Trait Hoarder-Chapter 289: The Machinery Witch (3)

The Machinery Witch — Part 3

It was a baffling request. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Turn him into a human?

Did this witch see me as some kind of god?

“I’m sorry, but I can’t cure mutations. Wouldn’t it be better to visit the Grand Court of Stockholm in Sweden?”

There are three ways to cure mutations.

Two were impossible before the nuclear war and the appearance of radiation mutants.

The third required divine intervention.

Just like when I treated the Skeleton Serpent in the Monster Village.

The witch twisted her body to face me.

Even without eyes or a face, I could feel her desperate emotions.

“I saw it.”

“You saw what?”

“I saw you forging life, hammering the Thunder Hammer and Earth Shield, using the Blood of the Tree.”

“Ah…”

“And though I didn’t see it clearly, I also saw you create a new life.”

Strictly speaking, that wasn’t creating a human.

I had redirected the mutation rampage of the Skeleton Serpent in another direction.

By molding it into a cyborg.

I quickly worked through my thoughts.

I couldn’t use the same method here.

There was no god willing to lend power for the mutant inside the glass chamber.

Thor?

No chance of that.

‘Then…’

There was one method.

But it wouldn’t truly make him human.

Before proceeding, I warned the witch.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but the method I used back then wasn’t a cure for mutations.”

“That can’t be. In the scene I saw, the undead mutant clearly…”

“It only looked human on the outside. Inside, it was still the same. Not human—an artificial human.”

“Impossible…”

The witch slumped down as if her strength left her.

“My divinations said that method was the only one…”

“Then let me ask you one thing.”

I crouched down to meet the witch’s gaze.

“Why do you want your son to become human?”

“If not, Grendel will live his life all alone.”

The witch spoke quietly.

Her entire mind was focused on the deformed child in the glass.

If she had a head, she would have turned it to gaze at him.

“I lived alone my whole life. Creating my son was nothing short of a miracle. Moreover, Grendel’s body can’t become a witch’s. Even if he inherits my mind, he may not be able to maintain sanity. If that happens, he’ll become a mindless monster, rampage, and inevitably be hunted down. My only wish is for him not to be alone… to live among others, to laugh like others.”

I nodded deeply.

Yes. If that’s what she wanted, it could be done.

You didn’t need to be a perfect human to live among others.

Mutants could live in Monster Village.

If he were of mixed blood, he could live in the Castle of the Inexplicable.

In the future I was creating, it wouldn’t matter whether you were human, mutant, or another race.

Just like how goblins had taken over Samseong-dong in Gangnam.

“In that case, I can help. But it’s likely he won’t have a perfect human form. It’ll also be extremely difficult for him to have children.”

“As long as my Grendel doesn’t become a monster, that’s enough.”

“Very well. Let’s begin…”

“Wait.”

The witch reached out toward me.

Her hand spun around, and the cabin emitted a noisy clatter.

Mana instantly arranged itself.

A spell activated.

“Director Kim!”

“No!”

“What are you doing to our brother!”

The Association President and Nordic warriors panicked.

They thought I was being attacked.

I raised my hand to stop them.

“Stay put. She’s not attacking.”

The spell poured down.

Enhancement magic, using Nordic runes.

A blessing to clear the mind.

A chant to elevate consciousness.

A spell to fortify reason.

Such enchantments descended upon my head like a halo.

“You’ll need this, even if only for a moment.”

“Thank you.”

I stared intently at the old woman’s head inside the glass chamber.

Especially at the mana circuit engraved within.

The [Mutant Brain].

“Hoo.”

I felt a slight tension.

This was a trait that directly affected the brain more intensely than anything else in Arcane Seoul.

Maybe I should have brewed an elixir beforehand?

No.

My body had already undergone four complete reconstructions.

My brain should be able to endure it for a while.

And the witch had blessed me too.

I squeezed my eyes shut and activated the World Trait.

Swaaah!

It felt like being doused with cold water.

The world bloomed with a chilling clarity.

It was like something had been peeled off my eyes.

Desire—desire was sprouting.

What am I doing here?

I had already accomplished my purpose.

The witch, the mutant—they were worthless.

Time to leave.

Sacrifice a few characters like Baek Sorin to the Old Gods, boost my stats, unseal the Heavenly Demon Sword, shatter the Black Dome, hunt the Saintess and the Old Father, and then…

“Warrior Kim!”

A voice shattered my spiraling thoughts.

What was with the noise?

I turned to the witch indifferently.

At that moment, I locked eyes with Sigmund.

“Brother?”

Sigmund looked at me as if he had seen a ghost.

The Association President shouted.

“Director Kim! Get a hold of yourself! Why are you acting like that all of a sudden?”

