The path to the community hall was boring, I think the monsters have some sort of danger sense because nothing approached us, we must be too strong for them to risk their lives. I decided to test the limits of Alter Self, now that it leveled up I should be able to do much more.

I took off my clothing as I did not want to tear them, I then reinforced my legs and modified the form of my spine to become a quadruped. I now have horse-like legs and I grew bones and flesh on my back to make a seat, I then told Audrey to climb on my back, she was grossed out when I started to morph but accepted it pretty fast, on the other hand, she saw things that were more disturbing than this.

I was much faster in this form, having four legs really help. We finished our travel in 45 minutes, when we reached the community hall, we were surprised to see a rudimentary wooden wall surrounding the building, seems like they did a lot while we were gone, I doubt it will stop the bigger monsters like the broodmother but fir smaller monsters like kobold it will do the trick. I returned to my human form before being seen as I did not want to be confused with a monster. When we were near the wall's door we yelled to attract attention and couples of seconds later a guard came.

"Who are you?" Oh god they are doing this again

"I'm supposed to be the leader of this place."

"The leader is Alexandre, you better stop lying and reveal who you really are." Seriously? Was this guy not here when the trial happened? Hmmm, it's a possibility that another group came during our absence, but Alexandre the leader? I'm not biased or anything, not at all but this guy is the less qualified to be a leader, he is weak and a coward, it would not be an issue before but now the leader must be the stronger and the more experienced one.

 "I'm John, the one who saved this place less than one week ago, open this gate!" I don't want to sound arrogant or anything but he should know who I am now, I'm quite famous around here after all.

"I don't know you, and if I don't know you then you can't enter." What the fuck? Okay, I have enough. I concentrated on my back and grew feathered wings, it worked, this skill seems to work well when I have a clear representation of what I want to modify, and since angels are known of everyone, I can grow wings easily enough (it doesn't mean it's not painful though). The guard was shocked to see me growing wings so I took advantage of that, I grabbed Audrey and flew above the wall, I was not proficient in flying, however, so I fell pretty quickly after that, but it was enough to cross the wall.

After crossing the wall, we walked toward the hall entrance but the guard yelled to ask help from the other guard and we were surrounded before reaching the door. Are all these guys new or something? Because if that's the case then the 'leader' is pretty stupid, who puts new recruit to guard the place, they may be spies from another group or even shapeshifted monsters, if I can do it then the monsters could do it too.

I prepared myself to cast Mage hand but Marie intervened "Don't attack him, he is an ally." After she said that, all the guards relaxed, is she a figure of authority here? Oh... yes, if Alexandre is the leader then Marie would be the co-leader or something. 

"Marie, what is going on? And why is Alexandre of all people the leader?" It's not like I care that I'm not the leader anymore but if the community elects me as the leader and then throw me away when I'm no longer useful, it will piss me off."

"Not long after you went to the dungeon, another group came here, they wanted to meet the leader immediately so, you know, it just happened." 

It just happened huh? Well if he doesn't try to boss me around, he can keep his leader post.

"This little incident aside Marie, how is everyone doing?" I don't really care about these peoples but I will try to stay polite.

"The situation is good, there was a kobold raid three hours ago but nothing too serious, nobody is dead."

"Oh, great." And with that I resumed walking, Audrey and I ate something and we went to sleep.

For today, my priority is to create Chaos energy, I need to see the effects of a spell. After a few hours I produced 3 Chaos, it's a lot easier with life transfer since I could drain trees and other living things, I did not suck them dry of Life energy, it's not efficient, I take about 10% of their hp, which is approximatively 30 hit points. Weaker plants like grass are only worth 1hp but there is so much that it's okay to drain a few of them.

The first spell I will test is icicle, I will first cast it while infusing life Energy and I will cast another one with Chaos energy. I began to infuse Life energy into the ice but it immediately exploded, as I thought, there is an opposition between conflicting elements, is it the same with fire then? I will have to learn a fire spell to be sure.  After this unsuccessful experiment, I cast another icicle but this time I infused one Chaos energy, the ice began to glow a deep blue, almost black and cracks started to appear on the icicle, this was not good news, I tried to stabilize the spell as much as possible but to no avail, the ice was glowing even more than before, I began to lose control so I released my spell, it went crashing against a tree. There was an explosion of ice but the best was the rapidly expanding ice formation, it looked like an ice-made tidal wave.

Your chaos-infused spell was a minor success, would you like to gain the skill associated, which will reduce the cost of Chaos energy and allow you to cast it with a guaranteed success (instead of random), however, if you accept, you will not be able to improve the spell. Y/N?

Hmm, I think I will accept it, Icicle is a basic spell so it won't be as useful in the future, even reinforced like that, besides, if I have difficulties with a minor success then I couldn't do something better. I chose yes.

You gained the spell Ice Burst, a tier III spell.

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Ice burst now cost one point of Chaos energy instead of two.

You successfully cast a tier III spell with a tier I incantation, you gain the Practical Mind title

Practical Mind

Due to your superior mental visualization, you are able to cast spells with more ease.

-can cast spells using other limbs, like fingers or foots (the smaller the appendices used are, the less powerful the spell will be.)

-can shorten the spell formation (casting time) by spending more mp.

