With my mana full I search around the cave for some type of change. Following the pattern from before, after defeating the snake leader a new opening should have been created because all the monsters were defeated. 

That leaves me with two possibilities, I haven't defeated all the monsters yet or something is different about this area. I finally find a change after inspecting half of the cave, in the back of the leader snake’s cave an opening has formed. 

The opening leads me to a space as large as the lake, torches line the walls, the fire glowing in a gastly blue color.This place is giving me a boss battle feeling, but I see no signs of any monsters. Further in the back is a set of stairs, activating [stealth] I vigilantly walk over. Nothing happens… 

At the top of the stairs I see a light, could this be my hopes and dreams taking form? Getting excited I sprint up the remaining stair. Walking out of the cave, I am now in a forest clearing, noises of insects blanket my surroundings. Looking back I can see the exit I came out of is a huge stone coffin embedded in a large stone hill, the lid is slowly and silently sealing the way back to that dreaded place.

“Finally!” I shout in glee, happy to be out of those terrible caves. 

I can see a familiar lake in the center of the clearing, this time no monsters are around. I decide to see if this lake can increase my mana before I check if this forest has monsters or not. Being overly cautious I [transform] into combat form to be ready for anything. Drinking from the lake is not able to increase my mana. It's impossible to tell even while looking at the lake's mana, but sensing the mana around me I can tell the lake water has around the same mana concentration as the lake from before so I expected this outcome. Since I have no reason to stay around this place, time to explore the forest! Heading off east based on the sun's position I start my first Adventure. 

 

...

 

Thankfully nothing extraordinary happened during my walk through the forest. The smell of the trees, feeling of the wind and sound of the branches rustling accompanied me on my exploration.  During that time I didn't encounter any monsters, so either they are only in dungeon-like places or all the monsters in this area are nocturnal. After arriving back at the lake I realized I have no sense of direction… I mean how I even accomplished this when I was walking in a straight line is something I'll never figure out. Watching the setting sun reflect off the lake is a good way to let go of my shame. 

 

“Kraa..Kraa..”(?)

 

My ears twitch and I hear what sounds like ravens coming towards me. After thinking about what to do I decided to switch back to my base form and hide in [stealth]. The chance to test out the [guide] skill might have come sooner than expected, but first I need to see how powerful the approaching monsters are. A group of three ravens lands at the lake side opposite of the cave exit where I'm hiding. They look smaller than the first monster I ate, but still way larger than a normal raven.  

 

While watching them drink from the lake I decide on how to go about testing my skill. I should first try the skill as the same species to see if them being less cautious of me will let the skill work and if that works I'll test it as a normal monster to see what limits the skill has. Going around behind the hill I undo [stealth] and [transform] into a raven before flying over and landing a little bit away from the group. They look over at me before going back to drinking from the lake.

 

“Guide” muttering the skill name(because I need to use it as a normal skill), I target the raven closest to me.

 

Giving it a mental command to walk over and lay down next to me. The raven in question stops and stares at me before walking towards me. But after a few steps it shakes its head before flying away from the lake. The other too seeing their buddy head out stop drinking and follow it.

 

“Dammit! Now I lost my test subjects” I shout

 

To make it worse the skill didn't work, and I don't think its going to go better in my normal form.

However I thought of some uses of the skill while looking at the performance of the raven. If the skill works the same in my other forms in the heat of battle I can use it to mess up the enemies concentration and allow me to get a hit in. Of course there is the option of using the skill as its intended and communication with allies in battle...If I ever get any.

It felt weird to yell out the skill name having used innate skill the whole time, I should try to get more practice with the skill. In fact I think I’ll do that now. Taking the form of the snake I head west to look for ‘targets’ to use the skill on. A few minutes later I’m met with sadness as I found out the snake didn't have [guide] as an innate skill. I guess the normal way of getting skills is learning them, not like I would know with me nabbing skills from monsters. 

 

Wait, now that I think about it, I did learn a skill before! When I learned [mana control] that was a skill I got without [devour]. It's just that, [mana control] doesn't seem like a skill since it's just controlling mana, also the snake was able to learn a normal skill while I learned a innate skill. Is there a difference? Well I’ll think about it later when I can find out the answer. It seems like I have way too many questions when I haven't even discovered a human settlement yet. Jumping to that topic, I’m a monster who can't enter a town! Is there some type of demon town I can live in? This just comes back to me not having enough information about the world. Pride! If you were going to teach me, do your job! 

