Starting a new life!

The orchard was nice. No predators, a nice companion to keep me company. And plenty of food for my next evolution.

Ah right, let's use Appraisal again to check what are the newest options...

As I used Appraisal, I was surprised to see there was three choice this time!

Adult Sonic Bat: An adult version of the Sonic Bat.

Small Banshee: A small banshee monster. Feared everywhere, this fast and intelligent monster who can steal the appearance of its victims with magic.

Small Wyvern: A small version of a Wyvern. A powerful monster who is the origin of the drake and dragon bloodline. If the wyvern develop an elemental affinity, it might evolve into a drake in the future.

Oh my gosh, There is three choices this time?! Ah no, only two if we don't count the Adult Sonic Bat one. Let's see the other too... Wait... what?! A monster that can give me a human appearance?! SOLD! I'm taking that one! Ah wait, what's the Wyvern, just to be sure... NOPE! Let's all embark the Banshee train, WOOHOO!

I made sure to order Arc to guard me before starting the evolution. I fallen asleep as soon as I selected it. When I woke up, Arc was still next to me. Sensing I have become awake, he licked me in the face. I chuckled and was surprised my chuckling sound didn't sound like a bat sound anymore. It sounded more like a mix of growling. I didn't have time to think about it though, as I was very hungry. But when I was about to get some apples, I realized something... I used my Divine Medicine Skill on myself. As I thought, it resolved my hunger problem.

Arc begin to lick the remaining medicine off me before continuing liking the one on the ground. I chuckled and give him a shower of my Divine Medicine skill. Arc processed to lick himself happily, purring as he did.

I need to train you Arc, I really wonder what monster you can become... But first, let's see the skills I got from evolving! Appraisal time!

" Abundant Sky: Apply a correction on your movement while airborne "

" Steel Body: Apply a correction against non-magic damage based on the skill rank "

" Faint Enhancement: Apply a fainting enhancement to all attacks based skills based on its rank "

" Shapeshift: After killing a target, the user can shapeshift into its physical form. The number of appearance you can remember is limited by the ranks of the skill. "

Abundant Sky is perfect for a flier! And it seem my Diamond Skeleton Body skill that was LV.10 became the Steel Body skill... Two nice upgrades! I wonder why I couldn't get those before... For the Steel Body skill, maybe it's because a steel type body would have burden me if I didn't have enough strength... yeah that's probably it.

My Foresight skill increased again from this, proving me I'm right. Smirking, I continued to read about my new skills...

Now, what is that Faint Enhancement skill... All my attack affect the soul to its core it seem?! HUH?! Wow, it sound amazing! Well, I don't have to kill my enemies if they faint so that's good. That definitely will be useful if I decide to be on the good side of the humans, they are way too fragile... Ok, now, Shapeshift, show me the goods! Wait... WHAT ?! I have to KILL my targets for it to work?! Geesh, I wish I knew THAT before!

I rolled my small bat eyes and put the matter aside for now. I looked at my others skills. They had increased quite a bit! I was especially interested in the new Gale and Darkness spells I had now. Both were the upgraded version of Wind and Shadow spells respectively. Darkness and Gale Magic were definitely better and more aggressive than their previous version. My Water Current magic had being unlocked after practicing with my Divine Medicine skill. Since both were liquid, I managed to unlock it without having to pay for it.

Other than my magic, I have gained a few ranks in other skills but those didn't excite me as much. I was eager to try my new spells but first, I decided it was time to think of this Shapeshift problem. After consideration, I figured that since I'm a monster now, I'll probably have to defend myself against a human once more. But... killing a human for no reason didn't seem right to me. A criminal? Maybe... but it's like getting a criminal record as well. And I didn't know the language of this world... but with my increased intelligence and my Record skill, I could probably learn it easily if I focused on it.

Meh, one problem at a time. I don't need to look like a human right now. I should use my Camouflage and higher senses skills to listen to a children's classroom. This way, I should be able to learn the local language.

I finally found what I was looking for and the next morning, I was listening to a local kindergarten class. It felt a bit weird to learn basic things as the word "sheep", "sky" and such from scratch but my skills made me a fast learner. Once I felt I had nothing more to learn to this class, I tried the next class, one full of older kids. I took trips back to my friend Arc every time they had breaks, making sure he was ok and well fed. I didn't want him to alert the humans of his presence, which would have being the case if he had to feed himself from their livestock's.

