Shifter - Infinite Transformation-Chapter 73: Spatial

Fern’s control of nature was terrifying. It was almost like my mate was the incarnation of nature’s wrath. She melted into the surroundings and emerged behind the quadruplet monstrosity, her eyes flashing golden.

Roots burst out of the ground and branches descended from high above, piercing through fur and flesh and coiling around it. The monstrosity let out a guttural growl and snapped at Fern, but the attack failed. Only when a lightning bolt burst outward did the creature finally inflict some damage – to the densely grown bush Fern moved between them at the call of her will.

Clove disappeared from my sight. Fur covered his entire body right before he turned ethereal. He reappeared before the monstrosity, his claws extending into violet hues. They should not have had any physical weight to them, yet I watched the young fae’s claws carve through the monstrosity’s front legs.

The monster roared aloud and counterattacked with a shockwave of energy imbued with smaller lightning currents, yet they never hit Clove. The young fae faded once more and re-emerged above the monstrosity, his claws shooting downward. In the same instance, Fern’s roots and branches stiffened.

The monstrosity moved fast. Not fast enough to turn into a blur before my eyes, but certainly too fast for me to react. Alas, I was nowhere near the battlefield. I watched from the distance, my hair standing up on end as Clove twisted his body, evading the monstrosity’s desperate energy discharge before his claws dug into its neck.

Simultaneously, the roots and branches that had pierced the monstrosity surged forward with newfound power. The creature’s limbs were pulled at, all while multiple roots pierced through and through.

"You can come now," Fern called out as the monstrosity collapsed.

It was not yet dead, but that was the whole point of this experiment. My feet carried me swiftly toward the collapsing monster, sword at the ready.

When I first struck the monstrosity, it did not so much as budge. The blade failed to penetrate its fur, let alone flesh and neck.

Heat shot up to my face, but I masked the failure and aimed the second strike at its eye. The steel sword cut into the monstrosity’s eye with some resistance. My victim certainly didn’t like that either. It tried to lunge at me, its head snapping to the side, but we were already prepared for that. I hurriedly pushed myself to the side, while Clove and Fern shot forward, bashing and cracking the monstrosity’s skull. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

After that, there was not much left to do for me. I rammed the sword into the monstrosity’s eye and pushed deeper until it reached the brain. However, I did not stop there and pressed it as deep as possible. Only when Essence surged into the Core did I stop, knowing it was not truly dead before that.

Karus has been defeated.

I was about to exclaim when the notification popped up, but it was shorter and read differently.

Shift...didn’t update?

Essence flowed toward me, but it wasn’t much. Certainly not enough to justify the effort of landing the killing blow on a Tier-2 monstrosity. It wasn’t like Karus were regular monsters. Even if this particular Karus had been an ordinary Tier-2 monster, the Essence influx was nowhere near enough.

"Are you not satisfied?" Clove chuckled. "Did you expect the System to reward you for stealing our kills?"

"He’s not stealing anything. We told you about this before." Fern glared at the young fae, who waved dismissively.

"I’m just glad his Power doesn’t increase the Essence influx. That would have been really unfair," Clove muttered, quietly adding that my Power was ridiculously powerful as it was.

The Essence influx didn’t change my Status in the slightest. Not even an increase of one percent. That was worse than I’d anticipated, even if it was fairly obvious. I barely did anything. Gaining any Essence from killing the Karus was a surprise as it is. Then again, dealing the killing blow had still been dangerous. If not for Clove or Fern, the Karus would have killed me.

Still, not enough. I couldn’t suppress the sigh any longer.

"What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re really worried about the Essence influx?" Fern regarded me doubtfully.

"That’s not it. I understand that part." I shook my head. "My problem is something else; Shift didn’t update."

Fern raised an eyebrow, and even Clove looked over. "You can’t transform into the Karus?"

The look on my face must have been explanation enough, because Clove grunted like he’d been punched in the face. "That’s a mess."

Shift was not as omnipotent as it first appeared. That was...unfortunate. Then again, it made sense. Every Power had its limits and restrictions.

"Does that mean you have to kill your targets on your own? That would make everything a lot more difficult." Fern rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe your Power only triggers when you fight alone. Or you have to contribute more to the fight to trigger Shift. Or–..."

She pointed out a few more potential triggers for Shift, and I added all of them to my mental notes.

To figure out what triggered Shift, we’d have to test them all. And that was crucial, or one of the best places to gain a lot more Accessible Shifts would be wasted.

Taking matters into my hands, I devised a quick plan to test all of the potential triggers that came to my mind. That took no longer than a minute. It was fairly straightforward, really.

Then, I set off, ready to fight a few monsters, Tier-2 included. That...was going to be real fun.

"Oi! I know you don’t have any common sense, but are you really going to leave the Karus’ carcass behind? It’s worth a small fortune," Clove called out from behind, forcing me to a sudden halt.

Right, storage. I turned back to the young fae, ignored his shit-eating grin, and rubbed the bracelet Captain Anthea had gifted to one of her loverboys. It was mine now, and I had only recently learned what it was used for.

It was an independent pocket dimension. A spatial storage, to be precise. And it must have cost Captain Anthea a fortune. Now it was mine.