Shapeshifter

Chapter 6: Run

Xen mentally dismissed the system message. He would have to consume all of the biomass he had saved up to take on the [Wolf] form.

"Why would I do that when there are still two wolf corpses right here?" Xen said aloud as he awkwardly walked over to the next corpse. He still wasn't used to piloting this two-legged skin suit. However, walking was still easier than remembering to move his mouth when he spoke.

Glancing between the two corpses, he knelt before the smaller of the two. He had only devoured the largest of the wolves because it had been cut in half, so it was rather useless to try and shapeshift into. However, these two were in much better condition.

"At least their skulls are still intact," Xen said as he worked his jaw to practice speaking, "Maybe I will get more memories this time."

He shoved his fingers into its eyes in a shower of blood and eye juice and cast [Devour]. Unbothered by the gruesome affair, his hand morphed into purple tendrils that burrowed into the corpse. Xen felt his presence move through the body and wrap around the brain as he dissolved and absorbed the wolf's body within a minute.

[Devour Complete]

You gained 171 biomass.

Xen's mind became overwhelmed with a vivid memory that appeared to him almost like a dream. A heart that was not his pounded to the beat of his paws scraping against stone as he dashed forward. The scent of blood was so strong it appeared like red wisps in his vision as he scampered around a corner with his packmates to his side. He felt powerful and safe with his packmates. As if whatever foe lay up ahead would be nothing but prey to them.

Then the memory faded, and Xen returned to the reality of the dimly lit dungeon corridor surrounded by blood-stained stone.

You acquired the following skills:

[Blood Scent (F)]

"Why do I feel... sad?" Xen tilted his head as he stared at where the wolf had been. He hadn't felt this strong sense of belonging and community when he absorbed the human or elf minds. "These wolves were packmates, or at least they thought they were, I suppose."

Xen looked up at the dungeon ceiling and realized something. He was free from its control. These wolves believed with all their soul that they were packmates, birthed from the same mother that needed protection.

"Not entirely inaccurate, so long as you replace a loving mother wolf with a labyrinth of cold stone that weaved you into existence from mana," Xen shuffled over to the third and final wolf. Even with the bad feeling of devouring a 'packmate,' he knew logically that this was nothing but a bundle of mana and some biomass strung together into the form of a wolf for the sole purpose of keeping the humans out long enough for the dungeon to evolve strong enough monsters to invade the Earth in what the human's called a dungeon rush from Joe's memories.

Xen placed his hand on the wolf's head and ran his Elven fingers through its soft black fur. As a slime, he hadn't had the feeling of touch, just a sense of temperature and general terrain as his body would droop or rise over cracks and bumps in the stone.

It's so soft.

He then ran his fingers through his hair and frowned.

Not as soft.

Displeased, he wished his own hair would be as soft.

[2 Biomass Consumed]

"Huh?" Xen blinked in confusion at the system message, followed by a hissing noise and the nasty smell of burnt hair. He brought down his hand alongside a clump of blonde hair. The rest of his hair soon followed, drifting to the ground like snowfall.

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Xen heard the hissing stop, and reaching up, his hands met soft hair.

"So soft..." Xen patted himself on the head. It felt good. Eventually, he felt satisfied and looked down at his hand. "These fingers look so weak. I wish I had claws like the wolves—"

[19 Biomass Consumed]

Xen's hand dissolved into his wrist and then remerged with his fingers replaced by sharp black claws that gleamed in the dungeon light. When they hit against one another, they made a clinking sound like two swords making contact. Clawing at the dungeon stone to test their sharpness, he was surprised to leave white marks but stopped because the noise it made grated on his ears.

"So I can alter my body as I please?" This delighted Xen as he wasn't attached to one form or another. Man, woman, elf, wolf, pebble, he didn't care. Whatever fitted the situation worked for him. He didn't really have an identity other than the name he had given himself: Xen.

