As I gently patted her back, my nose lightly brushed against her cleavage. I took a quiet, deep breath.
A scent like baby powder filled my nostrils.
If the landlady’s scent was rich and mature, this girl’s was lighter, fresher.
Is it because they’re mother and daughter? Every time I feel something, I find myself comparing her to the landlady.
For quite a long time, Shin Yujeong’s shoulders shook as she sniffled.
Then, gradually, she began to calm down.
“Ahem…!”
She released her arms from around my head, gave me a light push, and stepped back.
I felt a pang of disappointment as her scent faded and looked at her expression.
Her eyes were swollen and puffy, her face red.
The way her gaze darted about, unable to find a place to rest, suggested she hadn’t expected to be so overwhelmed with emotion that she’d burst into tears.
“Are you okay?”
“O-Of course, I’m fine!” she answered with an intensity that betrayed her simple question.
A moment of silence fell between us.
I didn’t have anything particular to say, so I kept my mouth shut. She stared at the box on the desk, seemingly lost in deep thought.
What is she doing?
As if having reached a decision, she gave a short nod and walked over to the box.
She took out several potions and placed them on the desk.
A total of nine potions stood in a row in front of the monitor.
Shin Yujeong pointed at them and said to me, “This is your share.”
After making her declaration, she closed the lid on the box, which still contained six bottles.
“This is my share.”
So that’s what she was contemplating—how to divide the potions.
Nine bottles for me, six for her… a 6:4 split.
I lifted my head and stared at her face.
A little surprising.
I had expected her to take at least half, if not more.
As our eyes met, Shin Yujeong’s face turned a shade redder.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that? I deserve this much, you know?”
I hadn’t said a word, but her defensive reaction suggested she felt a little guilty about something.
That’s how it usually is with dividing rewards.
It’s incredibly difficult to split things in a way that satisfies everyone.
Typically, rewards are divided in one of three ways: by pre-determined ratios based on party roles, by contribution after clearing the dungeon, or, if all else fails, an even split.
Each method has its pros and cons, making it nearly impossible to please everyone.
It’s why so many fixed parties and raid teams break up. In worse cases, it even leads to knife fights.
Shin Yujeong had drawn the line well.
She suppressed her greed but still took what she deserved.
“Sh-Should I give you one more?”
My silent stare must have been putting a lot of pressure on her, as she started to open the box herself.
Finding the sight rather cute, I smiled and shook my head.
“No. I was just thinking you took less than I expected.”
“Huh…?”
She looked slightly taken aback, as if she hadn’t anticipated that kind of response.
For a moment, hesitation flickered across her face—the thought of brazenly grabbing another bottle or two.
“Hey, I’m not that shameless, you know? Your contribution to clearing the dungeon was higher, so it’s right for you to take more.”
The way she decisively cut off her hesitation meant one of two things.
Either she had a conscience and was making sure I got my fair share, or this was a calculated move to get on my good side.
Or maybe it was both.
Well, it didn’t matter to me either way.
“Are you, uh, going to sell the potions right away? If you are, I can help.”
I shook my head at her question.
“I’m not in urgent need of money, so I think I’ll hold onto them for now.”
“Well… do what you want.”
Shin Yujeong tucked the box under her arm.
“I’m gonna go then?”
“Yeah, be careful on your way down.”
With that, she left my apartment with a look of relief, like someone who had just completed a smooth second-hand transaction.
Judging by her quick pace, she was either incredibly happy or embarrassed about what had just happened.
“She’s an interesting one.”
When we first met, she made her dislike for me painfully obvious, constantly pushing me away. Now, she shows me such a bashful expression, even laughs in front of me.
I felt a sense of deep satisfaction, and it made me curious about the near future.
If she changed this much after clearing just one dungeon together, how much more would she change later on?
“Ugh.”
A pleasant shiver ran down my spine, and I turned away.
“That’s a problem for later.”
Right now, something else was more important.
Looking at the nine potions on the desk, I couldn’t help but think that the heavens were on my side.
I needed them for the Secret Art of Metamorphosis.
“This should be enough to make this pathetic body human-like.”
I’d thought about it before, but this body was truly a work of divine impartiality.
It possessed all the talent a mage could ask for, but the body itself was trash.
This was something that even the Secret Art of Growth couldn’t fix.
The innate foundation was so poor; how much better could it possibly get from there?
