The screen in front of Adam changed.
You have chosen to walk the Path of the Beast!
Tread carefully, as all paths are treacherous to those that don’t watch their step.
Stat Bonus gained per level: +1 STR, +1 DEX, +2 VIT, +2 Instinct and +1 Free Point
Adam felt a surge of energy run through his body. He felt stronger in every way. Arcana was a stat that he knew was directed towards mana and mana usage and since the Path of the Beast didn’t have anything to say about magic, he wasn’t surprised that it was not mentioned when he chose his path. Adam knew it was probably rash but with his experience of being trapped under the fallen hippobull during the trial, he added his free stat point into Strength. An additional rush coursed through his body. In the future, he will need to plan out his stat allotment but for now, more strength should allow him to better defend himself.
At this point many of the screens that floated around Adam had disappeared. He belatedly realized that the screens that held the descriptive text for the status sheet had made up the majority of the screens around him and after he dismissed them earlier, the extra message screens winked out of existence with them.
Now there were just two left: the Sponsorship reward message and a new one that required another decision.
Skill Selection
An awakened will receive skills at predetermined levels as they progress down their chosen Path.
Starting at Level 1 you must decide on a skill that will passively boost your abilities.
Your options are:
Passive: Fight
Passive: Flight
Passive: Freeze
Gain a bonus to your Strength while in combat. Increase is based on your Arcana and Instinct.
Current: 5 point Strength increase.
Gain a bonus to your Dexterity while moving away from danger. Increase based on your Arcana and Instinct.
Current: 5 point Dexterity increase.
Gain a bonus to your Vitality whenever you take damage. Increase based on your Arcana and Instinct.
Current: 5 point Vitality increase.
Looking at the skills he was a little disappointed but honestly, what did he expect? The ability to turn into a dragon or to throw fire? An ability that lets him turn invisible or something to give him super strength? Those were far from Level 1 skills. Adam looked over each of them before going back to check his status sheet. While his stats were all on the low side, his Dexterity was definitely his lowest aside from Arcana. He would need to do something about that. Especially as his first skill proved to him that even if his physical stats would be the cornerstone of his growth, Arcana would affect his skills.
Remembering the horrible feeling of being chased, Adam selected the Flight passive ability. With this ability, he would be able to run away from dangerous situations quickly, better ensuring his safety.
As he was about to accept his sponsorship reward, another skill screen popped up before him.
Your choice to walk the Path of the Beast allows for you to gain access to an additional Skill at Level 1.
Congratulations, you have learned the skill Bestial Transformation!
Active: Bestial Transformation
Your choice to walk the Path of the Beast allows you to take a bestial form at will. This new form takes time to change in and out of and is based on your Physique.
If this ability is activated prior to gaining a Physique, the skill will create a physique for the user based on the individual's compatibility with a beast type.
This transformation results in an adjustment to your stat allotment based on the form taken.
Warning
Maintaining the Bestial Transformation for extended periods of time can be detrimental to the mind.
HELL YES! Adam screamed in his mind. He actually could turn into an animal of some kind?! This was awesome! He couldn’t wait to find out how to acquire a Physique so that he could transform into a badass creature.
Overjoyed by the new skill he turned to the final screen: the Sponsorship Acceptance.
He reread the screen one final time and looked at his Multiversal Status again so he could compare it to after accepting his sponsorship rewards.
Name
Adam Abrams
Species
Human
Level
1
Pursuit
Path of the Beast
Class
?
Physique (Stage)
N/A
Affinity
?
Strength
7
Dexterity
4
Vitality
6
Arcana
3
Pursuit Specialty Stat: Instinct
7
Class Specialty Stat
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
N/A
Passive Skills
Flight
Active Skills
Bestial Transformation
Titles
Forerunner of Earth
The first thing he noticed was the increase in his stats due to his Pursuit selection. Next, he noticed that Instinct was now present as his Pursuit Specialty Stat and he had gained three extra parts to his status, one section each to see what passive and active skills he knew and another to display his Titles? He hadn’t seen anything about the title he had earned so he quickly checked it out.
