Viers didn't have many chances to cut loose with his monster transformation. In fact, this was the first opportunity he had. Away from prying eyes, except one. It wasn't as if he trusted Aletro unconditionally but the shades/wills/simulacrums of the guy knew his secrets already.
So why not do this with a bang? If he wanted me dead, it's not like I could do anything worthwhile to him. I’ll still put some contingencies though, useless it may be when it comes to it.
Viers kept taking quests and killing monsters like a war train smashing through obstacles on its track. With monsters' natural regeneration plus Viers’ healing factor, any wounds he suffered in monster form healed abnormally fast. If necessary, Viers would put down his Water Regen Arte too.
Against monsters of the hard difficulty, Viers could fight all night until he saw the sunlight, just like the lyrics of the song.
Seeing Iz had the ability to change into an animal, he asked her about it and found out the difference between his transformation and her Shapeshift Arte; a hypothesis of one, anyway. Hers was an Arte, a technique. A rare one but a human technique nonetheless. Viers’, however, was an innate ability. Like fishes could swim, birds could fly, and dragons could breathe fire.
Viers could absorb the core of water affinity monsters and transform into the monster’s form.
“This ability of yours… Viers, your luck is bordering on ridiculous,” Clarissa said.
“The MCs in the Fables have their own share of ridiculous luck. Of me, perhaps it is as you say, but it is also rooted in my own efforts. This monster transformation is an ability I got after eating the flesh of a demi-god bull. How many of you would choose to kill such a being?”
Hard Difficulty Quest: Defeat the Lightningpad Rabbit in 15 minutes.
The rabbit monster was small in size for a Rank 2 monster, only a bit bigger than a normal rabbit. It also had weak battle strength. The rabbit monster had one specialty and one specialty only: superfast speed. The rabbit had agility like lightning, the cowardly rabbit would sprint at the first sign of trouble.
In the quest space that was a wide meadow, a Lightningpad Rabbit was leisurely chewing on the grasses. Its ears perked up to one side but it didn't see or hear anything unusual and returned to its business.
An invisible predator suddenly snuck up on it from the side. The rabbit tried to bolt away but it had been caught and it was too late by then.
“Water Ghost Spider!” Paina held her breath. “A very speedy and stealthy monster. How could Viers catch this elusive monster and get its core? Wait, the spider is only Rank 1.”
“So the monster transformation is not reflecting Lord Viers’ cultivation then? And look, Fade in Shadow Arte is very compatible with Lord Viers’ spider form. It made him like a real ghost; the rabbit with a sharp sense of hearing didn't realize a thing.”
Hard Difficulty Quest: Defeat 5 Holiopen Pronghorns in 30 minutes.
A blue frog with black spots the size of a soccer ball stood majestically in the middle of a pronghorn pack. The pronghorns had fallen to the ground, muscles twitching and paralyzed. From the look of their state, the simple act of breathing was a monumental task that was getting more impossible by the moment. They’d charged right into the small frog without a second thought, not realizing the frog had been emitting invisible killer agents in the air.
“Terribilis Frog, death’s emissary of the swamp. Among the most poisonous of monsters. Its mere presence is lethal, direct skin contact will be even more so. Shhh… Lord Viers could poison a town to the death in hours if he wanted to. He simply needs to hop about or slip into the water supplies!”
“Only If no one stops him, Farley. If every dangerous monster killed our town, humanity would be extinct by now.”
“Yes, you're right, Paina. I was too excited.”
During the battle, Frog Viers jumped around the battlefield, avoiding the Pronghorns while spreading his poison. The quest was finished in about 10 minutes, 3 more minutes of waiting until the neurotoxin made a catastrophic failure of their organs.
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The frog turned into a human, put on his pants, took the souls, and put the pronghorn's remains in his storage item.
Hard Difficulty Quest: Defeat Metalta Rhinoceros in 50 minutes.
A crab was sent flying back tens of meters by a rhino with metal for its skin. The crab’s defense and power couldn't match the veritable tank’s charge.
“Viers! Heal yourself, quickly!”
“Are you okay? Should we go Overclock Mode? Paina’s Symphony would also-”
“Get up, you! Kill this stupid big dumb animal!”
