Darius' body jerked inside the pond as if something inside his body had exploded. As a matter of fact, that was exactly what had happened.
Many blood vessels burst and ruptured, unable to carry this new type of blood at all.
Most of his organs starting failing, getting corrupting and shattering under the weight and power of this new blood.
The devastation inside him was so horrific that the nanites didn't even know what to do aside from prolonging his life using all the emergency functions they possessed.
Miranda and Solena appeared in full-body mode outside the pod, gazing at the jerking Darius with worry and horror.
The changes happening to Darius could only be watched but not stopped. The best the two AI could do was search through all the information in their Database for a perhaps more optimal way to maintain his body as best as they could.
Solena turned to Miranda with a solemn frown. "Should we use it?"
Miranda hesitated, but shook her head. "His condition is not that critical yet. He insisted that we only use it when he is on the literal edge of death."
Solena pointed to Darius within. "That doesn't count as being on the verge of death?"
Miranda shook her head, but gritted her teeth. "No… I think we all expected something like this would happen. He is changing a human heart in a human body to that of an ancient dragon's without having done any modifications to his body."
Solena was left silent at this, agreeing deep down.
Their 'father' had left them a vial of Lunar Dew, which they were to apply to him in the pod if it appeared as if he would be dying.
The thunderous changes to his body continued for multiple hours, his organs and blood, even his bones and marrow getting destroyed then regenerated in a similar but slightly different form over and over again.
By the time the process stopped, Darius' body looked only slightly different, the most notable changes being his form getting slightly more muscular.
His lack of external change seemed strange given a great deal of internal change, but Miranda and Solena could only take guesses as to the reason why.
Seeing that the entirety of Darius' system had settled down and was circulating perfectly, the duo nodded, yet still injected him with a bit of Lunar Dew. The healing liquid flowed through his system and brought his life functions to their peak, before the sedation was removed.
Darius himself roused a few moments later, wondering what was going on, but became aware in the next second as his high Int refreshed his mind.
The nanites were sucked back into the pod's fluid chambers while the latch opened up slowly. He raised his upper body slowly, maintaining a sitting position as he gazed at his body.
He too was surprised at the absence of horns, fangs, or at least a tail, although he was subtly thankful for that. He would much prefer remaining in a human appearance. If he wished to transform, he could always use his Elemental King form or something.
Darius pushed himself up and out of the pod, allowing it to close behind him as he gazed at the digital form of his two daughters.
Unlike how his real kids would have reacted, these two showed no recognition for his nakedness, only inspecting his health condition to make sure he was fine before returning to the HoloBrace.
Darius also paid them no mind as he flexed his body and verified that everything was working well. His face changed as he noticed a problem when he looked down.
Not long after he had been summoned by the Goddess Vena into the world of Faust, Darius had once theorized which stat might influence the size of his tool.
In hindsight, he had been happy when none had made it grow larger. The only time his member had increased in growth had been in those 5 years when he had hit puberty.
However... his crotch which had been of average size by Earth's standard was now trying to give Gunner a run for his money, even in a flaccid state!
"This is terrible." Darius remarked with a frown.
He had been perfectly happy with what he had before and had gotten used to it over two lives.
He might have been happy about it, but he had already seen the kind of backlash that one would be plagued by from Gunner and the half-giant struggles of finding compatible mates.
In fact, among most humanoids, Gunner could only reasonably have intercourse with a select few with accommodating physiques. Of course, there were races like Dryads, Siren, Succubi, and more who could take on all comers, but that was no longer applicable to Darius.
After all, with Deia's appearance, he only had eyes for her and nobody else. How was a perfectly normal human woman like Deia supposed to handle something like this without bleeding or feeling horrific pain?
Darius rubbed his face and decided that this was an issue he would have to allocate some time for later. This was a world of magic, so changing something as simple as physiology should not be too problematic.
He wouldn't be too surprised if some spells existed like that, although chances were they would work the opposite way from what he intended to do.
Darius moved onto checking more important things like his Character sheet.
[Name: Darius Stone
Race: Ancestor Dragon (Fledgling)
Stage: Journeyman
Class: Itemancer
Subclass: Magus
HP: 2,500/2,500
MP: 4,500/4,500
STA: 1,500/1,500
Level: 30
Experience: 1,247/3,100
Strength: 50
Agility: 50
Endurance: 50
Intellect: 150
Charisma: 50
Luck: 100
Physical Status: Healthy
Mental Status: Frustrated.
AP: 2
SP: 0
Active: Elemental Breath - Lv.1, Combine - Lv.40, Lightning Bolt - Lv.40, Group Teleportation - Lv.40, Spawn - Lv.20, Analyze - Lv.10 etc
Passive: Magical Mastery - Lv.1, Elemental Control - Lv.1, Draconic Regeneration - Lv.1, Spell Enhancement - Lv.50, Spell Mastery - Lv.15, Mageward Barrier - Lv.5, Spirit Barrier - Lv.5, Channeling - Lv.1, Basic Lancer Arts - Lv. 4, Weapons Mastery - Lv.1, Unarmed Mastery - Lv.1, etc
Abilities: Transmutation (Intermediate), Dragon Transformation (Intermediate), Explosive Strength (Basic), Afterimage (Basic), Fast Regeneration (Basic), Elementary Psychomancy (Intermediate), Morph (Basic), Deflection (Basic).]
Darius had gained 1 new active and 3 new passives from his implantation. He had also gained a single new ability, which greatly surprised him.
Unsurprisingly, his stats and physical resources had not changed. After all, Caesar had been very clear about it, once the Supreme System had attached to him, he would gain the ability to level up and use stats, but have to forego all organic growth.
That was likely also the reason why Darius' had not changed too much externally, 'only' acquiring bloodline skills.
Without this kind of limitation, all his stats would surely have experienced an explosive boost after he had upgraded his level of existence.
He could practically imagine the silhouette of a certain sadistic AI who did not share his regret.
