Mash was covered in blood, and his mouth was full. It looked like he had jumped into a vat of paint, and his clothes were similarly dyed with the monster’s blood. He paused as he noticed his body change. It was an involuntary change that had him worried at first, but he realized what was happening. On top of the stat bonus from mimic’s avarice, he gained a much larger bonus from the change in his transformation. His wolf-form seemed to evolve as he digested this stronger species of the monster. His senses improved and he felt stronger and faster too. The patches of fur on him grew more dense, and Mash noticed his hair grew a little longer too.

The wolf was growing more panicked too, and it started running at full speed. It didn’t seem to be aiming at anything, and it seemed like it was trying to run from him. Mash was determined to hang on though and started to take another bite. He was surprised as the wolf jumped and turned suddenly in midair. The movement caused Mash’s head to jerk back, and then he felt his back crash into a tree. The wolf was strong enough to go through several trees with the same leap. Mash felt some air escape his lungs as he felt the pressure on him increase. The wolf wasn’t running wildly, it was trying to use its speed to break his spine.

These monsters were tenacious, but that also applied to Mash. Even though he couldn’t take a proper breath, he bit into the exposed flesh of the wolf again. However, he took it a step further and released water and lightning from his body. The water affinity he had gotten wasn’t particularly powerful, but he could at least produce the substance now. And that was enough as it made his lightning work a little better. The wolf only seemed slightly bothered by the lightning. In fact, Mash wasn’t sure if he was doing more damage to himself or to the wolf. He decided to trust his own magic and kept at it. It was at least slowing down the creature. The longer the fight went, the better off he would be at the end of it. Every bite he took was empowering him further, and he could use chimeric reconstruction afterward to heal any injury.

The wolf continued to thrash, flinging them both at trees and rocks. It was a desperate struggle, but Mash was more persistent than it was and eventually the monster slowed. It might have been blood loss, or maybe Mash had bitten something important, either way, the large monster gradually slowed. It wasn’t a quick death, but a slow and, he imagined, a painful one. The monster had been eaten alive which was a little ironic considering that was probably what the monster did to others.

He felt the rush of a level up as the wolf collapsed. It simply sagged to the ground as if it had expended everything it had. Mash let out a relieved sigh and gasped in pain as his lungs strained with the air. They were likely bruised, and he definitely had some broken ribs too. That on top of his broken arm and damaged organs was excruciating. Despite all of that, he smiled a little foolishly. The levels were impressive, but he was more pleased with the new transformation. He finally had something that felt like it could compete with the stat gain of his dragon form.

There was no chance the wolf was as strong as a dragon, but its stats were definitely far greater than its size would allude to. The dragons were as strong as they looked, but these monsters were way stronger than they looked. He guessed that ratio mattered just as much as the raw stats. This form would let him utilize his stats more, and he already wanted to see how it would mix with his natural state. He felt like all of his forms affected his human body. Well, he guessed his human body was just another form too in a sense. He wasn’t technically a human anymore after all.

He needed to recover from his injuries. While he wanted to save this wolf’s corpse for later, he knew that he didn’t have that privilege. The monster’s rampage had deposited him well away from the rest of the fighting. He could easily find his way back, the broken trees and destroyed rocks left a pretty good trail for him to follow. His body wasn’t in the condition to do it though. He let out a long sigh and grabbed the wolf. He activated its skill and tried to leave the fur alone. It was probably worth a decent amount. Chimeric reconstruction didn’t work that way, and the whole creature was being absorbed into his arms. It seemed like he was sucking it up somehow, and he felt his body fix itself. The pain vanished as the monster’s body dissolved.

He wasn’t able to save any fur, and the entire monster was gone. Its whole body had been absorbed, and it wasn’t enough to completely heal him. His most severe injuries were handled, but he still felt some aches. His clothes had repaired themselves too. The cuts and stuff that the monster’s fur had caused were cones now. There was still some fraying along the seams, but it looked fine. The skill was fast, and it was definitely useful for healing mid-combat, but he would be better off using inhuman hibernation to heal normally. Once the monster’s body was gone, he turned and flew into the air. He flew toward where they had been fighting. The destroyed terrain revealed an easy-to-follow path.

The flight was fast, and he was surprised to see that the wolves were still fighting. Jill had won her fight against the other leader, and it didn’t look like any more of those had arrived. The remaining wolves didn’t flee though. Instead, they seemed determined to throw their lives away and rushed at his friends. Luke was the only one who looked like he was hurt. His clothes were dyed with blood stains. The red splotches on his clothing made it hard to tell how injured he really was. Especially considering that he was able to heal most of his injuries. He seemed to be moving normally, so he was probably fine. Mash could see how the battle was going and knew the wolves would lose. They seemed to have lost all structure and were just aiming for killing blows.

