scenting the growing smell of stale sweat. I slapped a cleansing pill against my chest, and then the bed; it would not dry us out, but it would convert the sweat into scentless water, and get rid of any accumulated grime and blood.

Clean again, I considered simply taking the serum and completing the process, but as I turned my gaze inwards once more, I was distracted by the rapid thrum of my Core. Pausing for a second, I measured the rate as best I could and swallowed, giving up on the idea of any more channel boring that day, instead beginning to meditate on recent events furiously, worry gnawing at me as I considered my almost completely empty Core. As it turned out, burning channels with Praxis was costly.