Research Begins
The research began in earnest. As promised, Elena appeared two days later with the Blue Dragon in tow. The creature measured roughly twenty meters long—three times the size of the sea crocodile we’d encountered before.
“We got lucky. I managed to find one that’s still just a hatchling.”
Even with its overwhelming size, it was still only a hatchling. If she had captured an adult Blue Dragon, the training grounds would have been completely filled.
“Anyway, how exactly do you plan to study this thing? Are you prepared?”
“Of course. I didn’t spend the last two days just sitting around while you were out working hard, Master.”
Just as I said, I had spent the past two days making thorough preparations for studying the Blue Dragon. Among those preparations was building a device to restrain it.
“First, we need to secure this fellow properly. For that, I’ll need your help, Master.”
The restraint device I had created to hold the Blue Dragon was made of solid steel and weighed dozens of tons. There was no way I could move it with my own strength. I needed Elena’s telekinesis.
“Alright. What do you need me to do?”
“You see this blueprint? Just assemble and bind it exactly as drawn here.”
I showed her the blueprint I had drawn. Elena stared at me with a strange look in her eyes for a moment before examining the diagram and nodding.
“This won’t be difficult.”
In a flash, dozens of tons of steel rose into the air as Elena exerted her power. The various steel pieces wrapped around the Blue Dragon’s body and assembled according to their designated functions, completely immobilizing the creature.
Once the dozens of tons of steel had fully restrained it—
The Blue Dragon, feeling the intense pressure, began to thrash violently and roar. Its consciousness had awakened the moment the steel mass bound it.
But with a casual wave of Elena’s hand, a powerful shock struck the creature’s jaw, knocking it out cold. Once she confirmed it had fainted, she continued in an indifferent tone.
“Restraint is done. What next?”
“…We’re going to anesthetize it. So it won’t wake up again.”
“Anesthetize?”
“Yes. I’ve already prepared an anesthetic gas in advance.”
I pointed to the cylinder containing the anesthetic. Inside was a mixture I had brewed by boiling hallucinogenic mushrooms, tarantula paralyzing venom, secretions from a sleep moth, and finely ground mana stones. Since this was one of the few formulas I had discovered while playing the game, its effectiveness was guaranteed.
“The anesthetic gas is inside that cylinder. We’ll fit a respirator over the dragon’s mouth, connect it to the cylinder, and make it inhale the gas.”
“…You can actually anesthetize a dragon?”
“Yes.”
“……”
Elena looked at me with an astonished expression. Since we were still in the early stages of the game, the anesthetic formula I had created had never been revealed to the world before.
“So you have talent not just in machinery, but in pharmaceutical manufacturing as well… Ed, the more I learn about you, the more you surprise me.”
Elena’s eyes began to fill with desire as she showed interest in this previously unknown anesthetic method. She had judged it to be another form of talent.
“Ahem.”
I cleared my throat to change the mood. Now was not the time to leisurely entertain her desires.
“Shall we move on to the next step? There’s still a lot to do.”
I changed the subject and asked her to fit the respirator over the Blue Dragon’s mouth and connect it to the cylinder. Elena nodded willingly and followed all my instructions. With that, the basic setup was complete.
“Whew. Now the real work begins.”
With the basic preparations finished, it was time for the actual research. I brought out the surgical tools I had prepared in advance. Pointing at the massive scalpel resting on the golem’s back, I spoke to Elena.
“First, we need to open up its body.”
During the two days Elena had been away capturing the dragon, I had been incredibly busy. There were countless things to prepare for the research. The part I had poured the most effort into was ‘surgical operation.’
I had practiced extensively by dissecting various hard-to-obtain hatchling-type monsters. Through that process, I gained a great deal of information about them—the structure of their organs and blood vessels, for example.
If I hadn’t possessed Engineering Thinking, I wouldn’t have been able to absorb this knowledge so quickly.
“So you want me to slice open its flank with this giant knife?”
“Yes.”
“Why? The Blue Dragon we went through so much trouble to capture alive will die.”
“That’s why you need to control your strength so it doesn’t die. Think of it as just cutting the skin.”
“Hmm…”
Elena narrowed her eyes as she looked at me. It was the gaze of someone trying to read my intentions. Since the concept of surgical operations didn’t exist in this world, she seemed unable to understand why I wanted to cut open its skin and look inside.
“It’s a necessary step for the research. I’ll explain the reason later.”
I promised to explain later and once again asked her to perform the incision. Elena nodded, then lifted the knife with her telekinesis and began slicing into the dragon’s flank.
-Scraaape!
Scraaaape!
As expected, the Blue Dragon’s scales weren’t easy to cut. They were so tough that even a high-level swordsman or mage would struggle to leave a scratch.
“How annoying.”
But her opponent was Elena von Illide Rosario, one of the absolute beings who had reached the rank of Archmage. When she infused the knife with attribute enhancement and aura, the creature’s hide began to part as easily as slicing fish cake.
