The Witch Hunter System

Focusing on the research materials in front of him, Vaan's eyes did not blink.

No, Vaan's eyes did not even dart from left to right as Vaan flipped the page every couple of breaths. Sometimes, not even two breaths passed before the pages were flipped.

Even a talented reader wouldn't be this quick, even if the person was just skimming through the source materials.

However, Vaan was indeed reading everything in its entirety without moving his eyes. Everything that entered his vision was captured, imprinted, and absorbed.

Even the seven Transcendent Witches of the seven witch kingdoms didn't have Vaan's capacity for learning.

Vaan was simply built differently.

Nevertheless, since Vaan gained awareness of his transmigration, he hadn't always had such impressive reading speed, memory retention, and comprehensive ability.

Although they had been above average, they were still within the realms of human capabilities.

Only after Vaan started working in the red-light district and gaining the benefits of servicing the witches did his abilities sharply improve by leaps and bounds.

Vaan had always known it had something to do with his particular physique, but it wasn't until he awakened the system did he finally put a name to his special physique.

Heaven-Swallowing Physique, a physique capable of swallowing the heavens.

Although it was still far from such a feat, at the very least, Vaan confirmed it could swallow anything—whether intangible like mana and knowledge or tangible like weapons, tools, equipment, or anything material object between heaven and earth for the matter.

Nevertheless, as Vaan absorbed all the knowledge from Lady Solana's research papers and books, his understanding of abominations deepened.

'Why do witches form magic circles around their hearts?'

'It is because mana is highly conductive with blood, and blood is pumped and circulated through the heart. It is simply easier to channel mana from there; blood flow would carry mana to its destination.'

'However, the process of going berserk and transforming into an abomination is a result of Mana Reflux, the most dangerous situation that can happen to a witch—no, anyone in possession of high mana.'

Mana Reflux, as its name implies, is when mana flows backward, which conflicts with the flow of blood and all other mana it carries.

'But why is that considered the most dangerous situation? Because when mana clashes, it invokes magic—uncontrolled magic without clear purposes and intent that is normally backed by the user's will.'

'But during a berserk transformation, most witches usually feel rage—uncontrolled rage with a strong desire for the destruction of someone or something. As a result, the countless magic invoked during a witch's berserk transformation are mostly related to strength and destruction…'

'From past incidents to present ones, no witch had ever adopted the exact same form after becoming an abomination. They may belong to the same category, but they will never be the spitting image of one another.'

'Seems like Lady Solana didn't advance very far on abominations. But fortunately, the published books of other researchers in her possession contained more insight on the topic of abominations…' Vaan mused.

'But… despite the more in-depth knowledge they possessed, the researchers of those published books didn't research deeply enough into potential solutions on reserving abominations into their original forms either…'

'They all deemed it 'too difficult' or 'simply impossible' to do, huh?' Vaan thought.

It was the same conclusion from all the other abomination-related books Vaan had read back in the Blackmoon Academy's library.

Nevertheless, Vaan could understand why all these researchers came to such a conclusion after studying the abominations.

After all, how can anyone possibly know many magic was invoked on the body at that exact moment? Or the specifics of what those magic were?

It would have required a person to be present when the berserk transformation took place, possess a special vision that saw all the magic invoked within the person, and remember everything down to the finest detail.

'It's unrealistic to reverse each spell one by one, but there must be another way to reverse an abomination's form. Recovering an abomination's former appearance is not that important. There are magic surgeries for that; the importance is to recover their minds.'

Vaan pondered.

'According to the knowledge I compiled on abomination, one thing stays consistent in all cases of berserk transformation; the heart, veins, and meridians become a jumbled mess. Introduction to Abominations written by Scholar Sabrine Blackwood, page 73, also provided an example of a dissected Wolf-type Abomination,' Vaan recalled.

The magic circuit, which was the essence of a witch, was indeed a jumbled mess. Everything was tangled and twisted in ways one cannot normally imagine.

An abomination might feel differently, but an average human would be in unimaginable pain with even the slightest movement, let alone shock from an attack on their body.

'If I compile this information, I can infer that an abomination's berserk nature isn't the result of degradation in their intelligence as most witches have assumed. No, it should be insanity brought by the torment of overwhelming pain,' Vaan's eyes flickered.

'An abomination also has many more mana veins than the average witch. But if I can untangle their messy mana veins and rearrange them in a way that is natural, I can relieve them of their pain.'

Alas, Vaan lacked information on precedent cases of anyone attempting such treatment on the abominations.

Furthermore, there was no guarantee that relieving the pain would end an abomination's berserk state and bring back their minds.

'The longer the abomination exists, the lower the chance of success and the higher the difficulty of bringing them back… But as long as the chance isn't zero, it's not impossible,' Vaan summarized his research.

No matter how deep a witch's mind had fallen into the abyss of despair and torment after becoming an abomination, they can still be saved.

However, it would be a different story if their mind was broken—or at the very least, the chance of recovery would be much more difficult.

Sometime later, Vaan closed the last book with a soft sigh.

'Even if there's a viable treatment plan, it won't be possible to carry it out if I lack the capability to perform it. I need to improve my abilities,' Vaan determined.