"Though I must say, the elf form has to be the most worthless as of now," Xen grumbled. He had a single spell [Holy Smite (F)], and his elf form was only level 1, so even his human form had more points in the magic stat. No matter how much biomass he spent to alter this body with claws or better ears, it didn't change the stats that were given by the system.

Xen brought up his system screen to see if there were any solutions he had overlooked, and his focus landed on the final section:

Free Skill Slots:

1. [Devour (S)]
2. [Multilingual (B)]
3. [Appraisal (C)]
4. [Mana Vision (D)]
5. [Shapeshift (E)]
6. EMPTY
7. EMPTY

"What are Free Skill Slots?"

[These are skills that can be used no matter what form you take on. A single new slot is unlocked for every new form. Swapping out the skills in the free slot costs mana]

"Oh, that's pretty easy to understand," Xen mused, "What about these empty slots?"

[They currently have no free skill assigned. Please pick the skills you wish to fill those slots with]

Xen looked down at his list of forms and noticed the wolf form was now available.

Wolf: Level: 1 (F)

+5 Strength, +3 Vitality, +7 Agility, +2 Resistance, +1 Magic per level

"Wow, wolves really suck at magic, but they are fast." Xen paused and realized he had not only forgotten to move his mouth while talking but also shifted between the human language and elvish mid-sentence. "Yeah, staying in a humanoid form is going to do me no favors until I get more practice in, and now isn't the time."

Xen glanced down the corridor in the direction Sarah the elf had run off to get help. The dungeon wasn't that big, so she would return with people within the hour to retrieve Jonathan's corpse, which he was using.

"I should shapeshift into the remaining wolf corpse and delve deeper into the dungeon. With my current strength, I should be able to defeat everything until the 3rd floor."

With that in mind, he had three skills to choose from for the two empty slots. Savage Bite, Blood Scent, and Holy Smite.

"Since I will be taking on the wolf form, I will be able to use the first two." Xen scratched his fluffy hair in thought. He was still relatively new to this and relied on the fragmented memories he absorbed from the human, elf, and wolf and his own knowledge from watching people fight as slime.

"I suppose using one of the slots for Holy Smite is fine. Even with a low magic stat, it should still help blind or stun enemies," Xen dragged the skill with his finger down to the free slot and watched it slot in.

Satisfied, he placed his hand on the last wolf's corpse.

[Do you wish to take on the Wolf form?]

"Yes," Xen replied, and the shapeshifting process began. Jonathan's body that he was inhabiting dissolved into Xen's slime body.

You gained 80 biomass.

Xen then felt his consciousness spread through the last wolf's corpse, and after a few minutes, he opened his eyes.

[Shapeshift complete]

He didn't need to rely on Mana Vision anymore as the wolf's eyes could see in the dark, and if he looked down the dungeon corridor that led deeper, he could see trails of blood hanging in the air.

There must be a fight happening nearby.

Growling to himself, Xen pushed his new four-legged body upright.

"Four legs really are easier than two," Xen muttered and realized that even as a wolf, he could talk as he had before. Just more... gruffly. Glancing around the area one last time, all that remained was a patch of blood that the dungeon was absorbing and shreds of clothes. He almost left, but in the corner of his enhanced wolf vision, he saw something metal.

Pawing at the clothes to move them out of the way, he found Joe's metal hunter badge with "Uncommon Hunter" and the distinct letter E written on it.

"This might be useful to fake my identity as a Hunter," Xen said, licking up the badge and storing it below his tongue. He didn't have anywhere else to store it for now, so he would have to deal with the metallic taste.

A distant clinking noise made his ear twitch. Turning to look down the corridor in the direction Sarah had run down, he focused and definitely heard distant footsteps and voices echoing through the dungeon. From the sound of it, there was a whole group of people coming. Far more than he could deal with.

"Gotta go," Xen snarled as he turned tail and fled in the opposite direction. Deeper into the dungeon and following the blood trail to a nearby fight.

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