“Whew…”
I let out a sigh of relief as I watched. The fact that there was almost no bleeding meant she had successfully avoided the arteries.
Having safely completed the second stage, I approached Elena with the anatomical diagram of the Blue Dragon I had sketched based on my previous hatchling dissections. I showed her the diagram and began explaining my plan.
“This is the predicted internal anatomy of the Blue Dragon that I completed last night. The areas marked in red are places we must absolutely avoid. Please cut along the blue-marked sections in the proper order.”
Elena alternated her gaze between the diagram and the Blue Dragon with a furrowed brow, then nodded. Looking at me with satisfied eyes, she said,
“Your drawing is quite professional. It’s surprisingly accurate.”
“…Well, I’ve drawn a lot of blueprints.”
“But what’s this? ‘Cut section 4 and wait’?”
Cut section 4 and wait. I realized I had forgotten to explain that part, so I gave her the details.
“Ah, right. That’s because we’re going to connect the creature’s skin to reinforced glass there. That’s why it says to wait.”
“…Huh?”
“Um… basically, we’re going to cut the Blue Dragon’s skin in a diamond shape.”
“Yeah.”
“Then we’ll insert a diamond-shaped piece of reinforced glass and connect it to the skin. I’ve prepared the adhesive, so it should bond well.”
Elena listened to my explanation and examined the anatomical diagram once more. As her eyes slowly scanned the page, her mouth gradually fell open. Finally, she turned to me with a look of shock and said,
“Ed. Are you saying you’re going to replace all of the Blue Dragon’s scales with reinforced glass?”
After carefully studying the Blue Dragon’s anatomy diagram, Elena had grasped my intention. But she was only half right, so I corrected her.
“No, not all of them. Just a portion of its flank. We only need to be able to see the internal organs.”
“……”
Even after hearing my explanation, Elena continued to stare at me with a stunned expression for a long time. The gap between this world’s medicine—which relied entirely on healing magic and potions—and Earth’s modern medicine was simply too vast. It was only natural for her to be shocked. The people of this world had no concept of surgical operations, after all.
“Shall we begin, then?”
Whether they were from this world or Earth, everyone was the same when it came to the burning desire for discovery. For the sake of satisfying that endless curiosity, any long-standing common sense could be shattered without hesitation. Science could not advance if everyone remained overly refined and polite.
“Whew. Fine, let’s give it a try.”
And Elena was the most progressive mage I knew among the people of this world. She, too, would reach a new realm of knowledge alongside me.
Five more days passed.
Over those five days, Ed and Elena successfully replaced the Blue Dragon’s flank skin piece by piece with reinforced glass, completely covering the entire side with it. This was only possible thanks to James and his colleagues working day and night to produce and supply the reinforced glass.
“…In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like this. The internal organ structure of a living, breathing Blue Dragon is completely visible.”
Elena shook her head as she looked at the result they had created. The mighty Blue Dragon, revered as a god by certain tribes, had been reduced to nothing more than a laboratory lizard.
Who in their right mind would even think of modifying a Blue Dragon like this?
“We’ve finally reached this point. Now it’s time to study the mechanism by which it uses mana.”
At Ed’s following words, the sense of unease Elena had been feeling vanished instantly. She, too, was curious about how the Blue Dragon utilized the mana stone within its body.
“Then let’s remove the anesthesia first…”
Ed and Elena removed the respirator from the Blue Dragon’s mouth. They also slightly loosened its restraints.
“Grrrrr…”
Thirty minutes after they began waiting for it to wake up, the creature finally started regaining consciousness. The moment it did, it immediately noticed that something was very wrong with its flank.
Enraged, it began to thrash wildly.
A roar filled with fury that shook the very earth. Soon, blue haze rose from the Blue Dragon’s entire body, and a blue glow began to shine in its eyes. It was drawing up the mana stored within its body, preparing to unleash a breath attack.
Goooooooaaaaaaa…
However, both Elena and Ed simply watched without intervening. They were too busy observing what was happening inside the Blue Dragon’s body.
Kwaaaaaaaaaah—!
The moment an enormous energy breath erupted from the Blue Dragon’s mouth, Elena raised her left arm and activated the mana dispenser she had inscribed with spells in advance. A blue shield appeared in midair and began absorbing the dragon’s breath entirely.
Kugugugugugugu…!
The entire training ground trembled from the tremendous collision. Yet even amid the chaos, Ed did not lose his focus. He simply used Engineering Thinking Lv.2 to carefully analyze the Blue Dragon’s mana mechanism.
How much time had passed?
“Master.”
Ed called out to Elena in a low voice. The corners of his mouth were curved in a satisfied arc. He had finally achieved what he wanted.
“I think I’ve uncovered the Blue Dragon’s secret. Let’s move on to the next stage.”