Jaune sat in a dingy, fast food restaurant on his phone, it was 11:30pm but he still had no intention of going home, he didn’t want to deal with the teasing from his siblings or the disappointment from his parents.

Jaune came from a wealthy family of adventurers, his mother Salene was S ranked, his father Victor was A ranked and his siblings, 2 of them were C ranked, 7 were at B-rank and his eldest sister Scarlett was A rank.

But unfortunately Jaune was a measly F rank, bottom of the barrel, so how did such a weakling come out of a family of geniuses, Jaune had searched long and hard for the answer to this question, maybe he had a secret power that would appear and make him SSS rank, nope or maybe he was so strong his strength goes over the max and resets to F rank, still a no, in the end, the best answer he got was “shit happens, guess your just unlucky.”

Theoretically he could go out and fight monsters as well as train to gain more power and rank-up, but at most people could only go up 2 ranks in life, if you were a real protegee maybe 3 or 4 but either way that would still leave Jaune at D or C rank max, He did have C rank siblings but neither had ranked up yet. Jaune sighed and brought up his stats, his vision dimmed slightly and a table of numbers appeared in front of his eyes.

Jaune Blackwell Human Rank F Strength: 15 Endurance: 18 Mana: 5 Dexterity: 16 Resistance: 15 Magic: 3 Skill List ??? F-

His physical stats were extremely good, but his magic related stats were trash, F and E ranks were very common with each rank after getting progressively rarer, those two bottom ranks usually just got civilian jobs or cleaned up monster pockets, which were essentially 1 room dungeons, Jaune would have been a high E rank if his magic stats weren’t negligible and his skill wasn’t F-, that skill was the main issue however, his family had to pay a pretty penny just so word didn’t get around that one of their sons had an F- rank skill, which had literally been thought to be impossible.

Jaune let out a sigh when he saw a text message from his sister Jennifer, a B rank.

“Hey, did you get stabbed or something you’ve been gone since breakfast?”

“Nah I’ve been wandering around the city, hate being home.”

“Being homes better than being killed, it's unsafe for you to be out so late.”

“Fine, I’ll be home soon.”

Jaune shoved his phone in his pocket and walked out of the Fast food joint, he slowly made his way to the bus stop, he hated how his siblings either scorned him for his weakness or looked down on him with pity, Jennifer was one of the worst offenders, despite her being the nicest he hated how she always had to check in on him because he was low ranked.

Jaune heard a loud crash coming from an alley he was walking past, seeing as he had nothing better to do, he decided to check it out. The first thing he noticed was a hole in the ground, it looked completely natural as if something had dug it but around the edges, it looked wrong, in a mind-bending kind of way. Jaune stopped in his tracks realizing he had either come across a dungeon or a large monster pocket, he was about to back away till he noticed there was a rat about the size of a dog, rummaging through some trash.

Seriously? I was scared of a rat? Yeah, I’m F rank but I’ve fought monster pockets before.

Jaunes father Victor had brought him to monster pockets for training a year ago when he was 16 but that had been with weapons, armour and a team. Jaune shifted into a basic unarmed fighting stance, then adjusted a little bit to accommodate fighting a rat, how hard can fighting one lone rat be Jaune thought to himself. He slowly moved forwards so he could get the first strike in when he was 1m away the rat stiffened and spun around. It wasn’t a regular rat, its front claws were a lot bigger, its jaw was more developed, and its teeth were less rat-like and more canine, besides all that it also had a very sharp looking horn coming out of its head.

Jaune stood there in shock as the rat glared at him, the rat then leapt at his throat but Jaune snapped out of his daze fast enough to sidestep the leap and punch it in the side, the rat was knocked onto its side but it scrambled to its feet then charged Jaunes legs, slashing his calf with its horn and bringing him down to the ground. The rat scrambled on top of Jaune and lunged straight for his throat, he barely managed to get his hands up in time to block it. The stench of its breath washed over his face as he stared into the maw of the beast, Jaunce could feel its hind claws digging into his abdomen, he needed a way to get it off. He desperately punched it, but he couldn't get enough force to knock it away.

Jaune took one hand off the rat and searched around for a weapon, his hand closed on a shard of glass just as the rat lunged and clamped its jaws around his throat, Jaune screamed in agony and stabbed the bottle into the rat's face.

