Warning - This chapter exposes and ridicules Wolf's inferiority complexes, you may wish to skip it.

Author’s note - the amount of disdain, shock and absurdity you may feel towards Wolf’s actions in this chapter is roughly what I go through whenever I see a woman whose lips look like a hornet stung them.

Analyzing his second battle against a Twelfth Order Demonic Converter, Wolf immediately realized he had won thanks to his enemy’s greed. If it fought conservatively, focusing on defense, the plant would have survived this bout. It could’ve endured for a week.

However, it tried to eliminate Wolf rather than allow him to whittle away its root soldiers. But that wasn’t wrong. It gambled to eradicate the threat, instead of prolonging the status quo, which would lead to inevitable demise. Things could have played out differently. I could have died if I hadn’t focused on countering its necrotic implosions…

Wolf considered the overall situation and flow of battle first, drawing broad conclusions before focusing on details.

It didn’t interfere with my thoughts. I didn’t have Shield Mind, but Antimagic’s field obstructs Soul Force fluctuations. That’s probably why I stayed safe. Either that, or this Demonic Converter couldn’t influence thoughts, which I know isn’t true. I sensed Shield Mind activate during our first clash.

As for the next Demonic Converter, I could stage an attack from above. With Undetectable, avian Demonic Beasts won’t sense me, unless I draw too close… Wolf plotted his next assault, trying to devise a safer way of taking out Demonic Converters.

Three weeks later, Wolf was clearing out his second target’s subordinate Demonic Beasts. He stalked a Landbound Crocodile. He was ready to strike, when the world abruptly grew bigger and his clothes became loose.

It’s over. A tear slid down Wolf’s cheek, followed by another. As time passed, he found the body he was stuck with a curse. However, the one who shaped it was Archibald, trying to help. Because of that, Wolf never considered dispelling the effect and using a more attractive form.

I’m sorry, Dad. Guilt squeezed Wolf’s heart; he broke down into tears. The young man fiddled with his father’s Ring of Holding while regulating his breathing.

After several moments, he stored his clothes into his Ring of Holding and blew his nose. It was an odd sight for anyone able to see it. A buck naked boy, wiping snot next to a giant crocodile, which napped, oblivious of his murderer’s emotional outburst. Then a rusty sword appeared in that absurd-looking child’s hand. Wolf jumped onto the sleeping reptile’s back like a savage, then plunged the blade hilt-deep into its nape, killing it in an instant.

I should sculpt my new body. With well-practiced motion, Wolf harvested the Monster Core and left.

Five minutes later, he opened a folded space. He walked into the pocket dimension, and, shaking with excitement, he sat down to prepare Myriad Forms. This Tenth Order spell allowed its caster to manipulate their form. Once Wolf found a physique he liked, he would use the magic Archibald taught him to remodel his body for the next decade, or until he dispelled it.

Five minutes later, the spell was ready and Wolf’s flesh became clay for his mind to process. He took out a mirror and started.

He first created a set of thirty-two functional human teeth. Wolf lived every day in fear someone would notice he still had twenty milk teeth. When his friends teethed, his baby teeth remained. Luckily, nobody talked about it, or Wolf would’ve had to find some kid to knock their choppers out and use them as a decoy.

Wolf smiled, revealing his teeth for the first time in a decade and enjoying the fact he now had pointy canines. He then reshaped his feminine face to be more like his father’s and less like an elf’s. Wolf’s jaw grew square, heroic and rugged. His gentle features became harsher and sharper while his supple skin turned rougher and manlier.

Once he got the face down, Wolf enlarged his body until it stood two meters and fifteen centimeters tall.

No. I need to be taller. I want Wayde to look up to me, the way I looked up when I spoke with him. Wolf enhanced his height a bit more, until he reached two meters and twenty-five centimeters, a full fifteen centimeters taller than his best friend. He nodded with satisfaction.

