My mana core would need at least a month to recover, if not longer. There was no point in worrying about it now. To get out of here, I would need to get past the Hydra, and for that, I needed my leg.
The reinforced dungeon walls allowed only a crack. So, tunneling was out. My space and teleport magic wouldn't be good enough, either. Replicating the magic circle would require a registered spot to teleport to.
'Guess my only option is to, as the kids say, get gud.'
While tragic, losing my leg also allowed me to experiment. A while ago, I thought of using nanomachines. They are autonomous and self-improving machines powered by mana and chemicals.
Flesh and Blood was a little old-school for my liking, and it was too weak as well. I could leave the nanomachines to improve my body by using simple mechanics. Linking them with my brain and soul would allow me to give directions.
The complicated part was building the machines. I knew engineering and how to make machines, but never like this. Going from the bottom would take a lot of time I didn't have.
'Unless… I make biological computers by sampling my brain.'
Instead of making intelligent working machines, I only need to make them evolve. Linking them to my brain and soul would give them the logic to work. My body would do the rest by making the cells simple and allowing them to adapt.
At first, I would copy and construct one of my cells with mechanical parts. After replicating the cell, I would connect it to my soul. The cells would be useless at first. But my brain would evolve and differentiate them into things I needed.
They would supplement my physical body. I could also give them directions with deliberate intention. As I connected the nanomachines directly to my soul, I gained control over them. If I wanted to, I could take over the job of evolving them from my subconscious and shape them forcefully.
'It has all the abilities of a nanochip and a cell at once.' Am I a genius, or what?
...
Definitely the or what.'
I started experimenting. The density of ambient mana was higher in the dungeon than anywhere else. It gave me plenty to work with.
The basic machinery took a day to get working and another day to scale down. After the basics, I started working on the cell's frame. Mechanically replicating just one of my stem cells required two days.
I had to recharge my mana and build tools from scratch many times. It caused a significant delay. I had wasted three hours on the microscopes alone. The only good news was that flooding my body with mana increased my tempering level and mana storage.
Before the fight, I was a third-level fighter and a fifth-circle mage. Now, I am a fourth-level fighter and a first-circle mage. Not having a mana core has reduced my magical capabilities.
After five days of non-stop work, I finally finished my prototype. Binding it to my soul took some time, but integrating it showed it worked. The soul was bound to the body, so anything in the body had to become part of the soul to work as one.
The "nano-cell" wouldn't integrate with my magic without being bound to my soul. It might have functioned physically, but it would lack the same vitality as the rest of my body. Without the soul, everybody dies.
Soul magic was something I had worked on ever since I began questioning my origin. How come I was the special one? What even made me special? What made me… me?
I'd always wondered why I had these memories. The daemon was a hidden blessing in that department. He'd said my soul was 'anomalous,' which I took to mean unnatural, not of this world.
I'd wondered where my memories came from, and now I knew. The soul contains a part of the mind: the memories. It would explain everything if my soul still contained those memories of my past life.
I would never gain a complete understanding. But from my experimentation, I did learn a lot about the connection between the mind, body, soul, and mana.
In Arclen, the body contains the mind, but the soul includes the consciousness. Both work together to make thought. Body and mind alone only make instinct, but add the soul, and you get reasoning.
Humans were unique on Earth. They used reasoning and were the only ones with minds advanced enough to use tools. The brains of animals are not built like those of humans.
Here, in Arclen, animals have souls. I wasn't sure about Earth. But it meant the animals here, with a soul, could think and be aware. Mana is the wildcard here. Some animals mutate with mana. By breaking their bodies' limits, they gain the intelligence of humanoid species.
People call those animals magical beasts. They are capable of consciousness, higher thinking, and communication at some levels. These beasts are neutral in Arclen and have evolved from their animal counterparts.
But not all mana mutations are good. More than half the time, the animals can't handle the mutation. Their souls warp or shatter. They become mindless beasts, living by instinct.
The animals that become monsters are often weaker. Usually, the strong ones survive the mutation and become magical beasts. Left to grow, the monsters cannibalize each other and consume mana, becoming stronger. The Chimera Hydra is an example.
Soul magic allows you to make new pathways between the soul and the world. Usually, the soul is only attached to the body and takes the form of the body. You can add or attach things to the soul by making new pathways.
For example, attaching a sword to the soul creates a connection. The connection lets you know every aspect of it; when destroyed, the soul remembers it so you can repair it.
I was imprinting the nano-cell directly into my soul to make the connection more profound. I wouldn't be able to remove it either. It would be part of my soul, not a link, and cutting it out would be more challenging.
I set up the soul linkage to the machine first. Then, I injected a syringe of painkillers and the machine into my thigh. I would have used actual painkillers, but I didn't know how to make them, so I had to use weaker herbal ones instead.
I made the machine reproduce and adapt to rebuild my leg over time. It would be painful this way, but the result would be better. It started replicating almost immediately after entering my bloodstream. Over time, the nanomachine would be part of every cell in my body, replacing some and enhancing others.
Working for five days straight was beginning to take its toll. The nanomachines would take time anyway, so I lay down for some sleep.