He originally wanted to pretend to be a fanatic, maybe even try touching the UR ability that Orochi most likely possessed and instantly skyrocket to the heavens right then and there.
But if it meant risking becoming someone's meal… yeah, no thanks.
Understood!
Thank you!!
Forget I asked!!!
"In that case," Hans said, "I'll wait until I'm stronger, until I'm truly worthy of meeting His Majesty."
"I'll now go carry out my mission, and I won't disappoint you, my lord!"
After speaking, he gave a polite nod, turned smoothly, and bolted without hesitation.
His steps were quick, almost fleeing, and in the blink of an eye he vanished into the darkness outside the gates, as if afraid Psykos might change her mind.
Psykos: "…"
"Damn it, now I really want to hit him…!"
"No, calm down! If I hit him now, I might actually kill him!!"
"Fine! Let's wait until he evolves to Dragon-level, then Orochi can take care of him properly!!"
...
After leaving the grand hall, Hans suddenly felt a chill down his spine and shivered instinctively.
With his monster physique, there was no way he could catch a cold.
Which meant… the truth was obvious!!
"Something evil nearby? Nope, I'm outta here!"
Muttering to himself, Hans blurred into a black streak and vanished into the maze-like underground corridors.
Hidden Psykos clone: "…"
He sped all the way back to his new room, slammed the heavy alloy door shut, and flared his aura to maximum, cutting off all outside detection.
Only then did Hans finally relax and grin wide.
Whoosh!
Thousands of grotesque, pulsating flesh chunks spilled out of his bag, piling up into a small hill that glowed faintly in the dim light.
Hans's eyes lit up immediately.
'Jackpot!'
'I really struck gold this time!'
Without hesitation, Hans plunged his hands into the hill of strange flesh, a cocky grin spreading across his face.
"System! Convert it all!"
[Conversion successful! Gained Source Points ×110,000!]
Thousands of Monster Cells turned to dust and were instantly refined.
His balance skyrocketed in seconds.
[Source Points: 183,691]
A new personal record, 183K!
Staring at that massive number, Hans felt every cell in his body vibrating with excitement. A rush of pride surged through him.
After being broke for so long, he was finally rich, no more penny-pinching when leveling up!
Once the excitement cooled, Hans let out a deep breath.
The number looked big, but compared to what he needed, it was still far from enough.
For example, leveling Overgrowth from Lv6 to Lv7 cost 32,000 points, Lv8 cost 64,000, and Lv9 a terrifying 128,000!
In other words, even with 180K, he could only boost two core SSR abilities.
Realizing this, his inflated confidence deflated fast.
He rubbed his chin, muttering to himself.
"The Association's full of Psykos' eyes. If I upgrade my core abilities now, my power spike will give me away."
His rational mind reasserted itself, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.
"If I said I was about to break through, then I should act like I hit a bottleneck. Can't make it look too easy, how else will I squeeze more rewards out of the rich lady later?"
"So… no leveling core skills yet."
The core stays untouched, but other abilities, no problem.
Since he'd soon be heading into human cities, his current monstrous form was… not exactly discreet.
Which made a strong disguise ability crucial.
"Alright then, max out Monsterization!"
[Spent 48,000 Origin Points. "Monsterization" upgraded! Lv6 → Lv10 (MAX)!]
[Ding! Copied ability "Monsterization (SR)" has reached max level, merged with the body, and freed one ability slot!]
[Current ability slots: 9/15.]
Upgrade complete. Hans immediately activated it.
This time, the transformation was smooth and instantaneous.
The monstrous armor coating his body flowed like liquid metal and seeped seamlessly into his skin, as if mercury pouring into water.
No extra energy surges. His monstrous aura folded in on itself, and his towering three-meter frame shrank rapidly.
Now stood a tall, black-haired, dark-eyed young man, about 1.95 meters tall, handsome to the point of perfection.
"The transformation's faster and smoother, and the monster aura's almost gone. Unless I go all-out, no one will sense it."
Flexing his body, Hans tested his suppressed strength and judged calmly, "My power and speed are heavily nerfed, roughly on par with Genos during his early days."
"As long as I don't get careless, it should be enough for most situations."
Feeling the power hidden within his body, the Monsterization: Stage Two as he named it, Hans's eyes gleamed.
"My human form's power drop is severe, but once I go second-stage, my boost will be even more insane!"
"Just like Gale Wind, temporary Dragon-level!"
Taking a deep breath to calm his surging excitement, Hans felt his heart stir for the first time in a while.
Dragon-level.
Even temporarily, that was the pinnacle of a normal monster's power.
"Finally… I've set foot among true powerhouses!"
Of course, no reason to get cocky.
He still remembered how Lord of Mountain exploding . Not happening to him.
"Technical summary time," Hans mused. "At max level, Monsterization is strong enough, but to reach Amai Mask-level seamless disguise, it'd have to evolve to SSR."
As if reading his thoughts, the system chimed in:
[Ding! Evolvable ability detected. Spend 100,000 Origin Points to evolve "Monsterization (SR)" → "Monsterization (SSR)" ? (Yes/No)]
Hans: "…"
Six digits. 100K points.
Back when he evolved his N-rank skill, it cost 1,000. SR is two ranks higher, so two more zeros.
Checks out.
If he wanted absolute safety, evolving it would be ideal.
But even though he had enough points, Hans didn't plan to do it.
This mission wasn't that hard. Hellfire Flame was joining the Association willingly, unlike that problem child Garou.
He just needed to make contact, no real fighting expected.
So SR max-level was more than enough.
Spending 100K here would be a total waste.
Especially since he had a ton of hungry abilities waiting to be fed.
After finally mooching all those points from his "sugar mommy" he wasn't about to waste them now.
Time to invest smart.