Mash opened his eyes and saw nothing. Darkness without even the faintest hint of light surrounded him. His first inclination was to assume that the room had darkened for some reason, but Priscilla’s message had given him the real answer.
“Your magic formed an egg around you when the class advancement started.”
That explained the darkness, but Mash had to consider how large the egg was. Even with his arms outstretched, he reached no wall, and only when he attempted to stand did, he feel the slant of the floor. It was larger than even the range of his mana territory, which he guessed might be different now. Mash worried about what his appearance would look like now, especially considering the situation. However, a bigger concern ran through his mind, and he immediately checked his stats, ignoring the darkness and the faint calls of his friends from the outside.
Name: Mash Stellumbra Class: Draconic Thunder-wood Imitation
Level: 60
Health: 589 / 1400
Energy: 23 / 2150
Fortitude: 140 → 160
Endurance: 85 → 100
Strength: 87 → 107
Agility: 90 → 110
Intelligence: 130 → 140
Wisdom: 73 → 83
Charisma: 65 → 75
Free Stats: 0
Skills: Persist → Hunt, Mana-wood Creation → Thunder-wood Creation, Inhuman Hibernation, Monstrous Transformation, Thunder-wood Imitation, Mana Territory → Draconic Domain, Unnatural Monster Core → Adaptable Monster Core, Inhumanity → Monstrous Humanity, Wooden Body, Carnivorous Tree → Mimic’s Avarice
Persist → Hunt: You have gone beyond your limits when fighting enemies and devouring their power. Go beyond your limits. Continue current fight even after depleting energy. Stats improve while at 0 stamina. Continues until either you or your enemies are dead.
Current Bonus: +100% stats
Inhuman Hibernation: You have stolen the techniques of mages and monks to form an artificial technique, your inhuman body morphing it to fit your corrupted nature. Hibernating will increase the rate at which your body recovers, healing most wounds.
Current Rate: +200% recovery
Mana-wood Creation → Thunder-wood Creation: You know how deadly sticks can be. Forge your mana into wooden creations. Lightning has tempered your wood, and it thrums with the power of thunder.
Wooden Body: You can connect with the wood that you are touching. By expending your energy, you bring your creations to life as another one of your limbs.
Monstrous Transformation: Transform your body taking on aspects of those which you have consumed.
Thunder-wood Imitation: Form imitations of creatures you have consumed, imitating some of their bodily functions through your wood.
Mana Territory → Draconic Domain (Passive): Your eyes just weren’t enough. Sense the changes in the mana around you. Connect to the mana in your space and inherently understand the nature of the mana. Your presence suffuses the space, weakens the magic of enemies beneath you.
Current Range: 15 feet
Unnatural Monster Core → Adaptable Monster Core (Passive): An unnatural mana core has fundamentally altered your body, fusion with a monster has given you access to its potential. Stamina and Mana combine to become energy. Your monstrous body is better able to handle the changes to your core.
Current Bonus: +35% → 50% efficiency
Inhumanity → Monstrous Humanity (Passive): Giving up your humanity has improved your body, improving your physical control, natural defenses, animalistic intuition, and mana control. Now, a human in appearance only, you further empower yourself through your monstrous side.
Carnivorous Tree → Mimic’s Avarice (Passive): Devour your enemy in battle to temporarily raise your stats. The fresher the victim the stronger the bonus. Gain full benefits even when consuming through your magic. Absorbs some properties of those you devour alive. Removes the negative effects of things you consume.
Mash was certain he would look like a freak now and felt like one too. Honestly, his body no longer felt human, and the more he focused on it the stranger it felt. There was this strange lack of delay in his movements and perception, probably from the improved inhumanity skill. And even within total darkness, he could tell that his movements came more automatically. He had to think about each action less, his body seeming to move according to his thoughts. He was surprised he only gained two skills but was shocked by how many of his skills had evolved. From what his brother had told him, a person could gain anywhere from one to five skills from this advancement, and Mash was a bit disappointed to see only two. That vanished as he saw his stat improvements though.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The stat improvement might have caused his improved physical ability. Honestly, he expected a small boost all around, which seemed to be the norm for advancing a class, but he received massive boosts to all the stats related to his body. His brother had told him to expect around fifty total stats but he gained around double that. His strength dexterity endurance and fortitude had gone up significantly. Even his mental stats had improved, even if the degree was smaller. However, seeing his improvements, he realized that he was probably stronger than this rank when his persist skill was active before. Although, that would really depend on the efficacy of his skills.
That was one of the things that worried him. His persist skill had changed, becoming more tailored to how he had used it thus far. He was worried that it wouldn’t work when trying to deal with the gate anymore. Although he might not need it, especially considering the full extent of his monstrous transformation skill. He didn’t know what aspects the skill mentioned, but if it involved proficiency, he could imitate Priscilla’s lightning affinity. Also, there was the piece of dragon flesh he consumed and was certain that anything he gained from that would make him a lot stronger.
Excited by the prospects of testing his skills, he moved towards the edge of the egg. It was made of his wood, and as he touched it, it felt like it was vibrating a little. He was about to punch it open but realized that he was missing his clothes. He hadn’t worn his mending clothes, instead of relying on wooden armor to cover his body. Although, the armor was gone now, probably used to make the shell. Before punching through the shell, he brought out his mending clothes, finding it surprisingly easy to put the clothes on. His draconic domain made it so he could see the clothing easily.
