It was hard to describe the high that came from absorbing so much lifeforce. It was like one long moment of warm bliss that I never wanted to end. I should probably mention I also looked downright demonic at the moment. Vast amounts of red energy flying through the air towards my body while my surroundings were on fire all while my tattoos glowed brightly and I cackled like a madman. Yeah I'd say I looked like the fucking devil having chosen to make an appearance. All good things had to come to an end though.-
When I finally adjusted to my new wealth of power I was hit with the long suppressed hunger inherent to my powers with a vengeance.
'I dealt with you once and I'll do it again as many times as it takes for you to understand that you fucking belong to me and I'll die before letting a fucking instinct control me!' I thought angrily as I violently pushed the hunger down again.
"You good kid? Got a bit snarly at the end there, made me a mite nervous." Clay asked with barely masked concern.
"Yeah I'm fine now, my powers hunger tried to make a reappearance but I kicked it's shit back into the hole it crawled out of." I said reassuringly.
"This gonna be a reoccurring problem?" he asked seriously.
"Nah, just showed up from eating too much lifeforce at once is all. So long as I keep my "meals" small it'll stay in the fucking cage." I said firmly.
We headed back to the manor after that and had dinner before I headed into my house to integrate my new traits in case they make a mess. I stripped and sat down on the floor of my shower in preparation before squaring my attention on the traits I planned to integrate one at a time. First I nudged the [Shock resistance] and [Radiation resistance] traits to get them to integrate. Immediately my pores began to weep blood and my skin turned lighter and lighter until it was almost pale white with a faint odd red, blue and yellow tinge to it. Next up was [Sharp vision] that fused into my [Enhanced senses] trait and pushed it into the next grade, Epic. Up next I went with [Inorganic consumption] which I fused with [Iron stomach] for 5,000 units of lifeforce to create [True omnivore-Rare grade].-
I immediately threw up blood and flesh as my stomach and esophagus rebuilt themselves for their new purpose, which is to say consuming literally anything that wasn't pure energy. Once that was over with I was nauseous but refused to stop until I was done. [Supreme armored hide] was next up and got fused with [Armored hide] for free since I was pretty sure it was just the upgraded version of the trait. Once again my skin sloughed off exposing the muscles underneath for a few agonizing but brief moments as new skin grew out over my body.-
The new skin was pale just like before but had a rough texture to it not unlike stone while somehow still being pliable enough to move as necessary. Next up I fused [Supreme teeth], [Dense claws(variant: Metallic)] and [Superior bones] for a price of 20,000 units to create [Biometallic bones-Epic grade]. I quickly came to regret that as my bones liquified under my muscles and an insane amount agony assailed my mind as new ones made of organic metal regrew in their places. If it wasn't for my powers locking myself into a stiff shape during this process I shudder to think of the misshapen creature I would have turned into.-
I passed out thank fucking gods as I doubted I would have been able to withstand the pain and maintain my current level of sanity otherwise. Finally all I had left to integrate was the two [Energetic sustenance] traits which I nudged as soon as I awoke from my pain induced mini coma. Oddly however there was no pain with this integration but rather a mild itch all over my body as my skin darkened slightly and that was it.-
Honestly speaking I didn't look much different than before this round of integrations other than my skin being much paler and having a odd multicolored tinge to it like I fucking slicked myself in antifreeze but failed to wash it all off. That didn't mean I didn't feel VERY fucking different. I was sluggish as shit as my new metal bones increased my weight by a fuckton and my muscles weren't happy about it. My skin also felt stiff and hard, which it was. Even worse was that all my senses were heightened to a ridiculous degree after the trait related to it reached Epic grade and my mind was struggling hard to handle it.-
'Fuck! Every gods damn time!' I cursed mentally as I sat huddled on the floor of my shower trying to adjust to the disorienting amount of stimulus I was getting.
It took me nearly an entire hour to adapt to the enhancement of my senses and then another to clean up the mess in my shower(thank gods for alien disintegration tech). I hated every second of it though as my every movement was strained from my muscles suddenly having an extra seventy pounds to deal with spread out along my whole body. -
It wasn't enough to overwhelm my muscles but I had been pushed back down to human levels and then a little more. My legs in particular were suffering the most and I'm pretty fucking sure if it wasn't for the [Ambush muscles] I integrated a while back I wouldn't even be able to walk more than five minutes at a time. I slipped on my skinsuit after I was done cleaning up and left my house to pass my good Jakobs suit to the old man to get retailored.-
"Something wrong with you boy?" he asked sternly.
I chuckled "I suppose you can say that. I integrated and fused those new traits I got and now I am having trouble moving since I weigh so fucking much. Not regretting it mind you just need to get some more muscle traits to balance things out is all." I say honestly.
"The hell kinda trait you get to fuck your weight up like that?" he asked astonished.
