I ended up grinning goofily at the strength I could feel at my fingertips. I could already feel that this increase of strength and abilities would quickly become an addiction, but it helped me survive, so why not? I first put on some new clothes that were leftover's from the alchemist, they were enchanted to have greater durability apparently so they had lasted this long in good condition. They weren't good enough to be armor, but far sturdier than unenchanted daily wear. I took another look in the mirror. "Well... Its... certainly exotic looking?" With a troubled smile, I looked at my odd form wearing a long cloak split down the middle at my waist, with pouches for vials running down my thighs and along my belt. The main colors were a dark brown with black lining appearing underneath when I moved. They seemed to be designed to withstand spills from dangerous chemicals and to reach your vials with ease, not that I knew what I would do with them. Maybe an alchemist fights by throwing potions at the enemy? Anyways, with this on, I looked like a clashing of too many character traits.

Thinking to myself how this clothing clashed with my current looks, I walked out into the main workshop area and saw Safi awake with her head buried in a book.

"Hey Safi, looks like you're up, do you want to share dinner? I was thinking of cooking this monkey I hunted earlier." Safi lifted her head while opening her mouth to speak and stopped as her eyes landed on me. And stared. I got goosebumps as this continued for over 30 seconds, so I slowly waved my hand in front of her face. "H-Hello? You alright?"

"I-Is that you Aura!?" She shrieked in an uncharacteristically loud voice. She would usually keep her voice low, and eyes darting around the room when she spoke to me.

"Yes, sorry for not warning you beforehand, you were asleep so I didn't want to wake you up. I just got back from hunting so I decided to make some modifications to gain a little more strength." I shrugged as I apologized. It seems this had really taken her through a loop, which I should have expected to be honest. Note to self, tell Safi before any new modifications. Actually scratch that, before most modifications. Safi's slightly panicked voice had awoken a new teasing side of myself I hadn't been aware of before. Three cheers for self discovery!

"Are you alright!? You're not feeling weird are you? You have to tell me before you do this kind of dangerous thing!" She spoke like a machine gun, with no pauses for me to answer or retort. I put my hands up in surrender.

"Alright alright, I'll be sure to give you advance notice next time, but it just hurts for a little bit, its not really dangerous you know?"

"Are you serious? Modifying yourself comes with serious risk! In my books about history most Biomancers are put down after a modification finally drives them mad and its considered a last resort type of ability!"

Eh? What the hell did she mean by that? "I've already made plenty of modifications in two sessions already though and I haven't noticed any mental changes?"

I was then subjected to another staring session, and I was once again uncomfortable so I just smiled wryly. "Is it that common for the others to lose their minds like that?"

Safi seemed to regain some composure at my question and answered in a serious tone. "Of course, its labeled as one of the reasons Biomancers are discriminated against. Apparently modifying themselves reduces their cognitive ability since they aren't compatible with the parts. They just use it as a last resort attack if they think they'll die usually, and if they don't then their personalities become twisted and they go on to do many cruel acts."

A certain possibility came to my mind after hearing her description. "In these books, does it say how long it takes for them to do these modifications?"

Bewildered, she thought for a moment and answered, "In most of the stories where it involves battle, it describes the process as only taking a few seconds, up to half a minutes depending on the change."

"I knew it, so that skill really is broken..." I muttered to myself as I got my thoughts in order. Then realizing that Safi was still looking at me worriedly, I gave her my deduction. "I don't know for sure, but I believe one of my Unique Skills, Abnormal Growth is affecting this. It gives me complete compatibility when using Modification type skills, and when I use it the process takes far longer than what you described. If I had to condense what I was feeling into just a few seconds and then it didn't even work properly I think I would go crazy too."

"That's unfair..."

"That's... true..." I shrugged with a wry smile on my face. "Its better this way for both of us though right? Anyways, would you like to eat with me? I'm going to roast some of the monkey meat I hunted earlier."

"That sounds nice, I've only ever eaten the alchemy ingredients that were left behind for their mana." She said it nonchalantly, but I had a guess that she was more excited than she let on based on her tail swaying back and forth at the prospect.

I used one of the burners in the workshop to start cooking the meat and some salt and pepper that had been left behind as basic seasoning on the meat. I was no cook, but I felt that the roast monkey was pretty good. Safi seemed to agree based on her tail thumping on the ground as she ate in large bites.

♦ ♦ ♦

A week had passed since Safi and I had shared our first meal together, and it had become a daily thing for us both. I would hunt some small monsters like lone Water Wolves or a flying squirrel type monster about twice the size of a rabbit simply named Giant Squirrels. They had basically no special features besides the fact they were especially vicious. After the first lone one I hunted, I kept encountering larger and larger packs of them, to the point my inventory currently had over 30 corpses still in them. I was happy about the extra meat but they had no value besides that which annoyed me. Besides the hunting, I had spent my 'evenings' reading books on magic in the library section for ideas on how to improve my spellcasting. I say evenings, but there was no actual night and day cycle in this underground space, the light from the ceiling was ever present so I just based my sleep times on my own whims.

Today I decided to go out and hunt a group of Howler Monkeys to test my new magic, as well as maybe find some new prey to get new parts and test my new skill. After a week of hunting small game my status had changed nicely.

