Chapter 96: Aberrant Flesh (23)

"Cough, cough…"

Herbert coughed twice, opened his mouth as if not quite used to it, and moved his tongue left and right.

Reoreoreo—

The experience of becoming another creature was quite special, and so was the feeling of directly biting through an eyeball.

In that final transformation within the flesh-and-blood world, Herbert had taken the form of Valentina as he remembered her, plucked out that eyeball and crushed it, then bitten it clean away.

【"You're awake — how do you feel?"】

Herbert first glanced at the clock, saw that less than a minute had passed in reality, and couldn't help shaking his head.

The difference in the flow of time between inside and outside really was huge; no matter how many times it happened, he still found it hard to adjust.

"What abilities did you gain?"

【"This time, why don't you take a guess first?"】

"You want me to guess?"

Herbert raised an eyebrow, but did not refuse, and carefully sensed the changes in his body.

His physical fitness hadn't changed at all, but Herbert had a strong intuition — he understood his own body far better now.

"First is control over the body."

Knowing the detailed state of every muscle and every organ in his body, knowing how long each one needed to rest, knowing exactly how much nutrition was required to take the next step forward.

Apart from lacking a digitised template to give him the exact numbers, there was basically no intuitive gap left between him and a system.

With that knowledge, Herbert had thoroughly become the master of his own body.

At the same time, he could precisely control the movement of any single muscle, even adjusting its position at will.

No…

What this knowledge poured into his brain could probably do was far more than just that.

He looked at his own palm, and in a daze seemed to possess an X-ray ability, clearly perceiving the position of the bones, the run of the muscles, the distribution of the blood vessels…

Mm, a fine skill for a nurse giving people injections.

"Second is the insight into the weaknesses of flesh."

At the same time, this ability also meant Herbert could clearly know — exactly where to drive a blade to inflict the greatest damage on that hand!

The same held true when applied to other people.

Just as in the butcher's art of ox-dismemberment, when one understands a body inside and out, one can take the greatest damage at the smallest cost.

"And then third…"

Herbert hesitated for a moment, then drew his side-sword and lightly cut his own finger.

Hiss.

The keen white edge swept across, and fresh blood immediately welled from it, but when Herbert slowly wiped the blood away, no wound at all remained on the finger.

In the span of a few breaths, the wound had already healed.

"Regeneration."

However, this regeneration was not without cost.

As the flesh grew, Herbert felt one percent of his body's energy drain away.

Spending one's own energy to regenerate flesh — wasn't this ability an absolute steal?

At the moment of a life-and-death crisis, who would care about going hungry?

Recovering even a little more meant a little more chance of survival.

【"That's it? It's over?"】

Nie Nasha's smiling voice made Herbert raise an eyebrow; he moved his fingers with a touch of hesitation.

"As for the last point…"

He manipulated the flesh on the back of his hand, trying to shift its form toward another shape.

Fine, scale-like patterns surfaced on the back of Herbert's hand, shifting toward the look of a dragon's claw, but in the end that was all — it never truly became dragon scales.

"Mm, just as I thought, still no good."

There was indeed a certain flesh-shaping ability, but it wasn't anywhere near that convenient.

【"Of course — because you simply don't understand a true dragon~"】

"…Mm."

Within the world of consciousness, Herbert seemed to possess the ability to transform into a dragon, but in fact at the time he had merely forced a superficial change.

His understanding of a dragon's bodily structure was still far from sufficient.

In the end he had simply forced the flesh into the shape he remembered, copying the outward appearance, while inwardly it was still himself.

The fact that he could fly was entirely brute force — it wasn't flight at all, but a forced leap…

And after figuring out where the problem lay, Herbert changed his approach.

"If a dragon won't work, then…"

Looking at his own reflection in the mirror, he slowly controlled the lines of his facial muscles, and within moments his face had become that of Duke Albert as he remembered him.

Father and son had always looked very alike; with a few small details adjusted, Herbert was almost looking at a young Silver-Wing Duke.

Turning his head again, his features shifted into Blake's likeness, then changed through three or four more faces.

Apart from one servant whose face Herbert didn't remember clearly, the others were almost perfect matches.

"I am — the Faceless Man!"

【"You've noticed~ although you don't know dragons well enough, you understand the human body extremely clearly."】

"Mm."

In other words, unless in the future he could thoroughly dissect and study a dragon in depth, gaining a complete understanding of it.

Otherwise, the only way would be to cram in a huge amount of knowledge... better find a chance to study it in depth.

"Besides, my current flesh-and-blood power isn't enough to let me transform into creatures of other body types—I can only change into humanoid beings whose size is similar to mine."

After figuring it out, Herbert wasn't discouraged; on the contrary, he was a little excited.

This ability does have certain limitations, but as long as it can achieve flawless disguise, having just this one thing is already pretty good.

What a steal!

After a great harvest, Herbert decided to press his advantage while the iron was hot and expand his gains once more.

"Right, I still have two drops of vampire essence blood here—might as well absorb them while I'm at it... hm?"

Herbert reached into his embrace, only to find that the bottle holding the essence blood had vanished at some unknown point.

"..."

Raising his head and sweeping a glance around, he spotted a somewhat familiar glass bottle—empty—on the shadow tentacle to his left.

At that moment, the tentacle was sneakily shrinking back. Upon noticing Herbert's gaze, it awkwardly stopped in place, swayed left and right, and waved at him.

Ahem! Hey, hey~

Herbert narrowed his eyes and slowly spoke:

"Nie Nasha."

【"Hm?! Wh-what is it? Do you have some question you want to ask the great Nie Nasha? Don't worry! I'll definitely answer you!"】

"Did you see my vampire essence blood?"

【"N-no, I didn't!"】

"Really didn't see it?"

【"Didn't! How could I possibly sneak a taste of your monster materials~ hehe, how could I~"】

After Her finished that dry laugh, the room predictably sank into an awkward atmosphere.

"..."

【"... ahem."】

"Was it good?"

【"Tch, the taste was just so-so..."】

(End of this chapter)