Integration Complete!

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"Hais... My head hurts. I feel like I got batted in the head." Iono woke up feeling groggy.

He looked around and realised he was still in the cave.

Suddenly his eyes went wide when he remembered that he almost died.

"To think that I almost lost my life like that... Oof. ", he noticed that the integration was complete.

He looked at this body and felt the strength that was brimming inside it.

He then noticed that although he was laying down, he seemed to be slightly elevated from the ground. Kind of like he was floating.

With great effort he lifted himself in a sitting position, and turn to look at this back.

His eyes once again went wide when he saw small spike protruding out of his green skin. The spikes where coming out of his spine, and were pitch black.

"It seems I messed up the conversion before passing out. Turns out succeeding isn't always perfect. Consequences... I hate this. How am I going to hide it?", he thought.

"At least I'm glad I'm alive. Wait, how did I survive again?", he questioned and glanced at his chest.

"I knew you wouldn't let me down partner!"

But once again, there was no answer.

Well Iono was happy with the outcome, so he stopped thinking about it.

"This is some tiring work though. I still have my ribs, hands and cranium to integrate. I don't know how much time passed since I fell unconscious. At least I can move now."

And with that thought, he stood up and staggered towards the entrance of the cave.

This time, he couldn't enter through the lake, since he absorbed it, and so he simply jumped in the huge fissure that was once a lake. He felt the space fluctuations and their inversive actions making him further appreciate the legacy he acquired.

He looked outside, only to see that it was almost dawn, so he had no time to integrate the rest of the skeleton.

*Sigh*

After leaving out a tired sigh, he placed the cave in the pouch and left the mountain. Before he left he covered the hole, you never know what people can deduce from simple things.

On the journey home he realized that because of him only integrating his legs and spine, his footing was rather unstable, kind of like his body was out of balance.

He realized that it would go away the moment he finished the integration tonight. But he still had to hide it from his parents.

He didn't like living a lie but he had no other choice...

He knew... He knew that if he decided to tell the truth to his parents they wouldn't hate him, nor discard him, nor treat him as a monster. But he knew that their lives would not be the same.

He really liked being back in this peaceful village, living a carefree life, and enjoying his parents love. But that would change the moment he opened his mouth.

Eventually they would ask the question, "what happens to us? ", and he would only be able to answer the truth, which was not a happy one.

Therefore it's better if they know nothing.

Plus, he still doesn't know if it's really a dream, or if everything is real. Kyomu wouldn't speak and he could only waver between the possibilities.

He decided it was best to act as if though everything was true, and his parents were real. Because he would rather be cautious than lose them once again because he thought this was all fake.

His was lost in thought when he finally arrived home.

He climbed through the window and tucked himself into bed.

The morning sun rose from the east and flooded his room with golden sunlight.

"Tsk"

Iono clicked his tongue, and turned his body, so his back was facing the window.

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After sleeping for the whole day, he woke up, had breakfast with his family, and said he was going to train, when in truth he was planning on finish the integration.

Before he left,

"Iono!", his father called out to him.

"Once you're done, come find me in the wood worker's store, and we can train together. I have been itching for a fight for some time!"

"Shit! If we fight now he's going to know that I did something to my body... Oh well, I'll just say I finished bone tempering, which is true.", he thought inwardly.

"Sure dad, I'll catch you later!", he said with a smile and run to the mountains.

Once again he opened a hole, placed the cave and proceeded to complete his integration.

"First lets do the ribs, it's compatible with the spine... Come to think of it, I still don't know what this guy looks like, his skeleton was just that big. He had a tail and legs. If he has wings he would possibly be a dragon. But he said that he was a rare species. Oh well, we'll see."

And so he proceeded to the ribs, where he saw that Ophiucus did in fact possess wings as well.

Two scapulas* where protruding out of his shoulder blades, and connecting to them, two massive bone wings were resting on the ground.

"I'd be cool if I had wings, unfortunately I don't have enough flesh for it. Cell regeneration is impossible at my level."

And so he pulled out his scythe, cut of the scapulas and started grinding the ribs.

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"I... Am.... So... Done", Iono said between heavy breaths.

He was breathing heavily because he finally finished his integration.

Ribs, arms and cranium where all successfully changed. The cranium gave him a bit trouble, given that it hosts his brain, but he luckily managed through it.

Needless to say, Ophiucus's cranium also resembled that of a dragon's, so Iono's questions rose once more.

His breathing was ragged, when suddenly his body started glowing.

To be more premise, his skeleton was glowing a bright led light and it was visible through his skin.

After a few seconds it subsided and Iono smirked.

"Finally completed bone tempering... Wait, seems I also completed marrow tempering. Aren't I a lucky duck? Hahaha! "

With this Iono was officially in Cell reverberation. He thought that was enough for now. He would complete the first stages with this godfather.

Iono was content with his transformation and he was now a lot stronger than he was before.

Integrating with the skeleton means his body is now stronger than tungsten. In terms of defence he was top-class.

If anyone tried to stab him with a weapon that was of a lower density than tungsten, he would probably pierce his flesh, but break the moment it reaches his bones.

His attack was also top-class, and if u account for his experience and weapon mastery, it was way ahead of his top-class defence.

In other words, he would smoke all those stuck up noble kids. Hell, he could even stand there and simply let them hit him and he still wouldn't lose.

To pierce his bones one would need enchanted items. Weapons that where imbued with energy rings. Those were equipment that were several time denser and sharper than normal weapons.

Iono channeled his aura-dominated prana in his bones and realized that they were extremely welcome of it. Other than toughness they also had an extreme ability to absorb aura and mana, or in Iono's case, prana.

It was like getting an awesome armour, that was upgradable and, well, inside you.

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*Name of a bone