The Tyrant's Vessel

In a logistics warehouse in Busan.

“Careful with that one over there.”

“Are they throwing some kind of exhibition?”

“This place is packed with bones.”

The laborers moved busily back and forth, hauling fossils.

I stood with my hands clasped behind my back, surveying the half-filled warehouse.

Sniff. Sniff sniff.

The thick, rich scent of pure essence tickled my nose.

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah. This should be plenty.”

The fossils the workers were carrying had been won at auction through the Association.

More precisely, they had been purchased with money I’d entrusted to them.

This warehouse also held fossils supplied by Gold Moon and Guryong-bang.

As the laborers had noted, there was no exhibition planned, so the fossils were simply laid out across the floor by body part.

Even so, the sight was spectacular.

Once the transport work was finished, I cleared every remaining person out of the warehouse.

“Goddess, stay here just in case. I don’t know what might happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“I become vulnerable to outside interference during the process.”

I placed my hand on a bone that had fused with the earth stratum—a fossil.

The fossil beneath my palm began to erode as if exposed to centuries of weathering. The essence it had stored vanished, and the bone could no longer hold its shape.

The amount absorbed was only 0.7 percent.

Plenty remained, so it was fine.

I moved on to the next fossil.

One after another, the fossils crumbled into powder.

It had been a long time since I’d truly felt the power that turned “money” into “crap” on full display.

The warehouse had been packed to the brim.

Every time I used Devour, more empty space appeared while fine dust settled across the floor.

For a four-star skill the options were straightforward.

The boost to strength and endurance was nice, but the real value lay in the high resistance to debuffs.

Cold Blood could only resist mental curses. Physical debuffs had to be forcibly expelled through raw power.

With the addition of the Overwhelming Tyrant passive, I now had countermeasures for every kind of debuff skill.

“Then I’ll finish eating them too.”

The few remaining fossils had lost nearly all archaeological or economic value.

Devouring their essence would also increase my magic power thanks to the Dragon Heart, so I reduced every last piece to dust.

“Don’t sound so disappointed. The real work starts now.”

The options on the primordial essence Overwhelming Tyrant were important, but they weren’t why I had gathered all these fossils.

From the Tutorial until now, I had accumulated countless essences.

Some created synergistic effects, but others—like Acid Blood and Corpse Poison—were similar in nature yet repelled each other and refused to mix.

In my previous life I had even paused Devour for a while because my body couldn’t handle the overload.

A foolish mistake.

“I will reconstruct the vessel using the essences I’ve absorbed.”

Body remodeling. A term I coined myself.

“Similar, but different.”

Body Change was the phenomenon that occurred when the body accepted mana all the way to its limit and reconstructed itself.

It was the first gateway for a mortal to step into the realm of transcendence.

Martial artists experienced Bone Reforging and Flesh Renewal; the only difference was the catalyst—internal energy versus mana. The destination remained the same.

“Exactly. What I’m doing is remodeling my body using the essences I’ve absorbed so far.”

Body Change and Bone Reforging rebuilt the physique to accept even greater power, creating a kind of microcosm inside a mortal shell.

In contrast, my body remodeling used the devoured essences to rewrite the body’s very composition, forcibly modifying it to wield far stronger power.

Dehumanization.

Or, to put it simply, quitting being human.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t touch me until I open my eyes.”

I lay flat on the floor.

The lotus position only helped when circulating energy; for body remodeling it was simply uncomfortable.

I was about to tear apart and rebuild every single bone, every cell, every muscle fiber. Who would want to sit cross-legged through that?

I took a short, deep breath and looked inward at my own body.

Countless stars, large and small.

The essences I had devoured until now scattered lights of every color.

Lower-grade ones glowed faintly, while the essences of the Earth Mother Goddess and Dragon Soldiers blazed with the presence of suns.

And then—

Crackle!

—there were essences like Corpse Poison, Acid Blood, and Paralysis Poison that constantly collided with one another.

Those three were the reason my stomach had been acting up lately.

I shook my head and walked through the sea of light pouring from the essences.

How long had I been gazing inward?

The newly absorbed Primordial Species – Tyrannosaurus Essence appeared before me.

Yes. This was the “vessel” that would serve as the foundation for my body remodeling.

I tightly embraced the intensely shining primordial essence.

Tens of millions of years ago.

The race that had ruled the Earth with powerful bodies and mastery of magic power—the dinosaurs. I spun their essence throughout my entire body.

Crack. Crunch!

