The others felt it as well, Robin mentioned the dangers of doing this and suggested only for those with more than 10k stats because he had used Supernatural perception and immense gravity to suppress them because they did not have unique abilities.
Unsurprisingly, the other demigods with, between 8k and above tried.
In this case, Ruth tried it and her reaction was even more intense because she got 8 demigods of tenacity and 8 of rivalry.
It was plain to see that native celestials were singular domains unlike mortals who were typically multifaceted beings.
She did not give them a time to react because once they appeared she already saw them as she saw ‘him’. Of course, Ruth did not have gravity manipulation but Ruth had a better grasp of psychic and Chi based techniques and because she was prepared for it, they were surprisingly caught by psionic chains and couldn’t break free because they all had elastic properties and were crushed to the ground.
Mr Atlas was another who was able to do it but despite gods of endurance being able to support anything when he dropped the full weight of the gravity, they could only drop to the ground and be crushed.
It was a very strange feeling to think the deities were this weak but it made them just think of it as pest control and avoiding another invader coming to their home.
Shoji did not try, or at least he did not mention anything about it.
Everyone was on alert about the question though because it was clear that the signal was sent by the supposed top followers but clearly they were there to watch and look for those too curious for their own good.
For Lola, when she asked her devils, it shockingly triggered an attack from 14 archdemons and their hordes of minions and at the end, the fight seems to have triggered a number of abilities under the stress.
Each ability was a counter to one of the seven sins or primary elements. She was heavily injured but each kill resulted in her eating the demon core of each demon containing their sin and element as well as life source.
She nearly fainted from damage after but she got through it.
She has also activated her divine spark to build a palace within her domain to enhance her dominion.
Finally, Milo was the most dangerous and he was not ready.
He did not feel ready so he did not try something like that.
After everyone went about their lives, Robin’s rivals would never leave him in peace.
Today however, Marcus felt different.
“You feel different.” Robin said.
“I’ve finished activating the Primate Giant and I’ve paid a hefty price buying and testing the traits needed to hit higher than 50% compatibility.” He said.
Robin was naturally adding things and seeing the results but Marcus had a lot less to worry about for some unknown reason.
“Oh, can you activate it now?” Robin asked.
“Yeah… It will revert me back into my giant ape form but will fully activate all the traits. It’s likely to evolve, though.” He muttered. “I got you bastards here in case something goes wrong.”
Silk and Robin looked confused but they didn’t have time as he walked away.
For Silk, he also had a special physiology based on Iron golems. Yes the big lumbering rock creatures, those things had actual DNA and somehow they had mated with humans at one point or were merged through magical means. Very likely to be related to an ancient god or such.
Now his entire body could convert into metal but he was having troubles since it formed rusted metal and after some trouble, he actually got into a burning forge and trained with his Qi to transform that raw iron into processed metal.
He has to do it regularly or it will start to rust and he is still adding more anti rust traits to preserve his body.
Marcus stepped forward and shouted as he activated the full extent of the two physiologies he had gained.
Where it would have only made him grow silver hair, his body instantly bulged and doubled in size and kept going and Robin began to see it. His body was pulling a fierce amount of elemental forces which infused into his body and half way through, his entire body had converted to that of an ape but a long tail grew out. The ape half was growing more prominent but he kept growing. It soon surpassed his original max height and kept growing until he was nearly 40 meters tall and the two on the ground felt shocked. He was still far from Godzilla’s size or even disaster who was over 100 meters but he contained a different pressure to him.
He raised his and roared as his chest suddenly shined and his Ki exploded out and sent the two of them back as his body was engulfed in light.
“What the hell!” Robin shouted. It was significantly more intense then when he created Ki.
When Robin shifted his vision to see the supernatural, that was when he saw it. A burning red orb of Ki, different from the blue energy pulsing through his body.
It began to extend like a thread but he felt a sudden shiver because he looked at the face of the beast and it was glowing and no normal pupil had vision.
“Fuck!” Robin shouted as he fixed himself in the air because he knew what Marcus meant now. Titan physiology was affecting his mind, they were titans, primordial aspects of nature while Primates were the apex of earth’s current evolution.
His chest was glowing red and his entire body as well but the elemental forces beating through his body was throwing his mind and body off and with a massive roar, a powerful beam of energy came out of his mouth towards the school.
Robin appeared moments after it launched in the path and raised his hand.
