Being Human

Nee Chen's recklessness is something you would never see every day. At the top of the tallest tree, he determinedly waited within the presumable territory of a herd of 1st stage monkeys.

'Oh, the things I do for Exp,' He complained to himself. 'Sigh…'

"Hooh-haah—hooh-hah-hoo"

"Hahah-hoo—hah!"

Just to an adjacent tree, Nee Chen recognized a couple of monkeys in heat, doing it in broad daylight. A male pounding the female… err… doing the female… uum, no… baby-making with the female? Screw it. Right, that's the word, screwing the female's brains out.

'Ugh… As expected, monkeys…' Nee Chen kept the thought to himself as he places his hand over his sheathed sword. And.

Jump.

From a higher vantage point, Nee Chen descended. After reaching the 1st stage, his senses have become more acute, thus his precision.

EQUIP!

Nee Chen drew his sword with impressive alacrity. Equip is a martial skill with active and passive effects. It is one of the two skills he learned after receiving his Warrior class.

Actively, it grants bonus damage every successive hit depending on the qi imbued on the sword. Passively, it allows the practitioner to capably wield their weapon with a certain boost of stats according to the weapon used. For a sword, that would be additional strength and agility.

Slash—

A clean beheading! The two fell from their tree, causing blood and gore to splatter. Nee Chen immediately hid in the thickets of the trees as the monkeys make an uproar as one of their own was killed.

…

Enveloping the reptilian beast is its martial art: Dense Jade Armor. The Crocodilian was very still at the moment. In the physical world, it looks like a giant beast casually dozing off.

But in fact, it was actually inside its inner world. While it was interrupted in the midst of its breakthrough, the Crocodilian is not someone who will easily give up.

The opportunity to achieve the next stage is here! The monstrous Crocodilian won't let the opportunity slip past him.

Falling into a deep meditative state, the reptile explores its inner world once more. Shedding its scales, the Crocodilian finds enlightenment in its new form. REBIRTH! NEW LIFE! TRANSCEND!

The 'it' abandons the current self and became a 'he' in order to achieve a more perfect state.

No longer was he an ignorant beast. No longer was he an arrogant monster. No longer was he just a crocodile.

Now, he is as human as everyone. He has a name, a presence, a refined soul, and a new perception of things. Now, he can control his instincts and impulses much better. he is now an entirely different existence than he was before.

He has changed and accepted the change.

He is... Lurker.

...

When the reptilian beast stopped in its tracks, Bi Yuan thought that it was the opportunity she has been waiting for. So she attacked with her Sacred Ash. The brilliant white that gathered on her is a weapon of destruction of pure positive energies. Even a ghost of demon king status won't be unscathed by a sneak attack like this.

Alas, it didn't do anything. Well, it did something, but the blind eye that was inflicted on the crocodile isn't really a big deal. At least according to Bi Yuan's opinion.

Bi Yuan likes to fight but hates the pain. She's a peculiar creature nurtured by the system at her very core. She can't even remember her life as an ordinary bunny, there is only the life before her, the one the system paved.

Though she has the boon of resurrection, she doesn't abuse it, because of her respect for the system. While it's the white ape's intention to make a tool of the system and shared it, Bi Yuan is more thankful for the existence of the system itself, making her fanatically crazed toward whoever made the system's existence possible. It's a kind of chaotic admiration to a chaotic cycle…

In a sense, Bi Yuan has developed a strange sense of faith in the system and its creator...

That's why when the opportunity to slay a 4th stage beast came, Bi Yuan, felt hopeful. By slaying and offering this reptilian monster, Bi Yuan hopes to satisfy her faith.

It was almost a barbaric thought, but the way Bi Yuan sees it, slaying the reptilian monster in front of her is already impossible.

The Crocodilian is unmoving and her attacks kept on coming. However, none of her efforts seems to take effect. Bi Yuan tried to retrieve her weapon stuck in the beast's eye. Nevertheless, it just won't work as the hardened qi around the Crocodilian makes it impossible.

It was like that, until.

