Apocalypse Redux - Chapter 296: A Fundamental Shift

“Isaac, we finally got approval, come to my office when you have the time.”

Oh, fucking finally.

Isaac grabbed the note from his desk, crumpled it up, and threw it in the trashcan before heading over to Bailey’s office. Permanent biomantic alteration had finally been officially approved.

Bailey had been extremely reluctant to change others for one simple reason. Any changes he made needed to stand like that potentially forever, without adverse interactions even decades down the line.

He’d been treating his own body like a Lego set for half a decade, constantly changing and rebuilding it, but there, he was in a position to instantly fix any issues.

When altering others, he didn’t have that luxury.

While he’d been in a position to optimize a baseline human body from the third Evolution onwards, the problem was that there weren’t many people that “baseline” still applied to.

And from then on, there’d been an endless parade of “now I can do biomancy on you” being responded to with “I’m sorry, but now I got stronger again in x way, we’ll have to do this later”.

Until now.

Bailey’s fifth Evolution of [Pinnacle Biomanipulator] was beyond those manipulations, being one of the strongest kinds of [Classes] there was.

[Paragon’s] variations were also quite impressive, being granted to those who stayed truthful to their initial [Class] choice and taking it far beyond its original limitations with each Evolution. Jason, for example, had become a [Paragon Rogue].

[Pinnacle Classes] were different, though. Instead of focussing on a [Class], they were about focussing on a single kind of [Skill], continuously expanding its function with new [Skills].

Which was exactly how Bailey had used the basic biomanipulation he’d gained all the way back at the first Evolution. Pre-set forms for every occasion, rapid, on-the-spot transformation for big attacks that could be reversed instantly, extradimensional storage for extra mass that also protected his brain … every new ability neatly expanded the singular ability he focussed his efforts into using and improving.

Now, he’d a [Class] that confirmed that he’d reached the pinnacle of what biomancy could do, including safely improving human bodies.

And then, at the very instant when he could work on the team, the dean had swooped in and started laying down rules.

He’d been totally cool with Bailey being able to do what he could and not taking action out of caution. But the instant there’d been a risk of the university’s flagship, well, everything being messed with … ho boy, things had gotten crazy.

Bailey wasn’t even supposed to do clinical trials on the team, he was meant to start with animals (which he’d already done ad absurdum), and then deal with volunteers who weren’t helping the university so much. Even though Isaac would have been the perfect guinea pig due to how [Eternal Restoration] could always restore his body to its prime form.

But now, the whole issue had been laid to rest, Bailey was feeling comfortable with making potentially permanent changes, and the official side wasn’t going to cause trouble either.

And sure, they could have just ignored the dean and hoped that he wouldn’t find out, but honestly, getting this done half a year earlier would not have been worth the potential repercussions. Plus, Bailey had only gotten better in that time.

On the way to the office, Isaac almost tripped over Artemis, as the leopard had been named. She was currently slightly smaller than a standard housecat, perfectly sized to get underfoot while still being small enough to pass under most people’s sightlines.

Of course, Artemis was the adopted pet of two of the world’s greatest mages and a “pretty much a druid but better” on the same level, it was debatable whether even a nuke could harm her, but that didn’t mean that it would be ok for people to trip over her.

Isaac scooped her up with one hand, earning himself a brief noise of complaint, but he’d gotten into the habit of carrying around leopard-safe cat treats with him, so brightening up her mood was pretty easy.

A quick scan with his [Aura] revealed that Amy was working from the conference room, so that’s where he put Artemis. She, of course, went straight for his chair. Not the original one, the one he’d given up to her when she’d claimed it, mind you, but the one he’d bought to replace it. She was lucky she was so adorable.

Isaac reached Bailey’s office, knocked, and entered.

“You ready?” Bailey asked.

“Yep,” Isaac nodded.

An armchair rose from the floor in the corner of the room, a perfected design designed to make sitting still for hours easier.

Isaac immediately sat down while Bailey returned to his office chair.

“Should we go over the planned changes one more time?” Bailey asked.

“Yes,” Isaac said, “Considering the extent of the changes, it wouldn’t do to make mistakes here.

It would take a bit of time to do, but in the end, the amount of time spent going over the plan had nothing on the difficulty of coming up with the changes in the first place.

