The Gamer Chapter 1028 – Health Check (Patreon)

It was the morning of the following day.

The Horned Rat had not yet arrived. While John did his best to keep his schedule flexible, aiming to meet with the god as soon as possible, there was one appointment he would not push back even if it meant he potentially had to leave Nathalia waiting for a couple of hours.

The Gamer was sitting in a sterilized room. The walls were simple white, most of the furniture around blank steel and the objects and instruments on top of them had that clinical veneer of a hospital. With him were Rave and Gnome. While the entire harem was interested in what was happening, the owner of this room would have complained ceaselessly if they stuffed it full with bodies that got in his way.

Dokt Medelnick was moving around Metra, who stood nudely on a large saucer, and inspected her thoroughly with the mechanical oculars that he had replaced his eyes with. Sometimes he stopped and squeezed or otherwise felt up a part of her. The only reason John accepted that, and a primary reason why he frequented this particular Apothecary in the first place, was that Medelnick had no sexual urges to speak of. He was a eunuch by his own volition and focused solely on his craft. He was eccentric to a bothersome degree, but he was able, discreet and wouldn’t molest his girls. While he continued to circle around her, a centrifuge above kept buzzing as it spun itself.

Turning away from Metra, Medelnick checked a couple of screens. “Show me the object,” he commanded. Any insistence by the First of Wrath that only her king got to use that tone with her would fall on deaf ears, so she swallowed her anger and went along. Not even threatening the apothecary would work. He seemed to view life as a valuable resource, something to maintain but not something to be overly emotional over. He was eerily similar to Enki in that way. No matter what millennia, there were certain attributes that the crazy scientist types often manifested.

On top of Metra’s shoulder, a patchwork of blueish grey and black scales manifested. Each was the size of John’s palm, with an abrasive surface that reminded him of a cat’s tongue – except hard enough to tear any skin caught on it. Although they looked far from friendly, they only had a basic resemblance of the avatar of Tiamat he had seen a couple of days ago.

Medelnick grabbed a remote and caused several mechanical arms to lower themselves from the ceiling. Imprinted on the sides of their metal frames was a wreath of cables beset with several thorns, the logo of the recently revived Thorne company. The rest of the equipment was from one of the five engineering firms that Scarlett had maintained as a replacement, which had now all been consolidated back into Thorne.

Essentially, everything around had been created by Fusion’s foremost engineering experts. That was how Medelnick, who would have much rather researched in a place with looser safety and human right requirements, was convinced to act as John’s personal physician: a vast amount of resources and state of the art tools.

That being said, when it came to checking up on Metra, Medelnick was usually quite happy to do it regardless. Looking after whatever minor health issues they had was one thing, but inspecting Metracanas was a whole different ball game. Similarly, the eunuch was likely looking forward to seeing what a quarter elemental looked like on his scans.

Rave’s state was less important to check on then this current question though.

After positioning the arms to get a scan of Tiamat’s scales from multiple angles, Medelnick pressed a button and sat down. The machines buzzed with magic and electricity while the Apothecary stared at the screen. When John was about to ask what he was doing, the pudgy man started hammering his fingers on the keyboard. The gelled-up strands of hair that encircled the literal chrome dome on top remained sturdy no matter how much he moved.

One hit on the enter key and a nearby printer roared to life. Simultaneously, several dozen strips of thin paper were covered with different kinds of patterns. While that went on Medelnick turned to John. “You can remove the scales, but it would cost her the majority of her power, including the dimensional magic, her Babble Phrase and her ability to use her rage to grow more powerful.”

“So, basically, fucking all of it,” Metra summarized.

“Between 70 and 95%, by my estimations,” Medelnick gave the best numbers he could. “Removing materials from an Artificial Spirit is somewhat common and enough of them miss the Living Material Attribute for me to have data on the subject.” The printer had finished its task by now and Medelnick grabbed two of the printed strips. He layered them on top of each other and held them against the light. Then he replaced one of them and repeated the motion. This continued while he talked. “You are the first Artificial Spirit. Your structure is more archaic and the material in question is tied to the base of your existence. Removing it will have intense detrimental effects.”

‘It might still be worth it,’ John thought, causing Metra to turn his way with shock and fury in her eyes. “I care more for you being safe than I care about you being useful to me – that shouldn’t surprise you. I love you,” he told her out loud.

“I’m the Breaker of Armies, the First of Wrath – being powerless is… I don’t even know what it is. It wouldn’t be me,” she told him.

John could wholeheartedly understand that position. Having been created with so much power and never having been truly weak before, she couldn’t be faulted for having engrained this might into her character. While Lover’s Will meant that Metra could, likely, rise back up in terms of pure Stats, she would still lose so much in the process that coping with it may take a while.

“Would you rather be weak or corrupted into becoming my enemy?” The question hurt them both, but it was what needed to be asked.

“Weak,” Metra stated definitively, without hesitation. What shock she would have to sustain, it didn’t measure up to both the love she had for him and the hatred she had for what Tiamat had become. Even with that answer given, she turned to Medelnick. “You better have some solution that keeps me from being useful as nothing but a sex slave. That’s my honorary position, not my primary one.”

“Known problems have known solutions.” The Apothecary sounded bored by now. This was no longer the kind of oddity he hoped to wrestle with. “An Artificial Spirit with a set list of components can still replenish herself if she loses parts of her. If one kind of material is not available, a replacement has to be found. Something with a similar magical structure, which the body will accept as a substitute.”

Medelnick finished with the comparisons and gestured for John to come closer. Once the Gamer and the two girls were there, he showed John the only two strips that had not ended up in the bin. The up and down of the patterns on them looked like the results of a seismograph and meant essentially nothing to John. They were fairly similar looking though.

