He stood up, remembering how 4 legged creatures usually stand. Then walked towards one of the crystals etched in the wall. In that crystal he checked out his new face.

The dark slits that contrasted with his glowing amber eyes gave him perfect vision even in this dimly lit environment.

His sharp and pointy ears looked ready to react to any sound. He could hear a lot further than he could when he was human.

His nose quivered with every breath he took. Focusing on the smells, he distinguished countless scents around him- soil, rocks, the crystals, as well as some smells that he couldn’t attribute to anything.

If he had to guess, they probably belonged to living entities, but there was no one in his close vicinity so he relaxed for now.

His gaze moved down to his mouth that concealed the sharpest weapons in his body, each of his teeth, like an ivory dagger, ready to tear apart flesh of the creatures he encountered.

It was at this moment he realised that he was not a Big Black Cat. Instead, a Black Panther, wait, they are the same thing.

Well, Black Panther seemed the cooler way of saying it so Ragnar decided to go with that.

He felt like this face might be slightly better than his older one. He could live with it.

But then, his attention went back to the sensation that he had been having ever since he gained consciousness. Like something that he might need was leaking out of his body and he had no idea as to what it was.

It was clear that he could not let this go on any longer, or he might regret it.

He could be sure that this wasn’t a trial. The Realm had not lied to him since he still had his mind intact and there was the connection he felt with his human form.

He knew that his human body was not lost. It was still somewhere inside him.

He just had to reach out to it.

He focused his mind and tried to reach it, his human form. And when he reached it, a sudden bolt ran through his body, like stretching after a long nap. It was surreal, as if each cell in his body was reconstructing itself into what it once was. Neither comforting, nor painful. More like a process that his body was made for. It felt natural.

The remaining bloodlust inside him receded to the deepest parts of his body as the transformation neared its climax. By the time his body stopped morphing, the leaking sensation had disappeared.

Now that it was gone, he realized what he was losing bit by bit, every second he spent as a Panther.

It was his humanity.

His ability to feel for people other than himself.

But there already weren’t any people he could feel for, they had all long left him to fend for himself. Unless he counted his anger and pursuit of revenge, of course. But that could surely be found in Shifted creatures just as much.

Realising this was strange. But if he really delved into it, at this point, what did he really need his humanity for?

It might be completely useless for him.

Even though he came to this conclusion, he did not turn back into his Shifted form since he had a lot to check here.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

His status, that’s what people had named it. He had heard from Tristan that walkers were capable of seeing their information that the Realm compiled for them just by thinking about it.

So, he did it and willed for his status to appear. Shining white text appeared in the endless darkness of his mind. The symbols it used were still the native language of the Realm. It read,

Name: Ragnar Drakorian

He had only read the name but he had to pause there.

Things started to click, what the Realm meant when it said that it would sound good with his name,

‘Well, I can’t lie, it does sound alright.’

But that was not important, what was important was what this entailed.

When the Realm first mentioned a Lineage, Ragnar had no clue since he had never heard that word before. But getting a surname from the Realm, that might be a slightly significant matter, since even he had heard of it.

Not just him, almost every human knew what that meant. Because there have only ever been 7 people who have received a surname from the Realm.

Until now, that is.

They were the first 7 people who came out alive from the Rift during the EtherShift Calamity. These people went on to establish 7 families which still remained as the strongest organisations of their respective continents. Even after all these years.

By coincidence, each of the 7-person turned out to be from a different continent leading to the rise of a powerhouse in each continent.

Ragnar didn’t know how to feel about this.

Was the Realm expecting him to form a family as well? This thought made him chuckle self-deprecatingly. For him, who did not even have a single person left to call his friend, let alone someone close enough to be part of his family, it was a pathetic thought.

Ragnar decided to read further to shake off his bad mood,

Species: Human

Rank: Mutant

Lineage: Drakorian

Lineage Ability: ???

Lineage Perk: Shifted Transformation

Seeing that the Lineage ability was marked as question marks, Ragnar guessed that it must be the use case that Realm talked about. Which will unlock when he completes the task, when will that be? Probably Never.

Then he noticed the Lineage perk which was Shifted Transformation. So, his Shifted form was a result of his Lineage after all.

But does that mean the members of those 7 families will also have something similar? That shouldn’t be, because if these were so common then he probably would have heard of it from Tristan. He seemed to have extensive knowledge on this subject anyways.

He discerned that there was a lot more to his Shifted form than just his night vision. He planned to explore it soon but he needed to see the rest of his status, especially, his ability.

Rank: Mutant

Class: Primordial

He had only read until here when the content made him frown.

The class didn’t surprise him even though humans weren’t supposed to have one. His Lineage perk explained it.

What made him doubt the symbols was the class he was in… it was Primordial.

This word was completely alien to him. He had never heard of a Primordial class. In fact, he was sure that this class had never been seen before.

The knowledge of classes was not hidden and was available for the general public. Being known that the Shifted creatures came in 4 classes; Rogue, Menace, Dread and Elder. These were the only ones that humans had killed or maybe even found.

It was to be noted here that humans did not get any help in this regard from the Realm. All the information they had, had been gathered by their own efforts.

The 4 classes that humans have knowledge of were the ones they had found and killed. Thereby getting the kill message which told them their class and rank.

So, what did this entail, had the creatures of Primordial class never been killed before? Or maybe they had been killed but that knowledge had never made it to the general public.

Because if creatures of this class existed then there should be people who were capable of killing them. If one couldn’t prevail alone, then what stopped them from teaming up with others.

On second thought, it seemed much more probable to Ragnar that humans had never encountered a Shifted Primordial before.

It made much more sense. Since even if the creatures of this rank would be stronger than their counterparts, they should not be invincible by any means. Hence, it was much more probable that either they didn’t exist anymore, or they didn’t venture out into the open.

Then the final possibility, which was much scarier, where humans did encounter them but were never able to slay them.

Ragnar concluded his thoughts that were clearly going off the rails at this point. Considering how his bloodlust had reacted to its presence, his Primordial class had to be higher than the other classes that had existed until now.

Ragnar had no opinions about his new class yet, it will have to wait until he figures out its capabilities.

He will have to do it through trial and error though. The Realm was not one to provide any help in such matters, the most it could ever explain was the one liner description it used for all abilities.

Speaking of abilities, Ragnar finally moved his attention back to his status.

Ability: Wave Surge (S Tier)

Wave Surge: The enigmatic manipulation of waves that ripple through existence.

Core Saturation: 0/5000