Arnold stripped out of everything apart from his shorts. With his body on display, both Natasha and Alice could feel something tingling within their body, while the rest of the summons were busy comparing Arnold's body with their own. Arnold wasn't aware of what was going on, but the only functioning people in the room were Devon and Arnold.

"Here, hold this between your teeth." Devon handed Arnold a mouthguard made of lizardman scales. The tough hide was difficult for anyone to break, even for someone of Arnold's calibre, "The procedure will be painful and this will help you cope with the pain."

"No need for that, Devon." Arnold smiled, gently pushing away Devon's hands, "Thanks to your nuke, I don't feel pain anymore. It has its demerits, but when it comes to these things, feeling no pain is... convenient."

Devon didn't argue with the boss and went ahead to carry out the task. The needles slowly moved toward Arnold's body. Eventually piercing through his skin and entering the veins within his limbs, chest and forehead. 

"Injecting core stimuli in three... two... one. Stimuli injection started." Devon announced, "Waiting for host's response... The body has accepted the foreign stimuli. Proceeding with increasing the rate of delivery..."

Devon kept mumbling something, but soon everything before Arnold turned hazy. He couldn't focus on Devon's words anymore. His eyelids had turned droopy. Soon he couldn't move a muscle in his body as if his body had started to shut down without his permission.

Talos' eyes were fixed on the vital signs of his master. Since Arnold couldn't feel any pain, monitoring the vitals was the only way for them to notice the slightest changes within Arnold's body and confirm the body's response to the foreign material.

The following moment, Arnold slipped into a deep slumber. No one knew but his organs had started rearranging themselves underneath his skin. Well, rearranging wouldn't be the accurate term for what was undergoing within his body. The organs were evolving, once again. But this time it wasn't as smooth as before.

The evolution of the host was one of the important tasks assigned to the systems of the Vassals. However, Arnold's body wasn't ready to naturally evolve yet, but since Arnold had already decided to go with the flow, the system decided on its own to try and make the procedure as smooth as possible.

The system was closely monitoring the absorption and the alteration rate of Arnold's DNA. It was all thanks to the system, the procedure continued to go on without any hiccups. Even when it all came to halt when Arnold flat-lined. During the evolution of his heart, the system deemed it necessary to recreate Arnold's heart from scratch. His human heart was no longer sufficient enough to sustain his evolved body.

The 4 valves within his heart were destroyed and simultaneously a 12 valve heart was created. The creation of his new heart merely took a couple of seconds, but in that second, everyone in the room panicked. Devon had almost forcefully yanked the needles out of Arnold's body, but Talos stopped him.

"Whatever you do, DO NOT disturb the master until the procedure has been completed." Talos stood between Arnold and Devon, "Stopping the procedure now would do more harm than good."

"But Talos, his vitals-"

"Just trust me on this. Nothing will happen to the master."

Devon shook his head in disagreement, but he couldn't do anything about it. Also, Arnold's vitals were stable once again so there was no reason for Devon to interrupt the process now. 

Since Talos somewhat knew about the 'system', unlike the rest of them,  he was sure the Elder wouldn't let its host die so easily. In the worst case, it would take control over their master's body, but the Elder would ensure Arnold's survival first and foremost.

One after another, Arnold's organs were being destroyed and recreated and all of this was happening at an insane speed. Soon enough, the changes within Arnold's body became evident.

His jet black hairs turned whitish on the edges. His skin turned pearl white, while his muscles tightened around his chest and limbs. All the muscles he had cultivated over the years, disappeared in an instant giving him a lean body. However, the lack of muscles did not refer to the loss of strength. In fact, it could be said that his body contraction symbolised a new beginning for Arnold as a Demigod. 

While it took around 30 minutes for the procedure to end in case of the summons, it took 5 hours before Arnold finally opened his eyes again, and the first thing he saw was his status plate flashing right before his eyes.

___

NAME: Arnold Ling

TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses], [God Killer], [Forgemaster], [Cosmic Summoner]

LEVEL: 201

RANK: Cosmic S

SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL'S RAGE]

CLASS : [Cosmic creationist]

SUBCLASS :

• [Magical Gunslinger] (Max level)

• [Engineering Pioneer] (Max level)

• [Blood Maniac] (Max level)

• [Sharpshooter] (Max level)

AFFINITY: Ice (Wind and Water), Lava(Earth and Fire), Nature (Earth, Water, Wind and Light) 

Personal details and stats :

HP: 30138/30138

MANA: 36837/36837

EXP: 0/1,500,000

STRENGTH (STR) : 261[+85] (due to the gears)

DEFENSE (DEF):  226 (due to the gears)

STAMINA (STA) : 198

INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 276

AGILITY (AGI) : 156

ACCURACY (ACC) : 145

EVADE (EVD) : 167

CHARISMA (CHA): [Maximum value reached]

MYSTIC (MYS): 255

Summons details :

BELOVED PET: Scylla (Uncrowned Queen of Dragons)

NUMBER OF ELITE SUMMONS: 9/30

TOTAL NUMBER OF SUMMONS: 3054

[Expand to see details]

ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING: 404

POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING: 100

___

Arnold ignored the flashy text hovering above him. He could always visit the status tab whenever he pleased. Right now he wanted to figure out the important stuff first, like completion of the quest.

"How are you feeling?" Devon rushed over to his side, "Are there any side effects or can you feel anything weird at all? like nausea-"

"Nothing... it's all good." Arnold said while clenching his fist, "Although I feel a bit lightheaded."

"It's normal for you to feel that way... although you had us a bit worried there."

"Why?"

"Your pulse flat-lined three times in five hours. One of which we couldn't find a pulse for over half an hour!"

"I see-" Arnold stopped midsentence when he noticed a second tab opened behind his status plate. He had completed the quest, which meant he had earned a hidden reward.