Before any excursions, I wanted to plant the seeds of success. After all, despite my obvious natural talent for land development, I was well aware of the stereotype of any construction project that schedules went long. I found Nightshade dozing and patted him lightly with a tentacle. “I’ll will head to the forest after some labor-chee…”

Your Skill (Language) Bestial Comprehension has grown to Level 3.

“Hire… a wine-taster… those treacherous…” Nightshade was still dozing, twitching in his sleep like a kitten, so I went with a light heart down to the mud beach to harvest the next batch of mud bricks. Carrying them to and from the mud beach and the temple site proved to be exhausting as expected. After only ten minutes, I had only moved twenty of my fifty bricks and was deeply exhausted. Yet I could only push through.

I needed to work while I could, so I would finish in time. A temple, even one scaled to small Chimera Cores and minor wetland monsters, was not a simple thing.

I’m… assembling the foundation for a leisurely life… Remember, at the core of this labor machine sits a warm and fun heart of jello…

Probably, compared to a human, the final result will be about the size of a minivan? All assembled by me-

Your Skill (Earned) Foolish Grit has grown to Level 6.

Tsk, it’s not foolish.

On my next trip, I upped the amount of bricks I carried to five at a time. My tentacles bulged, trying to support the extra clay I stacked on top of my digging claws. My stumpy turtle legs brought me back to the partially disassembled turtle shell. For now, I just set the bricks to the side in a pile; I could assemble the walls later.

Once more, I returned to the drying location and grabbed five bricks.

Your Skill (Earned) Foolish Grit has grown to Level 7.

The key to a leisurely life… keh, so heavy… the key is to lay a strong foundation. To work hard behind the scenes… Because what killed me last time was drifting forward while all of my stresses remained unaddressed at the end of the day, over and over again. Plus, when I started dwelling on the mean comments of others…

Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 5.

So now… through the day I’ll try my best, I’ll face my feelings… so when I sleep, I don’t have a care in the world…!

Your Skill (Earned) Foolish Grit has grown to Level 8.

Your Skill (Earned) Foolish Grit has grown to Level 9.

As far as I could tell, Foolish Grit… gave me exactly zero bonuses. No strength surged through my body as I earned several Levels that morning. The only purpose it served was to be a smirking reminder that the System knew my thoughts and found them sad and misguided. But with about an hour left until noon, I finished the transportation process, although the main result was a sizable stack of bricks in the otherwise empty mud clearing.

Nightshade slithered out of the reeds and looked at my handiwork. “Brother Tallum, the fires of indignation truly can never be extinguished…! No wonder you were chosen by the Kami as his representative. Let me help you with the assembly here. Then we can head to the forest and find worthy foes.”

I waved a tentacle, almost too exhausted to speak, but also so grateful for the assistance I wouldn’t have known how to express it. Truly, Foolish Grit was a worthless Skill.

I suppose that’s why it starts with the word ‘Foolish’...

Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 6.

As always, you are such a petty System…

I roughly guessed the amount of ground that could be covered by the turtle shell tiles, so Nightshade and I laid down the base layer of bricks and stacked them up, getting halfway through the third layer. At this point, the walls were almost as high as we were.

However, I had a thought after we finished. Like this… the tiles are beautiful, but we need a light source. Maybe we leave a window in the far wall…? Yes, that should work, I just need to make some smaller-sized bricks and leave an opening.

Anyway, all that was for tomorrow. Hopefully, I could make it back later tonight and lay out more bricks, but now I followed Nightshade out through the reeds toward the distant forest. I walked past the growing area covered by the hex spiderlings. Several came out and waved their forelegs at me in parting.

I felt a strange trepidation in my heart. One because it felt like I had a home here, small and strange though it was. And also because I had several days of relative peace. My arrival in this world concerned mostly violence, but I had been given a small break. Now I had to harden my heart and remind myself I was a human no longer, but a monster. An Experimental Chimera Core.

Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 7.

A Chimera Core with two companions, for whom I would sacrifice everything to protect.

Your Skill (Earned) Foolish Grit has grown to Level 10.

Your Skill (Earned) Foolish Grit has evolved into (Earned) Mutinous Grit Lvl 1.

An Interesting achievement: For evolving an Earned Skill, +5 Max Health and +5 Max Mana!

The problem with my clockwork was how easy it was to trigger, by allowing one of my trademark whole-body feelings to settle too deeply. The brass, flesh-munching gears of my obsessive side clicked once, gathering information so any harm to Nightshade and Sage could be prevented. I hurriedly tried to distract myself, and luckily the notifications provided exactly that. Eh, what’s this? See? It’s very possible to overcome the System! Now my grit has become…

Wait, what’s this System trying to say? Mutinous Grit? This isn’t a pirate vessel… Well, at least let’s agree this is a step forward from Foolish. Perhaps the System is a tsundere? Tough on the outside, but this whole time, becoming more and more fixated on me.

Even I felt like my silly overactions were becoming a bit of a stretch, but I lifted my chin and doubled down. I have to admit though, my lavender color is quite fetching.