Ultimately, there was only one fundamental solution.
I had no choice but to completely overhaul its innate bone and muscle structure.
I’d known this all along but couldn’t do it because I lacked the means to recover after using the Secret Art of Metamorphosis.
I needed either a healer to continuously heal me or enough potions to fully restore my body. Finally, I had met that condition.
“Hoo.”
Ah, but now that I was about to do it, I was getting worried.
“This is going to hurt like hell. Ah.”
Just thinking about the pain made me not want to do it, but I had to.
If I succeeded, this body would be able to possess the things it was never born with.
“Status Window.”
[Status Window]
Name: Kim Dojin
Sex: Male
Age: 20
Height/Weight: 167cm / 81.6kg
[Strength: 15] [Stamina: 20] [Agility: 11] [Mana: 35]
Traits:
Mutual Non-aggression [2022.06.09]~[2025.12.31]
Gag Order [2022.06.09]~[2025.12.31]
The rate at which I was losing weight was starting to slow, and the growth of my stats, excluding Mana, had also become sluggish.
And this was happening at a stage where my growth shouldn’t be slowing down yet.
This wasn’t a matter of effort, but of talent.
If you have a good physical frame, you grow more than others with the same amount of effort. Conversely, if your frame is poor, you have to work harder than others just to keep up with the average.
That was this body.
Its frame was so weak that even with several times the effort, I’d be lucky to even reach the halfway point.
If that were the only problem, I wouldn’t complain.
The issue was that this guy’s habits were just completely screwed up.
Years of a sedentary lifestyle had thrown his body’s balance completely out of whack.
And if that were all, I wouldn’t even mention it.
His sitting posture itself was crooked, so his body had become crooked along with it.
It had reached a point where sitting in a normal, correct posture now felt uncomfortable.
Truthfully, aside from the physical frame, these were all things that could be fixed without the secret art.
The problem was that correcting habits ingrained in the body for over a decade wasn't as easy as it sounded.
It would take a long time and a lot of effort.
Moreover, it would be impossible to return it to its original state completely.
A normal person might not notice, but for someone like me who is intimately familiar with the body’s structure, it meant living with a slight misalignment that would be a constant source of irritation.
But the Secret Art of Metamorphosis could fix everything after one excruciatingly painful session.
So, what choice did I have?
I had to do it.
“My mana is cutting it close, but it should be possible…”
With the amount of mana I’d saved up, a perfect transformation might be impossible, but I should be able to restore the body’s balance and make the frame much stronger.
“Strike while the iron is hot. Let’s get this over with.”
I moved all the potions from the desk to the floor.
Then, I sat cross-legged in front of them and stretched my body to release the excessive tension.
“Hoo…”
I took a deep breath.
It’s okay. You’ve done this once before, right?
“…Fuck.”
That was the problem.
Because I’d done it before, I knew exactly how much it hurt.
Even so, the thought of stopping didn’t cross my mind.
My current appearance made it nearly impossible to be popular with women.
Somehow, things had worked out, and I’d had sex with the landlady and even gotten a blowjob from Yoon Jian, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was just a fluke.
To fix all this normally would mean wasting at least a year.
I refused.
Life is short enough as it is. I need to have fun while I’m still young.
“Let’s do it. Let’s just do it.”
So, I will.
To enjoy the things I’ve never been able to enjoy before.
I slowly evened out my breathing and closed my eyes.
I turned my focus inward.
Through my mana, the inner structure of my body became crystal clear, as if I were looking at it directly.
A weak and misaligned body that made me sigh just looking at it.
Now, I had to break it all down, piece by piece, with my own hands, and reshape it into the form I desired.
The years and experience I lived as the S-rank Hunter Son Si-woo superimposed an ideal form over this flawed body.
This form was a combination of the parts of my body I was most confident in, along with the ideals I had about how certain parts could be better.
An ideal form that could move gracefully in any time and any situation, one that wasn’t biased towards either instantaneous bursts of power or sustained ability—a body that could excel in any environment, under any restriction.
If I follow that blueprint, I can have it.
The most ideal body I can imagine.
“Hup!”
With a short exhale, I shattered and crushed all the bones and muscles in my upper body that protected my organs.
“Kngh…!”
A pained groan I couldn’t hold back escaped through my clenched teeth.
I had crossed a river of no return.
