Shifter - Infinite Transformation-Chapter 76: Galea

The Gale Wolf provided more Essence than expected. My Core rumbled and thumped, bringing a smile to my lips.

Core: Tier-1 (70%)

After hunting close to a dozen strong Tier-1 monsters and a Gale Wolf, that was all I managed to accumulate. It was a nuisance, yet I couldn’t help but look at it from a more promising perspective. Only a few months had passed since the Choosing, and I’d already defeated my first Tier-2 monster.

Sure, it required quite a bit of help, but the point was the same.

And now that the first Tier-2 monster fell victim to me, it was only a matter of time before I could kill them without anyone’s help. Or so was the plan – to gain the combat experience and Shifts needed to hunt Tier-2 monsters or monstrosities for their Essence as well as Shifts.

"Is the Gale Wolf injured?" Clove asked as he materialized beside me. He kicked the carcass, his attention solely on me.

The young fae wasn’t talking about the monster. He couldn’t care less about that.

Using Shift, I transformed into the Gale Wolf and called upon the Status.

Xavier Halur

Core: Tier-2 (11%)

Primary Power: Shift

Racial Trait: Galea

The racial trait was not exactly what I’d expected after the Gale Wolf materialized a wind blade and used the surrounding wind to accelerate its movement. Hence, the only logical explanation was that Galea incorporated both abilities. Maybe, it could do even more than that.

I made a mental note of that and moved around in the Gale Wolf form. Every heartbeat spent in the form drained Shift considerably, but it was nowhere near as exhausting as the Juvenile Nature Dragon Shift. Truthfully, the amount of energy the form consumed was lower than it should have been.

Then again, the Gale Wolf was not incredibly tough or strong. It was fast but probably not as agile as a regular wolf of the 2nd Tier should have been.

The Gale Wolf is not a monstrosity, yet it has a powerful racial trait.

If my train of thought was not completely wrong, the information at hand suggested that the Gale Wolf sacrificed some of its Core’s power to acquire and maintain Galea. That would explain why it was cheaper to maintain than expected, and why it was weaker than a regular 2nd Tier monster should have been – without Galea.

As soon as I triggered the wolf’s racial trait, Shift ended. A wind blade the size of my finger burst forth and cut through the air, but that was about it.

Shifting back to my main form, I nodded slowly. "He’s not injured."

That had been yet another worry: Shift acknowledging a monster’s injuries. If Shift updated a crippled monster to the Accessible Shifts, it may as well become unusable for me. It depended on the Shift’s condition but it’d be bad nonetheless.

Fortunately, the Gale Wolf was unscathed. Even though its leg had been broken, there hadn’t been a lasting injury. It was completely unscathed, which brought up yet another question.

"So why is that human soldier different?" I murmured to myself, while Clove smiled, clearly happy with the turn of events.

The soldier with Burst was clearly injured whenever I shifted to him. The same could be said about the Juvenile Nature Dragon. I’d only been in the dragon form once, for a second at most, but that had been enough to see the obvious. That it didn’t have any wings.

The juvenile dragon’s mother had a pair of mighty wings, yet the young one did not. I first thought they’d been cut off by the empire’s soldiers but was that really it?

Curious, I did something Fern would scold me for. I shifted to the Juvenile Nature Dragon form for a quarter of a second. Only until the Status updated.

Shift’s energy reserve hit rock bottom almost instantly. Exhaustion struck me like a fully charged carriage but the result was worth it.

Xavier Halur

Core: Tier-2 (91%)

Primary Power: Shift

Racial Trait: Dragonbreath, Nature’s Call, Dominion

Defect: Flightless

"I knew it," I tried to exclaim but a weak gasp was all that reached the others.

"What in the gods’ names are you doing?!" Fern shouted. She reached out for me, cupped my face by force, and inspected me from head to toe.

All this while, my attention stayed on the Status. It took only a little effort to stop it from changing, but it was a necessity.

Defect. That was all I needed to see. The Juvenile Nature Dragon hadn’t been crippled by someone else. It was born like that – probably? The details eluded me even now, but if the dragon was born without wings it would explain the Defect. At least, that’d be the case if the human soldier with Burst was not born like that. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

But that meant external forces damaged his body badly enough to be acknowledged by Shift.

It was probably his Power. That much makes sense. Using Burst hurts like hell in that damn body. I mused to myself, while Fern shook me.

"I had to check something. Don’t be angry at me," I grimaced.

Fern finally let go of me, but not without letting out a ’hmpf!’ and a few curses in fae.

"Do I want to know what she said?" I asked Clove, whose smile was as punchable as ever.

"Probably not." He chuckled, "Just know that she’s worried about you."

That made me a little angry. How could it not?

"That doesn’t make any sense. So I am not allowed to be worried about her, but she can throw around her worry like that?" That smelled like hypocrisy.

"She is stronger," Clove said as if that were all that mattered. When he noticed that it did not, he sighed.

"The strong have to protect the weak. That is also why I am supposed to worry about you." He explained with a shrug.

"But you do not." I pointed out before he could continue.

"I don’t worry about you, yes." The young fae agreed. "Because you are dangerous. You are already strong enough to take care of yourself. Plus, we are no longer in a community either. That does not mean I won’t help or protect you when you need my support, but it is not my duty to worry about you. Your mate, on the other hand..."

Clove didn’t have to explain further. I understood the meaning behind the unsaid words good enough.

"So once I’m stronger than her, I can worry about her, and she is no longer allowed to worry about me?"

Clove shrugged. "I don’t particularly care about these old customs. All I know is that women tend to worry a lot. And that they’re easy to anger, especially when they’re stronger than you." He snickered and added, "Once you are stronger than her, she will jump you all day. You will get to know what a fae in heat looks like."

That sounded odd. Fern was not a dog in heat, but the young fae looked serious enough. But considering how much he talked about a fae’s libido and his teasing whether I will be able to satisfy a fae, I didn’t think he was lying.

"So that’s a thing?" I asked Clove even though I felt like I knew the answer.

"100%." The young fae nodded seriously. "Heck, you don’t even have to be stronger. As long as your connection is strong enough, Fern won’t let go of you. Not until you have planted something in her womb."

In a way, that sounded terrifying.

In another...I couldn’t help but look forward to that time.

But before that, we would have to leave the Eserian. I really didn’t want to be at it with danger lurking all around us.