I was floating. My mind was still hazy, but it was quickly becoming clearer. I could feel the warm albumen of my egg around me. I was extremely comfortable and wanted nothing more than to fall back asleep, but it was probably time to try and leave.

Reaching out my hands, I found the inside of the shell. Like before, it seemed extremely sturdy, so I planted my feet against the base, and pushed off with all of the strength I could muster. It took a while, quite the testament to the material of the shell, but after what was probably a half-hour I felt it give just a bit.

Pushing my advantage, I doubled down. This time I activated Tempered Body to boost my strength, and with a wet crack, my head was thrown into the light.

Ugh. I attempted to open my eyes, but they were crazy sensitive to even the dim morning sun coming through the window. Somehow, I managed to feel both hungover, and better than I’ve ever felt in my life. All I wanted to do was crawl back inside the egg, but I forced myself to continue my task. With a series of pained grunts, I broke a large enough hole in the shell to haul the rest of my body out onto the carpet.

Standing up I started to take inventory of my brand-new self. First thing’s first, I pulled up the alert I had been waiting for.

Alert! Rank Up Successful!

Congratulations! You are among the first 5 successful rank 3 monsters and the first 30 rank 3 ex-humans!

Your resistance has been further strengthened. Rank 1 enemies now do 25% damage. Rank 2 enemies now do 50% damage.

Nice. The damage resistance was expected but remained pretty freaking awesome. Being a monster ruled. Next, I opened my extended race description.

Lesser Primordial (monster):

This is a young variant of the ancient primordial race. While not nearly as powerful as their higher rank equivalent, Lesser Primordial are still far more powerful than any other elemental. Only the most powerful of elementals could ever hope to become a Lesser Primordial, so they are considered royalty among their kind.

With their peerage, Lesser Primordial receive many additional benefits. They are no longer bound to one state and can either be formless or physical with minimal exertion. Their physical forms are also more than simple constructs, now acting as true bodies comparable to most of their high-rank monster brethren. They possess a unified core bound to both their physical and ethereal forms that sit within an isolated space, defended from any direct harm.

Most Lesser Primordial cannot change their physical appearance at will, but with practice, the physical form can be changed to one better suited to the individual.

Lesser Primordial are at home both on the battlefield wielding varied and powerful magics, and at rest, mastering their arts, or enjoying their fancies. As intelligent beings they are varied, but their powerful bodies and minds make them succeed at everything they try.

Lesser Primordial are often waited upon by their weaker elemental kin, but more often than not are found either in solitude minding their own business or among the company of other races. Their natural old age and timelessness usually make them wary of forming bonds with other shorter-lived races. As such, they are commonly found among elves, powerful fey, or other intelligent monsters.

Instincts:

Territorial: Anything you consider your own you will protect with extreme prejudice. Trespassers and Thieves be warned.

Being of Nature: You feel relaxed and at home in natural settings and have a powerful presence. You are attracted to natural wells of magic.

Defender of the World: You despise anything that would overtly corrupt the natural order.

The description of my race was awesome. Thinking back to my time with Luna, she did bring up that Storm Paraelemental Warriors was a race supposed to be impossible to get at rank 2, but from the description that wasn’t immediately obvious.

Lesser Primordial was overtly powerful. Every sentence of the description preached how special and strong they were. It was weird to think that an entire class of monsters would believe me to be royalty, but I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Next, I pulled up my milestone alert. I wanted to see what this high-end race did to my status.

Rank Up Milestone Reached! Determining Rewards based on Attributes and Playstyle!

New Race has caused Affinity to morph!

Wind, Water, Ice, Electricity Affinity -> Elemental Primogenitor

Graceful Presence -> Monster Royalty

Race: Lesser Primordial: +10 all stats

Class: Beginner Runewright: +2 dex

Heart of the Warrior: +2 str, +2 agi, +1int

Enhanced Physicality: +2 str, +2 agi, +2 con

Elemental Primogenitor: +8 int, +8 wis

Electronics: +1 int

Crafting: +2 dex, +1 int

Monster Royalty: +5 str, +10 cha

Role-Playing Bonus: +9 Variable stat points, +2 luk

Total Max Stat Increases:

STR: +19

AGI: +14

DEX: +14

CON: +12

INT: +21

WIS: +18

CHA: +20

LUK: +12

+9 Unassigned Skill Points

I read the alert and had to keep myself from choking in surprise.

Holy SHIT that was a lot of numbers. A single milestone from Lesser Primordial was worth an entire Legendary freaking body strengthening technique! And what was up with those two new Affinities?!? Elemental Primogenitor and Monster Royalty were cheats by themselves! My stats were insane! Of course, I needed to work to get them up to the new ridiculous max values, but it was just a matter of time!

