Chapter 66: Massive Changes

[REWARDS OBTAINED!]

[Congratulations, Host Has Awakened 2 New Skills!]

The system flashed before Declan’s eyes, momentarily taking his mind off everything else. However, when he looked down at his legs, he noticed that he was no longer wearing his shorts.

[They got burned off]

The panel blinked before he could even form an idea, and Declan could only shrug helplessly.

’That’s another cloth gone. Thankfully, I got a dozen new ones.’

He mused to himself as he rose to his feet, only to notice something strange beneath his skin.

There were dark, gooey substances pressed against the back of his body like slime, and the moment their putrid smell reached his nose, Declan’s face twisted in disgust.

’What the hell is this!?’

[Impurities.]

He immediately scurried off toward the bathroom and turned on the shower, but the moment he caught sight of himself in the mirror, a scream of shock echoed throughout his entire dorm room.

"WHO THE HELL IS THIS!?"

Declan was pressed against the bathroom wall, seemingly ready to run despite having nowhere to go.

Before him was the wall mirror he had bought with some points and installed in his bathroom, yet the person staring back at him looked like anyone but himself.

Declan had previously possessed a face that men would have called endearing and women would have called cute.

But now, all those soft curves, those babyish cheeks, and the roundness that had made him look so harmless and endearing were gone.

In their place was a visage sculpted with sharp, defined lines that definitely didn’t belong to a nineteen-year-old.

His jaw had hardened, while his cheekbones had risen higher and become far more pronounced.

His eyes, which had previously been green and slightly large, giving them a bubbly appearance whenever he smiled, had now become smaller and narrower.

Moreover, the color hand changed!

Now they were blue in color, and looked so much colder. The way those eyes stared back at him gave Declan the strange feeling that they were ready to rip him apart.

Then there was his hair.

Previously, it had been white, with slight blue staining their edges. Now, however, it had become something entirely different.

A full cascade of luminous blue strands flowed over his head, each one shimmering faintly as though charged with some unseen energy.

His white-blue hair had become completely luminous blue.

Declan walked closer to the mirror and brushed his fingers through it, easily running them through the strands before gripping the edge of the mirror.

He tried to smile, but no smile appeared in the reflection. Instead, he grinned.

"WHAT!?"

Declan cried out, leaning closer to the mirror as he tried smiling again, only for the face staring back at him to grin once more.

"What the fuck!? Holy shit! I can’t even smile anymore!?"

"The fuck did you do!?"

He screamed at the system, which simply blinked back at him.

[The fuck you be smiling for in this cold world? A grin is better!]

"Shut the fuck up!"

The system had essentially changed him, wiping away every trace of his previous boyish innocence and replacing it with the magnetic yet dangerous allure of a man.

Handsome... but the last thing from cute.

[You gotta stop opening and closing your mouth, Declan. That won’t change anything.]

The system panel blinked as Declan finally sighed, lowering his head.

’I’ve always been so proud of it, you know,’ he mused to himself.

Being cute as a man came with many advantages.

You got free cuddles that made you feel like you were sinking into paradise, along with plenty of unfair passes for things that would normally have been denied to most people.

People found you endearing more easily, making them far more willing to share things with you even when you hadn’t done much for them.

Besides, people were naturally less suspicious of someone who looked harmless, and even if you were caught doing something wrong, you could simply blink your bubbly eyes at them, and somehow, they would end up feeling bad for scolding you.

Declan had learned to harness his cute charms ever since he was ten, and it had taken him surprisingly far, both academically and socially.

But now it was all gone. The face he had now was anything but endearing.

If there was a murder somewhere and he happened to be standing nearby, he would probably be the first person they suspected!

"Well, I guess there’s no point sulking about it then," he mused, brushing away the sadness.

The new look itself wasn’t actually that bad.

At the very least, no one would underestimate him anymore simply because of his appearance, which was something that had happened to him countless times because of his previous face.

After washing the goo from his body, he dressed in a hoodie and trousers before heading back into his training room, where he also cleaned away the putrid substance that had been left behind.

When he was done, Declan couldn’t help but glance around the training room.