Before we had gone too far out into the waving reeds, I asked Nightshade to pause while I activated my Blessing. My body shivered. Then small droplets of gleaming violet liquid leaked out of my body. My Mana rapidly depleted; the one benefit of this evolution of the Blessing is that a much smaller amount of liquid was produced.

Still, with my extra +2 Proficiency, I shook my body. “Let’s continue.”

“That… was an ability you received from the Kami?”

I could only sigh at the confusion in Nightshade’s voice. “Honestly, let’s not talk about it. Right now… right now the Blessing doesn’t appear too useful. But remember the ability used by the Egg-Defender? If I could manage something like that-”

“You are chosen of the Kami. Although the shape has not yet made itself clear… it does seem likely you have greater tasks in your future than base violence.” Nightshade observed. Then he stretched out his two arms for heads. “Unlike these bloodsoaked hands of mine…”

… if anything, that perspective makes me more uncomfortable. Is the Kami trying to transform me into an oil sponge?!

Also, Nightshade, stop seriously staring at snakehead while you say ‘hands’.

…Is it strange I find his weird side cute?

I tried not to think about what Nightshade had done in his past life to survive for so long as a Maou. Instead, I focused on our two bodies as we traveled through the marshland to the distant forest.

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Picture this: me, a humanoid torso sitting on top of four turtle legs tightly packed together. I had a pair of wings from my back, too small to help me with actual flying. I had ‘arms’, with the right one ending in a serrated foreleg and the left doing a poor imitation of a hand with tentacles. Below that, I had a second pair of arms that ended in my digging claws. A beak added some additional features to my face, housing a frog tongue that could heal.

I looked like a child’s drawing of a centaur, with some Mr. potato parts haphazardly added.

Next to me, Nightshade slithered his way through the shallow water and muddy ground like a genuine predator. Just from the way he never ceased scanning the surroundings with his energy sonar, the lifestyles we had lived before reincarnating could be seen. He had a longer torso, darker indigo flesh dragging along the ground in his wake. He also had ‘arms’ of a sort, but his four arms all ended in serpent heads. The praying mantis head served as the main biting head, pivoting around as we proceeded through the reeds.

I wonder, can he use its eyes to see…? I suppose I could just ask…

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 4.

At a nearby noise, my focus instantly sharpened. But it was only a distant heron taking flight.

“What graceful creatures,” Nightshade mused as we paused and watched the creature fly away. I gave Nightshade a strange look; truly, herons are graceful? Maybe while flying, but when were on the ground, they were weird fish birds that walked around on stilt legs. Nightshade shook his insect head to rouse himself. “Let us continue. We are about halfway there.”

The rest of the journey was without incident. Aside from being constantly damp from the puddles we encountered and twitching at every bird we flushed out of the reeds, I had no problems. I even earned Levels in Body Manipulation and Interstitial Body Structure, for better learning how to stay balanced while walking with these legs and carving away a bit of my flesh so I could extend the base of my body. My centaur torso became more balanced.

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 5.

So long as I manipulate jelly, the Interstitial Flesh will form around it. So the base form can be adjusted so I’m less top-heavy.

Also… there is a lot more sophistication required as a Chimera Core than initially thought. Although I could simply absorb the strongest body parts, ensuring a functional body will pay dividends.

As we came within a hundred meters of the forest, I could feel the shift in the biome almost immediately with my Detection Skill. Oh? What a reliable companion you are. You draw from my subconscious and ping me when it comes within the Skill range? No relation to this silly grit Skill. Okay, how about whenever enemy monsters approach-

My Detection Skill buzzed, over and over again, inside my soul. I couldn’t help but release a chirp. “Cheep! Err, Nightshade, there are-”

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 6.

“Yes, I am aware. The locals require a blood price to be paid to advance past the edge of their domain,” Nightshade laughed. On cue, almost a dozen monsters waded their way out of the tall grass and glared at the two chimera cores.

Bloodthirsty Fae Squirrel Lvl 9

“Brother. Once more for glory, we gamble with our lives!” Nightshade let out a whoop and rushed forward. Our foes were only Level 9, but my reliable friend Detection informed me that another dozen were fast approaching from the distant trees. Considering that the three of us Chimera Cores had been able to overpower a Level 12 foe, I decided that this was an acceptable amount of danger.

But also, we Chimera Cores are the enemy of any being with Anima. As Nightshade barreled forward and two of his snake heads swelled to each becoming the size of a python, I stomped forward to my own foes. So long as we don’t lose ourselves in panic, we can easily overcome the superior numbers. Each fallen foe becomes more fuel…

Three of the Fae Squirrels looked at me with bloodshot eyes, their teeth chittering constantly. Honestly, they resembled Nightshade in their primitive and violent focus. They bounded forward, their tails surprisingly elegant. And even-

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 7.

Your Skill (Earned Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 7.

Huh? What sort of glittery squirrels are you? Do you spread glitter while running? Ah, is this what it means to be a fae squirrel?