Wolf sculpted his wiry arms and legs into those of a muscular hulk. Nice, broad shoulders, pectorals bigger than chair seats and bulging biceps as thick as a tree. Sturdy hands, powerful thighs and strong, curvy calves…

Wolf paid attention to every minute detail, including the hair on his forearms and chest. Before, he was hairless, save for eyebrows and hair. And yet, despite all the fun he was having, he kept avoiding his sore spot.

But after wrapping up the afro below his waist, Wolf had to deal with that last remaining detail.

How big should I make it? He wondered, then let his junior drop all the way to the ground.

Now it’s too thin, like an earthworm. Wolf’s lip twisted with disgust, then made his fifth limb thicker and ended up a three-leg.

“This looks silly.” Wolf giggled like crazy, voicing his thoughts. Still, he considered leaving the elephantine limb the way it was at that moment.

Silver watched the parade of Wolf’s sore spots and inferiority complexes without a word. She sensed the joy, liberation and insanity this sad exercise awoke in her master. He was still too immature.

Finally, faced with the impracticality of his third leg, Wolf began decreasing it bit by bit, as if every millimeter lost inflicted physical pain. When it reached his ankles, Wolf walked around, but it was way too unwieldy, bouncing and swinging like a flesh pendulum.

Eventually, when it only reached down to his knees, thicker than a child’s forearm, Wolf found the size to inconvenience ratio perfect. But even if he didn’t, he wouldn’t settle for less. Knees already infringed on his bottom line.

Wolf worked on his front side a while longer, ironing out proportions and tiny discrepancies, before turning his attention to his backside. Wolf’s back and butt remained as scrawny as when he was half his current height. He grew muscles until his back became manly enough, and he reshaped his buttocks into a well defined, rock solid mass.

Finally, after all these years, Wolf thought he looked like a proper man.

***

It took one outing for macho Wolf to notice multiple drawbacks to being a hulk. First, since he didn’t have adequate clothes and couldn’t fashion them either, Wolf moved around all natural.

Next, his dangly thingy dangled too much. Gravity and inertia forced him to tie it to his inner thigh. Otherwise, he risked a Demonic Beast biting it off during a hunt.

Third, the damn Demon Forest was much more convenient and easier to navigate in a form which failed to reach this one’s belly button. When he was short, Wolf evaded obstacles by bending under them. With his new body, he either skirted or demolished stuff, raising a ruckus.

Yet, despite all these inconveniences, Wolf persisted in appearing “macho”. Thanks to that stubbornness, the manly man spent three weeks getting used to his new physique, fighting increasingly difficult battles for no reason other than practice and building up combat routines and hand-eye coordination.

Book, Wolf’s ultimate long-sword, got demoted to a short-sword. Luckily, the hilt was big enough for Wolf to use normally, even when wearing this hulking new skin.

However, wielding a sword shorter than his arm left the young man yearning for a great-sword of equal quality, whose blade was three to four meters long. Such a weapon would weigh half a ton. Even with all his strength, Wolf would collapse after swinging it five times, but he ignored inconvenient details in his daydreams.

Another such inconvenient detail was that Wolf’s strength remained the same. He was still one hundred and twenty times stronger than his true body ought to be, or fifty times stronger than a normal adult.

If Star Body could multiply the power of the body Wolf created, his strength would soar fivefold, as would his weight. Unfortunately, the spell redistributed what already existed, rather than creating matter.

Another drawback was that Wolf’s falsely advertised impervious skin became even less invulnerable. A light slash with Book drew blood, where it only left a white mark before.

Likewise, Wolf’s bones and tendons weakened, and he couldn’t use half his maximum power, compared to eighty percent he mobilized when Archibald’s magic was active.

Wolf furiously sparred with a Forest Lioncrab. He only used the Executioner’s Sword, fearing Honed Blade would end the battle too quickly. Even then, it took a mere dozen exchanges before Wolf dismembered the monstrous crab.

Wolf extracted the Monster Core and stored the pincers for later. Their tender meat was a top grade delicacy.

I think I’m ready to give it a go. Wolf thought at Silver.

I think you were ready even before redecorating, Master, the silver egg mumbled a snarky remark.