When I finally came to, I was curled up around the cottage remains. I felt like myself again. The sudden rush of sensations had died down, and those powerful creatures I sensed were gone.

  Meebur didn’t say a word about what happened, but it was undeniable it had shaken him. Whatever I had become was clearly abnormal. And somewhere out in this world, there were others like me. Beings of great power. Who were angry that I now existed.

  Something within this new body was screaming that there were several others like me. And that, unless I wanted to feel like I did when the Harrowhawk nearly ate me, I should do everything possible to avoid encountering them.

  Text box, do you know what they are?

  The entry for the word “Great Beast” has been added to the Almanac.

  I immediately opened it, but while the entry had been added to the list of terms, skills, people, and locations in the Almanac, this one was completely empty. Whatever they were, a part of me felt happier not knowing more about these Great Beasts.

  Once I was fully awake, and all signs of bloodlust were gone, Meebur sat beside my head. He didn’t seem to mind that his cottage had been flattened. If we could speak to each other, I would have apologized profusely. I bowed my head over and over, but my tamer didn’t acknowledge it. As though to keep my mind clear of guilt, he didn’t mention what had happened. He put on a smile and went right back to being excited I was there.

  He spent a few hours trying to measure, catalog, and take notes on my new form. If someone like Meebur had never seen a monster like me before, then it was safe to say no other tamer around had either. He was ecstatic to collect as much data as possible to share with other tamers. Specifically, he spoke of those who were in the same guild as him.

  Being a tamer must be a crazy job if you can go from knocking out a giant snake right to taking notes on them. I can't believe there are enough people like that to form their own guild.

  I was curious to hear more about his tamer’s guild. Where it was located, who was in it, and about the world beyond this forest of death. But my new body, and what it could do, took priority.

  In the menu, next to Status, a new option was added called Skills. Monsters had a variety of skills they could perform, which, according to the Almanac entry on them, were divided into basic, combo, and unique skills.

  I was also now able to see a few bars in the top right corner of my eye if I squinted and focused hard enough. They represented my health, energy, and experience. Whoever I had been in my past life understood all of this thanks to time spent playing something called a “video game”.

  Once Meebur was finished taking his first round of notes, he dug out his desk and more writing tools from the rubble of his cottage. While he was working, I coiled myself up as slowly and safely as I could and finally opened up the new Skill section of the text box’s menu.

  My eyes shot open from surprise. There were one hundred skills listed there!

  Text box, this can’t be correct, right?

  The skills listed have been correctly attributed to you based on your experience as a Hatchling Monster and current status as a Withering Wyrm SSS-rank Deity Monster.

  This is insane.

  Scrolling through the list, I saw that half of my skill slots were actually empty. Apparently, these were available slots which could be filled later on. I could learn new skills through leveling up, creating them myself, or from other monsters. Because I was something called a “deity monster”, the Almanac said that I could copy other skills. As the deity monster of the earth element, I had a chance to learn any skill an earth monster used while in battle with me.

  With fifty empty slots, there must be a ton of skills out there. How many is normal for a monster to begin with at level one?

  With the right conditions provided by a skilled tamer, monsters can begin with anywhere from one to three skills, and an equal number of empty skill slots.

  So, at best…six in total?

  That is correct.

  I looked at my one hundred total skills and empty slots and suddenly became frightened of myself.

  What kind of monster am I?

  You have become a Withering Wyrm SSS-rank Deity-

  Yes, yes, I remember the name. I just can’t believe it…

  Amongst the fifty skills I already had, I couldn’t even understand what half of them did. Many of my basic skills were just random words. Some of which sounded completely made up. There was no way was a real word. Luckily, some of them were obvious, like the passive skills and

  . Though I had the body of a massive snake, I had scales and features that reminded me of dragons, so being resistant to a lot of damage types made sense. I probably earned those from escaping the Harrowhawk’s sharp feathers and beak. I looked down at my shimmering scales, a mixture of brown, green, and bronze and knew that a bird like that would have no chance against me now.

  Of my other skills, I probably earned from the spicy berries I ate, and I gained the ability to breathe underwater from swimming in the river. Even those sadistic monkeys had an impact on me. Nearly ripping me apart by stretching my limbs must have earned me the skill.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  This new form is going to take some getting used to, I thought and closed the menu. Understanding everything this Withering Wyrm body had to offer sounded exhausting. It was going to take a lot of time and effort. I had to take it slow, and experiment with these skills on my own time. Considering what I had already done to Meebur’s cottage, I couldn’t just toss myself into these skills without worry. And certainly not without a calm headspace.

  I closed my eyes, and pictured myself in a warm and safe place. I took a deep breath in before sighing deeply.

  Which is how I learned that I could breathe fire.

  So that’s what means…

  I was lucky Meebur was there. He was able to use his giant spear to cut down enough trees to stop the fire from spreading through the entire forest. If you can call accidentally burning down a chunk of forest lucky.

  But it was an important lesson. Even at level one, this new body was extremely dangerous. In the wrong hands, it could do real damage. I had to be cautious, and respect the newfound power I had.