Title: Forerunner of Earth
As one of the forerunners of Earth, you gain a permanent +1 to all stat allotments upon exiting the Integration Stasis.
This bonus increases each time you evolve to a higher tier of existence.
Adam was thrilled, his stats had started abysmally but had quickly grown far beyond what he had originally started with. With all of that out of the way, it was time for Adam to accept his Sponsorship Reward. He pulled up the screen again and concentrated on accepting it.
High Lord Yarutash Enquill has bestowed upon you the unique reward: Assembled Bestial Skeleton
This reward is bestowed upon you in the form of a Beast Chimera Physique.
Warning:
The acceptance of a Physique instantly begins the augmentation process. This may cause you to be in pain.
A Physique?! This is exactly what I need for my new skill! Adam’s thoughts ran through all the possibilities before he realized that he had no say in what the physique would offer him now. Well, I hope it is a good one. Maybe, it will give me wings or something. That would be so coollLLAARRRGGGHHHH&$^#*(@)&#)@*#&%!!... The pain was excruciating.
Adam felt as if his body was ripping apart from the inside. His blood was boiling and he had no idea how he would survive this pain. The feeling of being stabbed by the boar tusk or slashed by the scalecats claws were nothing compared to this.
An observer would be able to see that all of Adam’s bruised and broken bones were glowing within his body. After a couple seconds, they seemed to almost burn their way out of his body, magically removing themselves and being replaced with bones of various shapes and sizes. While they were completely different from human bones, as soon as they made contact with Adam’s skin, they would glow and reshape themselves to mimic his previous skeletal structure, before sliding through the open holes in his body to recreate a new skeletal structure for him.
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Adam’s eyes opened and surprisingly, he felt great. His last thought before losing consciousness was that he was nervous about what he had become. He had no way to track the overall time that the process of gaining his Physique took, but Adam was only conscious for about 30 seconds of it. If how he currently felt was anything to go on, the Physique he gained was nothing but positive.
All that said, this was the closest he had ever come to his mind actually breaking. The feeling of his bones being pulled from his body was… indescribable. Thinking about what he just went through, Adam’s body broke into a cold sweat.
Okay, no more of that. Adam quickly tried to take his mind off of the process. Let’s look at the results. He was getting better at utilizing the system and pulled it up.
At this point Adam’s starting stats were long gone. While he wasn't sure just how he would compare to others, he couldn’t believe how big of a change he had undergone since he first opened his status sheet. One of the expected changes was the Physique row of his status which read, “Beast Chimera (Assembled Bestial Skeleton) [Fixed]”. He was unsure what it meant by [Fixed] but he was more interested in his other bonuses. He had gained a total of seven stat points and an additional title which he pulled up immediately.
Title: Beast Frame
You have replaced your entire skeletal structure with the bones of beasts. You gain stat points associated with the creatures the bones came from.
Torso: Wallbreaker Stag Chimera (+3 VIT)
Arms: Canopyglider Ape Chimera (+2 STR)
Legs: Armored Sabercat Chimera (+1 VIT)
Skull: Undergrowth Boar Chimera (+1 ARC)
Adam could only assume that the creatures used to make his new skeleton were the beasts from the trial. With the various animal features that they each had, the fact that they were all considered to be chimeras wasn't surprising. Of the four chimeras used to create his new skeleton, the only one that was surprising was the Undergrowth Boar. I guess I brought the boar skull with me after all, he chuckled to himself.
He wanted to know if anything else had changed about him but due to the fact that he wasn’t in a physical space, he couldn’t see himself… wait. That didn’t make any sense. How could he feel all of the pain and know about the intensity of his own transformation if he didn’t have his physical body in this space?
Adam stretched his limbs out around him, searching for a surface, but found nothing. He concentrated on his eyes until he felt like his eyeballs would pop from the strain. Well, I guess I'll have to wait and see.
Unable to get a glimpse of his body, Adam settled for attempting to concentrate on the movement of his body. The feel of his skin, the twitch of his muscles and soft rhythmic feeling of his breathing.
