The Survivor Becomes a Dungeon

Vitmori POV

Before long, the matriarch returned with the bowl I asked her for and stood to the side, watching me with a rather intense if not curious gaze. While I usually don't get nervous under pressure, there's a stark contrast from facing down a horde of zombies who are licking at your heels, to having to deal with the pressure of someone's beloved watching you while you work. Quite frankly, I'd rather fight the zombies...

Looking over to the matriarch as I set the bowl on the nightstand, I offer her a small nod as I meet her eyes. "I'm going to start, I do have to ask that you give me privacy as this will be a very delicate procedure. No matter what you hear, smell, or sense... Once I start, nobody can enter this room, for your husband's safety and my own. Okay?" I might be laying it on a little thick, but I don't even know how exactly I'm going to do this.

I can sense her worry starting to rise, and she seems hesitant to leave her husband's side. However, after a few moments, she sighs softly and slowly nods her head. "Of course, do what you need to do, Healer Vito." She leaned in, kissing her husband's cheek before pulling away and going for the door.

I follow her to the door, watching as she goes out into the hall. "Now... This procedure can take anywhere from two hours to maybe even twelve hours. Like I said, I've never worked on a case this advanced so I'll need to be extra thorough. Please... Don't let anyone come in until I'm finished." With that final warning in place, I shut the door.

Now that I'm alone, I go ahead and mentally update Legosi about what I'm up to and how I'm likely not returning to the inn tonight. With that done, I go back over to the Crucible Master and look him over again.

With my hand pressed against his stomach, I ran my mana through his body once again, mentally examining him once more. Now that I know what I'm looking for, my mana manages to flag each and every single tumor in his body as I visualize what was essentially a full-body CT scan in my mind.

How I wish I could have had something like this back home... Maybe... Maybe she... No, now is not the time.

Focusing back on the moment, I decided to tap into my life magic as I focused on these tumors in particular. However, the moment I did that, the tumors began to almost squirm and writhe as they grew from the stimulation. I cut off the flow of healing mana as quickly as I could the moment I sensed the change and pulled away as I looked him over again and... Damn, his stomach looks distinctly more swollen than earlier. This is what the other healers must have ended up doing before, and I really should have made the connection sooner since tumors are just a living part of the body that got their instructions wrong...

I can't just dive into this guy without thinking about it, and I shouldn't try to handle everything on my own if I want to get this done properly. But who can help me...? Right! I'm not alone right now, am I?

Reaching into my inventory, I pull my two healer zombies from my storage, along with the musclebound zombie mutant. The trio stood around, looking around the room with vague interest before focusing on me as I sensed they were waiting for my instructions.

I briefly considered the three of them for a moment, between some of the memories of Rita's time at the magic academy she attended and the things I've learned from Reyvyre; I know now that my zombies are definitely not like the undead of this world. The closest comparison I've managed to find is something along the lines of a flesh golem, yet the fundamentals of how a flesh golem operates and my zombies are different altogether based on the limited knowledge Rita had at the time.

As for their general behavior, it seems that may be due to my influence on my interpretation of what zombies are and how they operate. They're hungry and aggressive when I need them to be because that's what a zombie is at their core; with that said, even though we're in a room with a dying man, the musclebound mutant isn't even showing the slightest interest in eating or killing him because I don't want it to do that.

"Alright, you lot..." I say as I look among them before addressing the musclebound mutant zombie. "You stand guard at the door, make sure nobody gets inside and that it stays closed. Use non-violent methods, no hurting, no killing, just lean against the door to begin with." I explain, making sure to be as thorough as necessary before looking at the healer zombies and addressing the one on the left. "I want you to run your mana through him and share your thoughts with mine, highlight the tumors, and maintain the mental image for me." I then looked to the other one as I spoke up again. "As for you, I want you to stabilize his mana heart, don't charge it all the way up, but keep it from unraveling. What I'm going to do might hurt him, and we can't afford to stress him too much in his current state."

The trio of zombies nod at my instructions and set to work; the musclebound mutant goes over to the door and essentially just leans against it, acting as a simple but effective doorstop. As for the two healers, they did as I instructed, and the mental image of the body and where the tumors were came to my mind again. Meanwhile, the second healer had their hands over the lizardkin's chest, and soon the healer zombie's mana started flowing into their manaheart; it came out slowly yet steadily, almost like the drip of an IV.

Perhaps because I knew how to do these things myself and had a strong mental image of what I wanted to be done, but the zombies performed their tasks rather effectively. I can't say it was perfect, but they were good enough to get what I wanted done.

