"Murlocs?"
A few vague memories surfaced in Lance's mind. The body's former owner had clearly known very little about them.
In truth, murlocs appearing along the western coast of the Piaoqi Kingdom was hardly news. There were many different varieties, conservatively more than twenty. The five or six creatures the soldiers had captured were only one of those many kinds.
'Since they're the first intelligent species I've encountered besides humans, I might as well study them properly.'
Lance instructed one of the soldiers to bring two of the murlocs to Moonlight Tower later, then returned to the castle.
After lunch, he did not rest. Instead, he jogged all the way to Moonlight Tower.
The tower was not particularly far from Windwatch Castle, but walking still took time. Lance had refused the castle steward's suggestion that he take a carriage. He wanted every opportunity he could get to train his body.
Bonnie followed him as usual, staying close behind without complaint. Lance said nothing about it.
'She can't enter Moonlight Tower anyway.'
He left her outside the entrance and went in alone.
The soldiers had already obeyed his instructions. Two murlocs were tied to a stone pillar in the first-floor hall, growling and struggling against their restraints.
"Lance, were these two murlocs sent here on your orders?" Amman's voice drifted down from higher in the tower.
"Yes, Teacher," Lance called back. "Murlocs may be common around here, but I've never actually studied them in detail."
"That's fine. I taught you the basics of anatomy before. These blue-scaled murlocs are weak, but they're extremely vicious by nature. Kill them before you begin your examination. Also, come to the fourth floor. I believe I have a book on murlocs you can use."
Lance had the soldier drag the two howling creatures up to the fifth-floor laboratory area. He then went to the great library on the fourth floor and, following Amman's directions, found a book titled *A Detailed Guide to the Murlocs of the Western Coast*.
The book covered basic murloc biology along with a small amount of introductory sea-race culture. It was written in the common language of the continent and was intended as an elementary reference. With Lance's intelligence, most of the material was easy enough to understand.
And with Fox's extraordinary storage capacity, remembering it was even easier.
Before long, Lance had finished the book and gone up to the fifth floor.
To his surprise, Amman was not conducting an experiment today.
'What is Teacher doing on the sixth floor? Stargazing? But it's daytime. There aren't any stars to see.'
Unable to make sense of it, Lance put the question aside.
He looked at the two vigorous murlocs for a moment, hesitated, then gave the order.
"Kill them."
The soldier obeyed immediately.
The creatures were a branch of blue-scaled murlocs. As the name suggested, their scales were a deep blue close to the color of seawater. Their legs were short and thin, while their unusually long toes were joined by webbing, making them clumsy on land.
An ordinary blue-scaled murloc stood only about half as tall as a normal human. A properly trained soldier would have little reason to fear one in a fair, one-on-one fight. Their strength alone posed little danger to humans. They became threatening mainly when they gathered in groups and launched ambushes.
Lance's body was still weak enough that fighting one personally might leave both sides badly hurt. He was here to study the species, not test his combat ability.
Two short cries rang out.
The soldier pulled his sword cleanly from the creatures' hearts. Lance dismissed him with a gesture.
Alone, Lance dragged one corpse onto a small laboratory table. Using the anatomical knowledge Amman had taught him, he began a basic dissection.
'Fox, begin analyzing the target organism.'
Using a silver knife, Lance opened a blood vessel at the back of the murloc's head and caught the blood in a small wooden bucket.
According to the guide he had just read, this was the proper way to dissect a blue-scaled murloc. Its scales were fairly tough while blood remained in the body, but the vessel behind the head was relatively vulnerable.
After about three minutes, the corpse had nearly bled dry.
Then something interesting happened.
As the blood drained away, the murloc's scales softened as well.
"So following the right procedure really does save a lot of effort."
Lance worked quickly. In a little over ten minutes, he had completely dissected the body.
Blue-scaled murlocs were remarkably useless from a human point of view. Their scales were not hard enough to make worthwhile armor. Their flesh was sour and unpleasant rather than tasty, so no one would normally eat them except during a famine. The internal organs had little practical value either.
There was only one exception, and even that appeared very rarely.
It was said that perhaps one murloc in a hundred developed a [Mutated Gill]. That abnormal organ was one of the two main ingredients used to brew an underwater-breathing potion, which made it extremely valuable.
Ignoring the blood and gore, Lance reached beneath the creature's jaw and felt around carefully.
Nothing.
He was not disappointed. The odds had been small to begin with.
After resting briefly, he dissected the second murloc. Its internal structure was almost identical to the first, and Fox recorded all the measurements and observations rapidly.
The master chip's data archive now contained another entry alongside the three sword techniques and the Lesser Meditation Rune:
[Basic Data: Blue-Scaled Murloc]
The second corpse did not contain a Mutated Gill either.
Lance cleaned up the remains with some regret. As he wiped sweat from his upper lip, he accidentally smeared a drop of murloc blood into his mouth.
A foul, fishy taste exploded across his tongue. He nearly vomited on the spot.
"Murloc blood tastes disgusting!"
Lance shook his head in misery and was about to wash his hands when Fox's voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
[Notice: anomalous component detected.]
[Automatically analyzing anomalous component...]
Lance blinked.
'You mean that drop of murloc blood?'
[Correct. This substance is unlike any biological material previously recorded on Earth.]
Lance shrugged. That was hardly surprising. This was another world. There should naturally be countless materials here that Earth had never seen.
Two minutes later, Fox spoke again.
[Analysis complete. Exact composition of murloc blood cannot currently be identified. Simulation indicates that the substance can produce a small improvement in the master's physical attributes.]
Lance's eyes lit up.
'You're saying blue-scaled murloc blood can strengthen my body?'
[Correct. However, the current sample size is insufficient to produce a reliable application protocol.]
Lance's expression immediately soured.
'You want me to drink more of it?'
[Only two drops are required.]
Lance let out a long sigh.
For the sake of improving his body as quickly as possible, he gritted his teeth and forced another two drops of the foul blood into his mouth.
The taste nearly drove him insane.
'The final plan isn't going to be drinking this stuff raw, is it? That would be horrifying. One or two drops are already unbearable!'
Just imagining the possibility made his face turn green.
[Application protocol under development. Estimated time: two hours.]
Lance washed his hands, found a quiet room, and sat down to calm himself. For the moment, he set the murlocs aside.
He cleared away distracting thoughts and tried once more to enter his mindscape.
This time was even easier than before.
A single thought was enough for his consciousness to slip inside.
More than two hundred golden points of light floated before him, each representing a portion of his mental power.
Lance felt pleased. Judging from how easily he entered the mindscape, his mental power was clearly not weak. Before formally becoming a wizard, mental power was the only true threshold. Only after one crossed that threshold would sensitivity to spell factors become another important measure of talent.
Rather than immediately construct the Lesser Meditation Rune, Lance experimented with moving the golden lights around the mindscape.
'My control over mental power is much easier than Teacher made it sound.'
'These lights are almost like my own fingers. They're incredibly responsive.'
He repeated the dull exercise over and over, imagining every point of light as one of his soldiers and constantly arranging them into different formations.
Time slipped by unnoticed.
When Lance finally withdrew from the mindscape, more than two hours had already passed.
Fox's completed protocol sounded in his mind.
[Application protocol: mix hot water and murloc blood at a ratio of fifty to one. Bathe for half an hour each day. One treatment cycle lasts seven days.]
[Estimated effect after the first complete cycle]
Constitution: +0.1
Strength: +0.1
Agility: +0.1