Oh nice, would it means that I can pretty much spam a weak spell like mana bolt to be like an automatic rifle? Neat. The next thing on the list is using Chaos energy on living subjects (with their consent of course) but I will have to create more Chaos energy because if a tier I spell took two, I cannot imagine how much a kobold would be.

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I spent a few days creating more Chaos energy, while I was doing this, Audrey trained her mental resistance but casting spells on herself, it was apparently working since she gained a passive skill giving one wisdom by skill level (but only when resisting a spell), I will probably have to do the same thing since it's a useful skill to have but being constantly in a confusion effect for hours is, I think, not a good experience. Anyways, I now have 30 points of Chaos energy, it's a lot but it was easier after I discovered something with my investigation skill:

Chaos energy is basically just a concentrated mass of Life energy but more ordered, I thought it was a bit contradictory for chaos to be an ordered version of something but after thinking about it, when there is a lot of Life energy, the entity just explode, Chaos, however, control this energy and focus it to produce something (randomly but still). When I realized that, I received the following:

You grasped the basic nature of chaos, +10 Intelligence, and +10 Wisdom.

The gain in Wisdom was great news but the next message was even better,

You now comprehend the ways of Chaos and with it the creation of life

You are the first human to learn the truth about life, and as such, you have been invited to the Outer gods' faction, would you like to join: Y/N?

I obviously selected yes and another screen appeared saying that I could now teleport to the Outer realm (it's basically another Nexus) but that I should wait until I'm stronger because the cultists of this faction are all mind-breaking horrors or human eating monsters, a wise advice indeed.

I then proceeded to conduct an experiment on livings subjects, a kobold would be good but anything will do. I searched the outskirts of the town for kobolds since they tend to live in the abandoned houses (it's far more comfortable than living in a cave) but there was no kobold, there was, however, humans also searching kobolds to level up, are these guys not aware of the existence of the dungeons? It's not it bothers me, but with that, impossible to find a kobold outside of their base, of which we don't know the exact location.

I decided to go into the woods, after scouting, I found a small pack of seven wolves, I don't think there normally are wolves in this area but that must be due to the recent apparition of other predators, or maybe they just popped like other monsters. I cast two mage hands and then ten mana bolts from the hands' fingers, the bolts flew towards the wolves, injuring them without killing them. This was too easy, it's only two weeks since the apparition of monsters and they are already no challenge for me... but, maybe the towns and their surroundings are considered newbie zones?

+1 Intelligence

With this pop-up confirming I was right, I resumed my task of immobilizing the wolves by shooting them in the legs. Now that the wolves are no longer a threat, I will have to select the one to experiment on, I don't have enough energy for all of them. After pondering about it for a while, I decided to take, a female, a pup and the alpha of the pack.

I began with the pup, I infused Chaos energy in him, making him whine, which made the female growl, it seems she was her mother. After a while, he grew rapidly, after ten seconds, he was as tall as his mother but he was warped, like a deformed picture, his fur was now a reddish purple, Chaos energy sure is- Ah no, the fur wasn't reddened by the spell but by the blood, he started to bleed from all his pores, dying in a matter of seconds.

Your Chaos infusion spell was a failure

Duh, thanks for telling me, I could not have guessed that, but damn, this cost me 4 Chaos energy and it's gone just like that. I approached the alpha and retried to infuse Chzos energy, this time it was much easier since he was much stronger, it's the alpha after all. Like the pup, he grew, he was approximatively the size of a grizzly bear but other than that, there was little change, his fur darkened a bit but it was all.

Your Chaos infusion spell was a lesser minor success.

Alpha Wolf (Lvl.6)-----> Chaotic Alpha Wolf (Lvl.7)

This Wolf has been infused with Chaos energy, he now deals a bonus random elemental damage with his attacks.

That's not too bad for only 6 points of Chaos energy, I then quickly killed him by stabbing my sword in the neck, they are not tamed, after all, I did not want them to attack me after I'm done.

When I killed the alpha, the female wolf looked at me, I did not know what kind of glare it was but probably not a friendly one.) I approached the female wolf, she was my last chance to make something really good. Like for  the others, I began to infuse her with Chaos energy, it was much more taxing than the last two times, she did not grow, heck, she even shrunk a few inches, her head, however, was proportionately bigger than before and two small goat-like horns grew on it, her fur now looked like greyish grass and her claws were like black wood, there was even the occasional line of greenish light on it.

Your Chaos infusion spell was a lesser major success.

Female Wolf (Lvl.4)-----> Chaosborne Wolf of blight (Lvl.9)

- spell curse gained

-spell telepathy gained

This creature is capable of reasoning and needs a name, as she has acknowledged you as her master, you can choose a name for her.

She even gained a skill I don't have, that's Chaos for you but me, her master? I killed her child in front of her, isn't it somewhat...No I guess it's the norm for monsters, but a name...Hmmm..."Lisa, how does that sound?"

'I think it's a good name, yes, I will now be called Lisa, you have my thanks, master.' Oh shit that surprised me, that's right, telepathy, but why do I... Suddenly feel so tired... How... Much Chaos energy did this cost me... Why do I have no mana and only 136hp? Ahh, so sleepy... And with that, I fell into the sweet embrace of darkness.