With the two healer zombies taking on the tasks I assigned them, I focused on the main thing I needed to do... Removing the tumors.

But... How should I go about removing the tumors? Burning is out of the question... I have rather sharp knives and blades, but mundane surgery will do more harm than good with how many tumors are infesting the man. Well... If life magic makes things worse... Maybe what we need here is death magic? I have an aspect for it, so it should come easy to me... 'Should' being the keyword here.

If life magic is the act of giving, strengthening, and healing... Death magic would be the opposite; taking, weakening, and damaging. I think the only example of death magic I've seen is what Oururu did to Envy before he was Envy; draining him of both mana and vitality. But now I need to just take vitality and only from a specific part. Once I'm able to kill the tumor, I should be able to safely tear it off the lizardkin man before healing the fresh wound using very precise life magic.

Once I have the mental image of what I want to do in mind, I get to work, snaking my mana around the lizardkin's body before draining each tumor of its vital energy. Once I sensed that a tumor and the surrounding meat were effectively dead, I used a bit of water magic to pinch it off the still healthy meat and rebuild what was now missing. As for the dead meat, I pulled it first into my storage and then into my left hand as I simply plopped it into the bowl.

It was slow, painstaking work, yet I found the endeavor rather stimulating as I stretched my magical muscles in ways I hadn't done before. I was using magic on such a small, precise scale that each tumor presented an interesting and new challenge; so much so that I often had to figure out a different way to drain it with my death magic before removing it with as little damage as possible.

Despite the grim work, I was surprised to find that I was actually having fun. The idea that I got to apply my knowledge of modern medicine with the practically limitless uses of magic just made me want to find more people to work on just so I could see what I could do. But even as I had that thought, I was able to understand the arrogance in that line of thinking. I'm barely getting a handle on these new abilities of mine and I shouldn't look forward to using them on others just for the sake of experimentation when they are in need of actual help.

Hours went by, and the pile of meat in the bowl had grown steadily as I worked my way around the body, leaving the liver for last until I managed to pluck each and every single chunk of diseased meat from the lizardkin's body.

I double-checked and triple-checked his body, having myself and the two healer zombies repeatedly scanning his body with our mana, but ultimately it looked like we were finally done. He was cancer free, but that doesn't mean he was healthy just yet.

I can't help but wonder just how long this man suffered with the disease in silence, the amount of deterioration I'd seen couldn't have taken place in just four weeks, even with the consideration that whatever healers had come to see him, unfortunately, sped up the severity of his condition. It took another few hours as I slowly worked on painlessly fortifying everything that I could think of, but by the time I was finished, I could see the rising sun peeking through the curtains.

His scales had gotten some of their luster back, he wasn't as gaunt anymore, and I even went as far as to restore some of his deteriorated musculature. Thanks to the second healer zombie, even his manaheart had gotten its strength back and his rings looked stable, if not still a little weak. All in all, as far as I could tell, the Crucible Master just needed another week of bed rest, exercise, meditation, and a lot of nutritious food.

Looking around at my healer zombies, I couldn't help but smile as I patted their shoulders. "Good work you two... Your help was invaluable." I enthused to them as I went about pulling them into my storage once more.

Even though they didn't have egos, I got the impression that they were pleased with their efforts, somehow... Maybe I'm just anthropomorphizing them with emotions they didn't actually have, or maybe it was something lingering within the shadow of who they used to be. Regardless, I approached the musclebound mutant and patted their shoulder too. "Thank you for your diligence." I say simply and pull them into storage as well.

Stepping outside of the room, I'm surprised to find the matriarch sleeping right beside the door. She was huddled in a ball with a blanket that looked to have been draped around her shoulders, her head was rolled over to one side as it looked like she must have dozed off unintentionally at some point throughout the night.

Getting to one knee beside her, I do my best to be gentle as I very lightly tap at her shoulder.

"Ma'am?" I called to her in a low voice. "Ma'am, wake up..." I try again while continuing to lightly tap her shoulder.

After a few more moments, she started to stir, looking a little uncertain of her surroundings until she looked up at me, at which point I sensed it all rushing back to her as she suddenly grabbed me by my shirt, looking me deep into my eyes. "I-Is he..." She starts to say, though the words get caught in her throat as she doesn't dare put them out into the world.

I simply offer a kind smile as I bob my head once. "I've completely purged the foul growth. He'll need some time to rest and reco-"

But even before I could get my words out, she'd already pulled me into a hug, squeezing me desperately as her whole body trembled. "T-thank you... Thank you so much..." She said between quiet sobs of relief, not able to say much as I could feel the warm tears soak into my wooden skin.

