Inside the tree, Bug finds herself in a room where the walls, floors, and ceiling, are all made out of the same bark covered surface as the tree outside. Sitting in the center of the room is even a long table from the look of it, though it is also made out of the same materials.

Giving the table a look over, its legs look like roots had gone up from the floor and then spread themselves out to make the table. There is even the occasional chair positioned around the table, with some of them seemingly knocked over. Which is weird considering that everything is quite literally rooted to the floor.

Why would the tree grow the chairs knocked over? Weird…

Disregarding the room, Bug heads further in as her minions follow behind her. To get into the next area, Bug has to go through a doorway that is a little more than one human wide and one human tall. In fact, even the chairs and the table, look like they had all been made to be used by full grown humans...

Probably because the humans are the Dungeon’s main targets… Still a bit annoying that it wouldn’t make anything me sized. I even had to jump and stretch just to reach the door switches…

After the first room is an even larger room that is full of seemingly toppled over… dividers of some kind? It is hard to tell because of the wood being all in a mess of a pile, but in some areas, the dividers still stand, and they make little boxed in areas that all have a table and some even with a chair.

This is so weird looking. Why would the tree grow to have stuff like this inside? It almost looks like it grew over something that used to be here…

The Dungeon eats…

A shiver goes down Bug’s back at the thought. Deciding to ignore it and move on, Bug pushes deeper into the tree. Occasionally, she will come across some more rooms, but much like the first, they usually just have some tables and chairs growing out of the floor, usually looking like a mess from everything being knocked over and laying about. A moment frozen in time by wood.

It is while Bug is walking past another room, that she decides to go inside and look out an opening to the outside. Most of the rooms on the outer edge of the tree have windows or are just completely missing their wall, some of the room seemingly even half terminating at the edge of the abyss like they have been shorn in half, meaning that the room just opens up to a sheer drop.

Walking around in the room and checking it for anything interesting, Bug is startled as the sound of flapping wings reaches her. From the window, one of the colorful birds lands on the windowsill.

Bug freezes as she looks at the colorful thing. It is honestly very beautiful looking, but something in Bug’s instincts is telling her, Bird = Danger.

Picking at its feathers a bit, it eventually straightens up its posture and gives the whole room a look, scanning over the gathered skeletons with its beady eyes. It disregards the Undead, probably just thinking them a bunch of bones, and then snaps its head towards Bug.

Staring at each other for a couple of seconds, it eventually tilts its head and then screams at her. Spreading its wings wide, the bird postures at Bug before jumping off the sill and flying at her.

With it being as big as she is, its wingspan is truly massive, and having the bird charge at her causes Bug to let out a scared squeak as something inside of her screams danger.

Off to the side, an arrow flies over and hits the bird in midflight, but it keeps barreling towards Bug despite the arrow messing up its flight slightly.

Letting out a scream, Bug lashes out with all three limbs on her right-hand side, all her claws all extended.

As she screams in fright, the bird gets smacked out of the air and torn apart by her claws that are all now practically swords on the ends of her hands.

The bird hits a weird box structure by the wall in a splatter of blood and doesn’t move…

//Killed lvl 10 Bird of Paradise – 30 exp gained!

Blinking at the dead bird and still covering herself with half of her limbs, Bug looks at the corpse and the kill notification.

Half my level and very weak… Why was I afraid of it? It felt like… like I was scared that it was going to eat me? Because it is a bird? Is that why? Are Gremlins preyed on by giant birds or something? Huh…

Walking over to the corpse, Bug looks it over and grimaces. “Darn, I broke it a bit too much. I can’t use this… Guess I’ll just sell it after I check the description.”

Waiting for Billy the Retriever to retrieve the arrow for Bob, Bug then stores the corpse and reads its description.

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“Bird of Paradise. A type of monster bird commonly found in tropical environments. They primarily feed on the nectar of giant flowers, but they are often seen hunting rodents, reptiles, and even children or members of the halfling races... Their feathers are quite prized in the fashion industry for making beautiful dresses and hats. Most people say that their meat tastes like chicken, but a little sweeter because of the nectar they drink… Huh…”

Bug looks down at herself.

They eat rodents and reptiles. My lower half looks similar to a rat’s. I even have a rat tail. I also have scales like a reptile… And Gremlins are a halfling race of Demi-Human if I am not mistaken… Huh, the birds are going to see me as food, aren’t they…

“At least they aren’t stronger than me. I’m still twice their level. But it’s going to be a problem if I keep getting scared by them. Hopefully I can fix that.”

Turning to Bob, Bug gives him an order, “Hey Bob. If any of these birds get too close, shoot them down or scare them away with your arrows. Hmm, only problem is that you only have so many arrows…”

Looking at his quiver, Bug counts out about thirty or so arrows. There are a lot of birds outside, and his arrows won’t last long if he keeps shooting birds down. And chances are that both the arrows and the corpses are just going to end up dropping between the branches and getting lost.

