First, I try shifting my weight around to see if I can make the gem move. Turns out I can, but not by much, the gem will only rock side to side a little bit. However, at least that means I am only trapped physically and not in some other magical space.

Next, I slowly shift around examining the inside of the gem and looking for a weakness. If I can find a weak spot and focus my efforts on it then my odds of success will go way up. Unfortunately, I am unable to find a weak spot, but I do learn something.

The gem is not the same shape it was when I picked it up, it is now shaped like an egg. This is rather disturbing considering I am currently inside of this egg. It makes me wonder just what the gem was and what it is trying to do to me.

Once again I try to heal myself, being able to move without pain would make this easier. However, it fails again and I don't know why, it doesn't even trigger as far as I can tell. It is almost like my ability to cast spells never existed, it is disturbing to say the least.

'I need to figure out what is going on! Character!'

Name: Ash

Race: Fire & Lightning Alpha Beast

Type: Unique Alpha Mana Beast

Rank: 1

Class: Sacred Crusader

Level: 17 Exp: 10,662,783/13,107,200

Titles: (7) The Merciful, Blessed by the Light, Anti-Hero, Angel Slayer, Magus Knight Captain, Demon Slayer, Blessed by the Twins

HP: 15173/15173

DP: 2300/2300

MP: 4716/4716

Strength: 832

Agility: 707

Endurance: 762

Intelligence: 398

Wisdom: 673

Charisma: 305

Willpower: 208

Luck: 142

Toughness: 262

Regen: 127

Fortitude: 202

Leadership: 190

Unspent Points: 185

Movement Speed: 55 Flight Speed: 150

Fire Resist: Greater Immunity Cold Resist: 67 Magic Resist: 25 Hellfire resist: 41 Shadow Resist: 60 Lightning: Greater Immunity Physical Resist: 38 Darkness Resist: 30 Acid Resist: 35 Poison Resist: Immunity Disease Resist: Immunity Mental Resistance: 4

'Fire & Lightning Alpha Beast?? What the hell is that? What did this damn gem do to me? And I'm back to being a mana beast? Does that mean it reset me back to the beginning?! I was supposed to be getting stronger!!'

Honestly, after reading that I sort of blank out for a while, my brain can't handle starting over. All the effort I put into becoming a maxed out sacred beast is now completely wasted. Even worse, I finally notice that I no longer have sacred power, no wonder my heals didn't work!

Immediately I use one of my divine heals and it works perfectly, easing my pain quite a bit. After two more heals the pain is gone completely and the relief is almost enough to make me pass out again. Now that I can move freely I wiggle around until one arm has a bit of room to move.

Then I make a fist, which feels weird, but I ignore that and punch at the egg. The egg rocks a bit but nothing else happens, so I just keep punching the same spot. If one hit isn't enough then I will hit it a hundred times, and if that doesn't work I'll try a thousand times!

Since I didn't lose my stats there is no way this egg is going to keep me trapped! After a few dozen punches I am finally rewarded with a cracking sound. A few hits later the crack is large enough for me to see it and aim for the center of it.

Now the crack is growing with every punch, soon I will be out of this stupid egg! With a few more hits the one crack turns into many as they spiderweb out. Finally I judge the egg is weakened enough and with one surge I manage to break out of the egg.

Process Interrupted! Ascension failed!

'Ascension failed? Wait, was the egg trying to turn me into a god?!'

When the egg finally breaks I tumble out onto the ground and can finally look around. I find myself in a small cave and the egg is on the edge of a pool of lava. However, when I try to stand up I end up falling flat on my face, my body isn't moving properly.

When I look down at myself it is easy to see why, I am no longer a humanoid. My body now is similar in shape to a drake, I have four legs, a tail, and a long neck. There is a tiny pair of wings on my back and my tail ends in a fan of feathers.

My entire body, except for the wings, is covered in fur, but the color has changed. Now my fur is bright red with golden lines running through it in some kind of pattern. It looks a lot like a sea of flames with lightning bolts arcing through it.

Unfortunately, there is no reflective surface that I can see so I cannot see what my face looks like. Looking around the small cave I don't see any other exit other than the lava pool. However, I notice that the rocks lying around seem rather large, strangely so.

As I move around a bit to try and get used to my new body, I realize the rocks aren't large, I am small. It is hard to judge without a proper comparison, but I would guess I am about the size of a house cat. Just what has that stupid egg done to me, why am I so small?!

Just as I am about to lose my cool, my stomach gives out a fairly serious rumble. It turns out that I am practically starving, so of course I reach for my pouch to get some food. Only to be shocked that it isn't there, in fact my entire belt is gone, along with my armor.

In fact, everything is gone, and since I am not shapeshifted that means it is really gone. I can only guess that I dropped everything when the gem tried to eat me. However, I can't let this stand, I have to recover my pouches no matter what!

Since I don't see any other way out, I walk over to the lava pool and test it with a paw. Not only does the lava not hurt, it actually feels good, like a nice warm bath. So I jump in and to my surprise I find I can actually see while in the lava.

Everything is in shades of red, yellow, and orange, but somehow I can still make things out. It is only then that I notice my fire resistance got upgraded from immunity to greater immunity. Which means that just like lightning, fire will now also heal me instead of hurting me.

It still takes a while for me to figure out how to move around in the lava. It isn't really swimming, more like a cross between swimming and tunneling. There are also currents within the lava so I have to be careful not to get dragged off by them.