Duskbound-Chapter 137 - Book 2, 58

Velik slotted [True Form] into his final skill slot. The skill was so much more than he'd imagined it could be when he'd thought about it. Though he'd taken the time to consider what he wanted it to do, the system had gone above and beyond that, and what he'd gained was something better than he'd expected.

With a thought, he called up his status to review.

[Name: Velik]

[Race: Human (Duskbound)]

[Class: The Black Fang]

[Level: 42]

[Physical: 136(+29)]

[Mental: 80(+6)]

[Mystical: 61(+40)]

[Free Points: 0]

[Decarma: 124981]

[Skills:]

[Apex Hunter (Rank 8)]

[Dread Lance (Rank 3)]

[Burden of the Beast (Rank 3)]

[Aspect of the Wind Tamer (Rank 1)]

[True Form (Rank 1)]

[Gear:]

[Harbinger of Dusk (+15Ph, +5My)]

[The Sixth Plague (+10My)]

[Night Striders (+6 Ph, +2 Me]

[Invoker's Pendant (+20 My)]

[Earcuff of Unbreakable Will]

[Ravensfeather Cloak (+15 My)]

[Twilight Bond]

[Heart of the Inferno (+10 Ph)]

[Chimeric Vest (+4 Ph, +2 Me)]

[Chimeric Pants (+4 Ph, +2Me)]

The new skill would have been more than enough on its own, but the augmentation had also increased all three of his stats by 15 each, nine full levels' worth of upgrades! Raw stats weren't everything, especially compared to a veteran hunter who'd have forty or fifty skills merged together, but it was an unexpected and powerful bonus.

Normally, he gained a few points each level, and a level could take months to gain. During the monster invasion last season, he'd rapidly gained levels mostly due to the sheer number of kills he'd scored. That, along with hunting down powerful champion elites, had propelled him to the level of a proper gold-ranked hunter.

Standing up to a platinum might still be beyond him as things stood, but he was a lot more confident about it now. The stat boost was only part of the upgrade, though. The new skill was where the lion's share of the class orb had spent its power. Now that it was a part of him, he had an almost intuitive understanding of what it could do. There remained some experimentation, if only to get used to it, but he wasn't expecting any surprises.

Then again, how long did it take me to adapt to [Dread Lance]? I must have hit myself with it half a dozen times before I figured out how to shape the blast away from me. There's no reason to think I'll be able to use [True Form] perfectly the first time.

"Is he alright?" Sildra asked, breaking the silence.

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With a start, Velik realized all three of them had been staring at him for several minutes now. He looked around at them, then back to the now-empty class orb. The light was drained from it, leaving a plain glass ball. Its indestructible nature was gone now that the system was no longer tied to it. Velik crushed it in his hand, pleased to see that the glass shards couldn't do so much as dimple his skin now.

"You're going to clean that up, right?" Jensen asked as the powdered glass drifted to the floor.

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Velik gave him a flat look, then stood up and headed toward the door. "I'll be back in an hour or so. Get settled in, I guess. We'll figure out what to do then."

"But where—" Sildra started to ask, but the door closed before she could finish. "—are you going?"

Velik heard the question clearly. His hearing had been sharp before, but the sudden boost really made him aware of every creaking floorboard, soft sigh, and mumbled curse within a few hundred feet of him. The increase to his mental even helped him sort out where each sound was coming from. That could have been overwhelming, but along with the enhanced perception of the world around him came the processing power to parse all the information he was receiving. Instead of being overloaded, it just felt natural, and right. His prey couldn't hide from him now.

The boost to physical was less pronounced. Velik had already been well past 100, able to crush stone and twist steel with his bare hands. At this point, he doubted a normal weapon could withstand the kind of pressure he'd bring to bear if he tried to use it, but his spear was legendary ranked. It wouldn't break, and if he damaged it, the [Mending] enchantment would fix it back up.

Along with the enhanced strength came more speed and agility, not that Velik could really let loose in the middle of Granite Peak. There were plenty of mountain trails surrounding the mining town, however, plenty of room to run and plenty of space to hunt. Velik jogged out of town, a few miles rolling beneath his feet in a matter of minutes, until he came to a stretch of slope covered in pine and firs. Slipping beneath the cool shadow of their branches, he came to a halt.

