[Beep! High energy being suspected to have reached the God level approaching! Advising host to cherish his life and hide!]

After hearing the prompt in his head, Clyde yawned in a careless manner. He didn't look for a hiding place even though there were many in the thick forest he was in.

Suddenly, Clyde looked at the sky, his body trembling with fear. A formless and heavy pressure engulfed him coming from above threatening to scatter his frail and mortal soul to bits.

Instead of collapsing on the ground and being rendered unconscious like any normal person would have been, he stubbornly leaned on his wooden magic staff fighting the pressure with all the power he had. Above all else, Clyde wanted to see with his own eyes what a God level being looked like. It was the little touch of madness in him that made him want to risk his little life over nothing.

Shortly after, a creature spanning hundreds of meters passed right above him. He managed to fight the pressure and then opened his eyes to take a look.

He saw a gigantic winged red dragon.

A trace of greed then appeared in Clyde's eyes. He thought, "There's no way I can get closer to the dragon without being killed by the pressure. It is already unbearable on the ground; God knows what it'll be like closer to the dragon." As he was thinking about his next course of action, he suddenly thought of something and then said, "System! Can you protect me from the dragon's pressure? I just need to get close enough to try and subdue it."

[It'll cost you 6 million origin crystals. You now only have 200,000 origin crystals. I have to let you know that if I help you, you must pay back what you owe in the next three days or I will take your Space Staff as collateral.]

After hearing the familiar mechanical voice answer, he said, "I don't care. Just do it already. If I can subdue it, we'll both become very rich."

In an instant, he felt the pressure disappear.

[Pressure removed. Host can proceed with his plans.]

Clyde waved the Staff in his hand and then disappeared from where he stood. The next moment, he appeared on the dragon's head.

The dragon was so big and proud that it couldn't know that a puny low-level creature like a human had appeared on its head. It was only when it heard a playful voice saying, "Hello, my friend. Wanna become my mount?" that it brought an end on the leisurely flight it was having.

"What...what? A human? This world doesn't have humans. How did he get in? How did he get past the Star Barrier? Only Dragon Gods can enter this Solar system." The dragon thought out loud.

Hearing the dragon, Clyde said, "It's true that there are no humans on this planet...except for me... I've been here for a few months already and all I see are beasts."

"Are you the one who's been killing our subjects?...but that's impossible... you're so weak." The dragon asked.

Clyde said, "Killing your subjects, you say? I was merely collecting meat and beast cores...but now that you delivered yourself to me, keeping you as a mount may be dangerous for little old me...so, obediently offer your beast core and meat so I can sell them to the system."

Clyde could already see the mountain of origin crystals that he would get from selling the dragon meat and beast core. So far, he had gained roughly 200,000 origin crystals after three months of hunting. He reckoned that his first God ranked creature would give a better payout than all the normal beasts he had been hunting so far.

The dragon looked irritated for a moment as nothing seemed to make sense. The human on its head had no cultivation whatsoever. It seemed that he was just a normal human being, but he could get on its forehead without it knowing about it.

It was at that moment that a thought occurred to the dragon: Was this human a heretic variant that could control space?

The dragon's conjecture was almost true.

Clyde was just a normal human being of 19 years of age. All the magic he could use came from the magic space staff that he held in his hand. It was the congratulatory gift for unlocking the Merchant System.

The Space staff could control space in any way imaginable. And the storage space inside of it was almost endless. It also served as the physical presence of the Merchant System.

At this time the dragon stopped thinking and decided to capture Clyde and bring him to the Dragon Emperor to see if the rare space powers could be extracted. Bringing back such a precious specimen could earn him some points and be considered as a meritorious service.

Clyde saw himself trapped in a fire cage, but all he did was activate the space staff and teleport out of it.

Seeing that his prisoner had escaped, the dragon was shocked, "You can even teleport…just how many space spells do you know?" at this time the dragon found out that it would be nearly impossible to detain Clyde… Unless the target was unconscious. But how could he make him unconscious without killing him? Clyde's body was even more fragile than other humans. How could a mighty dragon god like himself render Clyde unconscious without killing him as even a little nudge would spell disaster.