What do you mean?

I’m perfectly fine.

Nothing has changed.

Ah, wait.

There’s one thing left.

I should finish that first before boosting my stats.

[Mutant][Mutant Brain][Mutant Heart]

[Mutant Organs][Mutant Muscle][Mutant Body]

My body began to twist and mutate.

An immense power surged within me.

The sensation of my heart bursting and my body splitting apart!

Even as I smiled at the pleasure-tinged pain, I completed what I had intended to do.

[Evolution]

The end of mutation.

A transcendence beyond even species.

I grew.

I became stronger.

Outwardly, I just got a bit taller and my skin gained a slight sheen.

But in terms of stats, I must have grown at least 1.5 times stronger.

“Hoo…”

I exhaled deeply.

As I removed [Evolution], my body returned to normal.

It seemed the effect only manifested while the trait was equipped.

Still, my body felt heavy and my mind was sluggish, so I used [Rapture] once.

Instantly, everything was restored.

“Director Kim?”

The Association President looked at me anxiously.

“Are you alright?”

“Ah, yes. I’m fine.”

I tilted my head for a moment.

The residue of the earlier mental chaos still lingered in my mind.

‘Mutant Brain really is terrifying.’

I knew it in theory.

Equipping [Mutant Brain] would turn someone into a monster.

Maybe something worse than a psychopath mixed with a sociopath and a serial killer.

Sacrificing Baek Sorin to an Old God just to boost my stats…

Even considering it?

Something I had never even entertained in the game because it felt too grimy.

And yet here I was, thinking about doing it in reality?

In any case, I obtained [Evolution], so I absolutely must never equip the mutant traits again.

‘This is a bit of a problem.’

The [Evolution] trait must be equipped to apply its effects.

Meaning I couldn’t fully wield the Heavenly Demon Sword.

If I equipped [Evolution], I’d only have four trait slots left.

“I thought something terrible happened to you, Director Kim…”

The witch placed a hand on her chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

First things first.

I turned to the deformed child inside the glass chamber.

Maybe because he was still young?

He only had one mana circuit.

[Mutant Brain]

Would it be enough just to transplant [Evolution]?

No.

If I didn’t erase that trait, it would interact with [Evolution] and eventually morph into something even more malevolent.

I needed to erase it.

‘If I use [Reversal]…?’

Normally, [Reversal] only pauses a trait temporarily.

But in this world, traits sometimes changed or disappeared entirely.

Often, they were replaced with superior traits.

Even Baek Sorin and Seo Woojin experienced that.

When I gave Baek Sorin the Swordmaster Elixir, her [Swordsmanship Expert] was replaced with [Master of the Sword].

‘Consider yourself lucky.’

I approached the cabin, toward the deformed child floating inside the glass.

The witch followed behind me.

I reached out, leaving the worried witch behind.

First, I equipped traits onto myself.

[Giant’s Strength][Vajra Body][Undying]

[Insight][Cold Rationality]

I deliberately chose lower-tier traits instead of Magic Brain or Rapture.

Because if [Mutant Brain] combined with high-tier traits, it could create something even more troublesome.

Right now, growing into a smart, calm giant would be the best outcome.

[Woooo…]

Using the World Trait, I inscribed the traits one by one onto the deformed child.

Mana circuits were engraved.

The child inside the glass chamber slowly spun.

And began to grow larger.

Big enough to fill the glass chamber completely.

Though still deformed, he had reached the size of an adult.

Now, for the final step.

I transplanted [Evolution].

Without needing any transmission medium, a new mana circuit overwrote the old one.

Over the [Mutant Brain] mana circuit.

It smoothly devoured and completely replaced it.

The change was immediate.

Bones grew like bamboo shoots, and flesh covered them rapidly.

Clang!

The glass chamber shattered.

The child raised his body.

A child, taller by two heads than an adult.

But with a perfectly human form.

In a short span, both growth and correction were complete.

The child opened his eyes.

He rolled them around, looking at us.

At me, the Association President, the Nordic warriors.

And then his gaze returned to me.

No, not me—he focused beyond me.

At his mother.

At the witch, whose head was missing and whose body was full of prosthetics.

“Ma… Ma!”

Clear eyes without a hint of madness.

A bright, transparent face smiling warmly.

A wave of pure joy radiated from him.

No trace of a psychopath or murderer.

What sat before us—or rather, what clung to the roof beams—was no monster, just a human child with a large frame.

“Grendel!”

The witch collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

The cabin screeched with a mechanical cry, releasing steam like tears.

“You really, truly became human! Truly!”

The witch crawled toward him.

Scraping the ground desperately as she approached the gigantic child.

