"Keaton... what on earth..."

Cal mouthed the words as he watched my crazy actions from opposite the laboratory equipment, setting down the vial of blood that I had just managed to fill. 

"I'm telling you to use my blood."

Just moments ago I had struggled with the medical syringes he had been keeping in a cupboard, the tips of each lying bent and curled, eventually forcing me to resort to drawing my sword to make the cut, dripping the blood slowly into a glass tube. 

The wound already fully healed within seconds. 

Tammy looking awkwardly from the side at my actions, still having trouble adjusting to the idea of my super-regenerative abilities, but I wanted both her and Belle to be here for this. They had injuries, and I wanted to fix them as soon as possible. The two of them standing around the table next to me. 

"First it's the space magic, next you were drinking my poisons like they were a cheap liquor, now blades don't work on you either? Either my eyes are deceiving me, or you're becoming quite the monster Keaton." Cal observed, noting my growing list of superhuman abilities. 

"Your sister thinks I'm a demon." I snorted dismissively. 

"Can you deny it? I still think that's the most likely explanation, or rather I can't think of anything else that makes sense." He replied with some interest, all the while squeezing down on a dropper, filling it with a purplish hazy liquid that he held over the blood vial with a steady hand.

"He's not a demon." Tammy muttered defensively under her breath. Probably the most sensitive about the topic out of all of us. She had tentatively accepted my hasty explanations, but clearly doubts still remained in her mind. 

"What are you doing with that?" I asked, ignoring Cal's 'demon' comment. I was no longer timid about revealing my abilities, but disclosing the system and its origins was still something that I considered taboo. 

"It's used for testing the purity of troll's blood, reacts to the vitality. Some unscrupulous merchants started diluting products a few years ago, we've had to come up with ways to test our sources ever since." He said, added a few drops to the vial before giving it a stir.

"Belle saw when Belle worked in shop." Belle added helpfully.

"Yes, well it's widely used now. I use it for all my healing herbs. Don't want to give someone a healing potion that kills them instead."

The mixture starting to glow, dim at first, but becoming brighter by the second, until light filled the room's chamber briefly before returning back to a normal looking vial of blood. 

"I take it this means the blood works?"

Cal could only brace himself against the table dizzily, nodding affirmatively. 

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore. Keaton, this is far more potent than just troll's blood. Don't you know how valuable this is?"

Quite valuable, it appeared, gauging from his reaction. 

"So, can you make something that will heal a bone with this?" I asked, getting to my main point of interest. Looking at Belle as she had already begun to play around with the sling wrapped around her arm. 

"Certainly, although with how fresh the material is, I'd imagine it would even be fairly effective just on its own. I can have something ready for you right away." 

Beginning to dig through his laboratory cabinets, looking for particular herbs. Bringing out a dried out purple flower-bulb that he began to crush into a fine powder, pouring the vial of blood in directly. 

"Focuses the vitality into the bones, promotes a more targeted effect instead of the body absorbing it elsewhere." He spoke aloud, offering me an explanation without needing to be prompted as I showed an interest in his work. 

"Called gorgon bulbs, Belle knows nyaa." Belle couldn't help but blurt out as she watched more of the petrified looking dried bulbs get ground up and added to the mix. 

"Your beastkin has a pretty good memory," Cal could only add after glancing up briefly. 

It seems that way, her eidetic memory was still something of an interest of mine. Glad I'm not the only one who thought it unusual. 

Adding slime cores to a glass beaker, before taking out a small circular disk with red runes on it. Moving the two to a small granite surface before placing the disk underneath the glass. Channeling a bit of mana through his hand, causing the disk to heat up like a burning coal.

"Magical technology. All the rage in the capital right now."

The cores within the beaker melting slowly into a viscous pool of liquid, adding a touch of water to thin it out before dropping the blood-herb mixture into the glass. Stirring it until the mixture was evenly dissolved and pouring the now vibrant purple-red liquid into five separate bottles, corking each in turn.

"Have her drink one of these a day. Should be healed by the end of it." He said while handing them over as I promptly stored, leaving one for Belle to drink after it cooled. 

"Is that all alchemy is? All you did is add herbs to blood and mix it?" I asked while frowning, he barely took any time at all. 

"You have hundreds of gold worth of materials on the table, and I managed to enhance the effectiveness without ruining the ingredients. Is that not impressive enough for you?" Cal retorted with a snort, as if what I said were a foolish misunderstanding about his job. 

"I don't see how I'm wrong though, all you did was mix a few things together. Couldn't I just do the same thing?"

"You now know how to make one specific potion. There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ingredients in common use, each with their own medicinal effect, and yet I chose to use this specific combination here. You even gave me your own blood, nobody in the world has ever used your blood as an ingredient. How did I know that applying heat wouldn't destroy your blood's potency? How did I know that Gorgon buds would have a favorable reaction? Some alchemists might rely on existing recipes, but none of that is real alchemy." 

Turning to me with a now empty vial of blood in his hands, giving it a small shake between his fingers. "Tammy needs one too, doesn't she?"

The three of us leaving the mansion for a walk while Tammy looked at her hands and arms with amazement, the scratches she had earlier were completely gone. Her skin looking even more pristine than it had before, despite being a farmer's daughter her hands were like she had never worked a day in the fields in her life. 

Catching a glimpse of the mixed emotions showing on her face, no matter what I could say, the idea that I was no longer human was still haunting her mind. 

"Does it bother you?" I asked softly. 

Causing her to jerk uncomfortably mid-step, caught off-guard by my sudden question. 

"I- Keaton..." she could only trail off. 

Tammy stopping in her place, causing Belle and I to stop as well to wait for her.

Feeling a sudden warm embrace as Tammy leapt onto my back. Wrapping her arms and legs around me like a koala. 

"I don't care about that Keaton... I just want you to stay. I don't want you to ever leave me. I don't want to see you hurt either, I hated seeing you yesterday like that. I don't ever want that to happen again. Can you promise me that?" Feeling the emotions in her voice, as she wrapped around me tightly. 

"Tammy, I don't want to see you hurt either, I'll protect you. I'll be there for you... I can't promise you that I'll never be hurt, but as you can see, I'm fairly durable. I won't be dying on you anytime soon." I said while feeling a hint of regret over the anxiety I had put her through.

"Belle wants hug too," Belle said while joining in. Pressing her breasts against me in a not quite as innocent hug.

I could only smile genuinely at the two girls, while I understood within me for the first time. I was truly blessed to have them. 

Kaguro

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