A New Form

Whoosh!

A few seconds after disappearing from the green jade hall, Aurus appeared within the fourth illusion world that he had to escape. Surprisingly, Aurus did not feel any headaches at all even though he was not prepared to be teleported at that instant.

"Hm...is it probably because of [Soul Perception I] being evolved?" After a bit of thinking, Aurus thought that this was the most possible reason for him not having any stinging pain in his mind as his tolerance to pressure on his soul was greatly increased after evolving.

He then tried to look around his surroundings and felt that something was off.

"Eh?" Aurus tried to look behind him but he could not do it at all, as if he was being limited. Continuing to feel that something was off, he looked at his body as he knew that his powers came from his body. In an instant, he was shocked since his body was not the Spiritas body he knew and grew accustomed with.

At the exact moment he entered the fourth illusion world, his body was changed from a Spiritas made up of Animas into...

The body of a dog!

And no, it wasn't even the body of a wolf which is known as the ancestor of all dogs, but instead a pure, domesticated dog one would find in a person's home!

"Holy shit. How the heck did I get this body?" Of course, Aurus was confused since the past three illusion worlds did not affect his body at all, but only up to his view. In this fourth illusion world, not only was his view, but his body and senses were changed as well. It was basically an extreme ramp up in difficulty!

"Okay Aurus, breathe and calm down. Don't panic." Aurus did not panic after realizing that he had a body of a domesticated dog that was only a meter long. Instead, he tried to connect this new situation he got into with the end goal of this fourth illusion world.

Recalling the name of the illusion world he was currently in, Aurus started to walk forward on his four legs, albeit in a clumsy manner due to the fact that he was used to rolling or hovering.

"The fourth world is named Power. How is this related to my current dog body?" After mulling over the world's name for a bit, Aurus realized what he needed to do to escape this world.

"I need to grow extremely strong. I need to become the strongest within this world," Aurus said to himself. "But how?"

The only way he knew how to grow stronger was to kill enemies and gain experience to level up and evolve. But considering the experience he had in the past three illusion worlds, there were no beings whatsoever.

Until now.

Rustle...rustle...

As of this moment, Aurus was slowly walking through a slightly sparse forest where possible enemies could be seen. All of a sudden, he heard a rustling sound come from behind him, which prompted him to turn around and look at the direction of where the sound come from, only to gasp in shock.

"What the...this is definitely a huge bump in difficulty!"

The origin of the sound that he heard actually came from a dog that exactly looked just like him! The dog in front of him noticed Aurus and instantly went into a battle stance as it charged towards Aurus with its jaws wide open.

"Oh shi—" Aurus, not expecting that the dog in front of him would attack him all of a sudden, relied on his survival instincts and scurried away from the vicinity, escaping from the clutches of the other dog's jaw.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Although the speed of his running was extremely slow, it was still manifolds faster than his movement speed as a Spiritas, even with all of the movement speed buffs added. Taking a glance behind him every few seconds or so, he could still sense that the dog that found him was still chasing him with its jaw wide open.

"Why do you have to chase me? I just want to finish this world!" Aurus could not help but complain. To think that the first living being he found in this illusion world would be the first one to try and kill him.

As he continued to run, he tried moving in a zigzag manner, or looped around trees, but to no avail. The dog behind him was still chasing him in hot pursuit.

A few minutes passed by and an idea popped into Aurus' mind as he muttered to himself, "I wonder if I can use the skills I obtained as a Spiritas. Can I even open the system?"

Subconsciously continuing to run while the dog behind him was still chasing him, he then commanded in his mind, "Open status screen!"

Ding!

"Ah!" Aurus could not help but exclaim in surprise. To think that it would work. Then again, Aurus remembered that he could use the skills he had in the previous three illusion worlds, hence it would not be weird for the system to work in this world as well.

As a translucent screen appeared in front of Aurus' face, Aurus could not help but gasp at his current information.

________

[Aurus] (Level 1)

Experience: 0/1

Species: Domesticated Dog

[HP]: 5/5

Stats:

[Vitality]: 5

[Attack]: 5

[Defense]: 5

[Agility]: 5

Skills:

[Bite], [Scratch]

________

It took Aurus a few seconds to fully adapt to his current information, seeing that the illusion world also tampered with his system. Nonetheless, with him having access to his current stats, he now knew what to do.

"To think that the answer to becoming stronger was actually something I'm very familiar of!" Aurus could not help but laugh as he abruptly stopped in his tracks and hastily turned around.

The dog that was chasing him abruptly stopped in shock as he did not expect Aurus to stop running. Not long after, the dog felt a killing intent that was aimed at itself, subconsciously taking a few steps backward in fear.

On the other hand, Aurus looked at the dog in front of him as if he was a pile of experience. With a grin that a dog could do, he dashed towards the dog with one of his front paws up in the air as he shouted, "I'll be taking your life then!"

...

Within the Celestial Plane.

Kurohana took around 45 minutes to head back into her own plane as she let out a sigh of relief as she smiled while gazing off into the distance, which was a white wall.

"An honest mistake. Oh, Familia. You thought you could fool me with your innocent looks. Being the Goddess of Kinship, you have control over the law of blood, which doesn't let me detect the changes in your face easily."

She then snapped her fingers as the chair that was in front of the orb where she watched Aurus hastily went up to her. After sitting down, she then manipulated the chair to come back to the front of the orb.

"Nonetheless, you're a bad liar. An extremely innocent facade is something I'm used to already."

Calming her emotions down, she looked at the image within the orb and instantly gasp in shock. The image within the orb was still the stick who had red engravings, who was currently passing through a long corridor with ease.

"Oh fuck! I forgot to switch it back!" Kurohana could not help but curse. Hastily changing the image within the orb to Aurus again did she finally let out a sigh of relief. She looked at the image of Aurus for a bit who was currently fighting against a dog while being a dog.

"Damn." Kurohana knew that Aurus' improvement would slightly slow down thanks to this blunder of hers. "Why did I forget to change the focus of the Luck Orb back to Aurus?"

After complaining for a bit that she was incredibly stupid and such, she let out a soft sigh before saying to herself, "Ah, whatever. So be it. His luck will balance out anyway."