(Arin's POV)
The Northern Sector Forest had never been this quiet. Usually, the sounds of night insects or monster roars dominated the air, but tonight, the only sounds audible were the wet hiss of sliced plant flesh and the hum of static magic.
Before me, the giant Titan Pitcher plant stood stiff, totally paralyzed by Ghislain's Dormancy magic. Its large transparent pouch, chest-high on an adult, was now wide open, showcasing the acid fluid inside which had been neutralized.
We were no longer lost adventurers. Tonight, we were surgeons violating the laws of nature.
"Scalpel, size four," I requested without turning, hand extended to the side.
"Here," Edna handed over a thin silver knife already coated in plant anti-coagulant potion. "Do not miss, Arin. If you cut wrong, we will all take an acid bath."
I bent closer to the base of the plant's stem. The skin was hard and green-scaled, but beneath it lay a network of xylem and phloem vessels transporting nutrients and mana.
"I will cut its sympathetic nerve path here, Professor," I said, pointing to a spot on the stem with the tip of the knife. "The goal is to permanently disable the stomach acid production reflex, but leave the nutrient absorption path alive."
"Do it," ordered Ghislain. The tentacle eye on his back writhed down, getting closer to the operation area to see more clearly. "I will connect its cellular network immediately after you cut it. Do not let any mana leak, or this plant will rot in minutes."
I took a deep breath, stabilizing my hand which still trembled slightly from yesterday's fight.
Slice.
The scalpel sliced the plant skin with millimeter precision. Clear sap seeped out. The plant twitched slightly, a neural reflex, but the binding magic held it back.
"Now, Professor!"
Ghislain brandished his staff. Its tip glowed emerald green, thin as sewing thread.
Fourth Circle Magic: Cellular Weave.
The micro magic worked like invisible sutures. Ghislain manipulated the plant's cell walls, forcing them to reunite in a new configuration. He thickened the fermentation pouch walls, turning them from a thin digestive organ into an airtight and sturdy biological tank.
It was a sight both terrifying and beautiful. The plant flesh shifted, writhed, and changed shape under mana control.
"Edna, the filter!" I shouted.
Doctor Edna stepped forward with a disgusted face, holding a glass jar containing a Cleaning Slime. The clear lump of slime pulsated in the jar. This was the lowest level monster usually considered a pest because it ate household dust.
"This is disgusting," muttered Edna while pouring the Slime into the lips of the open Pitcher Plant. "I cannot believe I am performing an organ transplant between a carnivorous plant and living slime."
The Slime slid down, covering the plant mouth like a thin membrane layer.
"Lock the position!"
Ghislain muttered a spell again. The plant's neck wall grew slightly, clamping the edges of the Slime body so it wouldn't fall into the liquid, yet still allowing the Slime pores to work filtering incoming air.
"Done," I hissed, stepping back while wiping sweat from my forehead with my sleeve.
In front of us stood a living Bio-Reactor. The plant no longer looked wild. It looked... tamed. Its belly pouch was clear as glass, its mouth covered by a rhythmically pulsating slime filter, and its digestive system had been disabled.
"So beautiful..." whispered Ghislain, his eyes glassy seeing the vegetable Frankenstein monster of our creation. "A perfect blend of flora and fauna. This is art!"
"Save your admiration for later, Professor," I cut in, taking the cooler box containing the mushroom starter. "Now is the time for proof. Whether it will become a womb, or a grave for the mushrooms."
I injected the cultured Penicillium mushroom spores into the nutrient liquid in the plant's belly. The liquid now consisted of a mixture of tree sap, bone gelatin, and pure water.
We waited.
Two hours passed, but there was no reaction we hoped for.
Ghislain even used light Sixth Circle Magic: Time Acceleration to speed up the plant's metabolism.
However, the result was not as we expected.
The liquid inside the plant pouch, which had been clear yellowish, slowly began to turn cloudy. Then turned brown. And finally, pitch black.
A rotten smell like rotten eggs began to seep out.
"Failed," Edna pronounced flatly, checking the pouch surface temperature with a magic thermometer. "The temperature is 45 degrees Celsius. The mushrooms died roasted."
"Damn it!" I kicked a tree root near me. "Why is it so hot? We already turned off the acid!"
