DEMON'S VIRTUE

"What do you mean, can I do that as well? Obviously?" Eiro replied with a wry smile, "What, you think I'd stop at the leg? Listen, a true prosthetist is someone that imitates life with their work. They complete their client by giving back what they lost. Just giving this guy a leg won't complete him, will it?" The Demon pointed out as if it was obvious. The transmigrator looked back at him shocked, as Eiro scratched the back of his head.

"But just so you know, while I can certainly make things look real... He's not going to be able to see out of the new eye I give him, and I can't miraculously give him perfect hearing. I'm not a healer or a doctor, so I can't fix things to that extent." Eiro pointed out, but the transmigrator immediately shook his head, "No, don't worry, this is more than enough. Thank you so much." He said bluntly, and Eiro lightly smiled, as he squatted down in front of the bear's head, "This will be a bit more troublesome, but there won't be any pain either, so don't worry." The Demon whispered slightly, as he used more anesthesia to numb the area around the bear's eye, as well as its ear, since he would be working on both at the same time.

Once it was numbed, Eiro made sure to calm the bear down as much as he could by manipulating its heartbeat and flow of blood, trying to make it a bit drowsy while he worked. Slowly, Eiro cut into the scar-tissue in front of the bear's face, removing as much of it as possible. It seemed like there were some residues of the bear's eye still left inside of its socket, fused into it through the scar-tissue. As if something bit out the rest of the bear's eye extremely violently.

Eiro clicked his tongue slightly, as he pushed his knife into the socket, trying to cut around the scar tissue, before slowly pulling the half-rotten piece out. If Eiro hadn't removed this, it could have probably led to an infection sooner or later. It probably already affected the bear's health quite a bit, but being a monster, its constitution was just good enough to hold out against the sepsis for a long time.

For now, Eiro made sure to clean everything up, especially the dried-up sinew and nerves that had been connected to the rest of the eye stuck in the socket. Eiro couldn't use the nerves, but by connecting the prosthetic eye to the sinew, he could at least make sure that it was able to move around in a natural way. Eiro was already using a special coating and some paint to make sure that the eye looked as real as possible, so if it just didn't move around, that would ruin the illusion.

And so, Eiro quickly connected everything up, and popped the prosthetic eye into the socket. He filled it with the bear's life force, and moved on to the ear. To be able to properly attach the prosthetic, Eiro had to cut off the rest of the ear that was still there. It was basically just a thin strip of flesh anyway. It didn't work as an ear anymore at all. The bear probably didn't lose all ability to hear in this ear though, so that was pretty good as far as Eiro was concerned. That meant that he had to make sure the shape of the ear was just right, so that it could funnel the sounds into the ear canal properly, as an ear is supposed to do. There did seem to be a little bit of damage to said ear canal as well, but that wasn't something that Eiro could fix with prosthetics.

For now, Eiro simply added a base for the ear onto the bear's flesh, and then quickly added the rest of the pieces, to make sure that the bear could slightly wiggle the ear as it normally would be able to, and so that it didn't feel weird. Of course, it was covered in the same wood finish as the leg prosthetic, to make sure that it blended in a fair amount.

"Perfect. And now, let's take a look at the back." Eiro said, quickly moving around the bear. This part was a bit different. It didn't particularly change how the bear was able to move around, and Eiro couldn't really make a full prosthetic for it. Jura never really tried fixing these parts either, but right now... Eiro felt that it might be necessary. There were quite deep cuts in the bear's flesh, and these wounds went further than just being normal scars. It was as if the bear had been skinned in these parts. The edges were too clean, especially considering the rest of the bear's wounds.

"Just out of curiosity, where did you find this guy?" The Demon asked the tamer, who quickly replied, "While traveling around west of the continent, I found this bandit camp. They had a bunch of monsters in cages, including these two. They were using them for entertainment."

"Ah... That explains it." Eiro muttered. Monster fighting rings. The wounds to the bear's leg, back, ear and eye clearly didn't come from the same sources. A large animal must have ripped off its leg, maybe another bear. A rat or ferret could have gotten rid of its eye and ear, and its back... was disfigured by one of the people that captured it. The patterns told Eiro that the hide was used to make some sort of piece of clothing. It was quite disgusting, doing this to a living beast.

