“Welcome back, Master Adun.”

  As I groggily opened my eyes, the first thing I heard was Melchior’s cheery voice from the floating Dorai Bot. Out of habit, I shot to my feet and promptly banged my head on the cavern’s low ceiling.

  “Urgh... how long was I out for, Melchior?”

  “You have been unconscious for approximately six days, Master Adun. Rest assured, all your vital functions appear to be normal.”

  Almost an entire week? I’d thought this ordeal would take a day or two at the most. Were Khaelen and his group still around?

  As I gradually collected myself, a strange, alien sensation made itself known to me.

  Two minds now existed within me simultaneously, each processing their own set of thoughts. They were both me and yet, independent of each other.

  I could actively ponder why grape flavored drinks tasted like purple and not grapes, while solving a complex math problem at the same time.

  If I willed it, I could also fully access the other brain’s memories as an Agarian cyborg and all of the knowledge it once had. My second mind’s processing speed was considerably faster than my original, and I quickly browsed through its “data bank” for anything useful.

  Blah blah blah, never had a girlfriend, blah blah blah, I now have a metal pe- ah, here’s something useful.

  There was a significant amount of information on the maintenance and usage of the various cybernetic parts that the Agarian had used. I’d been wondering how I’d make use of them, perhaps asking Melchior for help, but now it seemed that there was no need.

  I continued to look through its memories, searching for any pertinent information about the Canopy or Bellona, but it was just about as clueless as I was. I did however, finally discover what sort of pact it had been talking about in our first battle.

  Nearly all the Tier 4 worlds participating in the Realm Wars had signed a non-aggression treaty before entering, in order to maximize their chances of winning. A revision had been made upon the introduction of the Nemesis system, in which the two combatants selected would be allowed to slay each other without interference from other members of their race. Other than that, however, any who violated this treaty would be designated as “kill on sight.”

  As the Agarian had promised, he had broadcast my appearance to all of the Tier 4 races nearby after mistakenly believing me to be from a Tier 4 world as well.

  Well, it wasn’t something I was terribly concerned about. My appearance was constantly changing and morphing, so eventually they wouldn’t even be able to recognize me. They didn’t know my ID either, so they wouldn’t be able to find my location through the Tracker function.

  I would have to attempt to keep a low profile in the meantime though, since the Onisha body stood out too much.

  After I finished perusing through the Agarian brain and acclimating myself to my dual minds, I opened up my Status screen to check my new stats.

  Both my strength and physique stats had decreased by several points compared to before, due to the System averaging the stats of all my extra limbs and appendages. Of course, my Onisha parts still retained their monstrous strength stat of 72 and physique of 65, but they had been slightly disguised now.

  My intelligence accessories were no longer active due to my base intelligence stat exceeding their limits, but its value had still skyrocketed. Controlling all my body parts had never felt smoother, and my mind remained blissfully quiet, free of the whispers of flesh.

  Most importantly however... the upper limit of the number of parts I could attach had finally increased. It was time to go on a grafting spree!

  But, first I needed to check on Khaelen and his group before I did so. Judging by his position on the Map, he was no longer at the camp and was actually quite some distance away.

  I opened the Messages function and saw an entire wall of spam from Khaelen since four days ago. It seemed he had attempted to find me through the Ally Tracking function, but of course I had been underground the entire time. Poor guy must have thought I’d abandoned him, since the messages had abruptly stopped at some point.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Fortunately, they seemed to be faring well on their own.

  With that out of the way, I could finally begin my upgrades. I retrieved the corpse of the brainless Agarian from my Inventory and began completely dismantling it.

  Its blue, pulsating mana organ, now nestled securely next to the Onisha’s.

  Its cybernetic arms and legs, now added to my own.

  Its round power core, now installed in the middle of my chest.

  Part after part, along with its various auxiliary weapons, were all grafted onto me. Utilizing the Agarian’s knowledge, I was able to recalibrate its machinery to fit my own body and relink with the power core.

