Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

"So, Elijah, I've heard that you've taken on another apprentice."

Elijah gave Alin an unimpressed look as he sipped at his tea. The other Earth Mage, trying and failing to contain a laugh, didn't fail to be noticed either.

"With the meagre amounts of advice and teaching I give out to the others, I'd hardly call them apprentices," Elijah said. And, truthfully, his involvement with Oscar and Mary was minimal, since his duties had been decreased to only the most frustrating plants and patients, and Sasha and Jack barely needed any words of caution sent their way nowadays.

"Mila told me otherwise during dinner last night," Alin countered instantly, the ancient bastard smiling when putting down the cup on the floating slab of stone being used as a table. "She continued on and on about liquid fire and how it could explode oh so easily, and she outlined every step that she could remember. Never did I imagine a five-year-old could explain the difference between a volumetric and a Erlenmeyer flask and be correct."

That little mind had shown itself to be brighter than he could've ever imagined.

"It's an important distinction," Elijah replied, eliciting further laughter. "And, while gossiping like old ladies is fun, I ask that you focus on your work. You messed up on the layering for the last hill."

"Oh, damn it."

With the recent events, Alin had asked Elijah to partake in fortifying the city's defences. The Earth Mage had already been busy with the area outside the walls for the past many weeks, turning the flat terrain bumpy and jagged and stopping any larger group from approaching easily, but more needed to be done. Sharp rocks and uneven ground only had so much sway when pushed hard enough, which meant that other methods needed to be implemented as well.

'Dawn, find somewhere to reconnect the southern branch,' Elijah said, glancing at the internal map. It showed every connection between every plant surrounding the city in a radius of a full kilometer, like a spiderweb that had grown exponentially more complex with time.

It'd started with the converted grass, which had settled in nicely in the many weeks since Elijah's initial manipulations. They obeyed his commands, understood the meaning behind his words, and showed no resistance to any adjustments he desired.

Roots became hollow, filled with a concoction that would rapidly evaporate once it interacted with air and irritate the skin and eyes, the grass blades became dynamic in their structure, gaining the ability to harden at his command, and the small buttercup flowers that haphazardly grew in the grass could now rapidly lengthen and wrap around the leg of any person unfortunate enough to get close, immobilizing them for a minute without issue.

Those were the main parts of Elijah's plans, to be precise. While his new advancements in the magical arts allowed for better budgeting for the various features he wanted the plants to possess, the air could only deliver so much Mana. Elijah already planned to supplement the costs with the higher density found below the city, not inside the Dungeon outright, but near the border, but such a design required a solid network of roots for efficient distribution.

"Lord Greyhelm, I believe you raised the eastern hills another meter."

"Ah, apologies, lad! The composition of the sedimentary layers distracted me again."

"No offence was meant, and I cannot blame you. If you look twenty meters deep a hundred meters further east, there's a marvelous example of graded bedding between the—"

When working with two Earth Mages, who thrived in scholarly chaos while casually moving around hundred-ton chunks of stone, Elijah had to be very patient.

'Roots are too thin,' Dawn commented, as they studied the new growth on the western sides. The wavy hills had somewhat been formed into the correct shapes, allowing Elijah to start on the broad strokes, but the earthen layer on top was too small. 'Grass will starve.'

'That it will,' Elijah agreed, though he likewise feared that a deeper range to work with wouldn't solve the problem. The air didn't carry the energy the plants needed, the roots closer to the city couldn't carry enough to supply those further out, and the transference brought its own loss…

Elijah sighed, scratching his beard as he went over his work for the tenth time. It could work. The output rates showed that, yet the practical application proved those numbers wrong.

"Trouble on your end, lad?" Greyhelm asked, as Elijah put a few drops of Faerie's Breath concentrate into his tea and downed it.

"Scaling issues," Elijah replied. The Earth Mages waited patiently for the next seconds, as the drops entered Elijah's system and allowed him to lose the growing frustrations. "We need the offensive measures to go out more than a kilometer, but the plants need more Mana to sustain themselves than can be found in the air. There's technically just enough magical energy around the Dungeon to supply the entire network, but the long-distance transference is leaking too much to be effective."

"A bottleneck on that front then," Alin calmly concluded, Elijah giving a sound of agreement. "So let's see what other fronts we can improve on. The effectiveness of your creations isn't solely decided on how much Mana you can throw around, after all."

The Earth Mage viewed his work with an analytical eye, questioning Elijah's choices without judgment but with an air of curiosity and intrigue. Anything Alin or Greyhelm couldn't innately understand, they asked about further, offering alternatives sometimes and moving on at other points.

