It took a while, however I eventually made it out of the tomb and back to the surface world above. Luckily for me, it seemed as though it was the middle of the day and not approaching evening — which made my life much easier, that was for sure.
I threw my gaze back onto the tall pillar from which I had just come out of. Though I had defeated the creature located below, a part of me couldn't help but wonder... What on earth were the people who created this thing thinking? I mean, creating a creature like that seemed like a death sentence – especially with the levels of magical energy that it had.
What possible purpose could it have served?
Who knows.
Shaking my head, I looked around, before taking in the fresh air – exhaling with a wide smile across my face. It felt good to be back on the surface again. The air was so fresh and it felt so liberating to be out in the open again. The soft grass below my serpentine body, the gentle wind that blew through the air and tickled my nostrils... It all just brought such a nice feeling.
It felt like I was rejuvenated and alive once more.
"I should probably go and find some water reserves. It definitely has been a while since I've had any water – I don't know how long snakes can go without water and frankly, I don't want to find out."
I thought, before beginning to slither through the grass and off into the forest once more, leaving behind the open field and the tomb that was in it – Hopefully, never to return there ever again.
A while passed and eventually, I stumbled upon a small flowing river, which was located somewhere within the forest. I wasted absolutely no time, slithering up to the rushing water and immediately drinking it up – sating my slight thirst.
"Ah... I feel so much better now."
I thought, before looking down at my reflection within the water. After my evolution, my body had changed to a much darker colour – being black. The markings or I guess 'stripes' covering it were now a whitish grey colour instead of the yellowish that they were before. My body also looked to be longer and much larger – with a lot more tough looking scales covering it.
The only thing that hadn't changed, were my golden eyes – they had remained the same – wide, shining and beautiful.
"I wonder how this 'evolution' thing even works... Is it usually in MMO games? Who knows..."
I exhaled lightly, before picking my head up from just examining my reflection. I felt a lot stronger now as well, as well as my body felt a bit lighter and swifter. I moved around a bit, occasionally coiling my body up and propelling it into the air like a spring, just to test it a bit.
It was way easier now to propel myself up into the – And I also felt less affected by the gravitational pull on me, as my body managed to 'float' in the air a bit longer. This evolution really has brought some interesting benefits for me. Looking around, I threw my gaze onto a nearby, large boulder which was just on the coast of the river. Moving over to it, I quickly got on top of it, before moving my gaze over to a nearby tree.
I wanted to test something I had apparently gained access to after evolving.
That 'Special Skill' Nykee had been combined into 'Djinn' - and apparently, I was able to call upon a spectre. I very much would like to see this in action and see for myself how this worked – how I could just casually call out a so-called 'spectre' of something.
I inhaled and exhaled lightly before focusing onto the tree. I have never tried to use this skill before, however, if I assume that it works like the rest of the skills I possess, in the sense that I have to think about using it...
Then maybe — just maybe...
I kept my focus locked dead onto the tree while sitting on top of the boulder - for a few seconds, it was silent and I looked pretty awkward just standing there and intensely staring at a tree.
However, then, I felt a slight sparkle of flame appear around me.
"Huh..–?"
Then, blue flames began to form around me, spinning around my body before flying up into the air. At first, the flames appeared to be random and messy – flying up in no specific order or without any sort of correlation, but then, as they got higher, the flames all combined into one point – erupting slightly before causing a large orb of flames to ignite and spin midair for a few seconds.
I watched in fascination as the orb of flames broke apart and from it, a figure that resembled the girl that was killed by that strange man in front of me formed from the flames, opening her eyes as they ignited white.
Then, the figure let out a loud shriek, before dashing forward and crashing into the tree — with so much force, that the air that blew against me felt like it would shoot me away if I didn't hold onto something. The flames all flowed into the impact point at which the girl had crashed into — before forming into a drill-like motion for a few seconds.
I shed a cold sweat – What do you mean there was more?!
The flame 'drill' quickly formed into a large implosion of blue flames, that decimated and completely scorched a large area of the forest, leaving behind incinerated and leveled trees as well as scorched grass.
Finally, the flames had disappeared.
I shed a cold, cold sweat. What... Just what had I just witnessed happen in front of me? That was so unbelievably powerful... It felt like I had just witnessed an attack from that woman I fought a little while back.
"Man... if this is a showcase of what that little girl could do back then, am I glad I did not choose to try and take her on..."
I shed a cold, cold and frightened sweat while just staring at the decimated scenery in front of me.
Exhaling after a moment, I turned around and coiled up my body, before propelling myself over the river and landing onto the other coast, on the other side of the river. I did not want to stay here by the land I had destroyed in an instant. Who knows – maybe that powerful attack drew the attention of whatever else could be lurking in this forest.