As good a place as any.

If [True Form] had a single drawback, it was that he was going to lose the stat buffs his gear provided. That would only hurt a bit as far as physical went, but he relied heavily on his gear to prop up his relatively weak mystic. Worse, [True Form] pulled entirely from that stat, which meant it would be relatively weak compared to abilities like [Dread Lance] or [Burden of the Beast] that also relied on mystic.

[True Form] promised to be far more powerful, though. Velik had faith that he'd made a good choice. All that was left was to prove it, and so he called on the skill and let the magic sweep through him.

True shapeshifting monsters underwent physical changes, their bones reshaped and their organs shuffled around. They often weighed far more than their outward appearances suggested as a side effect of needing extra biological material to move around. Velik didn't have that, though he suspected he'd be eating a lot in the coming days and becoming far denser as the skill converted that energy into stored fuel for the transformation.

Today, he relied on his natural mystic, now fortified with an extra 15 points, to power [True Form]. Magic rippled through him, starting slowly and building up as it reverberated through his body. Over the next few seconds, it transformed him, sending him down to all fours as his clothes and equipment vanished. His whole body became something else, something malleable, and when it was done shifting around, he had black fur and a muzzle filled with sharp teeth.

An enormous wolf stood where Velik had been, eight feet high at the shoulder and better than six hundred pounds. He was nowhere near the size of the monster he'd based the transformation on: his replacement crafted by Chalin to be a dungeon guardian. That version of Velik had been five or six times the size he was now, but [True Form] was only at rank 1. It had plenty of room to grow.

Standing up and giving himself a shake, Velik loped off deeper into the woods. Knowing what he'd become and experiencing it were two different things, and he hadn't been anywhere near prepared for the change to his sense of smell. Even with his newly improved mental, it was almost too much to handle. Much like he'd used his hearing as a human, nothing within five hundred feet could hide from his nose. He wasn't good enough to tell exactly where everything was by scent alone, not yet, but he knew what was there.

His vision was different, too. Colors were more muted, but the distinction between them was far easier to make out. That had never been a problem in his human shape either, not with [Apex Hunter] helping, but this was on a whole different level. He suspected he'd be able to spot anything trying to hide camouflaged in the trees, and he'd know if it so much as twitched. A million insects jumped out at him, their every darting movement painfully clear to see.

In contrast, his sense of hearing was the easiest to adapt to. Perhaps it was merely that Velik had relied so heavily on his ears to track down monsters he couldn't see in the forest for years already, but it was no great effort to adjust to his new form's senses there. The only strange part was that he could move his ears on top of his head now, helping direct him toward a sound to pinpoint its location.

And those ears told him there was something big in the forest with him. It didn't smell like flesh and blood, but he could hear it moving. He dashed off, muscling his way through the brush where he needed to and delighting in the power coursing through his limbs. The transformation felt like it had doubled his physical again, and, curious, he called up his status once more.

His skills remained as they were, but where before his physical had reported 136, it now read 182. Mental had climbed from 80 to 141, as well. Only mystic had stayed the same, seeming all the more pitiful at a mere 61 with no gear to fortify it. Still, that was only low by relative measure. Most people, even those with mage or priest classes, never managed more than 50 mystic their whole lives.

Velik rushed through the forest, easily threading his way between the trees despite his new bulk. When he reached the size of the wolf he'd modeled his new shape on, it would be a different story, but for the moment, he was small and nimble enough that the woods barely slowed him down. Within a minute, he was crouched low and staring at what looked like a person made out of stone, only ten feet tall and probably several tons in weight.

It was digging into the mountainside, scooping stones up with its bare hands, examining them briefly, then tossing them aside. Occasionally, it found something it wanted, and instead of throwing the stone away, it would split it open and extract whatever it was that was inside.

[Apex Hunter] wasn't especially impressed with the elemental's power, but it would still be a good test. Velik prepared to dash out of concealment, ready to pounce on his first victim. It kept working, oblivious to his presence right up to the moment the sound of snapping tree branches gave him away.

Uncaring that he'd lost the advantage of surprise, Velik felt a howl welling up in his throat as he charged forward. There was no time to give way to that urge, though. He had a monster to destroy.