7 Chapter Seven: Transformation
Aldric screech cut off abruptly as he collapsed onto his back, and his body spasmed. He felt as if something were eating away at him from within.
"Agh— Aghghhhhgh!"
Aldric screamed in a way that made everyone wish they could plug their ears.
"Shabe— Shave me! Please! It hurts so much! P-Please!"
Aldric shouted repeatedly, but there was no one there to help him. He was alone.
As time passed, the pain only grew worse. The pain entered his head like his brain and he felt like his head was being squashed and smashed by a metal repeatedly.
Aldric felt like his head was gonna burst.
"Aaaaaaaaah!!! Wh-What's— Aaaaaaah!!!"
It was unendurable agony. The pain was trying to eat him from the inside out. Aldric writhed on the ground, screaming in terror.
"Ahh!" Aldric yelled in pain and agony, the veins in his throat pulsating with the intensity of his suffering.
The relentless pain surged through his entire being, threatening to overwhelm his consciousness.
His body convulsed involuntarily as if trying to expel the agonizing intrusion.
"Aaargh! Make it stop!" Aldric's desperate pleas echoed in the cavern, but there was no reprieve from the torment that gripped him."H-Help!"
With a trembling hand, Aldric pulled the Celestial Elixir out of his pocket, ripped the cap off, and poured its contents down his throat.
But it did nothing to the pain.
"Ahhhh! Why… It hurts! It hurts!" Aldric yelled at the top of his lungs as he gripped his hair.
Along with the pain, Aldric began to feel his body throb.
He could hear his body creaking inside.
"Make it stop!" Aldric screamed incoherently, smacking his head against the wall over and over, but the pain showed no signs of ending.
Eventually, his body began to transform. Starting from his roots, his black hair slowly turned white.
Then, his muscles and bones began to grow slightly, giving him a toned appearance. Power ran down the inside of his body, and on the side of his face down to his back, a strange red tattoo formed.
Aldric screams continued, and after hours, the pain finally receded.
He slumped to the ground, his breath ragged, and his body drenched in sweat.
"Is it over?"
Aldric raised his robotic arm and used it as a mirror.
Examining his reflection on the polished surface of his robotic arm, Aldric was met with a sight that both fascinated and unnerved him.
His once-black hair had turned a striking shade of white, and there was a red tattoo that adorned his face, extending down his back.
His eyes, once a mundane brown, now held a glint of otherworldly crimson. And the most shocking of it all, his fat body had transformed into a toned physique.
His fats were gone, and his cheeks that looked like bloated cushions now displayed defined contours, enhancing his facial features.
"Is this… me?" he whispered, his voice carrying a mix of wonder and uncertainty. "Where did all the fat go?"
Aldric's hand trembled as he touched the red tattoo on his face, tracing the intricate patterns.
"What the hell happened? Is it because I consumed so many skills than normal?"
The transformation he got was more than just physical; it seemed to have awakened something dormant within him.
He didn't look like his old self anymore, and if he met someone who knew him, he doubted that they would be able to recognize him.
"My body felt surprisingly light, and it felt like power was overflowing from within me."
Aldric stood up and lifted his shirt, which looked more like a rag. He looked over his stomach and saw very prominent muscles.
"Wow! My belly that looked like a balloon is now a six-pack! I feel like I have grown a few inches taller too," Aldric said as he looked down. "So this is what taller people see. What happened to my body? Is this why the system warned me about buying so many skills at once?I feel different somehow...I should check my status window..."
Status Window
Name: Aldric Fellon
Level: 30
Race: Human
Class: King
Title: The Human from the Otherworld. The Human Who Held King Authority. Ruler of Wrath. Ruler of Gluttony.