Despite my thoughts, my right arm was already cutting through the air; some taint of violence had already seeped into me as well. My serrated foreleg slashed the chest of the leftmost fae squirrel and cut off its little squirrel arm. Before it could recover, it slipped in mud and its face crashed into the ground. I hopped over next to it, ripped open my interstitial body structure and released a tendril of lavender ooze to sop up its blood.

You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +7.

Your Skill (Species) Absorb Anima has grown to Level 25.

You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +13.

You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +9.

You have successfully Absorbed Anima! Anima +8.

Your Skill (Temp) Mana Feed has triggered! Restoring 11 Health and 5 Mana over the next 30 seconds.

Your Skill (Temp) Mana Feed has grown to Level 12.

A rush of energy filled my body as I absorbed the Anima. I also experienced a new sensation; I could delay the dissipation of extra Anima, for a short amount of time. So at least, I wouldn’t be assaulted by notifications as I absorbed over my 250 Anima limit and then had to release some back into the universe.

I was assaulted by the two other fae squirrels, with more rushing over toward the relatively smaller commotion I was making. While the one I fed upon struggled weakly, slashing my Interstitial Body Structure and shaving off only 3 points of Health, its ally bounded up and tried to bite me. I blocked with my digging claws; if nothing else, these laborer yam-hands were at least large.

With a little bit of time, my serrated foreleg stabbed down through the skull beneath me and my first victim ceased its struggle. The rest of its Anima quickly flowed into my body.

The third fae squirrel, however, earned another ping from my Detection as it drew up short of attacking me physically and belched out a glittering bolt of-

Your Skill (Earned) Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 8.

Before I had time to react, the attack smashed into my ‘face’, knocking off 15 Health in a single go. I tumbled backward, more shocked than anything else. For a second I struggle awkwardly in the reeds, my body too lopsided to easily stand back up. By the time I leveraged myself back up into position with tentacles, both fae squirrels had rushed forward and bit into my flesh.

The attacks took away a few points of Health each, but-

…ah, how depressing. Your little pea brains cannot understand that the physical attacks barely pose any threat. I felt a low thrill of panic, but my lack of total meltdown proved that living as a violent monster gradually honed my instincts.

I got my bearings, ignoring the pain; even with three seconds to run wild and scratch more at my body, they had only inflicted 7 damage in total with their physical attacks, while the glittering bolt had done 15 all at once. Definitely better for me they are fools. And its probably true that their Mana pools are small. One attack each might be their limit…

Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 7.

I allowed all the built-up Anima to dissipate, instantly earning back 6 Health. With my Mana Feed still gradually ticking my Health up over the next twenty seconds, I wasn't in any danger of going down to zero Health. My serrated foreleg stabbed in and then hooked out the stomach and intestines of one of my attackers.

For the second foe, I slapped it directly in the face with a tentacle and then followed up by drilling the serrated foreleg through its forehead while it was stunned.

As I sucked down their Anima and eyed the five more fae squirrels rushing toward my position, I heard Nightshade release a bellow. He faced down at least double as many fae squirrels as I and I could see at least five spitting up the glittering bolts at him. Two missed, but still, his movements faltered in the face of so many enemies.

You foolish…!

My whole body tensed up, now suddenly anxious. Before I even had a conscious thought, I was on my feet and I used my crayfish hands to toss the two fae squirrels to the side, only half-dead.

I rumbled forward on tortoise legs.

My heroic charge could have earned me a place in any phalanx of knights. I used the digging claws like shields, body-checking two unfortunate squirrels to the side as I galloped forward. My 8 Strength seemed unrivaled amongst beings below Level 10. One of the squirrels I passed spat out their sparkling projectile, but I wove to the side and allowed it to pass harmlessly over my head-

The bolt whizzed forward and smashed into the back of Nightshade’s praying mantis head. His massive body swayed and then collapsed.

…well fuck me. I heard the old ticking. As always, I couldn’t help but recall my therapist saying it was an unhelpful way to visualize the inner workings of a mind, which possessed the plasticity and sophistication to change, not just carry out some specific function.

But right now, I didn’t care about my therapist from the past world.

Right now, I knew one of my companions was in danger. And I was willing to toss aside my how leisurely lifestyle in order to keep him alive.

The gears snapped to the next tooth. The clockwork behemoth began to churn with one thought in mind: I had to protect Nightshade.

Your Skill (Earned) Mutinous Grit has grown to Level 2.

Your Skill (Earned) Mutinous Grit has grown to Level 3.

I was too focused to comment on the double Skill Level out of nowhere. Instead, I faced another foe; my own embarrassment as the machine provided an easy solution.

My sensibilities matter less than his life… Even with the clockwork obsession engaged, I felt my psyche shudder at the prospect. I ignored the screeches of the fae squirrels and opened my beak.

My tongue flashed out, unraveling for a rather gentle lick on Nightshade’s back.

Your Skill (Temp) Healing Tongue has grown to Level 2.

After remaining fallow for a few days the useless tongue Skill suddenly seemed extremely valuable.

As soon as my tongue retracted into my mouth, the positively vanished. Uwah… This taste…