5 05 - Wanderer Ma
Before going to town again, Shawn needed to change his appearance, after all, arriving there looking like the Captain would be very suspicious.
But that did raise a question in Shawn's mind.
'My current stats are high enough for me to stand out among other commoners, but should I go back to my original look, wear another look or just use Capitain's body with another face?' Shawn wondered.
He was considering all the possibilities for these actions.
If he wore his original appearance, he would be very average, and could lose a bit of prominence in the upcoming battle even though he was quite strong. If he wore another appearance, he could stand out more, but still lose Captain's stat points. Or he could just change some aesthetic details of Capitain's body and use another face, but that came with the risk of losing Captain's stats.
'Damn it, my stats are already high enough for me to do well in battle, and I already have Amateur level in two combat skills, which will give me enough strength to stand out even without the stats. I can take the opportunity to test this hypothesis now and not be at the mercy of it in the future.' Shawn made up his mind.
With a thought, Shawn started using [Metamorph] on himself, but instead of going back to his original look, he decided to change his skin to be a little bit whiter, black eyes and long black spiky hair. As for the body, he just removed the body hair and added some scars in places other than the ones the Captain had.
When Shawn finished transforming, he walked down to the river and looked at himself in his reflection. The person he was seeing was exactly as he had imagined!
He used the character from a Japanese anime that he liked in his old world. Even wearing these old rags as clothing, the man's appearance still stood out in a crowd.
"Do you wanna dance with me? Hahaha!!" Shawn laughed as he had fun imitating the character from the anime he was watching.
In Shawn's old world, he not only imitated the behavior of celebrities, he also imitated the behavior of cartoon characters. Some were idiots, some were humiliating, but some were fun, just like this character Shawn was imitating.
"From now on I'm Ma." Shawn said as he stared at his reflection.
Pleased with the transformation, Shawn decided to look at his status to see what had changed.
[Shawn Berowne (Ma)
Level: 6 (11)
Strength: 7 (13)
Dexterity: 7 (11)
Agility: 6 (8)
Endurance: 6 (12)
Inherent skills:
Metamorph Level 01
The host manages to change its complete appearance 1 times every 24 hours. Being able to change the appearance for any being of their own race. If only a single feature is changed, such as hair or eye color, the skill consumption will be greatly reduced.
Only 50% of the target's stats will be copied while the transformation is active. If the host's stats are higher than the target's, the higher number will prevail.
The higher the target's stats, the greater the power consumption for the transformation.
Mimicry Level 01
The host can observe the abilities of other beings of their own species after fully transforming into them and learning the ability for themselves. However, the proficiency in the skill must be obtained by the host itself, the higher the rating of the target skill, the longer the time needed to use the Mimetism skill again.
Skills acquired:
Silver Dust Town Military Sword-play (Rank: Bronze Peak) (Mastery: Amateur): Military swordplay taught to all Silver Dust Town soldiers, this swordplay has been refined for over 100 years, becoming a Bronze Peak skill, only on a threshold to reach the Silver level.
Silver Dust Town Military Footwork (Rank: Bronze) (Mastery: Amateur): Military footwork taught to all Silver Dust Town soldiers, this footwork was invented to be compatible with Silver Dust Town Military swordplay, further amplifying the power of fencing attack.]
'Hmm, luckily it worked! So I can keep the stats for the bodies I transform as long as I don't change the structure too much…' Shawn was pleased with the transformation.
The only problem with that was that he couldn't learn any other skills in this form, just train his own skills and keep his stats.
But for what he needed, that was more than enough.
Sword in hand, Shawn headed for the city's entrance.
---
It had been two days since Shawn left, and later today would be the monster wave. The town gate, which was quite small and made only of wood, was being guarded by guards, who watched the forest to sound the alarms when the wave started.
As soon as the soldiers saw a handsome man with long black hair approaching, they quickly approached him to ask why he was there.
"Hey you, stop right there!" One of the guards wearing silver armor called out to Shawn.
Hearing the scream, Shawn stopped and calmly raised his hands, indicating he didn't come with hostility.
"What are you doing here?" the man asked as he watched Shawn more closely. Mainly looking at Shawn's clothes, which made it clear he was just a peasant.
"I am a wanderer, traveling the world through the outer reaches of forests while training my swordplay and hunting mighty creatures." Shawn said matter-of-factly.
"A wanderer... to get this far you must be powerful. But our city will suffer the wave of monsters tonight, what are your intentions around here?" the knight asked.
Shawn had already come up with a backstory for Ma, so he didn't take long to respond, but still maintained a calm and indifferent demeanor. "While traveling through this forest, I found a peasant who was being devoured by a wild boar. He told me that the city had given him this sword so that he could help defend against the wave of monsters." Shawn said as he looked up at the sky, like he was actually remembering this. "I killed the boar that was devouring him, but he didn't have much time left to live. Just enough time to give me the sword and ask me to defend the city in his place in return. So since I'm a free spirit, I decided to help man's soul to rest in peace, but if you don't want me to, you can have the sword and I'll go."
