Experimentation

Kai was more than happy with the results of his experiments. He had found out quite a few things about that ability that could come in handy in the future.

For starters, Kai could deactivate the invisibility and instantly activate it again, there was no internal cooldown, it was just entirely reliant on Kai's Mana.

Another test that Kai attempted was how did he look in reflections. However, there was one problem with that test. That problem was that there was no reflective surfaces in the white room.

So, to deal with that problem, Kai had to put up with the guilt and wake Umbra up for a few minutes.

After Umbra was awake, Kai once again used one of her two normal eyes and tried to spot himself in the reflection.

That was where one gruelling weakness came in.

For whatever reason, eyes could not perceive Kai normally while in this state. Reflections however, they worked differently to actual vision.

In Umbra's eye, Kai could spot the outline of himself. He was still invisible, but you could kind of make out where he was. If you combined how his form would shimmer from time to time and now that it wasn't as effective with reflections, the invisibility didn't seem that strong after all.

It was still good mind you, but it wasn't comparable to how good it was when the Veiled of the Dark Side used it.

But there was one more feature about the skill that basically made up for all the down sides combined, one feature that was so incredible that Kai couldn't help but be in awe of the potential.

Kai could turn Esurient invisible while he himself remained visible.

An invisible sword, the perfect option for an opening attack. People would just think was an idiot if they saw him swing his arm at them, but it would be too late for them as Esurient would have already cut them down.

Another thing was that Kai could have Esurient already be invisible when he summoned the trusty blade, making it seem as if Kai was barehanded the whole time. Kai wasn't one to shy away from a little deception, any advantage was a good advantage after all.

So, overall, Esurient's ability had its pros and cons, but Kai was proud of his cute blade. It was basically a puppy he had found on the side of the road that could talk and do magic.

Maybe that would also make for a good movie in the future... If it isn't already one, that is.

With his experiments concluded and his Mana ran dry, Kai sat down on the mattress beside Esurient and Umbra. He would feel a little guilty just sending the sword back into his soul considering it was sentient and all so Kai just let it bathe in the never dimming light of the white room.

At this point, he had earned the right to rest. He had to wait for his Mana to replenish before he could test his upgraded innate ability with Umbra, and there was nothing else Kai could think of off the top of his mind that he had to do.

So, with a content sigh, Kai closed his eyes once more and decided to take a nap to pass the time.

*******

Roughly two days passed, meaning there was a little over two days remaining of Kai's time in the white room. He had no idea what would happen once he got out, but he was hoping that it was something positive and not something that would absolutely shatter him for years to come.

His Mana had long recovered naturally, but it was moments like this where he missed the Mana potions Failure and Aldred had provided him. Turns out, much like the real world, having a sponsor that provides for you makes everything a whole lot easier.

Because Kai was unsure of what would happen, he returned Esurient to the safety of his own soul before getting himself and Umbra ready.

"Alright girl, you ready to try this?"

Umbra's tail wagged as she happily gazed up at Kai.

"Me is ready!"

With nothing else left to say, Kai took a deep breath and activated Will of the Kaiser.

Instantly, Umbra's form started to fade away as Kai's started changing.

The first thing he noticed was that his sense of smell improved massively from getting Wolf's Senses back, which wasn't a good thing as Kai hadn't washed himself in around a week.

Eugh, is this what Umbra has been putting up with?

Kai slowly started to grow shorter and more and more hairy. His body started morphing as he fully turned into a wolf, much like Umbra, except for the fact that there was a purple highlight to Kai's fur.

A tail grew out from the bottom of his spine and Kai couldn't help but move it. It was a weird sensation, it was almost like controlling an extra arm. And the tail wasn't weak by any means, Kai had no doubt that if he were to whip someone with it that it would definitely leave a mark.

Once the transformation was complete, all the notifications started rolling in. Extra stats, skills, everything. In fact, Kai couldn't resist looking at the skill section of his status now that he could borrow Umbra's skills when fused with her.