The relation between Stats and the physical body of their bearer was … somewhat squirrely, varying greatly between each and every one of them.

Fortitude was perhaps the simplest, but even it had some problems.

Fundamentally, your physical toughness was a combination of the durability of your tissues and the Fortitude reinforcing it. Your skin, muscles, and bones all had the same durability, yet bones, and teeth enamel, for that matter, were the toughest parts of your body.

And the same went for any foreign materials that were incorporated via biomancy. They were all reinforced by your Fortitude Stat, and while dragon scales were obviously tougher than human bones, dragon scales added to a human with 500 points in the stat would be far weaker than those of a dragon with twice that.

Yet it was also the most easy to upgrade, as the others … Isaac was just glad he didn’t have Bailey’s job.

Strength, meanwhile, was almost entirely dependent on your Stat, with your physical muscle definition dependent on what you wanted to look like, within reason. Biomancy could further compress them to allow you to retain your strength on a smaller frame, but replacing muscle tissue with something “stronger” would just result in the Stat’s reinforcement being redistributed across the new tissue.

Increasing it through biomancy was technically possible, by ballooning one’s muscles to the point where they were unnatural and would get in the way of regular movement, so it wasn’t advisable.

Some people had races or [Skills] that allowed them to temporarily increase both their muscles and actual strength, by absorbing corpses, generation “powered armor”, internal biomancy, etc., but those were A. rare, B. limited to their bearer, and C. often hard to use.

That being said, shifting around one’s muscles to increase flexibility could be done to a limited degree.

Agility was much the same. It was an enhancement that increased the bearer’s ability to make controlled and minute motions, assuming they had sufficient Perception to be aware of the scale in question, as well as move quickly. Like strength, increasing it could and did affect one’s muscles cosmetically, but the power of this Stat was largely locked up in the user’s astral body, the magic of the [System].

Meanwhile, Magic Power and Magic Regeneration were both entirely [System]-based, allowing their bearer to use more mana and recover it more quickly, as well as increasing their brain in ways such as reaction speed, memory capacity, mental celerity, and so on, but could not be affected by physical alterations at all.

And finally, you had Perception which, while somewhat normal, was still complicated in how it affected your senses. In essence, it affected one’s primary sense, aka the sense whose input required the largest amount of brainpower to use, to its fullest extent, and all other senses to a lesser degree, based on how much brainpower they required relative to the most important sense.

In humans, that sense was their sight.

Other sensory organs could be enhanced, up to the point of bringing them in line with the primary sense in terms of both actual capacity and Stat support, but, well, it also ran the risk of sensory overload. Normally, you’d need a Perception twice your mental Stats combined before there was a problem, but that was with various senses being dialed down. If you started enhancing them, you’d hit that wall much sooner.

The same thing went for various other sensory alterations, such as expanding the auditory or visual spectrum one could perceive, or adding in new senses, such as electroperception, wholesale. As you sent more information to the brain to process, the boost from Perception grew as well, as did the risk of sensory overload.

They wouldn’t be touching most of his sensory organs. His eyes’ visible spectrum would be widened slightly, but that was it. Hearing in particular was being left alone completely as it would be completely and utterly useless due to how unbearably slow sound was. Anything that happened at the edge of his current area of hearing would already be mostly over by the time the sounds reached his ears.

In addition, they’d be doing a whole lot of small alterations.

Isaac’s current build, physical build, that was, was one he was perfectly fine with.

But they should still help.

The first upgrade was a simple and obvious trick, subdermal armor made from dragon scales. It was less powerful than the dragon scale weave that ran across his skin, but that was the boon of a [Raid Boss], concentrated beyond its natural limits.

They’d shift around his weak points a little, a few centimeters in every direction if at all possible. Heart and abdominal aorta displaced enough to not get hit by pinpoint attacks, brain stem fully slid into the brain to limit the amount of damage a broken neck would cause, limiting the pain response from getting kicked in the unmentionables, and the like. There’d also be a few more bones connecting the ribs together in a way that would interfere with the most common methods of going for the heart or lungs without affecting his breathing.

Then there was the aforementioned improvement of his eyes, an increase to his flexibility, especially that of his skeleton, a system of connective tissues that took full advantage of his [Disposable Organs] [Skill] to function as both an alternative nervous and circulatory system.

