Chapter 79: My Regeneration Trapped the Parasite Inside Me

[Species: Mire Skitter]

[Level: 7]

[Experience Acquired.]

Raven tossed the corpse onto the bank.

"That was anticlimactic," Valeria said.

"I’m fine with that."

He finished crossing.

The cut on his forearm was barely an inch and a half long. Superficial. Just a thin line of blood.

Predatory Regeneration reacted before Raven even considered bandaging it. Heat spread around the wound, and the skin began pulling itself closed.

Raven looked down.

"Fast."

Valeria crossed after him. "The regeneration?"

"Yes."

The cut had already shrunk to half its original length. In less than a minute, only a reddish line remained.

Raven flexed his fingers.

Everything worked.

No poison.

No numbness.

Nothing.

So they kept walking.

That was the mistake.

Not because Raven had ignored a warning.

There hadn’t been one yet.

The first appeared seven minutes later.

[Foreign Organism Detected.]

Raven stopped.

Valeria nearly walked into him.

"What?"

Raven opened the analysis.

[Foreign Organism Detected.]

[Species: Hollow Thread — Juvenile]

[Host Integration: 2%]

[Entry Point: Left Forearm]

[Current Location: Subcutaneous Tissue]

[Mana-Channel Attachment: Not Established.]

Raven looked at the newly formed scar, then back at the display.

Another line appeared.

[Predatory Regeneration Response Completed.]

[External Tissue Integrity Restored.]

Raven frowned.

One final warning followed.

[WARNING: Foreign Organism Enclosed Within Regenerated Tissue.]

Raven stared at the notification for two seconds.

"That seems important."

Valeria immediately looked at his arm.

"What did you do?"

"Technically, my liver wasn’t involved this time."

"Raven."

"I have one inside me."

The humor vanished from the group.

Maelor stepped closer.

"A Hollow Thread?"

"Juvenile. It entered through the cut before it closed."

The alchemist stared at the scar.

"Then reopen it."

Raven drew his knife.

"That was the plan."

He cut directly across the previous wound.

Blood surfaced.

The skin opened.

Predation updated.

[Host Integration: 3%]

[Organism Movement Detected.]

Raven spotted something translucent beneath the flesh.

Small.

Maybe an inch and a half long.

"There."

Maelor pulled out a pair of forceps.

The wound began closing.

Raven watched the edges contract.

"Wait."

Maelor saw it too.

"Your regeneration."

"Yes."

"It’s closing again."

"Also yes."

Valeria looked caught somewhere between concern and the desire to hit him.

"Stop it."

Raven looked at the wound.

"I don’t have a switch."

"Excellent time to discover that."

Maelor tried to get the forceps inside before the opening sealed.

The Hollow Thread moved.

Deeper.

Raven felt a sharp sensation travel up his forearm.

Predation reacted.

[Host Integration: 5%]

[Target Moving Toward Nearest Mana Channel.]

[Estimated Time to Primary Attachment: 3–5 Minutes.]

"We have less than five minutes."

Roland looked at his arm.

"Until what?"

"Until it reaches a mana channel."

Maelor dropped the forceps.

"We need a table."

"No time."

Raven knelt beside a broad root and rested his arm across it.

"Here."

Valeria moved in front of him.

"What do you need?"

"Control the bleeding. I don’t want Regeneration deciding major blood loss is the highest priority."

She understood immediately.

A thin line of blood rose from the wound and hovered above his skin.

"I can reduce local flow."

"Do it."

Valeria placed two fingers near his elbow.

The pressure inside his arm changed.

She didn’t stop circulation entirely.

Only slowed it.

Maelor reopened the wound.

Raven barely reacted to the pain. He had endured worse field procedures.

What was new was watching his own body interfere with the operation.

The skin tried to seal again. Muscle began reconnecting beneath it, even the fibers cut by the blade pulling themselves back together.

"It’s repairing too quickly," Maelor said.

"I know."

"I can’t reach the parasite like this."

Raven opened Predatory Regeneration directly.

[Trait: Predatory Regeneration]

[Mode: Automatic]

[Current Priority: Tissue Restoration]

[Metabolic Load: LOW]

[Mana Expenditure: ACTIVE.]

"Reduce local priority."

Nothing.

"Suppress regeneration in the left forearm."

The display didn’t change.

Valeria looked at him.

"Did it work?"

"No."

Maelor cut deeper.

This time Raven felt the Hollow Thread move before he saw it.

Predator’s Instinct gave him nothing.

There was no hostile intent.

Only biology.

Predation did.

[Host Integration: 8%]

[Distance to Mana Channel: 3.2 cm.]

"Faster."

"I’m trying not to cut a tendon," Maelor said.

"I’d prefer to keep it."

"Then stop regenerating."

"I’m working on that."

Valeria maintained control over the blood flow.

"Can you drain your mana?"

Raven considered it.

Regeneration consumed mana. If he couldn’t order the Trait to stop, he could remove its fuel.

There was one problem.

They were in Deep Mire.

Deliberately exhausting his mana was a terrible idea.

Letting a Hollow Thread reach his internal channels was worse.

Raven activated Stonehide over his right arm, then released it.

Again.

Stonehide.

Release.

Each cycle consumed a little mana.

Not enough.

He triggered Burst Step without fully moving, dumping the acceleration into the root beneath him with a short, violent shift.

His mana dropped.

[Current Mana: 13 / 18.]