"That is because of its metabolism, you fool!" snapped Ghislain, pulling his own messy white hair. "This plant is in post-op stress condition! It is trying to heal itself by burning its sugar reserves excessively! As a result, its body heat spiked!"
I stared at the black liquid in frustration. We succeeded in making the container, but we killed the contents.
"We need cooling," I mumbled, my brain spinning fast looking for a solution. "We cannot turn off its metabolism because the mushrooms need nutrient circulation from the plant. So we have to cool it externally."
"Karim!" I shouted.
Karim, who was standing guard by the river while yawning, jolted in surprise. "What? Enemy?"
"Not enemy, but manual labor," I answered. "Bring river rocks! As many as possible! We pile them around the plant base. Channel river water there to keep its root temperature low!"
"You order a knight to carry rocks again?" complained Karim. "My hands are already calloused!"
"Just do it, Karim! Or do you want us to fail?"
We worked again, even harder. Dismantling rocks, digging small trenches to channel cold water from the river.
After finishing creating a small artificial river, Ghislain modified the plant a second time. Then we performed the operation and re-dissection on the next specimen.
The sun began to rise on the eastern horizon, illuminating our tired and dirty faces.
Second Trial began.
The water cooling system succeeded in keeping the temperature stable at 25 degrees. Mushrooms began to grow. Fine white filaments or mycelium began to be seen swimming inside the liquid.
"Success?" asked Karim hopefully, wiping sweat.
"Wait..." my eyes narrowed seeing strange dark green spots growing among the white filaments.
In minutes, the green spots spread viciously, eating our white mushrooms. The liquid turned into slimy green sludge.
Edna clicked her tongue. "This is Contamination. The Slime filter leaked."
"Leaked?!" I checked the plant mouth. The clear Slime layer was... dead. The Slime body melted and fell into the tank, bringing thousands of wild bacteria with it.
"Why did the Slime die?" I asked desperately. "That is a cleaning Slime! It should eat dirt, not die from it!"
"Likely because of the plant's immune system," answered Ghislain, his voice sounding tired and annoyed. He sat on a mossy rock, massaging his temples. "This plant... it knows there is a parasite (Slime) attached to its mouth. It released defense enzymes through its leaf pores to kill the Slime."
Heavy silence fell enveloping our team.
Two consecutive failures. Raw materials were running low and our energy was drained.
"Forget it," mumbled Edna while packing up her tools roughly. "This is a stupid idea. We are trying to fight nature, Arin. This plant is designed to kill, not to nurture. You cannot turn a wolf into a sheep just by shearing its fur."
"Do not talk like that!" I snapped, though my own heart began to doubt. "We just need adjustment again! We need—"
"Need what?!" cut Karim, his emotions exploding from fatigue being a stone carrier all night. "Your time is only two months left, Arin! We spent two days here just to make rotten soup! Maybe people are right, you are just dreaming too high! We are wasting time!"
"Karim!" scolded Ghislain, but even his tone lacked its usual spirit.
I fell silent. Frustration choked my neck. I stared at the two failed plants. Black liquid and green liquid symbolized the failure of my logic.
The problem was always the same: Rejection.
The plant rejected the mushroom by raising temperature and the plant rejected the Slime with immune enzymes.
This nature refused to be controlled.
"Rejection..." I mumbled softly. "This is like an organ transplant. The host body rejects the new organ because it is considered a foreign object."
I paced back and forth in the mud, ignoring the tired stares of my friends.
In the medical world, if you want to transplant a kidney, you need Immunosuppressant drugs so the body doesn't attack the new organ.
But those drugs only worked on humans. It would just be useless if applied to monsters.
Unless...
My steps stopped abruptly. My eyes were fixed on my own hand. On the veins visible faintly beneath the skin of my wrist.
My blood.
Inside my blood, flowed Grizzly Serum V2. A serum I made by mixing monster cells with human cells.
Why didn't I die when injecting it? Why didn't my body reject the bear cells?
Because I used Slime mucus catalyst and... the unique nature of my own blood which had mutated. My body was an anomaly; it was the only biological system successfully accepting wild mana without exploding. My blood possessed the property of a "Universal Adapter."
"Edna," I called softly.
"What else? I want to go home," she answered curtly.
"Prepare a syringe. Take my blood!"
"Huh?" Edna looked at me confused. "You want to commit suicide from stress?"