 

“Sigh” 

 

The forest looks just eerie in the night as a fog rolls on the floor and the moon fills the forest enough for me to still see, as if competing with the sun. 

 

“Come on moon, you can do it! Fight! Fight!”

 

Making a silly joke lifts my mood a little and brings me out of the depressing thoughts. All of the sudden I see a firefly like light in front of me. I haven't seen a firefly yet and it's not mana, sure their not a firefly monster right? I check to make sure [stealth] is still active before walking towards the light. I quickly realized that it was not a speck of light, it was just very far away. After walking for 5 minutes I arrive at a fire(a campfire, NOT a forest fire!) in the forest.

 

Leaning against a tree is a person wearing black pants and a hooded robe with the hood covering their upper face. Cut in many places along the legs and chest, the wounds still bleeding red. They are panting heavily and are yelling quite loud now that I’m close. It seems I’m not the first one to have seen the bright light of the fire,on the ground are six raven corpses strung around. Suddenly I feel a gaze on me and I can feel it ripe apart the veil of secrecy that hides me canceling [stealth].For the first time my [stealth] has failed?!!

 

“Hey, wait!”I shout

 

The person flinches, seeming just as shocked as I am, but after mumbling to them self they look at me coldly and grabs something from their pocket before throwing it at me! I dodged at the last second but it still hit my leg snapping a tendon that affects my mobility. Shit! I can't recover fast from wounds dealt to my base form! I quickly shift to my combat form ready to dodge any more projectile. The person however does not move from their spot, after flinching again(probability because of transformation) they take out a rapier-like sword and go into a defensive position while still leaning against the tree. A strange silence takes hold as we are both just waiting for the other to attack first.

...

…

…

Okay, this is taking way too long. It's been like a half an hour and we both haven't moved yet...It can't be that right? To test my guess I slowly walk around the tree the person is leaning against. After making it to the back side they still haven't gotten up and can't see me.  I move back to the front side, still keeping a safe distance. This person can't move! They have lost way too much blood and are currently in a dying state. I mean only a crazy person would light a fire in a monster infested forest right? The person is still glaring at me but now they look more pitiful than threatening. I decide to relax my guard and lay down while still keeping an eye on the person, they can only attack me with throwing knives and in my combat form I can afford the small injuries.

 

They also relax slightly seeing I have no interest in fighting any longer(not that I did in the first place!).

 

As if waiting for a change, a wild raven joins the battle! It swoops down to attack the person, but they block with their sword and the monster lands next to the fire.  

‘Hey isn't it completely ignoring me, I was never one for attention but come on!’

 

In order to get back at the bird I launch a [fireball] at its undefended back. The [fireball] hits and spreads to all its feathers, and soon the smell of roasted chicken fills the surroundings.

Hey mister raven aren't you a little weak to be attacking this guy and ignoring me? Look at all your friends around here, why the hell would you be any better? 

 

*ding* On second thought, good job.

 

I hear what sounds like a laugh and some more gibberish from the person before we both go back to resting, still vigilant of each other.

…

It's morning now and the guy still hasn't moved since that last incident, just quietly resting. The fire has burned out by now and as the sun shines down I can see the face under the hood and realize two things. First the person is a man and also I think he is dead… I’m kind of sad the first person I met died so quickly and also attacked me, but It makes sense with all those injuries he was going to die eventually. I walk over to the guy who is still smiling and feel the coldness of the world I haven't felt by just killing monsters. 

 

Anyone can die at anytime in this world, only with strength can you live your own way, in order to have a relaxing life I need to be the strongest. My being is lit with a cold, fierce resolve and the mana around me is dyed purple and sways like a flame against the surrounding mana before I calm down and the mana returns to the natural sky blue color. Sorry old guy but I can't send you off the normal way with a grave, I'm not religious but thank god I learned how to use [devour] properly so I don't have to eat everything using this skill. Silently a black shadow covers the corpse starting from his feet flowing towards his head before covering up his peaceful expression.

 

A Voice I never heard before speaks in my head.

