Reborn As An Evolving Monster

[Your Title "Devourer" disgests the last of the ingested Corruption.]

[Your Title "Evolving Monster" processes the Corruption.]

[Your Affinity with Corruption Magic is high!]

[Your Affinity with Dark Magic increases!]

[Your Control over Corruption Magic increases!]

[You have developed the Passive Skill: "Inferior Corruption Resistance[C]".]

Mark slowly opened his eyes to the avalanche of messages.

'Affinity...? I'm guessing that's something I'll see more of outside.'

Mark's hand was approaching his face when he noticed its shaking.

A nightmare.

He had just woken up from one, but couldn't remember a thing.

"That was different than last time, wasn't it?"

Mark took his time to answer.

'You're becoming a bit too observant of me.'

The Fire Spirit appeared in front of him.

"I convinced her to fuck off once you passed out, even though she didn't want to. You were shuddering and trembling continuously. What was that about?"

Mark's body twitched as he stared at the Spirit's flames.

'There was fire... Darkness... People... And... Death.'

"Aha. That's it?"

Mark looked away as he tried to remember.

A good distance away and to his left, Elisa could be seen.

From the quiver on her back, she pulled an arrow out.

A second later, the arrow was shot using a bow identical to those of the Corrupted Dark Elves.

Elisa's eyebrow twitched.

Mark looked away. And at the same time, she turned in his and the Fire Spirit's direction.

He lowered his gaze towards his right elbow.

"Anything else?"

Elisa shot an arrow at the bright sky.

'Did you know? Apparently...'

Mark slowly placed the claws on the ends of his trembling fingers against the scales that covered that elbow.

'Death is a person.'

"Huh-"

The Fire Spirit was interrupted.

"You doing okay, Monster? Me, I'm doing better than ever!"

Mark was about to stand up when,

"DON'T MOVE" Elisa suddenly shouted.

The next second,

Pierce-

For a moment, both Mark and the Fire Spirit stared at the arrow that had just pierced the ground. Just between Mark's thighs.

"Haha..." Seconds earlier, Elisa thought doing this a good idea. She wasn't so sure now. "I still got it."

[If that had touched me, it wouldn't have gone well.]

"Really? One arrow?"

Mark stood up.

[I hate arrows.]

He started walking away.

"Well... You would have been well within your rights."

Elisa stared as his back got further and further.

"What was that? Definitely not how I would've imagined you thanking him."

"I don't know. He looked away when I looked at him so I thought... I don't know. It was a joke, alright?"

"And he would've fought you because of a joke."

"And I wouldn't have minded." Elisa retorted as she walked in the opposite direction of the one Mark had followed.

"What do you mean by that?" The Fire Spirit followed.

"Even for a Spirit, you're very nosy."

Elisa walked for a bit, before finding a fallen tree trunk.

She took a seat.

"I couldn't have missed anyways."

"What if you had?"

"I couldn't have-"

"But what if you had?"

Elisa stared at the ground for a bit, before raising her gaze.

"Then I wouldn't be capable of making it outside anyways. If I can't even make a shot like that nowadays, then there's not a chance I'll get out of here."

'Huh...'

The Fire Spirit's body started fading away.

'Flames from the same bonfire.'

...

'Earth Magic is apparently good against those who use Wind Magic. But my Magic Skill is Manipulation. I can't be sure that I'll be able to use whatever the Boss Room is made of.'

Mark was on the ground, his back against a tree.

To his right, Light.

To his left, Grey.

Above, on one of the tree's branches, Krista lay lazily.

'I'll use one Skill Point on my Freeze Skill.'

[You have used one Skill Point.]

[Your Magic Skill "Freeze" is evolving...]

[Your Title "Evolving Monster" accelerates your Skill's Growth.]

[Your Magic Skill "Freeze[E]" has evolved into the Skill "Ice Manipulation[B]".]

'Mm. I should still have the Sub-Skills to produce the ice...'

[Your Title "Evolving Monster" breaks down a portion of the "Ice Manipulation[B]" Skill.]

[Your Magic Skill "Ice Manipulation[B]" splits into "Ice Manipulation[B]" and "Freeze[E]".]

'You're full of surprises, aren't you? Yeah. This is better. Freeze allows me to perfectly control how much Mana I want to use and how large the area I want to freeze. The Sub-Skills don't...'

Mark let his mind wander for a bit.

It inevitably went back to the nightmare he had just experienced.

Mark couldn't remember anything, except the fact that he had stared Death in the eyes.