The crab stood up before the count of five but it was wobbly. There were cracks on its yellow carapace. His left pincer was mangled after a rhino as big as an elephant brutalized it with its horn.
The girls looked at their host with worry. Since they couldn't witness Viers’ form in all its glory with V-stream, they went out, watching the fight with their own eyes in their spectral form. Viers allowed it because unlike the outside, there were no risks.
“Gruhhh...” Viers’ painful grunt resounded in the three’s heads. “Even though Gigadia Crab is made for physical combat, I’m outclassed. Relax girls, it's just an issue of battle compatibility and I have the answer.”
The Metalta Rhinoceros was preparing for another charge but its opponent became smaller. The crab was no longer a crab; it became an amorphous bright-green jelly.
“A slime? How are you supposed to win using that?” Clarissa said with wide eyes.
“Something's happening… It grows bigger?” Farley gasped.
“It’s not the slime’s ability. Viers used an Arte!” Paina pointed out.
Arte - Size Up! How long has it been since I used this Arte? Not once since Luxore.
The rhino was undaunted and gave a mighty charge once again but the green slime had grown to the point it could envelop the elephant-sized monster whole.
The slime was so viscous and so resistant to physical attacks that the rhino’s dreaded charge was reduced to impunity. And it wasn't as if Viers could feel pain as a slime. The slime gave the rhino a loving embrace with its body.
A body with corrosive toxicity.
The rhino thrashed around, fearing for its life. Even with all of its mass, the Metalta Rhinoceros couldn't get away from Viers’ embrace of death. Before long, its unprotected skin peeled away, eyes melted, and its organs corroded as parts of the slime went into its body; all the while its lungs were eroding and asphyxiating at the same time.
Viers receded after the life of the rhinoceros was no more.
“What a horrible way to die,” Farley muttered.
“I concur. I hate to think what the victims of this method of killing felt in their last moments,” the lamia princess sighed.
What the girls didn't know was Viers used a variation of this move to kill Benjamin. Farley’s father who was, at the time, much stronger than him. It was how he survived the destruction of Luxore city.
Uncaringly, Viers took its soul, monster core, the metal plates that survived corrosion, and all the remaining valuable parts of its body. Viers only felt pity that the meat was no longer fit for eating.
Viers was on a break, more accurately, Crab Viers was in the middle of healing. The damage from the rhino fight was quite deep. Viers let his Water Regen Arte and healing factor do their thing while he was frothing bubbles from his mouth, involuntarily.
The damage he sustained in monster form was confined in that form, it didn't transfer into his human form as if the two possessed separate HP pools. However, there was a quirk. Since his crab form was heavily injured, Viers 'paused' the damage when he changed into other forms. In the future when he assumed the crab form again, the damage would not magically heal and remained. That was why Viers was healing himself right now.
After multiple times changing between monster forms in a short period of time continuously, Viers felt deathly tired and his body ached all over.
He thought he could fight all night long but Viers was forced to revise his presumption.
Well, good to find out about the drawbacks, I guess.
“You said you can only absorb water monster cores, right? But your forms don't look all water-based to me,” Paina asked while Viers was resting.
“True, the elements are pretty haphazard. The only similarities tying them all is that the monsters he changed into are somewhat aquatic in nature but one is different,” Farley closed her eyes to think.
Frog, fish, crab, even the spider was a river or lake-dwelling monster. The slime, however, was an oddity.
Terribilis Frog was more poison-attuned than water. Gigadia Crab had water and earth affinity. Water Ghost Spider's stealth ability was based on the combination of water, light, and shadow affinities.
“The answer, my dear angels, is I evolved my forms!” Viers transmitted his voice to their souls.
“E-evolved? But that's the monster's Path of Power!” Clarissa didn't hide her surprise.
“Blup blup blup blup—”
The Viers-turned-crab let out more bubbles as he laughed.
“Take this Gigadia Crab for example. The original was Rank 0 Jagjag Crab, a common water monster. I grew it into Rank 1 Jagjag and when it was time to evolve to Rank 2, I changed into Gigadia Crab; a water and earth dual affinity monster. As you all know, having multiple affinities is quite common for monsters compared to humans.”
“That's… amazing, Lord Viers,” Farley was drunk by the sheer possibility of it all.
“Hur hur hur, praise me more. For I am… King of the Monsters!”