"Big sis really went overboard~ She only just told me what happened."
"Eeeh~~ but I believe in you, Takumin. You really are the brightest of them all."
Meteria soothed Takumi with gentle strokes, her face filled with doting warmth. Takumi, already short of breath, lasted only a few minutes before a fed-up Hephaestus yanked him free.
"Meteria, even affection has limits!"
Righteous words—then Hephaestus promptly hugged Takumi herself.
She hadn't watched him the whole time like Freya had, but she had seen his bearing on the battlefield. She'd never cared much for heroes, yet now she understood why Freya chased that ideal. His radiance was simply too dazzling—deadly so, to a goddess.
"Hey, Hephaestus—Takumin is my child. Why can't I be affectionate? And you—why are you hugging him that tight!?"
Even the ever-gentle Meteria puffed out her cheeks now. Hephaestus, cheeks pink, scrambled for an excuse.
"I—I'm thanking him for saving one of mine—Tsubaki. She was grievously wounded and Takumi saved her. Of course I'm grateful! Right, to show my thanks, I want to give you a gift, Takumi-kun."
"You're bare-handed; you clearly don't have a proper weapon. I can—" Hephaestus got more and more into it, using gratitude as her in. Hestia dove in from the side and hauled her bestie back.
"Eep! Thankful is fine—now let go! Hephaestus, stop clutching my child!"
"He's my Takumin~" Meteria re-asserted—and joined the tug-of-war. Haruhime, blushing, said nothing…but her hands took advantage of the scrum and grabbed on too.
"Wha—!?"
You lewd little fox—where do you think you're grabbing?!
Feeling himself about to be turned into a toy, Takumi flexed lightly. In a blink he slipped out of everyone's grasp—especially Haruhime's.
Thwack, thwack, thwack! Thwack thwack!!
One forehead flick per person; Haruhime got an extra.
Staring down a teary-eyed Haruhime, Takumi didn't soften an inch. "You think you get to cry? I haven't even started."
"Uu~~ I'm sorry, Takumi-sama~~"
The pitiful fox lowered her tail in shy guilt. Takumi, not actually angry, forgave her at once. Honestly, the pressure hadn't been that strong—felt kinda nice, even.
Face warming, he straightened and put on a serious look. "Alright, enough. I'm going to rest for a bit. Calm down, all of you."
"Mm~" x4
Under his aura, the four could only nod obediently.
He slipped off alone to a Hephaestus Familia dorm room, sat, and pulled up his trait list.
"Blue → Purple costs 3,000%. Purple → Gold costs 100,000%. That jump is way too big—sniping gold via loot has better ROI. For now, these are the only ones worth considering."
He scanned his blue traits and picked five:
[Beastforce (Blue)], [Protagonist's Halo (Blue)], [Observation Eye (Blue)], [Soul Devour (Blue)], [Myriad-Treasure Mallet (Blue)].
He had his eye on [Shapeshifting (Blue)] too—but with [Cinder Ella (Purple)] as an upper-tier substitute, it could wait.
After weighing it all, he locked in [Beastforce (Blue)]. At base it was already a composite of many traits—the king of Blues—hugely versatile, the thing that carried him early. If he could ascend it, the potential would be extraordinary.
"The way folks in Orario see me now, pulling together another 3,000% is nothing."
He stopped dithering and dumped progress into the bar. At once [Beastforce] flared purple—and set other traits flashing.
"Huh? Same as last time—the trait can fuse?"
Eyes lighting, he looked over the ones pulsing:
[Cinder Ella (Purple)], [Shapeshifting (Blue)], [Monstrous Strength (Arms) (Blue)], [Windrunner Legs (Blue)], [Far-Hearing (Blue)]…
"And a whole stack of dungeon-monster traits I scooped up earlier."
Thrilled, he remembered the last fusion—merging a pile of greens into a single blue. Maybe this time… a gold.
He selected everything that lit up and hit [Overfusion].
The purple sheen slowly deepened—then a wash of gold rose from within.
In that instant, every cell in his body leapt. Boundless vitality surged, and his will threaded into every fiber of flesh. Waves rippled through him from head to toe.
He raised a hand; bones and flesh warped in an eye-blink into crimson talons. A lazy sweep across the floor etched a clean rent in the stone.
A heartbeat later the claws became a little guinea pig that hopped free at his elbow. The little thing circled Takumi with squeaky chirps—then popped into a fox's form, scarlet flame licking its fur, a dead ringer for the real thing. The foxlet sprang back into him; ripples spread like a drop falling into a river—and his missing palm re-formed in a blink.
He flexed a fist, feeling the change, and glanced at his panel:
[Ultimate Lifeform (Gold): You are a lifeform beyond reason. Welcome to the top of the food chain!]
Just one plain sentence. But Takumi could feel how vast the change was.
He could now freely command every single cell—even down to rebirth from a single drop of blood. His genes thrummed with absurd evolutionary energy. With nothing but a single hair from a target, he could instantly clone any bloodline below Gold quality; equal-tier bloodlines merely needed analysis time. Better yet, with gene editing he could optimize himself and any bloodline he took in—pursuing perfect evolution.
"Feels like there's even more I haven't dug up."
He looked at his palm as his perspective dove down to the microscopic. With gene-tuned senses he could amp perception a thousandfold. If he wished, he could hear every voice in Orario—and his brain, now a supercomputer, took it all in without strain. If he wanted, his eyes could pick out every little pebble drifting across the moon in crystal clarity…
....
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