Level 7:

Level 8:

Level 9:

Level 10

Congratulations! You have met the requirements for a unique class.

[Essence Shifter] By acquiring entirely passive abilities and seeking out the true heart of monsters, you can shapeshift into any monster whose essence you acquire!

Some of that certainly sounds bad, I also really do not like how some of that glitched out and auto accepted my class for me. Not the least of which is because I have something glitching inside my brain. Alyx thought to himself as he stood over the corpse of the Owlbear, it had been a long fight, and he was still breathing heavily from it. The Owlbear had just refused to quit. Even when it became obvious, it wasn’t going to be able to win. It still attacked him doggedly.

Honestly, if not for his ability to regenerate his health and stamina, Alyx is one hundred percent certain he would be a dead man, even with his cool new [Minor-Strength] buff that made him feel like captain America, one does not just go around fighting bears or should I say Owlbears...barehanded.

“ So...I ..can be...an Owlbear…” Alyx muttered, panting as he began to walk around the fallen Owlbear. Upon closer inspection, the thing was just friggin huge. He would never have tried to fight it if he had actually gotten a good look at the thing. Each of its claws is the size of his hand, and those paws, just “wow,” he’d been hit by those things and somehow lived.

“Fuck me, and I was worried about my mortgage payment. Shit like this really puts things in perspective.” With a half-hearted kick to the corpse of the creature that tried to take his life, Alyx began to turn away and once more begin his search for water..and hopefully food. While apparently amazing because he was yet to feel worn out, Stamina regeneration did nothing to stop his hunger.

Alyx only made it a few steps before the twanging of bows reached his ears, and the thunk of steel sinking into the flesh of his calves as two arrows appeared logged inside his legs.

“AHH! Fuck! Oh, Come on! Who would? What..the..f...fuck..” The words tumble out of him in a jumble, as the magic the elves had spelled into their arrows floods into his body. A wave of exhaustion hits him, and Alyx can’t keep his eyes from closing even as he falls to his knees and then forward face-first into the dirt. He never even saw who shot him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Andrea sneered down at the human as she approached, her lips curling back into an almost snarl. Stepping roughly onto one of his legs, she reached down. She pulled her arrow out, quickly doing the same for Julius’s arrow, perhaps being a bit rougher than was truly necessary. Still, as they had guessed, Andrea was able to confirm this fucker had regeneration after the arrows had been removed and the wounds closed over after only a few seconds.

“Julius, he’s practically naked. Those claws really did a number on that weird outfit he was wearing. Ugh, humans are even grosser up close.”

Julius looked down at the human and then back up to his companion with an eyebrow raised. Humans aren’t dissimilar to elves in most regards, and Julius knows that Andrea knows that. Sure, elves tend to be slim and have more pointed ears, but both species had similar height ranges. Sure humans were effectively house-flies lucky to live to a hundred years while an elven life span could well exceed 2000. Julius was, of course, glossing over their respective histories and Andrea’s own obvious bias.

“ It’s fine, Andrea. Neither of us should need to carry him. I can summon a root golem to handle him, and the Owlbear hide and meat.”

Julius says as he begins to begin working on the Owlbear corpse unceremoniously, Andrea only hesitating a moment before joining him. Saying a short prayer in elven as she gets to work skinning the monster.

In what feels like no time at all, the two elven rangers have gathered up the Owlbear hides and meat, as well as the still unconscious human.

Julius moves to stand next to a large tree, hand on the bark. Eyes closed in concentration. Glowing runes of elvish script wrap around the ranger’s shoulder and slowly twine their way down his arm before turning into streams of light upon reaching the tree itself, spiraling down around its trunk and into its root system. Less than a second later, the tree roots begin to dig themselves up out of the ground, stretching and growing, intertwining amongst themselves until the roots have taken the shape of a large cat. The whole process only took about ten seconds, though Julius looked notably more tired after summoning it.

“Alright, go grab our belongings and the human, there’s a good kitty.”

After giving itself a shake, as if to rid itself of water, the root golem steps away from the tree and over to the owlbear loot and the human captive, roots extending from the body of the golem to reach out and grab both things, intertwining them onto its back and turning toward Julius to await its next command.