With a slight frown, Eiro continued on, scratching the back of his head. He got up and walked back over to the box he had summoned earlier, before looking at the Baram warriors that had accompanied the group, "I know this area is... sacred of sorts. Do you mind if I grow another tree here for a second?"

"...We would prefer if not. This forest is quite well-kept by us."

"I see. I'll get rid of it after, don't worry."

"Then I see little issue." The warrior replied, and Eiro quickly nodded. He opened up one of the sections from earlier, and then quickly pulled out a vial with a small nut inside of it. After the nut dropped onto the ground, Eiro quickly twisted his hand around and created a magic circle to cast a spell on this nut. The Demon took a step back and watched as the nut sprouted into a sapling, and a dark cian tree suddenly grew in front of everyone here. Eiro quickly used a carving knife to pull the bark off the tree.

"When I'm home again, I will plant a dark cian tree in my garden for a more permanent solution. Materials created immediately through nature magic like this are... subpar, to say the least." Eiro explained, "They're generally weaker. Especially this bark wouldn't usually be enough to replace that beast's thick hide. As long as you give me a way to contact you, I'll call you over once the tree has grown enough for me to harvest a proper replacement."

"...I don't know how to thank you enough." The transmigrator said with a genuine, broad smile. It was clear that now not only the boy transmigrator was convinced, but he as well was ready to join Eiro and help him out. Clearly, this man loved beasts to an incredible degree. Now it made sense why he had been chosen by the God of Beasts.

Eiro harvested all of the bark that he needed and then, using death magic, made the rest of the tree rot and fall in on itself. Eiro swallowed everything up with earth magic, so that it seemed like it was just never there in the first place.

The Demon cleaned the bark up a bit more. Luckily, the bark itself was dark enough to fit the bear's fur quite well, and so, Eiro could use it immediately. Since it was on the bear's back instead of its sides or stomach, he could use a few larger pieces instead of having to figure out the way that the bear's skin folded upon moving in different ways.

For now, Eiro anesthetised the large area of scar tissue that had formed, and proceeded to cut it out of the bear's flesh. It was like he was skinning it. But then, Eiro could slowly place the bark onto the flesh, and fuse it together using healing magic. Of course, Eiro also pulled some life force into it to make sure that it was accepted as a part of the body and didn't cause any issues during the bear's recovery.

And then, Eiro was done with the first of the two patients. For now, to make sure that everything was fine, the Demon waited, and slowly pulled out any trace of the anesthetic out of the bear's body and wounds.

"Alright, first..." Eiro said, as he slowly pulled open the bear's eyelids of the eye that he treated, and watched as it slightly twitched around together with the other eye, showing this fact to the others as well. Then, he slightly snapped his finger by the bear's ear to watch the prosthetic ear twitch as well. Now, all that was left to be shown off was the leg. Eiro slowly helped the bear roll over and watched as it puts it weight on three of its legs.

"Don't worry, you can do it." Eiro said, slightly pushing down on the bear's hip to force its other leg to touch to the ground. Startled, the bear turned its head, but seemingly slowly understood what was happening. Slowly, it walked forward, and the prosthetic leg responded properly, twisting and turning just how it was supposed to.

With a grin on his face, Eiro ran his hand through his patient's fur, glad that everything worked properly. Sometimes there were creatures that simply didn't accept this sort of thing. Their life force just rejected it them, practically. Eiro hadn't come across it himself yet, but Jura told him a few stories about it.

"Then now that that's done, let's move on to this guy, huh?" Eiro said, looking at the monkey that was curiously climbing all over its bear-friend's body, while said bair was rubbing its head happily at Eiro as if to thank him for his help, "I don't need as much space for someone as small as him, so let's return first. I think we should all rest a little." Eiro suggested, as he proceeded to quickly pack everything back into the large box, before placing it back into his treasury.

And so, after proving that Eiro truly was a prosthetist by heart, this group returned back to the huts.