Chapter 123: Egg


    "Come on, show me, Syl! You can''t hide it forever," Trixie urged, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.


    "I really don''t want to... Look, I''ve got much more interesting monsters." I replied, my body shifting and contorting into the massive form of the earthshaker bear. "See, I fought this one with the help of a tribe of goblins."


    "That''s cool, but I want to see youy an egg." Trixie pouted.


    Trixie had been going on and on since we left the harpy cave. I had hoped she would tire of asking when we reached the giant tree, but unfortunately, her determination was unwavering.


    The harpy queen''s profile was a major disappointment, mostly removing restrictions from the default harpy profile for vitality and strength. It likely came with some stat boosts, like my own queen evolution had offered. There was a singr new trait, [Egg Laying].


    Regrettably, Trixie had overheard me reading the trait and made it her new goal for me to try it out. The trait mentioned that the eggs would be unfertilized and nearly demanded the user seek <em>donations </em>from other races to correct this. I shuddered just at the thought and wished I could forget the whole thing.


    "Come on, I want to see how it works. Will your egg be a slime, a harpy, or both? How would you even make an egg? Can the egg be eaten? I have so many questions." Trixie droaned on endlessly.


    A part of me knew my willpower would eventually fail me, and I''d give in, and once I realized that I couldn''t help but sigh deeply and wish to get it over and done with.


    "Fine! Once! Then, we <strong><em>never</em></strong> speak of this again. Promise?" I relented."Promise. Yay! This is so exciting!" Trixie said, pping her tiny hands.


    With deep reluctance, I shifted into the harpy queen and borrowed the trait. I activated the trait, which took some mana from me to artificially simte the trait, and suddenly, I felt an egg inside me. Rather than eject it naturally, I simply reverted to slime and slinked away, leaving a fresh,rge, harpy egg. I even threw an [Appraisal] at it.


    Trixie frowned slightly. "With how simple that was, I think you just made an enemy of all mothers worldwide."


    "I don''t want to talk about it," I grumbled.


    "I honestly expected it to just be slime, but that looks like a genuine egg."


    "It seems when I borrow a trait, it uses mana to create it, rather than whatever the creature''s natural method would be."


    "Oh, so you''ve tried this before?" Trixie asked as she somehow removed the top portion of the egg and revealed its yolky insides. It honestly looked like an overgrown chicken egg to me.


    "Yeah, I can turn into a few spiders with [Web Spinning]. I originally thought it would just use my slime to imitate it, so it was quite surprising at the time."


    "Show me?" Trixie requested before sticking her finger into the yolk and licking it.


    Unlike the harpy, I had no reservations against this and quickly turned into the highest-tier spider I had ess to and created some web.


    Trixie poked and prodded it a bit, then shook her head before turning to ask me a question. "Can you make the non-sticky kind?"


    I didn''t even know spiders had other kinds of web, but I realized she was right when I looked deeper into their profiles. Once I had the knowledge, the trait was more than happy to produce the required result. Trixie poked and prodded it a few more times, then rubbed her face against it happily.


    "Well. I was going to suggest you open an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, but if you can create infinite spider-silk, that would be an even more awesome idea." She said with a mischievous grin before the silk vanished. "Maybe I should go pick up the Tailor ss; that could be fun..."


    I produced some more silk for Trixie to y with since it cost me nothing, and then I moved on with my ns. I used [Identify] on myself, revealing Water, Fire, and Ice. I noted that Water was brighter than the other two, perhaps indicating it was my main element? Or maybe it was bodily rted, hinting that I should attack with whatever Water''s weakness was. As Trixie had pointed out, Arcane and Corrosion were not elements and didn''t appear.


    <em> ''I wonder if the guild''s crystal uses a bastardization of [Element Tracker] to determine affinities. If so, then there possibly a further upgrade to [Identify] that gives all affinities.''</em>


    I activated [Elemental Shift] and was mentally presented with my three options; I chose Ice. I felt something ripple through my mana, but otherwise, I felt the same. [Identify] now showed Ice in a much more prominent position, whereas Fire was subdued and barely legible, and Water looked pretty much the same as before.


    I began casting a few of my Ice spells, noting the noticeable difference between them before I changed my elemental alignment. I then moved to Water, and strangely, they seemed stronger than before. Then I swapped to Fire, and the difference was drastic. Previously, if I empowered them enough, they were on the verge of turning blue, but now they almost felt cold, like dying embers more than roaring me. If Dewi ever saw the [Fireball] I cast, it would have brought me utter shame.


