“How does it feel?” Doctor Katz asked me. I moved my right arm and articulated my fingers. Jacob was here as well poking my arm. I could feel surges of energy with each poke as he inspected it.

“It feels fine,” I replied. “No issues with movement.”

“Bend this,” Jacob handed me a Magnite bar. It took a bit of effort to bend with my stats. “Pain?”

“Just minor aches around my chest area, not my arm. It does feel a bit harder to leverage my stats with my right arm though,” I replied and focused while looking at it.

“I have to say, I didn’t think you would be able to heal him. That level of curse damage meant you had to rebuild his arm on your own,” Jacob said.

“While the System might be advanced. It is good to see my services are needed,” Doctor Katz said. He lifted up my right hand and inspected it. “There is help with the skill Imbue Life, I would say, and an arm is a lot easier than other body parts.”

“The chest wound is healed as well. That is the most impressive thing, far more than the arm,” Jacob said.

“I just handled the physical side, not the stats,” Doctor Katz humbly replied. “What is your opinion in that regard?”

“Clearly past the danger threshold for store rejection. I would say another ten or so days working on stats to be extra safe, and to let the healing settle. Call it fifteen at a minimum. But skills shouldn’t be an issue now. Just hold off on the regenerations until day 5,200,” Jacob said.

“That seems like a long time,” I countered, and he shrugged.

“It is what it is. Curse damage, like you had, is not something that can be easily corrected. Doctor Katz had to spend quite a bit of time healing you. But those are just physical changes. The big risk is that you get a restoration and the changes reverse. You aren’t uncursed, merely physically healed in the right way. Like a healing curse kind of thing,” Jacob said.

That did make sense. My soul, or energy pattern, had been damaged. It was now correcting in the other direction. Just that the physical changes would take time to settle. Normally there would have been some kind of residual soul or energy pattern left behind, which would cause things to quickly uncurse. But the damage I had taken was so severe, that I needed to be cursed back to health.

It was frustrating that things were so slow, but that was the severity of the damage I had taken. It wasn’t like curse damage previously, which only damaged my energy pattern slightly, messing it up. It had been complete obliteration. At least I now had two work arms.

“Note to self, don’t punch super spheres,” I muttered.

“That would be a good idea. The energy density must have been immense,” Jacob said, clearly not picking up I hadn’t been asking for his opinion. “I will say, the slow process, allowed the nerves to be connected properly. Did you do anything special?” He looked at Doctor Katz who was still inspecting my fingers.

“No. The slow growth of the arm helped. And he was constantly moving it about,” Doctor Katz said.

“Just to be clear, there will be no issues with me using skills?” I asked Jacob.

“There shouldn’t be,” he said. I got up from the table I had been lying on. Air Burst. I moved to the other side of the room incredibly quickly. I frowned as it felt a bit harder to focus on my skill. It came naturally enough, and the issue was minor yet concerning.

“There is some kind of residual mental block. Like I am having to focus on the skill,” I said.

“Try again,” Jacob suggested. Air Burst. This time there was no problem.

“No problem this time,” I said, and he nodded.

“The System still recognizes you, so good news there. The first time you use each of your skills, there will be that small mental block, but it should correct itself. I would focus on it, you might learn something,” Jacob suggested.

I considered that suggestion carefully. There was only so much I could adjust on my skills. The System provided clear roads on what could be used, going outside those bounds meant having to develop the skill myself. I was no Astrologer. I had picked up some useful tricks, but that wasn’t how I fought. I preferred overwhelming power to blast my target away.

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“What do you mean exactly?” I asked Jacob.

“It’s the connection to your skills from the System itself. Getting a better feeling on that could be useful.” I considered what he had suggested.

“I will have to test that out, outside the city. So, I am fine, but no restorations for the next fifteen days,” I repeated the instructions. Doctor Katz and Jacob looked at each other and nodded.

“The longer the better. Avoid damage at all costs until you get your restoration. If you are physically hurt, it will restart things. I would say, only fighting level 6 monsters at most,” Jacob said, and I frowned at that.

“I will think on that,” I replied, and he shrugged.

“The Avatar?” Doctor Katz asked and I let out a sigh.

“You want to use this treatment on her,” I said, already knowing the answer.

“Yes. Bringing her body back, could help restore her sanity,” he replied. The man truly was a bleeding heart. I knew he hadn’t brought this up for years, until she had done something useful. He didn’t like to see people suffer, even horrible people who deserved death ten times over.