'Should I increase my pressure? But, he seems okay in front of the residual pressure that I emit.' The dragon god thought.

It was at that moment that Clyde heard the system's mechanical voice, [ Beep! The Dragon is about to increase the pressure. Advising host to pay a little more origin crystal to increase immunity.]

Clyde then cursed loudly in his head, 'As expected. This system isn't reliable at all.'

"System! Lock on the Beast Core in the Dragon's skull."

[Beep! Lock on complete]

Clyde then felt the connection between him and the Beast core. It was just enough for him to teleport it outside of the dragon's skull resulting in the dragon's death. A beast core was the soul of a beast. Without it, death followed.

"Teleport." Clyde commanded in his mind and an orb the size of four story house appeared next to him and stayed floating there in the sky.

The dragon wriggled in the sky. It howled for a long while but death didn't seem to occur.

"System, why isn't it dying?"

[Beep! It's a God ranked being. Losing its beast core isn't fatal since it can be recreated after a long time.]

"How can I kill it then?"

[Beep! Knowing that answer will cost you 100,000 origin crystals.]

"F*ck you."

"Lock on its heart,"

[Beep! Lock on complete.]

"Teleport."

A sixty-meter-long throbbing heart appeared next to the Beast core.

The dragon howled, " Raaaaah! I'm gonna kill you … you despicable human. I am a revered Dragon God. How can I, Sol, die here?"

Once again, death didn't occur even after losing the heart.

"System, lock on its brain."

[Beep! Lock on complete.]

"Teleport."

An eighty-meter-long brain then appeared in the sky.

The Dragon then lost all signs of life and free fell to the ground.

"Phew. I survived… Well I wasn't going to die anyway… But how resilient was that dragon… Note to self: If I ever meet another god ranked being again, I should take out its brain first."

He couldn't understand the oddity of his words. Who would ever dream of killing a God ranked being?

As he teleported back to the ground with the brain, beast core and the still throbbing heart in tow, he arrived next to the dragon that had long crashed.

He asked, "System. How much can I get if I sell all these ingredients to you?"

[Beep! Host must become much stronger to be able to acquire more precious ingredients for me. Advising host to bathe in the dragon blood and acquire the God level as a bloodline warrior.]

"Bloodline warrior. Isn't that one of the paths of cultivation you talked about?"

" Let's do it."

He faced the dragon corpse and commanded, "System, lock on the blood."

[Beep! Lock on complete.]

Clyde the collected all the blood in a cloud above his body. He then let go of his control and then the blood fell on him.

Then came excruciating pain.

His muscles bulged and his body gradually grew in height.

3 meters

5 meters

15 meters

40 meters

70 meters

110 meters

148 meters

He stopped growing as he reached roughly 150 meters. As of now, he looked like a horned red winged giant human clad in a red fire that seemed to be inextinguishable.

His current size was one fourth that of the dragon. He also had a seventy-meter-long tail.

Earlier, he was too much in pain to realize what was happening to him. After the pain subsided, he felt the changes in his body and then screamed. He realized that he was now a monster.

He then heard the system saying, [Beep! I have miniaturized the Dragon's heart to accommodate your size. I will begin the implantation for free.]

"No wait…"

Before he could finish protesting, he felt his own giant heart disappear and be replaced by another.

Following the replacement, he felt pain again as the blood in his body moved at the greatest speed. Immediately, he gained another thirty meters, making him about 180 meters in height. His tail reached 100 meters and his wings grew accordingly.

Clyde then became so angry that he didn't know what to do with himself, "I was living a good life as the second prince of the Dominic kingdom. A good life…to think that I listened to you when you said that I could become immortal if I cultivated with those origin crystals… You prick…you're my system…aren't you supposed to do everything that is in my best interest… how am I supposed to go back now? In this state…"

[Beep! Dragons are good at shapeshifting. You've inherited that ability. But before you shapeshift, condense your body to your normal height to squeeze out more strength. The act of condensing condenses your body and muscles to their strongest form. I've sent the relevant information on how to do it as well as how to shapeshift to your mind.]