“This is for the scales,” Medelnick gestured at the upper strip. His finger wandered to the lower one, “This is for Fenrir’s claws. Other materials could work, but this is all the Apothecary database offers in matches.”

“Fenrir’s claws…” John mumbled and scratched his head. “I assume the Sons of Odin would be the ones to have access to it.” Medelnick gave a robotic nod. “This might require some negotiating. I will get to that as soon as possible. Anything else we need to know?”

“Several,” Medelnick told him. “The solution works in theory, but a Metracana will likely react more volatile to the attempt than a regular Artificial Spirit. Metra doesn’t have a core, her magical matrix is stored inside her entire body. The difference between the scales and the claws will manifest in some way. To minimize volatility, her body should be as close to fully repaired in all other ways as can be possible.”

“Right.” John nodded along. ‘So, I should gather Astrotium, that will at least restore the vast majority of what Jeremiah took from her. Might be wise to invest in some Metracana Master levels as well. If I’d get a Perk that gives Metra the Living Material Attribute, then any volatility would be removed with that. Would just be wise in general.’

“Next,” Medelnick told Rave, who got on the analysing podium next. That inspection was done fairly quick and cleanly. While her body diverted from half elementals in that the reshaped magical circuits were incredibly dense in her right arm, there was nothing truly outstanding about her or Copernicus. As for her cat features, the scan only confirmed what they already knew: they were all purely magical, except for the eyes, and could therefore be removed if she just found the right way to go about it.

Last to get analysed was Ehtra’s skull.

“It’s alive,” Medelnick stated, excitement sneaking its way into his voice.

John looked at the hollow, partly melted, deformed mixture of Tiamat and human skull and asked, “What do you mean by that, exactly?” He needed to know to satisfy his own curiosity and to see if there was a way to restore Metra’s sibling.

“There is still magical circuit activity within the material.” Medelnick moved about hastily, finding several dozen additional tools that he positioned in and around the podium to get more accurate readings. John waited for more of an explanation, even repeated the question, but was wholeheartedly ignored. Sighing, he sat down and waited until the Apothecary finished up with whatever was holding his interest.

Furiously moving between different instruments in the room, creating simulations and comparing readings, Medelnick grew continuously more agitated. After about five minutes, he swiped a series of glass instruments off a workbench to clear it and then started rapidly putting together some kind of instrument. It came out looking like a tesla coil attached to a gun. Rather than shoot anything, it beeped when it was close to the skull, however.

Medelnick pulled away until the beeping stopped, then moved around the skull until it came back. He had his back to John and slowly walked backwards, turning around as he did so. He kept gesturing around with the tool whenever he lost the signal, step for step coming closer to John. Finally, he stopped with the tool pressed against the Gamer’s ribcage. Trying to get around John, the two of them realized immediately that the signal’s path ended with the Gamer.

The Gamer didn’t have to guess why this was and retrieved the Astrotium blade from his inventory. Meddelnick grabbed it without asking and returned to the skull, placing them next to each other and hooking them up to the same instruments.

“Well?!” Metra asked, her patience drained beyond the point where John’s request would hold her back. “Is Ehtra still alive or not?”

“Hm?” Medelnick turned towards them and seemed confused for a moment, as if he had forgotten they were even there. “Yes, yes, she is still alive,” he then said excitedly. “The magical circuits in the skull and the sword are similar to Metras and they are in communication with each other.”

‘Right, so eating the sword is out,’ John thought. He wouldn’t have had Metra absorb the skull, alive or not, for sentimental reason, but the weapon should have been fair game. Now it definitely wasn’t. Which meant that John had to find Astrotium some way else. “Can she be restored.”

“No,” Medelnick’s definitive answer caused Metra to growl.

“Be – clear – now,” she demanded. The tone had no effect on Medelnick, but he explained anyway.

“It lacks the ability to absorb materials in its current state. Its body would have to be reforged for her. Even assuming that one had a replacement for all of the divine materials, there is no replacing Astrotium and one would have to be able to forge Astrotium to connect it with what remains of her.”

“So, there is a chance,” John mumbled and crossed his arms.

“Not at the current state of technology,” Medelnick denied.

“I don’t need technology to work miracles, only time to make the right decisions,” John told the Apothecary. “Can you learn anything else from Ehtra’s remains?”

“Most likely,” Medelnick answered.

“Then I’ll trust you with her for the moment… Metra,” the Gamer turned to the First of Wrath, who sighed, knowing what he was about to tell her. “Eject the scales.”

Between the risk of Metra getting infected after all this time and her getting killed in her weakened state, John was more willing to gamble on the latter. De-powered or not, she was a Metracana, and if Ehtra was alive even in this state, then Metra could be repaired as well. If she became corrupted at her current level of power, the best case would be that she went on a rampage. The worst case would be that she went on a rampage and then disappeared to wherever Seminaris was off to.

The choice of what to do was clear, especially for someone as paranoid as John.

“Yes, my king.” Metra’s grim tone was in stark contrast to her usual carefree attitude. The scales on her shoulder detached as much from her skin as she could make them, then she tore them off without hesitation. John immediately placed them in his inventory. It was the greatest place for quarantine they had access to at the moment, but John would move them to a specialized facility soon enough.


“Guess I’m weak now,” the First of Wrath said with as much of a grin as she could muster. It was, to be fair, the most confident anyone could be in her situation.

“You’ll manage.” The Gamer smiled back at her. He would have kissed her as well, but a buzzing in his breast pocket pulled his attention to his phone. Rolling his eyes, he picked up and said, “Hello?”

“Uhm… Mister President, I’m a watcher at the Guild Bank and…”

“The Horned Rat is standing in the middle of it, isn’t he?” the Gamer took an educated guess.

“Y… yes,” came the baffled answer.

John pinched the bridge of his nose, “I’m on my way.”