Days went like this for a two weeks period before I was confident enough to steal a book and try to read it. Turns out I could understand almost all words in it. I might not have increased my overall strength a lot during this time but now, I was confident I could pass as a human more easily in this world.

It was at this point I had to consider killing a human... again.

Wish I could transform into that human I already killed but looks like I can't.

Considering what to do, I decided I would fly back to Arc and explore the lands, hoping the answer will come by itself. Little did I know Arc had already found the answer to my problem... and was trying to get away from it!

When I arrived near the forest, I found a few adventurer, trying to kill my poor little Arc! He was fleeing, not engaging battles but it seem there was lots of archers and a few spellcasters and they surrounded a large area of the forest. They were slowly closing on him!

I was NOT happy about it! I took some distance and used my Summon skill to bring Arc back to me. My fury increased when I saw that Arc was injured and exhausted from the chase! I used my Divine Medicine skill to restore him. My poor Arc was purring so loudly, he was so happy to see me!

I decided to avenge him... From my observations, there was three mages among the hunters but they weren't on equal strength. Two of them were using air magic to make the arrows more powerful and faster but the last one was strong enough to make Arc avoid that direction all together if he could. I decided to focus on that one. I sneaked among them and realized it was unfortunately a female magician. From the conversations, they were thinking that Arc landed in the forest and that they should be closing in on his location very soon. They were very organized and following that woman's order. I decided to go check on the other groups first. One of the other group, I found an interesting human among them... From the moment I saw him, I knew he were perfect for me!

He was a young adult, probably in his mid-twenties. He was fairly good looking except from a burnt scar on his right arm. What was very eye catching however was his mount. It looked like a white Pegasus! My intuition told me he had either the Taming or the Summon skill. The way he apparently eager to find Arc was very telling. Turns out this guy's name was Argant and the soldiers kept mentioning " Arc " as his next trophy... or prize.

So you want to capture Arc for yourself... This gives me an idea.

Using Camouflage, I flew among those man. Once in the middle of them, I used my Summon skill to teleport Arc to the middle of the group. Then, I quickly flew away from Arc, just enough so he won't be affected by my Wailing attack. I knocked them most humans unconscious, including the magician. Unfortunately, the closest humans to me died instantly but fortunately, the magician was just unconscious for now.

The ones who were further away lost their courage and ran toward the forest cover. They couldn't stand up to Arc at all as he slashed them promptly. While Arc was getting rid of the remaining troops, I used Appraisal on the mage with the Summon skill. Turns out he was way weaker than me. A magician apprentice at best. He only knew a bit of healing magic and wind magic. His best skill was the Taming skill which he had at high level. But he also had some questionable skills like " Thievery " and even one rank in "Taboo" for the " Ally Killer " title. He was definitely a shady character.

The world will definitely be better without you... And I don't have much choice to be honest... Let's take him away!

I ordered Arc to stop chasing the humans and he flew away with the magician to the west while I lifted the Pegasus mount. I was very strong now after all. I flew away at top speed behind a hill far away. I broke the neck of the beast and took off the saddlebags from it. Using the Shapeshift skill, I transformed into the Pegasus and lifted and adjusted the saddlebags so that I would be the one holding them.

Then I flew up to Arc, avoiding the area where I saved him. It took a while to do so but I was fast, silent and unseen. My prey didn't even regain consciousness by the time I arrived. I closed my eyes as my new hooves crushed his skull. It felt wrong but I held it together because I was relieved: I would have a human identity now.

My plan might not be perfect but it should work. Now, any survivors will think Arc teleported in the middle of them and used a skill to knock them unconscious. They will think this guy mount fled, scared, because the pact was broken since this guy was "killed" by Arc. Now we just need to dispose of this body...

This part took longer than anticipated. Just recalling the memories disgust me so I'll skip that part. But we didn't eat it, we just wanted to hide it somewhere it wouldn't be found. Once it was done, I started to search that guy possessions.

Little by little, after reading his travel diaries and from the clues I picked on, I had a good idea what this guy life was. A criminal on the road with magical talent. Was expelled from a magic academy at some point because he tried to blackmail someone. He was then recruited by this bandit group. He killed for his first time while part of this little group. He did it because he was in love with their captain apparently. A twisted, interesting story overall but it felt this guy was blinded by his feeling for that woman and because of his pride. Not like it really matters now.

