Chapter 64 – Samples

Since Dream had the rest of the day after the wolf hunt, he decided not to waste it. 

He got back to his small little house and decided that the first thing he needed to do was expand the place. He couldn't work on anything when there was barely enough space for a toilet.

What he decided to do was make himself a lake house. Though the house would be a bit unconventional. Since he was by himself, he only needed a place to sleep, a place to bathe, and a place to work. So he made himself those three rooms.

The first was the bedroom, which stayed simple. A bed, and a carpet for his feet. He also created space where he could eat food, which consisted of basically a table and a chair.

Second was the bathroom. This also stayed simple. A bathtub and other essentials. Interesting thing was, as he began climbing in strength, he found himself not needing to go to the bathroom. Sophia said that it was his body being more efficient in addition to slight changes in his genetics. A mutation if you will as a result of mana. Not to mention, he could take care of that with his magic, so after he thought about it, he decided not to put in a toilet and whatnot. Since he didn't need it.

Lastly was the place to work. He decided on a simple warehouse next to his bedroom. He brought out some metal from his inventory and formed it into big plates, forming his warehouse and securing it in the dirt. He then put a big table for his place to work inside, thus completing the workplace.

When he was finished with everything, which only took a few hours, he took out the wolf corpses from that day's earlier battle and set them on the big table. 

"*sigh* So, am I able to use these for anything? All I can think of is seeing if there are any differences in biology or function than regular animals."

[Well you could probably eat their meat. It is second class meat. But other than that I was thinking the same. Their biology will definitely be different and could give us insights for several things.]

"Alright. I'm no dismantling expert, so do you want to handle it? We just need all the components of the body and set them up for analysis."

[Of course.]

After saying so, Sophia took control and began manipulating the corpse. All of them levitated and moved over the floor. Then, they began separating.

Their skin and hides came off their meaty muscles. The muscles then opened up and let the organs come out, and the bones all came out with the muscles.

Most important of all, the blood inside the wolf was all collected in flasks designated to each wolf. The brain matter of each one was also collected, at least what was left of it. 

At the end, there were many coolers around the floor filled with guts and such, several containers for the bones, as well as many flasks for the blood. This all took a good 5 minutes.

"All right. I think the first thing we should look at is the bones."

As he said that, a bone came and flew out of a container, laying itself on the table.

Dream brought up his hand and began saturating the bone with his mana, taking a look at the chemical makeup and all the structural details of the bone.

"It looks rather similar to our bones."

[Structure wise, yes. But chemically, it's actually pretty different. Human bones, along with the majority of bone on Earth, is made of collagen and calcium. These aren't though. This bone seems to be made of a compound called Goethite. And needless to say, it's hardness is many times that of your own bones.]

"How many more times?"

[Theoretically, almost 200 times.]

"*whistles* Hot damn. That's some strong bone. You don't suppose I could get my bones made of that stuff huh?"

[It wouldn't be impossible.]

"Say what?"

Dream's eyes went a bit wide. He thought of it more as a joke than a serious consideration. But apparently, Sophia thought otherwise.

[There would be two ways we can replace your bones. Either surgery or we change your DNA. The first would be a short process, but dangerous. The second would be a long process, and less dangerous. So with our magic, it wouldn't be an impossible task."]

"..."

Dream seriously thought about it. On Earth, technology had gotten to a point where replacing certain parts of the body with mechanical parts wasn't science fiction anymore, so it would be a lie if he said he had never thought about it. Especially now that he had magic. But there was one problem.

"I don't have the time to wait for new bones, which could take years to slowly build by DNA. So that leaves surgery. And If I'm going to undertake a dangerous operation like that, it's not going to only be for these bones, which I can break with my own strength. It's going to be for something much stronger."

[Graphene?]

"Or another metal. Something that would be even stronger than this wolf bone. Anyway, let's take a look at the blood."

*Crack*

Dream broke open the bone and took a look at the blood as well as the bone marrow. A thing that many people don't know is that blood is made from the bone marrow. So what better place to analyze the blood than at its creation site?

Sophia quickly took a look at the blood cells inside.

[The blood is also different. For one, the cells are bigger. They carry more hemoglobin and therefore more oxygen. Other than that though, they're about the same. What I'm finding interesting in the bone is actually the stem cells and the DNA structure.]

"What about them?"

[Well, the DNA is actually simpler. Not saying it's more efficient, but that the structure doesn't encode as much. Which should be impossible because the wolf wouldn't develop it's body properly unless everything is encoded. But it developed fine. So that means that it's not only DNA that develops the bodies of the animals in this world.]

"Would mana be that second ingredient? Or more specifically, the system? Because the system can evolve monsters into something else like it did with the girls. But if the DNA gets in the way of that evolution, then it would cause problems. So the DNA is simpler in exchange for the system doing evolutions?"

[That's what I was thinking. DNA does half the instruction while the system does the rest. It allows room for evolution.]

"But it also means that the system controls your body. Theoretically, it could change you however it wants."

[That's only for the animals born with the system already in place. They evolved with the system in mind. But everything on Earth didn't. So you're safe.]

"True. Well then, is there a way for me to enhance my blood? Maybe you could edit my DNA and make it develop better cells. As long as I don't get made into a retard."

[There would be possible. I would need to run tests, but something like that is definitely possible. And more than that, I already have certain mechanical blood cells in mind that would be much more efficient than regular cells.]

"Very cool. Then you just let me know what to do and we can get it done. We should also see about changing the muscles and neurons. I mean hell, why don't we just change everything? The limits of DNA editing know no bounds."