    I swapped to Water and repeated the experiments a little hastier; Ice still felt stronger than normal but nowhere near its aligned state, whereas Water had received a massive buff, and Fire was still greatly diminished. Before I swapped to Fire, I wanted my element unaligned. This time, I hadn''t reached the cooldown, so nothing happened, and instinctually, I knew I had the option to bypass this, which I did. Then, I cycled through all three elements and noticed that all three were stronger than before.


    "What the hell''s going on?" I asked but noted Trixie was either not around or not paying attention. "Maybe I''ve been relying on Trixie too much, I should figure this out myself... Let''s see..."


    First, I tested out Arcane and Corrosion, and both seemed slightly stronger than I recalled, but they were nowhere near my elements. This led me to try to remember my previous conversations regarding magic and elements. I could quite easily assume that an advanced ss increased all my stats higher than an intermediate or beginner, and now that I wasn''t a hybrid ss, my magic stats were getting the full attention. I also recalled Dewi exining that Pyromancer massively boosted his Fire spells, but everything else received small penalties.


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    "I guess that means as an Elementalist, I receive a boost to all Elemental spells and likely slight penalties to everything else?" I pondered, "And perhaps I''m not noticing those penalties due to the bonuses from a pure caster ss and also going from intermediate to advanced."


    Happy with my theory, I''d run it by Trixie before bedtime. I finally shifted to Fire and teased myself by trying Water and Ice first. As expected, both were <em>severely</em> diminished, which made me very concerned about the flexibility I''d be losing as I''d be giving up two of my elements to empower one, unlike when I aligned to Water or Ice. Finally, I cast a [Fireball], and my doubts began burning away. The fiery explosion was already majorly transitioned into the more powerful blue me, and I couldn''t help but cheer excitedly. I quickly cast another [Fireball] but began to empower it, watching the ball be entirely engulfed in burning blue.


    "So my spells have only <em>just</em> caught up to the strength of that smander... And to think that people honestly think traits are useless. What a joke." I chuckled to myself.


    I yed around with my newly acquired blue me spells for a bit. It was honestly far too much fun, and once again, I felt the temptation of the Dewi path casually trying to sway me. When I finally got it out of my system, I turned to address the big elephant in the room.


    <strong>[Corrosion Magic LV 4]</strong>


    It was arguably my most promising magic, as I had improved everything else through it. Nevertheless, I felt like I had neglected to focus on it directly, and I knew as soon as I got [Lightning Magic] that it would effortlessly steal away my attention. I had two unfinished projects, a debuff for afflictions and an acid affliction, and after giving it some thought, I decided thetter was likely easier to aplish.


    "And if I create an acid affliction, I could probably take that as a temte and add it to [Acid Dart], which sounds like a terrific idea."


    I immediately got to work, throwing all my attention and cores to the task. I had forgotten I had gained a level in [Mana Maniption] since Ist worked on it, which meant that in only an hour or so, I had already surpassed my previous work on the spell. Although, admittedly, that wasn''t exactly hard to do with how little progress I had actually given to it, and I felt a little ashamed when I first saw it after I had one of my [Sub-Cores] conjure up the saved partial project.


    ...


    "Damn, I guess I can''t expect all my ideas to be unique, especially if I''m limiting it to only one type of magic," Iined to myself; I had sort of expected to be naming the spell, and I had already nned on calling it Melt. "Well, I guess Dissolve is more fitting..."


    I had thoroughly lost track of time, entering an almost trance as I poked away at the spell with my full attention. It had taken less time than I had thought, and I nearly wondered if I was also gaining a boost due to my ss. It still wasn''t nightfall yet, so I decided to jump straight into trying to apply [Dissolve] to [Acid Dart].


    "Well, let''s get to it."


    ...


    I felt a poke against my core; I abruptly screamed in horror and flung out tendrils and acid in retaliation. I frantically looked around and saw a rather pouty-looking pixie tapping her foot expectantly.


    "<em>Finally</em>, I got your attention," Trixie said with a sulky pout. "Look, you need to get some sleep before tomorrow; you need to be in tip-top condition for your uing fight."


    I looked around in confusion and noticed it was well into the twilight hours. I felt a bit sheepish at how I had somehowpletely neglected my surroundings this entire time, but when I saw the amazing progress I had made, I understood why. The spell was on the verge ofpletion, and I knew I could finish it off when I inevitably awoke before the lethargic pixie.


    "Right, thanks Trixie. Sorry about ignoring you." I said and started to follow her inside.


    She exaggeratedly sighed before smiling, "I''m not that upset. I just want you to do your best for tomorrow. I think you''re ready to finally conquer this ind for real."


    I nodded, still curious about this still unknown foe. I tried questioning Trixie as I rxed in my wooden tub, but she said she didn''t want to spoil the surprise. I also asked her about my theories regarding my Elemantalist ss and was immensely pleased when she confirmed my suspicions.