The rat collapsed on top of him. Through sheer luck, the shard went through the rat's eye and into its brain. Blood flowed over Jaune and pooled around his dying body as he felt a small amount of energy flow from the rats corpse into him, that energy would usually fuel the stats he had used in the fight letting them grow but most of it would probably go to endurance and resistance due to the hole in his throat.

Jaune gasped or tried to at least when he felt a different kind of power flood him. His vision darkened and bright letters appeared in front of him.

??? skill unlocked please select your skill choice Hemomancy Morph Swarm Summoner

Jaune was completely stunned, just now when he's seconds from death, his skill decides to activate.

He looked through his choices for anything that could possibly save his life.

Hemomancy? like pyromancy and necromancy? fuck, I wish I knew more Latin.

Morph seems like something to do with shapeshifting.

Swarm summoner is obviously a summoning skill, which won't help with the bleeding out thing.

Jaune hurriedly weighed his choices, morph might be able to heal him if it was shapeshifting, but it could be something else entirely.

Fuck it, it's my best chance.

*Congratulations! Morph skill acquired. Horned Hunter Rat species gained. Base stats and species multiplier can now be viewed* *No base has been set, setting form: Human as base stat*

Jaune barely read the words before his eyes before he passed out.

Jaune opened his eyes, everything was much brighter than before, he panicked and looked around, his paws scrambled in the dirt as he pushed himself up. Wait… paws? Jaune looked down in surprise and saw two paws with long claws, he turned his head around and saw a hairless tail connected to a brown, furry rump, Jaune looked around hurriedly before spotting the remains of a broken mirror, he scampered towards then stared at his reflection.

A brown rat stared back at him.

He really became a rat, he looked over his body, he was a little smaller and thinner than the other rat and had a horn about half the size, he knew this as the corpse of that rat was behind him in his reflection. But besides those differences, he looked identical to it.

Jaune remembered the words before he passed out and opened his status.

He needed to check his status.

Jaune Blackwell Horned Hunter Rat Rank E Strength: 10 (17 x 0.59) Endurance: 15 (20 x 0.75) Mana: 2 (5 x 0.4) Dexterity: 24 (16 x 1.5) Resistance: 10 (16 x 0.625) Magic: 1 (3 x 0.33) Agility: 29 (17 x 1.7) Skill List

Morph (S)

Take the form of anything you kill Changes the species multiplier on stats Grants the skills of that species while in their form Shifting forms takes stamina but will cost mana if the new form requires materials that are inorganic If carrying or wearing items, items will be worn or equipped if possible, if not they will be stored.

Lesser night vision (D)

See better in the dark

(ONLY AVAILABLE IN FORM: HORNED HUNTER RAT)

Trackers Sense(D)

- Can detect and follows tacks easily

(ONLY AVAILABLE IN FORM: HORNED HUNTER RAT)

Species List Human B Horned Hunter Rat E

Jaune couldn’t believe it, he had finally gone up a rank, not only that he had gained a skill, A S ranked one as well!

He looked through his stats once again marveling at how they had shifted to accommodate his new form.

the number in the brackets are my stats as a human so they must be being used as a base then there’s the multiplier from the Horned Hunter Rat Species, my base stats also increased from my near-death struggle with the rat.

Jaune returned to looking at the mirror then tried to shift back to human, it was a lot easier than he expected, he felt a pulling sensation and his body started elongating into a human, fur merged with skin and became regular body hair and clothing appeared on him, all in all, it had only taken a second for the full transformation and left Jaune breathing just a little harder.

His surroundings became darker as his Night Eye skill disappeared.

Jaune’s phone exploded with notifications and he quickly pulled it out.

The messages were mostly from Jennifer, but a few were from his C rank brother Lachlan asking why Jennifer was freaking out.

Jaune texted Jennifer back.

“Hey, don’t worry I’m fine”

“FINE! WHAT DO YOU MEAN FINE!? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HOME 2 HOURS AGO!”

Jaune really wasn’t in the mood of telling his sister about his sudden skill, since she would certainly tell their parents.

“Yeah, sorry about that, I kind of ran into a monster on the way.”

Jaune kept texting as he rushed to the bus station, luckily there was a bus leaving in 3 minutes

“WHAT! Are you okay? Do you need help?”

Jaune lifted his hand to his throat feeling a rough scar that was left behind by the rat’s jaws, shifting must’ve closed it and healed it a bit, it wasn’t healed completely though since his hand came away bloody and the wound stung, the cut on his leg and the gouges on his stomach were still bleeding slightly but they barely hindered Jaune.

