FINAL CHAPTER
THE INHERITED FORM
Shizu was gone nowgone, after giving one final goal to strive for.
Up to now, I had largely taken things as theyd arrived, fighting to keep my head above water. Now, though, I had a motivation to gather so intel on this demon lord guy. It was a job I readily accepted, but it was also a promise. And Im a man who keeps his promises.
Besides, I wasnt empty-handed. She left with a few new abilitiesthe unique skill Deviant and the extra skill Control Fla.
Oh, right. I ate Ifrit, too, didnt I?
He wasnt much of a match for , but it turned out he was a tough characterrated beyond an A, in fact. No way so snake or wolf could handle him, to be sure, given that none of their attacks could even faze him. It took a lot to make it past an A, and now I could see why.
There was still a lot of research to be done on my abilities. But! Before that! There was sothing even more important I needed to check up on.
Thats righttransforming into an actual person!
I ventured inside the new tent the hobgobs had set up for , making doubly sure to have all visitors turned away before I closed the door.
Heh-heh-heh Hah-hah Ah-ha-ha-ha-hah! Three levels of laughing, and then
Transform!
It wasnt accompanied by any cool sound effects, but I executed Mimic: Human on myself nonetheless. But
Huh? Whoa, whoa, whoa.
There was none of the usual black smoke I was expecting. What the heck? I thought, as I realized that my field of vision was only a little higher than usual.
I had grown arms and legs, and my usual light-blue shade had morphed into a flesh tone.
Hmmmm? I wasnt sure what had happened, but sothing told it wasnt what I had planned. I didnt have a mirror on hand, which was a pain. But
I kinda didnt want to admit it, but I actually was familiar with this form after all. It was from a long ti ago, maybe thirty years or so.
This was how the world looked to back when I was still bumbling around in elentary school.
Hang on a sec. I was too excited to notice at first, but there was one key difference.
It wasnt there.
My should-have-been newly born manhood, that is, which I was expecting to see down below. It wasnt there! What the hell? I internally shuddered as I took another close look at my crotch. It only confird the worst. It was smooth as the hypothetical babys bottom.
Thinking back, this wasnt sothing I had bothered to check up on when transforming into other monster types. But I supposed it made sense. If I never had to eliminate waste from my body, what use would I have for the associated organs? And if I didnt need to reproduceI was still fuzzy on that, but if I didnt, then why bother with genitals at all?
That was just who I was now, was all. It was strangely convincing, even as it drove into a deep sense of mourning.
Suddenly, I was taken by an urge to touch the top of my head. I felt soft hair up there. It made breathe a sigh of relief. At least I wasnt shaped like a space alien! Thats a step forward! And, co to think of it, I was a giant ball of fur in wolf form. I dont even want to imagine what thatd look like without hair. Nope. Thats a dangerous line of thought.
Really, though, I thought Id keep a cooler head than this. Why was I letting myself get in such a panic? Id just have to accept the truth about what happened down there. It was hard to swallow, but at least I wasnt a sli any longer.
Too bad I cant check up on my whole body, I thought. What about the Replication skill I just picked up from Ifrit? Seed like a nice idea. Good job, . I didnt know if itd work, but it was worth a shot.
Black mist darted out of my body, forming a human figure in front of . Looked like it was a success after all. It was completed in an instant, only to reveal
Oh, crap. Bad news.
First off, my appearance. The hair was a silvery gray with a light tinge of blue to it, topping off a pair of wide-open eyes and a charming, young Feminine? Masculine? The lack of genitals made it fairly irrelevant, but in terms of appearance, I looked closer to a girl than a boy. This was probably thanks to Shizu; there were no features that I could identify as my own.
But it wasnt a perfect recreation of Shizus genes, either. The hair color was one thing, but the golden eyes were quite another. Veldora had gold eyes, too, which was a common trait among the higher monsters, perhaps. And hang on, didnt Rangas eyes go from a blood red to gold as well? Although they also changed depending on his excitent level. Still, maybe they changed because of my influence on him as his na giver.