[Name] Aura  

[Class] Biomancer  

[Subclass] None  

[Race] Human (Half-Monster) 

[Level] 16

[HP] 300/300 [MP] 420/420

[Vitality] 30 (+3 Free Stats)

[Capacity] 42 (+9 Free Stats)

[Strength] 30

[Agility] 36

[Intelligence] 40 (+13 Free Stats)

[Charisma] 10

[Fortune] 2    

[Stat Points] 0 (-25 Free Stats)

[Unique Skills] Unsteady Life, Abnormal Growth

[Class Skills] Bio Analyze 4, Flesh Reinforcement 3, Notepad, Life Modification 3

[Skills] Analysis Eye 3, Storage 2, Dagger Combat 1, Unarmed Combat 3, Water Magic 4, Claw Combat 3, Life Magic 2, Non-Elemental Formula Magic 1, Stealth 1

I had leveled up 5 times and distributed my stat points, as well as leveled all my skills by at least 1 except Dagger Combat. When I reached Level 15, Self-Modification had evolved into Life Modification, it had all the same uses, just without the restriction on using it solely on myself. I only had Safi as an ally right now and nothing that would be helpful for her currently, but I'm sure it would come in handy later down the line.

I had found one nice use of the ability already though, and that was one of the weapons I had to test out soon. I headed out the door and created a floating water ball merged with the basic spell 'Glow' added on to make a convenient light. I was quite proud of my work, as my week of studying Non-Elemental Formula Magic had paid off, though it had been a headache. Formula magic was basically the magic of most sentient races that utilized magic circles as the foundation. Besides getting new ideas for my water and life magic, I had decided to study basic Non-Elemental magic as I figured that would be the least likely kind of magic core I would get from an enemy. I preferred to use the more 'primal' monster version of magic that utilized mana cores when I could. This kind of magic was fantastic for creativity and fast magic, but Formula magic had it beat handily when it came to longevity or enchanting. Not that your typical monster would ever need these two things.

I crept through the trees while utilizing my basic Stealth skill to mask my presence and my nose to find my hunt for the day. I was tracking a group of Stone Howler Monkeys, as well as another presence that was stronger along with them. I slowed to a crawl as I grew closer, furrowing my brows at the odd scene.

Four Stone Howler Monkeys, as well as a huge stone gorilla in the middle, were staring down a comparatively smaller stone gorilla and 3 baby stone monkeys cowering behind them. As I used Bio-Analyze I realized that the smaller stone gorilla was actually the mother of the 3 male children, and was haggard after I assumed was fleeing from the other group. The other group seemed to be lead by the Alpha of the pack, a male, but I wasn't sure why they were hunting the mother and sons pair. One big difference I noticed between the two of them was the fact that the Alpha had an extra pair of arms just underneath and behind the first pair.

[Race] Alpha Earth Gorilla (Variant)

[Level] 28

[HP] 640/640 [MP] 160/160  

[Vitality] 64

[Capacity] 16

[Strength] 120

[Agility] 32

[Intelligence] 10

[Charisma] 14

[Fortune] 7  

[Stat Points] 0

[Skills] Unarmed Combat 6, Throwing 5, Acrobatics 3, Stone Skin 5, Blistering Howl 4, Earth Magic 2, Rush 2

I was no saint, but it would definitely leave a very poor taste in my mouth to not step in here. Though this situation did check all of the boxes on what I wanted out of my hunt today, so I wasn't totally without selfish motives. I cast one of my new spells which caused it to begin to lightly rain over the meadow where this battle was taking place, and as time went on the rain became a deluge of water that sustained itself by pulling in the ambient mana so it was quite cost effective. Still using Stealth, I leaped towards my target as all the monkeys and gorillas here looked around in confusion. I decided to get rid of all the enemy monkeys first, so I could focus on Big Ugly in the middle with no interruptions. I clamped one hand around the throat of my victim to stifle its cries and plunged my left hand under its armpit straight into its heart with my claws ending its life in an instant. I put the body in storage and charged my next victim while using Bio Analyze to see all the living creatures on the field while their vision was too obstructed by the heavy rainfall to properly react. For the next target I did the same few actions since it was the easiest method of dealing with these monkeys I had found so far. Suddenly, water was launched all around by air pressure from a howl so loud it sounded like a train horn in my ears and I crossed my arms over my face. The Gorilla was smarter than I gave him credit for it seems, and used his howl to temporarily clear the rain around himself and saw me as well as the monkey corpse in my hands.

He had finally noticed me, but I had already cleared half of his gang so I was happy with that. The rain continued to fall once again but all of the monsters on the battlefield were bewildered to say the least. The attackers had just caught up to their quarry finally and then all of a sudden a new challenger appeared. If they could I was sure they would be cursing me like sailors. I grinned and stomped on the ground as the water making a puddle around us froze in a straight line towards Big Ugly. The water around it and drenching his body froze, pinning him in place long enough for me to charge the next closest monkey with a myriad of ice needles floating over my shoulders. I grabbed both of its hands as it tried to twist and run away and launched the needles straight into its eyes, ending its life as they ice froze all the water in its head. I spun on one foot and threw my new dead projectile at the last monkey. The monkey was enraged and hit its former comrade to the side just to see me charging behind it. I had used the dead monkey as a distraction and swung both my claws into the monkeys throat from each side, killing it instantly. Before, my claws hadn't been sharp enough to puncture the hard parts of the monkey's skin, but now I had water revolving around each claw with ice blades circling with it. Essentially, I had turned each digit into a tiny ice chainsaw to solve my issue.

After the last monkey dies, I haphazardly rolled to the side as a quake followed my exit. I looked up to see the now enraged four armed gorilla make a crater in the ground where I had been standing a moment before. It was official, if this guy hit me I was going to die. Probably burst into pieces. But this kind of hunt was exactly what I had been looking for. A grin plastered on my face, I taunted the gorilla with my fingers in a 'come on' gesture. "Come here Big Ugly, how do you feel about being an organ donor? I'm sure you'd be happy to right? I'll do it for you, free of charge." Big Ugly obviously had no idea what nonsense I was spouting, but it pissed him off seeing someone more handsome than himself I'm sure, thus he charged me full of murderous intent.