The Hobgoblin devoured the Scordana's humanoid torso with ease. And when it came to the parts covered in the Beast's exoskeleton, she merely grabbed the part of the Beast with both hands, and used her impressive physical strength to tear it apart. To Tsukuru, it was similar to watching one pop open the shell of a crab to eat the tender flesh inside. Tsukuru watched as she ate and ate.
'I wonder…is this what it looked like when Jack ate a Beast?' Tsukuru thought. He was referring to Jack Dem, Ray Talen's second-in-command, essentially, his version of Vorden. Jack was special, in the sense that he wasn't human. He was a Werewolf. And while the bodies of Beasts were toxic to Humans, Werewolves could eat them just fine. More than fine, in fact, as eating a Beast made them stronger.
Once the Hobgoblin was done eating, there was nothing left of the Scordana's corpse other than a skeleton. It was then that the Hobgoblin stiffened. Slowly, she got back up on her feet. As she did, she just stood there, frozen like a statue.
A moment later, her whole body began to glow, leaving only a light-blue silhouette. Then, a line of pixels appeared at the soles of her feet. The pixels spread upwards, and as they did, the Hobgoblin's finer detailscould be seen again. To Tsukuru, it looked similar to the process of when he was first creating a Summon. Once the line of pixels had reached the top of the Hobgoblin's head, he could notice some changes.
The very first thing he noticed was that her spear was now completely gone. Additionally, her arms and legs were now encased in a shiny, jet-black shell reminiscent of the Scordana's exoskeleton. Her hands and feet were now sharpened into claws, with her hands looking reminiscent of Quinn's "Black-Horned Gauntlets". On the legs, the Hobgoblin's "shell" reached up to the top of her thighs, and on her arms, it reached up to her shoulders. Growing into the "shell" on her arms, halfway down her forearms, there was a set of curved blades growing out of either side. These "blades" appeared to be made out of the same shiny, black material as the exoskeleton.
Tsukuru theorized that this was the reason for her spear now being absent, as there new "wristblades" served as replacement weapons.
The "blades" extended a few inches past her hands, giving her the appearance of having the claws of a scorpion. The final thing he noticed was something wrapped around her waist. It looked like a belt, but wasn't. It consisted of a series of segmented ovals that appeared to be made out of the same shiny, jet-black material as the shells around her arms and legs. It wrapped around her waist twice.
'What is that?' Tsukuru thought.
As the Hobgoblin turned back around to face Tsukuru, his eyes widened at what he saw. At the end of the second layer, there was something pointing downward, tucked through the two layers, was the unmistakable,curved stinger of a scorpion tail. A moment later, a series of System messages popped up in front of Tsukuru.
[Congratulations, your Pawn Grade Hobgoblin has successfully consumed the flesh of the Intermediate-Tier Scordana.
New Skills have been acquired.
Skill Insectiod Exoskeleton has been acquired.
Skill Scorpion Stinger has been acquired.]
[Insectiod Exoskeleton
Unique Racial Skill
Passive Skill
Consuming the flesh of the Scordana has given the Hobgoblin an insect-like exoskeleton. This exoskeleton acts as both armor and weapon, both protecting the Hobgoblin from attacks, and well as increasing the damage of its physical blows.]
[Scorpion Stinger
Unique Racial Skill
Passive Skill
Consuming the flesh of the Scordana has given the Hobgoblin a prehensile scorpion tail that it can control just as well as its other limbs. This tail is covered in the same exoskeleton as the Hobgoblin's arms and legs.]
***
With Vorden now holding the steel door in place with Ian's Ability, Quinn was no longer chasing after him. Instead, he knelt on the floor, crying in pain.
Vorden remained on the other door, his hands held out, using Ian's magnetism to hold the metal door in place. He was afraid that whatever was inside, and whatever was happeningto Quinn would come out again to attack him.
The screams continued for a goodfifteen minutes.
Eventually, they died down, and stopped completely.
"Quinn?" Vorden called out softly in an attempt to notstartle Quinn. "Is everything…okay?"
In the room, Quinn let out a sigh.
"Yeah, everything's alright." He replied back. "Just…give me a few moments. I'll let you know when it's okay."
The pain from Quinn's evolution had finally stopped, and Quinn really did need a few minutes to get a hang of everything. The System was revealing so muchnew information to him in one go, as three System messages had appeared in front of him, each one being of a differing size, and them overlapping each other.
[Evolution successful. Congratulations, you are now a Vampire.
New Skills have been unlocked.
New Skill Daze has been acquired.
New Skill Blood Ritual has been acquired.
0/2 Members]
[Name Quinn Talen
Race Vampire
Level 10
XP 0/100
Title —
__________________
HP 60/60
__________________
Strength 15
Stamina 15
Agility 16
Charm 5
[Stat Points: 2] ]
[Daze: Stuns an opponent for between 0.2 seconds and 0.5 seconds.
Eye contact is required between you and the target. Skill has a chance of failure, depending on the strength of the enemy and your Charm Stat. The more frequently you use the Skill on a target, the higher chance they have of resisting it.]
Looking at the Status Screen, the largest among the three screens that had appeared, and thus, the one at the center, Quinn could see that a new Stat, the "Charm" Stat, had been added. However, there were no explanations for it, so Quinn was clueless as to what it did.
But one thing that Quinn did understand was that he had gone from being a "Halfling" to a full "Vampire" now. Quinn had expected that this would happen as he continued to Level Up, but he hoped that it wouldn't have happened so soon. Now that he was a full Vampire instead of a Halfling, what would happen when he stepped into the sun?
***
In the storage hanger, Tsukuru continued to stare at the new changes on his Hobgoblin Summon. He didn't even need to ask what had happened. He had seen this ability multiple times in fiction. Colloquially referred to as "Digestive Assimilation", it was the power to take on the powers and characteristics of others by eating them. It was the living definition of the old proverb "you are what you eat". But then, a sense of dread filled him.
'Hey…that's not gonna transfer over to the Hobgoblins I have to fight in the Battle Arena…is it?' He thought.
He hoped that a System message would pop up to answer his question. However, nothing happened. It seemed like his System wasn't inclined to answer every one of his questions. Tsukuru grit his teeth.
Tsukuru was just about to turn around and leave the hanger, when something caught his eye. Up ahead, on the far end of the hanger, there was a bright, white light emitting from a steel door that was slightly ajar.
Seeing it, Tsukuru raised an eyebrow in interest. The light seemed unnaturally bright.
"Hmm…" Tsukuru muttered, before narrowing his eyes. "Interesting."
***
Back in one of the "resting rooms" in the training center, Quinn continued to stare at the System screens. While Quinn's first new Skill, Blood Ritual, didn't have a description, his second Skill, Daze did. The lack of a description for the Blood Ritual Skill left him confused, but reading the description of the Daze Skill showed him that there was at least some use for his new Charm Stat.
Just as Quinn was becoming acclimatized to the new information, a new System message appeared.
[System Shop has been unlocked.
New Tutorials have been unlocked.
System Level 2 will now activate.]
A moment later, a System screen popped up in front of Quinn. On the screen, it showed the blonde-haired Vampire from the "Tutorial" videos that had taught Quinn the Flash Step and the Hammer Strike.
"Congratulations!" The man replied in a cheery tone. "You have now officially joined our family! I thought maybe that a simple human wouldn't be able to make it this far, but it looks like my little experiment was a success! Now that the System has been upgraded to Level 2, the AI System with my voice I had a friend of mine install into the System will now activate!"
The man's smile widened.
"Amazing, right?" He asked. "Now, you'll never be alone again, and if you ever have a question about the System, all you have to do is ask!"