Hearing Shawn's story and seeing his expression, the knight didn't even doubt it, as the man apparently wasn't getting anything in return for doing so. He could easily take the peasant's sword and flee the way he came, but he still came to the city with the man's sword, which was surprising.
"Don't worry, if that's what you want to do, the city will appreciate your help, after all, any help is welcome. But first I need to know your name and the name of the peasant who gave you the sword." The knight replied.
"The man's name was Shawn, if I'm not mistaken, and my name is Ma." Shawn responded calmly, preventing the knight from noticing any hint of a lie in his words.
"Ok, I will inform my captain, wait here for a moment." The knight said before running off into the small town, while Shawn just stood there watching the surroundings.
The town was small, and the wall was only made of wood, which probably hadn't resisted many monsters, considering the wild boar Shawn had found.
In a few minutes the knight returned, accompanied by a man wearing silver and gold armor, with a physique very similar to 'Ma', disregarding some minor aesthetic differences.
This surprised Capitain Nolasco, who was always proud of his own physique, seeing a hiker with a body very similar to his made him curious about the man. After all, he knew how difficult it had been to train at this point.
If the man had such a physique, the man's stats were probably just as high as his.
"Hello, I'm Nolasco, the captain of the guard of this town. You're Ma, correct?" Nolasco asked as he watched 'Ma' up and down.
"Yes, I'm Ma. Nice to meet you, Nolasco. Quite a good physique you have." Shawn said with a small smile on his face.
"That's what I was going to say to you." Nolasco said too with a small smile on his face. "My subordinate said you volunteered to help defend the city, is that true?"
"Yes, he made that promise to the man I found dying in the forest, of course, if my help is welcome." Shawn said calmly.
"You will certainly be welcome. Come, I will introduce you to the city, I believe you will like it." Nolasco said with a smile to Shawn.
But beneath Nolasco's smile, there was another thought. He was a 35 year old man, for someone who makes a living from battles, he knew he was already a little old.
But seeing 'Ma' with as good a physique as he was, but looking like a young man in his mid-20s, Nolasco saw an opportunity.
If he made this young man join the city's knights, that would be a great achievement for him. With a young man like that in the battles to come, they will be able to make this town grow so much more.
In small towns, many things are missing, but the main thing is money and talent. Usually talented people go to bigger cities, so when an apparently talented young man appeared in front of him, Nolasco felt he should take that opportunity urgently.
But what he didn't know was that this was Shawn's goal from the start. Get an official sponsor, and through battles or contacts find stronger people.
He knew that powerful people without sponsors would run into trouble wherever they went, and it wasn't better to just find a good sponsor first and then start developing faster.
"Have you thought about being a knight?" Nolasco asked Shawn as they walked through the military camp inside the city where the knights were training.
Shawn, who was looking at the knights with curiosity, replied without looking up. "When I was younger this was one of my dreams, but unfortunately my clan was very conservative so I decided to go out and become a wanderer, now with a commoner status, who would give such an opportunity for me?" Shawn said with a self depreciative laugh.
But hearing this, Nolasco felt even more that he had found a good seed, that if he trained it well, one day it would be a great tree.
"In the wave of monsters that will take place today, there are three spots that will be awarded to commoners who perform well during the defense of the city. If you do well, maybe one of those spots will become yours?" Nolasco said as he turned and walked away, leaving this message for the purpose of motivating 'Ma', thinking that this would be tempting him.
But Shawn had to stop himself from showing a sneer on his face. 'Exactly as I planned. Playing with these puppets will be more fun than I imagined.' Shawn thought as he continued to watch the knights' training to see their overall strength level.
---
While Shawn watched the knights, Nolasco after entering his office waited for the report of an assignment he had given to a knight.
Within minutes the man entered the room. "Captain, I got the information."
Hearing that, Nolasco's ears perked up. "Tell me."
"We have confirmed that what the wanderer said is apparently true. While wandering through the outer area of the forest, we found a small encampment of a man, with a fire that was put out less than 24 hours ago. Nearby we found a wild boar carcass, which was probably the monster the wanderer talked about, and on a nearby hill we saw a mound of earth piled up with a cross on the side, probably where the commoner's corpse was buried. Since there was enough evidence, we decided not to dig in the place." The knight replied.
"You did well. Apparently what the wanderer said is true. Just forget about it, you don't need to dig up the dead commoner. Let his body rest at least in the afterlife." Nolasco said with a more relaxed expression.
As soon as he heard the story of 'Ma', he sent knights out to confirm the man's story, after all, at least minimal background research was needed in a situation like this.
But what Nolasco didn't know is that if they dug the "tomb", they wouldn't find anything. This was just a hole Shawn dug and then plugged back in to serve as an alibi.
If they had looked a little further, they would have discovered that the person who entered the city was not actually a simple wanderer.
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