After he was fully clothed, he decided to break the shell. He could see his friends pacing and talking outside since they were standing within his range now. It looked like they were debating whether they should break the egg or not. Not wanting to keep them waiting, he broke the shell. He was excited to see their reactions and see what the changes would be like for him.
Mash tried breaking the wood with a punch, imagining it would be more like the egg hatching, but his fist only made a thud against the shell. Even with his improved strength, the wood was undamaged, making him realize how much stronger his wood had become. Now, he knew what the skill meant by stating that it was “tempered” by lightning. Wondering if he could break the gate without even using lightning, he chose to control the wood to open instead of trying to break it. It opened as a door would, and he stepped out.
“Hey guys, how’s it going?”
His friends stared at him; mouths stuck open. They didn’t say a single word, and Mash turned toward the metal wall, using the metal to see a reflection of his entire body. His clothes blocked most of his body, but he could see his neck, hands, and face in the reflection. Instantly, he realized what had stunned them. He looked human now.
His eyes were still different, but his body lacked the markings and scales that had crisscrossed his skin before. Even, the mana scar that had crawled down his neck had vanished, leaving only his tattoos to blemish his rather pristine skin. Any scars or injuries were also gone. His tattoos were now completely visible, the necklace was no longer hidden with the other markings. Small black lines rolled around his neck as if someone had cut him hundreds of times. Beneath his ears, the flower tattoos were much more noticeable as there was nothing else to distract people from them. His eyes remained though, and Mash wondered if they were the result of the marks rather than his class or was it a combination of both.
His next inclination was to remove his shirt and check the marking on the rest of his body. However, what he saw made him feel inhuman. He had become leaner, so much so that it was unnatural. His muscles were detailed in a way that would be impossible for human beings. They were closer to what someone might find on a snake. The sight caused him to shiver, reminding him of the warden’s imitation of a human body. Had his class turned him into something like that? There were a lot of transformations involved in the class, and he didn’t consider that it might make him like that monster.
Almost as a reaction, he tried using his monstrous transformation skill to make him more human-looking. Surprisingly, it worked, but he felt a constant drain on his energy as he kept the transformation active. He knew he couldn’t do that and returned to partially human form. It wasn’t that the form was hideous like the previous monster. Honestly, it might even be considered more attractive to some, but he didn’t like how it reminded him of that thing from before. Unconsciously, he realized that he could transform into that thing too but stopped himself. He did want to test the skill more and imagined becoming more like Priscilla. Scales grew all over his body, covering him entirely in dark blue and green scales, that seemed almost black. They matched the color of the pillars from earlier, and he felt Priscilla’s jubilation.
“Your body feels much more like mine now. I can feel the difference in your affinities and mana control. You should let me control it now.”
Distracted by the changes, Mash didn’t answer her. He felt physically stronger, but not by much. However, it felt like his mind had grown several times more powerful. He took in his surrounding quickly, absorbing the information automatically. Not to mention he found it easier to split his focus among different aspects of his body. He felt like he could replicate any magic if he saw it now and truly understood how much mana control Priscilla had. However, even she could not replicate any magic she wanted and realized it must be harder than it seemed. Still, he felt significantly more powerful. Now, to test a draconic transformation.
“What in the world do you think you’re doing?”
“Care to say anything?”
Jill and Red spoke simultaneously, both seeming to want some answer from Mash. From the excitement of the changes and exploring his skill, Mash had forgotten about the surroundings. He had even forgotten about the situation, and the changes to his persist skill. Now though, those thoughts came back to him, and he was worried about whether he could break through the gate. The more he thought about the changes to the skill, the less certain he was on it.
Was the change a benefit? Sure, it sounded like it would allow him to not have to continuously do an action for the effect, and it would be active so long as he was fighting. That would make him a lot stronger and more versatile in a fight, but he had partially overcome that weakness already. Now, it sounded like his skill would no longer work for training or forming creations outside of combat. He knew that skills could become narrower, but it still bothered him. Would the other class have changed the skill too?
It was too late for regrets now, and he told his friends of what he gained while returning to his normal form. The explanation took a while, as he didn’t fully understand his skills either. He tested some a little bit, forming a wooden imitation of Priscilla to see what thunder-wood imitation did. Mash was surprised to see the results.
He could see through the eyes of the creation, and it felt much more alive now. It was covered in scales that matched the real Priscilla too, making it almost indistinguishable from her body. He had asked her if it was one of her bodies, even though he could tell that it was not. Since it felt so alive, Mash disconnected himself from the creation and realized he still felt a connection to it. Able to move it as though it were connected to him. Priscilla explained how that it was the same when she controlled her extra bodies and explained that it must have some form of a mind. In response to her explanation, he gave the small creation a command to circle him, and it did so. It expended a small amount of energy to maintain the connection, but it still astounded him.
“You are literally a one-man army now aren’t you.”
Luke spoke as he watched the wooden clone of Priscilla circle him. Nodding his head in agreement, Mash pictured himself creating hundreds of replicas of Priscilla and sending them to thrash about in a fight. How powerful did people get? He knew that not many people got beyond level one hundred, but even with his power he felt like he could be a serious threat to a kingdom. Just how powerful was the kingdom? Mash could only shake his head as he thought of the known powerhouses of the world. Mash had a lot of questions he wanted answers for and thought about the adventures who had sponsored them. Perhaps they would be willing to answer some of his questions, but first, he needed to get out of here. Excitedly he got up, ready to test his new power on the gate, and finally try out the draconic transformation.