Chapter 6: Are Top-Up Items Tyranids? The Monster Enhancement and Cultivation System

Upon hearing this, the eight surviving Space Marines nodded in silence. Of their more than one hundred battle-brothers, only these eight remained. Their company had effectively been wiped out. Before the end, they were determined to perform one last meaningful act for the Imperium, to prove themselves worthy as the genetic sons of Roboute Guilliman and members of a successor chapter of the Ultramarines.

"Let us rest for a moment. The Tyranid assault will not cease; they will do everything in their power to exhaust this giant's strength, waiting for the final moment to deliver a lethal blow." The Tyranids would continue to send waves of cannon fodder to drain the giant's stamina until it showed signs of fatigue. "Also, collect the gene-seed of all our fallen brothers and place them into the final escape pod."

They knew they could not escape this planet, but preserving the gene-seed of their fallen brothers was a sacred tradition. The final escape pod could only hold two members, but regardless of who went, the gene-seed had to be returned to the Chapter. The remaining Space Marines nodded silently and gathered their tools to retrieve the genetic material from the bodies of their fallen comrades.

"Forgive us, brothers. I am sorry to retrieve your gene-seed in such a crude manner; I know you would understand." The Space Marines knelt before their dead, silently extracting the precious organs. The remaining Imperial Guard soldiers, Sisters of Battle, and the few non-combatant Hospitaller Sisters assisted by ferrying ammunition and gathering all available melta bombs.

"Captain, have you noticed that the corpses of the Tyranids killed by that beast seem to be disappearing?" one of the Space Marines asked, frowning as he approached his commander after finishing his grim task. They had only just realized that the eight massive Tyranid Warriors were gone, and the bodies of the lesser Tyranids were vanishing as well.

"The Tyranids must have deployed a swarm of Rippers to recycle the biomass. Those creatures are always swift," the Captain replied. Rippers were small, rodent-like organisms that consumed all biomass on the battlefield, dragging it back to the hive ships' digestion pools to be rendered into raw organic material for the production of new warriors. However, the speed of this reclamation was unnatural—the bodies seemed to vanish the instant they were slain by the giant beast.

Hidden nearby, Rhodes was experiencing a moment of immense, almost overwhelming surprise. He had discovered a "rechargeable" resource: the essence of the Tyranids. Every Tyranid killed by Red King caused the corpse to vanish, its biomass converted into system currency. The eight Tyranid Warriors had each provided one hundred gold coins, and the slaughter of the lesser swarm had yielded a full one thousand, leaving Rhodes with over two thousand system coins.

System coins were incredibly valuable. They could be used to cultivate and strengthen monsters, purchase skills, or acquire monster shards from the basic shop—one thousand coins per random shard. Collecting ten identical shards would allow him to synthesize a monster and add it to his summoning roster. *Does this mean if I keep fighting the Tyranids, I’ll only get stronger?*

*Good grief! The moment I transmigrate to the Warhammer universe, you throw me against the most vicious race in the entire galaxy?*

Rhodes currently held over 2,100 coins, and the total was slowly rising as Red King continued its slaughter. Two thousand coins were only enough for two shards, which was insufficient for summoning a powerful monster, especially since the shards were random. He estimated he would need tens of thousands of coins to guarantee a set of ten identical shards.

Beyond purchasing shards, however, he could strengthen his existing monsters. Rhodes opened Red King’s attribute list:

**Skull Red King**
Height: 45 meters
Weight: 20,000 tons
Energy Skills: None
Ranged Attack: Regurgitate and propel boulders.

He also had the option to perform a "Host Enhancement." He could choose one summoned monster and replicate its physical stats, abilities, lifespan, or special traits to enhance his own body. This would grant him a fraction of the monster's power—specifically, one ten-thousandth of the monster’s original capabilities.

*One ten-thousandth... that sounds small, but the subject is a monster!*

Monsters were terrifying entities weighing tens of thousands of tons, many possessing strength capable of overpowering Ultramen. More importantly, their lifespans reached millions or even billions of years—even a ten-thousandth of an infinite or near-infinite lifespan was still significant. Many monsters survived in extreme environments: the vacuum of space, molten magma, absolute zero, or even dimensional pockets. Some even possessed the ability to fly.

Rhodes estimated that after several dozen enhancements, he would essentially become a superhuman. Red King’s grip strength exceeded 100,000 tons, as it was known for being able to suppress the original Ultraman. Even at a ten-thousandth of that power, he would gain over ten tons of grip strength, along with enhanced organ function, vitality, and physical durability.

However, Rhodes decided not to enhance his own body just yet. It would be more efficient to use the 2,000 coins to strengthen Red King’s physical stats first, then transfer that elevated power to himself.

Monster enhancement fell into three categories: Physical (height and tonnage), Energy/Special Abilities, and Evolution. The latter two were currently prohibitively expensive, costing tens or hundreds of thousands of coins for things like teleportation, energy barriers, or destructive beams. Evolution was also out of reach, as Red King was currently a novice-level monster that needed to be trained to its limit before it could evolve into its EX form.

For now, he could only focus on height and weight. Each height enhancement added two meters; each weight enhancement added 3,000 tons. Each upgrade cost 1,000 coins more than the last, and there was a limit to how much a monster could be enhanced based on its potential. His Red King had five height-growth opportunities and four physical-stat growth opportunities remaining—a monster with high potential.

Completing all enhancements would bring Red King to a height of 55 meters and a weight of 32,000 tons. Furthermore, every enhancement fully restored the monster’s health and stamina. Red King had been fighting for hours and was at about two-thirds health—a minor injury. Rhodes decided to let it keep fighting to farm more coins, waiting until it was near death before enhancing it to bring it back to peak condition.

*Keep going, Red King!*