“iI's fine, it was just an overgrown rat, I came out of it with only a scratch.”

“Please get home soon.”

“I will.”

The bus then arrived, and the trip home was completely uneventful.

Jaune finally arrived home and he looked up at the massive mansion, there were 16 people living in this home, Jaunes mother and father, Salene and Victor, their 6 sons, 7 daughters as well as Jaune himself.

Each child has their own room and there’s plenty of spare rooms for a future family. His mother, despite being almost 60 looked like she was in her mid-20s and due to her high stats, her pregnancies lasted around 3 months.

Salene had always wanted a huge family and she hasn't ever really stopped having children until the birth of the twins Lucy and Lily 10 years ago.

Children didn't receive ranks until they turn 16, and Jaune was the most recent to have received a rank, at least until Ben, Jaunes younger brother turned 16 next year.

Jaune was secretly terrified since there's a very high chance Ben would be higher ranked than him.

Jaune walked into the house and was immediately greeted by an angry Jennifer.

“So, you're finally home, wait what’s on your neck? is that blood!”

Jennifer gasped then grabbed hold of Jaunes arm before pulling him with her.

“Come on I’ll get Violet to heal you.”

Jaune had little choice but to get pulled along by his much stronger sister towards one of the two common rooms, where Violet sat reading a book while Ben, Lucy, Lilly, and Lachlan played monopoly.

Lachlan held over half the properties while the three children struggled with mortgages.

Lachlan looked up as they entered and smiled

“Ah, so the disappearing brother returns, Woah, what's with the blood?”

Lachlan jumped to his feet and walked over while Ben watched curiously, Lucy pulled out her phone to play a game and Lily pilfered the monopoly bank.

“I’m guessing you want me to heal that then?” Violet asked from her seat

“I’d very much appreciate that please,” Jaune answered.

Violet stood up and put her hand on Jaunes throat, her hand began to glow, and it felt as if someone had poured ice cold syrup onto Jaunes neck as the flesh knitted together.

“Hmm, some of it had already partially healed poorly so there’s going to be a permanent scar.”

Jaune nodded and Violet returned to her book.

“So, what happened?” Ben asked from the floor

“He got hurt because he’s weak, duh” retorted the Lily

“I fought a rat with a horn, it bit me, I stabbed it”

“HA, you almost died to a rat!” laughed Lily

“Stop being rude to your elder brother Lily or no one will like you” scolded Jennifer

“I don’t need people to like me, I need them to give me Mayfair” Lily exclaimed as she pouted at Lachlan who just grinned back.

Jaune snorted and took a seat on the couch as he blocked out the idle banter from his siblings, he was glad he was sitting around them since they were probably the most pleasant of his family, even if Lily was a snarky brat.

He thought of his new skill once again, he needed a plan, this skill could make him seriously strong if it did what he thought it did.

A moth landed on the armrest next to him and he decided now was a perfect time to test his power, Jaune lifted his hand and quickly crushed the moth.

*New species gained Form: Moth*

He really could shift into anything, ideas spun through his head, what are the limits, can he shift into an ever-growing list or was there a limit to how many species could be on that list, could he really transform into anything he killed, could he become a dragon? a Golem? The skill says mana’s required for forms that were inorganic and that would insinuate that a Golem form would be possible, what about something intangible like a spirit or ghost.

So many possibilities.

“Well, I’m gonna head to bed, goodnight.”

His siblings mainly grunted in affirmation as Jaune walked to his room, once inside he shifted into a moth and looked around his room with new, tiny eyes marvelling at his new size.

He opened his stats.

Jaune Blackwell Moth Rank E Strength: 0.5 (17 x 0.029) Endurance: 1 (20 x 0.5) Mana: 6 (5 x 1.2) Dexterity: 8 (16 x 0.5) Resistance: 0.2 (16 x 0.0125) Magic: 4 (3 x 1.33) Agility: 15 (17 x0.88) Skill List

Morph (S)

Winged Flight (A Rank)

Uses natural wings to move through the air

(ONLY AVAILABLE IN FORM: MOTH)

Species List Human B Horned Hunter Rat E Moth Un-Ranked

So, moths are so weak they don't have a rank?

Not surprisingly Jaune lost a tonne of physical stats but surprisingly he gained a little magical prowess.

Jaune did a lap of his room to get a hang of flying, before shifting back into his rat form, he scurried around his room before burrowing under his blankets, Jaunes last thought was how oddly comfortable It was before drifting into a deep sleep.