A huge barrier formed in front of the beam stopped the blast from expanding and he curved it so it circled back into the field.
The roar came as Marcus rushed to attack despite the bursting energy.
Robin dropped the barrier and attacked.
With gravity behind his fist, he met the giant weight behind it and even as he sent the ape flying, the immense force was felt but did not affect him.
The beast flew back under the gravity and fixed itself in the air and crashed down as the bright red continued to spread over his body and a pained roar came after.
It suddenly increased in size to nearly 60 meters. This was a massive increase, just 10 meters in size is a huge increase in mass and Marcus was growing at an absurd pace.
Robin actually worried that this might cause irreparable damage to him for impromptu doing this.
Thankfully the pain was starting to paralyze him but Robin also locked his arms and legs and pushed gravity down to pin his limbs despite his protest.
“What the fuck did this fucker do!” Silk cried out.
“He is generating god ki.” Robin exclaimed. “He produced and gathered enough in just 2 years to transform.”
His body grew again to 80 meters before the red finally spread down his body and back to his heart like cracks and through the gravity he roared as the white light began to get consumed by the red and once it was, his size compressed.
It released several shockwaves as more ki was converted until he was back to human size and the red light was shining brightly and began to peel off to reveal Marcus, with the same division of ape and human as before but his hair had turned scarlet red as the waves of Ki around his body went from chaotic to an aura that radiated pacifically.
His eyes were still blood red covered in a glow but slowly the trembling calmed down and that shine returned to normal revealing a pair of red eyes and the natural whites of the eye.
Moments after a Divine spark burst to life and flew into his chest.
He breathed deeply and stretched, causing popping.
The tail behind him was still there and he looked at his own hands and looked at himself.
He was as tall as before, about 2 meters, muscular and only his face and chest was still exposed. His body proportions were perfectly human but now he sported a tail behind him.
When he relaxed, the red fur vanished and everything was pulled back except for the tail.
“What the fuck you bastard! Why the hell did you go crazy!” Silk shouted.
“That’s what happens when beasts achieve a biological evolution. The animal comes out. I was warned by the system to have someone who can contain my power without directly moving to actually knocking me out as their first instinct.” he explained. “Now I have both a human form and a human beast form I can access freely unlike before.” He said.
“Wait what?!” Silk exclaimed.
“Yeah, the titan biology lets me assume that and the primate biology gives me a refined form. How big did I get?” He asked.
They looked at him with conflicted expressions, “About 80 meters.” Robin said.
His eyes bulged and he checked his stats and his jaw dropped, “Fucking hell! My stats went from 6k to over 9k! Wait! There are extra modifiers now… natural physical stats are nearly 9k but the effect is multiplied by x2!” he exclaimed.
“Wha!” the duo was shocked.
“This is so fucking awesome! Ahahaha!” Marcus laughed and turned to the two and cracked his knuckles! Alright, let’s go you two, I’m about to make you to my fucking bitches!” he laughed.
After making sure to save, Marcus did just that, he actually beat the both of them very thoroughly because his physical stats had indeed nearly reached 18k.
His laughing and insults actually triggered both of the boys like nothing else after they were dropped to their last lives and they promised they would beat him to a bloody pulp.
Robin actually felt angry as he looked at the systems of traits and their complexity and the effects it would have and need to have. It was a very complex system but the more he looked through it he knew he would have to pay a steep price to make the best compatibility system.
“I will not let Marcus get away with all that beating he gave me!” He exclaimed and picked the one with the least effect on him. It was a network of traits designed purely on biological traits of compatible nature in both of them.
Much like the eyes, there was a system in the flow among them and using the funds he had in both money and crystals he purchased 32 traits, 4 groups of 8 traits, in a row meaning he also used 20 points in each of the five traits to add them.
He then built the flow but did not implement it. He counted out the number of traits he needed and to finish this system he would need another 30.
“So I need at least another 10 levels at least. I’m 283 right now.” He muttered and flexed his neck because he had all the cores stored in his own and knew he would explode with growth after this.
“That fat monkey will know what pain is.” He growled and instantly pulled up the work commission network Techno had built which interfaced with the quest system to pay out money and exp crystals.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
He did not care which trait set up Ruth took, she had her own life to live and path to build he was going to pay back Marcus for what he did and after locating several jobs for the next month, scheduled them spread about during free periods and then set up a training schedule and immediately began to train, which caused the energy within the other cores to erupt out and start to train his body.