After taking a look at the new information the Merchant System had given him, he started condensing his body.

It didn't take him long to regain his height of almost six feet.

He made his wings smaller and smaller until there was nothing left. He did the same with his tail and horns.

Just like how the Merchant System had instructed him, all he had to do was make a mental image of what he wanted to do and his body will change accordingly.

"System, give me a mirror. A big one." Clyde asked.

[Beep! It will cost you five origin crystals.]

"I don't care how much you want to be paid for it. You'll just pay yourself anyway. Just give it to me." At this time, he felt tired to argue with his System that somehow vowed to fleece him at the first opportunity. A mirror wasn't even worth a single origin crystal.

A one-meter large, one-meter long mirror then appeared in front of Clyde.

"Good. Now it will be easy to change this red skin." Clyde said.

As he looked at his reflection, he then started imagining his original skin color. It didn't take long for the red skin to turn slightly light blue.

Even though he was considered human, in fact, he was a half-human, half-Djenn'un.

His father, the king Dumas Dominic, was human. He had married the late Kara, a princess of the Djenn'un race. It was a race of blue-skinned humanoids whose bodies looked like humans. Their ancient name was 'Dawn Elf'. A race close to nature and also had nature-related powers.

Clyde was born with a sickly body because the mixing of two different races often created frail and sick offspring. Those that were born healthy could unlock the magic of their two different bloodlines at the same time and their attunement towards their powers were off the charts.

"Okay. Time to sell everything." He said before he commanded, "System, I will be selling to you this dragon god carcass, including the brain and beast core."

As he looked the disappearing corpse, he was wondering if he should sell his own heart that had been gouged out by the Merchant System to be replaced by the dragon heart. He thought that the System wouldn't accept it and he had already other plans for it. He then stored the heart in the infinite storage space of the space staff.

[Beep! Dragon god meat unlocked and now available in the Merchant Shop to be purchased.]

[Beep! Dragon god blood unlocked and now available in the Merchant Shop to be purchased.]

[Beep! Dragon god beast core unlocked and now available in the Merchant Shop to be purchased.]

[Beep! Host has now just acquired 6 billion crystals. The dragon god carcass is worth 4 billion. The beast core is worth 2 billion.]

[Beep! Host's net worth is 6,000,200,000 origin crystals.]

[Beep! Deducting 6 million crystals.]

[Beep! Deducting 5 crystals]

[Beep! Host's real net worth is now 5,994,199,995 origin crystals.]

"Alright! Alright!...but I'm curious…if I want to buy dragon meat from you, how much will it cost me?" Clyde asked after almost feeling a headache from all the prompts.

[Beep! 100,000 origin crystals per kilogram.]

"What? That's daylight robbery. A five hundred meters long dragon…how much meat is that? And you only priced its corpse at 4 billion after deciding to sell its meat at 100,000 origin crystals per kg? You swindler…I want to have nothing to do with you…"

"Oh god…I feel like I'm going crazy…okay, I've made plenty of harvests even if I was swindled… time to go back home." He lightly tapped the space staff on the ground and he then disappeared from the planet.

***

Red planet, Westhaven continent, Dominic kingdom

Somewhere in the Dominic kingdom

Clyde appeared in a deserted alley and headed for the street.

He made his way to an inn, the Singing Butterfly inn. There, his trusted guard Duke, was waiting for his arrival.

Before he even arrived at the second floor where the room of his guard was, Clyde spotted his guard in the dining area.

As he arrived before Duke, Duke stopped eating and then stood up and went up to Clyde's side as he said, "It's been three months, Prince Clyde. I'm pleased to see you again so soon…you look…healthy?"

Of course, the new Clyde didn't look so sickly after the major upgrade he just went through.

"Ahem…yes, yes…I met a famous reclusive Doctor during my travels. He cured me of my sickness." After lying for a bit, Clyde then ordered, "Finish eating and have a good rest tonight, because we are going back to the Dumas capital, first thing in the morning."

Duke put his fist on his heart as he said, "As you wish, your highness."