Chapter 370: Operation: The Improved Elaine VII

I wrinkled my nose as I knocked on Marcelle’s door.

“Please wait, I’m with a student.” She answered from the closed door.

Welp. Nothing to do but wait. There was no sense in a last second review of everything, I’d done it three times already and I was more liable to trip myself up and make a mistake at this stage, than find a true error.

I’d gone shopping for the items we needed for Fenrir’s ‘case’ ahead of time, and I’d underestimated magic.

People committed to making stinky socks could make really stinky socks. The bear trap had been expensive, but I considered it an investment – wyvern’s blood was priceless.

I did think Iona was yanking my chain slightly with the ball of yarn and a red lunchbox, but eh. It’d be fun. The drums were going to be loud though, I hope we wouldn’t annoy any of our neighbors.

The door opened, and I got out of the way of the black-robed student who left.

“Elaine! Come on in.” Marcelle waved me in, and I sat down at her desk.

She reached down to where I knew she kept her wine bottles, and paused.

“Are we discussing real biomancy that you’ll be performing, or not?” She asked me.

I grimaced.

“Real biomancy. I’ve got some questions on my project, and I was hoping for you to review what I’ve got so far. Tell me if I’m doing anything stupid.”

Marcelle nodded.

“I’m happy to help. Shoot.”

“First question is about multiple hearts. I can’t work out if they should be in parallel or in sequence. Here’s the issues I’ve found with each…”

I explained my issues I’d run into while I pulled out my heart diagrams, passing them over to Marcelle. Her eyebrows steadily climbed up into her bangs as she read over my notes.

“Ambitious.” She finally replied. “But it’s been done before. You want to have them in sequence. Look up Hryng’s formula, it’ll give you the pieces needed to adjust the two hearts so they’ll work together. You’ll also need Yolico’s Spacing, both of which can be found in Hearts and Healers.”

I scribbled down what Marcelle said.

“Alright, next question. I was wondering about unicorn marrow…” I said, moving to the next problem I had on my list.

“… Akres’s Binding.” Marcelle answered my last question. “I’m getting quite excited to see what you’ve cooked up!”

I grinned, seeing the moment for what it was.

“I was hoping you could take a peek!” I pulled out two full notebooks of details, Iona having helped me neatly draw and compress everything down.

It was a full body redesign. Those weren’t small, short passages.

Marcelle’s eyes went wide.

“I thought you were doing one person.” She said as I planted the notes in front of her.

“This IS one person. Well, ok, technically there’s a second person, but they’re a small, fairly standard to-mostly-elf modification. Actually, I had a question on that first.” I said as Marcelle picked up my notes, starting to idly flick through them. Not nearly slowly enough to understand the details on each page, more getting a high level overview of the whole thing.

“What is it?”

“I ran the calculations needed. It’d take me around seven billion points of mana to fully make the changes I want to on my friend. Do you know if there’s some sort of special permission I need to ask the School for to use that much mana at once? Any paperwork or anything?”

Marcelle slowly put down my notes, and stared at me in silence.

“Do you even have enough magic power to perform an operation of that size?” She finally asked.

I bit my lip and nodded.

“I think so. Roughly 800,000 magic power while healing – and performing biomancy – puts me at a little over two hours total cast time.”

“Two hours is a long time. Are your calculations before or after you do the biomancy in a roundabout way?”

Shit. I didn’t even know what her question meant.

“I’m unsure what you mean.” I honestly replied. Marcelle sighed.

“Take the heart. With the numbers you’re giving me, you’d need to spend a few minutes on the patient’s heart alone. You can’t simply enlarge an eighth of it, and assume the entire thing will remain functional long enough for you to finish modifying it. In those few minutes, your poor patient will be undergoing multiple cardiac events as you modify that segment. For each one, you’ll need to instantly diagnose the symptoms and cure only the symptoms, not the root underlying cause, which will slow your modifications down. If you over-heal, you’ll revert the biomancy changes you’re making. If you fail to heal, you’ll kill the patient. You see the issue?”

I reluctantly nodded.

“How do I fix them?” My heartrate was slowly going up. I didn’t want to have the conversation with Iona ‘oops, sorry, I know I promised biomancy but I can’t deliver.’

Although… pure muscle enhancement, and nothing else, wouldn’t run afoul of the problems Marcelle described.

Marcelle frowned.

“Generally… you don’t. This is why biomancy is targeted for small changes at adults, large changes at children, or self-improvement. However…” Marcelle signed, and gestured like she wished she had a glass of wine. “The healing students at the School might enjoy the challenge and working with you. The School would like it if you gave them a heads up when planning to use that much mana, talk to some of the [Clerks] in administration. They’ll give you details.”

