Chapter 152: Body Modification

So hot…

When he first obtained the talent 【Rapid Digestion】, it did not seem to bring such an intense sensation.

Yet this time, as the talent loaded, Gauss was clearly standing in the biting winter wind, but it felt as though he was in a furnace room, his entire body burning unbearably.

He could distinctly sense a surging energy rushing through his body, remolding his physique.

The structure of his skin was the first to undergo subtle changes—an uncontrollable itching sensation swept over him, and after it passed, his skin seemed to become tougher, denser, as if an invisible protective net was woven within it.

Soon after, the heat began to seep deeper inside—organs, muscle fibers, bone structure—all were being scoured by this blazing energy.

From inside out, and then outside in, cycling over and over.

“Mm…”

Gauss let out a muffled groan.

He exhaled.

White mist condensed instantly in the freezing air.

Although this modification affected a wide range, the activation speed was surprisingly fast.

In truth, it lasted for only a dozen breaths.

Arya, in the distance, did not notice anything unusual, simply thinking he was observing the spell effect of the flames he created after casting 【Burning Hands】.

When the violent heat flow gradually subsided, finally transforming into a gentler warmth flowing through his body, Gauss at last let out a breath of relief.

He opened his eyes.

An unprecedented, novel sensation filled his senses.

The world seemed… different.

The first and most direct change he noticed was—the biting cold had greatly diminished.

Before, he had relied on his 8 Constitution to tough it out, but now, though the environment was unchanged and he wore no additional clothing, the chill had suddenly lessened considerably.

Even breathing in the icy air into his lungs gave rise to a refreshing sense of vitality.

His tolerance for extreme cold had greatly improved!

It was as if the parameters of his body had been refreshed, and even the magic within him had become unusually active.

Gauss subconsciously lowered his head to glance at the back of his hand.

At first glance, his skin showed no obvious change.

But when he gently scratched the back of his hand with a fingernail, he felt an unusual resistance. Lifting his finger slightly and instead rubbing with his fingertip, that resistance vanished—and the texture felt smoother and more refined.

Was this the enhancement to his skin’s protection?

Perhaps most of the time, he might not even need to rely on this effect.

After all, outside his skin, there was still the protection of the 【Gauss Force Field】—sometimes even an extra layer of leather armor.

But the world was unpredictable; there might be some special means an enemy could use to pierce the 【Gauss Force Field】…

In any case, strengthening his own defense could only be a good thing.

What’s more, the improvement brought by this talent was not limited to this alone.

His bodily coordination had also increased.

Just now, when he briefly moved his fingers, he felt his joints moving more smoothly than before, and even the fine control of his fingertips had improved a notch.

And then there was the recovery ability, which was temporarily inconvenient to test.

According to the description, it could actively consume stamina to accelerate wound healing and tissue regeneration.

This effect was a perfect match with the 【Energy Storage Gland】 talent, which allowed him to restore stamina and magic through eating.

And since stamina could be converted into healing energy, that meant that simply by ingesting food, he could repair external wounds and even damage to internal organs?

Of course, this meant the importance of food had risen yet another level.

In the adventurer’s world, there had always been the saying, “Supplies are the lifeline.” Now, it seemed that food was even more vital to Gauss than to most people.

Aside from these changes, he could also faintly sense more subtle, beneficial adjustments inside his body—though for the moment, he could not clearly put them into words.

After examining the modifications to his body,

Gauss looked once more at his racial talent 【Reptilian Strain】.

There were two ways to improve it.

The first was to raise its level by killing Goblins.

For example, from the initial rank up to elite rank.

If it worked like his first racial talent, perhaps it would require killing two hundred Goblins to upgrade to elite rank?

By then, the 【Reptilian Strain】 talent might evolve to unlock further abilities.

The second was to advance its quality—

Upgrading it from white quality to blue quality.

In Gauss’s understanding, both routes would strengthen the talent, only in different ways.

To make an analogy, the first route was like a mage advancing from level 1 to level 5—during this process, as the class level rose, there would be a significant increase in strength vertically, which could be regarded as the talent’s 【Development Level】.

The second route—quality advancement—was like taking an ordinary level 5 mage template and upgrading it to a super high-strength level 5 magic-user template like Gauss’s own, which could be considered the talent’s 【Template Advancement】.

Even at the same level, the strength of an ordinary spellcaster could never be compared to his.

Similarly, the Reptilian Strain corresponded to the abilities of crawling creatures. If it advanced to a higher blue-quality template, or even purple or gold, it meant it would upgrade to a far more powerful creature template, thereby granting him a much stronger talent boost.

Therefore, to fully develop a talent,

both routes had to be pursued in parallel.

However, for now, he had not obtained further information on how to advance quality—perhaps only after progressing the previously unlocked 【Path of Elites】 to later stages would he find out?

At present, if he wanted to improve the 【Reptilian Strain】 talent, the only way was to continue killing Goblins.

Goblins held multiple layers of meaning for Gauss.

First, they could raise his title level.

Second, they could increase the level of his 【Energy Storage Gland】 and 【Reptilian Strain】 talents.

Third, Goblins were numerous—so many they were like stray dogs on the roadside—making them ideal for building up his total monster kill count.

Fourth, Goblins also had bounty rewards from the Adventurer’s Guild.

Truly, it was four gains in one.

Honestly, could he really be blamed?

He admitted his impression of Goblins had always been poor, but the situation where Goblin kills had long made up around half his total monster kills was also partly thanks to the Monster Encyclopedia encouraging it.

When an action aligned with one’s values and continually brought rich rewards—who could refuse it?

“Let’s go, find a sheltered spot, we’ll eat something and head back,” Gauss called to Arya, in high spirits.

He felt his future strength would be terrifying.

Since it was only a small group of about a dozen monsters, Gauss did not set off a signal flare. Instead, he and Arya quickly cleared the battlefield, taking from the charred, carbonized remains—burned by 【Burning Hands】—a few valuable Corviman claws, beaks, and some particularly resilient feathers.

After collecting the spoils, they found a sheltered spot behind a massive rock.

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