Chương 62: The Living Flesh Forge - 3

Another headache, another temper-tantrum after the excursion with his son. What was that idiot thinking?! Forging an alliance with a dragon! Setting up his island as collateral. Insanity! Yet in his advanced age he could only spent so much time as a child. It was contrary to the way of things, you see. He had several lubriciously strong cups of hempen tea and prayed he didn't overdose on a good thing. He smiled.

It was, of course, impossible to overdose on hempen tea, though the very notion brought a smile to his face. Not able to shake wholly his son's idiocy from his mind, WARHOL [Teleported] to the Oldest Complex. He would use his fury to destroy the Guardian Constructs after mentally cleaving his way through the ever-complexifying runic puzzles. So, for hours, for days, perhaps, that was what he did — solve puzzles then blast apart Guardians without regard for the artistry behind the golems.

When he finally stopped, he had earned enough 'monstrous energy' to again unleash the artifact's fortifying mists. Mutations aside, the mists gave him power the likes he never thought would be his outside of perfecting an immortality potion. Because without an immortality potion, he wouldn't live long enough to capture even a fraction of what the artifact had given him, namely, stats boosts from here to the moon. He finished breathing in the mists.

He felt stronger, meaner, like he could knock down a tree with his [Bear Hands] incantation! A quick pop up informed him that his stats had increased by another quarter. As well as dropping his humanity by another one percent. He was now at [97% Human]. What was three percent of his humanity when it gave him such immense power? Nothing, exactly! Not long ago, he had raged at the unfairness of being shown mutation options but not able to partake of any of the options. Now?

If every point of Humanity he gave away bestowed upon him a full quarter of a percentage of an increase, well, who was he to care? Why not trade in all of his humanity? If it allowed him to defeat the Horror, why not? Warhol returned to his grinding in the Oldest Complex. He lost track of time; he fought Guardians, solved puzzles, and focused on gathering monstrous energy. So focused he became, he forgot about his son's training excursion.

By the time he remembered, it had been already half a day since he was supposed to pick him up and his son, in an academy and living his fast-paced life, had likely made other plans for the day, so he did not want to interrupt whatever those plans were, fun or draconic-involved. Choosing then the Complex over his son, he slayed constructs day and night to accumulate enough monstrous energy for his need for power.

Level after room he decimated, caring hardly for the runic puzzles or the increasingly formidable Guardians who, despite their level increases, remained poor fodder for his negatively reinforced body. Time passed through him as a haze and when the System gave him his signal — [Artifact Fully Charged] — he [Teleported] back to his Grotto without fanfare or even care that many of the Guardian Construct's lesser minions remained mucking about, flailing their arms in a vain attempt to slice him open.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Back in The Grotto, Warhol was about to open the artifact's sub-menu and see if he could mutate yet when he felt a tiredness pull at him. A tiredness he hadn't felt in a long time. Instead of continuing his over-exertion, then, he slept. When he woke, he felt calmed and rejuvenated, so he bathed, and had several cups of strong hempen tea with a modest potato-heavy breakfast.

Cleaned of the previous day's filth, and with a meal in his gullet, he felt a bit like his old self, before he had lost three percent of his humanity. So good did he feel, he, in fact, meditated before resuming his quest to mutate his body. The meditation was what he needed and then some as it put him squarely back into a focused and centered frame of self, the deep breathing exercises helping him return to that centered place he used to live.

Done with his human activities, he opened the artifact sub-menu and to his surprise, the mutation list was no longer grayed out. Could he truly mutate at long last? He selected a mutation at random to test and lo and behold, the System asked him to confirm the mutation! Being only a test, he rejected the mutation he had selected, an upgrade that would have given him a scent gland. Instead, he spent the next few hours looking at the ever-exhaustive list of mutations.

There were mutations ranging from 'dragonfly wings' to 'gills' and everything in-between. In fact, dragonfly wings didn't sound half-bad, he bookmarked that mutation, along with every mutation he saw which might prove useful to him in a fight against the Horror. By the end of his several hour search, Warhol had bookmarked dozens of mutations. When he considered which mutation he should first select, he thought about which one would be the most useful in the battle against the Horror.

Soon he would skirmish with the horror. During the upcoming fight, what mutation would be most useful? Several came to mind: he could go with [Mana Gland] and gain up to fifty percent more mana or he could go with [Void Breather] and retain and use oxygen as such an efficiency, it would practically allow him to 'breathe' in space. Either mutation would be extremely useful against the Horror, but if he had to go with one over another, he decided on the [Mana Gland].

Increasing his mana reserves by fifty percent was a no brainer! He read the mutation's description: [Derived from the powerful Mana Beast Gigator-Primus and its native dimension of Helio 9, the mana gland allows the recipient to process and grow mana at incredible rates, far beyond any normal human. Be warned! With this gland active, mana must be used! Mana with nowhere to go might seek its own destructive releases!].

Warning about 'destructive releases' aside, something his son, as a college student, probably knew a whole lot more about than he! Warhol confirmed his selection. Like the previous times, when the artifact blanked him in purple mist, it came to life and had its component parts swirl and clatter open. Instead of jumping into the air, though, the device spun rapidly, jumped from his hand, and bore into his flabby side. He screamed from the pain but willed himself to keep going.

He would've cast a numbing spell to deaden the pain, but the hurt had come on with such force, he hadn't thought to react, only endure. Though it was only seconds, the artifact's boring into him felt like minutes. He gasped for breath once the ordeal was over and tried not to stare at the blood on the floor. He huffed for air and tried to control his breathing, so he did not hyperventilate, but that was easier said than done.

The artifact plopped from his side, and he slammed his hand against the open wound to incant [Pain Relief]. He felt that relief without tarry.

"Oh, shit, wow! Haven't felt like that in a while!" Warhol opened his artifact's sub-menu to check his stats: everything had doubled! He couldn't believe it — doubled! His stats straight up doubled! [Mana Gland Successfully Augmented into Host Body] [Human: 93%]