Dense qi started to encapsulate the Crocodilian. Burning with hot qi, the Crocodilian's body started to compress. The weapon stuck in its eye freely expelled itself, making Bi Yuan who was trying to pull it stumble, water splashing everywhere in the shallow creek.

It was a majestic sight, a beast achieving humanization!

Bi Yuan etched the spectacle in her mind. She felt envy and contempt inside her, emotions too new for her young mind.

…

"From now on, I shall be known as the Lurker, a name befitting my magnificent self!"

These are the words he first spoke as his consciousness gradually return to the physical world. Shedding his crocodilian self, he has become Lurker, a representation of himself he found most becoming.

Dark green hair, like the algae found in the gaps of rocks, extended below his waist. The mass that once dominated the creek has now been condensed to a godly sculpted body. No longer was his eye wounded and eyes plain but instead was replaced by gem-like reptilian golden eyes.

Lurker is his name, a crocodilian humanoid beast in the 5th stage!

Using his control over his beastly transformation, he summoned his hide to cover himself. As if robes draped over his body, his crocodile hide slithered into his skin. Lurker looked refined, like a gentleman, with his silky smooth and stylish robe.

"Interesting, is this what humans call a sense of shame? I feel uncomfortable without clothes, huh? Or maybe it's just the wind since I am now a furless ape?"

Lurker spoke to himself in a monologue, feeling the impressive changes throughout his body. Standing above the creek's waters as if it is solid ground, he clenched and unclenched his fist.

"Since I was a hatchling, I thought too little of humans. In fact, as I grow up, my contempt for them also grew. What is so good with those furless apes? They don't have jaws as I do. A hide, any claws, they got nothing. But why do the heavens favor them so much? They got the best talents, the best survivability, and the strongest individuals. It is unfair!"

At the end of his monologue, he gazed unto the little bunny, the funny little one as he calls it.

"It is because, humans are the original race," With these words, Lurker vanished, only to reappear at Bi Yuan's sight holding Xiang Ya by her neck. "I learned it in an ancient text. Anyway, the small details don't matter."

With a single burst of qi, Lurker crushed Xiang Ya's throat, dooming the female cultivator to death.

"What do you say, funny little one?"

Lurker walked closer to the little bunny, slight ripples in the water are made, his face an inch closer to her.

"How about you join me and together, let's find out what being 'human' means?"

…

"Fuk KYU!"

Bi Yuan cursed in a chirping strange way, but the message got across just fine as she wields her Fork of Perforation in an attempt to stab Lurker's eye once more.

Lurker thought that the little bunny is under a spirit contract with the female cultivator. He thought highly of the rabbit in front of him. It has the abilities and guts, a very tempting subordinate Lurker wouldn't want to miss.

"Sigh," Saddened, Lurker bounced off Bi Yuan's attack gently. "You are quite loyal, huh? You make me want you as my subordinate more."

By killing the female cultivator, Lurker hopes of turning the rabbit into his subordinate.

DENSE JADE ENCLOSURE!

Heavy qi surrounded Bi Yuan, steadily caging her in place. She can hardly breathe as her body was bound by a mysterious force.

"I will work plenty hard to gain your loyalty, funny little one."

"Kyu!" With a look of determination, Bi Yuan stabbed herself with the Fork of Perforation. "KYUUU!"

"…"

Lurker watched in shock as the little bunny showed impressive loyalty even to its last. The bunny brought plenty of surprises for Lurker. Committing suicide is one thing, but doing so for the sake of its master is entirely a different story.

Rabbits alone have a very slim chance of achieving the 1st stage of cultivation. Lurker theorized that the little bunny's contractor must have taken care of its beast companion very well, thus explaining its loyalty and impressive cultivation.

But Lurker got it all wrong. It is only now that he noticed the odd silhouette that seems to blend with the surroundings. In the creek's shallow waters, standing on top of a floating lotus leaf is a stranger.

"Amitabha…" No, it wasn't any stranger, but a monk. Not just any monk, but... the Mindless Monk.