Hand of God

The Hand of God option had appeared last night. Expanding it revealed nothing special, just one note: spells studied and used extensively during the Magic Activity Period would influence the direction of his Talent Wizardry.

That information was little use to him. He barely had any spells to choose from. Apart from Demonic Heart Transplant Surgery and Bloodline Essence Potion on the panel, he only had the three basic arcane spells he had collected before leaving the family: Arcane Shield, Arcane Teleport, and Arcane Missile.

Those three spells were versatile and practical, which was why they were known as the Three Basic Arcane Spells. Every Arcane Master was expected to learn them.

But Isaac had little interest in them, at least for now.

Arcane spells had simple structures. Countless Arcane Masters had refined them, making them easy to learn but leaving little room for further development.

That was one difference between Arcane Masters and wizards. Arcane Masters usually learned many arcane spells, building their own spell systems from the basics up.

Wizards were different. Each wizard awakened a different Talent Spell and held a different Legend, so most researched wizardry around their own Talent Spell and Legend, expanding them into a system.

Of course, plenty of wizards were like Isaac and simply used whatever they had.

When it came to Gestating a Talent Spell, there was no need to hesitate between arcane spells and wizardry.

Before heading to the laboratory, though, he needed to fill his stomach.

When he reached the dining room, the maid had already prepared breakfast. A few slices of snow-white bread sat on the long table, with a dish of blue jam beside them. And then...

That was it.

It looked plain, but this was actually the best food he had here.

It was not that the world had nothing better. Thanks to supernatural powers, its cuisine was no worse than that of his previous life, especially for nobles. His meals were so simple for one reason: he was poor.

For one thing, this was only a small country estate, far from prosperous. For another, Isaac had arrived just a few days ago, and many things had yet to be delivered. And third...

He had no money.

After leaving the family, he had received a total of five hundred Gold Coins. His territory's annual net income was barely over a hundred Gold Coins, not even enough to fund his spell research freely. Where would he find spare money for luxuries?

Still, it did not matter. This breakfast would have been decent even in his previous life, and his mind was on other things. After a quick glance, Isaac grabbed some bread, spread jam on it, and headed out of the dining room.

"Young Master Isaac..." Smith watched him helplessly. Really... he had no noble bearing at all.

But Smith could hardly say anything. Isaac was a noble, while he was only a butler, even if he had watched Isaac grow up.

Isaac waved a hand, unconcerned. Why had he hurried away from home? For freedom, of course. If he still had to follow the rules here, what had been the point of leaving?

Munching on his bread, he walked toward the laboratory. Magic! After working so hard for so long, he could finally study it in earnest!

Before long, Isaac returned to the area near his bedroom, opened the door next to it, and stepped inside.

The laboratory's layout was simple. A basic operating table stood in the middle of the room, a large black cauldron occupied one corner, and a bookshelf holding a few manuscripts stood in another. Beside the bookshelf was a neat, clean desk.

The laboratory was spotless, without a single stain. That was only natural. It would have been stranger if it were dirty, since he had been unable to cast wizardry before and had had no use for the place.

Isaac went to the bookshelf, took down a booklet, and sat at the desk to study it closely. Now and then, he opened his panel to compare his learning progress and see what he had missed.

Demonic Heart Transplant Surgery strengthened the body by replacing its heart with one that contained Magic Power. Depending on the quality of the heart, the recipient might also gain the ability to control Magic Power or use special spells.

He chose to study this wizardry first because, although his learning progress stood at only 14%, it was actually the wizardry he knew best.

The technique had two parts. One was the purely technical procedure of replacing the heart. The other used Spells to accelerate healing, suppress rejection, and bring the body into balance. The latter made up the larger portion.

To Isaac, who had been a surgeon in his previous life, the first part was crude beyond belief. Calling this wizardry a surgery was an insult to the word!

A while later, Isaac put down the booklet and nodded thoughtfully.

As he had suspected, the wizardry itself was not difficult. Whether it succeeded depended heavily on luck...

The first part was simply too crude. He had not been a cardiac surgeon in his previous life, but he had at least studied some related material.

So that part was not important and posed little difficulty for him. He could even improve it. Heart transplant techniques had been well established in his previous life. He might not have performed one himself, but he knew how they worked.

What mattered more to Isaac was the magical part that followed.

Compared with the sparse instructions for the first part, this section contained much more: all kinds of Spells, including several with the same effect.

According to the manual, the body developed resistance to the power of a single Spell. After the transplant, the caster therefore had to switch Spells according to the situation. That was the hardest part of the operation.

But it hardly mattered to him. He did not need to go to that trouble. He only had to choose a suitable Spell and chant it repeatedly. With his special talent, he could use the same Spell again and again.

For example, one Spell could accelerate wound healing, improve the heart's structure, and suppress rejection. In another wizard's hands, it was of limited use. It appeared to do everything, but did none of it well.

Its effect was too weak, and it could only be used once.

Other wizards therefore had to cast a great many Spells alongside it.

Isaac, however, needed only that one Spell. By casting it continuously, he could build up its effect and greatly improve his efficiency.

That did not mean the other Spells were useless. Quite the opposite: the variety in the manual made Isaac's eyes light up. Used properly, they could let him do far more than replace hearts...

But that was for later. He could not rush things. He had to take them one step at a time and master Heart Replacement Surgery first.

Isaac selected a few versatile Spells, then went to the corner and brought out two gray-haired rats, one large and one small. He sedated them, strapped them to the operating table one by one, checked his tools again, and put on rubber gloves. After two deep breaths, he slipped straight into work mode.

In the laboratory, Isaac carefully shaved the fur from the rats' chests so it would not interfere with the precision of his cuts.