Andrea watched both Julius and his cat golem with a wary eye, the root golems not uncommon among the elves who made their home in the Forest of Mist. However, Julius was the only one to Andrea’s knowledge who modeled them after cats and made a point of treating them as if they were living creatures. To be honest, it weirded her out, despite them having been friends for a long time. She didn’t say anything, though, instead, shouldering her pack and leading the way home. Starting down one of many hidden paths within the forest that the elves had built for themselves, Andrea reached into her tunic and dug out an elven amulet.

With a thought and a small exertion of will, she pushed her mana into the amulet to activate it, the amulet itself being a ward key, glowed with a ghostly green light that allowed them to pass through wards that would otherwise befuddle them or confuse their steps. Despite having a longer lifespan than most other races, the elves themselves were not quick to breed, so they guarded their settlements through misdirection and trickery.

Andrea’s thoughts turned dark. As she considered the precautions needed to keep her people safe, it felt like for every human one could cut down, another two would pop up and take its place.

“You’ve got that look again, Andrea! Stop thinking about killing humans. For goodness sake, it feels like your becoming obsessed. You are going to be kept on ranger duty for a long time if you can’t wrap your head around anything else!”

“Julius, I’ll think about whatever I want. It’s my own head! Besides, you have no proof that’s what I was thinking about.”

By the by, Andrea happens to be a terrible liar. Her cheeks flushed with frustration as she glowers at Julius. She also knows she has been caught out but simply doesn’t want to yield the topic. For his part, Julius is only trying to help but recognizes he’s gone about it the wrong way.

“Fine, fine, I’ve clearly stuck my nose where it doesn’t belong. Tell you what, the festivals next week, you are entering a couple of the competitions, yes? If you do well, I promise to put in a good word with the elder if you do well. Maybe we can finally get you on the road traveling to the other villages.”

Andrea snorts,” Well...thank you, I doubt it will work out, you know how the elder is. Once I’ve reached my 80’s she’ll be willing to let me take on the quest and not a moment before.”

Julius just shrugged, his quiver rattling as he did so. Andrea was still young at 75 and didn’t know the world around her or the elder quite as well as she thought she did. She was more than high enough level to take the journey, and the village wasn’t in any more danger this year than it had been for the past few. In fact, most hostilities from the neighboring human kingdoms had more or less ceased. Julius came across more adventurers than spies in the forest these days. Even this human was probably nothing more than a hapless wanderer who had stumbled his way onto a good class.

No, Andrea had been kept in the village because she was distantly related to the elder, and even an elven elder can fall prey to being overprotective of family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx had woken up in worse ways, that’s what he told himself anyway as he tried to blink open his eyes, the crust of his sleep holding them closed against several attempts, before finally he was able to crack one eye open slowly. He was intensely uncomfortable. His spine arched at a weird angle, his arms, and limbs spread out at odd angles in what felt like a moving cage of wood, and god. It was bumpy on his back. He realized that he couldn’t turn his head or even move his arms or legs of his own volition. Staring up helplessly at the canopy of trees overhead, Alyx tried to recall what had happened.

“Oh, that’s right, somebody FUCKING shot me.”

Despite his best efforts, Alyx could barely wiggle his arms and legs, let alone turn his head. Whatever was binding him was either as strong as he was or using leverage to best him, probably both. He didn’t have to wait long, though, before an..elven...cosplayer? Came up to him and looks down at him as he struggled before chuckling and beginning to speak...what sounded like german? Maybe?

"Huh, und hier dachte ich, du würdest schlafen, bis wir das Dorf erreicht haben. Nun, halte einfach einen Menschen fest, sprichst du Elbisch? Nein? Natürlich nicht. Schau, warte nur eine Weile, bis wir einen Übersetzungszauber bekommen, wenn wir geh wieder nach Hause."

Alyx could only give the elf a blank stare, utterly uncomprehending of what had been said before another elf walked over, looking decidedly less than pleased.

“Do either of you speak English? Did you fucking shoot me with arrows? Maybe we could consider untieing me for starters?”

If the elven woman looked unhappy before, she became incensed when Alyx opened his mouth and started talking to her. Andrea ended his questions with a sharp smack to the face.

"Verdammt noch mal, das verdammte Ding redet, wie haben unsere Pfeile ihn nicht eingeschlafen? Halt die Klappe, Mensch! Du wirst behandelt, wenn wir das Dorf erreichen, dann kannst du das Problem eines anderen sein."

Alyx had no idea what she said, more of that maybe German had flowed out of her, but he wisely kept his mouth shut this time, not wanting to invoke more violence while he was still a captive. Instead, he looked back and forth from one elf to another as they began an animated conversation.