After fixing up that error, spending a lot time refiguring his hand to get it right this time, he had pretty much recovered his left hand. Though, the framework was a lot shoddier than before.

With this experience, he realised he had a problem; he didn’t know his body well enough.

After figuring some more things out, he would have to study human anatomy. For that, he was certain Marcus could fetch a book for him.

So now, he had to think of his next move.

If he returned to the capital, he would only be found once again by the goddess and get taken care of properly this time.

But, she can’t be omniscient or anything like that considering she couldn’t predict his ability awakening and the assassination ending in failure.

Additionally, she seemed incapable of interfering with the world, having to do so through Hiro.

I mean, if she could, she’d just kill the hero instead.

It seemed he’d become another target on the goddess’ list.

However, if she wasn’t omniscient, perhaps changing his looks would suffice.

Simply put, if he could change everything else in his body, creating a new arm from the chunk of a monster, then surely he could change his face.

But from the latest incident, he realised he would need better framework and understanding.

Additionally, he couldn’t just make up a new face; he needed something to copy off.

And unfortunately, the other figure in his locket wouldn’t be enough, since they were too well known of a character.

‘But if I made him younger…maybe merged our faces a little’

Not yet. There were other things to do right now.

Looking at the remaining bits of the monster, Dagnas thought of what to do.

But wasn’t that obvious?

Placing his hand on the corpse, he visualised it all warping into a string of flesh, which then latched onto his left arm and began crawling across his body. This, in the end, would be another shoddy job, but the arms weren’t awfully complex, so he could at least buff them up a bit, and the outfit wouldn’t be too ruined if he rolled up his sleeves.

After extracting a decent amount of the monster flesh, transforming it into bicep and tricep muscle, he had bulked up. Now, though he was already muscular, he was a lot more hulkish.

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With these big arms, he’d be much stronger.

Next, with the remaining flesh and bone, he created a broadsword, basically copying the one he’d used from memory. Since the last one felt a little frail, he imagined the sword a lot denser now, and made sure to imagine the actual blade as sharp as possible.

In hand was now his new masterpiece, and he named it.

“Necrocleave”

…

“Nevermind…we’ll just call it a bonesword”

***

Days had passed and our transfigurer had become a lot bulkier. After slaying a few monsters, he had packed on some muscle all over, though he had to replace all the clothes with warped hide, basically just copy pasting the clothes he was previously wearing using tough skin instead of cloth.

Additionally, he had stretched himself a little, becoming a bit taller in order to additionally mask his identity, but to also increase the size of his frame, making the muscle more practical.

As for the face issue, he’d given it a shot. Staring at the photo with intense focus, in addition to the mirror as he held his right hand against his cheek, he slowly copied the facial features, lacking some of the wrinkles and signs of ageing.

Yet, he decided to go further than that, after becoming a younger version of the man in the photo. Staring into the mirror, confident in his abilities, he grasped his hair, slowly transforming it to a silver-white colour; he did the same for his eyebrows too.

Now, he really did look like a completely different person, without the risk of being recognised as a possible son or close relative of the man in the photograph.

“Perfect,” he smiled, proud of himself.

At that, Dagnas took rest, taking a monster corpse and forming a scale dome over himself. That’d be the best production he would get.

“Better than nothing,”

If the so-called Goddess managed to get him killed during his sleep, he’d simply accept it. I mean, she’d have to find him first, then get someone to head over and break through this defence without waking him, to finally then kill him, without waking him once again.

If he was stabbed in the heart, he’d still die right now. But later, once he’d properly studied all human anatomy and biology, he could just remake his heart. Eventually, if he reached an insane stage of understanding, he could create a second heart, maybe even another creature.

The possibilities were endless. It was as though this ability unlocked a whole expanse of power and capability.

And it all rested within Dagnas’ palm.

But what was his next move? What would he do next? He’d gained the physique he wanted, and if he continued fighting monsters, he’d quickly get used to the drastic change, so then what?

Was there any point in fighting back against the Goddess?

Should he protect Julius Orthodox Magnus?

Especially with such a haughty name…

Dagnus was unsure, but he knew he had to keep moving forward.

Looking to the scale dome that encased his body, Dagnus’ eyes blurred as he thought deeply over these problems. The scales tilted towards fighting back against the Goddess, though he would need to become much more powerful and gain a much better understanding of this ability if he were to try and take her down.

So, it seemed the only real answer was to keep hunting monsters, and sent a letter to Marcus, requesting a book on human anatomy and everything that comes with it.

‘And monsters. Monster biology. If I can warp a monster’s corpse, maybe I can make one; even if it’s just a puppet’

A lot of research and studying laid ahead. But, to be honest, Dagnus was feeling very…

Excited.