The Shapeshifter

"Why didn't I notice this cocoon earlier? It's clearly much bigger than the gecko's."

This black cocoon that he was referring to, was almost as big as a watermelon. It should've been way easier to see than the small ones.

When Alex got close to the cocoon, he sat down infront of it, extended his hands and sent a stream of mana from his palms.

He was incredibly generous with the mana and sent continuous stream of it in a much bigger quantity than he did with the gecko.

"Mana's the least of my worries. I hope you can grow fast so that someone could accompany the gecko."

The gecko was by his side, looking at the cocoon.

Hours passed and his legs were going numb. He tried standing up, but the creature inside was greedily devouring his mana. It might have turned bad for it if he suddenly cut the connection.

It didn't take long for the cocoon to start trembling. First, it started as a slight vibration then it began shaking.

Alex's eyes lit up with joy. He stopped limiting the output of mana and sent out gushes of mana towards it. As he sent out mana, it didn't stop trembling like the gecko's.

Cracks started forming on the surface of the cocoon. Black lights emerged on the cracks and then pieces of the cocoon began falling off.

Soon, the creature got out the shell. It was a Scorpion! Its size was the same as a house cat. It too, was pitch black. It was bulky and had large pincers.

'I feel like I've seen this scorpion somewhere?' Alex thought, he really felt like the scorpion was very familiar.

"That's right, the Scorpion Emperor! It's just that it's not humanoid. Woah!" he thought aloud. It really shocked him. Not only did he obtain a large amount of mana, and probably a System upgrade, he also got another beast in this ancient forest.

He looked at the scorpion intently, checking out what it would do next. It wasn't really cute like the gecko so he wouldn't 'hug' it.

The scorpion looked around, as if it was familiarizing itself with its surroundings. Then it nibbled the cocoon! After finishing a piece, it quickly went to the next piece.

When the gecko saw the scorpion eating its cocoon. It actually ran towards its own cocoon and started eating it.

"What the fu-? Why did you guys started eating your cocoons?" Alex wondered why these creatures would eat their cocoon.

"How the fu- is that possible? You were only nibbling it, so you guys should've taken more time to eat those! Man! You guys must've been famished in your past lives."

He sighed and went to pick the scorpion. In his past life, whenever he saw a scorpion he would ran far from it. He had always hated arachnids since when he was a child.

Not atually hated, rather he was afraid of it. It has many eyes and legs, and has poison too. It gives him enough reason to stay from them.

Today, he steeled himself picked it up. It was rather light to hold, unlike what he thought. He looked at it, and it looked back at him.

'How good could it be if I become stronger like you? I could've helped my brother back then.' he flashed a regretful and envious smile at the scorpion.

(A/N: Alex was thinking about the Scorpion Emperor.

Just as he was about to put down the scorpion he heard a dinging sound in his mind.

*DING*

*Mind Connection Established. Would you like to turn into the Emperor Scorpion. Y/N?*

"Woah! I can do that? They why didn't it happen when I held the gecko? Hmmm. Anyway, it should be pretty cool to turn into a scorpion. I wonder how it feels like."

He accepted it. Then the view he had with the world changed, as if he was drunk. His vision went up and down and he felt like he was falling with his back against the ground.

*DUNG!*

(A/N:Yes DUNG. Not the one you know as Dung. But sfxDUNG.)

*ERROR 404 NOT FOUND!*

*ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!*

*REVERTING BACK TO HUMAN FORM!*

*3, 2 ,1!*

*SYSTEM SHUTTING DOWN*

Everything happened way too fast for Alex to cope up with all that happened. The vision he had earlier made him nauseous. Then there was sound in his head and an error occured on the system.

He wasn't able to process the events and forced out of the scorpion form, forced out of the ancient forest and came back to the real world.

"That forest was the Syst- Arrrrrghhh!" he scremed painfully as he was assaulted by the pain which he had forgotten for quite some time now.

The shock the pain brought was unimaginable. His skin started tearing, as what should've been sweat was now blood, started oozing out.

His orifices; his mouth, nose and ears were all bleeding. His senses weren't functioning. He was unable to feel anything. It was like his soul was on a different vessel.

As blood flows out of his body, his bones started shattering one by one and the pain was more than enough to make him pass out.

After an unknown amount of time, Alex, who was in the darkness, he was able to feel the numbness of his entire body. He was like in a dream feeling a miniscule amount of pain every second, forcing him to wake up.

His eyes suddenly opened although his body felt weak, he was feeling strong.

(A/N: It was contradicting, however it was only in his thought that he was strong.)

The strength that he was feeling made him think that he was able to break a rock with a single punch.

He was a bit muddle-headed so he continued to lie on the ground. Drowning in his own blood.