?


    *SWOOSH*


    Ss flew through several trees instantly as his chest caved in, yet before he could m into one more, he flipped mid-air by punching the air and creating enough force to bnce him once more.


    Ss slid for a couple of meters before leaning forward and shooting toward Death as quickly as possible without using any of his fusions that would amplify his fighting capabilities.


    A mixture of emerald green and golden yellow energy ran through Ss'' mana channels before flooding into his bloodstream, and eventually into all of his muscles and bones, slowly repairing the damage done to them.


    At the same time, Ss took in one long, deep breath that flooded his core with as much mana as possible before assimting it and sending it to the rest of his body.


    He could feel the cold energy seep into his burning hot muscles, absorbing all the nutrients needed to repair themselves. It was an amazing feeling that allowed the pain from the destroyed limbs, bones, and muscles to wash away like the tide of an ocean.


    Due to the petal of life and his breakthrough into the topaz core, his healing was far superior to his previous self. While before, it might have taken 3 minutes to heal apletely destroyed and shattered limb, now it took less than a minute.


    *Swoosh*


    Ss'' body moved like a streak of lightning.


    His speed was so quick that not even beasts in the topaz stage would have sensed him without any of their strengthened senses.


    However, while Death was not a beast, he was a toki user, which also meant that he could amplify his senses when needed, allowing him to see and hear Ss as he came at him with his right arm cocked back.


    "You''re getting stronger much faster than I expected." Death frowned.


    It had been only 4 hours since they started this training, and Death only took it on because he was bored and had nothing to do. He was an assassin, and assassination jobs only came around once every month or so.


    Though, if he had to be honest, he didn''t expect to see himself breaking a child''s bones the entire time and feel guilty about it. Ss was an ass to him throughout the entire journey, but he still didn''t want this.


    *CRACK*


    Death spun on his toes and delivered a quick roundhouse kick that cracked the ground under him and mmed into the left side of Ss'' ribcage.


    The fight before this point could have been described as a one-sided beatdown. Every punch Death threw seemed to break a bone or two, making him question whether Ss really killed themander or if Archie just lied to keep his own cover from being blown.


    However, despite trying to hold back whenever Ss broke a bone or two, he would instantly regret it since Ss always took the opportunity to punish him for his restraint.


    "Huh?" Death''s eyes widened when he felt the resistance against his foot disappear, and when he focused on Ss again, he already saw him twirling around the kick before throwing a backhanded strike that mmed into his jaw and pushed him back a few steps.


    "Bastard." Death frowned and threw a lightning-quick punch that mmed into Ss'' stomach before catapulting him away like a broken kite.


    "Can you stop holding back?" Ss asked through gritted and bloodied teeth.


    "You''re not even using your magic and want me to not hold back? Are you crazy?" Death appeared before Ss in the blink of an eye without creating a single sound.


    "I need to get stronger." Ss let out a bloody cough.


    "And bing a punching bag is the only way you can do that?" Death rubbed his brows in frustration.


    Ss wasying on the ground, bloodied, covered in mud, and even slightly mangled.


    Not bothering to answer Death''s question, Ss closed his eyes and sucked in a cold breath filled with mana from his "metamorphosis" cultivation technique.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    He felt mana seep into his body and go straight into his core before being tainted with an emerald green color and spreading to the rest of his body.


    The cold mana seeped into all his broken bones, damaged muscles, and injured organs, healing them quickly.


    Every round of healing made his body just a little stronger, but over time, that strength became increasingly obvious. His cells were being filled with mana, their gic properties changing every time, bing tougher and stronger in order to not suffer the same injury again.


    After cultivating for a month without anything else to do, Ss tried to break down the key strengths of his cultivation technique. He named it Metamorphosis due to its connection to the evolution blessing.


    However, the more he learned about the cultivation technique, the more he understood that it was more than just evolution despite that being a big part of it.


    Metamorphosis had three functions; cultivation, assimtion, and evolution, but those were the only ones he had found so far.


    Cultivation was self-exnatory; however, assimtion was a littleplicated.


    Assimtion allows the user to break down anything they consume into something functional, which goes hand in hand with the other two functions.


    When consuming poison, assimtion allows the body toplete an evolution. The evolution allows Ss to be resistant to the thing that entered his body, or to be more used to it.


    Assimtion triggers evolution to choose the best oue when choosing how to evolve.


    Poison will be repelled, and healing potions may be amplified in quality when they enter Ss'' body. For example, while Ss didn''t understand the power of the petal of life, he knew that there was no chance that it was supposed to give a blessing and amplify his healing.


    At most, it should have healed him from a critical condition back to normal. However, ording to the blessing, it seemed to have given him the light affinity, increased healing, and even a connection to nature. Sure, he didn''t know how to use 2/3 of those, but it was still a lot.


    The cultivation aspect of it is far less interesting, yet it has the potential to be something extraordinary.


    Ss always found it odd that he had never seen his grandmother cultivate the mana within a core. Everyone seemed to turn beast and monster cores into armor or weaponry, while Ss and other beasts were the only ones who consumed or cultivated the cores.


    After a little bit of questioning throughout the month''s journey, and it turns out that consuming or cultivating cores was not normal because anyone who consumed the mana of someone or something else would receive something called mana poisoning.


    Consuming the mana core itself would cause the individual to experience mana overload, exploding their body into a blood mist.


    On the other hand, Mana poisoning reminded Ss of the concept of blood types.


    When taking in the blood of someone without the same blood type as you or someone who isn''t a universal donor, your immune system fights against that blood and tries to destroy it since it sees it as an invasive species.


    Mana poisoning is the same, but you''re not allowed to absorb the mana of anyone except yourself.


    Which brings Ss to the question, why is he unable to absorb the mana of a mage casting a spell, yet have no problem absorbing the mana of beasts and monsters, and even cultivating with them?


    If his theory was correct, the answer was most likely linked to the properties of life forces.


    "Oi. Stop spacing out. I have an appointment in about two hours." Death exined with crossed arms.


    "Nah. I think I''m done for today." Ss replied. He was really hungry and worried he might pass out if he went any longer without nutrients.


    ------------------------


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