The Shapeshifter

While the family of three were laughing and enjoying their dinner; Alex was caught in a predicament.

'What should I do?'

He did not know if the manual would turn to be beneficial or become a cause of disaster.

There is no telling what would happen once he learned the manual in front of Reynard and his son.Should he just refuse? Or was he just being overly anxious?

'Let's not fret too much. What ever will be, will be.', he took a deep breath.

"So what do you think Alex?", the Big Baldie's booming voice woke him up from his thoughts.

"What do I think? I'm sorry, my mind was wandering about. Could you repeat what you said, please?", Alex asked.

"So that's why. I'm planning to teach the manual to both you and Rezhul. And maybe after a week or so of training, we would escort you to the city, while at the same time doing some real life practice. What do you say?"

"Yeah. Sounds great. It's perfect."

"Alright then, finish up your food and we will start after."

Alex and Rezhul nodded and quickly stuffed as much food as they can in their mouth.

...

Meanwhile, in the City of Vera.

"I have asked for all of you today, to discuss pressing matters.", Micah said as he turned towards the eleven people that was inside the conference room.

"Is it about the mutant?", asked one of them.

"Yes, that's one part of it.", Micah replied.

He looked at them, took a deep breath and continued. "As you all have witnessed, a mutant has appeared in the ranks of the beasts. This mutant was fast, it is strong, tough and can regenerate at an extremely fast rate. I was able to kill it in 30 seconds."

"Yeah, so?", a middle aged Archmage asked in a rather unfriendly and aggressive tone.

"What I'm trying to say is, it can definitely fight against an Archmage once it finishes its mutation. I think it could even kill several Lords in a fight."

"What?"

"It was just a mere Dire Beast, no?"

"You are still too young and weak. You just broke through and still needs more time to train. Look at you being so scared by a mere Dire Beast.", the arrogant Archmage snorted.

"Yeah, or we can fight right now and I can kill you in 30 seconds. How about it old man?", Micah didn't back down and taunted.

Before the middle aged Archmage could retort, Geoffrey yelled, "Enough!". Even though Geoffrey isn't an Archmage, he is talented enough to fight one and not lose. Not to mention that he's well respected by his peers.

"Hmph."

"Continue.", the last Archmage said nonchalanty. It was an old man that aged about 70 - 80 years old.

There were three Archmages and nine Lords currently in the meeting. As Warriors outnumber the Mages in the current human population, the number of Warrior powerhouse also outnumber the Mages.

Warriors also grow quickly due to being in constant fight against death. Being in the frontline and struggling to survive against the attacks stimulates their potential.

That is why many higher ranked mage are on the older side.

"I say we fight. Have the divisions clean up the whole Sherwood Forest. These beasts are becoming more and more active. If it wasn't for our intervention, a village would've fallen. No, more village could've been destroyed.", Micah continued.

"Are you mad? The cost of such war would be astronomical! We have to feed tens of thousands of people. We have to maintain their weapons at all times.", the angry middle aged Archmage said.

"As always, there has to be a vote. I vote for war. The beasts has grown increasingly overbearing during the past few years. The data shows it all.", Geoffrey said.

The voting passed very quickly and the results were 10-2 in favor of going to war against the beasts.

"Let me remind all of you that we cannot participate in this war, you all know the consequences. I will be reporting this to the two other cities and the kings. Let us start this campaign after the recruitment next year. You are all dismissed.", the old man in his 70's said.

He was the oldest and most respected of the bunch, therefore the kings have bestowed to him his current position as the head.

Once the meeting was done, everybody stood up and went their ways.

...

"As I said before, this manual was taught to us by one of the prodigies in the past, it dates back to maybe some centuries ago, maybe a millenia even. I don't know. So that's about it. Go back to your rooms and memorize it. Don't try to practice it just yet as it's already late.", the Big Baldie Reynard said.

Reynard has just finished explaining the whole Poda Tribe Manual to Alex and Rezhul.

Like Rezhul, Alex quickly dashed to his room.

"Haha. Kids.", Reynard and his wife laughed at the amusing behavior of the two.

Upon returning to his room, he sat down on the bed and focused his eyes and words started appearing in his vision.

*DING*

*[Poda Tribe Body Manual (Passive)] skill detected. Would you wish to learn? Y/N?*

As the yes and no button continued to flicker in his eyes, he cannot help but remember what happened earlier.

When the Big Baldie let them read the book. The same words appeared in his eyes. He ignored it and when he gave the book to Rezhul, the words were gone.

"So does it mean that I can learn skills from books that I didn't even read? But it only works when I'm holding it. Still, that's like cheating."

But when the Big Baldie read it once more and explained everything in detail, the prompt of the system still hasn't disappeared.

'Maybe with the help of the system, I can become a Warrior and a Mage at the same time?', he thought.

"Wait! The system is still updating, right? Then how—."

*Currently at 89% update. Some services are still unavailable.*

"Holy! It talks! Hey system, do you talk?"

"..."

"It doesn't speak, but it can somehow communicate with me. Let's not keep this up any longer. Learn!"

Pain instantly assaulted his body. Due to being always in contact with unbearable pain, Alex has grown somewhat tolerant of such pains.

He only gritted his teeth and waites for the pain to subside.

His exposed skin has become red. His shirt and pants were drenched in sweat. Same with his bed sheets.

He immediately removed the bed sheets and decided to take a short bath when the system prompt showed up again.

*DING*

*Due to certain conditions being met, the skill [Poda Tribe Body Manual (Passive)] has changed to [Ancient Tribal Body Strengthening (Passive)] skill!*

"Ah what?"

Alex was dumbfounded, this was simply ridiculous! What certain conditions? He doesn't know anything about thosw conditions at all. This was the first time that he dabbled on the field of body arts.

"Haha. Kid, I am that certain conditions, hehe.", an old voice resounded in the room.

Alex's hairs on his back stood and he looked around anxiously.

"What are you searching for, its me the Old Scorpion."

"What? Weren't you dead already?"

"You're wishing me dead already?"

"Sorry. Anyway, why are you still here, didn't you say that your time is limited or something."

"Yeah, I did say those words. Time is the least of my worries right now.", the Old Scorpion Emperor soon began his storytelling.