I was about to pull open my status to look at the changes when a polite cough behind me gave me pause.

Slowly turning around, I was greeted with the sight of a cherry red Ellie, doing everything she could to hide her face behind her hands. I just came out of an egg, so I was naked. In the few minutes, it took me to peruse my status, had she just been standing right behind me?

With a nudge, I summoned my light armor. As soon as I was clothed, she dropped her hands and looked away in obvious embarrassment.

“Ellie.”

“Y-yes?”

“Why are you in here?”

She paused, before reaching behind her, picking up a bright pink notebook and a cute animal-theme pen. She held them out to me like it was an answer.

I motioned for her to go on.

“I was just… documenting. I wanted to examine a rank up in progress. I had been coming in here every day to check on you, and I just happened to pop in when you started hatching.”

I cocked my eyebrows. Something about my expression seemed to throw her off because she quickly started for the door.

“I… I… I’ll just leave you to it.”

As I watched, unmoving, she bolted for the door slamming it behind her. Funny kid.

I pulled up my status.

Name: Victoria (Vic) Gale

Age: 2 Month

Gender: Female

Race: Lesser Primordial (Rank 3)

Class: Beginner Runewright

Job: Fighter

Level: 0/65, 0/100 to next level

Affinity: Heart of the Warrior, Enhanced Physicality, Elemental Primogenitor, Electronics, Crafting, Monster Royalty

Character Archetype: Lone Wanderer

Current:

Health:

720/720

Stamina:

815/815

Mana:

490/490

Strength

65(84)

Agility

72(86)

Dexterity

55(69)

Constitution

56(68)

Intelligence

50(70)

Wisdom

45(63)

Charisma

48(68)

Luck

30(42)

Unassigned

9

The first thing I saw was that I had finally turned two months old. I was doubtlessly the youngest Lesser Primordial who would ever live. How exciting!

Moving on, I next noticed my level. Unexpectedly, I had a much higher cap than I believed I should. If rank one had a cap of 30, rank 2 had 40, then it stood to reason that rank 3 should be 50, right? It was probably a consequence of my race being so powerful, but it seemed like rank 4 was much further away than it would be for most people. On the bright side, I could probably reach level two by sneezing on something. Yay for me?

My stat maximums were as ridiculous as I remembered they should be. I went ahead and used my unassigned points to bring the caps for agility, dexterity, constitution, and charisma up to multiples of ten. Might as well get it out of the way before I forgot the unassigned points were there, and multiples of ten were easy to do math around.

Next, I pulled up my list of racial skills. I hoped the changes weren’t too significant.

Elemental Attunement

1/100

Increases effectiveness of varied stats while in different environments. Allows you to absorb mana from natural sources to increase your power.

Mana Wings

6/100

Allows user to channel mana into wings to activate different effects. Wings are specialized for longer flight. No speed cap, no acceleration cap, levitation no longer necessary for sustained flight. Pure levitation has speed cap of 30 mph. Increasing level increases effectiveness of wings and enables better control of channeled abilities.

Elemental Body

1/200

Convert parts of your body into different attuned elements.

My heart sank at the loss of Stormborn. It had been a constant ever since I first started my journey, and the regeneration had saved my life more times than I could count. I bitterly felt it’s absence, but the skill that replaced it was far more powerful if its level potential was any indication.

Chaos Flight had become Mana Wings, though its description didn’t change at all. My wings and tail were still there. They sat on my back, their weight familiar and comforting. If my racial description was to be believed, as a Primordial I would assume the form I desired. It was clear that I considered the wings a part of my identity. Therefore, they remained through the transformation. I hadn’t yet gotten a good look at myself, but I already knew my appearance was wildly different than before.

The final skill, Elemental Body, should be what allows me to become ethereal. As a test, I tried to focus wind through the skill onto my left hand. I marveled as the tips of my fingers became slightly transparent, though exerting the power was difficult. Most elementals probably already understood their transformation by the time they became Primordial. I would need to practice if I wanted to catch up.

Interestingly, on my skill list, there was one more addition that I only noticed at the last second.

Yin-Yang Soul Scripture; Second Verse

0/30

A technique used to forcefully increase the parameters of the body using conflicting elements. Improvement is dependent on the area of practice.

That was a pleasant surprise. I did find it strange that the skill remained on my sheet even though I had reached the final level. It must have been waiting until the next rank up, making it far more interesting than I had originally assumed. Its description was rather unique as well, leading me to believe that I could choose what stats the skill worked on.

