Tiger Energy (1)
Tiger Energy (1)
After that, Noah tested out the special ability of this arm in various ways, letting out exclamations of awe.
Using magic power to form muscle fibers, and those formed muscle fibers materializing and moving?
Magic power materializing was a miracle even rare in magic. Of course, it was commonplace in reality. Magic stones. Stones petrified with magic power were exactly that.
"Where did you get this arm from?"
Noah asked as she lifted up the flailing arm. It looked like a human arm, but it probably wasn't actually one.
Human arms didn't have scales like this. So, was it a Lizardman's arm? Even that didn't fit, given how insanely strong the muscle power was.
There was a possibility it was an appendage from some unidentified chimera.
"Curious?"
"Yeah. Of course I am?"
"Don't be."
"......What the hell."
At Dojin's words, she pouted her lips in protest. But that tantrum didn't work on Dojin at all.
Dojin looked down at Han-young's arm and recalled the ordeal he'd gone through to detach it.
Not only had he struggled immensely to cut off the arm while Han-young's ability was active, but midway through, the anesthesia wore off, and he'd broken a sweat subduing Han-young's convulsions until he passed out.
Of course, right after severing the arm like that, he'd immediately used divine power to regenerate it, so there were no real issues.
Except— the memory of his own arm being severed would stick in Han-young's head for life.
"Anyway, it's a perfectly fine arm, so make good use of it. Tell me if you need anything else."
"Yeah......."
Dojin said that and left the Workshop. An automaton implanted with Han-young's Super Strength cheat......
He was starting to get curious about what would come out of it.
"......You need my help?"
"Yeah!"
"But I'm not really useful for anything......."
Eunha, who'd been doing some light training in her room, tilted her head at Noah, who'd come looking for her.
What could she possibly help with when all she knew how to do was hit and get hit?
At least, in her mind, zilch.
But Noah looked at Eunha as if that wasn't the case at all and raved about her strengths.
"Why wouldn't you be useful!? Your nervous system that ignores pain signals like a machine, and that robotic-level ferocity in your movements! Eunha-ssi is the masterpiece to complete the doll!"
"M-Masterpiece......?"
She didn't fully understand what was being said, but she could tell it was some kind of compliment, so Eunha blushed and bowed her head.
"W-What do you need help with......?"
"This way!"
And— Eunha wasn't the type of personality who could refuse when someone wanted her help.
Having decided to get help from Eunha, Noah took her to her own room. In Noah's room, Eunha spotted Raize, arms crossed and looking bored while waiting for the two of them.
'Raize-unnie.......'
Eunha felt an instinctive hostility toward Raize. It was an emotion close to in-group loathing.
Her build was small like Eunha's, stealing away the advantage of being petite and fragile enough to trigger protective instincts.
But Raize acted like she couldn't care less about someone like Eunha, turning a curt gaze to Noah as she opened her mouth.
"You're late."
"Ahaha, sorry. Elder-nim."
'......Elder?'
On top of that, it seemed Raize had climbed to a pretty high position in the time they hadn't seen each other.
Similar appearance to her own, but with a far superior social status.
Eunha clenched her fists tight and glared at Raize.
"Long time no see."
"Yeah...... long time no see."
They used to be like friendly sisters back in the day, but now that they'd met again after so long, an ominous air flowed between the two.
Noah, watching from the side, thought something had gone wrong, but that wasn't the important thing right now.
"Alright—! Since you two already know each other...... no need for pointless introductions."
The reason Noah had called Raize was none other than for the doll's movements.
She'd somehow managed to make the doll move using Han-young's cheat ability, but it needed a core to go inside.
Right now, the doll was an empty shell, but the ultimate goal was to make it think and move on its own.
"Eunha-ssi will perform martial arts moves, and Elder-nim will use magic to record those motions."
"Is that...... even possible?"
"Who knows? I don't even know if it'll work...... Think you can do it, Elder-nim?"
"......Don't make plans like this without telling me first."
Raize let out a groan and fell into brief contemplation. Then she recalled what she was capable of.
Otherworld mages had omnipotent versatility to do anything. Of course, it depended on the mage's skill how far they could go......
"And from the start, why call me if you thought I couldn't? Obviously I can."
"Ahaha...... yeah, you're right."
Noah scratched her head and hemmed and hawed. Now there was nothing left for her to do.
