Qualitative Change

All around Michael, the Yellow Scaled Lizards screeched to the sky, acknowledging their new leader. Michael stared around at them, brushing the notification from the game system to the back of his mind.

He ran his eyes over the body beside him, stepping off its head to take a proper look. He would leave it for later when the lizards weren't watching him, after all, he couldn't turn into a slime to consume it right in front of them. With a low hiss, he turned around to continue making his way to his goal.

"Leader..." A low hiss interrupted Michael in his steps. He turned slightly to see a rather frail lizard standing ahead of all the others with its head bowed in submission. Before his mind could devolve into shock, he suddenly recalled one of the Derived Abilities he had gotten when he was still limited to his slime form. Interracial Communication Channel, an ability that allowed him to establish a communication channel with anyone despite the fact that they may not be able to communicate in the same language.

"Leader... Congratulations on your new position." The lizard before Michael raised its head, fixing him with steady eyes.

"And who are you?" Michael exercised his ability for the first time. Although to those who couldn't speak the tongue of the Yellow Scaled Lizard, he was speaking garbled nonsense, to the Lizards, he spoke very clearly.

"I am Milizaus, the advisor of the tribe head." The features of Milizaus betrayed his true age. Unlike most other lizards around them, the deep yellow of his scales had begun fading. The color of a lizard's scales was its pride and joy. The fading of color usually portrayed the weakness of a lizard or the age of a lizard. Milizaus was obviously one of the oldest lizards of this tribe.

"I supposed t would be a good time to introduce myself, so as to avoid any future misunderstandings when I approach you." Milizaus hissed out, his main tongue flicking before him.

Michael turned around to face him, his eyes narrowed. "And what exactly is the job of an adviser? Why would I need you to judge my every move?" Michael could guess that the former leader was merely a puppet and this adviser was the one pulling the strings. They may be lizards, but that didn't mean there were no power plays among them.

"It is not as you think-"

"It is exactly what I think. I have other things to do. When I return, I'll sort things out with the tribe." Michael didn't plan on wasting time with getting used to the tribe and its people. He had other priorities that he planned to take care of.

With an indignant wave of his tail, Michael turned around and proceeded to continue making his way to the other side of the cave. It was quite slow, but if he turned into another form, he would instantly turn the entire tribe against him, and this time, they wouldn't have any problems using their superior numbers to down him.

Along the way, Michael noticed that several lizards had tailed him. Their sizes were roughly around that of the dead former leader, but all of which were slightly smaller than him.

"What?" His tail whipped the ground. He was a bit annoyed by their constant presence.

"We want to learn from you, Leader. The former leader forbade male leaders from fighting." One of the lizards stepped forward and bowed its head. Michael eyed them closely, using the game interface to get a reading on them.

[Yellow Scaled Lizard.]

-Rank - F

-Growth Stage - 3/3

-Overall Energy Level - 70 points

-Max Evolution limit reached.

-----

The stats of all five lizards that were following him were roughly the same. What surprised Michael was the fact that their overall Energy Level was above his by twenty points. He guessed it was due to the fact that they actually grew up normally and were able to amass their power through their growth, unlike him who grew to their point in just a day's time.

"Huff-" Michael huffed before returning to ignoring them.

They made good time in their journey. Soon enough, the group of Yellow Scaled Lizards crossed the entire length of the cave, arriving at the other end. On the wall before them, several carvings were etched into the hard rock, depicting the shapes of various beasts. In the middle of the carvings, a majestic carving depicting a dragon stood out from the others. It's domineering eyes stared down at the group of lizards, as though looking down on them.

'Finally...' Michael thought, taking a step forward.

"Leader!" The lizard from earlier spoke up once again.

"What?!" Michael was getting a bit irritated by the constant interruptions. First the fight, and then the subsequent distractions.

"This is a sacred ground. No one who goes too close ever comes back the same. They all loose their minds!" The lizards behaved genuinely worried for his safety. Although they were still a bit wary of their new leader, he at least hadn't imposed himself on their tribe.

"It's fine. They were too stupid to comprehend the power that lies here." He turned back to face the carvings. The lizards behind him felt a bit affronted as those who had tried to access the carvings were identified as geniuses in the tribe.

Michael walked forward and placed a tiny clawed foot against the base of the wall. All of a sudden, his vision warped and his consciousness left his body.

[Multiple powerful bloodlines detected. Running deep scan. Analyzing...]

The game system sent Michael a bunch of notifications. His mind swirled around as a bunch of silhouettes flashed by him. A wolf, a bull, a human, an elf, numerous vague silhouettes flashed by rapidly before slowly coming to a stop on the last one. A dragon.

[Bloodline analysis completed. Bloodlines stored. A vast energy reservoir has been detected. Absorbing energy...]

A flood of energy instantly poured into his body. His mind felt overloaded and his boned creaked within his body. His muscles bunched up, full of excess power.

"Leader!" The lizards behind him noticed the spike in the energy around them an wanted to step forward to help him, but Michael's tail suddenly lashed out, smashing the ground before them.

"Don't step forward. Stay back!" He barely managed to his out the words through his teeth. The lizards could only watch as waves of pressure pressed down on their leader.

[The energy being deposited into your body has gone beyond tolerable boundaries. The energy detected is sufficient to induce a qualitative evolution in the base genes of the surrounding creatures. Do you want to proceed?]

'Proceed dammit!' The pain threatened to push his mind over the brink. He could barely think and the system's question was to stupid he felt like cursing at it for days.

A huge amount of the pressure that was bearing down on him suddenly vanished. As soon as it did, he heard several loud screeches erupt around him. Powerful surges of energy burst behind him in random spots. It seemed the effects the system had mentioned had begun taking place. Michael focused his mind solely on his own evolution, leaving the lizards to fend for themselves.

After several minutes, the dense energy in the air slowly subsided, returning to how it was before Michael had triggered the dormant energy that was stored within the carvings.

Michael opened his eyes slowly, taking in the changes that his boy had gone through. When he looked down to examine his body, his eyes shot open. He hadn't expected that this was what the system had meant by a qualitative change!

He examined his two muscly legs, running his clawed hands over the smooth yellow scales that covered the dense muscles beneath them. He had evolve into a two meter tall lizardman! The thought of the eruptions of energy behind him suddenly flashed through his mind and he turned back almost fast enough to give himself whiplash.

Groaning lizardmen were scattered all around the cave. The entire tribe of lizards had evolved from ordinary Yellow Scaled Lizards to Yellow Scaled Lizardmen! The change was astounding!

On a whim, Michael just decided to check the stats of the lizardmen before him.

[Yellow Scaled Lizardmen.]

-Rank - E - Peak

-Growth Stage - 3/3

-Overall Energy Level - 450 points

-Rank Elevation is possible.

-----

The entire tribe of lizards had undergone a very substantial change in the base of their genes, going from ordinary lizards to lizardmen. What this meant was that the quality and quantity of energy that was saved within this carving was so great it could alter one's genes. This was something that could only come about if the being the energy belonged to was at least in the realm on the mystical rank that existed above A rank!

All of a sudden, Michael realized something.

'Hold on... This isn't how the game is supposed to go!'