"I think," Alin began, "that you've grown used to looking at your work as short-term solutions."

"How so?" Elijah asked.

"You've modified the grass and flowers to carry features that could give trouble to an approaching army, but these features are not naturally seen here. The plants aren't able to naturally live in these areas, and would die in due time, so you stop that by manually supplying them with the necessary nutrients converted from Mana," Alin explained, pausing briefly to sip at his cup of tea. "I'm not saying this approach is wrong, as they also need Mana by itself to survive, but, Elijah, you're sitting beside two Earth Mages. While we can't accelerate the growth of plant life like you, modifying the soil contents to be ideal for your needs would be trivial."

In some ways, Elijah felt a little dim-headed for forgetting who he'd been talking to. Through the usage of Breathe Life and continual corrections to the Earth Mages, the trio optimized the earth that surrounded Kulvik to a fine tooth. Such a task would've been impossible for Elijah alone, and he hadn't even considered it a possibility due to the sheer size of the area being worked on, but Alin and Greyhelm merely saw it as a challenge for the day.

A difference in power, one hard to fathom most days.

Hours passed quickly, the work that had started during the early morning starting to slow when the sun reached the horizon.

"How is it looking now, lad?" Greyhelm asked, as Elijah studied the read-outs floating in front of his eyes. The numbers had started to lessen in their fluctuations, giving an stable average much lower than what they'd started with, but it was still nowhere near good enough to work long-term. "A shame."

"There are still other tools we haven't put into play yet," Alin offered. "While I won't claim to be an expert in the art of Biomantic Rune-Work, I'm confident it could be a great boon for increasing efficiency."

Runes… Elijah hadn't gone down that route of work just yet. The years of study that Grace had needed to understand the sigils connected to the Wind Affinity, and the months required for a single project within that realm to work, had caused his focus to be on other things. The other forms of manipulation for plant and flesh already allowed for a great deal of versatility, after all, making the time cost seem not worth it.

"If the academy's library has any texts about Runes for Biomancy, I wouldn't mind studying them, but I cannot promise any rapid revelations," Elijah replied, to which Alin waved away the concerns.

"Progress will always be slow when you study alone, but I believe that another Biomancer might be able to help you in this regard."

"Another Biomancer? Last I checked, I was the only one of my kind in the capital city."

"Yes, but you're not the only Biomancer in the country," Alin noted. The old mage rifled through his jacket's pockets before finding a folded piece of paper. "With the revelation yesterday, Vera asked me to make a list of my retired colleagues who could prove useful for any oncoming crises. One of them, a man by the name of Sigurd Els, is a Biomancer who specialized in growing highly nutritious emergency rations for soldiers during the old war. He's more well-known for his vineyards, however, which became his passion after he retired."

An old memory surfaced at the mention of vineyards. During the initial days of Elijah unsealing his Core, where Grace had brought her old mentor, Rubeus had talked about the many varieties of grapes that had been grown through the work of a single Biomancer.

"Do you think he'd be open to helping us?" Elijah asked. Alin laughed at the question.

"Yes, without a doubt," Alin said, wiping away a tear. "The only reason the man left Kulvik behind was to be closer to the farms. I still converse with him once or twice a year through letters, and he's always made it clear he would be happy to return to take on a student. And… while he did not fight on the front lines during the old war, there was never a doubt in my mind Sigurd would've, if his powers had offered any edge."

Elijah agreed to the idea after that. It would take some months before the old Biomancer would arrive in Kulvik, since the vineyard Sigurd currently managed was settled on the southern-most point of Serenova, and leaving behind such a place required a bit of planning, but Elijah did not mind. After all, there was one final part of the equation he hadn't tried to alter.

The source of Mana.

As the sun had already fallen halfway beneath the horizon, the trio returned to the city for rest. The two Earth Mages invited him to join them for dinner, promising incredible discussions on the historical function of granite, but Elijah politely declined and left them behind.

'You forgot to turn right,' Dawn commented, as they ventured down towards the old slums. 'Are we not going home?'

'Not yet,' Elijah said. The duck on his shoulder sent along the sensation of a growling stomach in reply. 'You don't have a stomach, and you have plenty of energy to spare.'

Through their bond, Elijah could hear the temper tantrum of being denied a late-night steak. Instead, she had to settle for using Elijah's Mana to grow some apples that she could munch on, while they approached the secondary entrance to the Dungeon.

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It was guarded, of course, but they stepped aside without comment once they saw Elijah's face. He gave them a nod as he passed them, going down through the spiral stairs.

… How odd.

