Levi had never witnessed a physical transformation, at least not of anything alive. Evolving a sword or piece of armor didn't count, even if they were pretty exciting.

Skarm's look of surprise quickly shifted to a rather manic grin as his body twitched and shifted. The gremlin's eyes gleamed destructive orange from within his shimmering field of power, glowing like an active power stone.

The pale purple of his skin darkened, the random blotchy patterns sharpening while his posture shifted, joints rearranging themselves with faint clicks. It looked to Levi like it should be uncomfortable, but Skarm's expression was more akin to relief than anything negative.

His scrawny form grew even thinner, but tight with muscle. The grey of his horn and claws grew paler, almost translucent. Like frosted glass, or frozen fog.

Then the mana surrounding him was sucked back in, settling over Skarm's entire body like a heat haze. For a moment Levi actually lost track of him, his eyes sliding past the gremlin without quite registering the details, the density of the power around him making the details blur into the background.

Then the last of the power was absorbed, the manic glow in Skarm's eyes fading as his bottomed out pools rapidly refilled to full. A very different full than they'd been a few moments before.

Skarm: Level 15

(Flickering Gremlin)

Strength: 35

Health: 205/205

(+39/min)

Psyche: 0

Mana: 0/0

(+4/min)

Spirit: 35

Stamina: 665/665

(+39/min)

His health had dropped from 275 to barely over 200, while his stamina jumped from the mid 400s to over 650.

That shot Skarm from middle of the pack for stamina to the very top. More than Drok. More than Bolt, even. A level 20 kalvex, and a level 15 gremlin had more stamina. Of course, Skarm's 205 health wasn't going to be breaking any records. Even with his insane number of stat points, that dropped him back below the centipedes on the health total front.

His new stamina mod was 15, while health had dropped to 3, same as mana. Levi grimaced a bit at that, but he really couldn't complain. Decreased health had been in the evolution description.

Levi glanced down at his minion. While he'd been checking his new stats, Skarm was checking out his new body. Currently he was tracing a shadowy claw down the patterns on his arm with a look of fascination. The patterns had grown more distinct and more numerous than before.

Skarm patted at his head next. His primary horn remained the same shape despite its new texture, still glinted with the same razor edge, but now two shorter blades joined it on either side. Skarm poked at both of them, clicking his claws against the new protrusions, nodding with a pleased expression.

Once satisfied with that, he crouched, hopped in place, then balanced on one foot, twisting with a level of control and flexibility that simply wouldn't have been possible a few minutes before. His arms and legs seemed to have obtained fully reversible movement,

Skarm ran around Levi in circles, first running like he normally did, then reversing his knees and racing around on his hands and feet without any of the awkwardness that ordinarily would be associated with a bipedal humanoid.

Visibly excited by his new discovery, Skarm gleefully ran down the hall on all fours, moving close to double his previous top speeds. He squealed with delight, doubling back to rush back to Levi's side.

Levi froze. For a moment the movement combined with the different color and speed, he didn't recognize Skarm. Latent memories rose vividly to mind; a shifting horde of such gremlins, running along walls and floors and ceilings in an endless swarm of death. He instinctively surged stamina, body tensing as future memory grew all-consuming, the pervasive weight of the dungeon suddenly impossible to ignore.

He'd been newer then, a level 40 in a dungeon at level 70. It had been one of the last times he saw gremlins in a dungeon, dungeons above 80 tended to have packs of ogres instead as their low-level armies. He'd forgotten how fluidly they moved, how quickly they closed the gap, the deadly flashing of half-seen claws that darted in and out of flesh, leaving death in their wake.

Then the moment passed. Levi stood panting for breath, hand all but numb where he'd gripped the hilt of his sword, health pulsing in his blood like stamina.

He forcefully steadied his breathing, though his heartbeat was slower to calm, and relaxed his unconscious draw on his limited resources. He'd need his health and stamina later on. Couldn't afford to waste them on invasive memories.

Skarm had finished racing around and moved on to experimentally contorting himself into increasingly bizarre-looking poses. He paused when he saw Levi looking at him, half doubled over with one leg wrapped around his neck. Tail flicking in mischievous glee, Skarm gave him an upside-down grin and stuck his tongue out before resuming his thorough self-inspection.

His mood lightened, Levi chuckled and left him to it, returning to the more meta aspects of his first minion's new power level.

For a moment he hesitated over how to assign Skarm's new stat points, but he couldn't justify putting them anywhere but stamina. With health regen already at +2 every 3 seconds, a few more points here or there wouldn't matter much. Stamina on the other hand...

Levi put all five points into Spirit, bringing Skarm's stamina up to 740. Combined with a speed increase, that should significantly improve his mobility and survivability.

"Just how much faster are you now?" Levi wondered aloud.

Skarm looked up from where he'd been examining his knees - they had grown even knobbier, probably a result of their newly reversible nature. He tilted his head from one side to the other, then gestured off away toward the exit.

"I don't care if you think you'll never need to run around because you'll always have Centoo or Bolt, I want to know how much faster you are now. Standard first, then crawling."

Skarm hesitated, looking up at Levi with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, you noticed, did you? Well. It'll be fine now. I'm prepared."

Skarm shrugged and took off running, taking Levi at his word.

Levi didn't notice much difference, if any. He also couldn't remember watching Skarm run around with any particular focus, so perhaps it wasn't surprising. If he were a proper researcher he'd be taming a whole lot more of everything to collect data, but all he really needed to know was what advantages and disadvantages each type had in combat.

Then Skarm dropped to all fours and his speed ramped up noticeably. Not close to kalvex speeds, but pretty solid. He probably still wouldn't be able to keep up with Levi on a stamina drag, but he wouldn't be left far behind either. With his sizeable stamina pool and regen rate... he probably could outrun Levi now if he tried.

"Not bad."

Levi flipped open Skarm's ability sheet next, curious to see what a species evolution did. A class evolution tended to adjust some or all of the base class's abilities to be more in line with its specialization. For gremlins, it seemed the species options were what they got. None of his old abilities had changed, though the upgrade had come with a new one.

Flicker (Innate)

Form a coating of mana and stamina to better conceal your presence.

Effect can be amplified or reduced by the quantity used.

"Two's going to be envious," Levi mused, flicking back to Skarm's ability options.

Horned Gremlin Abilities

Corrosive Slash

Claws obtain the Destructive quality and cause lingering damage.

Unlock: 1 ability point

Sneaky

Increased stealth, and increased damage from stealth.

Unlock: 1 ability point

Gorer

Horn obtains barbed protrusions, inflicting more damaging bleeds.

Unlock: 1 ability point

Scamper

Gains the ability to compound movement speed over moderate distance far beyond normal limits.

Unlock: 1 ability point

His ability options hadn't changed from last time. Or there was always the option of continuing to upgrade some of his existing abilities.

Skarm Abilities

Sharpened Claws (3)

Increase damage dealt by unarmed attacks.

Upgrade: 1 ability point

Leap (1)

Ability to jump is doubled, and attacks landed from the air deal additional damage.

Upgrade: 1 ability point

Or, he could use some of Skarm's points to upgrade his all-gremlins power abilities.

Horned Gremlin: Experience Increase (0/5)

Horned Gremlin minions will level at a 20% increased rate

(Upgrade: 2 ability points)

Horned Gremlin: Stat Boost (4/5)

Horned Gremlin minions will gain 4 extra stat points on level up

(Upgrade: 2 ability points)

Decisions, decisions...