The Invincible Full-Moon System Chapter 1915: Digestion and Adaptation of Traits

Rex spared Zev, but with a cost.

One that the Pale Defender gladly accepts, as his mind was already seized by the prospect of reward.

Learning the method to overwrite the Gardeners’ loyalty is something any Pale Defenders would most certainly kill to obtain. Zev has heard of this method before, and he suspected some of the stronger Pale Defenders out there knew about the method.

Now, he would become one of them as long as he agreed to Rex’s demands.

Their first encounter wasn’t on good terms.

Even now, Zev’s view of Rex was that of a greedy, dangerous Demigod who thought the God Realm was a big playground for him to play in. However, he couldn’t deny that the benefits of encountering Rex, though riddled with vague sacrifices, are nothing short of extraordinary.

His rivals were all dead.

And now, he has gained this valuable method.

In exchange for these things, Rex asked him for two things.

One was a secret meeting with his parents, who are powerful enough to be useful for Rex, and also a Permit—the best one Zev has in his hand. Rex was only probing with his demands, not expecting much, as Zev is still young and inexperienced for a Godling.

But he struck gold.

Zev has a Permit in hand, though he would need to get it first from his home.

It wasn’t the one that Rex wanted—the one that could give him access to the Blood Moon Realm or the Weaver of Time’s realm, but one that he could use in case of an emergency. He could use it to create a portal to the Silverstar Genesis.

He’d be untouchable there, so he’s not going to decline the Permit.

Once his business with Zev was completed, Rex immediately went back to the chamber and started to feast. From his chosen corpses to devour, he replaced one with one of the Pale Defenders’ corpses that Zev brought back.

Rex ate the corpses greedily.

He shifted into his werewolf form and began eating, tearing flesh with a big bite, grinding the bones, and absorbing the energy contained within the corpses. The Nigh-divine Adaptation skill began to work its magic, analyzing and adapting to the devoured victims’ essence.

Blood began to pool around the sacred floor.

Since the inventory suspended any item in time, the corpses were all still fresh for him to devour.

His taste buds were cheering in delight as more and more blood and flesh brushed against them. Almost as if it was telling Rex—that this is exactly how it was supposed to be. This is how a werewolf should satiate its crippling hunger.

If it had been the previous Rex, before going to the Spirit Realm, he would probably feel uncomfortable by this act. Not because he was still clinging to his Humanity, he was already past that—but because he was ashamed of being seen like this by his parents above.

For them to watch their son eat people like an animal must be heartbreaking.

But fortunately, they were now looking the other way.

Rex has his free rein to do anything he wants in order to achieve his goal and bring Kaiser down.

The time is ripe for him to return what he had suffered at the Lunirich Gods’ hands.

It took longer than expected to adapt to these corpses.

Most of them had been Demigods, but there was one corpse—one of the Pale Defenders whom Zev had killed—to Rex’s surprise, was an Awakened Demigod. A three-star Awakened Demigod, no less. That divinity alone placed this Pale Defender on par with Kai and also Vadyn.

This one was the corpse that seemed to be poisoned.

And since this Pale Defender fell so easily to Zev’s ploy, he must’ve been close with Zev and knew that he was nothing more than a brat. Unfortunately for him, that brat was being threatened and had its life on the chopping block.

Life and death are powerful motivations to make even a brat dangerous.

<Notice: the user has properly digested the Residual Traits from the devoured prey!>

<Three viable traits had been identified>

...

<Memory Spirit>

Rank: Divine

Description: Allows the user to summon the spectral spirit of a deceased entity—the user directly killed. These spectral spirits will retain fragments of their former power and knowledge and will stay within a blank space of the user’s mind until erased.

Duration: 7 days

<Spiritual Tainting>

Rank: Divine

Description: Allows the user to corrupt a target’s spirituality, crippling their source of power—and also overwrites it if weak enough with the user’s own. By branding a spiritual mark directly into the target’s mind, the user transforms them into a heretic bound to command. This enslavement persists as long as the mark remains.

Duration: 1 hour

<Almighty Aura>

Rank: Divine

Description: Allows the user to emanate a powerful, oppressive aura that instantly suppresses any being lacking mind-defensive capabilities within its radius. Those who possess such defenses are subjected to a crushing gravitational pull that weighs down both their physical form and their energies.

Duration: 3 days

...

Rex wasn’t expecting to digest the traits this quickly.

He thought he would need to wait for a day or two until his body properly adapted.

Perhaps his physique had grown more accustomed to adaptation, or perhaps the God Realm itself was influencing him through its mysterious ways. Regardless, he was thoroughly pleased—he could now trigger these adaptations instantly.

Without a heartbeat of hesitation, he let his body embrace the new traits.

<Devoured inhabitants: 10 / 10>

<Sudden Quest: Probing the Gods has been completed!>

<Scanning for skills and passive skills obtained within the duration of the Sudden Quest...>

<Notice: There are no skills or passive skills obtained.>

"W-Wait a second!" Rex gasped, his body shuddering under the overwhelming sensation flooding him from within as it wrestled with three new traits. He was wrong to expect that digestion was the exact same as adaptation. "Hold the reward. Claim it only after this is done. After I’ve fully adapted to these traits."

