Second Genesis

Chapter 376: Boiling

—

[You have defeated the Rotting Head]

[+47 Free Stat Points Awarded]

—

"Oh, I forgot I could get those."

Grey’s good mood soured a bit as he realized that he had probably lost at least several hundred Free Stat Points to that idiot Chogh. He really hadn’t given that man nearly as rough a time as he should have.

However... it was a good thing that stat points weren’t the only thing he got.

The echo of a rattling chain filled the air for a moment, and then a... grill appeared?

It wasn’t the smoking and barbecuing kind of grill. It was instead a set of grills for his teeth, reflecting a metallic sheen to the world.

Grey couldn’t help but laugh as he plucked it out of the air. However, before he could read its information, there was a shudder from the rotting corpse that was left of the rotting spirit.

Grey looked up, expecting it to disappear. That was usually what happened after you defeated something in a ruin. But instead of that, there was a wispy light that came from it.

The mask crumbled and then the Spirit shot out from it, swiftly entering the grill.

’Oh?’

Grey raised an eyebrow. Well, that worked too. He wasn’t actually sure what he would do if this didn’t happen.

All of his mechs had their own Spirits already, so there wasn’t space for the Mechanical Jaw Spirit. He just assumed he’d find a solution, maybe like removing the Prometheus from his Helm Frame for the time being.

Though, that probably wouldn’t be as easy as he tried to make it sound.

Honestly speaking, worst come to worst, Grey would just casually craft one of the simpler Mechanical Jaws. He had enough materials on him, and though he was almost out of Cyber Cores again after his battle with the Volthari, he had just enough to build something simple.

Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to worry about that.

—

Operation: The Call of the Mechanical Jaw Spirit

Quest Rank: Legendary

Mission Type: Retrieval

Objective: Cleared

Rewards: Full access to the Mechanical Lineage Tome. Mechanical Jaw Spirit.

—

Name: Reinforced Hinge

—

Grey raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t expecting the grill to come with such a simple name. Something told him that it was an item that was almost a decoy before, but the moment he gained the acknowledgement of the Mechanical Jaw Spirit, everything changed.

Did he feel a little bad gaining the acknowledgement the way he had...?

Maybe.

But he was sure the spirit would forgive him after a certain point, especially after he started fitting it into some badass mechs.

—

Name: Reinforced Hinge

Rarity: Legendary

Class: Vector

Accepted Type: Recursive

Rejected Type: Resonant; Linear; Branching

Description: A reinforcing hinge for your jaw. Increase biting strength substantially, as well as the power of your voice. Your vocal cords now carry a power that goes beyond the norm.

Abilities: Charisma

—

’... The fuck?’

Did he like a Legendary item? Yes. But what was this description?

He also hadn’t expected it to be a Recursive Item. All things considered, it was pretty rare he come across a Recursive Item these days, and this thing felt like the quintessential Linear or Branching item. What made it Recursive?

The Charisma Ability? But what the hell was that?

Usually, the Abilities that items came with were well documented and explained. One that was so vague wasn’t the norm for him at all.

’Hm...’

After some thought, Grey decided there was only really one way to do this. So, he took the grill and slotted it onto his bottom row of teeth.

At first, it didn’t fit very well, but then there was a shift and change. It molded to his teeth and then Grey felt a sharp pain as it drilled into his enamel.

A liquid metal poured into his teeth, fundamentally changing it. And then, to Grey’s shock, it began to pour even further in, drilling into his jawbone until it felt like the entire bottom of his jaw had become a hunk of metal.

Grey remembered the first time he had to fuse with a Mechanical Jaw, and then how it felt the first time he had to rip one off. This was like that except several times worse.

If not for the pain of dying under the influence of the Genesis Games several times, it would have been enough to make him scream like a little girl.

There was a final prick and then a static shock that ran through him as though his jaw was reconnecting with his Neural Frame. And then, everything came to a slow and gentle stop.

Grey grabbed his chin and moved his jaw around a bit. It didn’t feel heavy and uncomfortable anymore, interestingly enough. It felt like any other bone in his body. But Grey had a feeling that if someone threw a full force punch at his chin right now, they’d shatter their entire hand.

What was even odder, though, was that when Grey reached into his mouth to take the grill off, it came off easy as pie.

He looked at it, a bit confused for a moment, and then read its description again.

—

Name: Reinforced Hinge

Rarity: Rare

Class: Vector

Accepted Type: Linear

Rejected Type: Resonant; Recursive

Description: A reinforcing hinge for your jaw. Increase biting strength substantially.

Abilities: Unbridled Bite. Bite through any metal at Vector Class and Rare rarity or lower.

—

’... Huh?’

Grey was baffled. The item lost all its aura instantly. It was practically a piece of junk to him. He’d rather carry this thing around because grills could be cool, but he’d probably never use it for its intended purpose.

At that moment, Grey felt a sudden shockwave ripple out from his inventory.

His pupils constricted and he hurried to pull out the tome.

The Mechanical Lineage Tome appeared in his palms and then began to split wildly.

In that moment... Grey felt like his blood was boiling out of his control.

Something was happening to him.