Mash decided to join the fray and aimed for the densest pack of wolves he could see. He landed with as much force as he could manage and released a burst of lightning as he did so. The snow around him melted from the heat, and most of the smallest wolves died in the impact. However, the medium-sized wolves ignored the damage and attempted to attack him. The lack of organization made them significantly less problematic, and he easily tore through the remaining wolves. Plus, he was much stronger now that the bonuses had been stacking for the entire fight. In terms of raw stats, he was probably three or four times as powerful as before.

The rest of the fight went easily, and eventually, they were left with a plethora of wolf corpses. There were more than he needed or wanted. He planned on getting a variety of monsters and didn’t want to fill his storage with the non-magical kind. He wasn’t sure if he could use these for advancing his core, but he would try. He guessed that it would work, but he would wait until he grabbed something with magic before testing that theory. After breaking his skill, he decided to take as many precautions as possible before trying anything. He would also do it under Luke’s supervision. Luke believed that he could heal him, but Mash wasn’t so certain.

The end of the fight caused him to fall to the ground. His body just gave out as hunt ended. He was literally drained of energy. Thankfully he didn’t need to be sitting for inhuman hibernation and started activating the skill while he lay on his stomach. Priscilla could still control the imitations, and she was dragging wolf corpses over to him. He left the ones in better condition alone for the moment. He would save those, but he did use his chimeric reconstruction on the more damaged ones.

They helped him recover and it only took him a few minutes to heal completely. He was still covered in blood though and wanted to take a shower. The others were recovering on their own, though they had taken seats around him. He had an idea and almost used water to wash off the blood. Instead, he decided to just ask Red once she recovered. It would be a much more thorough clean if she handled it. He did have a funny idea and altered his body slightly before drawing attention to himself.

“Well, that was fun.”

Mash spoke and the others turned to look at him. He grinned at them; his alteration was displayed proudly. His teeth were sharpened as the wolves had been, and he even turned his ears to become more like theirs. Grey fur coated them as they sharpened a little. His hearing improved, and the change in his appearance made him look like a beastman. That was what he was going for. He was imitating Luke’s features. The others didn’t say anything and just stared at him. Their eyes were wide, but they didn’t seem to find it as entertaining as he hoped.

“What are you doing? Beastmen aren’t monsters.”

Luke sounded like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and he was obviously disappointed. Mash immediately felt like an idiot. It should’ve been obvious to him, but he didn’t consider it. What he had just done was very insensitive, and it wasn’t really an appropriate joke. He knew better than that. He quickly returned his body to normal and apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

He didn’t bother coming up with any kind of excuse. The joke had been inappropriate and more than a little stupid. Explaining any of the reasoning behind his action would only make it worse. Although, his transformation had obviously brought up a rather disturbing question. Mash had changed his race from one of his classes and that might mean that beastmen also had their origins in the class system. It made him wonder about what would happen if he had children. They wouldn’t be human. Would they even look human? The image of that fleshy abomination flashed into his mind. This time he didn’t try shaking it away. It didn’t bother him as much anymore.

The conversation was killed with his apology, and everyone returned to their own recovery. Mash felt bad about what he had done and decided to distract himself with something else. He walked around collecting some corpses. He stored about five of the best wolves he could find and grabbed another two to make some dinner. He would cook the food for tonight. It was the least he could do for his stupidity.

“Did you already level?”

Mash was surprised to hear Luke. He spoke as soon as he stepped into Mash’s domain. It seemed like he knew, or maybe he was just good at judging distance. It didn’t really matter. Mash was glad to realize that Luke was doing fine. He didn’t sound angry either. That was a relief. It took a second to understand what Luke had said. He proceeded to look away, as he had forgotten to check his status after the fight. After the stupid joke, he wanted to do something for the others. Cleaning up the wolves and preparing dinner had been the only thing on his mind. Luke must have recognized what he was thinking.

“I’m not really that mad at you. It just reminded me of something bad. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”

As far as Mash knew, Luke never lied. He decided to take the words literally and nodded. Even still, he wanted to do something as an apology.

“I’ll still make dinner. Actually, I’ll just cook all the meals this week. I mean, I feel like I need to do something. I was really being an idiot.”

“I’m not going to stop you. You and Red are the best cooks.”

Luke smiled as he replied, and slapped Mash on the shoulder. The reassuring gesture got Mash to return the smile with one of his own. They talked a little more as they returned to the rest of the group. Once there, Mash told the others of his plan to cook. They didn’t protest, eager to relinquish the duty to someone else. With that settled, he took a seat and decided to level before starting on dinner.