The energy, both scorching hot and icy cold, swiftly coursed through Gauss’s body, saturating his limbs and bones with this strange and mystical energy.
The first to change was still the resilience of his skin.
He could feel countless energies flowing into the surface of his skin, quickly merging with the thin layer, penetrating every cell, tissue, and pore.
The physical protection of the skin increased once again, and Gauss could sense a special tautness appearing.
If he wanted to actively control it, he could make his originally fair and smooth skin feel like tough leather or fine keratin scales, enhancing its protective qualities. In this actively triggered state, the changes might not be visible to the naked eye, but a slight peculiarity could be sensed upon touch; the resistance to ordinary swords, claws, and fangs would be greatly enhanced, and it might even provide some minor resistance to special energies.
Even though Gauss already had the defense of a nearly all-day encompassing [Gauss Force Field], more defensive methods are never too many.
Because they are layered.
He could already imagine the despair enemies would feel as they confronted his Gauss Force Field, constantly upgraded by the [Crawling Type] enhancements.
When enemies broke through the Gauss Force Field, they would find that his robe provided protection; if they shattered the robe, the natural defenses from the Crawling Type’s innate talent would intercept them.
The layers of defense were like nesting armor, protecting him to the fullest extent.
Imagining such a future was exhilarating.
After remodeling the skin, the alien energy then flowed to transform other parts, the internal organs, bones, muscles...
The various effects of the original [Crawling Type] were all enhanced to varying degrees.
Bodily vitality and magical vitality were strengthened.
Environmental resistance improved again: extreme cold, intense heat, oxygen scarcity, underwater activities; in various harsh environments, he could maintain a considerable degree of endurance and mobility.
Coordination of body position control and recovery ability also improved.
Besides, he gained some sort of lizard/snake-like dynamic vision, allowing him to even more clearly capture the flight path of flies dancing in the air, with the brain rapidly making predictions on this basis.
Overall, the upgrade of the Crawling Type strengthened each effect entry.
Gauss ended his deep perception of the talent enhancement and focused his attention back on the real world from introspection.
Only about two or three seconds had passed.
Turning his head, he saw Serdur staring at him with keen interest.
"Captain, why is there a familiar aura about you? If it’s confidential and inconvenient to talk about, forget I asked."
After hesitating for a moment, he still asked.
If it were a temporary teammate from before, who might be replaced every three days or so, he definitely would not inquire about such personal matters.
But with Gauss’s team, he sensed that he would probably be partnering for a long time, at least not like before, where teammates could be discarded monthly or even daily. With long-term teammates, it’s better to speak openly, avoiding the discomfort of bottling things up.
"Perhaps you’re sensing the other bloodlines in my body?" Gauss vaguely explained.
It was just now that the racial talent of the [Crawling Type] was leveling up, and it was the only enhancement that Serdur could detect.
Moreover, the Half-Snake Man himself possesses a considerable degree of serpent bloodline, and snakes are the most common reptilian creatures. Their perceptions are especially sharp, so it isn’t surprising to feel it.
But he didn’t know how to explain the existence of the [Crawling Type], hence he could only draw an analogy with bloodlines.
In truth, in this world, every human carries other racial bloodlines to varying degrees, but the proportion is too small, suppressed by the main human genome, making it unmanifested. Thus, most are "pure-blooded humans."
Beings like Half-Beastmen and Half-Snake Men have an excessively abundant specific directional bloodline, resulting in certain levels of appearance change.
In these cases, some humans might still see them as kindred with special powers, but the majority of rural villagers would consider them as other races, or even as indistinguishable monsters akin to goblins and kobolds.
Also existing are those states between Half-Snake Men, Half-Beastmen, and pure-blood humans.
Ordinarily appearing as the most typical humans, but once their bloodline power is triggered, changes in appearance and power levels occur.
Even though when the system converts talents, it describes adaptations and improvements based on the human body, in principle preserving bloodline purity while gaining the advantages of other creatures.
From the description’s content, it shouldn’t change the bloodline, but in terms of others’ understanding, there might not be much difference.
However, Gauss didn’t care much about it.
In this world, as Professionals climb higher, with the leap in power levels, their bodies continuously strengthen and become peculiar, making them hardly different from monsters to ordinary people.
It’s becoming challenging to say they belong to the same race.
"I see," Serdur murmured softly.
Was it due to the battle that he stimulated his bloodline, allowing me to detect and capture it amidst its agitation?
If that’s the case, it’s understandable.
He recalled Gauss’s fight against the Big Goblin, briefly transforming into some pale form. Presumably, that was the special bloodline power hidden within him?
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but respect Gauss even more.