  “Ok, so I won’t be calling you ‘little guy’ anymore. Aren’t you full of surprises?” Meebur said, brushing charred forest remains off of his clothes. “We’re going to have to get that newfound power under control before we head anywhere. I don’t know of any skill off the top of my head that would work. I don’t have any raiment that could help either. Hmmm…maybe a combo skill?”

  Meebur placed a hand on me and closed his eyes. He seemed to be thinking very intently, and I could feel his palm get warmer the longer he held it there.

  Text box, what is he doing?

  Experienced tamers are able to sense the power, potential, and skills of their monsters by channeling their own energy through them.

  Does that mean he’s seeing the status and skill lists from my menu like me?

  Incorrect.

  The information tamers can acquire using this method is vague and provided only through mental images and feelings.

  Interpretation of these is a large part of a tamer’s early training and-

  “By the gods! You have one hundred skill slots. And I can see them listed in a box within my mind. I’ve never seen this before in all my years.”

  I thought you said he wouldn’t be able to see my menu!

  This…this is new for me.

  The menu was created as part of your title .

  Perhaps the effects of your title are being shared with your tamer.

  I share my title with my tamer?

  That is correct. Mostly.

  Many titles have unique effects which can be shared between tamer and monster.

  For example, your tamer’s title of “Magnificent” has given your stats a 5% boost.

  So, my title made it so Meebur got more information on my skills and stats then he would have normally?

  That is correct.

  Which was unexpected.

  If this title was confusing the text box that seemed designed to help me…I didn’t want to think about what else it was capable of.

  Sharing the benefits of my title is neat, but we really have to contain the power of this new body. I can’t risk hurting someone because of my own inexperience.

  The Almanac has been updated with the entry for the word “responsibility”.

  It seemed as though my tamer was thinking the same thing I was. We couldn’t do anything without figuring out how to work with this new, powerful form.

  With full knowledge of my skills and stats, Meebur tore through the rubble of his cottage and found a few books on monster skills. I continued to read through my Almanac while he studied the books, and after a short time he suggested a combo skill that would work perfectly to contain my power. In his years as a tamer, he had trained many monsters in learning and creating skills. I didn’t know whether it was because we were so connected as monster and tamer, but I trusted his suggestion immediately.

  As Meebur described the skill I would need to make, the Menu expanded once again. A subsection underneath Skills appeared called “Create Combo Skill”. After reading through the Almanac entry for this section, I felt confident I could create the skill Meebur was suggesting. Creating skills was just a matter of combining two or more existing skills. These new skills were, appropriately, called combo skills. Looking at my list of skills, I already had a few of them. The skill I had accidentally used was a combo skill of

  and

  .

  “This isn’t going to be easy, but I have faith in you little-I mean, big guy. You’re going to want to combo , , and . Be careful to use only those three.” Meebur said, taking a step back from me. “Add something else into the mix and you might do more damage to this forest than even I can fix.”

  I found those three skills in my starting fifty. They were active skills, and in order to create the combo skill I would have to activate all of them at once. It wasn’t easy to use more than one skill at a time. But if I couldn’t do this now, I would be a danger to everybody I met. Meebur would never be able to let me leave this place and explore this new world.

  And I want out of this forest as soon as possible!

  Unlike passive skills, using an active skill required a lot of concentration. The text box said it would get easier with time, practice, and leveling up further. This was meant to reassure me, but the thought of leveling up and somehow getting even stronger was very frightening.

  I closed my eyes and focused on the skills I wished to activate: , and . With these three in combination, I could hopefully change my body into something less…dangerous.

  Each skill flooded my mind as I activated them, fighting for the bulk of my mental ability. It was difficult to focus on each one an equal amount, and my first attempt failed the moment I tried. But I took a deep breath, and immediately went again.

  I tried to hone in on a small piece of that intensity I felt when I first leveled up. To tap into the hunger, bloodlust, and power that almost overtook me. Doing so nearly caused me to lose control once again, but the memory of Meebur’s attack kept me grounded. I felt my tail stretch, my scales distort, and my body tear and rebuild itself all in a matter of seconds. In no time at all, a text box appeared before me.

  You have successfully created the combo skill

  Remaining empty skill slots: 49

  That’s a bit of a mouthful…I’ll just call it “transform”.

  The entry for the transform skill described exactly what I needed to know. It was an active magic skill that could change my body’s size, color, and basic shape as I imagined it. However, there were heavy limitations on its ability at this level. For now, it seemed like I could only decrease my size by 90% and increase it by 10%.

  Which, for my purposes, was perfect.

  As Meebur stamped out a few final embers he had walked into when stepping away from me, he looked back up. It must have been an exhausting day for him as the look of shock on his face was almost as intense as the one he had when I leveled up.

  When he looked up he saw my giant body essentially…melt. He ran over, assuming that something had gone horribly wrong (again), but when he got to the debris where his cottage once stood he did not find a puddle of melted wyrm, but me in a new form.

  He saw a scaly, fanged, dragon-like snake, yes.

  But it was now small enough to sit coiled on his shoulder.

  “You…you…” he said, once again looking down at me. “You’re so cute, little guy!”

  Random thought: