"Then I will be leaving. Let's meet again someday."
Outside a yellow tent, Damon bade farewell to the man he had shared the tent with for the past week.
A week had passed since Damon's plunder of bodies and ATMs. Though registered and booked for a train to Shanghai, Damon still had a week left before moving.
With the residence in Bo City completely destroyed, the military had set up tents for the people as temporary housing.
For a week, Damon shared the tent with three other individuals. Today, the last one left Bo City, leaving Damon alone in the tent.
"Finally, they left," Damon muttered, sighing. After arriving at the base, he had behaved normally and had not used any of his abilities at all.
Fearing the reactions of others and having somehow learned of his own abilities, Damon waited for a moment when he could be alone—a moment that, after a week, had finally arrived.
Closing his eyes, Damon entered the inventory space. Two bodies and a lot of cash and scraps of metal lay before him.
Using his ability of Gluttony and the effects inside the space, Damon violently tore open the ATMs and their inner cases, recovering the cash while discarding the metal remains into the infinite stomach of his inventory.
'Nearly 14 million yuan in cash,' Damon counted, easing all immediate future economic problems.
Taking his eyes from the mountain of cash, he focused on the corpses, starting with the cyclops rat.
"Devour!"
Damon muttered, and the black swirling mass immediately surrounded the corpse of the monster, eroding it and slowly devouring the biomass.
Opening his eyes, Damon activated Pride's Authority with a thought, recovering and healing immediately.
The closed wounds slowly began to heal at rapid speed. Broken ribs and fractured bones realigned themselves as his entire body bathed in a warm feeling.
Looking down, Damon hastily removed the bandages wrapped around his chest. The brown wounds slowly closed, as if they had never been there. The cuts were gone, leaving no scars, and his skin regenerated anew, glowing with a newfound luster.
"God damn! This is amazing!" Damon thought. Pride's ability made it possible to control his body to a genetic level. Any changes could be made as long as the information and intent were present.
With the information about healing already present in his cells and tissues, the energy from the corpse fueled and directed this super-enhanced healing. The cost and efficiency might not be great, but the effects were wonderful.
Feeling some of the energy still remaining, Damon wondered what to do with it. The energy of physical materials is different from magic, so it cannot supplement the growth of magic, only enable physical changes to one's own body.
Thinking hard, Damon realized:
'The energy can change the physical body, and the effect is permanent. What changes should I make?'
There is no storage for this energy or for things under Pride's Authority. Over time, it dissipates, so it is up to Damon to decide what changes he wants.
With a thought of change, Damon's intent was identified and processed by Beelzebub, who took charge and made the changes a reality.
Looking down at his skinny figure, Damon thought about the changes he wanted before moving to his spiritual world and coming face-to-face with the screen.
[Devoured: Cyclops Rat]
[Traits Acquired:
Rat Physiology
Mana Muscles (Lesser Minion Class)]
Pride identified the traits present in the body of the cyclops rat. The traits, once selected, could be permanently fused with the user's body.
"What a great power..." Damon thought, patting his own shoulder in admiration. He was glad he hadn't gone Gege with his MC.
Rat Physiology, if applied, would transform Damon's humanoid form into that of a rat. Without even considering it, Damon ruled out that option and instead looked at the second trait he could gain:
Mana Muscles
Recalling lectures on magical beasts, Damon knew what this referred to. Monsters are abnormally strong; even with their sizes, their strength exceeds normal expectations.
Humans, with their exceptional dissection skills, identified a common link among most animals and a major difference from normal human bodies: the muscles of monsters. They are magical wonders, denser and more powerful than normal muscles, increasing in strength with rank.
The cyclops rat possessed no special elemental powers and relied solely on physical strength. Hence, it had only two traits that Pride could record.
Damon's eyes then turned to the wolf corpse in his inventory. The giant corpse was that of a Standard Minion.
Taking a small part of the wolf, he devoured it and looked at the screen again.
The previous traits of the rat were erased, and new traits were shown:
[Wolf Physiology]
[Mana Muscles (Standard Minion)]
Looking at the traits, Damon smiled before selecting them and confirming the desired changes to his body.
You know, a magician in this world is considered everything. They are the main fighting force of humanity against these absurdly strong monsters. Even magicians at levels equivalent to those of monsters are still very, very weak.
Reading every fight of Mo Fan, you should know that even he struggles against monsters of equivalent or even weaker levels. Magicians at higher tiers gain a heightened physique, but they remain fragile before monsters of warrior levels—even at the Super Level.
Even at the highest ranks, they are physically helpless and mortal in the face of spells and physical attacks. So just imagine... a magician whose physique transcends that of humans, strong enough to rival monsters themselves?
Just thinking about it gave Damon goosebumps. Until now, this had been nothing more than a fantasy—but today, Damon possessed the ability and power to ascend to the level of monsters and physically challenge them.
Shivers ran down Damon's spine as he understood the gravity and the power that had been bestowed upon him.
[Time: 48 Hours]
The timer showed in front of Damon. For 48 hours, he would lose consciousness as his body was rebuilt with the desired changes.
Looking at the timer, Damon smirked and proceeded with the process. His heartbeat quickened with excitement; he couldn't wait to wake up and see the results with his own eyes.
Damon thought drowsily as his consciousness slowly faded.
'Goodbye... Damon!'
***
A/N:
Pride's Authority!
Okay, before reading this chapter, let me explain a few things about the abilities.
First of all, devour—the visuals are just like Beelzebub from Tensura, if someone is wondering. The enhanced effect is also mostly the same.
Next, the Pride's Authority. It allows manipulation of genetics and the MC's body. The fuel it requires is biomass; once a physical body is devoured, the biomass goes entirely to Pride. Pride's ability uses it as fuel and, recognizing the intent of the protagonist, performs the changes. Since the energy goes directly to Pride, there is no storage of this energy at all.
Secondly, Pride can store genetic data and change its body, creating a chimera of sorts. However, in this case, since there is no storage feature for Pride, once a monster is devoured, the genetic data is only temporarily stored as working memory. If the MC wants any changes, they can do so in that short time. Since the MC's body is permanent and not like Pride, the changes are permanent, with no regression or switch feature.