***
Shoji looked out into the heavenly realm, he breathed deeply and looked at his status. It had grown extensively the last year under pressure of his new combat form and was now much greater.
Unlike the others however, when he fully achieved human biology he had a massive growth of nearly 700 points in physical stats and his body began to expose a higher form of physiology which the system recognized as a form of Divine physiology.
He knew Robin would stress over it so he never spoke of it as he activated it and after doing so, he naturally felt the transformation of his body and there was a direct growth. Nearly on the level of evolution like Marcus and Lola, he had gone from 2,200 to nearly 3,500 in terms of physical stats.
Training and buying select traits, he had expanded his power just enough.
It wasn’t a big one and was meant to improve his control of his psionic construct but his new physiology molded around his original powers and built a lot of new emotion related powers, causing a rather significant transformation in his powers.
With a deep breath his eyes opened, shining with the divine color of his divinity.
His construct took form and pulsed as the psychic enhancements were infused but he did not infuse it into his body directly. Instead his own emotional shadow extended and it fused with that, making it assume a corporal form before it finally merged with Shoji.
His eyes shined as lines spread through his body looking like a matrix of some kind that made him look godly.
When it stabilized, the glowing eye returned to normal but he looked at the markings but did not smile.
He sensed himself with psionic force and found lines running through his body and there were six empty circles within this structure of lines. He had learned they represented the six emotions of the human psyche. These were happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust and fear.
Feeling everything, he felt no discomfort and his mind was running with supernatural perception to conceptualize the feedback properly. Unlike Robin, he had adapted extremely well to the supernatural perception even if it did require time to grow into.
This was a transformation, a transformation for a god of emotions.
His domain might be ‘Stability’ but it was mental stability. He influenced all emotions but he could feel that a lot was missing.
He checked the status and the 4 and 4.5x boost had gone up to 6x boost. To become one with your emotion was how he would assume the form of a god.
Behind him, a council of three angels awaited, very different from Robin’s christian system, his was very different. One of them looked like a Baku, a creature that is said to eat nightmares, one of them looked like a woman with a thin wispy cloth circling her head and a white robe and the last looked like an ogre, with a fiendish face but was courteous and the most intelligent of the trio.
Shoji asked the question Robin had asked to trigger the attack and as soon as he did, the ogre’s eyes shined brightly.
The reply came just as Robin had said and the reaction was volatile.
Exploding through the air and taking form, six groups of warped and nearly eldritch like beings took form.
Shoji looked at them with growing disgust. “Robin is right, this realm is just a breeding ground of parasites.” He cursed as black shadows extended from his hand. It was the emotional shadow and it solidified into a blade that was as long as he was and as he gripped the hilt he looked at all the deities like bugs in a web.
Every god was of a domain pertaining to one of the six human emotions but there was not a single emotion deity related to stability or other mental conditions.
“You dare call us parasites!” A deity of anger cursed.
Shoji’s eyes moved towards him and before any of them could react, he swung the sword randomly and teleported behind the deity.
All they saw was blood and a head fly before getting caught and all of the divine spark surge out into Shoji.
A chill filled all of them because they had not seen him move. Instant teleportation, it was not something speed could do.
The body crumbled and his divine core was sucked up by Shoji and placed within his dantians.
“You all are invaders inside my domain, your kind is the one that brought disaster to my home. Robin is right… pity and mercy is unneeded here.” He said and began a massacre that the deities could barely defend against.
When they used abilities pertaining to their domain, which involved the emotions they controlled, Shoji would cut through them, nothing these deities could do with their domain could affect him and when the last one fell to his blade, he began to suck up the sparks.
The three councils were trembling at the pressure that Shoji excluded. It was a danger that rivaled Robin.
He returned to his temple and processed all the sparks and it had a direct physical effect on him.
Within the six openings within the markings of his body, a small circle had formed at the center and showed the level of dominion he had absorbed from the other deities. He absorbed the spark and released a new one and hordes of angels appeared.
They were of all emotions and shapes and he accepted them.
He looked at the council and narrowed his eyes because he could tell that they were there to monitor him and open the gates for other gods.
With a snort he knew he would have to consume all the gods he had beat first and prepare for the next wave. He was sure this was a trial by fire, either he was washed away or he ascended as a god.