<Affirmative.>

Rex had only been adapting to one trait at a time.

He hadn’t tried adapting to three at the same time, and he had overlooked that factor.

A restrained groan escaped his mouth as he fell sideways; his body was temporarily not his own.

Muscles rippled and bucked beneath his skin like serpents trapped in a sack, coiling and uncoiling in a violent, foreign pattern. Bones shifted with wet, grinding pops. Not breaking, but reforming to properly accommodate the use of three traits simultaneously.

His fur lashed against his back as though caught in a gale.

Each strand was alive with volatile energy.

Rex was not foreign to painful transformation; the simple act of turning to his beast side was already a painful process that only a few could endure. But this was different. Other than his body transforming, there’s also an invasion of his essence.

The three traits were being woven into his very essence, thread by burning thread.

And his body fought every stitch.

His terrifying regeneration became a downside as the Nigh-divine Adaptation skill worked even harder.

A cold, searing wrongness clawed through his veins—as if his body and soul itself were being asked to make room for something that wasn’t a part of him. His claws gouged the floor. His jaw locked. A sound that was not quite a growl, not quite a scream, bled through his clenched teeth.

If others saw him like this, they would be surprised, considering his high pain tolerance.

But the process wasn’t painful.

Rex had felt a lot more pain than this—this only felt different and wrong, which was overwhelming.

And slowly, achingly—the process ebbed. The foreign began to feel less foreign. The overwhelming discomfort dulled, then faded, until it stopped being uncomfortable. His muscles and bones settled into new patterns, locking into a shape that was still his own but more.

As if nothing had happened at all, Rex sat up and crossed his legs, settling into a meditation bloom.

"System, claim the reward."

<Affirmative>

Once the traits settled into Rex’s body, the System could finally detect the new skills he obtained.

All three of them were recognized and immediately made permanent.

Integrated into him.

But this process wasn’t as simple as making the skills he obtained no longer have any time limit. Like all skills that the System copied from another and integrated into him, the three skills were adjusted to suit his constitution.

The Memory Spirit skill has been morphed and settled into the Phantom Pack skill.

Now, the spectral spirits he summoned through the skill would take the form of his likeness—wolves, adding a new shape to everything that skill already provided. And these spectral spirits would no longer crowd his mind or burden his thoughts with their presence.

Instead, they settled into his King Mark, nestling there as it had always been meant to house them.

Other than retaining a fragment of their previous power, they also gained additional boosts.

Boosts that are dictated by the King Mark they settled into.

Nothing much changed from the Spiritual Tainting, other than the skill name becoming Divine Tainting, and the spiritual mark changing into a heresy mark. An additional effect was also added, allowing him to absorb a portion of the target’s divinity after the mark was completed.

It also said about a divinity backlash that would happen, but it wasn’t directed at him.

Rex didn’t need to be worried about that.

As for the Almighty Aura, it was surprisingly compatible with the Alpha Bearing skill—causing these two skills to merge into Almighty Bearing. On top of the effects brought by the Almighty Aura, this new skill also weakened the stats of those affected with it.

A significant drop in physical stats if their minds are strong, and a sharp drop in energy-based stats—if their physiques are strong.

Each of these skills was picked with the sole purpose of taking down Kaiser.

Once Rex managed to enter the Blood Moon Realm, he could cause big damage and terrorize the realm way faster with these skills. Havoc would spread like wildfire.

No more being on the receiving end.

It was time for Rex to be the one on the offense, and Kaiser better be prepared for it.

<Notice: Pack members Davina and Lilliana are also bestowed with the Phantom Pack skill as well as the Almighty Aura skill>

Rex’s eyes narrowed when this notification appeared.

"Davina and Lilliana helped? When?"

He knew that the skills or passive skills he obtained during the completion of the Sudden Quest would be permanent and also bestowed upon pack members who helped him in obtaining them. But he was quite sure those two didn’t help him.

Both the Spirit Memory skill and the Almighty Aura skill came from the Godlings in that vault.

Rex was the one who killed them alone.

Just then, his eyes widened as he came to the realization of something.

"Bellana..." He muttered inwardly and then massaged his forehead. "So, she was cooperative because of those two."

Since the System calculated only direct help, his mind immediately wandered to Bellana. She was the one who led him to the vault, allowing him to access the Cavity. And this notification meant the sisters had encouraged Bellana to go to him.

It’s unclear what they suggested her to do, but that made it easy for Rex to influence her.

And that’s probably why she was stealing glances at him.

It was because of Davina and Lilliana, not because she found him handsome or anything.

For some reason, that made him annoyed, but it doesn’t matter.

Considering those two are probably going to help him ransack the Blood Realm, it’s good that they attain the skills too. "Let’s head back," Rex stood up and walked out of the chamber. "I’ve been gone too long. The spies might be getting suspicious."

Rex returned to Larta City.

Dawn had broken when he arrived there.