The Tyrannosaurus essence began transforming my flesh.

The primordial factors seeped into every single cell.

As I accepted the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠essence, my bones grew thicker and denser.

My previously rounded nails and claws began to radiate lethal sharpness.

“Ughhhhhh…”

A scream that no one else could hear.

No joke—this hurt like absolute hell.

It felt like having every fingernail and toenail ripped out one by one, then having iodine poured straight onto the raw flesh.

Artificially rewriting the body’s genetic factors came with pain like thousands of ants swarming over every inch of skin and biting down.

Did it really have to hurt this much?

It did.

If I wanted revenge against those damn Old Gods, I was willing to do far worse than this.

I could endure this kind of agony as many times as necessary!

Grind.

My teeth clenched so hard it felt like they might shatter.

I endured the brutal process to the very end.

At some point, while I was lost in the pain and had even forgotten the passage of time—

The agony that had hammered my entire body vanished without a trace.

Instead, a refreshing clarity filled me.

Hoo. First stage ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠complete.

Now that the “vessel” was ready, it was time to fill it.

I reached for one of the many colored lights floating before me.

A sphere radiating green light—the Orc essence I had absorbed on the third floor.

—Krrk, krrrk.

The distinctive grunting confirmed it.

I pictured my whole body and poured the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Orc essence into my muscles.

Every single muscle fiber accepted the essence and began to change.

The “vessel” created from the primordial essence was literally just a container. Remodeling the body didn’t automatically fill it with anything.

What would I fill it with?

Obviously, all the essences I had absorbed until now.

Success.

Next I granted the Horned Rabbit essence to my thighs and replaced my heart with the power of the Dragon Soldier.

The effects were even stronger than when I had received system corrections.

Synchronizing various parts of my body with different essences and elevating their abilities another level posed no major problem.

Now came the real challenge.

I had to bind together essences that possessed similar properties yet repelled one another.

Acid Blood / Corpse Poison / Paralysis Poison.

Dragon Heart / Mana Core (Lower) / Dark Matter Core.

I’d start with the blood.

Among the three, Acid Blood had the highest grade and, conveniently, possessed properties that could encompass the other two.

I poured the Acid Blood essence into my bloodstream.

Blood donation was off the table from now on.

I wasn’t some monster from an SF movie, but anywhere my blood touched would now be corroded with holes.

Once the blood’s nature changed, the other two essences stopped clashing.

The warm-up exercise was finished.

Time for the main event.

The Dragon Heart beat powerfully.

The essence now fully integrated with my body drove the heart.

Mana mixed into the blood circulated throughout my system, washing away accumulated fatigue.

The problem was mixing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Dark Matter Core into this.

First, I collided the Dark Matter Core with the Mana Core.

The Mana Core essence was eroded by the Dark Matter Core; mana converted into dark mana, and the two became one.

Next, I granted the essence now carrying a black hue to my heart.

Thump—! Thump—!

The Dragon Heart resisted, refusing to accept the Dark Matter Core.

My heartbeat accelerated at a frightening pace.

If this continued, my heart rate would spike so high I might actually die.

An expected reaction.

I reversed the Dark Matter Core’s properties, converting the dark mana I had just created back to its original nature.

The heartbeat gradually calmed.

The Dragon Heart accepted the Dark Matter Core without further resistance.

Whew.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Combining opposing energy sources had not been easy.

If the first attempt had failed, I would have needed a second, then a third. Each time my heart rate would have gone berserk, and the backlash would have felt like my meridians were being torn apart.

Thump—! Thump—!

The Dragon Heart, now possessing two contradictory powers, beat even more vigorously.

I had no immediate use for dark mana, but as I climbed the Tower of Babel I would obtain even more essences, and the number of skills I could deploy with dark mana would only grow.

Moreover, by fusing the two forces I had laid the foundation to step into the next realm.

Today had truly been bountiful.

I stopped observing my inner world and returned my consciousness to reality.

My blurry vision slowly regained clarity.

The moment my hazy focus sharpened, the first thing I saw was Nyx’s face.

“…Goddess?”

Uh… you’re a little too close.

Our faces were so near I could feel her breath.

I subtly leaned backward.

“Of course I’m perfectly fine.”

“They say eagles pluck out their own feathers when they want to undergo rebirth.”

“……”

She saw through the lie surprisingly quickly.

Now then.

Time to check exactly how much stronger my remodeled body had become.

“Status Window.”

Soon, a translucent window appeared before my eyes.