[come *huff* on you can do it, one step at a time, ignore the burning on your back and just keep walking]

Mira said to herself not for the first time today. she had been experimenting on her (shapeshifting?) ability and found out they were not exactly what she thought. she could infact morph parts of herself but it was both slow itchy and produced a lot of heat, something that wouldn't have been a problem in a form more suited to space since she knew those usually had radiator sails but in the already high humidity and warm temperatures of the forest things had gotten bad quickly.

another thing it did was both make her unnaturally hungry and also be able to scarf down an unnatural amount of food. she was pretty sure she had at some point eaten three worm snakes before continuing her trek. she couldn't even be sure what she would get as she could only think of the vague idea of flying before the itch began doing it's work, she was pretty sure she hadn't messed up as she could still somewhat feel it tugging on her for what "flight" was and figuring the rest out itself.

[how long exactly am i going to be stuck here? flight is one thing but achieving orbit is its own story and i doubt ill be able to achieve eleven kilometers a second or whatever the escape velocity is for this planet. it could very well take decades or centuries, still though who knows these weird 'levels' are definitely having an affect even if i can't figure out how yet.]

after a long while of walking through the forest she suddenly found herself at the edge of the forest, as she looked around her she saw wide open plains with small hills dotted all around. as she took the first few steps in she saw another creature that caught her eye, it was small, with four limbs a long tail, a glowing red coat and concerningly large teeth and musculature for its size, just as she noticed it made a b-line straight towards her in a mad dash.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

[aah!] despite her initial surprise at seeing a flaming 'rat' she quickly turned to face it as seeing the speed she knew sha had no chance of out running it. in the few seconds before contact she noted with worry that it was indeed on fire and both seemingly did not care and or notice as it jumped the finale few meters time slowed for her as she twisted her tail around and promptly decapitated it as it fell limp and the flames promptly extinguished.

[…huh, okay, noted flaming 'rats' exist in this universe, that was … an experience. i didn't know i could move that fast, or be that deadly.] after a few moments she turned towards the rat doing what could generously be called a grin she walked towards it with not a small amount of pride at winning her first battle (the humans don't count since she didn't technically fight them) she tore a chunk of and took a bit.

[not bad, never expected to eat 'well done rat' before but I guess that's not the strangest thing that's happened to me]

Congratulations! you have killed a monster above your level! You have leveled up!

Attribute points: 0(+5)

[now that is what I like to see! who knows I might get to space a lot sooner than a century at this rate!]

after she settled down she realized that the itch had gone away and with what could be described as a mental 'click' she suddenly realized she had more limbs and also knew how to use them. suddenly here previously solid shell split open and a large pair of 'bug wings' unfurled, twitching about. she had gone from looking like a 'face hugger' to looking like a face hugger with 'ladybug's' back.

[…the itch was definitely worth this!] she thought in aww before she tried to jump and fly which actually worked for a second only to fall back down with a "thud".

[ow!] quickly getting back up on her (feet?) looking around and pretending as if nothing happened.

[what was that human saying? "practice makes perfect" or something like that? well at least I'll make sure to get a lot of practice.]