"[Biometallic bones] Epic grade, my entire skeleton is now made of organic steel more or less. Adds an extra seventy or so pounds to me if my math's right." I said with a shrug.
"You talkin like one of them mechanical enhancements meant to make folk less squishy?" he asked and I thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"Kinda like that but like WAY fucking better. These new bones of mine can heal like normal and even grow as I do. So basically normal bones but made of metal instead of, well bone." I say with a grin.
Not that I felt like I needed to grow much more as I was already a solid six foot after getting that growth spurt on Athenas. Unfortunately I knew damn well that I don't get any say in the matter as my traits all but guarantee that I'll hit basket ball player levels of tall by the time I'm done growing. That is to say six nine up to seven five depending on my luck. Unlike if I was a normal human getting that big was actually to my benefit rather than detriment. See thanks to my powers I WILL eventually reach superhuman standards in various regards and that meant a certain size was needed to maximize the effects that entails. All that said I still was slightly annoyed about the matter since I knew doorways were going to be a problem in the future.-
"You sure you want to go stuffin more traits into your body before you get used to these ones?" he asked seriously and I nodded.
"I need to get used to the changes as much as I can before I head to Pandora and that means it's best if I get them as quick as I can." I say honestly.
He didn't press the issue after that and took my word for it on trust. Since there was plenty of time left in the day I headed out into the swamps nearby to hunt some jabbers for their [Strong body-Common grade] trait to even out my body so I can fight the imported beasts from Hydran on my best footing. It took four copies at 500 units apiece to return me to normal with the exception of my jump distance that was still slightly shorter than normal. My body filled out a bit more as a result so now I was a thick slab of muscle. Thankfully my muscles weren't grotesquely massive but at the very limit of what seemed normal to achieve for someone my size.-
I did a round of sim training and discovered something interesting, I was minorly bullet proof. Specifically small caliber rounds like the twenty two simply left a bruise on impact with my skin but failed to penetrate at all. Against normal calibers like forty fives the damage was moderately mitigated even if the bullets still penetrated. Headshots were also VERY ineffective against me as my skull being thick metal meant most bullets struggled not to ricochet off of it. I am talking simulation data wise anyways as I obviously hasn't going to test this shit with an actual gun.-
'Back in business.' I thought with a grin after matching my previous score in the sim room against a small platoon of armed enemies.
I relaxed for the next three days so that I could start the new week out fresh and ready. I spent most of the days tinkering with my gun and shield to upgrade them with my new Eridian knowledge. I sent the Eridian armor I took off the corpse in the mountain cave into the crafter thing to turn it into raw materials that I used to have the machine spit out perfectly machined parts for my shield and gun.-
[Name: Adaptive True Death
Level: Pearlescent/unique
Type: Repeater pistol
Damage type: N/A
Manufacturer: DRAKE
Customizations: Extended barrel, Caliber conversion up, textured grip, Digistruct autoloading mechanism, Eridian metal body, Elemental affinity up, Causality double shot.
Affix: Some say death is the end...
If the Adaptive True Rebirth is equipped damage changes based on the element equipped to it.]
[Name: Adaptive True Rebirth
Level: Pearlescent/unique
Type: Shield
Damage type: N/A
Manufacturer: DRAKE
Customizations: Eridian rewiring, hexagonal shielding, Eridian metal body, Elemental resistance up, Passive healing field.
Affix: For you it's a new beginning
If the Adaptive Death is equipped shield shifts to whatever element is last used against it and the damage type for the Adaptive Death changes to counter it.]
Yeah not gonna lie I might have gone a tad overboard at remaking my gun and shield in my image. My gun was now a beast of a weapon that I managed to make fire two bullets every time I pulled the trigger with the second bullet being this weird reality bent thing that didn't exist until I pulled the trigger and didn't get subtracted from my ammo store at all. Otherwise the gun just got a material upgrade and a bit of an elemental damage boost.-
My shield was a whole other matter as I effectively entirely rebuilt it. I replaced it's casing, added extra Eridian wiring to boost energy efficiency and recharge rate, reorganized the shield pattern from the standard triangles(no idea why this is standard)to motherfucking hexagons, increased the elemental resistance after it swaps elements AND managed to add a passive healing effect to it when it was still up which meant I was even harder to kill now, yay science!
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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce: 1,839,290
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade], [Clever mind-Uncommon grade]X3,[Enhanced senses-Epic grade], [Omega body-Rare grade]x4, [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade], [Bone regeneration-Uncommon grade], [Corrosion resistance-Uncommon grade], [Energy projection-Epic grade]x2, [Superior vitality-Epic grade],[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Minor regeneration-Rare grade], [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Amphibious lungs], [Water resistance],[Quick thinking], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade], [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade], [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade], [Radiation resistance-Epic grade], [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade], [True omnivore-Rare grade], [Biometallic bones-Epic grade]
Stored traits: [Energy reservoir-Epic grade],