After focusing every corner of his Poem-strengthened mind on recovering mana, Alec somehow got his heart to start beating again.

'I…need to do something about that,' He thought to himself while breathing heavily, his hand on his chest to feel his pulse.

It wasn't even just because he was vulnerable as soon as he used a little too much mana. It was because it was a design flaw in the Heartguard he had created. He couldn't call this a finished product. It would be like writing a book with a huge plothole in the middle that never gets addressed or cleared up.

He did not like that kind of stuff.

But he was at a loss for how to fix it. So, he set the thoughts on it aside for the moment. He could endure it temporarily by just increasing how much mana he had.

Instead, he focused on the monster in the cell.

Alec had figured out the difference in physiques between monsters and non-monsters. But he still didn't know why or how it happened. He also didn't know why monsters lost all intelligence.

The monster's actions just after becoming a monster also had to have an explanation. That did not seem like the actions of a being without intelligence. But at the same time, there hadn't been any thought behind the monster's eyes, only mindless murder.

If anything, it looked like the monster had been carrying out Milo's last vengeful wish in a ruthlessly brutal manner.

Alec tilted his head as he sat on the floor on the other side of the iron bars separating him and the monster.

'Is that what makes human monsters so dangerous…? Their thoughts, wishes, and desires linger after they lose their intelligence, making their behavior much less predictable. If that's the case for someone like Milo, I can only imagine what would have happened if it had been a mage or warrior, or even just someone who knew how to fight…' Alec's expression darkened as he started getting an understanding of why Basra, Reina, and Moira had been so worried about human monsters.

It also partly explained why Shim had only used weak and younger humans for his experiments. They were easier to handle after they transformed.

Shim was a mage. If he wanted to, he could have kidnapped more reliable test subjects or even warriors and other mages to see if they became monsters in the same way ordinary people did.

But he didn't.

Of course, it could have been because he would have been caught much sooner.

Alec scratched his stump as he looked the monster in the eyes. It was just mindlessly staring back at him.

Alec sighed.

The answer to why monsters lost their intelligence probably lies in the center of thought for most living beings, the brain.

Just like how he had compared his arm to the monster's, he would now have to compare their brains.

But he wouldn't have enough mana to put the monster to sleep and scan its brain, so he had to either condense a second magic circle or wait for Moira.

Fortunately, Moira arrived with some food for him not long after he started his staring contest with the monster.

Moira raised an eyebrow and looked at Alec skeptically.

"Are you good?"

"What?" Alec glanced up at her while tossing the food into his mouth.

"It feels like you change a little every time I see you."

'Me? I am the one changing?!' Alec bit down on his tongue to stop himself from retorting and just stared at Moira.

"I need your help again. Can you keep it restrained or sedate it or something?" He asked, nodding toward the monster.

"Why?"

"I want to know why monsters lose their intelligence when, so far, the only difference I've found is a fundamental improvement to the physical structure of their biology."

"Are you saying you've made progress?"

"Not enough."

"Alright, let's get to it."

Alec wiped his hands on the floor and stood up to lower the bars while Moira dragged out bands of stone from the ground and wall beside the monster, restraining it perfectly. It couldn't even open its mouth, much less pose a threat to Alec, who unhesitatingly approached it.

Alec closed his eyes and focused, making slight adjustments to the spell. It needed to be both more aggressive to get through the monster's magic resistance and gentler since the brain was more sensitive than the bone and flesh of an arm.

He also put in a limiter to the mana consumption. He did not want to die just because he forgot something that fundamental.

Then, he cast the spell and gathered light around the monster's head.

Like with the arm, there fierce resistance toward the influence of outside magic, but Alec pushed on. The experienced from already having cast the spell helped him draw out more of its potential with the same amount of mana.

Still, beads of sweat started dripping down his pale face before he managed to get inside the monster's head.

Alec's magic bounced around and mapped out the inner workings of the monster's brain before returning with an overwhelming amount of information. The brain, surprisingly enough, was slightly more complex than an arm.

Alec fell backward, his eyes glazed over, and his mouth hanging open slightly. His hand was still outstretched toward the monster's head like he was a fallen statue.

Moira looked at Alec with a frown before sighing and using a spell to pull him out of the cell. She crouched and poked his cheek while using her mana to close the cell again.

"Why are you even scared of me when you do this stuff to yourself?" She sighed again while making sure he was going to live. Then, she left.

Since he was so gungho about research, she could at least provide him with some more test subjects.

Alec didn't even register the sensation of his head slamming against the floor, much less Moira's soft words. The only thing in his head was the brain of a monster.

It was worse than he expected.

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