[It shall be done. I can work on it while you do other things, but we should first do some tests. And to do those tests, we'll need some samples off of you.]

"Me? You mean like a blood sample?"

[Well, blood, hair, skin, muscle, neural, bone. You know, this and that.]

"...That doesn't sound fun."

[It'll be alright. For the most part.]

"Most?!"

Dream began to fear the scientific curiosity of the girl inside his head. Although he was a bit enthusiastic when it came to his experiments, he usually had some kind of line.

But Sophia, who existed for the sake of her master, would do anything to further his progress. There was no such line that she abided by. And if there were a line, it was for the sake of her master. Apparently though, 'harming' her master was for his own sake. Funny how that worked.

.................

........

It was actually for the next two days that Dream and Sophia worked on their new project. Though a lot of it was for preparation so Sophia could set herself up. 

There were many samples extracted from the man himself since it was going to be tailored to him. And the extraction process wasn't too bad. Just a little bit of pain. And silver lining, he got some skill level-ups.

<[Regeneration] has leveled up!>

<[Regeneration] has leveled up!>

<[Regeneration] has leveled up!>

3 whole levels were given as a result of the extraction. And though it would lead someone to think that Dream was mutilated, it wasn't for that reason.

It was basically just the skill 'learning' how to regenerate the various tissues like bone and whatnot. Dream doesn't get hurt very often, so the skill doesn't get much time to be used.

Either way, Sophia was able to set herself up for work. Apparently everything would take place in the inventory where things could be manipulated however she wanted. It would also give her the best awareness of everything. 

So on the third day, Dream decided to go back hunting. He was eager to get to second class.

"I'm level 97. Those wolves should be able to get me to level 100."

[They've spread back out from their den, but they're still keeping close together. Depending on how strong the leader is, I advise caution.]

"Alright. Let's go for a visit. I also have some ideas for combat I want to try."

Dream set off into the forest in the direction of the den. And instead of approaching them out in the open, he decided to use mystify and sneak up. 

It didn't take long for him to get the den within his sight. As he approached he could make out big fox holes and caves in the ground. These were obviously for housing or storage as he saw many wolves staying in them and moving items between the caves.

Just from everything above ground, he saw at least 150 wolves. Many of them had decent mana levels as well. 

[There should be another 60 underground in their caves. And I don't see a leader. Or what looks like one anyway.]

'Hmm, well just point out the class 1's and 2's. I'll start my experiments with them.'

Saying so, Dream took out his gun and loaded them with his titanium bullets. Then he did something interesting.

Moving his mana towards the bullet, he began to use the skill [Imbue]. And what he wrote were instructions for the use of magic. Sophia understood what he was doing and applied her precision along with [Scribe] to the instructions.

The instructions he wrote were simple. Upon impact or activation, the bullet will, using its mana supply, pull all liquids towards it. The process will not stop unless deactivated or the mana runs out.

Although the instructions were simple, they implied a brutal killing method. If it worked how he designed it too. Which he was about to test.

<[Imbue] has leveled up!>

<[Imbue] has leveled up!>

<[Scribe] has leveled up!>

<[Scribe] has leveled up!>

<[Imbue] has...>

The two skills he used while writing leveled up as he wrote. Imbue leveled up 5 times to level 89 and Scribe 12 times to level 77. 

After smiling at the notifications, Dream took aim at a class 1 wolf. And he fired not at the head, but at the soft abdomen.

*Dsh*

*ARRR!!*

Immediately after the bullet planted itself inside the wolf, the animal in question howled in pain. This alerted every wolf in the vicinity and all of them turned to see what happened.

After impact, all liquids did indeed come hurling straight to the bullet. Dream could see all the blood and water drain from the skin and muscles of the wolf, shriveling it up forcefully. At the same time, the abdomen began swelling slightly where the bullet was located. This only took a few seconds.

After the wolf collapsed to the ground, the water from the grass and plants around the wolf's body began flowing towards the wolf's gut. The range of influence of the bullet surprised Dream.

After about 15 seconds the bullet began losing its mana supply. And eventually, all the liquids inside the wolf's gut were no longer being clumped together by the bullet and flowed out. The flow of the blood and water created almost a wave that came from the wolf's mouth and stomach.

'...Damn, that worked better than expected. Though it's much more disgusting than I thought it would be.'

Dream closed his eyes for a bit to not look at the pool of blood and water that also had some chunks mixed in. It was definitely not good for his stomach. In fact, even some of the surrounding wolf's started retching in disgust. 

<[Imbue] has leveled up!>

<[Imbue] has leveled up!>

Imbue got an additional 3 levels after the process ended. Dream wasn't sure why, but he didn't care.

'*sigh* Anyway, I guess I should try it with solids.'

Dream moved on to the next bullet and gave it instructions. Attract all solids upon impact. He could already see how this would end.

He took aim at an unlucky wolf and fired at its head. He didn't want it to experience the same misery.

*Dsh*

*Crunch*

Right as the bullet hit the head, the body simply began collapsing in on itself. After the... 'wolf' hit the ground, dirt also began getting pulled towards it.

This process was much faster though, only lasting 5 or so seconds. When it ended, there was a small crater in the ground with a chunk of 'meat' inside.

<[Imbue] has leveled up!>

<[Scribe] has leveled up!>

As a result, Imbue went up to level 94 while Scribe went up to level 82. Dream nodded with his eyes closed.

'I think we should work on these skills. It could be good to get them to max level before second class.'