Chapter 10 Spikes

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Ybur carefully felt the various abilities it now possessed.

Having embarked on a path and acquired a profession, it had finally achieved Entry Rank.

Beyond the Shallow Sea, the Dream Realm was divided into ten layers, with the highest being the divine domain, unreachable by mortals who could only climb as far as the Ninth Rank in the Dream Realm. Therefore, the strength division of paths was also from First to Ninth Rank, and it currently belonged to the First Rank.

The primary mimicry of a First-Rank Shapeshifter was a passive effect that could be toggled on and off freely. Upon entering mimicry, Ybur clearly felt the "malleability" of its body had greatly increased. Before, even if it tried its best to stretch, it could only change from a round shape to an oval one, but now it could knead its body like dough into a round or flat shape, or pull itself into a long strip.

Whether a normal Shapeshifter could do this, Ybur didn't know, but it always remembered the trace of golden marks left on the door when it advanced. Although it couldn't understand why, it felt that it must be somewhat special.

Every time it thought this way, Ybur immediately felt a surge of strength in its body, as if it really had become stronger—the power of the Mysterious Source was largely determined by passion, and unwavering self-confidence could indeed make the Mysterious Source burst forth with more formidable power.

I truly am extraordinary! Ybur thought firmly.

"You're like a silly dog that got a new toy," Sherry commented.

"Sherry, mute," Ybur commanded coldly.

Sherry couldn't defy its command, and her voice instantly died out, but Ybur could feel the book trembling violently within its body, as if expressing its dissatisfaction.

The next subject of study was the Transformative Weapon; its most orthodox use is actually to form a whole claw or something of the sort for oneself, but Ybur's strength wasn't great enough yet, so creating spikes and then compressing its body to launch them turned out to be the most suitable attack method currently. And it had experimented with this attack just a moment ago, quite satisfied with its power.

This provided it with a new way of attack aside from Acid.

Some wonderful ideas popped into Ybur's mind: perhaps it could even coat its spikes with Digestive Acid, further increasing the power of its attacks...

No rush on this, let's figure out the transformation first.

After the Entry Rank, aside from the enhancement in Professional Ability, its mind and body had clearly strengthened considerably, seemingly speeding up its thought process as well.

Ybur gently probed the interior structure of the lizard with its tentacles, and couldn't help but marvel internally.

Good gravy, what an exquisitely elegant creature! The presence of a spine and ribs made it effortless to maintain its shape, and the organs didn't need to hide within thick layers of muscle, allowing them to grow quite large. Muscles adhered to the bones, giving leverage points, thus they could contract all at once instantaneously, bursting forth with lightning speed!

Bones, muscles... such an excellent structure. Maybe I should consider changing it up a bit?

Before it had a chance to experiment, Ybur suddenly heard rustling noises, as if something was approaching. It immediately quieted down, stretched and deformed its body to squeeze inside the corpse of the lizard. The lizard's body was being digested from the inside by it, but the exterior was still largely intact, except for the many holes it had made in the lizard's back when experimenting with the Transformative Weapon.

A tentacle stretched out from one of the holes in the lizard's back, careful as a periscope of a submarine, peering out.

It was a few Fungus creatures.

Fungus creatures had a keen sense of smell; they probably came attracted by the scent of blood.

Ybur counted them, a total of four. But after reaching the Entry Rank, both its strength and the sturdiness of its body had increased significantly, and with its newly acquired Professional Abilities, it shouldn't be difficult to kill them. But then Ybur had an idea and decided not to make a move.

The creatures circled around the lizard's corpse, sniffing at it. Their antennae moved back and forth, touching each other as if communicating through pheromones. Moments later, each of the four started nibbling on a part of the lizard's body, and after a bustle, they lifted its corpse up.

Good, good, good! Ybur was so excited it almost applauded.

Obviously, the Fungus creatures were planning to take it back to their nest.

According to the Survival Guide, the nest of the Fungus creatures presented some dangers. The most terrifying entity inside was the Fungus Mother, a massive Fungus incapable of moving but possessing bizarre and horrifying Paranormal Abilities. One should not even touch it until reaching at least Second Rank, as it was very easy to die without understanding how. Additionally, there were other large Fungus beasts guarding the nest, also ranging between First and Second Rank in strength.

But Ybur had no intention of entering the nest.

I might not be able to beat you, but I can live right at your doorstep, and it should be okay to have a bit of a buffet, right?

The Fungus creatures that come out, I'll eat a few every now and then; the prey they bring back, I might also snatch occasionally.

This shouldn't be a problem, should it?

It also memorized the route, for the entrance to Luminous Stone location and the Fungus nest were both excellent hunting grounds. Later, it could travel between the two spots, eating here and there... just thinking about it was delightful.

Sherry jumped violently inside Ybur a couple of times, probably wanting to criticize it but being muted.