A long and heavy yawn from above.

Mark chuckled and raised his gaze.

A white cat with blue eyes cozily lay on a branch.

But one day, a Monster willfully took joined your side-

'How is that even a Monster?'

[Your Title "Gaavah's Follower" is waking up from its slumber.]

[Ready to go in?]

'Basically, yeah. Waiting for Fiery to make more Offspring. Thinking about how to use my Skill Points in the meantime.'

[Once used, Skill Points cannot be reassigned.]

'I know.'

[Saving them for when you need them isn't a bad idea.]

[It has worked well against a couple of Guardian.]

'I guess. Yeah.'

[Have you tried using Wind Magic?]

'Now that I think about... No. I haven't. Why?'

[Half of defeating something is understanding it.]

Mark extended his right arm forward.

Wind Blast-

'Huh...'

Wind Blast-

'Not working. Something similar to the Flames Of Chaos Skill...?'

[Your Title "Gaavah's Follower" is looking at you.]

'I get it. I'll figure it out on my own. The usual.'

Mark tried using the Skill a couple more times before a message appeared,

[There is someone you could ask.]

He suspiciously stared at those words.

'Doesn't sound like you. Not at all.'

[And what do you know about me?]

Mark scratched his head.

'Not much-'

[Exactly.]

[Ask, or ponder about it.]

[Whichever you do matters not to me.]

'That's more like you-'

[Your Title "Gaavah's Follower" falls back into a silent slumber.]

'Mm...'

Mark stood up.

'Wind Blast... Wind Blast... The ones I've seen using the Skill were the Wolves, the Eagles, and the Tigers. And the way they used it was...'

The answer became obvious.

Mark opened his mouth.

With a roar, a powerful gust of wind was launched, decimating the four trees in front of him.

'Good. The other way was...'

With a flap of his wings, a gust of wind, just as strong as the previous one, was launched.

'Now, why is it-'

"WAS THAT-"

Mark suddenly turned around.

Centimeters from his face, was Elisa's.

He instinctively wanted to step back, but didn't.

"WAS THAT WIND MAGIC? IT WAS. IT WAS, WASN'T IT?"

Mark couldn't help but think that Nia knew that Elisa had been approaching.

"YOU CAN USE USE WIND MAGIC?"

[Not really.]

[Just one Magic Skill.]

Her eyes shone brightly.

"THAT'S... THAT'S...!" Elisa suddenly stepped back. "That's pretty cool. And strange. Very strange."

[How so?]

"Because that makes it Corruption, Bone Magic, and Wind. Too many. It doesn't make sense."

[Huh?]

[I told you, I can only use one Wind Magic Skill.]

"But that means you have the potential to learn Wind Magic in general. And that can't be right."

'Is that how that works? The potential to learn Wind Magic...'

[I can use more Magic Types than that, so I can't see why it couldn't be right.]

"Huh?"

[What?]

"What do you mean you can use more...?"

[It doesn't matter.]

[Can you tell me more about Wind Magic?]

[Since the Guardian will probably be a Wind Magic user, we should-]

"I don't care about that."

Elisa took a step closer.

"What do you mean you can use more? How? Why? Tell me. Which?"

[If I do, I assume you'll tell me all I want to know about Wind Magic.]

"Sure. Whatever. I will."

Mark didn't want to share more information than he needed to.

But at the same time, the two had signed a Contract, so the probability of one turning against the other was fairly low.

[So I can only use one Skill for some Types while others-]

"I don't care about the details. Just tell me the Magic Types."

[Other than those, I can use Fire, Ice, Earth, Water, Thunder, and... Venom?]

[Is Venom a Magic Type?]

"You fucking... What?"

[What?]

"You're kidding me. There's no way-"

Mark raised an arm to his side.

Fire Ball-

Staggering Thunder-

Water Blast-

Water Blast, Freeze, & Ice Manipulation,

Ice Spike-

Partial Golem Armor-

Mark clenched his fist, breaking the Golem rocks around his fist.

[The Venom one has to do with my winds so...]

Elisa turned around and walked away.

With a hand on her chin, she was deep in thought.

'Doesn't make sense... Earth would be the most difficult to Corrupt, yet he can use both... Fire & Ice... Can't work... Shouldn't... But it does... He uses them... Does he have the ability to use all Magic Types... So then... The Corruption he can use... But what about...? Does Magic say nothing about him...?'

After pondering a while longer, Elisa turned around.

She found the Monster's face, centimeters away from hers.

[Tell me about Wind Magic.]