Phase Two?

Lucas had poured a fortune and countless hours of labor into building his laboratory. It wasn't just a hobby. He wanted an army of Test Subjects that answered only to him.

There was another, more important reason: he wanted to modify himself.

Ten years ago, he had sacrificed the villagers of White Gull Town to forge a pact with a being in the deep sea, gaining the Special Profession [Deep-Sea Contractor].

Only then had Lucas truly understood how vast the gap was between someone with a Special Profession and an ordinary person.

A single profession could grant physical abilities, skills, and room for growth far beyond any normal human's.

Of course he wasn't satisfied. How could one [Deep-Sea Contractor] be enough? He wanted a second profession, a third, and even more.

But a Special Profession's inheritance was hard to come by.

Over the years, Lucas had scoured countless ruins at sea and collected Soul Artifacts and Cursed Objects. He had also secretly investigated people with Special Professions, yet he had never found a second inheritance suited to him.

If he couldn't find one, he would make one himself.

Human–Sea Monster fusion, blood modification, organ transplants, inheritance of traits from other species...

The Test Subjects on the third level, each more grotesque than the last, had all served to test possible methods of modification for him.

Failures were discarded. Survivors were subjected to further experiments, until he found a method that could safely be used on humans.

What Lucas had just injected was the laboratory's most promising result so far.

Unfortunately, it was still only half-finished.

Its side effects, and how far it would ultimately transform him, had yet to be fully tested.

Lucas had never intended to inject it into himself unless he had no other choice.

He had never