The lady at the counter was nice. I managed to not spill the coffee while going to the morgue. Doc inside was halfway through patching up the corpse to make it look presentable for the family or whatever.

-”Here’s your coffee doc, I can stitch the body back. I don’t have anythin else to do so…” I said trying to sound like I was trying to kill my boredom.

-”After seeing your ‘operation’ I think you’ll make me have even more work to do but sure. Stitch this sod back and then stitch this one and that one. After that write notes about what type of thread you used and what needle for each of them. If vigor mortis set in in any of these you can skip them. After you are done wash down the bodies with a hose and then we will call it a day, Understood? Great!” Doc explained quickly and power walked out of the morgue.

I shrugged and looked around. I was looking for a radio or something to silence the sounds of biomass extraction. Seeing an old cassette player from the 90s I immediately turned it back on. And not even caring for what was actually playing I placed my hand on the nearest corpse and started extraction. I mainly consumed calories from the organs and by thinning the muscles allowing them to stay in the original state but they would no longer be usable by their owner.

With the current supply of biomass I greatly increased the density of my bones and muscles. You know what? Fuck it. I thought and just absorbed every single corpse in the morgue and used it to make my organs more efficient while getting rid of some. My body encased itself in a cocoon made out of spare biomass which then was quickly filled with one of the main components of blood. Plasma was great for moving nutrients but it was impossible for it to move oxygen, which was fine since the process won’t take very long.

-”...What the… What the fuck is that!” Screamed one of the doctors seeing my cocoon surrounded by a bunch of gore and what was left from the corpses after sucking them dry of useful nutrients.

People soon gathered around me. They were talking and arguing but I couldn’t hear them. Out of fear they’ll try to interrupt the process I forced some of my mana into each of them. I was targeting a very specific string of nerves in the brain that controlled and relayed commands from brain to muscles. I overflowed it with random commands, by doing so I paralyzed them.

Altough not for long they would regain their ability to move after 10 minutes or so. I still didn’t have enough mana stored to manipulate bodies of others permanently. I realized that my abilities' effects got diminished due to soul split.

Thanks to those idiots that just gathered around me completely forgetting about health and safety regulations and logic, or rather their immobile husks I could speed up the process by burning their biomass.

After about an hour I was finally ready, my new body was now slightly bigger than my old one. Every last bit of my flesh was made out of compressed muscles, I had to make more veins to properly feed every bit of muscles.

My skin was now covered in regrowable bone armour, my bone helmet had deer like antlers although they were shorter and thicker. They held extra life affinity mana crystals. The torso was similar to one of an insect, with plates overlapping on each other through my chest there were mana crystals glowing with power. I have moved them to the chest part because they sabotaged my bone integrity.

The legs were covered in armour that had pockets fitted around it like a soldier or special forces have. My foot armour was now designed mainly to allow easier climbing and make falling off a building not only non-fatal but also it stopped me from breaking my legs.

On my shoulders and elbows there were sharp bone spikes, the ones on elbows were slightly flat allowing for slashing and stabbing attacks. While the ones on shoulders were spaced densely to stop or slow down incoming damage from the sides of my neck.

The hands were also designed to allow easier climbing but they also had retractable and regrowable spines under forearms that could be used as daggers. My back was covered in moss and simple plants that photosynthesize or gather water out of the air. All of my armour was covered in a thin layer of moss making it look green. The armour didn’t have eye holes, but it had holes for air to enter through, it was hidden on the back near the spine slightly below where lungs would normally be.

Every last bit of armour was enchanted to gather mana and get strengthened by it.