Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A carriage was trudging on the cold snow that stained the road to Genhuis City along with several others that were equipped with stellar designs as well as heating contraptions.

Within this particular carriage was a man who looked quite a bit younger than his actual age, over his body a freakishly thick blanket-like jersey that served to shield him from the cold… on top of the premium grade magic arrays that heated the interior of the locomotive to a perfect set of degrees.

Yet, this man with a particularly pale face and long, white hair with streaks of blue on both sides of his head tied into a ponytail, shivered as his body seemed to be on the verge of freezing over.

Opposite him in the luxurious carriage was a beautiful but stern lady with brown, braided hair coiled into a bun at the back of her head.

She was dressed formally, her hands on her lap as they grasped onto a cup of tea. She paid excruciating attention to the man before her as she took a sip.

“I hope this isn’t the occasional anxiety kicking in, sir. The Premium Age Royale is bound to be full of strong opponents garnering for a position in the EverSword House. If your enemies manage to succeed in getting a place in the EverSword House and you don’t, that would be disastrous, would it not? This isn’t what’s bringing on this seasonal excessive shivering, is it?”

“Fuck no! What’s bringing about this shivering, is the cold!” the man lightly lost his temper before he blew into his hands pitifully.

“I beg to differ, sir. I know quite a bit of your odd behaviours and this isn’t an impossibility,” the woman said with a caring yet still stern gaze as she leaned over and lightly rubbed the man’s oversized jersey. “Do calm down, sir. You’re hailed as the strongest after all. No one will touch you or your Family.”

“Yeah? You’d think that’d come with some degree of immunity to this Boron-sent cold, especially for a native to the region like me. Sss. Is it my age? I’m barely in the category of old and look at me. It’s like I’m a reptile!”

“Actually, you ARE quite old, sir,” the woman said with blunt tone.

The white haired man glared at the woman as he shivered but she didn’t flinch.

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you too, sir,” the woman said casually as she sipped her tea with dignified mannerism.

The man with the outrageous jersey scoffed and turned to side.

“Sss. I better not have come here for nothing. If not for the promise of that Diviner that I will meet someone like me here, I wouldn’t bother with this… and YOU!”

“I’m sure you’d still have to deal with me, sir. Consider me the lovely pair to your strong manhood,” the woman said with a rarely seen smile. “It would hurt to rip me off.”

***

Six hours had slowly passed.

They were extraordinarily agonising for Yuyui, interesting for Ferex who kept watching the entire time while keeping his master’s belongings – spatial storage ring and armour – and extremely fulfilling for Skullius!

He had taken his time, understanding the intricacies of his core and the taste of his mana, along with freely interpreting everything that had to do with this power of his as he wished.

A few days ago, he hadn’t thought that he would sculpt his mana core with this level of accuracy and speed and… rightfully so.

Skullius estimated that he would have taken until the beginning of the Premium Age Royale, which was supposed to start three days after the designated time for his return given by Silrat, to finish his Refinery and Shell, completing a sub par version of what he wanted.

Now, however, he had taken infinitely less time and while producing a vastly better result!

It wasn’t a spot on imitation of Distorted Gravity as he didn’t even have the lesser fundamentals of the concept, but it was… quite something.

At least Skullius had made it according to his own interpretation and he was…

Satisfied.

[You have completed your mana core]

A guidance field notification bloomed in front of his vision which was available in his soul form.

‘Finally…’ Skullius said while taking his time to offer a silent ‘Thank you’ to Sila who would never hear it.

The old soul’s deeds was what birthed this eventuality and from here on out, Skullius would never be the same.

[Reconstruction of the body begins…]

[Taking note of special traits…]

[Special mana property detected – Inferior Distorted Gravity]

[Special body property detected – basic level attunement]

[Special body property detected – enhanced alternate senses]

[Special property detected – hold of Death]

[Resource distribution into augmentation and integration of detected properties begins…]

After the flurry of notifications gushed before Skullius, the swirling pieces of red matter that were his body halted their lackadaisical swim in the air, the golden light that had been prevalent all of this time becoming dim as it transferred a huge amount of its power to the production of a new body!

‘Hold of Death, huh? Must be from Demion’s Dance. Let’s see what this will do,’ Skullius thought.

The red matter crunched and curled as it started to form a shape.

A skeletal shape.

Before the shape fully formed, the completed mana core exploded with immense power as its build, which had been very small suddenly grew to almost five times its size!