[“Humanoid form gained! Notifications unlocked. Advanced stats unlocked. Log history unlocked”]

[“Hidden quest complete!”]

[“You have completed the requirement of acquiring a humanoid form as a demon beast before lv 50. You have gained the title 'speedrunner’.” ]

[“Would you like to undergo evolution to gain a custom humanoid form?!”]

 After the voice that is soft yet loud is done rambling at me the familiar quiet window appears.

[Do you want to start the evolution?(yes/no).]

Old guy… you left me one hell of a farewell gift.

Learning my lesson from the last evolution I make a burrow under the tree before finally responding to the blinking message.

“Yes” my vision cuts to black and my consciousness becomes dull. In what seems like the length of time between breaths I wake up. 

[Evolution time : 167 hrs]

[“Evolution has cleansed all negative status effects”]

At this point I won't be surprised if my next evolution takes half a year. I get up off the floor and immediately bumped my head. Note to self next time make a bigger burrow during evolution.

“Ouch!” My voice sounds more high-pitched than before. 

Imaging the worst situation I hurriedly crawl out of the burrow on my hands and knees. After emerging I stand up straight and check my body before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks god I'm still a Man...but there's another problem.” 

My vision is only slightly higher up than in my combat form, so I'm a really short man or… the more logical option is I'm a child. What. The. Hell! (why is that the logical option??!)

“If this is a custom human form I want a refund, give me the old guys form!”

Also I never checked because his face was covered by the hood but I guess the old guy was a beast person because even in human form I still have my two fox ears and a tail. At least it feels comfortable unlike the form I would have gotten from [devour] normally. Let's change the focus to something else like my new ‘advanced’ stats.  

{

Name: NULL

Lv: 10

Class:(ready to advance)

Hp: 30/30 Mp: 42/42

Strength: 15 Magic : 20 

Agility: 20 Mental: 15

Vitality: 15 Soul: 85

Base form: Black Fox Demon Beast (Chimera(demon))

Combat form: Gray wolf Demon Beast

Humanoid form: Black Fox Demi-Human 

Species absorbed: Raven Demon Beast,Flaming Phoenix Demon Beast, Bull Demon Beast, mouse Demon Beast, Snake Demon Beast

Skills: 

Stealth, Fire Rush, Fireball, Lighting Blast , Lighting boost, Lightning Clad, Guide

Innate Skills:

Mana control, Language Translation(demon)(passive), Devour ,Transform

Titles: Reincarnator, Second Chimera, Chaos Conductor, Speedrunner 

}

The first thing that grabs my attention is the Class section. It says ready to advance but how do I-

[New Class options:

Evolution: null

New classes: 

Warrior,Mage,Archer, rookie Artifact crafter]

Never mind…  Now my only question is what to pick? The smart thing to do is wait till I get to a place with other people to find out about classes and the common knowledge of this world but it's really tempting to pick one. Gathering all my willpower I suppress the urge and shake my head to get rid of the window before pulling the stats back up.

The second change that grabs my attention is the extra numbers I have beside my hp and mp. Strength, agility and magic are straight forward, but I have no idea what soul, mental and vitality relate too. If Strength is my body's physical power and magic is my magical skills power then mental would be the power of my mind and soul… would be the power of my soul. I think that's the case but at the same time it feel like I'm missing something. Also the numbers across my new stats are around the same except soul(a bug?), is it because I'm a demon. Demons in mythology would tempt people so maybe that relates to soul strength???

I just remember I never checked what the outcome of [devour] was, surely it wouldn't eat the clothes right? The only thing left next to the tree is the black robe, better than nothing.I hang it on a tree branch nearby while I test out what skills I can use in human form.

…

The result amazes me because I can use all of my skills as innate, even [guide]! I can only guess that this is thanks to the custom form because even with my first evolution I couldn't use [stealth]. Another thing I tested was if my stats would change depending on my forms and the result was a yes. My magical stats(magic,mental,soul) don't change but my physical ones do, I only tested my main forms since after learning the skills the other forms are useless to me besides the raven for flight. In combat form my strength doubles to 30 but my agility is cut in half to a pitiful 10 also my stats don't change at all from human form to base form. I put on the last gift from the old man before heading off...however I quickly change back to my base form because of the breeze between my legs, even if the robe covers down to below my knees it doesn't make up for pants.