Valeria stared at him.

"What are you doing?"

"Spending it."

"That is a terrible solution."

"I have better ones when the system cooperates."

Another activation.

[Current Mana: 10 / 18.]

Predatory Regeneration slowed slightly.

Maelor took advantage of it, widening the wound and pushing the forceps deeper.

The Hollow Thread contracted.

Raven felt a cold line moving toward his elbow.

[Host Integration: 11%]

[Distance to Mana Channel: 1.9 cm.]

"It’s moving."

Maelor didn’t answer.

He was concentrating.

The tip of the forceps brushed something translucent.

Missed.

Regenerating muscle closed around the instrument.

Maelor cursed.

"Your body is trying to bury my forceps."

Raven stared at the wound.

Then he understood.

Predatory Regeneration wasn’t malfunctioning.

It was functioning exactly as designed.

It detected damaged tissue and repaired it.

It didn’t understand that the wound needed to remain open. It didn’t understand that something foreign was trapped inside. It didn’t understand intent.

Only anatomy.

If an arrow remained embedded and the surrounding damage could still be repaired, the Trait might close tissue around it.

If a bone was misaligned, it might begin setting it in the wrong position.

And if a parasite entered before a wound sealed...

Regeneration could protect it.

"It isn’t intelligent," Raven said.

Valeria looked at him.

"What?"

"Regeneration doesn’t know what I want. It only knows what the tissue is supposed to look like."

Maelor kept working.

"I’m glad your philosophical breakthrough is happening while I have a knife inside your arm."

Raven ignored him and opened the Trait again.

[Trait: Predatory Regeneration]

[Mode: Automatic]

[Current Priority: Tissue Restoration.]

"I don’t want to disable it."

Nothing.

"I want to change priority."

The interface flickered.

Raven went still.

A new line appeared.

[Manual Regulation Unavailable.]

"Of course."

Valeria noticed his expression.

"What?"

"It says I can’t."

"Fantastic."

Raven looked at the message again.

Unavailable.

Not impossible.

There was a difference.

Predation responded to adaptation.

His Traits also seemed capable of developing through use, exposure, and understanding. Toxin Adaptation was already recalibrating itself around compounds he survived.

Predatory Regeneration might do the same.

Raven stopped trying to shut the Trait down.

Instead, he tried to direct it.

"Repair priority: exclude left forearm."

The interface paused.

[Command Unsupported.]

"Then reduce response in superficial tissue."

Nothing.

Raven tried again.

"Regenerate only functionally critical damage."

This time, he felt something before the text appeared.

Pressure.

The regeneration slowed.

Barely.

But it slowed.

Maelor noticed.

"It’s closing more slowly."

Raven held his concentration.

"Again."

He focused on the difference between injury and threat.

He didn’t need the skin repaired.

He didn’t need superficial muscle fibers reconnected.

He needed major blood vessels, nerves, and tendons kept functional.

Everything else could wait.

Predatory Regeneration responded.

[Trait Behavior Modification Detected.]

[Host Intent Recognized.]

[Automatic Regeneration Priority Under Conscious Regulation.]

The wound stopped closing.

Not completely.

But enough.

Maelor pushed the forceps deeper.

"I see it."

The Hollow Thread writhed.

Pain flashed through Raven’s arm as something thin brushed a nerve.

Valeria tightened her control over the blood flow.

"Don’t move."

"I wasn’t planning to."

"Your fingers disagree."

Two of them were trembling.

Maelor closed the forceps.

Pulled.

The Hollow Thread came free.

It was longer than Raven expected.

Nearly eight inches.

It had been compressed inside the tissue like coiled thread.

The parasite twisted between the forceps, reaching toward the nearest source of mana.

Maelor dropped it into a jar.

Raven looked down at the open wound.

Predation confirmed the result.

[Foreign Organism Removed.]

[Host Integration Terminated at 13%.]

[Mana-Channel Attachment Prevented.]

Valeria slowly exhaled.

"Good."

Raven didn’t close the wound yet.

He waited.

Predation detected nothing else.

"Now."

He released his control over the Trait.

Regeneration responded immediately. The bleeding slowed, the edges of the incision drew together, and the muscle underneath began repairing itself.

This time Raven watched more carefully.

It wasn’t a miracle.

It was accelerated biological work.

And it could make mistakes if he gave it the wrong situation.

Then the update appeared.

[Predatory Regeneration Adaptation Recorded.]

[Manual Response Control Established.]

[New Subfunction Acquired: MANUAL REGULATION]

[Host May Consciously Modify Regeneration Priority Within Limited Parameters.]

[Current Capabilities:]

[— Reduce Regeneration Intensity in Selected Region]

[— Prioritize Critical Functional Damage]

[— Delay Superficial Closure]

[— Resume Automatic Response]

[Limitations:]

[— Complete Suppression Unavailable]

[— Severe Trauma May Override Manual Regulation]

[— Unconscious Host Defaults to Automatic Response]

[— Increased Concentration Required.]

Raven read the entire update.

That was useful.

Not a new ability.

Control over one he already possessed.

Valeria was still watching his arm.

"What happened?"

"It learned."

"The regeneration?"

"I learned how to control it."

Maelor sealed the jar.

"That would have been useful five minutes ago."

"Yes."

"Can you stop it completely?"

"No. I can slow it down, delay superficial closure, and prioritize important injuries."

Valeria looked at the incision, now closing at a controlled pace.