The homunculi sleeping in the cylinders had pointy ears as sharp as leaves. They looked just like elves. So of the elves captured by Drei, the E-series, were working in this lab and were being used as the base of the homunculi.
No matter how long-lived elves were and how much we modified them, they were still mortals susceptible to death. If they were just used as defenders against intruders, eventually, their numbers would fall.
And that poses an issue since I only have 31 of them. Elf slaves commanded an eye whopping premium and it was not easy to find a village of elves with their barriers. Drei was only able to find the E-series by a stroke of luck.
Hence, I ordered the elves to procreate to bolster their numbers. The ti needed for elves to mature was proportionally as long as their longevity. Unbelievably, they only consider an elf of 100 years old to be a young chick. By the ti a new generation of elves are raised, I would have long passed. Of course, I do plan to attain immortality before that.
The current research of creating elf types of homunculi, also known as the Early Elf (EE) plan, was being conducted to solve immortality. If this succeeds, we could obtain many cultivated elves for combat or research.
But success was elusive, as could be seen from the current state of affairs.
I think there was a mistake in our way of thinking from the very beginning.
Charl said to .
Elf souls are more spiritual than human souls. Their secret to longevity cos not from their high quality magic nor strong bodies, but their souls. Surely you would have known, Oubeniel? After all, you dissected an elf while at the academy.
He was referring to the ti when I had received permission from Professor Graumann to conduct a dissection. It was an elf specin without a single wound that laid untouched in the academys storage room. Indeed, I concluded that elves longevity could not be simply a result of their physical qualities. Actually, even before that, I had already fiddled with an elf corpse that Uni killed, so it was to increase the confidence of the previous conclusion. Well, leaving that aside
I had been considering if the problem of souls could be supplented with physical strengths. Hmm...Then, how about this? These elf homunculi all have souls despite it being faint right? How about trying to extract all of them and combining them into one?
An interesting idea, but I am of the opinion that we should not do it. Since their souls are weak, wont their sense of self and fighting spirit be weak too? If we combine them, their sense of self would be confusing and go berserk. There isnt a sufficiently powerful soul acting as a core.
Hmm, so this would not work huh.
I was likening souls to pure water and wondered if their quantity could increase just by combining them. However, as Charl has argued, with their weak souls, it would end up as sothing like a juice with mixed flavours. As a result, without a strong tasting juice as the base of a cocktail, it would taste weird and undrinkable. If I had to give an analogy, that would be it.
How about killing an appropriate slave and inserting its soul? If creating a homunculi that could work for an extended period of ti, wouldnt that be the fastest approach?
Charl, stop saying crazy things. Well, thinking about it more deeply...
Perhaps we would resort to that in the end...But that would affect the cost to performance ration adversely. We already need to prepare fresh materials to concoct the cultivation liquid. It would be difficult to add the cost of procuring slaves on top of that. Wouldnt affect the number of slaves we can use in other research?
As such, I found it difficult to accept this approach. The lives in this world were comparably cheaper than the lives of Japanese people, but they were certainly not for free. It was completely human to want to keep costs to a minimum. After moving into this underground lab, the number of human experints conducted have risen. We still had a stable supply of slaves for now but with the current rate of increase, I could not be sure that it would be so in the future. For instance, if a certain country declares to free slaves, the number of slaves on the market would plumt. This was an extre example but still a plausible one.
Slaves were never a product that could be obtained steadily in the first place. Its not like they could be reared in farms. The increase or decrease in supply was mostly determined by the status of society at any point of ti.
Charl shrugged his shoulders in amazent.
My master is really so selfish...That is no good, this is no good, then we have no other options ya? How about giving up on this and trying a different field?
Ugh, sound argunt. As Due ntioned before, whenever Charl makes a sound argunt, sohow it gets on your nerves. Its true.
Charl continued his attack, perhaps knowing or not knowing what I was thinking.
I dont even like cultivating homunculi. Oubeniel, you understand? I am not allowed to ss with any elf bastard juice that I like...And the male elves can have it banging the girls in the village! Isnt that weird! W-H-Y! For sobody like who is far superior to elves! Why do I have to do all this work! If they are all the sa elf juice, then girls are waaaaaaaaay better!! WAAAAY BETTER!