Bailey would also give Isaac a few concealed bone blades that would protrude from his elbows and knees if he were to be somehow separated from his soulbound blade, fully seal the seams in his bones that were a result of how the skeleton grew, and finally, substitute what materials of his body with materials that were equivalent in all respects safe durability when one was available.

Add in stronger bones, replace muscles with ones that might not add any Strength, all in all, make him just that little bit tougher than he might naturally be, and decrease his weight if it were also possible to do so.

“You ready?” Bailey asked.

Isaac nodded and leaned back in his chair.

“If you don’t answer me verbally, the dean will have my head,” Bailey gently chided.

Of course the dean had a stick up his ass about this.

“I fully acknowledge what you’re about to do and allow you to do it,” Isaac said, rolling up his sleeve.

What followed was both incredibly weird and incredibly boring. Bailey touched his arm, Isaac focused inwards to keep his mana still and suppress the body’s natural reaction to what was really quite an invasive procedure, and just … let it happen. There wasn’t anything more for him to do, anything that could help, save, well, doing absolutely nothing.

And almost two hours later, it was over.

Your body has been altered by a Biomancer (Pinnacle Biomanipulator).

You possess a regenerative Skill (Eternal Restoration) capable of restoring your body to its pre-alteration state. Would you like it to do so, or will you accept this state as the new default?

Y/N

Note: Your current body represents a significant upgrade over your previous form and does not possess any new critical weaknesses, such as a propensity for developing tumors, generating self-destroying toxins, or a lack of fertility (these alterations will not affect your descendants).

Other than the fact that this represents a fundamental change of your body, there is no drawback to accepting this.

So that was what happened when someone with a [Skill] that could reverse biomancy was altered. Obviously, Isaac accepted.

Biomantic Alteration (legendary, unranked)

The human body is the product of countless eons of evolution, transforming the earliest vertebrate into an apex predator, wielding both nigh-infinite endurance and an advanced intellect to conquer the world.

But nature can only go so far, change so quickly, incorporate only so many disparate ideas.

This is where biomancy comes in to do what nature could not.

Your body has been enhanced by a master Biomancer at the peak of their power, the Pinnacle Biomanipulator.

As such, you have gained the following adaptations:

1. Subdermal Dragonscale-Weave

2. Weak-Point Transference

3. Sight-Spektrum Expansion

4. Hyper-mobile Skeletal Frame

5. Alternate Nerve-Circulatory System

6. Natural Weaponry

7. Sealed Growth Seams

8. Material Substitution

And there it was. The way this change would be reflected on his Status sheet.

Now all he had to do was make sure he wouldn’t run into any breakable walls until he’d fully acclimated to the changes.

Isaac rose to his feet, only to wobble slightly the moment he stood straight, hand shooting out to grab the back of the chair he’d just been sitting in.

“Are you ok?” Bailey asked, sounding very concerned.

“Nah, I’m fine,” Isaac waved him off. He was used to moving with extreme precision, fully aware of every part of his body. Even when injured, he could compensate for it immediately.

But this time, he’d been sitting stock-still for two hours, not moving a muscle, stood up way too fast, and, oh yeah, both his weight and center of gravity had just shifted by enough to completely throw off his muscle memory.

For the first time in half a decade, Isaac let go of the [System’s] physical gifts, dropping his ability to vacuum up all information in his range, leaving behind the speed that allowed him to snatch bullets out of the sky as though they were nothing but flies, and blocking himself off from the strength allowed him to throw cars like frisbees if he so desired.

And then he began to pace up and down the room.

At first, he was moving like he was tipsy, slightly stumbling with every step.

But then, he began to stand straight, adjusting his movement for the fact that he was now not only lighter, but sufficiently more top-heavy to throw him off. After ten minutes, he’d adjusted himself fully and began to fully draw upon his stats, running up and down the room to the point where all a normal human would have seen was a blur covering the entirety of the wall.

“What do you think would happen if I tripped him?” Amy wondered from the door, where she’d just arrived.

“He’d probably use your leg like a hurdle and just jump over it,” Bailey said dryly, “But I don’t want to have to explain to maintenance why there’s a forehead-shaped hole in the wall if he does trip.”

It took him most of the day to feel comfortable going into combat again, but then, he was feeling better than ever.