Skills:

[Lesser Dagger Mastery (Common)] [Lesser Identify (Common)] [Concise Claws (Common)] [Telepathy (Common)] [Stalker (Uncommon)] [Coat of Night (Uncommon)] [Graced by Darkness (Uncommon)] [Strong Mind (Uncommon)] [Nonchalance (Rare)] [Contract of Artemis (Rare)] [Soul Flame (Rare)] [Soul Link (Rare)] [Soul Sense (Rare)] [Bite of Umbra (Rare)] [Soulcery (Epic)] [Minor Restoration (Epic)] [Grace of The Ever-changing (Legendary)]

Kai stared blankly at all the skills, and there was a lot of them. There was just so many, if he wanted to achieve this amount of skills under normal means then he would have to level up thirty more times, and that was only if the level requirements for skill selections hadn't changed after gaining his new class.

Sadly, one of the downsides of becoming a wolf was that he couldn't wield Esurient, hence he couldn't have that small boost of strength and have the increased time in this form from the help the blade gave to his Mana circulation.

However, it seemed that effect would be basically useless now as Kai's eyes widened as he looked after the timer he had for this transformation.

Time remaining: 14 minutes and 54 seconds

How-

It all instantly clicked, how certain aspects of his innate ability worked. Kai wasn't sure if it was just that it should have been obvious by now or if it was because of the knowledge from his bloodline, but Kai understood how to upgrade his innate ability.

The way Kai unlocked the upgraded version of this form previously was by reaching one hundred in his Mana stat, or one thousand Mana overall. That was how to increase the stats and skills in this form, increasing his Mana.

However, it didn't affect the time of the transformation. No, the timer was based off something different. The timer was based off the rank of Kai's Soul Core.

He wasn't sure if each rank gave him an extra five minutes, or it was only this form he had that gave an extra five minutes per rank up, but Kai was certain that upgrading his Soul Core would give him extra time in this fused state.

However, he couldn't say the same for when he used his innate ability normally. The contrast from when he got goblin mode the first time and the most recent time was like night and day. The first time, Kai had barely any time in that transformation, but after upgrading his Mana he had much, much longer.

So it seemed that only this special fusion to do with Grace of The Ever-changing went off Kai's Soul Core. Maybe it was because of the fact that apparently most of the powers of this form were sealed, it might just be that Kai's soul was too weak to handle them. That certainly made sense anyway.

Sadly, Kai would have to come back to these thoughts later as his time was ticking away.

Kai tested some of the skills he gained when fused with Umbra, pleased with what he found out.

For starters, Bite of Umbra, which received a three times damage boost whenever Umbra fought near Kai and was near shadows still worked even though Kai and Umbra were one. However, it only gave a two times damage boost considering there were no shadows in the area. Still, it meant that if there was shadows in the area, all of Kai's bites would do three times more damage.

Kai didn't bother testing Coat of Night, Stalker, Grace of the Ever-changing, Graced by Darkness or Concise Claws as he either didn't know enough about them or they just wouldn't work in the first place because of the current environment.

Next, Kai cut himself with a claw and attempted to use Minor Restoration.

Unlike his expectations, the healing was actually pretty quick. It wasn't near instantaneous, but it also wasn't slow. It took about thirty seconds to heal that deep cut, but it could have been a lot worse. Still, healing severed limbs or something like that would take a long time.

After having his fun being a wolf, Kai used the remaining time to turn into the humanoid wolf form.

It was slightly different when compared to how it was before. Kai had grown taller, while he was previously eight foot tall in this form, now he was nearing ten foot tall. The purple highlights of his fur were ever so slightly darker and his claws felt slightly sharper. His muscles were more densely packed, offering some more strength and flexibility.

And luckily, even though he wasn't in the full wolf form, Umbra's skills were still passed onto Kai. Still, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be going around biting anything while in this form.

Not unless it was a last ditch effort, that is.

Kai couldn't help but grin as he looked down at his monstrous body. It seemed like he had a lot more experimenting to do in these two days.