Shadow

It was already late April. The sea breeze brushed over Tsimari, carrying wave after wave of coolness. In a five-mu courtyard in the southern part of the city, crowds streamed in without end, making the place exceptionally lively. A large sign hung above the main gate.

"Tsimari Private Hospital!"

Staring at those strange words, Locke clutched his stomach, which hurt so badly he could barely endure it, while all sorts of rumors about hospitals and Ace ran through his mind.

Legend had it that Ace had been blessed by Lord Pontos and possessed wisdom beyond ordinary imagination. He was a born painter and a master healer.

In only two months since establishing the hospital, countless doctors had joined his ranks as resident physicians.

He had also hired many fiery Tsimari fisherwomen at high wages, dressed them in spotless white short skirts, called them nurses, and had them care for the patients.

Tsimari's ordinary clinics now saw very few patients. People preferred coming to the hospital, where they would not casually have their hands or feet chopped off, be given enemas or bled at every turn, and their illnesses could actually be cured. Patients absolutely loved the place.

Lost in thought, Locke walked to the back of the queue in the courtyard.

A young woman dressed all in white, with a white nurse's cap on her head, sat behind a makeshift window and directed them to register in order.

"Name?" the woman in white asked.

"Locke."

"Age?"

"Twenty-one."

"First visit?"

"First visit."

"What seems to be the problem?"

In the end, Locke paid fifty Copper Talers, took his parchment medical record and number tag, and headed into the courtyard.

Locke arrived at the Department of Gastroenterology. After the outpatient doctor examined him, the doctor wrote some incomprehensible letters in his medical record and sent him to the operating room.

Ace had just finished a round of surgeries. His secondary spell, Ultrasonic Perception, worked wonders during operations. It allowed him to pinpoint lesions accurately in real time: conservative treatment when he lacked confidence, bold surgery when he was certain. The cure rate was extremely high.

After disinfection and anesthesia, Locke was carried into the operating room on a stretcher. He was already unconscious.

Ace glanced at the medical record written in Bird Script and tentatively diagnosed appendicitis, then activated the secondary spell Ultrasonic Perception.

As an advanced wizard apprentice, Ace's Secret Treasury Space could instantly draw secondary runes. However, the structure of secondary runes was too simple and low-level for them to remain in the Secret Treasury Space for long.

Under Ultrasonic Perception, everything around him became black and white, and Locke's internal organs were clearly visible.

Ace observed Locke's organs with some disbelief. These were not human organs.

He had dissected several fishmen and had even pickled and preserved some of their organs. Thus, he was certain that the internal organs of this young man named Locke were fishman organs.

Nor were they entirely fishman organs. Some were fishman organs, while others were human organs.

The human organs were slowly transforming into fishman organs. That was why Locke had been suffering such unbearable abdominal pain.

"Interesting. This is far too interesting."

A smile appeared on Ace's face, and his eyes gleamed as though he had spotted some delectable feast.

He activated the secondary spell Beguile Creatures and used mental suggestions to make several assistants leave, then began to savor his feast.

He created five Hands of Magic and began examining Locke in earnest.

As for the more advanced Spell Hand, there was no need to use it now. Only when experimenting on beings at the level of powerful Low-level Demonic Beasts or Hero-class entities would there be any need for a Spell Hand.

The five Hands of Magic moved all over him. Combined with Ace's Ultrasonic Perception, they soon found the hidden extraordinary factor within Locke.

Inside Locke's brain was a flickering orb of light invisible to the naked eye. Ace could not make out the rune structure within it clearly.

He dispelled Ultrasonic Perception and directly released his stronger post-advancement mental power to sense the orb.

It felt familiar! The gathering magic power, its pursuit of mental power, the seven-colored radiance within his perception—it was extremely similar to the blessing of the Child of the Ocean.

He continued sensing it, and the structure within the orb gradually emerged. A peculiar rune structure appeared.

Ace ordered someone to guard the operating room, then hurried to the rear courtyard and took out the copper mirror from its lead box.

Sensing the orb within the copper mirror again, he found that he still could not penetrate the seven-colored radiance to perceive what lay inside the orb.

Ace carefully compared the similarities and differences between the two orbs. "In every respect, the orb on Locke resembles the one in the copper mirror, yet it is weaker in every respect, like some degraded version of it. The copper mirror's orb remains imperceptible, but the degraded orb can be perceived."

"The rune structure of this degraded orb must conceal the secret of humans being transformed into fishmen. It may even involve the Child of the Ocean's scheme."

As he thought, Ace put the copper mirror back into the lead box and hurried back to the operating room.

He continued studying Locke and, through illusions and beguilement, obtained everything he wanted to know.

Locke was the student of Moor, a former government official, and had studied under Moor for nearly ten years.

Several months ago, Moor told Locke that he would be leaving far away, then placed a hand atop his head.

Locke caught a faint fishy smell, felt somewhat feverish, and fell into a deep sleep. When he woke the next day, Moor had already vanished without a trace.

Afterward, Locke's hearing and eyesight became exceptionally keen, his body grew strong, his mind sharp, and his memories clear. Yet his body would often shift between chills and burning heat, hallucinated sounds would occasionally ring in his ears, and recently, the abdominal pain had become unbearable.

"Moor was a Blessed One from thirty years ago. It is almost certain that the blessing conceals a plot. That Lord is planning something. First, I need to determine what this degraded orb is. Then I can decide what to do next."

As he thought, Ace began researching the orb within Locke's brain.

Because he feared that removing the orb directly would alert Moor, and because he wanted to observe the changes in a living subject, Ace talked Locke into staying in the hospital for observation, preparing to conduct live-subject research.

Locke checked into the hospital in a daze and was charged a hefty hospitalization fee. No one noticed that an additional Soul Rune structure had appeared at the back of his head.

A week later, Locke lay flat on a hospital bed in the operating room, feeling immense trust in Doctor Ace. Since being admitted, his abdominal pain had greatly eased. It was all thanks to Doctor Ace.

Ace analyzed the Soul Rune structure within the orb while observing and recording Locke's changes.

Based on his analysis and reconstruction of the rune structure, Ace extracted several new Soul Runes, which he named the Transformation Rune, Solidification Rune, Strength Rune, Constitution Rune, Agility Rune, Wisdom Rune, and Perception Rune.

Spell models formed from the Transformation Rune required casting materials, usually some part of a living creature. The more complete the materials, the better the transformation effect achieved.

The Solidification Rune could lock a certain magical state in place. It carried a high chance of failure, but once successful, it could not be reversed.

The Strength Rune, Constitution Rune, Agility Rune, Wisdom Rune, and Perception Rune were entirely new types of runes that could enhance a particular aspect of the target's abilities.

Using these, Ace developed several new spell models and rune arrays.

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