Evolution

Before any of the raid team saw my face, I pulled out the bird mask that I placed in my inventory.

"Who the hell is this kid?" says a middle-aged man, with a well-built body.

I couldn't fight all of these dungeon runners at once. There are even the government dungeon runners surrounding the perimeter so my best bet is to just run and hope for the best.

"HUH! WAIT, GET BACK HERE!" shouts another man.

I didn't even look back as I did a flip over the dungeon runners that tried to grab me. They activated their powers causing fireballs and water balls to be sent flying at me which I dodged with ease.

Rock spikes appeared from the ground trying to disrupt my landing as I jumped over and ducked under each attack. Their immediate plan was obvious, so I had no trouble reacting to the rock spikes as I crouched down on the very tip and then lunged away from the dungeon runners.

Some attacks caught up to me so I was forced to use [Weak Quetzalcoatl's Ancient Fire] which burned away every attack within sight besides the rock spikes below me. These were not a problem since I just landed with the center of my foot on the spike and then jumped off. If I was just the least bit quicker, my foot would go straight through the rock spike.

Light steps. Not only light steps but quick steps are what I needed to perform this move.

The dungeon runners eventually gave up as we got to the main street which was bustling with activity. If I escaped but they ended up damaging buildings or hurting civilians they would receive a harsh punishment, possibly being death.

It was late in the afternoon so I decided to stock up on survival supplies to put in my inventory. I didn't want to always cook and eat the monsters inside the dungeon.

"Seems I'm an exception. Normally you would get mana poisoning in your blood but I feel fine," I say, looking at my arms.

Mana poisoning is a disease that appeared after the dungeons appeared. You could only get it from eating the monsters that you find in dungeons. The equipment they wear might not have mana all the time, but studies have shown that a large amount of mana is already present in dungeon monsters.

It's just that a large amount of mana is always circulating through their body. This makes the bodies of most monsters, piercable or cuttable by normal weapons.

"I want to get back and evolve, but I have time to kill," I say, pulling up my map option.

…

"Thanks," I say to the cashier as I bring bags on bags of survival necessities out of the store.

I then walk into an alleyway where I stuff all the things into my inventory.

I learned over the few dungeons that I have been in, that anything that goes into my inventory doesn't age. The time is either extremely slowed or just stopped inside my inventory.

Trying to not look suspicious, I walked back to my apartment where I immediately closed my door and went to my room. Taking a shower could come after evolving.

Sitting in the middle of the room, on the white carpet floor, I then opened my status.

『Status』

[Name: Lucy]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 25/25] (25/25) Evolution Available

[HP: 42/42 MP: 42/42 SP: 20/20] - Above Average

[Strength: 35] - Above Average

[Defense: 35] - Above Average

[Magic: 35] - Above Average

[Speed: 35] - Above Average

[Skills: [Weak Quetzalcoatl's Ancient Fire] [Ice Fossilized Snake Necromancy] [Royal Ice Crown]

[Passive: [Photographic Memory] [Boiling Frozen Blood]

…

[Shop]

[Inventory]

[Map]

…

Clicking the "Evolution Available" section of my status, a new notification appeared in front of me.

[Evolving requires you to be in a dungeon]

*sigh*

…

"Alright, now hopefully this works,"

I had slipped into an E-rank dungeon this time, just the normal goblin dungeon. Also, I made sure the dungeon runners that came in here before me, were already dead before I clicked on the "Evolution Available" option.

[Would you like to evolve?]

Yes…

I feel my consciousness grow heavy and I was unable to stay awake as my head plopped on the ground. The rainbow fire started to leak from every orifice on my body, creating a large pool of liquid rainbow fire below me.

Soon I fully fell asleep and woke up in a dark space. It looked like outer space because of the tiny lights that slightly lit up the black box I was in. But there was a black desk with writings on it and a tall mirror beside it, that stood up on its own.

I was in my normal body but was completely stark naked. My clothes were all gone but I didn't mind since nobody was here… I hope.

As I walked up to the black desk, I saw green writings on it, in an unknown language.

"What now, do I press on the writings,"

Hesitantly, I pressed one of the 4 options that was in the top right.

A black box with green writing popped up in front of me and I felt my line of vision greatly lower like I was getting smaller and smaller. I also lost all feeling in my arms and legs, only able to move my neck.

I looked around and saw that my body had become that of a bright orange snake with 5 yellow runes on my back. My scales also had a pattern of black polka dotted scales, running in streaks along my body.

I continued to struggle, as I examined my body but remembered that there was a mirror. Slithering almost felt natural as I appeared in front of the mirror. The only thing that I missed about my appearance was the small black nubs that I assumed to be horns, poked out the top of my head. My body was about 4 feet long as well.

For about 2 minutes, I continued to thoroughly examine my body and when I was done, I didn't know how to get back up on the desk.

Suddenly as if the black void around me reacted, the green words then appeared on the floor in front of me. I was surprised but quickly recollected my thoughts and picked the next option.

The next evolution was similar to my first one, being the same size and a snake, but the colors were inverted. Black scales with orange polka dot streaks on my scales. Yellow runes were on my back while orange nubs protruded from my head.

There was no name or explanation so I moved onto the next 2 which were humanoid forms. I looked the same with my height increased by a few inches making me about 5'9. My hair had streaks of light-light green. The light green was almost white, that's how light it was.

I also saw that my pupils had become a bit slimmer, just slightly though. Same light green eyes, same pale skin, same… size assets. This might be my imagination but I feel like my skin had become smoother and way, way softer than before. When I touched my arm, it felt like touching a cloud.

Now the main differences between each humanoid form. The bottom left option, made light green feathers grow from my arms, while the bottom right option made light green feathers grow from my back.

I could only assume that my arms would become wings when I selected the bottom left option while the bottom right option creates wings on my back that I could have full control over, like new limbs.

"Bottom options are a no-brainer. Maybe if I lived in the wild, then I could give the top options a chance, but the bottom options just seem to be the way to go,"

After a few minutes of weighing the future pros and cons, I selected the bottom right option which should grow wings on my back. If only I could read the unknown language, then I might've been able to have better confidence in my selection.

[Is this your final selection?]

Yes…

[Proceeding with evolution]

My consciousness grows heavy once again, as I feel the invisible ground under me crumble. The feeling of falling was only for a split second as I soon lost consciousness.