The Fungus creatures carried the lizard corpse through the darkness, and along the way, more and more joined until the group grew from four to about a dozen. They also encountered other predators on the road, but upon seeing so many Fungus creatures, they quickly decided to retreat.

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Ybur was now a bit nervous. The sheer number of enemies was problematic; they might be too many to handle, and the abundance of fungus insects suggested they were nearing their nest... It was time to bail out!

So Ybur stretched his body out, sliding out of the gaping mouth of the giant lizard and landing on the ground like a puddle of liquid. The few fungus insects that had been hoisting the giant lizard paused briefly, as if sensing his presence, but combat was never the first option for these nest workers, so they simply continued marching forward with their load.

The other fungus insects that had not found prey, however, began to swarm him.

Ybur was not in the least bit panicked. He spread himself flat on the ground with the "Survival Guide" covering his head, all the while his internal acid was ready to launch.

With acid and a shield, I'm a biological tank!

The fungus insects swarmed him. Ybur then realized he was, indeed, a bit too heavy—originally, when he spread the "Survival Guide" like an umbrella, it could mostly protect his entire body, but that no longer worked. A whole circle of gelatinous flesh was sticking out of the protective range. In an instant, several fungus insects' scythe limbs pierced his soft, resilient flesh, and then, with a slide of their bladed limbs, they tore open his membrane.

Ybur wasn't panicked in the least.

The flesh that fell off could just be eaten back later!

Ybur even actively squeezed out part of his biomass from the wound. His body shrank in an instant, and then he hid under the protective umbrella of the "Survival Guide."

Sherry was shaking even more violently now, likely with countless curses cascading through her mind like a waterfall.

Ybur didn't care what Sherry was thinking and began to quietly build up energy, compressing and hardening his body.

Taste my—

Transformative Weapon!!

One corner of the book lifted, and Ybur's body rapidly expanded, bursting forward with a multitude of spikes! Two fungus insects in close proximity were immediately impaled, but they only retreated two steps. Their hard head carapaces withstood the majority of the impact, and Ybur's attack barely penetrated their armor, not deeply wounding them. Furthermore, fungus insects had no vital points; even if their heads fell off, it wouldn't hinder their movement, so such injuries were minor to them!

Ybur was annoyed.

His recent spike attack had actually been coated with acid—this move was somewhat complex for him since the digestive acid all came from the secretion of his stomach sac. To apply it to the spikes, he had to turn his stomach sac inside out onto the surface of his body, then transform the stomach sac into sharp cones to shoot out. However, doing so meant that only a bit of acid could adhere to the spikes, and most of it would be blown away by air currents during transit...

It seemed to have almost no effect.

But Ybur immediately thought of another method.

He contracted his stomach sac and wrapped it around a large spike, then launched it with great force. With a thud, the spike struck a fungus insect, the massive impact causing the creature to stagger, its head carapace severely deformed and caved in! Then, the acid burst out from the collision, fizzing and causing smoke to rise from the top of the insect's head.

The fungus insect's head dropped off, and its headless body blindly lunged forward—most of its sensing organs were in the head. Though losing its head was not fatal, it rendered them directionless, like headless flies.

Ybur once again retreated under the umbrella for protection, incidentally shifting his body to consume a piece of his own biomass that had fallen off.

...Still not right, he thought.

The sequence was wrong.

The fungus insects' carapaces were indeed a bit tough. Although he had reached Entry Rank and his strength had increased significantly, the small black pudding-like Slime was simply too soft; the physical killing power of his spikes was inadequate against the armor.

If he sprayed the acid first to breach the armor and then launched the transformative spikes into the body for an internal acid explosion, the lethality would be much greater... Moreover, in his pursuit of "bigger is stronger," he'd accumulated too much acid, which was not only wasteful but also made the transformative spikes too large and heavy, reducing their launch speed...

His transformative spikes weren't particularly hard; the part composing the spikes was still gelatinous, but this gelatin had a particular property that caused it to harden with greater speed upon impact. Therefore, speed was crucial.

Furthermore, for the moment, he could only release one acid-coated spike wrapped around his stomach sac. But he might consider generating some normal spikes to mix in as a diversion...

Ybur reviewed his strategy, his mind churning with new ideas.

If he could create fine channels within his body, then perhaps he could manufacture hollow spikes, directly channeling acid from the stomach sac and filling the spikes... However, this was still too complex for him; his control over his own body was far from that advanced, so he shelved that idea for now.

The biomass he had just swallowed digested, and acid began secreting once more. After a moment, his "ammunition" was fully replenished, and Ybur, having learned his lesson, penetrated the headless fungus insect's body with a smaller acid spike. The acid erupted inside them,

and the fungus insect immediately lost its ability to move, its incomplete limbs twitching on the ground.

Ybur felt a surge of joy inside.

It was indeed feasible!