For the fifth attempt, she adjusted the treatment process for the wing-membrane fragments, soaking them in dragon blood for six hours before attaching them. On the sixth day, several small, intact scale-like protrusions appeared on the rabbit's back, but they began to loosen again on the ninth day.
For the sixth attempt, she found a breakthrough in the line of thought her master's notebook called a "mediating medium."
Using the luminous lichen she had found at the edge of the nursery as a bridge, she first implanted a small cluster of mycelium beneath the rabbit's skin. After waiting three days, she applied the wing-membrane fragments over the area where the mycelium had grown.
On the twelfth day, a complete layer of scales formed on the rabbit's back, capable of bending slightly with its movements. The scales had a glossy surface and were close to dark green in color, with a gradual band of transition between their edges and the rabbit's own skin.
It lived.
It lived for a full two months. Until the seventh experiment began, she was still crouching beside its cage, observing the growth along the edges of its scales.
For the seventh attempt, she used herself.
Less than a week after returning from the woods, the dragon scales on the left side of her face began peeling and ulcerating to varying degrees. That was why she had spared no effort in conducting her fusion experiments.
She cut the wing membrane into finer strips and treated them with the successful formula from the sixth experiment. Then, standing before a mirror, she reapplied them piece by piece to the damaged areas of her face. After attaching the last strip, she looked at herself in the mirror—the left half of her face was covered in dark green scales, their arrangement