Bab 20: Day 3 - Shapeshifter Combat Training Pt 1
I woke up the next morning, helped Izzy make breakfast, and wolfed it down as fast as I could. I then convinced Isabell to clear Mick to go with me to the forest just in case I need rescuing, which I also assured her wouldn't happen.
Finally Isabell told us to hurry up and leave before she changed her mind, to which Mick and I happily obliged.
"Thanks for getting me out of that prison, I swear I was going stir crazy already." Mick said
I waved my hand "No problem. Just make sure you don't make your injuries worse or Isabell will kill is both."
Mick chuckled nervously "Ya, I'll play the good back up role today. Don't get yourself hurt though because we all know how she gets when something happens to you." He said as we were walking past the dungeon. It was still early enough no one had gathered around it yet.
"Also, I can't wait to go back in there. Hopefully now that we know what we're doing we can make it through the second floor." Mick continued.
"I hope so too, but unless another team clears the 1st floor then it may not be worth it to push Isabell if it's too much for her, or to push people if they haven't recovered enough." I replied.
Mick sighed, not wanting to agree but knowing it was true, "That's fair," He said in the end.
We continued in silence past the edge of town and a quarter mile up the road before turning off and venturing past the edge of the forest. We continued deep into the forest when I picked up a trail of a red fox species native to the area.
'It's fresh so it should be close by, I'll wait to shift until I track it down and then I'll use Instantaneous Shift. I hope the increased aggression of these animals offsets Mick's lack of stealth.' I thought to myself.
I motioned silently for Mick to follow me as I tracked the fox. Mick did as best he could to move through the undergrowth as silently as he could but he still made an abhorrent amount of noise compared to what I was used to. A few minutes later we caught up to the fox who turned to face us when we did. I used Instantaneous Shift to turn into my wolf form and barked at the fox.
The fox snarled back at me and we circled around each other. Suddenly, the fox charged at me intending to take a bite out of my front leg. I swiped at it with my paw but the fox dodged laughing as it regained distance.
'Is this fox…testing me? Mocking me? Either way not good.'
I scowled at the fox, a deep rumble slowly building in my chest as I readied myself to pounce on the fox. I leapt forward just as the fox was wrapping up it's gloating cackle taking it by surprise. It tried to dodge at the last second but what felt like a new set of instincts guided my paw to pin the foxes tail thwarting it's escape.
I followed those instincts as they guided my jaws to close around the back of the fox tightly. I shook my head viciously and threw the fox running after it and crushing its neck with my teeth immediately after it struck the ground.
'That seemed almost to easy. I wonder if this form affects my stats at all?'
Suddenly a row of text appeared-
'In case it wasn't clear enough for the host the System will clarify it. Status points are based on the rank and species of the being. Not all creatures are the same, some are inherently stronger or weaker in certain areas or just in general. In the hosts human form your status points represent your difference, or lack there of, from a base creature of your rank. When you shapeshift however they become based off your current species at the rank of the form.'
'How am I able to maintain my sentence then if my intelligence is based on that of Abn Unranked wolf? Also, are you sassy now? What is going on?'
'That is due to your racial affinity to your System Type, it's also why you became more beastly during the fight. And yes, the more you level and rank up the more sentience the System will gain and the more System Features you will gain access to.'
'I rank up? Like monsters and beasts?'
'Every being levels and ranks up at the same rate on the same scale. Some may be stronger than others at the same rank as level and rank are based on Ethereal Density in your Ethereal Core and not objective strength.'
'That's great information to have. Glad the System is at least kinda not like a robot.'
I then began absorbing the Blood Essence of the fox allowing it to drop from my jaws only when I got the notification.
'Absorbed the Blood Essence of Lvl 1 Unranked Red Fox:
Ethereal +3
Progress to form 50%'
'Wait why did that only 3?'
The System Replied-
'You can only absorb 10% of the Ethereal in the Ethereal Core. Creatures and Beasts in Dungeons are standardized by floor and all of the creatures at the same level will have the same density of Ethereal in their Ethereal cores. In the rest of the world this is not the case and the density in their cores will vary within the limits of their level.'
'I'll have to remember to share that with the group.'
"Damn man, that was kinda gnarly to watch, the way that thing squealed when you grabbed it's back." Mick said with his nose wrinkled.
I looked at Mick and cocked my head to the side trying to figure out how he was so excited to go in the dungeon but had a issue with that spectacle. I wrote it up to him not having much experience in animal fights but also wondered about the yelp he said he heard.
'I didn't hear anything, I must've blocked it out. I need to be careful that doesn't happen so I can hear my teammates in a fight.'
I sniffed around and found another trail and started following it. I killed several smaller and weaker animals in this way for the rest of my first and second transformations gaining a whopping total of:
New Forms:
Unranked Squirrel
Unranked Rabbit
Unranked Fox
Form Progress:
Unranked Raven: 50%
Unranked Racoon: 50%
Unranked Opossum: 50%
Ethereal +13
For my last transformation I wanted a bigger fight to really train against now that I had the basics down.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone