Are you sure you want to leave this to me?" Arteria asked, her hands trembling a bit.

  "Well, you tell me. Will Noelle, or anyone else for that fact, help me with something like this?"

  "They'll beat you up for even thinking about it."

  Wut? Why so serious?

  "There you have it. Besides, what's the problem? Isn't this interesting?"

  I'm not sure if she could find anything more interesting than this.

  "Doing a heart transplant isn't what I would call interesting!" She exclaimed.

  "Oh God, stop being such a baby about it. It's just a heart."

  Besides, I'm the one who'll be doing most of the work.

  I mean, no way in hell will I hand the task over to someone who looks like they'll end up bypassing my heart to my intestines.

  "Your heart!"

  "Same thing. We don't have all day, so let's get on with it."

  "Wait, what about your Divine Rings?"

  "Hmm? Divine Rings?"

  Are they what I'm thinking them to be?

  "You don't know about Divine Rings?" She frowned.

  "The books I had back at the basement didn't say anything about the so-called Diving Rings." I shrugged.

  "And yet you had access to books which taught you how to create an artificial heart using the blood of a Dragon and a Vampire."

  Huh, I probably need to smoothen out my backstory at a later date. Can't have these big plot holes or these guys will punch holes into me.

  "It is what it is. I guess my family wasn't interested in letting me acquire knowledge I couldn't use for their profit."

  Oh, that actually sounds like a plausible story.

  I could say that my family was aware of my frankly phenomenal learning skills and decided to lock me up to teach me things which they could make a profit of later.

  Nice. I guess being a webnovel author paid off well.

  "You really need to string together a consistent story."

  Yes, I'm aware, Arteria.

  "Forget about it. Just what are Divine Rings?"

  "They are the rings that surround every human mage's heart and allow them to be a magician. The more rings someone has, the better a mage they can be. Normal people don't have any rings."

  Yup, just as I thought.

  "I see." I nodded. "Can I assume that a Mage is born with a single ring around his heart, and from there on he has to train and condense more rings to reach new realms?"

  "So you did know about it." She scoffed.

  Well, this is one of the most common methods to let people use magic in a?Class 3 world. .

  Whether someone will get a Divine Ring is decided by various factors, including but not limited to their parents, genes, surroundings, race as well as luck.

  Their talent, which we call Potential, is also set at a certain value upon birth. Of course, it's also affected by various factors. However, it's almost impossible to change it.

  "Well, in the book I read they were called Energy Circles." I spouted off a random name.

  "Ah, I see." She nodded.

  "Anyway, I doubt I have any Divine Rings.?Even if I did, they are nothing compared to what this new heart will provide me."

  I would be using Mana in an entirely different way after this surgery. It would be like switching from a touch keyboard to a mechanical one.

  "Whatever suits you." She shrugged.

  "Let's begin, shall we?"

  ??Holy shit, I turn my eyes the other way for some moments and you're already up to weird shit.??

  Oh, this shithead is back. Sed.

  My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

  [Where were you?]

  ??Just handling some family matters.??

  [F.]

  Imagine spending quality time with your loved ones to maintain, or even deepen, your relationship with them.

  What a loser.

  ??I guess a guy without any family like you wouldn't understand.??

  [You can't imagine how thankful I'm for that.]

  ??Right. Anyway, that's quite the operating table you've set up for yourself.??

  [Right? No way could I leave everything to her.]

  ??You have trust issues.??

  [Or maybe I just want to ensure I don't botch this surgery.]

  ??That's what trust issues are. That aside, are you sure you can accomplish this by yourself? Do you need help???

  Go fuck yourself.

  [I respectfully decline.]

  ??What a shame.??

  I like how he shrugs off my rude thoughts. This guy's skin is thicker than his mama.

  Anyway, the setup I've created should allow me to do most of the work by myself.

  The theory behind it is simple.

  I'm currently lying face up on my bed. Above me in the air is a huge ass mirror in which my entire figure is being reflected.

  Connecting my fingers and Arteria are several Mana Strings which allow me to control her like a puppet.

  So, in summary, I'll use the mirror above to perform surgery on myself using Arteria as an extension of my hands.

  Thank God I'm a master of the art of puppetry.

  "Alright."

  By the way, the reason Arteria didn't question me for going quiet all of sudden was because the conversation I had with this motherfucker happened in the soul dimension.

  For the main world, my conversation would have taken but a fraction of a second.

  "Let's go."

  I activated the Mana Strings connecting us. I twitched my fingers as a test, and the connection worked just fine.

  "As I explained before, I'll be controlling your body for most of the part, but the precision part will be left to you."

  My current skills- no, my current unlocked memories and my shit body only allowed for this much control.

  I would have to rely on her for work which required really precise control, like cutting one of the two nerves which were only a micrometres apart.

  Normally, we would have required something like a Microscope for this, but she's a Vampire so we're all fine and dandy.

  "I'll count from three."

  "Okay."

  "Three. Two. One."

  I moved my fingers in a way to make Arteria pick up the scalpel (which had obviously been sanitised beforehand; dying from a septic infection is not the best way to go).

  She placed the scalpel on my chest and pressed it. I felt a stabbing pain in my chest.

  Then she pulled it down and created an opening to reach my heart.

  From the mirror above, I could see blood flowing out from the cut.

  That sounds kinda obvious, now that I think about it. Not sure if I needed to look into the mirror to know that blood would flow out of the incision.

  I made Arteria wipe away the blood.

  Since I was performing the surgery without using any anaesthesia, I had already taken measures to ensure my body wouldn't go into shock.

  "Let's continue."

  We still have a lot of work to do.

  Huh, wait, this surgery would take a lot of time, wouldn't it? During those hours, wouldn't other members wonder where the two of us are?

  Oh God, what if they think we are lovers doing couple things? What if that makes them come knocking on my door, while we're still performing this surgery?

  Well, fear not, for I have already locked the door while Arteria used magic to strengthen the door so that no one can destroy it to enter my room.

  And by 'no one', I mean Noelle. Because I swear to God that woman loves to act like an overprotective mother.

  I would never hear the end of it if she saw me transplanting a homemade heart into my body.

  At that point, I'd rather just botch the surgery than hear her prattle on about what a dangerous thing I was doing and all that bullshit.

  Anyway, let's focus on the surgery-

  *Knock* *Knock*

  Hmm.

  Yup, time to die.