Either way, nothing about this form was from . In this world, the only thing that was truly mine was my soul, it seed. This was mostly Shizu, and man, she mustve been one darling little girl My skin was trendously smooth, too, with none of the rubbery bounciness of my sli form.
So this cute girl was just standing there in front of , butt naked. Not that there was anything that really required hiding, but it still presented certain ethical issues. If the police existed here, which they didnt, Id be in serious trouble.
But that face was cute. I had to hand it to Shizu. She was blessed with a lot of gifts. I wasnt too hideous when I was young, either, but nobody would ever describe as beautiful, no matter how much I padded my mories.
I really have to thank her, I thought to myself as I wrapped a blanket around my body, taking the ti to hand one to my doppelgnger. Now I really needed to figure out so clothing.
Right. Back to the main topicthe real reason I thought Oh, crap at first. That all ca down to this human forms abilities.
Sothing I hadnt considered with this replica of mine before actually conjuring it was that my enhanced thought processes allowed a complete, real-ti link with my copy. It and I were both in a waythere were no appreciable differences between us. If anything, Ifrits Replication skills couldnt hold a candle to minehis copies were clearly imitations, but mine wasnt at all.
All right. Almost not at all. One big difference was my copys capacity for magiculesit held only whatever I cast upon it when creating it, although I was free to install more inside if I wanted to. I had a fair amount of magic to work with, so depending on the application, I could probably do a lot with it. The other issue was that, while Ifrit could generate ten or so copies without breaking a sweat, my Replication skills were so intricate and detail oriented that a single copy was the best I could manage.
Still, I could make a copy of myself with all the sa attack and defense abilities. Any foe who ran into this skill would think I was cheating.
The third and final oh, crap reason: the way it seed so breezily natural to , taking this form. That was sothing I noticed when I realized no dark mist had surrounded my body.
Take my black wolf form, for instance.
I definitely used the mist to create that form, although it made for weaker results compared to my sli self.
It was hard to notice thanks to the limited movent available to a form without limbs, but a slis cells were powerful thingseach one could serve as a muscle cell or a brain cell or a nerve cell. See the streamlining effect this makes? Seeing things with the eyes, relaying the information to the nervous system, bringing it to the brainI could skip all of that. Even without the Sages upgrading effects, my reaction speed was far above the average persons.
Transforming with the black mist, however, created a slight ti lag between thinking sothing and moving my body in reaction to it. That, I figured, was what made the replication inferior, if anything, to the real thing.
As for this mist-free human transformation?
You guessed itit had the exact sa reaction speed as my regular sli form. No wonder it felt so natural. Having limbs also improved my mobility imnsely. Even in child form, it was so much easier to get around than as a sli, although it tired out more quickly.
The biggest thing, though, was that the lack of black-mist usage ant turning human cost zero magic. Talk about convenient! I figured Id be taking this form for most of my future activity.
It was ti to try sothing else. I gave an order to my replicaand it was a totally smooth process, just like moving my own body. Black mist welled around itand the copy began maturing! A trim figure; long, flowing gray hair; and an androgynous sort of appearance. Perfect! I could then mold this figure to look more feminine or masculinego all macho, or obese, or in the pri of my life, or elderly.
As I soon discovered, I could transform into all kinds of figuresusing magic to cover for anything I didnt have, just like with monster transformations. That might be a good way to give so more strength as a human. It hurt my reaction tis, but the bigger I was, the more powerful itd make . Speed was the most important elent of any battle, I knew, but striking a good balance was sothing I could experint with in the days to co.
And so Satoru Mikami, an average middle-aged man living a perfectly unexceptional life, ca to enjoy his unexpected reincarnation as a sli. After acquiring the form and the emotions of a certain woman, he also gained a mission in his new life.
And before long, this single sli nad Rimuru would play a central role in so of the most tumultuous tis this world had ever seen.
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