"Well, there you have it," I said as I took off my bloodied gloves.

"Was that it?" Arteria asked as she rubbed the spot above her heart where I had performed the surgery.

Needless to say, because I valued customer satisfaction over everything else, there was nary a scar left after the surgery.

And this time, there weren't any blown up arms or dead Minotaurs; we've come a long way.

"Yup. You are now officially the first artificially created Dragon Vampire Shadowlord Hybrid. Be proud of it."

Well, to be more precise, she's probably the first pure blooded Vampire in this world to turn into a hybrid.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" She furrowed her brows. "Isn't it just a heart? Why am I a 'Dragon Vampire Shadowlord' hybrid now?"

Wut?

Boy oh boy, someone sure is a bit delusional.

"Just A heart? That's actually quite insulting."

I spent all that effort in creating a motherfucking DVSH heart and implanting it in her body, and she has the audacity to look at it as just another run of the mill heart?

This is just wow.

Maybe I should rip that heart out from her chest because she clearly does not deserve it.

"Please be a bit clearer."

"To put it simply, as we speak, your body is going through various changes."

"What kind of changes? What have you done to my body?" She frowned a bit.

Is she perhaps not fond of the idea of her body being tampered with?

Sed, but also dumb.

I mean, transplanting a heart is nothing more than another form of body modification.

"Several, actually. For example, you're going to become much stronger than before."

Too strong, in fact.

"Strong… in what way?"

"For starters, from now on, you can use the Dragon System for casting magic spells. Their vast mana consumption would have been a problem before, but you can also use the mana present in the environment without needing to refine it."

"The Dragon System…" Her eyes widened.

Yes, be amazed, Arteria.

"So basically, you now have a practically infinite supply of mana which you can process in new and innovative ways to cast magic spells you never could have before."

"…"

"Your raw physical strength will also increase."

"How?"

"As part of the Dragon System, your blood circulatory system has turned into second network of Mana Circuits. It will supply mana to every cell of your body, giving them a boost. You obviously won't feel anything right now, but within a week, you'll be several times stronger than you already are."

And that's because the body will take some time to adjust to the new changes.

"Then…"

"The Shadowlord side, on the other hand, in addition to giving you a new way to perceive the World, will also grant you immunity to almost everything. In other words, you are almost immortal now. Well, 'almost' because as long as you take care of yourself, you won't die of aging."

Well, no one actually dies of aging. People in old age leave for their next life because aging weakens their bodies, forming several cracks in the body's natural defence system which diseases can exploit.

Those diseases continue accumulating until one, or several, of the body's vital functions fail, thus causing the person's death.

The Shadowlord side, however, eliminates aging.

It also upgrades the immune system to Immune System MK-II, which not only persistently evolves, but is also aggressive as hell.

Like seriously, they're so aggressive that the battlefield when bacteria invade the body makes both the World Wars look like a fucking tea party.

"…" With widened eyes and a gasp, Arteria looked down at her body, as if trying to sense the changes going through her body.

It would seem she does not like those changes.

"That's the basic gist of it. The actual changes, of course, are a lot more complex. Also, these modifications will use up a lot of resources. Within half an hour, you'll start feeling hungry. It would be better to gather lots of high calorie snacks; you're going to need them. Oh, and don't worry, you won't get fat. In fact, you might get thinner."

That's just how much resources the new heart will use to settle and modify the body.

I have no idea how strong Arteria was before, but from today onwards, she's going to be the strongest out of all us, and probably this entire continent.

Her strength should rival those of Ancient Dragons now.

But will I stop there? Absolutely not. I'll continue developing new things until Arteria can one-shot the fucking Dragon Lord.

What's the point of modifying her body otherwise?

"Just… what have you done to me?"

"Hmm?"

"I-I didn't sign up for this."

"Then what did you sign up for?"

"Not this, at the very least."

"Oh, right. You saw a new heart that had all the qualities of a vampire, Dragon, Shadowlord and was intelligent enough to form a fucking connection with you, and you thought that your body will experience absolutely no change when you'll implant it in your body."

"…" She bit her lips.

"Does that make any sense to you?"

I knew Arteria was, let's just say, dumb, but boy oh boy I wasn't expecting this.

"Couldn't you have said all those things before the operation?"

"I would have if you had given me the chance to."

"You had many chances to do so," she scoffed.

"In case you don't remember, you were so adamant about… adopting that heart that you simply refused to listen to anything I said. From your confidence, I figured you knew what you were getting into."

I mean, that's like the basis of Operation 101.

"…"

"Anyway, stop making a big deal out of this. They're just small, harmless changes. They will help you greatly in the long run."

"…Just why did you do this to me?" She stared at me with hurt eyes, as I had wronged her.

"Excuse me? Why did I do this to you? YOU were the one who forced me to transplant that heart into you, but yes, this is all my fault. You know what? Just get the fuck out of my room."

Like Jesus, what is this behaviour? I did all that hard work even though I didn't really want to, and now I'm the one who's being blamed for it?

Hot fucking damn, if I knew she was so unappreciative, I would have, let's just say, taken an eternal break during that surgery.

Arteria, you fucking asshole.