“Mama!”

The child laughed brightly and threw himself at her.

There was no tragic scene of crushing her.

Even as her hands trembled, the witch used magic to catch her son.

The child floated down like a feather into her arms.

A dry tree and a cicada.

That’s how mismatched the mother and son appeared.

But Hjordis was wiping her eyes vigorously.

“Thank goodness… thank goodness…”

“Ahem!”

“Did… did some dust get in my eye?”

The other Nordic warriors were the same.

They quickly hid their boastfully carried magic axes and swords, busily rubbing their eyes.

“Thank you, Warrior Kim.”

The witch bowed gracefully, still holding her son.

“If not for you, Grendel would never have become human… He would have turned into a monster craving flesh and eventually attacked nearby cities, only to be hunted down by those gentlemen here.”

“Eh?”

“What are you talking about?”

“We’re not that heartless!”

The Nordic warriors grumbled lightly.

Though, in the game, it had actually happened.

The client was probably a member of the Sigurd lineage, if I remembered right.

“If I had anything of value, I would give it all to you, Warrior Kim, but all I have are a few handfuls of mushrooms and two sacks of herbs. Instead, I offer you two pieces of advice that will be invaluable to you, and one Elixir blueprint.”

“I’ll gratefully accept it.”

Judging from her words, she was a witch who could see both the past and the future.

It might not be as powerful as Gaia’s prophecy or an Elixir blueprint, but it should still be useful.

I had already obtained the [Evolution] trait, so that was enough.

I stared at the witch’s mouth—or rather, the cabin’s speaker—like I was about to receive a year-end bonus.

“Hehehe!”

After patting the brightly smiling child once, the witch activated the speaker.

“First. To achieve what you desire, Warrior Kim, you must grow the tree.”

“Tree?”

Was she talking about the World Tree?

But the World Tree had already grown quite a bit.

The witch stared directly at me.

Even without a head or eyes, the slight twist of her body aimed at me felt like she was drilling holes through me with her gaze.

“I mean the tree inside you, Warrior Kim. You must grow that tree, nurturing it until it integrates not only your powers but your life, your soul, your destiny, and your existence itself. Only then will you truly achieve what you seek.”

Not just powers?

Life, soul, destiny, existence?

What the hell did that even mean?

Suddenly, I remembered something.

[Is that the power the World Tree gave you? You’re using it in a strange way. That’s not how it’s supposed to be used.]

The words of the Goddess of the River.

When I had just reached Level 8 and was starting to explore the World Trait.

They both seemed to mean the same thing, but I still didn’t know exactly what.

“Second.”

The witch raised two fingers.

“To fully wield the power of the sword, temporary amplification isn’t enough. You must anchor that strengthened power into your body—and anchor it again.”

This, I understood.

[Evolution] alone wouldn’t cut it.

Changing traits would reset the body and stats back to normal.

But was there a way to lock it in?

The witch formed a hand sign.

Runes shimmered into existence in the air.

I couldn’t read them, but the Dragon Monarch’s Arcane Light interpreted them and displayed them for me.

[Phoenix Feather]

[Kraken Tentacle]

[Beard of the Coiled Dragon]

[Behemoth Fang]

And those were just the main ingredients.

The real issue was that they had to come from true divine beasts, not juvenile phoenixes or young dragons.

9th Level divine beasts.

Beings comparable to gods.

The subsidiary ingredients were also outrageous.

As I stared in silence, the witch spoke politely.

“It’s called the Primordial Body Elixir.”

“Primordial Body Elixir?”

“Yes. It’s an elixir that locks your body, enhanced by the classical four elements—fire, water, wind, and earth.”

Would it also fix buffs if taken while under them?

From the explanation, it seemed not.

Only a few things could be fixed.

Only innate changes like body transformations caused by powers or mana circuits.

‘This is perfect for [Evolution].’

The witch had prepared a tailor-made reward for me.

I was pleased.

But there was a problem.

The ingredients.

Even if I didn’t need a heart or a mana core, where would I find divine beast remains?

Seeing my troubled look, the witch smiled warmly.

Or rather, the cabin creaked and let out a strange laugh.

“You will be able to find these materials. I went to great lengths to find sources within your reach.”

“Where exactly?”

“I don’t know. But you will.”

“If there’s a hint…”

The cabin turned off its lights.

Like a person closing their eyes.

“I saw one place, and one man.”

The witch waved her hand.

Clouds of smoke formed an image.

A stadium with jagged pillars.

The audience waving their arms and roaring.

At the center of the arena stood a man.

Shirtless, wearing a pro-wrestling mask, with a body like a mountain of muscle.

A coliseum.

And the King of Destruction.