“Need to make you more arrows… Ah! Make Bone Weapon! I’ll get that spell then. I wanted to get something else, but keeping us stocked up on arrows is more important right now I feel. Might as well get some other useful stuff with the remaining eight points. I do want to get Body Modification, but making myself taller can wait for now. I’ve done enough changes to my body for a little while anyways…”

Going through her available options and choosing some things that should be useful, Bug eventually decides to spend all her points on the Spells Make Bone Weapon for two points, Grow Tentacles for a discounted two points, the Knowledge Anatomy lvl 1 for two points, and finally the Skill Deadly Poison Resistance lvl 1.

Bone weapons aside, Bug grabbed Anatomy so that she would have a better idea of how bodies work and so she can have an easier time with using Body spells. As for Grow Tentacles, it is sadly a required spell for getting other spells later on, so she may as well just get it now and get it over with. Besides, after it finishes downloading, it will help her with getting something much better right away.

As for the Deadly Poison Resistance, Bug is already playing things dangerously by not having it. With the rules of magic, Bug doesn’t have to worry about hurting herself with her own magic while she is casting it, but this doesn’t make her immune to her own spells or even her poison.

While she is making the poison -even if it is touching her – she is immune. But as soon as she releases it, it can take effect against her and kill her.

It is much the same as a Fire Mage casting Fire Ball. Without the casting protection, their arm would be burned away by the thing before they could even throw it. But, this protection doesn’t extend to say, the explosion of the Fire Ball. The heat, the explosive forces, the fire, the shrapnel after the spell goes off. The mage is only immune while the spell is being cast.

So, if Bug wants to continue safely using her poisons and maybe even one day get War Crime, she is going to have to make herself resistant, and eventually, even immune.

So, making her new purchases, Bug pulls herself up into a big wooden armchair that has a weird leg that sits on the floor with a starlike foot. Waiting for the pain to come, she grits her teeth and rides through it all patiently. Though honestly, compared to growing new limbs, the pain is mild at best now.

Haaa… I am getting to use to feeling pain. And I’ve only been alive for a couple of days. I don’t feel like that is normal…

//Congratulations! You have met a Spell’s Unlock Requirements!

//Your Spells [Sharpen Claws], [Sharpen Teeth], [Grow Horns and Spikes], [Grow Tentacles], [Grow Limbs], [Grow Wings], and [Grow Armor] have fused!

//Become Weapon, unlocked!

…

“There we go, that’s one of the required spells taken care of. I’ll get the rest in due time…”

Curious about the Grow Tentacles part of the spell, and figuring that she might as well finally give it a try after having had it offered for so long, Bug goes ahead and gives a try. Making one grow from her shoulder, a wiggly and searching limb grows out, lined with suckers and little hooked claws. The thing is dressed in both scales and smooth, rubbery, flesh, a viscous mucous excreting from its pores to give the limb a shiny and slippery look... The strange thing seems to move around of its own accord whenever she isn't actively focusing on controlling it, reaching out curiously and feeling things with little touches or trying to grab onto whatever it can like it has a mind of its own.

Reaching out cautiously, Bug grabs the thing, grimaces at the slimy texture of this weird limb and how it tries to wrap around her arm and examine her fingers in turn.

"This is soooo weird... Not sure how I feel about tentacles... He-hey! No grabbing there!" Bug shouts as she slaps the questing limb when it tries to wrap around her breast.

Nope, none of that!

Quickly activating Become Weapon again, Bug makes the tentacle return to her body, her shoulder being left just as it was before using the spell. Thankfully, the function of Grow Tentacles that makes it not permanent had remained with it when it fused into Become Weapon. Unfortunately, that didn't get passed along to the other parts of the spell, so things like new arms and legs are still permanent.

Ok, I don't think I'm going to be using that one very much, at least not by itself... Something about having that thing touch me, felt... weird, or dirty... Best to avoid having that happen again.

Shifting her attention away from the new spell, Bug digs through her newly gained Anatomy Knowledge.

Hmm, so, I already knew about the heart, lungs, and the brain from my basic knowledge. Probably just because they are places you want to aim for when killing enemies… But now I know about all the different organs, bones, and broadly how everything works together to keep something living… There is obviously a lot of missing pieces, and the Knowledge doesn’t go into great detail on how everything works, but for being just introductory stuff, it covers enough for me.

Sadly, it doesn’t really go in depth on different species, but it does cover Gremlins -probably because I am one – and for some reason, humans… Huh, we are really similar in how we are built. Like almost matching in every way except for on the outside and our legs with the rat like features of the Gremlins. But on the inside, our structures are almost exactly alike, just half the size… It’s almost like someone took a rat and tried to turn it into a human… But why the hell would someone do that?

It takes Bug a while of sitting there, mulling over her thoughts before she finally gets up and moves on.

“I won’t figure anything out by sitting around. I need to keep moving…”