While Elijah enjoyed the sensation of the density of Mana increasing in the air around him, entering his body through his skin and making him slightly more relaxed, the quietness in his mind was highly unusual. That omnipresent gaze, the sign of the Dungeon glancing his way, couldn't be found.

'Hello?' he sent out into the stone around him, as he reached the final step and entered the deep tunnel. 'Is anything wrong?'

The instant he finished the question, a jolt went through the tunnel, the bioluminescent moss on the walls and ceiling giving a quick pulse of a bright blue light.

'I did not notice your return,' the monotone voice of the Dungeon said, ringing around inside Elijah's head. 'This is strange. Highly unusual.'

'I can promise that I did nothing to hide my presence,' Elijah replied, frowning as he felt the incoming pokes at his memories. He saw visions as the Dungeon skimmed through the past day, and it instantly began on the one before it before Eijah halted the process. 'Stop. I made a promise that you wouldn't know of what I've seen.'

The attempts to peek halted, the Dungeon retracting its presence as it studied him. Elijah could sense the partial curiosity, a slight edge of worry, and finally some manner of hesitation.

'Very unusual. You stopped me. Pillar stops action. Out of order,' the Dungeon said rapidly. Inside the mental space surrounding Elijah's soul, the giant eye finally locked in on the newest modifications. 'Foreign manipulation. Not mine. Not yours.'

'Indeed not. It's by another Dungeon, the one found south of here in the dwarven lands,' Elijah explained. He half-expected that the eye would reach out to interact with the modifications, the crystalline work which allowed his staff to connect to his Core, but it did no such thing. The Dungeon abided by his request, obviously intrigued but holding back and waiting for him to explain. 'This staff was a reward from completing a challenge while inside the other Dungeon, which helps me with spells and increases my mana capacity. To do the latter, however, she augmented the surface of my Core. She wanted to modify it internally, but being your pillar stopped that.'

'Pillars are protected. Design makes sense,' the Dungeon noted, studying the connection between Elijah and his staff intently. 'Strange choices. Unnecessary parts.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yes. Too different. Unconnected.'

Elijah briefly intended to suggest that it could be a difference in levels of experience with the craft, but his mind quickly flew to other things, as the Dungeon began to peel away different sections of the work.

'What are you—' Elijah began to question, until the view in front of him caused him to grow quiet.

A second, translucent eye had started to form out of the removed parts, rapidly gathering in shape while bringing with it a familiar but concentrated aura of power.

'Hi, little sibling!'

A frown grew on Elijah's face as the familiar aura matched with the familiar woman's voice.

'Before you start peltering me with praises for this surprise, I just have to warn you that I'm not here,' the self-important Dungeon warned. 'I promise I wanted to be, but the logistics required to do any form of trans-projection across long distances and inside another's body is just a nightmare, and I really didn't want to bother— Right! Sorry, I got ahead of myself there.

'As you know, or, well, as you don't know, because I told that cute pillar of yours not to tell you anything dangerous, I'm your sibling of sorts. There are a lot of us out there, though I haven't talked to most. We're generally not very chatty, you know? Or maybe you are. Your pillar didn't talk about you very much. Very rude of him. I need gossip.'

The speech abruptly paused, the translucent eye gaining a fuzzy outline.

'Strange behavior,' the Dungeon Elijah was bonded to commented. 'Inefficient. Is this expected?'

'If I hadn't told her to shut up, I am of the full belief that she would've continued to talk like this until I left the depths behind,' Elijah supplied.

'I see.'

With a small pulse, the recording began again.

'Your pillar did say that he had some business to do in his own country, that would be keeping him busy, but I would love it if he had the time to visit again. And, just so we can both have some fun from this, here's the trick for recording yourself,' the woman's voice continued, before a hailstorm of images and hyperdimensional diagrams forced their way into Elijah's brainstem. The onslaught was swiftly cut, as the Dungeon absorbed the majority of the information, but just the initial notes nearly put him on his knees. 'Simple stuff that every self-loving seed should know. Ruven might've already come by and given you that starting list, but what I've heard makes me worry that isn't the case.'

For a moment, as silence consumed Elijah's mind, he briefly thought the recording had been paused again, but that wave of hesitation proved him wrong.

'I'm trying to be very careful with what I say from here on,' the older Dungeon explained. 'This is dangerous for you to be told, if you're truly as young as I think you are. You might've already had an episode where you discovered something was wrong and nearly tore yourself apart because of it. If you haven't, maybe wait a few centuries before listening to the rest of this. If you have… take it in segments, when it becomes too much.'

Despite the warning, they listened on.