What had been the pin sized Centre grew to be an bigger blue orb that pulsed with not a dull blue but a vibrant blue light while the elegant Refinery, weaved up to the Shell looked like a work of art!

[Mana increases by 4500]

A portion of the power from the Luminant Seed was granted to the mana core, shooting up its capacity immensely!

With that, the skeleton started to form.

It was pristine white, the mana from the core flooding into it to enhance its properties as it appeared!

It gained a powerful and sturdy build, one that could be ascertained just by looking at it!

Over this, a mesh of flesh hurriedly started to form, creating nerves and muscles that strung around where they needed to be, blood vessels being forged along with them.

[The previously termed <RUSH BLOOD> has become <CURSED BLOOD>]

[The previously termed <STEEL BONE FRAME> has become <HEAVY PILLAR FRAME>]

[You have attained <Medium Level Attunement> as a result of previous basic level attunement]

‘Oh,’ Skullius thought as the coil of flesh and bone covered his soul!

Blood vessels that carried blood with a very, very dark red pigment within them appeared, coursing through every inch of his formed body while a complex pattern of nerves ran through his flesh and touched over his bones.

Amidst all this, the Fruit of World Myths could be seen being buried in all of it, and making sure its hold was firm.

A heart began to form, its beating quite powerful as it thrummed menacingly, bringing a rare vivacity to the body!

[The previously termed <HEART> has become the <CURSED HEART>]

[The previously termed skill <HYPED>, forcibly evolves to <BEYOND THE HYPE>]

The rush of power from the Seed continued as it finished the limited number of innards and then started to form the skin!

‘Right here! Let’s make the adjustments!’ Skullius thought as he got to work.

He had made quite the fine piece with his Shell, but creating with very large outlets of mana from the Refinery.

Now, he needed the mana pathways to be capable of holding such amounts of mana.

He appropriated a large amount of energy into manipulating the mana network that was forming within his flesh at this moment, first growing the size of each individual path to three and a half times what was currently being forged!

This caused his flesh and muscles to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate this, which was good!

Next, he started working on the interior, pulling on some of his mana and mixing it with the golden energy to create pathways that understand the mana they would carry and had the durability necessary to handle large bursts of the mana!

‘That should do it!’

With this finished, Skullius’ flesh wriggled as over it, ivory toned skin plastered over the flesh of Skullius as it was also pooled by the mana from the core, completing this perfect image of a new entity!

Skullius’ body, which was more athletic than bulky, chest pads and abs visible in an enticing show was then wrapped by two dark chain tattoos that crossed over his torso.

The Binds of Fukal.

On his head appeared an abundance of clean, light auburn hair that streamed over his shoulder, almost reaching his waist.

Over his face, his eyes which had had some semblance of irises and pupils became almost completely white, giving the image of more than just a blind man, while full cheeks, thin cherry lips and a button nose complemented them nicely.

[Your body is complete]

[You have gained 5000 to all stats]

[The <HEAVY PILLAR FRAME> grants an additional 1000 to Strength and Endurance]

[Your musculature grants an additional 800 to Agility]

Skullius was taken aback by all these notifications.

Considering that he had a blue mana core now, these stats were… extremely relevant unlike before!

[The basic effect, <WEIGHT>, applies to your mana]

[You have gained the skill, ‘Edos Summoning’]

‘Oh, I also got a skill?!’ Skullius thought in surprise as he wasn’t familiar with unearned skills anymore.

The last time he gained a bunch of skills was after accepting the legacy of Fulgardt and…

‘Wait a minute! This skill… isn’t this-‘

Before he could finish, Skullius was interrupted by a phenomenon that he hadn’t seen coming which caused his body to jerk back and forth against his will as the remaining golden light around him gathered on his back!

‘Huh?!’

The stream of light formed something Skullius wouldn’t have imagined.

Detached from his body, the stream of golden energy remaining from the Luminant Seed formed… the shape of a wing!

Like individual strands of light that were stretched out by some divine forger, the makings of this wing were breath-taking!

This wing didn’t leave room another, as with its golden white luminescence, faint blue symbols etched onto its almost ethereal structure, it rested directly at the centre of Skullius’ back, announcing that it was the only one.

With its appearance, traces of small lights, like glitter were seen over Skullius’ skin, a ferocious wave of power gushing from him as a result!

[Your race has been finalised]

[You have manifested a <Wing of Embrace>, a feature that confirms your race]

[The previously termed <Discount Human> has become the <Hybrid Luman>]