Shapeless Hero

9 - Understand Thyself

[ Lifeform registered: Ascended Shapeshifter ]

[ Welcome! ]

Nobody else seems to notice the blue interface in front of me. Karl and August are still recovering from the fight and the commander is in the process of preparing a campfire before the darkness settles. Despite regularly checking on me to make sure her sword is still keeping me pinned, she doesn't react to the floating message stuff at all. Either this is a common thing, or I am the only one able to see it.

I turn back to the blue interface. Having regained my attention, it updates its contents:

[  Congratulations! Through the acquisition of both a working mana circuit and a higher sapience, you have been granted access to the divine guidance system. ]

[ The divine guidance system helps you to survive in a world full of danger. It can provide information about yourself and calculate possible improvements for your skills and traits. Using the divine guidance system, you can quickly acquire knowledge, that would otherwise need several lifetimes worth of research and trial! ]

 [ Focus on the word 'Status' to access general information about yourself. ]

I check on the others again. They still don't react to anything of this. The commander is in the middle of setting a cooking pot on the campfire. Since they all seem to be occupied and I have nothing else I can do, I'll just continue checking out this divine guidance system. As instructed, I focus on the word 'Status' and the interface changes again.

[ Status Overview ]

[ Name: Fylka (temporary)

Species: Shapeshifter, ascended

Status Effects: Paralysis (A), Mana Surpression (B), Slow (B)

Skill Summaries:  Morphing (S), General Physique (C), Languages (C), General Magic (D), General Knowledge (E)

(Focus on a specific skill, to display more details and options for improvement.)  ]

So it even registers temporary names. Does that mean, the shown status is descriptive, instead of prescriptive? The initial description mentioned providing information about the skills, not the skills themselves. 

I remember some RPGs did this the other way around: Reaching a new level, you would invest points into skills or attributes like strength or dexterity. Only then, your player character would improve. Sometimes, the skills were even completely unrelated to how you received the experience points for the level-up.

The status effects seem self-explanatory, so I move on to the skills section. I really want to know, what features the skill Morphing on rank S has. For now, I assume the ranking works almost like on the arcade machines from my old world with S, A, B, C, D and E representing a descending order of aptitude. The important question here is: What is the average rank? For all I know, human children could be on rank A while some above average adults might have their skills several ranks above S... 

I focus on the Morphing skill in the list and a new window pops up on top of the general status:

[ Morphing - Rank S ]

[ You have perfect control of your body shape. You can change it within seconds. You're able to imitate most voices, mannerisms, armor and clothing, down to the smaller details. Be aware, that you don't gain any additional protection from clothing or armor you imitate, unless you have a deep understanding of the materials they are made of. You can not increase or decrease your body mass. ]

[ The better you remember a creature's look, sound and behaviour, the faster you can change into that creature. At this rank, this is hardly a challenge: It takes you only a few glances and spoken words to make a convincing imitation of a target. It will get even easier with each repeated, successful change into the same creature. ]

[ New options will be available, once you successfully imitated a certain number of unique creatures or gain more knowledge about the materials of armor and garments. ]

Going by the descriptions alone, S-rank sounds pretty high.

Within a short moment, my conscious is flooded with previously unknown memories. It now feels, like the knowledge on how to shapeshift was always in me. It's as easy as remembering the lyrics of a song you sung along to hundreds of times. This feels very similar to how my known languages had been changed on the way to this world.

Regardless, I like the idea of being able to change into anything I want. It is far, far better than being stuck in my... old body.

How did that escape me? I didn't just recover my legs, no. The feeling of unease, the puppet-like clumsiness of my movements—it never returned to me since I arrived here! 

Warm sparks of joy fill my body. All the things I can do now... If I am ever freed of the commanders sword, I'll be able to walk around without any health issues and even change my looks and behavior on the fly, as to blend in with the people around me. I could become the perfect tourist, not bothering anyone with ignorant behavior. Unless I open my mouth of course. I hardly know anything about this world.

Wait, if I can become anyone on a whim, does that include my real self? What is the real me anyway? With each passing year, my dysphoria and weakness grew to be part of my identity, as much as I hate to admit it. And now they're gone, leaving an odd gap in my self-perception. I look up to the clouds. "I had no goals, except to escape my struggle. ", I mutter to myself. "I had friends and video games for that. I don't struggle anymore, so what is it, that makes me me now?"

August's voice interrupts my pondering. "Hey, Karl. Was makin' a philosopher part of your experiment too? ...what the fuck is a 'viddy-oh' game?"

Whoops. I didn't think anyone would hear my mumbling. Seems like the crows recovered well though.

The scent of a well seasoned vegetable stew reaches me from the campfire. I don't know what shapeshifters can eat, but my appetite is definitely increasing.