  Taking out Storm Caller, I fed a strand of mana into it and activated its ability. As a crackling surge of lightning filled the small cavern, I gently tapped the power core with the club.

  The core began to hum and buzz as it greedily absorbed the electricity and all my new parts came to life. Overall, the efficiency seemed quite good; I only needed to use about a third of my total mana to fully charge the core.

  From the Agarian’s memories, that should last me at least an entire week of normal activity. Of course, if I activated its Overdrive mode, that time period would be considerably less.

  I also took the opportunity to add a few additional organs and appendages I hadn’t been able to previously. A second set of non-Deinopi eyes were added below my first pair; I didn’t want to be blinded if the exit to the next layer was truly in a bright area.

  More tentacle-like parts with various functions were added, along with an extra set of lungs. A second mouth with an air canal was placed onto my right collarbone and connected to the lungs for increased oxygen intake.

  Gradually, my mind began to fill with soft murmurs and echoes once more.

  Reaching my limit already? There was still so much I needed to graft!

  Well... if I did it once, I can do it twice.

  I took out the corpse of the second Agarian and extracted its brain as well.

  With the combined might of two fully functioning minds, this round should go much differently.

  With the Void Dagger, I made a wide incision in my plump Onisha buttocks and inserted the Agarian brain. Best not to keep all your eggs in one basket, after all.

  As the brain began to spread its tendrils and connect to the rest of my body, I felt another wave of information enter my minds, along with a remnant will.

  Unlike before however, my minds smoothly processed the flow of memories and captured the struggling remnant within the Agarian brain. Slowly, they overwhelmed the remnant will, crushing any form of resistance.

  Eventually, none of it remained; only we did.

  Now equipped with three minds, I stood tall with four legs and six arms. An array of futuristic artillery dotted my massive frame along with a writhing mass of various appendages.

  I attempted to install the thrusters the Agarian cyborgs had used, but the sheer weight of my Onisha body made them extremely inefficient. I was only able to barely hover off the ground, and the energy expenditure was tremendous. Ultimately, I abandoned the idea and made do with my second set of legs.

  The Agarian legs provided additional support to the main legs and noticeably increased my move speed as well as jump height. While still not capable of matching their original speeds, my agility should be more on par with that of an average Tier 4 race when combined with the Leapfroggers.

  I made a few more modifications, such as attaching extra hands to my various arms, but soon I was done.

  Opening my Status screen once more, it now read:

  Hm, as expected there were diminishing returns on the increase in my intelligence. Just as it had been with my human brain, it was a “quality over quantity” issue. Higher tier parts would most likely need dozens, if not more, lower tier brains in order to function.

  I had limited real estate in my body, so it probably wouldn’t be feasible to attach every brain I came across. Nevertheless, in a pinch it would certainly be an option to use them temporarily.

  As for the second Agarian corpse that remained... I decided to leave it as is and not harvest any additional parts from it. It would serve as a backup body, and I could swap to it if I needed a form with higher speed.

  The Onisha body would be the main combat frame, while the Agarian would serve as a stealthier, faster frame that could fly.

  However, there remained one issue with that plan; if I transplanted my head onto the Agarian corpse, then readded an additional brain, would I need to fight for control again?

  Luckily, there was a simple way to test this.

  I cut into my gray abdomen and after groping around for a few moments, brutally ripped out the first Agarian brain.

  Like a light being unplugged, I instantly lost connection with the mind as it went “dark”. All the memories and information that had been present within vanished as well, and I was left with only a vague recollection of having known “something”.

  I swiftly reattached it and after pouring a potion, watched as it reintegrated itself.

  A now-familiar tide of information entered my minds, but nothing else happened as the Agarian mind was smoothly assimilated.

  Excellent. It seemed that once a mind had been subjugated, it was wiped clean of any will, like a blank slate. I could swap bodies without any worries now.

  With that, I stood up and began cleaning up the area as I prepared to leave. There were still a few more things I wanted to test out, along with purchasing new equipment, but that could all be done on the way.

  It was time to regroup with Khaelen.