Chương 36: Transformation Central

My head slams into the cobblestone. Breath catches in my throat as every part of my body convulses uncontrollably. Pleasure floods through my body as the increase in all my stats hits at once. Pain grows in equal measure as every inch of my flesh and bone rearranges itself inside me. Muscles writhe under my skin like worms. Bones fracture, reform, then fracture again. I try to force a command out, but it arrives with choking and the splatter of saliva.

A simmering wave of heat spreads across my skin before sinking inward. Like the tide, the heat surges back and forth through my body, growing stronger with each pass. The spasms grow stronger, making my limbs jerk powerfully. My arm slams into the stone wall, a loud snap reverberating around the room. Bile rises through my throat as I watch the skin on my wrist bubble. Horror etches itself in my heart as my wrist explodes with a spray of blood.

The bones in my forearm reach out, pulling the hand back together and snapping into place. A cough splatters stomach acid and blood across my arm. Organs slip around each other, exchanging places in my torso. The sensation makes me want to rip my chest open and force them to stop. For an excruciating amount of time, I lie in silent suffering. As suddenly as it starts, it stops. The spasms quit without slowing down. All of my organs, muscles, and bones finally stop moving.

I pant heavily, reminded of what just happened on a constant loop. My heart beats like a jackhammer in my ears. I roll onto all fours, my stomach roiling in dissatisfaction. Panic tears through my body like a tornado. My breath comes out shaky.

"Kevin, don't feel trauma." In an instant, fear leaves me. My heart rate cuts in half, and my body stops shaking. A massive breath enters my lungs effortlessly. GAH! That's always so jarring! With calm movements, I get to my feet and flex my bicep. In the span of a few seconds, my face goes from terror-stricken to a wide smile. The raw power trapped within my arm is incredible. It must have increased by a couple of inches in diameter.

Taking deep breaths, I realize my lungs don't need to be forced open to allow air in. If taking a breath before was picking up a heavy rock, that same rock has been shrunk to the size of a baseball. My fingers brush against my face, which holds even bigger changes. An expression of awe appears on my face as my fingers feel every single difference. My jawline before was above average, which I was proud of. Now, it's chiseled from stone. The sparse hairs making up my pitiful beard are renewed.

Full, all the way up to my ears. Strangely enough, my ears don't feel all that different. Now that I notice it, the strange feeling I had from twisting my ankle a decade ago is gone. Along with that, a slight bit of queasiness I didn't know I had is also missing. My fingers continue along my face, finding that my nose is a bit less pronounced than before. Right above it, I find that the skin under my eyes no longer feels loose and saggy from staying up all night.

Speaking of my skin, the scarred, poor condition texture with occasional pimples is nowhere to be seen. Sadly, neither my eye nor my vision is restored. Still, the injury feels smoothed over, completely different from the mutilated mess that was there before. In its place is smooth and healthy skin. When I take a step, I gasp in surprise. It's as if I've spent my entire life walking with a limp, which just got removed. With a childish giggle, I spread my arms and run circles around the room.

It's easy to notice the lack of jiggle from certain parts of my body. Slamming to a halt, I undo the straps and take off my chestplate. Under the blood-logged shirt hides a beautiful sight. Not a four pack or even a six pack. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"A goddamn eight-pack!?" My excitement grows when I punch myself lightly in the stomach. It's like punching a tire. There's not a single imperfection to be seen. I wonder if there's a world filled with high humans? A city filled with supermodels… Each muscle is symmetrical with the one next to it. As I bend over, I realize that my sightline has gotten higher. Without something to measure against, it's impossible to tell by how much, but there's definitely an increase.

Feeling something strange in my leg, I take off the armor covering my legs and pull up my sweatpants. Looking down, I notice the first absurd and imaginative change. With concern battling its way onto my face, I sit down and inspect the back of my leg. On the back of my ankle, there isn't the Achilles tendon that I remember. Where it's supposed to be, there stand three, slightly smaller tendons, all lined up next to each other.

Mouth agape, I wiggle my foot left and right, feeling the more diverse movement in my ankle. I can't stop the smile as I stand straight and utter a command.

"Kevin, jump as high as you can without injuring yourself." Knees bending and muscles tensing, I explode upwards. The smile on my face turns to panic. My head knocks against the stone of the ceiling, and I fall back against the floor. Wind escapes my lungs as I crash into the ground. Surprisingly, I catch my breath almost instantly, instead of struggling to breathe for half a minute.