He disconnected from his fusion and the markings came off and the construct broke down. His body showed no worse for the wear.
He finally returned home when it was done.
***
The heroes checked out the status of the incoming students. Thousands of teachers were working through as there were basically weekly updates.
The heroes looked at the 12th grade in literal shock.
“Okay… I can understand Marcus for his literal evolution into an 80 meter tall ape giant but… what happened to all the rest. Is the physiology that big of an impediment?” Miss America asked.
Naturally all the heroes did the same but as you can expect, besides Blue Phoenix, the rest were all limited to human physiology which was already fully active and connected to their natural traits.
It was much slower to build the exceptionally complex system of traits that pertained to their powers because a lot of them did not have a physiology related to it. They were mystical abilities humans developed or simply supernatural human bloodlines.
This was especially true for Chasm Might, Esper, Server Admin and Miss America.
“Children from the 12th grade are probably being spurred on by the elite class. The other grades are equally going through expanding growth. It seems human biology has been a rather serious restriction. Just look at the civilian classes, the children with just basic energy control have all gone up a step and in the last week, their 10 stat point growth has gone up to 30 points and it was just a change to athletic levels and not even supernatural levels that people with natural powers have.” Bookkeeper said.
“So is a level 2 Human Physiology even ready?” Miss America asked, she seemed rather excited because it would mean a huge super generation would be coming and sweeping in like a wave against their enemies.
Human Physiology can only be added once the genetic growth has stabilized. It is like going through blooming and adapting to a healthier genetic code. An estimate of about 6 months is required for humans to adapt and Level 2, which is also the last level of human physiology, will be infused. The genetic makeup of each person’s physiology has to be unique, however so this wait time is also there for the system to simulate each person’s requirements to build from as all future physiologies, especially for those with other racial backgrounds, will require it to build the foundation of their final forms.
“So regardless, it is vital to train and take this time to grow.” She said.
“Have you seen anyone interesting for yourself?” Chasm Might asked.
“My defensive battle style classes have pulled in a host of children. Last year showed me a lot about their personalities and this new system is making it even harder. I’ve basically been training everyone in the style of defensive fighters and training their durability and strength.” She said. “Speaking of defensive styles, another Harison was added to my class because of his sister but the boy clearly has the older twin’s combo of hardened rubber.” She said.
“Probably because he can fight defensively he was given the option as well.” Chasm Might said, “I have combat classes with him so it's probably to find the style he fits best.”
“Oh I see. The little girl’s ability has bloomed though.”
“As most students in the early years now.”
“Has the lowest “Hero” benchmark been set?” Vibrate asked.
“10k no matter if it is with multiplier or base. As long as at least 3 stats surpass 10k they will be regarded as hero ranked.
“What has Super hero been set to?” Techno asked.
“100k.” Miss America said and opened her own status.
Her constitution was 110k and the rest just under 100k. Of course, much like Chasm Might, it is traits that added a multiplier to it.
“How many superheroes were officially recognized?” Techno asked.
“In America, Vibrate, Bookkeeper in his Time Wizard form and myself. Asian union has Dracon and the one that helped him develop, Europe has Bone king only, Africans don’t have any but there are 4 who are close to the standard.” She said. “The new meridian system is making a big difference in harnessing humanities potential however.”
“Agreed, based on scans of civilian populations, especially the powerless children, they have been growing stronger naturally.” Esper said.
Vincent looked at the Necromancer course and sighed, Milo was like a shining beacon among the candle lamps. He had naturally provided the school with the Necromic Bath ritual he used to train but no one was even remotely close to him who literally went through that torture monthly. The fastest had only a 3 month recovery pace and even with death mana and life essence there was no comparison.
Not to mention that the boy had Death Aether and Life Source instead of mana and essence.
Of course, many students already had their weapons to channel death mana but only a handful possessed even a slim capacity to process the raw death energy and spiritual energy into refined energy.
Even then his stats were just over the 5k and he was clearly behind the others because he was using so much time and resources on his undead to match his rank. Having even 1 elder Lich and a court of Lich would be invaluable for him as an aide.
Esper noticed and then looked up and smiled, “You shouldn’t worry about your disciple, he got his hero disciple class last year and has made immense strides for a summoner.”
