"Why not?" Cairo asked with a frown. He was really interested in researching biology to improve his own body so that the increase in strength will all be permanent and he won't be limited by the resources he currently doesn't have
"Experimenting on one's body is both hard and dangerous while using other people is unethical" Kira explained. Since biology is about life, then the mage naturally needs alive test subjects. It might not require the same level of resources that alchemist needs but what it required were live bodies
Now that Kira said that, Cairo realizes some of the implications. He had some misgivings about using innocent people as test subjects but ... there is something on him that is pushing him to do anything to increase his strength even if it was unethical
Suddenly, the diamond on Cairo's soul throb and he was forced to watch another clip from his past life's memories
----
Cairo saw himself in what looks like a lab. All sorts of items he does not recognize where there
The Cairo in that memory was standing in the side of a surgical bed that has a human tied in it while he was in an unconscious state
In Cairo's hand was a syringe filled with blood-red liquid. It looks like blood but Cairo can feel that those are not normal blood as it was emitting mana fluctuations
After checking that the human is in normal condition, Cairo injected the syringe straight into the human's veins and the blood entered the test subject's blood vessels
The human's veins popped and became visible. Those veins are filled with blood-red color and the man started squirming around in pain
If not for the restraints keeping him on the bed, the man would have already fallen down the ground
The mind of the current Cairo trembled as he saw the past him watching the agonizing man with an emotionless expression as if there wasn't a human trembling from the pain he himself inflicted
"Would I become like this in the future?" Cairo asked himself. He felt that to become strong, doing something like this is unavoidable. But ... can he be this heartless to everyone?
Cairo was in a dilemma when the past him started taking down notes
"Day 31 of injecting my first ever Blood Strengthening Medicine in the test subject. The formula can be considered a success but it has a limit of 30 doses. Injecting more dosage will cause a lot of pain. Further research is required to see all the results in the test subject's body "
"Hmm, since 30 dosages are the maximum, for now, it can help a normal human to use normal blood boiling magic for at least ten times. The only side effect was the nutrients the body needs to regularly have was at least five times higher than normal. But considering the effects, it wasn't that much of a downside "
The memories ended and Cairo returned back to reality in a confused state. "T-ten times?" Cairo said to himself in disbelief
The Cairo now only managed to stimulate his blood for less than five times before he was overcome by fatigue. But taking that medicine will enable him to do that ten times? That's more than double of Cairo's capability!
Cairo became really confused now if he should really study biology and experiment on live humans. It was unethical and even Cairo felt that it was too bad but .... the increase in power was high!
Not to mention, Cairo can revisit those memories and learn the formula of that medicine
If he can stimulate his blood for ten times, the eagle from before wouldn't be able to force John into saving him
What if Cairo was the only person there that is fighting the eagle? There was a high chance that he would have died
"Cairo?" Kira called out and Cairo woke up from his state. He realizes that Kira was already near him while checking his body because he zoned out
"I-I'm fine, I just need to rest" Cairo said and laid his body in the worn-out bed again
"Is this about me not wanting you to study biology? You should know that I was only preventing you to do that for your own sake. Mages that experimented using innocent humans were looked down upon by many people" Kira explained with genuine concern but that just made Cairo even more confused
Cairo doesn't want to do things that are too unethical but he also wants to do everything that he can to become stronger
"I know" Cairo simply answered to end the topic and he pulled the sheets up to his head
Kira sighed heavily at that and decided that he should let the kid be for some time first and she walks away
As soon as the woman was gone, Cairo searched for a book related to human experimentation, hoping that it could help him decide
Cairo was surprised that there are a lot of books regarding that area as if the old man knows what he will want to do in the future
"Why do I feel like the old man put items in the ring that I will want and need after I watch my own memories?"
Cairo ignored other things first and starts reading to broaden his knowledge. The more that Cairo read, the more he wants to continue pursuing biology
The book states that there were almost no drawbacks in that field. Since the mage will use other humans to see if their medicines, surgeries, and other things are effective and safe before they use it on themselves, the mage won't need to worry much about any side effects
If the mage focused on human research, then although not all medicines will be compatible with everyone, but the compatibility rate is higher
However, there are a lot of places that prohibit using innocent humans. At most, the mage can use prisoners or slaves. One or two of them are not that expensive but how many test subjects does a mage need?
Cairo knows that he can't use innocent humans as test subjects and he doesn't want to use one too if he has a choice. Besides, Kira and the others won't let him do such things
"I need to quickly raise my strength so that I can have money and buy prisoners for my research"
Thus, Cairo had another goal. He doesn't know how to make money with the state of the town he was in but he knew that if he becomes strong enough, he can travel the world and learn different ways to earn a lot of money
Cairo focuses on his cultivation again. He was simply the most hardworking person in the town
-----
November 10 Year 30,765
Three months have passed and a lot of things have changed. The town was in a much better situation than before as they have several plots of lands that are available for planting crops
With crops and enough food, the town also started rearing livestock. It comes to the point that there are hundreds of people that migrated there from the nearby town that has a similar situation to Blood Sand Town of before
Merchants also appeared more often now and money started circulating in the town that has hundreds of citizens
With Kira and the others protecting the town, their situation is getting better and better
As of now, Cairo is already a Rank 2 Acolyte. Acolytes have three ranks from 1 to 3. The only difference they have was the amount of mana their body holds
However, since there are a lot of things that magic can do, it was actually hard to measure one's actual power
Some mages turned their skins into metal, with how hard their body becomes, how could it be easy to kill them? If a Rank 1 Acolyte have that kind of defense then even normal Rank 3 Acolytes will find it hard to kill them
In these few months, Cairo grew into 5'4 in height and his weight is also proportional to his height. He wasn't the bag of skin and bones he was around 6 months ago
"Cairo, don't go outside at night. There has been a thief in the town that wasn't caught yet" Kira warned Cairo
With the town having hundreds of citizens now, crimes also started appearing. Kira and the others worked hard to prevent that but there are only a few of them compared to the town's population
Besides, not all of them can be 'guards' that can roam around the town every day. They have other things that they need to do too
Kira said this to Cairo not because she was worried for the youth. She just doesn't want the kid to kill the thief
There was a similar incident with this one. Cairo was angered that someone pointed a knife at him and he uses a lethal attack. If one of the mages weren't able to stop him in time, the thief might have been dead already
Kira has a better grasp of Cairo's personality now. Cairo won't bother anyone as long as they don't bother him but the youth can be brutal at times
Kira saw how Cairo can be when his life was threatened and she doesn't want to see him turning into a bad guy. She grew some attachments towards Cairo and treated him as a younger brother, she was really worried about the youth's future
The only fortunate thing was that Cairo only showed brutality when his life was in danger. Kira only credited this to Cairo needing to be always alert in the past to keep his life intact and that habit of his was hard to change