Ah, he snapped. And now he was crying.
Looks like the homunculus research gave him too much stress. Well, for this vampire, who loves prattling on about virgin girl this virgin girl that, to work on synthesising materials for homunculus all day, surely his mood would be bad.
The main ingredient to cultivating homunculi was male fluids. To put it frankly, that thing, you know. Yes, that. The source of a baby.
I could understand Charls feelings. Even for , to be using that thing from others would definitely put in a bad mood. Ah, even if it was my own, I would not feel good. I wonder how female alchemy students feel during homunculus practical sessions...Never mind, Im not interested in hearing that. Im not too fond of treating this guy in front of the sa as them.
Why do we need to use male fluids? I like to know why myself. It was most probably because it was required to pass genetic information to the homunculus base, though that is just my hypothesis. Incidentally, the sex of a homunculus was not fixed and could turn out to be either male or female. Possibly because of males XY sex chromoso? Also, I had never heard of any homunculus developing reproductive capabilities. Wasnt this because they only have a single sex chromoso?
...Sohow magic and science were crossing and mixing together. Enough of this, back to the main topic.
Ahh, yes. I understand. If you really hate it that much, then you may go into other research projects. I had only wanted you to take care of this while I was stuck in the capital.
Since Charl really hated it, I shall free him from this research. He was an expert in manipulating souls. When I entrusted the work on homunculus with him, I only wanted him to observe the souls. There were other tasks I wanted to entrust him, so if he said he hated it then there was no need to force this on him.
Eh? Really? ...Hooray! Im finally freed from misery!
The mont I agreed to move him elsewhere, he danced in joy.
Uni suddenly interjected.
How exaggerated, Opus-04. Isnt it just an experint with using elf sen?
......
......
She sounded completely fed up, leaving both of us n frozen.
She said it. We had been skirting around the word but she said it directly without any reserve.
Could it be? That won were more tolerant of such topics than us n?
Wow, eww, senior. Saying that with a straight face? Are you okay?
What? Is it not allowed? Not like we are eating right now. Since we are in the research lab, there is no need to sugarcoat our words.
...Well, Uni was right in that way. She has been my assistant, helping with human surgery here and there. I dont recall her being awkward when dealing with the bodies then. If a female nurse goes Kya, Kyaa whenever she touches a male patients body, then the hospital was dood.
Firstly, why was I strangely being bashful? During the cultivation experints in the academy, didnt I have Uni as my assistant?
Reflecting on that, Charl started grumbling.
Seriously...why on earth are homunculus cultivated from n? I would rather they be made from won.
Wait a second.
What did he say?
Charl.
The voice that interjected was a cold voice that was far from my usual self.
Charl shoulders shivered.
W-What, Oubeniel? D-Did I say anything that angered you?
No? Just that I heard sothing interesting?
Really, really interesting.
Why were homunculi made from n?
Were we not allowed to make them from won?
A truly thought provoking question. At the sa ti, I was ashad of myself. I was stuck in a fixed mindset and tried to co up with reasons to support that mindset. How foolish it was.
A complete disgrace. But at the sa ti, I felt wonderfully excited.
That I would actually overlook this!
Uni.
Yes.
et the E-series who are underground now. Then bring the female elves that arent pregnant.
As you wish.
And Charl. I feel bad but Im taking that back. I would like you to stay on homunculus research for a little longer.
Eh...W-Well, if it is what master says then I will follow
Unlike Uni who quickly gave the affirmative after receiving her instructions, Charl sort of grumbled while agreeing. This guy really cannot be helped.
So what is about now?
What are you saying. Didnt you just say it?
I walked nearer to the homunculi cultivation cylinders as I said and knocked on the surface. Just as Charl has done earlier.
Why dont we make homunculi from females, you said. ...I realised after you said that. How about we actually try doing that? And
The ends of my mouth curled as emotions welled up inside .
That would be our first option. This was an experint to investigate what happens if we use eggs from females instead of sen to cultivate homunculi.
And if this ends up going well
What about using fertilised eggs too?
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