I shrugged. He didn't own anything of value. Life on the road was harsh it seem. I discovered his name as well but I didn't want to use it. This guy was a criminal after all. I'll make myself a new name among the humans.

After transforming into him, I practiced talking again. It felt SO GOOD! It felt weird that it wasn't the sound of my own voice though. I tried some of my skills in this new body, just to make sure nothing would be amiss. There was a map in this guy possession, I decided to aim for a town that was remote in the mountain. Neither too big or two small. But it was probably well defended, enough to not be raided by bandits anyway.

Of course, I travelled as a bat. It would have being way too long otherwise but I was travelling mostly at night. There was actually some monsters that only lived during the night but they were no threats to me and Arc. We finally arrived in sight of this city. Easy to spot with all the lights. A rather pretty sight I might add.

I decided to not pass the gate. I wasn't sure I needed proper travelling papers and I didn't wanted to get noticed by the guards anyway. Instead, I flew above the city, alone. Arc waited for me outside, a good distance away. I found an abandoned manor nearby what seemed like the noble district. I was surprised such beautiful rich looking house was left abandoned and left at the mercy of plants and rodents. Using Appraisal, I discovered that this manor had a special status on it: Haunted.

That's why I wasn't caught by surprised when a spectral creature tried to attack me. My good friend " Appraisal " confirmed to me it was a gargoyle: a monster soul trapped with magic in its petrified body. If the owner died without transferring its ownership, it would attack anyone in the house proximity. Only usable if there is several Taming skill users in the same family. I simply used my Wailing and Taming skill to bring it under control. It was almost too easy despite the monster being relatively strong. I bounded with it using my evolved Taming skill while it was unconscious.

Now, I needed to clean the place. Easy enough with open windows and controlled Wind magic and the Telekinesis skill. I discovered the hidden room with the statue of the gargoyle. Interestingly, it had a spell formation using Dimensional Magic. This sparkled my interest... Maybe Dimensional Magic was worth it after all!

I had gained a few levels from killing so many humans back there. Fortunately, I didn't gain a status like " Calamity of Humans " but I was afraid I would gain it eventually. I was resolute in killing humans only if absolutely necessary.

Looking at my levels and the ones of Arc, the Appraisal skill warned me that Arc was ready to evolve! I suddenly realized he actually killed humans too and for him, it must have being even more profitable than me.

Looking at its available evolution, he had two options:

- Young Manticore

- Young Air Drake

Interesting... If it's the same pattern as for me, there is a high change it could still evolve into an Air Drake later on so I'll definitely pick the Manticore.

I picked his evolution, something I could do thanks to the link created from my Summon skill. Arc felt asleep almost in the same time. I stayed with him, eager to see an evolution in action.

It was far grosser then I thought it would be. There was sound of bone cracking and the changes of Arc's body were unsettling. The fur on his tail's end had become spiky and sharp. Although his wings remained some of their feathery pattern, they slowly covered themselves with skin first and then with some black chitin. This black armor-like chitin also covered his legs and paws. A strong acidic smell came from his mouth during the transformation so I could guess his bite would have some poisonous and/or some acidic property now. Other than that, he became a bit bigger but not my much.

The transformation took the rest of the night and lasted until the middle of the day. When Arc woke up, I realized his retina had become completely black and his iris were snake like and golden now. I fed him with my Divine Medicine skill to restore its stamina, which he did drank gratefully. I pet him with humans hand and he purred in response. I was so glad to have recover a human body at this point, petting an animal was so much more satisfying with a human's hand.

Now I just need to make a name for myself in this town... That shouldn't be too difficult. I know I could heal anyone from any diseases. Maybe I could be hired as an adventurer, who knows? I guess I would need to learn about this place first however. Let's see if there is a history specialist in this town or some tour guide. Maybe I'll have to deal with whoever owned this place before me too... I need to buy this place, somehow.

Arc seemed happy about his new evolution. He had gained some intelligence I could see it in his eyes. I told him to wait inside the mansion while I went outside to explore. I used my Camouflage skill to not make anyone notice me exit the mansion. After some time asking around, I finally found what I was looking for: a tour guide. I had no money to pay for his services but it didn't matter. I could simply follow the group using my Camouflage skill.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am glad I was able to create gargoyle in this setting. One of my favorite monsters. I considered made it an evolution for the main character at some point but decided otherwise in the end.