A human’s bones and muscles can only endure the Secret Art of Metamorphosis once.
Of course, you could force it more times.
In fact, my old body had undergone the art three times.
You might think three times would result in a more perfect body, right?
Wrong.
While the form may have become more ideal, its durability had weakened considerably compared to the first time.
It was because the human bones and muscles couldn’t withstand it and suffered permanent damage.
If I had known that beforehand, I might not have been just the number one Hunter in Korea, but a Hunter vying for the number one spot in the world.
So, one regret is enough.
This time, I had to sculpt the ideal body in a single attempt.
Crack! Crunch!
Snap!
Ghastly sounds repeatedly struck my ears.
The pain that accompanied them was beyond what words could describe.
I remember once being caught in the grip of a giant monster while clearing an S-rank dungeon, taking the hit for a comrade.
The feeling of my entire body being crushed in its hand back then was similar to this, if I had to make a comparison.
Of course, in terms of sheer pain, this was worse.
“Hoo-wook, hoo…!”
I used a portion of my mana to protect my organs and the rest to reassemble the finely shattered bones and muscles.
In this moment, my mana was my hands.
Following the image projected in my mind, I kneaded the bones and muscles as if playing with clay.
What had lost its form and crumbled was now becoming harder, tougher, and changing into a more ideal shape.
Finally, after confirming that all the bones and muscles in my upper body had taken form, I carefully reached out and grabbed a potion.
Pop!
Right now, the bones and muscles of my upper body had only just formed their shape; countless hairline fractures ran through every bone.
If I moved too much now, the bones throughout my body would crumble to dust again.
Before that happened, I had to use the potion to heal all the fractures and solidify the new form.
With great effort, I opened the potion and brought the mouth of the bottle to my lips, letting the contents flow in.
The potion’s restorative power flowed down my throat and seeped into the cracked bones.
I could feel it.
The framework of bone and muscle, once like a sandcastle that would wash away with a single wave, was growing harder by the second.
“Hoo…”
After one wave of pain swept over me, I looked down at my now firmly set upper body.
There was still fat, but the shape was different.
My weight hadn’t changed by even 0.1kg, yet my belly fat seemed less prominent.
Honestly, the immediate external changes didn’t seem miraculous enough to justify the pain I had endured.
But I was certain.
As time passed, my body would undergo a dramatic transformation.
The solid bones and muscles I could feel beneath the flesh were proof of that.
“Let’s keep going.”
I had to finish the art before the heat in my body cooled.
It would hurt less that way.
Snap! Snap!
Crunch!
Crack!
With a continuous series of gruesome sounds, parts of my body were repeatedly pulverized and re-formed.
Head, neck, chest, stomach, arms, thighs, knees, shins, feet.
My body was becoming more and more like the ideal physical structure I had envisioned.
Gulp! Gulp!
I downed the sixth potion.
Having consumed several bottles at once, the recovery effect was starting to diminish, but thankfully, it was still potent enough to solidify the bones and muscles.
“Now for the last part…”
The detailed adjustments were complete.
The throbbing pain all over my body made me want to lose consciousness and collapse right this instant.
But it wasn’t over yet.
The final, and perhaps most important, step remained.
The joints that connect the bones.
The spaces between the bones I had arbitrarily re-formed were slightly misaligned.
If I adjusted them all to fit the new structure…
Snap! Snap!
A sense of ecstasy mingled with the pain.
At the same time, a certainty formed in my mind.
Ah, this Metamorphosis… it’s turning out even more perfect than I’d imagined.
Every time a joint was set, a feeling of elation spread from deep within my bones and muscles.
This was a kind of euphoria I had never experienced, not even in the body of an S-rank Hunter.
Most of the joints and knuckles settled into their optimal forms for movement.
Snap!
The moment the very last joint clicked into its perfect shape.
[Successfully absorbed information that will influence the search for a suitable Trait for the user.]
[The scope of the Trait search will be narrowed based on the absorbed information.]
[The absorbed information has a decisive impact on the Trait search.]
[The scope of the Trait search is significantly reduced.]
[Time remaining until Trait search: 335:59:55]
So I am getting a Trait after all…?
The remaining time, which had been hidden by question marks, finally revealed itself.
336 hours. 14 days. 2 weeks.
Coincidentally, it was the same day as the special admission for Hankuk University.