SSS Awakening: I am the First Mecha Overlord

Chapter 55: The Secret Quest

He pushed himself off the bed, but he had barely managed to get both feet beneath him when Blythe grabbed his shoulders and yanked him back down.

"You leave when I want you to, you cheat!"

She caught both his arms and legs, forcing him back onto the mattress, and Declan struggled against her grip.

"What is with you!?"

It felt as though a mountain had wrapped itself around him, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move even an inch.

"I asked you a question. What’s your relationship with Morgaret?"

"I already told you. It’s personal!"

Blythe’s fingers slowly moved from his arms toward his chest and then up toward his neck.

"You really want to find out how hard I can squeeze, huh?"

Her wicked grin sent a chill down Declan’s spine.

"Fine! It’s business. A business-type relationship."

Her fingers stopped tightening around his neck.

"And?"

"We had a deal. Me being here is part of that deal."

"What is the clause?"

"I can’t tell you that."

This time, Declan’s voice was completely serious.

"It’s a secret between her and me. I can’t tell another soul, and neither can she. That’s part of the deal."

Blythe hummed suspiciously, studying his expression as though trying to determine whether he was playing with her again.

"You got your answer. Can you free me now?"

After a moment, she finally released his arms and legs, allowing Declan to immediately stretch himself out.

CRACK.

A sharp creak came from his body, and he winced.

"Tch. Monster."

His eyes then caught Blythe staring at his chest, so he followed her gaze downward and immediately noticed a red blood patch spreading across the bandage wrapped around his torso.

"Huh?"

"There’s an unhealed wound around your heart," Blythe explained. "Any intense physical exertion could cause it to reopen, and if that happens, you’ll start bleeding internally."

Declan’s expression turned serious as he carefully touched his chest, only to feel a sharp sting shoot through him.

’That...That is not a normal wound.’

"Tell me. How did the surgery go? What exactly went wrong?"

"Everything went wrong."

Blythe sat upright, and a moment later, she pulled out her glass and tapped its side, causing a holographic projection to appear above them.

It was footage of the operation.

"Your heart was the biggest problem."

"The moment I tried to fuse the Core, your heart completely refused to communicate with it, and even after the initial genetic remodulation you performed on the Core, your body still rejected it."

Declan watched the footage closely as the compatibility test produced error after error.

"To stop your body from rejecting the Core, I had to weaken your heart," Blythe said, pointing toward the holographic projection.

"That meant removing roughly half of your heart’s cells, leaving it twice as weak as it originally was."

"Only then did your heart finally allow the Core to remain inside your body, but even after that, some of your cells, particularly the ones around your torso, refused to accept the Core’s energy."

"I had to drain most of your blood, artificially awaken the Core, and then forcibly bind its energy to your heart."

"The Core generated replacement Core cells, which allowed me to replenish the cells you had lost while simultaneously forcing your body to accept its energy."

Blythe’s expression became serious.

"In short, you lost half the cells in your heart and roughly half of your body’s original blood concentration."

She paused.

"It was the first time I’ve ever witnessed a human body reject a Core so violently. At one point, I genuinely wondered whether I was fusing a Core with a human..."

Her crimson eyes narrowed.

"...or something else."

When Declan finished watching the footage, his mind was still reeling, as, as a former Mech Scientist, he understood Core fusion surgery extremely well, yet he had never seen a procedure as difficult as this one.

Weakening his heart by removing its cells alone had been an absurdly delicate procedure, as the operation required an advanced microscopic blade controlled by robotic hands that were directly linked to the surgeon’s mind, and one mistake, one moment of lost concentration, was all it would have taken for the blade to cut through his heart and kill him instantly.

And Blythe had spent three entire hours performing that procedure without making a single mistake, three hours of absolute concentration spent working on one of the most delicate organs in the human body.

And that wasn’t all to it.

She had then been forced to drain a massive amount of his blood before artificially awakening the Core and forcing its energy into his bloodstream through his heart, which was an especially difficult process because, normally, even after a successful fusion, a Core required time to awaken, essentially functioning as a second heart being transplanted into the body that couldn’t simply begin operating at full capacity the instant it entered its new host.

But Declan’s cells were rejecting it, so Blythe had forcibly awakened the Core herself.

The newly awakened Core then generated Core cells, allowing her to replace the cells Declan had lost while simultaneously creating a path for its energy to circulate through his body, and that process had taken another four hours of absolute concentration.

And concentration wasn’t even the only problem, because timing mattered just as much, as a part of the body could only remain without its cells for a limited period before the tissue became permanently damaged.

Blythe hadn’t merely been fighting Core rejection.

She had been racing against time itself.

Yet somehow, she had still succeeded, connecting his heart and Core, artificially awakening the Core, replacing his lost cells, and keeping him alive through the entire process.

For the first time, Declan properly looked at the woman sitting beside him, her oval-shaped face framed by crimson hair while her symmetrical nose and large crimson eyes gave her an almost striking appearance, with those eyes capable of widening innocently one moment and narrowing into something frightening the next.

She was beautiful.

But after witnessing what she had accomplished, Declan found himself viewing her in an entirely different light.

’She’s an X-Guardian. And just like the others, she’s incredibly good at what she does. They’re all just insanely good.’

"And what ideas are you getting this time, cheat?" Blythe suddenly asked.

Declan blinked.

"You’re very good at what you do."

His voice was quiet but sincere.

"You’re the best Core Fusion Surgeon I’ve ever seen."

Her narrowed eyes slowly widened into their usual shape, and for a brief moment, she looked almost surprised before they narrowed again.

"I didn’t do it for you."

Declan nodded.

"I know. You only went through all that trouble because you thought Morgaret wanted it."

He turned his gaze away.

Blythe had pushed herself to her absolute limit to make the surgery succeed, but she had done it because she believed Morgaret had personally sent him to undergo an Anomalous Core fusion.

If Declan had simply been an ordinary student, there was a chance she would have abandoned the procedure long before the end.

And then he would have...

[You see why I said it was bad. You were 99.9% close to death throughout the entire surgery.]

The system panel appeared before his eyes.

[One mistake, and you would have never woken up.]

The words appeared in red.

Declan stared at them for a moment, and only now did the full weight of what had happened truly settle into his mind.

’I understand now.’

’Initiate MDS Protocol,’ Declan ordered, and the system panel immediately flickered to life.

[Secret Quest Completed: Embark on Mordran’s Cultivation Path by Becoming a Nexian.]

[Rewards:

+5 Level Up Cards!

+10,000 EXP!

+5 Ability Upgrade Cards.]

’So there was a secret quest hidden in becoming a Nexian, huh?’ he thought, watching the system panel rapidly change.

[ SYSTEM INTERFACE ]

[▸ Name: Declan Ezra ]

[▸ Race: Human ]

[▸ Age: 19 ]

[▸ Level: 14 ]

__________________

[CULTIVATION ]

[▸ Current Energy: Seed Core]

[▸ Cultivation Stage: Anomalous Seedian Nexian]

[▸ Core to Body Sync: 10% ]

[▸ Energy State: Stable ]

[▸ Core Energy Points: 100 ]

[IMPORTANT NOTE: At 10% Core to Body Sync, activating the Seed Core will lead to a boost of +10 on all stat points except Charisma and Intelligence. ]

___________________

’So, there’s a new panel for cultivation now.’

Declan’s eyes narrowed slightly as he studied the information, but the system continued before he could think much further.

[▸ EXP: 10,000 / 10,000]

[Does Host Wish to Level Up?]

’Yes.’

[Congratulations, Host has leveled up to Level 15.]