Thankfully, as far as I can tell, she was too preoccupied with the current best day of her life to realize I was a man made of wood... Or maybe she just didn't care what I was. Slowly, I return the hug, just gently patting her back while doing my best to help her ride through her emotions. After a few minutes though, I offer a bit of a smile as I softly speak up. “Hey, I’m happy you’re grateful and all… But what are you doing here, your husband’s in that room over there, why are you wasting time with me?” I muse kindly.

She sniffles, wiping at her eyes as she pulls away, doing her best to get herself under control even as the tears continue to flow. “O-of course… You’re absolutely right.” She says as she manages a smile despite the tears.

I got to my feet first, helping her up after as we went back into the room where the Crucible Master slept. “He’s still physically exhausted after everything I put him through, but he should wake up before long.” I mentioned as she crossed the room, sitting besides him before reaching out and taking his hand in hers.

She nodded intently, a smile on her lips as she quietly sniffled. Though it was then she spotted the bowl of tumors and looked reasonably perturbed. “I-is that…?”

“Ah right… Yes, that is all the foul growth that was inside of him. I made absolutely certain there wasn’t anything left, but you must still keep an eye on him and make sure he is more mindful of his health.” I explained as I went over and took up the bowl, inside was around a pound of flesh, a grand mix of tumors and dead meat. I intended on explaining what tumors were with a bit of a physical presentation, but now it seems in poor taste considering the circumstances, so instead I just stash it all in my storage, much to the vague surprise of the matriarch.

She watched me for a moment longer before going back to looking over her husband, a smile still on her face as she leaned in and affectionately pecked his cheek.

I watched on, and admittedly I felt just a little jealous. These two will get to grow old together, they were able to get past this disease that came into their lives… Well… *She* would be happy for them… I suppose I should be too. “I recommend feeding him a steady diet of jellied bone broth, leafy greens, root vegetables and red meats to help him get back to where he needs to be physically. He also needs to dedicate at least two hours a day to meditation and another two hours to exercise for at least a week but a month if it’s doable… Based on my estimations, he’ll be ready to get back to work in a couple weeks if he has to.” I explain as I offer a small smile.

The matriarch nodded intently, and I could sense she took my instructions to heart. Pulling away from the Crucible Master, she stepped up to me before gazing up into my eyes. “My husband owes you his life, and this family is in your debt… If there is ever anything we can do for you, just say it.” She said with a surprising amount of firm resoluteness. “Name your price, I’ll make sure you are properly compensated for what you’ve done for us today.”

I couldn’t help but flash a smile as I held her gaze. “I appreciate the offer, and perhaps I may eventually take you up on it. As for pay?” I say before just shaking my head. “You owe me nothing, Tilzim is the one who hired me.”

“But…” She wanted to say more, perhaps even argue a bit, but ultimately she just smiled and lowered her head in thanks before standing tall again. “If you’ll excuse me, I must go tell my children the good news.”

I watched her step out of the room and go down the hall once more. With that, there was no reason for me to be around here, and I rather not be in the way for the emotional family moment. As I make my way outside, I hear the cries of joy from the rest of the household as they make their way to their father.

Stepping outside, I came across Tilzim who looked as if he was about to push the buzzer at that gate, though he stopped when he saw me. “Good morning Tilzim.” I offer with a smile still on my face as I meet him after crossing the gates.

Tilzim looked up to me, and I could sense the question he had on his tongue, and the trepidation he had about asking it. “I-is it a good morning?” He asked after a few moments.

I just chuckle softly at his expense before nodding once. “Yeah, it’s a very good morning.”

At that, a warm smile grew on the man’s bearded face as he bobbed his head in response. “I’m glad to hear it.” With that he reached into a satchel he had on his hip before procuring a small, ornate chest with a latch keeping it shut. Flipping the latch, he turned the chest to face me and opened it, revealing three rows of golden coins, there were easily several dozen inside and they all practically glittered in the morning light. “Here, your pay. You’ve not only saved the future of my guild, but you’ve saved a dear friend of mine.”

I still couldn’t help but smile as I looked between him and the chest before meeting his gaze again. “It’s only business… You hired me after all.” I muse while plucking up four gold coins from the chest, bouncing them in my palm. Tilzim clearly looked confused by this as he looked between me and the box, though I spoke up before he could get his words together. “Remember? You offered me four gold pieces for the job.” I muse with a mischievous grin on my face as I start to walk off, still bouncing the coins in a playful way. “Cya tonight for the smelting work.”