Chapter 477 - The Surgery.
"The heart of a newborn devourer." Jörmungandr thought, "A treasure that would be sought after even by the primogenitors."
Jörmungandr knew that Lady Sphinx was investing this much in Felix not just because that the project seemed a worthwhile experience but also so she could bet on him during the games!
Jörmungandr was already filled in by all of the details about the primogenitors" games, ranging from their rules to the way of entry.
There wasn"t a rule that forbids two or three primogenitors from choosing the same champion and betting on him.
However, to combat abuse, they initiated that both primogenitors would require to bet a treasure each on their champion while their opponents require to bet only once.
This made the primogenitors ignore the option. However, in the case of the Jörmungandr and Lady Sphinx, they were special.
The Jörmungandr was already dead and merely a tiny of his consciousness still lingering around.
Hence, he didn"t give a c.r.a.p about the treasures he was placing as bets or the ones he would be winning since his entire goal was simply to put his enemies back in their place.
This made it possible for Lady Sphinx to bet on Felix as well and end up getting treasures that would be immensely useful in her research projects. So, they made a perfect team.
What would Felix get from all of this? Wasn"t he already being paid in advance by opening for him a path to the peak of the universe that no human could even dream of?!
Just this heart of the newborn Devourer was a treasure that couldn"t be sold by coins since its value far surpa.s.s what coins could ever purchase.
Yet, Lady Sphinx didn"t hesitate to bring it out from the container and start surgically modifying Felix"s body to fit it perfectly.
Due to all the experiments on Felix"s copy, whether they failed or succeeded, Lady Sphinx had gained enough experience to make this surgery flow like art in the eyes of Asna and Jörmungandr.
With the help of her competent clone a.s.sistants, everything seemed perfect and in order.
Hours went by just like this, making Asna yawn lazily as it wasn"t that fun to watch a 19 hours long silent surgery.
Thankfully, it was already in its last stretch as Lady Sphinx had successfully integrated the small devourer"s heart besides Felix"s heart.
If anyone saw through the chest opening, they would be left in absolute disbelief as the devourer"s heart was now connected artificially with Felix"s heart.
Adding to other modifications allowed the blood to not pump back to the body after reaching his heart but actually go through the devourer"s heart first before returning to the body!
Hence, Felix would be having two hearts and both of them would be beating almost at the same time!
Since Lady Sphinx went with this route, it only meant that it was going to work and wouldn"t cause heart problems to Felix every single day.
Though, it was debatable what would happen if one of his hearts got destroyed.
...
A few hours later...
Lady Sphinx removed her b.l.o.o.d.y gloves after successfully st.i.tching the chest opening. Then, she checked on Felix"s vitals and nodded her head when she saw that he was stable.
Next, she snapped her fingers, destroying her two copies, and sat in a chair while staring at Felix upclose. "He will wake up in under 10 minutes. Let"s see how he will feel."
Although Lady Sphinx did many experiments and simulations on Felix"s copies, they were all emotionless, not giving her the perfect data she needed.
Fortunately, she wasn"t left waiting for long as Felix"s eyelashes started quivering in under three minutes, marking his attempt to regain consciousness.
Slowly but surely, his muddled bloodshot eyes were fully opened. Just like every patient who was under anesthesia for such a long time, Felix felt confused, chilly, nauseated, alarmed, hungry, and lastly, pain...Pain in his chest area like his heart was being gripped tightly by someone.
His expression deformed immediately, making Lady Sphinx glance at his vitals and then at his beating hearts that were accelerating by the second!
She knew that those emotions were affecting the balance and if his heartbeats kept accelerating rapidly, Felix would be in big trouble.
"Little thief, try to relax your tension." Lady Sphinx comforted him, "The surgery went just fine and now you just need to stay cool and calm in the next three days until both of your hearts adapt to each other."
The moment he heard so, Felix"s confusion was cleared as memories of before the surgery started coming back to him.
After remembering the procedures they discussed, Felix began following them step by step.
First, he closed his eyes shut and started taking deep breaths through his nose, ignoring the sudden pain that a.s.saulted him at that motion.
Then, he held on to it for a second before releasing it gently, easing up the pain in his chest.
He kept doing this over and over for an entire minute before his heartbeats returned to their original state.
"Well done." Lady Sphinx praised and asked, "Are you feeling any sudden urges of hunger?"
"No...Uhmm??!" Just as Felix denied it in his mind, his stomach rumbled like thunder! Yet, the feeling of hunger that followed with it almost made Felix faint!
"F*ckk!! I feel like I didn"t eat for a week!!" Felix cried in his mind, feeling too drained and hungry to even open up his mouth and scream his pain away.
"Unfortunately for you, the only way to sate that hunger of yours is by devouring a natural treasure." Lady Sphinx proclaimed, "You can"t do that right after the surgery since your hearts haven"t been adapted to each other. Since emotions are detrimental to them as well, you better keep your calm and control your hunger in the next three days."
Felix almost fainted at the sound of that.
Lady Sphinx always preached that the pain after the surgery was going to be too much for him to stomach, but he didn"t expect that the pain would be revolved around his hunger instead of being physical!
Honesty, he would rather feel physical pain every day than feel this hunger for three G.o.d d.a.m.n days!
It was like a hungry and thirsty traveler in a desolate desert finally reached an oasis after seven days of not eating a thing.
Yet, it turned out to be a mirage and he needed to continue walking for additional three days to get to the next one!
That experience you wouldn"t wish even to your worst enemy!
"Your body is receiving nutrition from tubes so you only need to fight off this illusionary feeling of hunger that was caused by your devourer"s heart."
"There is nothing illusionary about it!" Felix said telepathically with a wrapped expression.
Immediately after he said so, he felt the same h.e.l.lish pain in his chest, making his eyes reddened and watery.
"You better keep calm at all times lest you ruin my efforts." Lady Sphinx warned after seeing his raising heartbeats.
"Kid, think of other matters to ignore the hunger." Jörmungandr advised, "As long as you fight off the hunger, your emotions will be under control which would help you avoid feeling pain."
Without thinking twice about it, Felix began breathing deeply while visiting memories of the time Lady Sphinx had informed him about the Devourer Race that she chose for him.
This race was known to live at the outskirts of the universe, a hundred million light-years away from any populated Galaxy.
As for their appearance? They looked like humanoid devils with a gaping mouth that could stretch to swallow objects two times their original mouth size.
Meanwhile, their numbers weren"t worth mentioning as they could barely reach 100k in each generation.
However, even though their numbers were pitiful compared to most races, the SGAlliance still had invited them at least three times based on the rumors that Felix found in the network.
Yet, the race still wasn"t included in the Alliance members list, which simply entailed that they had refused all of the invitations!
If it was any other race, the SGAlliance wouldn"t bother to even send them a single letter since such a behemoth didn"t need to beg others to join them.
It was always the other way around.
But, this one was special due to their behemoth strength that could content against Dragons!
That alone made the race already stand out from the rest as Felix knew that the Dragon"s physical strength wasn"t far off from the battle-oriented primogenitors like Thor and the Jörmungandr!
But unlike the proud Dragons who operate based on individualism, the Devourvers were known for their unison as a single race!
Felix had just been turned into a Devourer Half-ling!
It was still up to debate whether he was going to be accepted if he met with other Devourers or getting hunted for possessing their heart!
Thankfully, Felix had a way out before he even gets placed in that situation.
That was the uncanny similarity of the Devourer Race Cultivation System to Dragons Cultivation System!