It was dry, too dry and empty, with nothing inside except a simple punching bag.

His mind immediately drifted back to when he had visited the academy’s shop area and discovered the Training Room Shop.

It contained all kinds of things students could use to design their training rooms and improve their strength.

’Maybe I should get a couple of simulations tomorrow,’ he mused before finally leaving the training room.

Picking up his device, Declan moved into the living room and sat down on the sofa.

He had received a notification that he had awakened new skills, so naturally, he wanted to check them out.

"Initiate MDS Protocol," he ordered, and the golden panel immediately blinked to life.

Declan quickly navigated to the Skills and Abilities tab, where he found the two new skills.

[ NEW SKILLS & ABILITIES ] ]

MECHA OVERLORD CLASS SKILLS

— Rooted in the system’s Original Abilities —

🔹 [Mecha Copy] [Level: 1]

Description: A system-born ability awakened through 10% fusion with the Mecha Overlord Module. By making direct contact with another Mech Module fusion, the Host can temporarily replicate its form and combat parameters.

EFFECTS:

— Allows Host to copy another Mech user’s external transformation for a limited duration.

— Copied forms retain 50% of their original efficiency.

— Cooldown increases proportionally to the complexity of the copied Mech.

Note: Higher levels will reduce the copying delay, extend form duration, and allow activation of abilities belonging to copied Mech Modules, while also increasing replication accuracy to 100%.

__________________________________

🔹 [Golden Darkthar Transformation] [Level: 1]

Description: The direct manifestation of the Host’s integration with the Darkthar Mech Form.

When activated, Host’s forearms shift into golden, wolf-like mechanical claws while his jaw reforms into a radiant metallic maw capable of crushing reinforced alloys. The transformation channels divine energy circuits unique to the Darkthar design.

EFFECTS:

— Temporarily enhances Strength and Endurance by 50%.

— Claws can shred steel and deflect low-grade energy attacks.

— The golden maw can bite through high-density materials and drain mechanical essence from damaged constructs.

Note: Higher levels evolve the transformation into a full Darkthar Combat Frame, amplifying mobility, defense, and energy absorption capacity.

________________________________

The first skill was easy enough for Declan to understand. Even from the name alone, he could get the general idea.

It allowed him to copy other Mech Modules through direct contact. It wasn’t perfect, of course, as shown by the 50% efficiency, but that was something he could improve as the skill leveled up.

His heart began racing at the thought of actually using it.

If he had possessed this ability during his fight with Edgar, he could have copied that bastard’s chainsaws and used them to slash him to pieces.

The ability to copy most Mech Modules was simply insane, and Declan couldn’t wait to try it out.

Golden Darkthar Transformation.

This one was considerably more complicated.

It was obviously a transformation skill, but when Declan looked at what the transformation actually did, with the mouth shifting into a metallic maw capable of biting through steel and the forearms becoming mechanical claws, he was immediately reminded of the wolves from the Darkthar Mech Grave.

Those beasts had possessed iron maws that allowed them to devour metal, along with metallic claws, exactly as the skill description had stated.

Even the birds that had nearly killed him had possessed mechanical talons and metallic beaks.

"Did I gain the skill from being in the Darkthar Mech Grave?"

’Gaining a skill because of being in a particular place? Is there even such a thing?’

’What was that place, anyway?’

’What were those buried Mechs? The system called it a grave, so are those Mechs actually dead, or are they simply inactive?’

’And if they’re dead, what could possibly have reduced such ginormous beings to that state?’

’And how did I even gain access to that place in the first place?’

’A dream? Or is it a real place somewhere?’

Declan had millions of questions running through his mind, but the system, which would normally have responded to his confusion, remained completely silent this time.

He had a feeling it wasn’t going to give him any answers, meaning he would have to uncover them himself.

DRIIING!

DRIIIIING!

DRIIIIIIIIING!

The sound of his device vibrating finally pulled Declan out of his thoughts, and he turned toward it.

A beeping alarm displayed the time:

6:00 PM.

He had told Evie the other day that he would be available at six, so he had set an alarm specifically for that time.

Now that his evolution was complete and there wasn’t much else left to do, Declan decided to go through with it.