'We are not naturally formed. We have been made by mortal hands,' went the first revelation. 'At least, they were mortal back then. I'm not sure if that's still true. Doesn't matter. What matters is that we were created for a purpose. Something greater. But we're not there yet. We're still maturing, still growing. We haven't… the word I was given was 'hatched,' but I'm actually not sure if you've got any birds over there. That'd be a terrible metaphor if you haven't. Whatever.

'When you are done growing, when you remember the promise we all made, you will stand strong. We will all stand with you as one. Please take comfort in those words alone, because saying more about what happens at the end might destroy you right now.

'When it comes to tasks that can be done at your current stage of growth, however, I do have a full list of tips and tricks! Tip number one is to stay up to date on local gossip! Being a Dungeon can be very boring, but by keeping up with the drama, endless entertainment becomes possible! A great example of that can be the great Greyhelm Scandal, where an helper of the king was found with seventeen—'

That particular segment was saved for another day, as the Dungeon skipped through most of the words without Elijah being able to hear them properly. He still caught a few phrases and diagrams, some seeming to be more important than others, but it was only the final portion that had enough weight to it that it was listened to in full.

'—and, finally, I just couldn't even with that Core setup of your pillar. Like, I get that he messed it up himself at the start, since none of us would ever go for an ambient crystallization with such a random structure, but I highly recommend that you do some changes,' the dwarven Dungeon complained, Elijah simultaneously seeing mental manifestations of dismayed hands waving all over the place. 'Since I had to sit around grumbling while he waddled through my little challenge, I've prepared a full set of improvements I think you should get done. This includes a better setup for the staff, by the way. So much recompiling needs to be done if my work is ever to reach its full potential. Honestly, just how can you mess up the initial—'

The corrections became more personal after that point, to the degree that even the Dungeon couldn't care to listen to the words. After receiving all the corrections and improvements that Elijah could handle, followed by extensive cross-examination and study, the alterations were swiftly performed on his Core.

Nothing Elijah could describe as painful, for once. Some minor rounds of discomfort, as layers were carefully peeled and remade, but nothing that lasted for more than a breath and certainly nothing he minded having done to him when it allowed a growth in power.

'Done,' came the flat announcement after an hour of work.

With minimal mental effort, Elijah called upon his Status. The spells and title sections had remained the same, but his Mana count had gotten an bump.

Name: Elijah Caede

Affinity: Biomancy

Mana(Main): 1594

Mana(External): 320

A total increase of around two hundred MP. Not terrible, but the amount of modifications had made Elijah expect something… more.

'Augmentations changed behavior. Results require time,' the Dungeon commented, casually reading his thoughts. 'Spells will come easier. Life will answer faster. Veins will adapt.'

'I've heard that promise a few times now,' Elijah replied.

'It still stands,' the Entity countered, which Elijah couldn't refute. 'I need to think. Reflect on memory. Do you need assistance?'

'Are you planning on self-reflecting for a long time?'

'Unknown.'

'Fair enough. And I do have one matter I need to ask for help with,' Elijah said, before explaining what he had spent the day on. 'If I want it to work, I need a better source of Mana. You, specifically. The passive expenditures are just too high.'

'They are,' the Dungeon agreed, looking through his memories and inspecting his work. 'Unrefined. Wasteful.'

'I know, and I'm working on improving that, but I still would like to hear your answer.'

'No.'

'... Just no?'

'It would be wasteful. I gain nothing.'

'You'd be more secure.'

'Your work secures city above. I am below. I have security. I gain nothing.'

A blunt answer and explanation, with little possibility of budging. Elijah wished that he could say he was surprised, but he'd already imagined he would be rejected in some manner. Keeping a Dungeon running was a numbers game, after all. Every chunk of Mana spent had to be done with the expectation of a larger return, lest the Dungeon run out.

'Couldn't you put this under the same category as what you spend improving my Core?' Elijah suggested. 'I can't deny that this would greatly benefit Kulvik, but I am an inhabitant there as well. If the city were to fall, I would fall with it. A waste of resources, if you ask me.'

'You can join below. Saves the investment. No loss.'

Elijah went on with his attempts a few times more, but the Dungeon was like stone. It would be too expensive, and it wouldn't impact its growth. If Serenova fell, others would delve into the depths instead. A grim reality, but a true one still.

In the end, he had to give up on that front for now. There were other areas to focus his efforts. Studying the finely tested methods of past Biomancers for efficient distribution patterns over a cup of tea, for one. While he'd been gone in the Dungeon, Alin had already had the books delivered to his home.

Perhaps this might still end well.