"No!" I turned, my eyes lighting up with a new crazy idea. "My blood! My blood contains a binding agent that can trick the immune system! The Grizzly Serum inside my blood is dominant but adaptive. If we mix a little of my blood into the planting medium and into the plant tissue..."
Ghislain raised his head. His ears moved and his crazy eyes shone again.
"Biological resonance..." whispered Ghislain, rising to stand. "Your blood is the bridge! Your blood is used to uniting two different species (Human and Grizzly). If we inject it into the plant, the plant cells will be 'confused' and think the foreign tissue is part of itself!"
"Kee hee hee! That is a very wild theory! I like it!" Ghislain laughed shrilly.
"Quick!" I shouted, rolling up my sleeve. "Let's try one more time!"
The third operation began. This time with a different atmosphere. No longer a cold experiment, but a sacrificial ritual.
Edna took two full bags of my blood. I felt dizzy, but the adrenaline rush kept me awake.
We injected my blood into the stem of the third plant. Then mixed the remaining blood into the nutrient liquid. The liquid turned pale pink.
Then, we inserted a new Slime which had also been soaked briefly in my blood.
Mushroom spore inoculation was performed.
We waited again.
The sun began to rise high. The forest heat began to sting.
One hour passed. Liquid temperature remained stable. No heat spikes.
Two hours passed. The Slime at the plant mouth remained alive, pulsating healthily filtering air. No enzyme attack.
Three hours passed.
"Look..." whispered Karim, pointing into the transparent plant pouch.
Inside the pink liquid, something was happening.
White foam began to appear on the surface. Not rotten foam, but active fermentation foam. White mushroom filaments grew with terrifying speed, spurred by forest mana and blood nutrients.
But the most amazing thing was the color.
The liquid beneath the foam slowly changed color. From cloudy pink... to clear golden yellow. Shining dimly illuminated by sunlight penetrating the leaves.
"Open the tap," I ordered, my voice trembling.
Edna turned the small tap we installed at the base of the plant pouch.
Drip... Drip...
Golden liquid dripped into the measuring glass.
The smell wafted. Not the rotten smell of carcasses or musty odor.
It smelled like yeast, wet earth after rain, and a slight sharp metallic aroma. This was the smell of life.
Edna immediately took the sample, dripping it under her magic microscope lens. She adjusted the lens focus with a trembling hand.
Long silence. Edna did not move.
"Doc?" I called anxiously. "Is it poison again?"
Edna lifted her face. Her eyes widened, her mouth gaped in disbelief. She looked at me, then at Ghislain, then stared at the golden liquid.
"Pure..." she whispered, her voice choked. "This... this is pure Penicillium. The concentration... fifty times higher than your usual lab samples. The mana in this liquid carries your low regeneration properties then mutated with the mushroom, making it a super-antibiotic."
Edna turned to me, her face pale from shock.
"Arin... you did not just make medicine. You just made a low-level Recovery Elixir."
My knees went weak. I fell sitting on a tree root, laughing. Initially soft, then louder until it became a free laugh echoing in the forest.
"Hahahaha! It worked! We did it!"
Ghislain laughed too, dancing with his lame leg around the plant. Karim smiled widely, patting my back hard until I almost fell forward.
I stared at the Pitcher Plant in front of me. An organic glass tube filled with golden liquid.
This single plant could produce maybe five liters of concentrated antibiotic per week. Enough to heal a battalion of troops.
And I looked around me.
Into the dimness of the vast Northern Sector Forest.
There, inside the swamps and behind the trees, dozens... no, hundreds of other Titan Pitcher Plants were seen growing wild.
Hundreds of natural fermentation tanks waiting to be transformed.
I stood slowly, the dizziness from blood loss vanishing instantly replaced by a grand vision of the future.
"One plant succeeded," I said softly, my eyes sweeping the forest with the greedy gaze of a new ruler.
"We are not just making medicine," I continued, staring at the golden liquid shining in Edna's hand. "We just printed money."
I looked at my team. At the crazy Ghislain, the genius Edna, and the loyal Karim.
"Prepare the equipment, Friends," I ordered with a wide grin. "We are going to turn this entire forest into a giant factory. And the world... will not know what hit them."
Amidst the deadly monster forest, a medical revolution had just begun.