"Hahahaha!" The grin returns, stretched across my face.

"Four feet! I have a fuckin' four-foot vertical!" My laughs rebound around the room for a few moments as I enjoy my new body. When I finish, I sit up and touch the back of my leg, feeling the texture and bounciness of having three tendons. My eye flickers to my right arm in curiosity. Sure enough, the single massive tendon connecting the bicep and forearm has been multiplied. Three tendons expand and contract as I extend and retract my arm.

I repeat the action several times, struggling to process what I'm looking at. Further up my arm, I notice something even stranger. The tendons on each of my fingers have also changed. There used to be a single tendon travelling over every knuckle, but now each finger has two, protected by a thick plate of bone that travels down it. With a dead-set eye, I stare at my hand as I spread my fingers out and close them into a fist. Quickly stepping to where I was sitting, I slip my gauntlet on.

My knuckles sit awkwardly inside the weapon, with several other differences in my hand becoming obvious. Sadly, I take my hand out and toss the gauntlet on the ground. It was made by the system to perfectly fit my hand and cushion blows. For my old hand, that is. With my new and improved body, I can't even close my fist inside it. The blue system interface appears in front of my eye as I debate something.

[You have discovered a reward] [Accept(5) / Bank / Consolidate] When I first got my gauntlets, they came from a reward of about five or six. And that was with the lower, crappy rewards from the tutorial area. This one holds the value of the chest behind the troll. There's no guarantee I'll even get a weapon. I might very well get a potion or something else. Stroking and appreciating my incredible new beard, I think about accepting it now. Reluctantly, I press accept.

In the last second, I stick my hand out in case it's something fragile. [You have earned 1 (Silver Crate)] [Accept / Bank] Oh yeah. Again, I press accept. A large, brown item appears in front of me, and I stumble to catch it. Holding it out, the leather chestpiece hangs from my hands. It doesn't look all too different from the one I just took off, but it certainly looks a bit larger for my frame. The old one was taken off a hobgoblin, after all.

Under the shoulders, it also looks like it has more coverage for my upper arms. Annoyance flashes on my face as I pull the chestpiece over my shoulders and tighten the straps. It's a really nice piece of armor. I know I should be happy about an upgrade, but I was really hoping for a shiny new pair of gauntlets. My eye drifts, and I speak with a sigh.

"Well, Mr. Spear, it seems our fates are destined to intertwine." After picking it up and swinging it a bit, I realize the already light spear has become even lighter. It feels as heavy as any small stick I could pick up outside of my house. Looking over, the blue status screen appears before me once again. [Human > High Human] [Tamed Being skill acquired: Optimized Anatomy] [Optimized Anatomy] [This skill restructures the body of the user in order to make it more efficient. As this skill levels up, unneeded body parts will be improved or shrunken before being reabsorbed into the body. Body parts that do not live up to the user's desire will be mutated and improved. Improvements, removals, and mutations scale with skill level] Sheesh! Skills from a legendary species don't mess around. It seems to have quite a bit of overlap with the description under high human. Still, the results speak for themselves. With that thought, another set of messages appears below.

[Vitality: 27 > 42] [Strength: 18 > 30] [Agility: 21 > 33] [Endurance: 18 > 32] [Fortitude: 25 > 37] [Intelligence: 12 > 24] [Wisdom: 23 > 37] [Perception: 30 > 44] [Unassigned: 1]"Wow." I knew it was coming, but the impact is still there. With a bit of thought, I place my single free point into fortitude. Every little bit matters, and I have a feeling that my durability is going to continue to bottleneck my strength. My head turns back to the screen. [Health: 610(568)] [Mana: 490(43)] [Stamina: 485(270)]"Wow."

I expected more health from the evolution bonus, but I didn't expect it to heal me as well. Strangely, it healed most of my health, but not all of it. Shouldn't I be starving from having so much mass added to my body? Oh, but basically all the extra fat from my stomach and arms is gone. It isn't on the ground, so I must have reabsorbed it.

"Hee hee hee." You will not be missed. [5. 41 cycles until next phase] Looking at the message, determination wells up within me. After a quick drink of water and a few bites of stone-like bread, I push the door open. Sunlight spills through the room as I step out. Let's see what this body can do.