Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

Chapter 21

It wasn't my own skill, so it was quite weak – or rather, I hadn't been able to fully utilize it yet. But mid-way through the process, my consciousness was cut off, and so did their monitoring. For the time being, they should still be believing I was truly gone.

Now, [Humanoid Form (Adept)] and [Expert Packer].

Let's start with this weird Packer thing. To be honest, I think 'Skilled' had already turned into 'Expert' since the last fight, since I noticed that even when dispersed, I still couldn't see the items I was carrying. Where could they be? How curious!

And now, the most important topic of the day. Humanoid Form.

As (Normal) turned into (Adept), I got a boost to my magic and density. I didn't need to carefully craft my body, I just needed to remember what I used to look like for a near-perfect mimicry.

But the damn rabbit ears were still there.

They were the same white as my hair. The spindly ears drooped from the top of my head all the way down below my chin.

"Maybe the hood could hide them..."

Blobsy responded to my voice with a bounce.

In the beginning, I couldn't speak. Once my transformation became near-perfect in fidelity, enough so that my mouth could hold air, I started practicing. Then it turned out that if I just let my body's instinct guide me, speech would come rather easily.

Still, my human form was only on the outside. Inside of me continued to be thick mist. It took some practice for me to be able to move like a real human. I spent a whole month moving as an inhuman mass, after all. My walking gait was still wobbly.

Contact with humans was going to be inevitable. I didn't want my mannerism to reveal who I am, so during the brief moments of no time, I took the chance to walk around the mountains and generally just practicing being human.

I looked about the same as I used to, so getting used to it probably wouldn't take long.

By manipulating cyberspace and cutting off my consciousness, I had managed to escape the System. Perhaps No. 01 didn't do the same because of the low chance of success. He didn't want to fail and bring trouble to his friends. Yet despite my success, I still wasn't completely free.

I'd been using mana to maintain the monster avatar, and ever since the beginning my brain had already been acting in place of a part of the System to process my actions. There was no problem with me, except for a critical one: my consciousness was here, yet my real body... my soul was still on Earth.

In No. 01's plan, as long as he was under life support, he could still use [Cyber-Manipulation] to maintain the fragile link to his real body. But then, despite his mind already nearing the limits, he risked another use of his ability. He found out that the bodies of the comatose testers would be destroyed after one month.

I had thirty days left to live and to find a solution.

No. 01 said that if I could gather the magic stones from his friends, No. 08 and No. 17, then get to the source of this world's life, the World Tree, perhaps there'd be a way. Fleeting hope, but hope nonetheless.

My clock was counting down... no. Let's stop with the pessimistic thoughts. I could have died in that battle. I should count myself lucky to get a thirty-days extension instead.

It'd be tough going to travel the whole world in just thirty days. Luckily, the humans had high-speed transportations. Maybe I could get on a magitech train.

So the point of all of this roundabout explanation was that: I needed an appearance that could get me inside the humans' cities.

Luckily, No. 17 had died relatively close to me. I could follow to the north of the mountain range where I used to be to reach them. There was a high chance the beta party that killed them and took their magic stone was staying in a nearby country.