Concentrating on his body like this brought Adam back to memories with his childhood friend, Dante, and how he would try to get him to meditate. At the time, Dante was so sure that if they meditated like the characters in the martial arts stories he loved then they too would be able to sense their own life energy and could be superheroes.
Damn, Dante is probably having a field day with this stuff. At different points in his life, Adam had tried to get into meditation and other more “spiritual” practices but he just couldn’t get into it. It all felt so… unscientific for him. That said, he had many different conversations with Charles about the concept and gained some clarity from the professor. He had talked about the transference of energy and used scientific theory to “trick” himself into following energy through the body. Charles used examples from Chinese medical practices and explained to Adam how he used the idea of “meridians” throughout the body as a sort of racetrack for his imaginary energy ball to race along.
This metaphor of the imaginary track through the body had always stuck with Adam as a more complicated version of counting sheep when you can’t go to sleep and he decided that with the world changed, it probably held some merit now.
He dove into his consciousness and attempted to feel the pathways that ran throughout his body hoping to gain feeling to parts of his body.
He was unsure how long he engaged in this thought experiment but he was making progress. Adam had managed to regain feeling in his fingertips, shoulders, face and chest so far and started feeling around at his body while also trying to continue the exercise.
Adam was initially pretty confused when he physically checked out his body. His shoulders felt a little wider, his arms felt a touch longer and most notable of all, Adam felt like he had lost a lot of weight and was much thinner than he had been previously.
He couldn’t help but hope that maybe he would look more muscular now. That would be a surprise for everyone when he got back.
More time passed and he was able to get a better feel for his body. At least, as good of a feel as he could get without seeing it or being able to actually move it. So far only one thing seemed to be obviously different. He hadn't grown wings or a tail or anything but he did have a new addition to his body and was unsure how he felt about it.
Sticking out past his lips were two small tusks. From what Adam could tell, they weren't huge like a stereotypical fantasy orc’s would be, only sticking up about half a centimeter over his upper lip. They were not necessarily sharp either but they did feel tougher than an average tooth.
The meridian track exercise was turning out to be an excellent time filler and it allowed for Adam to try and understand what all had changed in his body. He continued to focus on it for an untold amount of time until he felt a change in the space around him.
Adam opened his eyes and found that he was no longer in some liminal space of darkness. Now, he was floating in space. ACTUAL space. He knew this because directly in front of him was Earth. Seeing it like this was truly breathtaking.
As he pondered just how small he was in the face of the literal planet before him, a message screen burst into existence. The screen felt different this time and as he read its contents, he watched as Earth progressed through a series of massive events.
Returning to your World: EARTH
The Integration Stasis provides an opportunity for the inhabitants of a world to gain access to mana.
During this time, your world has also been inundated with mana, terraforming and changing its structure to allow for its inhabitants to progress as members of the multiverse.
He watched as the Earth seemed to break into several large pieces. Due to Adam’s general understanding of geology, it looked as if the world split into sections along the tectonic plate boundaries. Morbid curiosity wouldn’t allow him to look away from what must have been the end of the world happening before his eyes. However, as he watched, the Earth itself began to… inhale? It looked as if an energy of some kind was being pulled out of the space surrounding the planet and was being used to fill in the gaps.
New landmasses grew out of thin air, oceans poured across the surface of the planet, moving from one place to another like a person would move away when they no longer belong in their hometown, but in this case, rather than moving to grow, the oceans were more like refugees, searching for a new place to call home after the destruction of their own.
Returning to your World: EARTH
Just as you and the planet itself have changed, the other creatures of the planet have changed as well.
Be prepared, for as the Integration Stasis may be over…
Your Integration to the Multiverse has just begun.
Fight, Struggle and Survive.
Build a world stronger than the one you know.
WARNING
You will be deposited in the same space from which you left; however, the planet has changed. Be ready for anything.
The planet seemed to solidify into a new whole, increasing in size by at least 4 times. There were old places to rediscover, and new continents to explore. Adam, full of anxiety and a bit of excitement, resolved to do anything to survive.
I’ll carry your message, Luisa. I’ll find them. And with that thought, Adam felt his consciousness speed towards Earth, flying towards what was once the Northwestern Coast of North America.