Even though I had already agreed, there was still a lot of resentment and hesitation on my end. “Do what you think is best Doctor Katz. I leave her health in your hands,” I replied, and he nodded.

“Thank you, Michael,” he said. I shook my head.

“I think it is a bad idea, but she has earned a recovery, if you want to invest your time,” I said. He gave me a small smile at that. I would never trust her. But I had enough strength compared to her and other people, that I wasn’t overly worried. She could scheme, but schemes only took one so far.

If she did recover mentally, then there was hope that we would get some key information. I wasn’t holding my breath, but I would let Doctor Katz invest the time into healing her. If he could heal her, then he could heal almost anything in my opinion. He wasn’t replacing her organs though, just her limbs, tongue, and eyes.

“She is not to be trusted,” Jacob said, and we both looked at him. He didn’t even look slightly embarrassed for saying such a thing.

“Thank you for your opinion, but I will retain my own counsel in regards to the Avatar. What is the status on the lower layer investigation?” I asked, changing the subject forcefully.

“The entire area is still blocked off, where the sphere was. The zone itself, is mostly void, but it doesn’t adhere to how other zones are laid out. There is permanent damage. As for signs of energy from the sphere, there is nothing,” Jacob said. I nodded at that.

“And to get answers?” I asked.

“A lot more points and crafting crystals to make equipment and test it. There are resources coming in, but the biggest issue is getting back,” Jacob said.

“How is that the biggest issue, isn’t breathing the biggest concern?” I asked.

“That is a concern, but that can be handled with specific masks and enchantments. The issue is that once you leave, how will you get back?” Jacob repeated. I frowned at that question and thought it over. My understanding of energy and the things that were occurring around me was a skill that needed to be trained like any other.

“The System makes the transition instant, and summoning tethers, are lines of energy that connect the summoner and the summon. The System is handling everything. That is why there are issues, since it is failing to make those connections,” I said, and Jacob nodded.

“That is precisely it. The other issue the distance is not one to one, and working out the topology is not simple or easy. While I have attempted to probe this layer, the results are inconsistent,” he explained.

“Inconsistent how?” I asked while Doctor Katz listened in.

“I make two portals, trying to spot one portal from the other. I sometimes do, sometimes I don’t. The orientation changes, along with the distance,” he said.

“But that doesn’t happen with summoning,” I replied, and he nodded.

“The System is doing something. I can’t explain the mechanics behind it, just that it is doing something, and the topology is nonstandard. That means, we could appear in the air, or somewhere else,” Jacob said.

“But the Astrologer easily moved me and maintained my momentum,” I countered.

“Then you can ask him. His skills in terms of energy manipulation were immense. I am trying to reverse engineer what he did, and I don’t have his notes or his skills. And he was using a meta point. To try and replicate that, it is amazing I have gotten as far as I have.”

“And we can’t bring a portal through with us, to leave?” I asked.

“We can bring the materials, but the size is a concern in terms of power. It grows massively. How will people move without standing on anything?” Jacob asked.

“So, we need an airboat,” I replied.

“But they are too big. That will take too long to build something big enough to send an airboat through. Sending an individual would be the best option to scout, but I expect the response will be much stronger. This thing has intelligence and most likely isn’t dead. So that means a team. Which means, we need to bring in the components needed to get back out, but I am not sure that will work. Are the rules of energy the same?” Jacob laid things out and I tried to follow what he was telling me.

“So, the issue is getting back?” I asked just to be clear.

“Yes. I have ideas, but there is no guarantee anything will work. We need some way to move. No clue if summons will work. I need to run more tests. While I am going as fast as possible, I am not going on a suicide mission,” he said. I could accept that.

“That is fine. But isn’t Michelle bringing in crafting crystals and points?” I asked him.

“She is, but things take time. I am working constantly, monitoring the previous area, working with engineering teams, trying to find solutions to multiple technical problems. Evaluating your health. It takes time, even working constantly to try and find solutions,” Jacob said. I was a bit embarrassed, since I had been treating this time as a vacation to recover.

“Any idea when you will be ready?” I asked.

“I should have a better idea on the timeframe by day 5,200 if the technical issues can be solved and designing devices for us to use. There is a big risk of there being too much System energy where we are going as well. On day 5,200 after you are fully recovered, I will have a lot more worked out and have answers,” he said.

“Alright, keep up the good work,” I replied.