Ethan felt the pill sliding into his guts and took a deep breath.
The pill was a hot ball of fire that went down his throat. He could feel it building up inside him like a mighty volcano about to burst. The sensation was akin to… no. He had no way of describing this; he had never experienced something similar.
But it was unpleasant. Extremely unpleasant.
Scarlett came closer and hugged him, but his skin had become as red as a ripe tomato, and his nerves were bulging like thick iron wires running under his skin. Scarlett held him tightly but flinched as he hugged and pushed her down.
He was growing violent. His body strength had also started rising.
With all his effort, he stopped, and she could see his feral face an inch above her face. He was growling and looked ugly, like a beast. But his eyes struggled to keep calm, even in the utter craving his body was feeling. Scarlett looked at him with calm eyes.
[Body Size Manipulation]
Her ability kicked in, and she became a small giant nearly 4 meters in size. She easily pushed him to the side and walked a fair distance away: "Heh, not so easily now. Alright?"
Ethan growled. Was it this uncomfortable?
Blackened ooze seeped out of his pores, and pain wracked him from his bones. Yet, he could also feel something becoming one with him.
Had he had the Divine Sense that a Cultivator had, he would have noticed how the loose Dimensional Heritage had sunk into him and become a part of his body. It had become a part of his nerves, and an entirely new nervous system was forming inside him, one that would allow the World Essence to flow through him.
As his mind became hazy and he rolled around the ground, and as Scarlett's face became gloomy with hesitation, Ethan's whole physical structure was changing from his core.
Each of the assortment of atoms and molecules that constituted him were aligning themselves differently. World Essence itself, the Energy that only the Mortal Gods could interact with in their surroundings, was moving around his body, shaping him like clay.
And as he fainted and vomited black goo on the cavern, smelling worse than shit, something that the world hadn't seen for the past few millennia was born… again—The True Dimensional Physique.
In Earth's terms, a Heritage was a set of Abilities that random people Awakened by sheer luck. A Heritage could either have only one ability or multiple ones. They can make it go from a mere low-ranking D Rank Heritage to its final form… The S Rank.
A Heritage-Awakened became a higher Rank by comprehending more of what their Heritage was by using it more and more and understanding the essence of it all. When they had it fully understood and comprehended, they would become S Rankers.
S Rankers were a huge deal; any S Ranker would be the key figure on Earth, but that was their limit. They could become nothing more. But what eating a Pill of Comprehension did was it first forcefully makes a Cultivator comprehend their Heritage entirely.
Even as Ethan was squirming in pain, from a mere B Rank Heritage-Awakened, he became an S Ranker. He now had a full understanding of his Heritage, and even as he was struggling, he could feel his Heritage was incomplete. It lacked some key parts to it.
The incomplete parts were still in his own body, but they were not assimilated into him when he Awakened as a Heritage-Awakened for the first time. But now they all came together, and his body became a conduit for the power of Dimensions. He became one with his abilities.
It was like a virtuous cycle. Like the stars aligning to form a picture.
When he finally calmed down and lay on the ground, Scarlett was nearly frightened to death. He was like a sack of potatoes, lifeless. She almost had her eyes turn blank, and it was lucky she didn't have a heart attack.
Thankfully, his blood was pumping, and his heart was beating. He was alive.
Scarlett took him and cleaned all of the nasty black stuff first with her clothes. His body mass had increased a lot—he certainly seemed stronger than an 'insect' now. After cleaning him perfunctorily, she waited by the side in curiosity.
She didn't act rashly by immediately eating her own Pill of Comprehension. She waited patiently for him to awaken, and only when he awakened just half an hour later could she finally sigh in relief. He was fine.
"You certainly seem to have gone through a ride," he remarked, touching her thigh with his nasty-smelling hand.
She sighed, filled with excitement hard to hide.
"Seems like it is some good stuff."
Surpassing S Rank... that was a dream. Unbelievable dream that surpassed everything on Earth.
"Yep, it was fun. And damn, you won't believe how good it feels to have such a strong body… I could probably break you like a twig now."
She asked, prodding him, "What about your Heritage?"
"There is no Heritage in my body now, only my True Dimensional Physique; it's pretty neat. All my old abilities became stronger, and I gained some new ones. I am far stronger, too—I won't have to worry about a random man bumping on me and being crushed into meat paste."
Scarlett blushed slightly. He was far stronger than her now?
She would break like a twig if he moved hard enough?
'Maybe I really am a bit masochistic. A bit,' she thought and shook her head.
Ethan didn't notice and clenched his hand.
"I should test my limits. But Scarr, you can eat it now, then let's bathe and… fight."
Scarlett's eyes finally lit up.
"Sure."
It had just been some few days since they entered the Immortal World and Ethan had already left his past self in the dust, it was her time to improve now.