The procedure used to put the enchantment on Joshua was incredibly exhausting for everyone involved. For Joshua, it meant lying down, completely immobilised and in terrible pain as I literally carved the runes into his flesh while he had to endure. For Luna, it meant keeping the person I was working on, or torturing as some might describe it, alive with her Life Magic, making sure that they didn't expire from pain or blood loss. Lia might have had it the easiest. All she needed to do was treat the runes I carved with the Crimson Ink, making sure that the Ink took and was incorporated into the body while Luna healed them up, making the newly established marks truly a part of the person. She also used her Blood Magic to keep the blood loss down as much as possible, making it easier on everyone involved.

And lastly, there was my job. Carving the runes while making sure that they aligned with the biological and magical systems within Joshua's body; otherwise, things might get quite spicy or not work as intended; slowly nudging his Blood and Magic to connect to them so they would be powered and even giving his mind a few subtle pushes so he would be aware of the Runes and could power them, even if I doubted he'd be able to understand, not for a long time if he ever managed. It also allowed me to add a few small hooks into his mind so the other alterations provided by the Crimson Ink would take hold, just in case we needed them.

The procedure itself didn't last all that long, just about two hours, but by the end of it, I was completely exhausted, the mental strain quite severe, especially as I wanted this first procedure to work out so we could continue testing. Even in Idiot-Ville, there'd be questions if we returned without our first test subject; at least I expected there would be. Sure, given their general mental state, they might accept if I told them that Joshua, if he succumbed to the experiment, had run off or something but I would prefer to have him with us as a successful example of the procedure.

Given that Joshua was still breathing when I carved the last rune, and Lia applied the Crimson Ink, we would have that example. Now, the only question remaining was just how powerful the effect would be on him.

Shaking off my curiosity, I gently tugged on the bindings securing him on the table, letting them unravel while stepping back. At the same time, Luna opened the door to the outside, allowing Silva in, just as a precaution if the pain had driven him insane, making him lash out, or if he decided that killing us to make sure he would be the only one having runes like this, giving him a unique advantage. While he was far weaker than us, I hadn't been entirely certain how much the procedure would take out of me in comparison to him, which is why Silva was present as a precaution. Not that it looked like we truly needed it. The way Joshua was groaning in pain as I told him we were done firmly indicated that the pain had ground him down worse than the intense focus had exhausted me.

"It looks like the regeneration already works," Luna remarked, making me close my eyes for a moment before I forced the exhaustion away and employed my own magical senses, these born from my Blood Magic practice, and took a closer look myself.

What I saw made me now my head, there were clear indications of ongoing reparation, negating the damage caused as he had tried to escape the bindings during the procedure, just as they were repairing some older damage. That part was quite curious, my understanding had been that the regeneration would take his current state as the optimal target to be regained, so pre-existing conditions should have been part of that, too. But apparently, the regeneration he had gained was all-encompassing, trying to restore him to some sort of ideal state. The realisation brought me up short, as it opened up a lot of somewhat theoretical questions, such as, 'What was the ideal state of a human?'. Would regeneration like that turn me back into a human and take away what made me a Firn-Elf? Or what about something more mundane, like tanned skin? Not dark due to genetics but darkened due to personal exposure to the Sun and its radiation? Would it be considered a detriment, as it technically was an ailment, increasing the chance of skin cancer, or at least it had before the world changed, or would it be seen as a benefit, given that tanned skin was widely considered an attractive feature? At least in mainstream culture, different standards were applied at different times and cultures.

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There were so many fascinating questions, but sadly, I doubted I'd get any satisfying answers.

"Can you stand up?" I asked, noticing the regeneration slowing down, shifting into something in the background, working over days, maybe weeks, to turn Joshua's body into a better version of itself.

At first, I only received a groan in response, but after a bit of time passed, Joshua started to move slowly and carefully until he pushed himself into a sitting position, looking quite pale from the ordeal he had undergone.

"Excellent. Can you tell us if you received notifications for completing this procedure and, if yes, what they say?" I prodded, briefly considering whether I should push him with my Mind Magic, testing if the hooks set into his psyche worked. I decided against it, wanting him to answer me on his own first. If it didn't work, I could still use Mind Magic and try forcing him.

"A…" his voice broke off at first, the constant strain on his vocal cords during the procedure taking its toll. In response, I conjured an earthware cup and filled it with water, giving him something to drink and settle himself before we continued with the evaluation.

"Thank you," I only nodded in response, allowing him to continue, "A few of them, yes. A trait, granting me regeneration, another trait greatly increasing the efficiency of my Astral Power but locking it within myself and a special ability, allowing me to use some of my Astral Power to boost my Strength and Agility greatly," he explained, his voice getting steadier as he drank the water. As he was speaking, I subtly used my Mind Magic just to try and see if I could spot any deceit but by the looks of it, the guy was honest. Still, I wanted to know more, so I asked, verbally prodding him until I got the entire text of each notification he had received.

At that point, I was confident that the mental hooks I had created weren't enough to create a trait, which I considered a good thing. Being told that his mental defence was drastically weakened against the people who had just worked on him could easily push him to warn his cohorts. Now, we only had to see just how strong the boost truly was, the regeneration had already proven to be formidable, getting him back on his feet within a short amount of time after a procedure that could alternatively be described as horrifying torture easily able to kill the one forced to endure it.

To test his improvements, we went outside after getting dressed, mainly to ensure he wouldn't be too cold. While I could have added something to make him resistant to cold, other things were more important.

First, I conjured a few simple obstacles to test his performance without the enhancement and then we set him to work, lifting weights, jumping across bars, moving through the conjured obstacles, and else everything I could think of to put his performance into measurements we could work with. After all, what did it mean if a person had twenty Strength? Annoyingly, it varied quite a bit, roughly following the physique of the person in question, meaning somebody with Sigmir's physique and twenty Strength would be able to lift more than a person with the physique of my original body and twenty Strength. The difference wasn't huge, at least not for any movement where leverage didn't apply, but it was there, making objective analysis a lot harder than necessary.

Regardless of that problem, we soon had a good idea of what he was capable of when not using the enchantment, his performance hadn't changed from before the test, and then we did the same, only now with the enchantment active. And the difference was remarkable, especially when he pushed the enchantment to the limit, almost doubling his strength and speed. He couldn't go much further at the moment, simply because his body would tear itself apart if he tried, but with the regeneration we had bestowed, short bursts were perfectly acceptable.

All in all, I could only nod and declare the experiment a splendid success. Now, we just had to do it a few more times, making sure it wasn't a fluke, and then we could offer it to Jack and a few others we had started to like.

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