Han-Jun stood on the riverbank, admiring his new reflection. The white hair, the piercing blue eyes—he looked like a high-tier gacha pull that had been shrunk in the wash.
'Alright, system. I'm a Scion now. Give me the goods. Show me what this SSS-rank body can actually do.'
[NOTICE: 'DRACONIC SCION' FORM INITIALIZED.]
[NEW ACTIVE SKILL: VOID-LIGHTNING BOLT (RANK: D)]
[NEW PASSIVE: DRACONIC REFLEXES (RANK: C)]
"Void-Lightning? Hell yes. That sounds like something that deletes boss HP bars!"
He looked across the pond at a [Stone-Crag Turtle]—a Level 12 monster with a shell as thick as a tank's armor. It was the perfect target. In his lizard form, it would have taken him an hour to chew through that shell.
Han-Jun pointed a small, pale finger at the turtle. He felt a surge of cold, violent energy rushing from his heart to his fingertip. It felt like a freight train was trying to squeeze through a garden hose.
"Eat this, you slow-motion rock!"
KRA-KOOM!
A bolt of black-and-blue lightning shrieked from his finger. The impact didn't just crack the turtle's shell; it vaporized the entire top half of the monster in a spray of stone and mana.
"HOLY SHIT! I'M A GOD! I'M A LITERAL—"
Suddenly, Han-Jun's vision went white. A sensation like a thousand red-hot needles stabbed into his arm, his chest, and his spine.
"AGGGH! FUCK! FUCK! MY ARM! MY EVERYTHING!"
He collapsed onto the grass, his small body twitching as blue sparks leaked out of his skin. His arm looked like it had been cooked in a microwave, the skin red and smoking.
[WARNING: BODY INTEGRITY AT 40%.]
[SYSTEM ALERT: 'SCION' PHYSIOLOGY IS CURRENTLY TOO UNDERDEVELOPED TO HANDLE PRIMORDIAL MANA OUTPUT.]
[NOTICE: MANA CAPACITY EXCEEDED. CURRENT CAPACITY: 100/100. SKILL COST: 150.]
"Are you... are you kidding me?!" Han-Jun wheezed, clutching his smoking arm. "I have a Ferrari engine... but I'm built out of fucking cardboard?! I just blew myself up! I'm an SSS-rank suicide bomber!"
'Composed Mind' kicked in, cooling the white-hot agony into a manageable dull throb. He sat up, his teeth gritting.
"So let me get this straight. I have the power to delete a mountain, but if I use it, I turn into a crispy nugget? What kind of SSS-rank scam is this?! I need to train! I need to expand this mana-pot or whatever the hell this system calls it!"
He tried to stand up, but a sharp pop from his knee made him yelp.
[NOTICE: GROWTH PAINS INITIATED. YOUR BONES ARE RAPIDLY INFUSING WITH MANA TO ACCOMMODATE YOUR RANK.]
"Growth pains? It feels like my skeleton is trying to escape through my skin! FUCK! This world is a scam! I hate my life!"
He spent the next three hours hobbling around the clearing, trying to move without his joints clicking like a bag of marbles. He realized that while his potential was infinite, his current body was like a toddler trying to carry a boulder. He was OP, but only for about three seconds before he imploded.
As the sun began to dip below the horizon, Han-Jun looked at his grass shorts. They were already starting to itch, and a stray ladybug had decided to make a home in the waistband.
"I can't live like this. I'm a Scion, not a lawn ornament. I need real clothes. And I know there's a town about five miles East. [River-End Village]. It's a starting zone, but they have a tailor."
'But if I walk in there with these horns and a tail, they'll put me in a zoo.'
"System, can I hide this dragon shit? Or am I stuck looking like a demonic cosplayer?"
[NOTICE: RACIAL MASKING IS AVAILABLE TO SSS-RANK ENTITIES.]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO HIDE DRACONIC FEATURES? (COST: 5 MANA/HOUR)]
"Five mana an hour? That's daylight robbery! Fine, do it. Just... make me look like a normal, incredibly handsome orphan."
A faint shimmer passed over his head and lower back. He reached up—the horns were gone. He looked back—the tail had vanished into thin air.
'Perfect. I look like a regular kid. A regular kid who can accidentally blow up a building if he sneezes too hard.'
"Alright. River-End Village. I'll sneak in, snag some clothes, maybe 'borrow' some actual food that doesn't scream when I bite it, and get out. Simple."
He started to walk, but another pop from his ankle made him stumble.
"OW! FUCK! MOTHER OF—! If I hit a growth spurt while I'm stealing pants, I'm going to sue this entire reality!"