I nodded, my spirits raising once again. No awkward present revoking!!

“Is there a chance you can review my main design?” I asked her.

Marcelle picked up my notes, and started flipping through them again.

“No.” She answered as she flipped another page. I raised an eyebrow. It looked like she was reviewing my notes. “This is too complex for me to properly review here and now, or broadly. I do have other students, classes, and responsibilities, and telling you I’ll review it will also make me ethically responsible for your outcome.”

I pulled a face, but didn’t say anything. She was reviewing my notes. I wasn’t going to interrupt her.

“However,” She said, and I refrained from pumping my fist. “Your notes and methods are good enough, and detailed enough, to present as a final thesis. Schedule a time where myself and four other professors in Biomancy or Healing are free for at least two blocks, and be fully prepared to defend your build. You’ll kill two raptors with a single stone. Not only will you get the undivided attention of five professors trying to poke holes in your proposed plan, but if you succeed, you’ll meet one of the Biomancy Track graduation requirements. We can schedule your personal biomancy examination at the same time. If you pass, congratulations! You’ll officially have your first School Track completed.”

Whoa. I wasn’t super interested in having the Biomancy Track designation, but it would be nice. Much more important was getting five of the foremost experts in the world doing nothing but tearing my build apart for four hours straight. That was invaluable.

“While I’m glancing over your notes, I’m noticing a few problems already.” Marcelle frowned at my notes. “I’m all for you presenting, but they’re going to need to be in better shape than this. I’m only seeing half of an immune system? You’ve cut down to one kidney, and a quick look is telling me you’ll die in… I’d estimate a month. In your shoes, I’d entirely remove the second heart, it’s not going to perform as well as you hope, and run a half-dozen small kidneys in parallel, each one dedicated to handling a different set of toxins. It’s also clear you never took Senescent Studies. I would know, I have to approve everyone taking the class.”

I had answers to most of that.

“The build is for me. Remember my [Persistent Casting]?”

Marcelle dramatically groaned.

“Not this again. I thought you’d stopped teasing me about it. Yes, yes… oh! Yes! I can see how that would work well, clever use of leaning on your skills to close holes, and open up new possibilities. Your lack of Senescent Studies is still showing.”

I was obviously missing something big, and Marcelle was all but begging me to ask her.

“What’s Senescent Studies, and where’s it causing me issues?” I asked.

“It’s all about how bodies age, and what, exactly, is going on, along with how to pause or reverse aging.” She put down my notes and stood up, entering an all-too-familiar lecture mode. “Now, I believe you should delay a quarter, and take just a few more classes before trying this out. Specifically, in your design, you’re pushing temperature tolerances.”

I gave a slow nod, but Marcelle was waiting for my response.

“Yes. I’m a little more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations, but everything should operate perfectly fine at 98.8 degrees.”

My brain had been the big derp moment when working out temperatures. I had to obey its thermal range. Everything else was tweakable. I would run hot, but I’d also carefully and systemically made sure all my organs had blood vessels go to the surface and back, letting physiological reactions act as a cooling vent when needed. I was a little more vulnerable to the cold, but at the same time, I had Radiance magic, Auri, wizardry, and a high metabolism.

“Right, but you’ve got three organs where 98.8 is the top end of their thermal range after your modifications, if your notes are correct.” Marcelle said. “On paper, it’s healthy. In practice, your organs will age faster. I also see sea otter organs here, and they have a baseline of 15 years of adult life, since you wouldn’t be dumb enough to use a juveline’s. I understand that you’re a high level, but even if you had a four times multiplier to your lifespan, that’s only 60 years left. Your thermal shenanigans will cost you, and cut that down to a third, if not less. As a pure human, with your healing, you’re looking at closer to eighty baseline, which at a four times multiplier is 320 years left. You’re committing a slow suicide here. Are you really ready to say your life is half over?” Marcelle finished her lecture by slamming my notebook closed, and handing both of them back to me.

“Revise, and make sure everything is perfect before presenting your thesis. I can also give you permission to attend Senescent Studies. I was just waiting for you… to… ask…”

Marcelle’s eyes narrowed as she looked at me, her fingers thoughtfully drumming on her arm.

“Everyone – everyone – asks to join Senescent Studies. You’re one of the brightest students I’ve ever had the pleasure of teaching.” She was slowly listing off points, and the look on her face was making me nervous. “You’re a healer, you know old age is how you’re going to die. You’re a purple robe…” Marcelle suddenly grinned at me.

“Why, Elaine! You never told me you were an Immortal!”