I was tempted to start to learn about the new technique immediately but decided to shelve that for later. I took out my phone and texted everyone, letting them know that I was okay and that my rank up had succeeded. Luckily, I still had a signal. That meant that either the nature encroachment hadn’t destroyed the towers yet, or that whoever had made the devices work in the first place had found a solution. Whichever was the case, it didn’t particularly matter at the moment.

My next order of business was something I had been waiting excitedly for. I hurried into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind me.

Doffing my armor, I stood in front of the mirror, taking in my new appearance.

The first thing I noticed were the eyes. My irises were a bright white, softly glowing with a pale luminescence. The hair, now falling to my waist in well-kempt waves was a pleasant white to match. Feeling around my mouth with my tongue I could tell that my canines were still rather long and predatory, but the rest of my teeth were unchanged.

My previously unnaturally pale skin now had a pleasant tan look, bringing it back to its original shade. What’s more, the thin fur that once coated my arms and legs was gone. I had perfect, nimble hands, and beautiful full legs, free of claws once more.

I did, however, retain the wispy markings on my arms, legs, and torso. Now, they looked like tattoos of white, crossing my body in pleasant banding patterns. As I marveled, the tattoos seemed to shift and change, drawing the eyes in. They were fascinating to behold.

My previously stubby horns were now significantly longer, moving straight up and over my forehead before branching off, forming a set of prongs. They now looked closer to antlers rather than horns as they used to. They were a clean unblemished white, matching my irises and hair. I was now around six and a half feet tall, and the horns brought that up a couple more inches.

My feathers had joined the club and were now as beautifully clean ivory. My tail was probably the most interesting development though. Instead of a feather tuft on the end, it now sported a wicked spike of the same material as my horns in the shape of a leaf. The tail itself was also made of a material that felt like bone to the touch, and a series of near-invisible joints separated the armor to give it flexibility.

With a start, I realized that the gems that once adorned my hands, feet, and forehead were gone! They should have been my cores, and at first, their absence confused me. Taking a second glance at the racial description, I glanced through the section about my core in curiosity. What did it mean?

Using the proprioception of One Body, I started searching through my magic channels, looking for the core of my being. I found it sitting just under my heart, brimming with life and energy. The magic channels were now tied directly to my organs and veins, no longer an addition, but an intrinsic part of my physical body. Was this how most monsters looked on the inside?

Now that I was poking around at my internals, I could sense more changes still. My strange and unfamiliar organs were now gone; they were now recognizable, and they swelled with life and magic. There were a few organs extra though that I could recognize as redundant backups. I had two hearts beating in tandem, as well as an extra digestive system and an additional set of lungs. My respiratory system didn’t require breaths in and out, it moved in a constant cycle taking advantage of the additional organs. The result of which being I neither breathed out nor in. I just breathed, an action with only one step.

Beneath my skin was an additional suit of armor in the form of an extensive endoskeleton. I had bands of dense bone surrounding my muscle groups, and my hearts and lungs were within a flexible yet solid cage, free of gaps for knives to slip through.

This was a body built to last, no longer a facsimile of the human form as my warrior body had been, but a direct improvement on what I had two months ago. I breathed in oxygen and breathed out carbon dioxide, I didn’t just pretend anymore. I had blood flowing in my veins carrying nutrients around where they were needed. Carrying warmth. At the same time, magic supplemented everything, making it run with efficiency and strength that it didn’t have before.

I had to stop my exploration to clear tears from my eyes. I was alive again. It was something I didn’t even recognize I had lost. I remember when I became a warrior and felt the pure improvement it brought, but this was at a different level. I could finally understand my own body. I felt real again. Maybe when I worked out the Elemental Body skill I could understand even more.

The one thing I didn’t understand was the comment about the location of my core. According to my race description, it was located in a safe space, but at the same time, I could sense it within my body. Where was it if not sitting within my chest?

My question would have to wait for later, as currently, I had some work to do. I summoned my light armor once more and collected my monster pouch and coin pouch. I strapped my sword to my belt, as well as a spare dagger. I needed to go see Cindy and Steph; it was time to figure out what the hell was going on at the capital and deal with the perpetrators who had tampered with the obelisk. I know they were both concerned about the political aspects of attacking the state capital building, but when we were dealing with the lives of everyone in Austin, we were passed worrying about such petty things.

I stepped out the front door of the house, looking around at both the familiar and unfamiliar sights the waves had brought. I breathed in the trees and the grass and the insects below me. I breathed in the clean air and the stone and the dirt. I breathed in the earth.

A laugh rose in my chest.

I felt good.