Bear School Astartes

Chapter 81: 81. Massive memory

”Gulp-splash!”

Lann’s vision suddenly blurred.

He instinctively swallowed some liquid, and the choking sensation from his throat made him spit it out abruptly.

The enormous spaceship, almost the size of a megacity, disappeared.

He was back in the tiny inn of the Magical Middle Ages.

Alia’s anxious and frightened little face was right in front of him, clutching a bottle of [Enhanced White Honey].

Lann’s hands supported him on the wooden floor, a drop of black blood from the tip of his nose splattered down, making a sizzling sound like acid corrosion.

The Demon Hunter’s eyes were vacant.

”The Emperor...son?”

The stark contrast between the scenes before his eyes and the disparity in physical fitness and memory left him momentarily stunned.

He was only murmuring the last impression in his memory.

”Sir? Sir! Come on, drink up, your face is still ghostly pale!”

Alia anxiously shook Lann’s shoulder, bringing the glass bottle close to his mouth.

Lann did not resist, reaching out to take the [Enhanced White Honey].

But once he held it, he inexplicably felt—

Given the residual toxicity in his body now, drinking it or not seemed... like it won’t matter much?

”Mentos, what’s with my intuition?”

Lann shook his head, downing the magic potion while questioning the AI.

Although he felt his tolerance for potion toxicity had increased significantly, to be safe, he drank it anyway.

”Your intuition is correct, sir. The implantation of the gene seed, while not yet substantially enhancing your physical functions, has already begun efficiently coordinating your internal hormone secretion and adjusting organ function. Based on this, your poison resistance has increased by about 50%.”

This was an astonishing result; if an average person could increase their poison resistance by 50%, they could even consume some low-toxicity potions of a Demon Hunter!

Not to mention, this was a 50% increase on top of a Demon Hunter’s baseline!

Lann estimated that he could now down both [Enhanced Thunderbolt] and [Enhanced Blizzard] together while maintaining a low-toxicity state.

In other words, until the potion’s effects wore off, his body wouldn’t be eroded by toxicity at all.

In other words, as long as he had enough potions, Lann could maintain his 1.5x battle tempo indefinitely!

Attack first! Attack first! It’s still my damn first attack!

After three swords, even if chopping stubbornly against a shield! The shield would be cleaved in two!

And this was only the immediate effect of the gene seed implantation.

Through the temporary memory just now, Lann also learned that the final product of human enhancement surgery based on the gene seed should be called an ”Interstellar Warrior.”

That was a powerful warrior born from eighteen surgical modifications.

Each modification added a powerful artificial organ inside the Interstellar Warrior.

The gene seed could only be considered the base of the surgery; those additional organs were the true ”weapons” of power!

”Alas...” Lann sighed as he held his head, ”I almost killed myself just to gather the conditions for implanting one gene seed.”

The remaining surgical steps require some artificial heart, artificial lung sacs, artificial glands, artificial meninges...

Cutting-edge laboratories in his hometown world would be outclassed by such technical prowess!

Not to mention, he’s just a university student from the Magical Middle Ages?

There’s no choice, I’ll be content with a single gene seed.

Lann was persuading himself to be content, while waving his hand at Alia to signify he was fine as he tried to stand up supported by the floor.

But when the Demon Hunter’s gaze caught his supporting left hand, his eyes suddenly focused.

...Hmm?

”The proportion of the bones in the left hand is slightly imbalanced... it destroys the aesthetics and is detrimental to the precise grip of a sword. If I can bypass the second ligament of the left ring finger and slightly grind the base of the finger bones, I could greatly improve the situation. Meanwhile, I could use [Swallow] paired with standard nutrient solution, to exercise ligament tear. This combination allows for maximum ligament extension within a week while maintaining combat strength.”

An unbidden analysis popped into his head.

What on earth was ”second ligament organization,” and what about ”standard nutrient solution”?

This was not from Mentos; after long-time association with the AI, Lann could tell the difference.

This was a thought that emerged from himself.

Thinking as such, Lann’s hand had instinctively gone to search for surgical tools.

He now really wanted to repair his finger bones.

The hand was halfway but suddenly halted, immediately whipping back and striking Lann’s own face.

”Smack.”

Alia let out a small exclamation, remembering that Lann needed to spend this night in peace.

So after the exclamation, the girl only gave him a look saying ’are you alright?’ without shouting or alarming.

After slapping himself, Lann continued to look at his hand with a strange expression.

To be precise, he was examining his body, which felt unfamiliar.

This impulse of striving for perfection...

This inexplicable, almost instinctual medical and biochemical knowledge... What happened?!

Lann felt that, even without Mentos’s anatomical diagram of himself, he could easily open his chest with a scalpel.

”Mentos, do you have any ideas?”

Confronted with such a situation, Lann sensibly refrained from deducing and instead handed it over to the biological AI.

The bio-AI, derived from the micro-compilation of brain cells, had a natural function of monitoring the state of brain activity.

Lann assumed that this complex reaction involving at least the subconscious, habit formation, and neural memory would require Mentos a substantial effort to provide an answer.

But unexpectedly, the AI’s response was almost instantaneous.

It seemed ready to report to the host.

”I think I know what’s going on, sir.”

Unprecedentedly, Lann felt... fatigue in Mentos’s tone?

”In the gene seed we installed... there’s too much memory in it! It’s a transgenerational enhancing organ, consolidating the memory of each reinforcing user within the gene seed.”

”And the gene seed houses a mysterious energy that just transferred the memories in flesh and blood fully into your brain nerves, which is why you experienced the illusion just now... In this process, the gene seed’s memory suffered no loss whatsoever! Even the primal memories of the Demon Hunter have been brought forth! Such technology—or rather, such energy—is simply astounding!”

When ”mysterious energy” was mentioned, Lann suddenly recalled the moment when he opened the high-intensity cylindrical vessel, with the golden lid’s reaction freezing.

The ability to freeze objects without causing a temperature change... this absurd power must be anything but simple.

Mentos continued to report in a weary tone.

”My computing limit is locked by permissions, so with my current ability, I can only roughly block the majority of memories, preventing the massive influx from flooding your personality, resulting in character deviation.”

”These memories span at least ten thousand years; they would surely be a shining treasure even in the Human Union!”

”You lamented earlier about being unable to complete the remaining nineteen surgeries. But now I’ll inform you there’s some good news and bad news.”

”The good news is: within the ten thousand years of memories from the Interstellar Warriors, not only did many serve as ’Pharmacists,’ but their technical competence was quite high. It seems to be a characteristic of this gene seed; biochemical knowledge can be learned quickly.”

”Their memories include not only the detailed nineteen surgical processes for enhanced organ crafting but even an upgraded version of twenty-one surgeries.”

”But the bad news is: I can’t sift through or specifically search this ten-thousand-year trove of memories. My ability limit is stretched to just establishing a memory firewall.”

”And even when releasing them in tiny, random portions, we must fully consider the stability of your personality and the brain’s capacity, to avoid brain damage.”