“Right, we depend on our creatures.” He muttered regretfully and thought about his own status which was capped at 19k. He knew what he had to teach Milo next or he would never be able to produce the required physical power to become a hero.
He looked at Esper in turn, “What of your boy, the one with emotional sight. It is ironic that your old enemy possessed a similar power.” He said.
“I’ve thought the same.” He said and pulled up Shoji who had stats in the 5k but adding the multiplier they knew he had and it was clearly near the 10k mark. “The fact he is so reserved with revealing his powers until they are functionally usable is also a pain since it means he doesn’t look for help.”
Then his eyes went up to Robin, “He is still in the mid thousands but recently the numbers are going up explosively, by the hundreds again.” Esper said towards Chasm.
He looked and frowned, “Yes… I’ve vaguely heard them talking from outside the club. The ones who are gods seem to be attracting the trash among deities of their own rank, as strong or a bit stronger than them but not having unique abilities that make our individuality unique. I think if they have cores… they might be absorbing those deities' powers after killing them for trying to kill them for their sparks.” Chasm Might said.
“You mean they are absorbing the cores of other creatures?!” Esper exclaimed.
“That is what I assume. I had to focus my normal hearing to listen in on them. As much as I am confident they would tell me, I think they don’t want to worry us either. Marcus also has a divine spark and is likely to start fighting for energy to grow.” he said.
“They are really developing…” Blue Phoenix said.
“Speaking of developing, have you figured out phoenix physiology?” Chasm Might asked.
“Oh… well the basis is basically a fusion of Bird and Fire Titan. It has to be specifically fire titan, shockingly my own form isn’t even the full size, phoenix are titans. Based on the system analysis, I’m supposed to be no smaller than Marcus. As for the specifics to each unique power is each person’s fire that builds the shape and form that connects the two biology. It's quite compatible compared to primate physiology. About 80% compatible and the rest I need to fix up and then find the best system to energize it. If I face off against Tartarus or ‘Him’ I won’t be so weak next time.” he cursed.
“Then you had best be sure to be ready for that time. Based on Heatwave and Bullet’s memories of the future, Tartarus returns the moment Milo seals the rift to the netherworld.” Vincent said.
“He is too far from being able to fight him and no one has sufficient resistance… you’ve also only barely regained your former strength and you still feel the age on your bones.” Blue Phoenix said.
“Yes, the upside is that Life essence is helping to lubricate these old bones and hopefully I can regain my physical prime by evolving my biology with Life Source soon. Milo already has that in his advantage while I’ve only formed Death Aether because I’ve long since perfected my lich level mana.” He said.
“Has Val’ric ascended yet now that he has the knowledge?” Vibrate asked.
“He’s progressing like most of my generals. Getting an elder bone dragon is not as easy as it looks but using my own Aether does help.” He said.
“Then we should work hard, based on Robin’s clock, after he graduates, we have 2 years for ‘him’ to attack the American Union personally and I doubt he will divert resources to the other continents when we are the source of his reforming empire’s collapse again.” Chasm Might said.
Mephesto was watching from the back but his thoughts were different, he was looking over the student body in silence and trying to rationalize the system that rewarded divine sparks.
Marcus was definitely not the only Kong clan member who achieved God Ki. At least a tenth of them had developed it and evolved as well after activating their unique new Primate physiology and gaining the traits of all apes to make the strongest sapien.
The new title, “Demigod of Apes” clearly showed just how wide his dominion is since humanity itself was a type of ape but it didn’t say lesser or greater meaning than all of them.
He was a racial god, the first one in fact. He rationalized what made him different, naturally he had Titan dna now due to his gigantification’s source. But then he looked at people like Ruth and Robin and they were concepts that most living creatures do, one tenacity and the other perseverance.
The final was worldly functions, Death and Hell, when he looked at it like this, he wondered when a Demigod of humans would appear to symbolize humanity in the heavenly realm. The guide and protector of the powerless, the psychics and spiritualists who trained chi or any other form of energy it produced.
What other functions lacked on earth.
He sat and thought in the silence without disruption about the world’s functions and how a domain is formed between race, function and concept and probably the most important question based on what Chasm Might had mentioned, “If they killed for divine sparks and cores for energy… would other mortals of similar strength be able to steal the spark and become a god as well?”
This thought filled his mind because if it was confirmed and enough ambition filled people, the gods with access might become a gate to an even bigger war that he hoped would go unnoticed.