He had done this many times in his previous life and was thoroughly practiced. Even in a different body, he quickly found his rhythm.

The next steps were straightforward: cut through the layers of skin and carefully remove the heart, casting healing Spells throughout the process.

His current conditions were nothing like those of his previous life. Without the Spells, the rats would die on the spot, and he would not be able to keep their hearts viable.

Fortunately, the healing Spells were simple, basic ones, and he had memorized their incantations long ago. Though this was his first time casting them, everything went smoothly.

But just after setting the extracted heart down, Isaac froze. Damn it. He had been so focused on the procedure that he had done things in the wrong order. It did not matter whether the rat whose heart he had removed lived or died. Why had he wasted Magic Power on it?

"Tch."

Shaking his head, Isaac cast a life-sustaining Spell on it anyway. A basic Spell like that cost little Magic Power. He could treat it as a control experiment and see whether a Demonized body would affect the heart in turn, and how quickly.

With that Demonic Rat kept alive, Isaac turned his scalpel to the other rat, the ordinary one that needed a new heart.

The procedure went smoothly from start to finish. Before long, the two rats lay side by side on the operating table, each with an empty space where its heart had been.

They were only asleep, of course. Under the Spells' effects, they would not die so easily.

Isaac marveled inwardly at the power of magic. If he had possessed something like this in his previous life, how many people could he have saved?

He shook his head. As he cleaned the scalpel, he gathered his focus. The most critical stage of the Heart Replacement Surgery was next. He could not afford the slightest carelessness.

Even if his subjects were Demonic Rats and one Gold Coin could buy a hundred or two of them, Isaac would take the operation seriously.

That was his duty as a doctor.

What Isaac failed to notice was that as he concentrated on the operation, the Hand of God's progress on his panel was rising rapidly...

In truth, Heart Replacement Surgery was difficult. The technique had been well established in Isaac's previous life, but an established technique was not necessarily easy to learn.

Especially since cardiac surgery had not been Isaac's specialty. He had only watched a few videos and read a few related papers on heart transplants, never studying the subject in depth. So despite the help of his Golden Finger and Spells, his first attempt failed.

The recipient rat died before Isaac could build up the Spells' effects.

His technique was still too rough.

But Isaac did not lose heart. He thought it over, identified his mistakes, then fetched another pair of rats and started again: shaving, removing hearts, transplanting...

And so, thanks to the selfless sacrifice of rat after rat, Isaac grew steadily more proficient at Heart Replacement Surgery. The Hand of God's progress climbed with it.

Finally, after twelve rats had died, the thirteenth survived!

Once the ordinary rat received the Demonized heart, it changed visibly. Its fur grew rapidly, and its entire body swelled by a full size!

Faint outlines of muscle showed beneath its fur. Its teeth and claws grew sharper, making it look even fiercer than a normal Demonic Rat!

Its tiny eyes were filled with crimson!

It grew more aggressive, too, snarling at Isaac again and again. If its limbs had not been restrained, it looked ready to lunge at him and bite.

At the very moment Isaac completed the Heart Replacement Surgery, the Hand of God's progress on his panel reached 100%...

"Bzzzz..."

A hum suddenly rang through Isaac's mind. It was as if someone had paused time. He could clearly see that the Heart-Exchange Rat's fur had stopped moving. It remained frozen mid-snarl, its heart no longer beating. In the entire world, only Isaac's consciousness seemed able to move...

Rrrip!

The sound of flesh tearing abruptly rang out. Wisps of unknown purplish-black energy drifted from the back of Isaac's neck. Moments later, they gathered into a savage purplish-black Demonic Claw!

The Demonic Claw had no skin, leaving its muscle fibers, tendons, and blood vessels plainly visible. One end connected to the back of Isaac's neck. It grew larger as it extended outward, ending in an enormous hand with five sharp fingers. Its palm alone was bigger than Isaac's entire body!

Once the savage Demonic Claw had fully formed, time began flowing again.

Isaac gazed at it in wonder, without a trace of fear. This was his own power, entirely under his control, and he could feel its affection for him.

Yes, the Demonic Claw—or rather, the Hand of God—was conscious. The Hand of God was something like a Magic Pet, capable of assisting a wizard with spellcasting.

Different rituals for becoming a wizard awakened different Magic Pets. Isaac's Hand of God was a fairly classic, ancient type.

At its final stage of growth, it could wield power comparable to a demon god's!

But that lay far in the future.

"Haa... in... haa... in..."

Isaac was curious about the Hand of God's power, but the operation was not finished. One Demonic Rat still needed to receive an ordinary heart. He took two deep breaths, forced down his surging emotions, and resumed surgery.

Fortunately, he now had a successful attempt to draw on. After becoming a Formal Wizard, his Magic Power had also grown stronger, greatly improving his Spells' effects. Before long, he had successfully transplanted an ordinary rat's heart into the Demonic Rat.

Unlike the ordinary rat that had received a Demonized heart, though, the Demonic Rat showed no improvement after receiving an ordinary one. If anything, it had grown weaker.

Isaac had expected as much. He placed each Heart-Exchange Rat in a separate cage, left them some food, then washed his hands and stepped aside to examine the Hand of God's power.

Rrrip!

The sound of flesh tearing rang out again as the savage Hand of God emerged from the back of Isaac's neck. It stretched its fearsome claws, then rubbed the back of its hand against Isaac's face like a puppy.

Smiling, Isaac rested his hand on the Hand of God and carefully sensed the Talent Wizardry born alongside it: Flesh Conversion.

It was much as the records described. His awakened Talent Wizardry did indeed work in tandem with Heart Replacement Surgery. Flesh Conversion's effect was simple: it could directly transform flesh containing Magic Power into a living form with a degree of vitality!