Without looking back, I slithered away and off into the non decimated part of the forest – leaving behind the scene of my crime.
"Note to self... Only use Djinn in emergency scenarios."
1 Week
Later...
It was a rainy, gloomy day. I was resting underneath a tree, coiled up and my head slightly sunken in my body while shielding myself from the rain with a small roof created around me with my 'Shadowlord' skill.
Though it drained my magical energy to do this, I figured that I had more than enough to be able to keep this up until the rain finished. While resting, I was flicking through my status window – simply staring at my stats and skill list.
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Name: Faofa Shin
Species: Dark Snake
Level: 68
Rank: C
Stats:
Health; 34,700/34,470
Strength; 3700
Defense; 3750
Magical Energy; 55,600/55,600
Stamina; 3890
Intelligence; 200
- Overall Power; 9500
Skills:
-Speech; Active Skill
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"Over the past week, though not much growth has been achieved, I feel like I have done so much. I have at least raided like five or six dungeons and taken them all down – with their bosses being either B Ranked or A Ranked. I also managed to gain a new 'Active Skill', though I am unsure on what it does yet."
The skill I was referring to was 'Translator' – which, on the first time hearing it, sounds super obvious on what it would do. However, for some reason, my brain simply kept thinking of any other things it could do.
And can you blame me exactly? This world was a fantasy one and so far, it has proven to work differently from my previous world time and time again. I don't think it is too wild to assume that a skill could do anything, despite its name.
Anyways...
Over the week I have also been constantly thinking about the 'Mimic' skill I possessed.
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Mimic - [ Rare Skill ]
Magical Energy cost (Activation); ?
Allows the user to mimic the appearance of any creature they wish by constructing a fake body inside of which, their consciousness is transferred into.
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It was a skill I couldn't quite wrap my head around.
It apparently allows me to mimic any other creatures appearance, and while testing it in the past by mimicking stuff like Wyverns and Giant Spiders, I was able to figure out that the mimics it creates for my consciousness to inhabit are made up from my magical energy - so its 'activation cost' as it is called, scales depending on what I am mimicking.
The larger the creature I was trying to mimic, the more magical energy it took to mimic it. But – why couldn't I wrap my head around it? – You may wonder.
Well... Because when I tried to mimic the appearance of a humanoid creature, such as a Kobold I had ran into while raiding one dungeon, the skill just wouldn't activate and I would constantly have a message window appear in front of me saying 'Mimicry Failed - Subject invalid' which just confused the hell out of me.
It works as you'd expect, but I am unable to wrap my head around what the hell it meant by 'Subject invalid'. Was it because the Kobolds' intelligence was low? But, if that were the case, then shouldn't it also prevent me from mimicking something like a Giant Armoured Arachnid? Those don't seem to have that high intelligence.
It was just confusing me on what I could and couldn't mimic.
Another thing to note is that I am unable to mimic something without seeing it first. So, for example, in order for me to mimic a Direwolf, I have to look at one and only then will I be able to mimic its appearance. And once I cancel out the mimic, I will have to look at the Direwolf again to mimic it again.
It was a limitation I discovered while in a fight against a whole pack of direwolves just a few days prior.
I am getting a bit side tracked with my thoughts again...
Where was I?
Right — I had been thinking the whole week about it. The skill seemed to allow me to perfectly blend in amongst species I would have otherwise had to fight. It allowed me to do something about my serpentine appearance. I was getting a little bit bored of just aimlessly wandering the forest, if I had to be honest.
It was also slowly starting to become lonely to do so.
I wanted to head to a town — A Human town. But... obviously, I couldn't do so when I was very much a monster. That is a terrible idea - I'd get killed instantly. That's why I have been thinking about the 'Mimic' skill.
Part of me has simply been wondering;
If it allows me to mimic anything I see... Could I perhaps mimic a human?
If I could – Then I simply would need to find a human and look at them, before activating the skill and mimic their appearance, which then in theory should allow me to head to a human town and go unnoticed as a monster.
The only problem with this and why I have been putting off doing it...
Is because I am unsure whether the 'Mimic' skill would make me a unique human appearance and simply mimic the race, or if I would turn into a duplicate of the human I was mimicking.
It would be obvious as hell if I turned into a copy of someone else and just headed into town – Hell, I'd land myself in a pickle by doing that, especially if the person I was mimicking found me. It would be an instant recognition of me being a monster and once again, I'd be killed on the spot.
So I have been nervously and carefully thinking about it all this time, simply wondering whether I should try testing it or not. I have encountered a lot more humans in the past week, though all of them seemed to be much weaker than me, most likely being rookie or inexperienced adventurers. Their appearance made me believe that I must have been reaching the end of the forest and that a town was not that far.