[■LOCKED■] [■LOCKED■][■LOCKED■] [■LOCKED■] [■LOCKED■]
Stats:
HP: 35,000/40,010
MP: 40,015/40,015
STR: 40,005/40,005
VIT: 40,010/40,010
AGI: 40,010/40,010
INT: 40,010/40,010
Skills:
Berserker Mode
Bloodlust Surge
Combo Fury
Revenge Counter
Vengeful Mark
Wrathful Eruption
Wrathful Roar
Endless Craving
Dominant Aura
Voracious Vitality
Power Reservoir
Endless Hunger
Soul Drainer
Glutton's Overflow
Potent Absorption
Ravenous Surge
Cannibalization
Gluttonous Might
Power Devourer
…more
Unique Skills:
Wrath
Gluttony
Trillionaire System: 0
"H-How incredible," Aldric found himself grinning wickedly. "I remember I got the Appraisal skill from the purchase. I should check everything. "
"Appraise Wrath."
[Wrath (Max Level)
-Power capable of reaching the Gods.
-Increase stats by 10,000.
-Projects an aura that unsettles opponents, making them more susceptible to fear and impairing their combat effectiveness.
-The more enraged you become, the greater the enhancement to your physical and combat abilities.
Obtained when an individual has uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, and even hatred. Wrath reveals itself in the wish to seek vengeance.]
"How terrifying. This is basically a cheat skill, isn't it? But, it came from the seven deadly sins, so it's giving me an ominous feeling." After letting out a sigh, Aldric uses Appraisal on the skill Gluttony next.
[Gluttony (Max Level)
-Power capable of reaching the Gods.
-Increase stats by 10,000.
-Gluttony, the insatiable hunger that devours all.
Obtained when an individual displays an unending desire for power and consumes relentlessly. Gluttony manifests as an ever-growing hunger for strength and dominance.]
"Gluttony, huh? Feels like I'm living in some dark fantasy novel now." Aldric chuckled. "I got titles related to them, too. I should use Appraisal on them, too."
[Ruler of Wrath
-A title granted to one who has conquered Wrath.
-Causes the user to become obsessed with their hatred.
-Increase stats by 10,000.]
[Ruler of Gluttony
-A title granted to one who has conquered Gluttony.
-Causes the user to instantly feel severe hunger whenever the SP bar is not full.
-Everything you eat will convert into SP, HP, and MP
-Increase stats by 10,000.]
"So I'm out of health and mana I can just eat."
Aldric used Appraisal on the new skills he got, too, though he ended up giving up halfway.
Overall, he now has 34,596 skills and abilities.
Some of them are passive, and some that he can activate if he wishes to.
One skill made him interested, the Power Devourer, which allows him to absorb and assimilate the strength of defeated opponents and the skill of Cannibalization, which allows him to absorb skills and abilities by devouring beings—humans even.
"This is totally cheating, isn't it? If this was a game, I would be mod banned immediately."
The next thing that he did was put the martial arts book on his inventory using the spatial magic he got.
"I will use it after I find food. I'm so hungry I could die.
****
ALDRIC decided to go out of the cave.
"It will be night again, and I won't know what kind of monsters will appear. I might use this cave as a shelter for now, but I need something to block the entrance. I also need to hunt something to eat—"
As soon as Aldric stepped out of the cave, his eyes widened at the sight before him.
The landscape stretched out before him—a barren land.
The soil was dry, cracked, and devoid of any vegetation, and there were no animals to hunt.
"What the hell is this?" Aldric erupted as his jaw clenched. "That bitch! She really sent me to die! How the fuck am I going to survive this? Fuck, should I have not spent all my coins? I could have brought food but I wasn't really thinking right that time."
He's fucked and he knows it.
Rather than being killed by the monster, he will die of starvation and thirst first.
"That evil Queen!" Aldric was about to punch the wall in front of him when he suddenly remembered the words that the Queen said before he sent him here to die. "She definitely said something about the spider laying eggs. C-Can I eat spider eggs?"
"No, I don't have the luxury to be picky. I can use fire magic to cook it but I don't have anything to burn. There is no tree and to cook an egg, I need either water or oil. I have water since I can summon it with my magic but I can't just bring myself to eat a spider's egg. I can't help but remember that monster's face."
Aldric sighed. It looks like revenge is still far away for him.
"I should explore the land first. There might be something I can hunt."