    "I can''t believe I already reached an advanced ss; everyone else made it sound like it''s the end of the road."


    Trixie snorted augh, "It''s your <em>first</em> advanced ss, more like the start of your journey. Please don''t tell me you <em>actually</em> thought there was nothing after this."


    My silent reluctance to answer must have been evidence enough as Trixie giggled and refused to borate further. I finally looked over my new full profile and noticed an unknown trait I had nearly unlocked. I made a mental note to keep the human''s [Untapped Potential] active until I unlocked the new trait, whatever it was.


    <em>''I hope it''s something good.''</em>


    <strong>Name: Syl [Apex Hunter]</strong>


    <strong>Race: Chimeric Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 17</strong>


    <strong>ss: Elementalist LV 1</strong>


    <strong>Status: Healthy</strong>


    <strong>Mana: O????v???????e??????r???????????f????????????l???????o????????????w????????i????????n??????????g?????</strong>


    <strong>Emblems:</strong>


    <strong>[Experiment]</strong>


    <strong>[Apex Hunter]*</strong>


    <strong>[Elven Legacy]</strong>


    <strong>[Dungeoneer]</strong>


    <strong>[Nature''s Bane]</strong>


    <strong>[Manhunter]</strong>


    <strong>Traits:</strong>


    <strong>Slime:</strong>


    <strong>[Mana Slime LV MAX]</strong>


    <strong>[Acid Slime LV 7]</strong>


    <strong>[Poison Slime LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[ze Slime LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Cryo Slime LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>[Morph Slime LV 7]</strong>


    <strong>[Pseudopod LV 6] </strong>


    <strong>[Slime Shot LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Slime Burst LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Vaporize Slime]</strong>


    <strong>Core:</strong>


    <strong>[Core Refinement LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Core Storage LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Sub-Core Alpha LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Sub-Core Beta LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Sub-Core Gamma LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Sub-Core Delta LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Sub-Core Epsilon LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Consuming Osmosis LV MAX]</strong>


    <strong>Mimic:</strong>


    <strong>[Chimeric Mimicry LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Chroma Shift LV MAX]</strong>


    <strong>Mana:</strong>


    <strong>[Mana Circ???????????????????t???????????i???o?????????????????n????????????????????? ???????????????????L????????????V???????????????????? ??????????????????7????????]</strong>


    <strong>[Mana Reinforcement LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Mana Infusion]</strong>


    <strong>[Slime Conversion LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>Attributes/Other:</strong>


    <strong>[Soul Mastery LV 7]</strong>


    <strong>[Enhanced Vitality LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Magic Resistance (Lesser) LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>[Curse Resistance LV 1]</strong>


    <strong>[Defy Death LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>[Prodigy]</strong>


    <strong>[??? LV 0]</strong>


    <strong>Senses:</strong>


    <strong>[Olfactory Sense]</strong>


    <strong>[Dark Vision LV MAX]</strong>


    <strong>[Mana Conception LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Life Sight LV 3]</strong>


    <strong>[Thermal Vision LV MAX]</strong>


    <strong>[Eagle Vision LV 2]</strong>


    <strong>Trait Points remaining: 13</strong>


    <strong>Skills:</strong>


    <strong>General:</strong>


    <strong>[Universal Language]</strong>


    <strong>[Equipment Swap]</strong>


    <strong>[Dissection LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Mapping LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Tracking LV 2]</strong>


    <strong>[Identify LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Multitasking LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>[Perception LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>[Aerial Finesse LV 3]</strong>


    <strong>Combat:</strong>


    <strong>[Tranquil Flow LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Attack Mastery (Lesser) LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Affliction Mastery LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>Magic:</strong>


    <strong>[Water Magic LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Fire Magic LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Corrosion Magic LV 4] </strong>


    <strong>[Ice Magic LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Arcane Magic LV 2]</strong>


    <strong>[Mana Maniption LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Magic Efficiency LV 3]</strong>


    <strong>[Counter Magic LV 2]</strong>


    <strong>[Elemental Shift LV 2]</strong>


    <strong>[Ritual Casting]</strong>


    <strong>[Mana Suppression]</strong>


    <strong>[Meditate]</strong>


    <strong>Sneaky:</strong>


    <strong>[Vanish LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Sneak Attack LV 5]</strong>


    <strong>[Identity Fabrication LV 6]</strong>


    <strong>[Acting LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>[Rogue Expertise LV 4]</strong>


    <strong>[Magical Subterfuge LV 1]</strong>


    <strong>[Exploit Weakness LV 1]</strong>


    <strong>[Subtle Afflictions]</strong>


    <strong>Skill Points remaining: 13</strong>