Which is also part of the reason I have been wondering about the whole 'mimicking a human' thing in the first place. Even if I don't head to a town, being potentially close to one and having a bunch of inexperienced adventurers wandering the woods increased the chances of me potentially being found and hunted down – And while I could easily head back deeper into the forest, which would solve my problem of potentially being found and killed...
I didn't want to do that.
As I said before, I wanted to head into town and start interacting with other people again – but my hesitation to try using 'Mimic' on a human was holding me back.
I exhaled lightly, closing my status window and information window, before sinking my head into my body. I have always had a problem with hesitating to do stuff – I don't know why, but especially when it came to trying new things, I've always had this hesitation plague me, as if I was afraid of what may happen if things went wrong.
"It's always bothered me how I can be so hesitant to do stuff, but I've never been able to do anything about it..."
I complained in my mind, sinking my head even more into my body. The rain continued to pour down onto me for a while longer, with me eventually just falling asleep after a bit more complaining about myself in my mind.
Once I woke up again, the rain had stopped and I was on the road again. Slithering through the woods, a sudden sound of laughter and voices made my body tense up as I quickly activated 'Presence Erase' and just remained still in place. A small group of 4 individuals walked past me, all laughing and talking amongst themselves as they headed deeper into the forest. Once they were far enough, I exhaled and continued moving - 'Presence Erase' deactivating once I moved.
I was now on the hunt for a suitable human to test my 'Mimic' skill on.
I know, I know - contradicts what I was complaining about and saying earlier...
However, after I woke up again, I just felt like I had to at the very least test what the skill would do if I tried it on a human. It simply felt like I would not be able to remain calm if I didn't figure it out. However, finding a person who was 'suitable' as a test subject... was much easier said than done.
I was quite picky about who to test it on.
I didn't want to be any other race than human, I didn't want to mimic a female, simply because it didn't feel right to do so, and I didn't want to mimic someone who stood out too much in case I became a duplicate of them.
I know – Nitpicks.
But these things mattered to me.
As I kept wandering forward and forward, more and more different humans passed by me - none of them catching my eyes, until eventually I spotted a human who caught my interest. It was a single male, dressed in robes and with rather long darkish red hair, who seemed to be by himself, sitting under a tree and reading a book.
The robes and his overall feel - as well as the magical energy I could feel coming off of him - led me to believe he was most likely someone who practiced magic. A Sorcerer, perhaps.
"He could be a viable candidate to try to mimic..."
He didn't appear to be the type to have friends or close relatives, so if I turned into a duplicate of him, I could most likely blend in more easily – and his appearance very much appealed to me. I don't know why? But I think he looked similar to how I looked when I was around fourteen or fifteen.
Hiding myself in some bushes, I stared intensely at the man, shedding a cold sweat. I was once again hesitant to go through with my idea to use the skill.
I don't know why — But my heart was beating hard.
Was it the anticipation to know what would happen that was 'killing' me? Maybe.
After a bit of hesitating, I caved and finally activated the 'Mimic' skill, my eyes narrowing onto the man sitting by the tree. Black mist immediately enveloped my body, morphing and shaping itself into a rough human shape while remaining within the bushes. The man by the tree heard the strange noises and lifted his head up from his book, closing it up before getting up and carefully approaching – his guard up.
While the 'Mimic' skill continued to morph and adapt, I could hear the footsteps slowly approach me and get louder. I didn't have a lot of time.
As the man got closer and closer, he ignited a flame onto his left hand, before carefully grabbing a hold of the bushes and then pulling them aside, about to cast a spell – however stopping as he found nothing there. The noises had stopped and there was nothing in sight that could make any noise.
The man sighed, extinguishing the flame on his hand, before exhaling lightly.
"I might need to stop sitting here and reading... Starting to hear things."
He thought, turning around and leaving the spot - walking away.
I was inside of the shadow world, breathing a little heavily, before exhaling in relief.
"That was close."
I thought, before looking down. I had hands once more - the 'Mimic' was successful, that's for sure. Standing up, I examined my hands and lower body. First thing to note, was that I was very much not a copy of the man – my body had clothing that was nothing like his and my arms were covered in the same markings I had across my body as a snake.
So, so far it seemed as though I had simply mimicked the race of the man.
However, the body was one thing... What about my face? Luckily, I had figured out how conjure out mirrors using 'Shadowlord', so after a quick exhale, I tapped my right foot onto the ground, a quick mirror forming in front of me in seconds as I kept my eyes closed.
"Time for the big moment... How do I look?"
I thought, nervously sweating as I slowly opened my eyes and looked into my reflections. My eyes widened as I looked at my reflection, taken back by my face. It was... how I looked in my past life, before death.
The exact same face, just with my golden serpent eyes and markings on it as well. I smiled lightly, before sighing in relief.
"...I missed this look."
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