She could only spectate as Eunha moved her body and Raize copied those motions.
It was a tediously boring task, but alchemists had times when they just had to watch drops of reagent fill a cauldron bit by bit.
It didn't take long— Eunha finished her motions, and Raize stopped her magic.
Noah, who'd been watching them with half-closed eyes, jolted awake in surprise and opened her mouth.
"Done!?"
"Yeah— for now?"
Raize said that and handed over the magic stone containing the magic. Noah gazed at the gleaming stone with an entranced expression before immediately inserting it into the doll and testing it out.
However—.
Kkiiik!
"Ah......."
Failure. Failure. Failed. The doll, which had moved properly at first, soon moved too aggressively and destroyed its own body.
But Noah didn't get discouraged.
"Next! Let's try once more!"
Trial and error was the virtue of any technician.
The three pulled an all-nighter, obsessing over the doll.
'Two more to go.......'
Dojin lay in his room, fiddling with his Status Window. The skill born from his relations with the elves, World Tree.
And the child that World Tree had conceived.
'If just two more.......'
The World Tree's child, which grew by absorbing energy from women with special abilities, had by now absorbed energy from over eight women.
The resulting energies totaled eight. Considering each one aligned to a 10% ratio, there were two energies left to collect.
'What the hell is trying to be born that's making its dad so anxious?'
Mixing in some self-deprecating humor, Dojin recalled what Deokgu had said. If it required this much prep time, then the odds were high something incredible would emerge.
He'd been making a huge fuss about whether a legendary dragon from myth would pop out or something, so it didn't seem like an ordinary kid would appear.
'Gotta pick the last two wisely.......'
Dojin thought that and ran through the list of women he knew. Narrowing it down to only those with special abilities or strength.
'Saintess and Charlotte are out.'
Unfortunately, the Saintess who was all about Dojin and her guard Charlotte got eliminated first.
It couldn't be helped. The attributes those two—a Saintess and Holy Knight—would give were obvious anyway.
Holy attribute.
And Dojin had already acquired that Holy attribute.
'Who'd have thought Emilia would have the Holy attribute.'
He had no idea how attribute determinations worked, and for someone like Emilia who just brute-forced everything, he'd figured she'd give something like Beast attribute at best.
Subtract those two, and there was no one among the people Dojin knew who had a useful attribute.
'Well, there is one.......'
There was one person he felt kinda bad about touching.
Eunha's master, Hoyeon.
But laying hands on her would weigh heavily on his conscience. She was Eunha's master, after all?
What if Eunha found out he'd hooked up with her? Would she be thrilled? Like, "Dojin's eating both master and student at once—! Awesome!"?
'No way in hell.'
No sane woman would be happy about that. That's what Dojin thought.
Still, excluding Hoyeon left him with no other options.
'......Maybe just go see her face?'
Come to think of it, it'd been quite a while since he'd last seen Hoyeon's face— with that thought, Dojin headed to the Ho-beop-gwan where she was.
─Temporary Closure.
The Ho-beop-gwan, which bustled 365 days a year, had a sign like that hung up and its front gate firmly shut.
Dojin stared fixedly at the signboard before cautiously knocking on the front gate. The iron ring on the gate clanged against it, carrying a sharp sound inside, and before long, Hoyeon appeared, her mouth covered with a scarf.
"Who...... Ah, it's you."
"Hoyeon-gwanjang-nim. Long time no see."
"Yeah... I'd like to welcome you, but... my condition's not great right now......."
At those words, Dojin examined the scarf around her mouth more closely. It was made to keep her respirator from contacting the outside.
Had even a Superhuman like her caught a cold?
"Caught a cold or something?"
"No, it's nothing. I'm busy, so......."
Hoyeon tried to vanish from Dojin's sight as quickly as possible, whatever the rush was.
Dojin tilted his head at her inexplicable behavior. And then, a gust of wind blew, fluttering her scarf every which way.
"Eek—!"
Hoyeon immediately grabbed the scarf to cover her mouth again, but Dojin's eyesight caught a glimpse of what was beneath in that brief gap.
'Whiskers......?'
The thin whiskers unique to tigers— their presence meant she couldn't properly control her own body right now.
"Haa, haa......."
Having inhaled Dojin's Pheromone that had slipped under the scarf, Hoyeon breathed heavily and glared at him.
For the record— tigers' Estrus is in winter.