'Plop'
Droplets of water splashed into the air as the murky waters were dyed a shade of red. Prakash gleamed through his connection that the Gharial was destroying the nearby fishes that had latched onto its body when it had carried him all the way here.
Even if he hadn't given any commands, Ugly Shaggy that controlled the Gharial was sentient enough to preserve the body it was controlling. Even if the fishes hadn't posed any immediate threat to the reptilian creature that possessed tough scales, it wasn't wise enough to leave them to their devices.
It seemed that a trace of Prakash's aroma lingered on the body of the Gharial as he had physically been in contact with it till now. Till the time the aroma lingered on it, waves of fishes would continue attacking it.
"Ah shit, here we go again." Prakash gazed at the numerous purple snakes that streaked out of the surface of the murky waters and entered his body, activating his 'Purple Transformation'.
Two minutes later, the murky waters around Prakash had been dyed a deep shade of crimson as all the fishes in the region had been killed under the mighty jaws of the apex predator.
Prakash opened his eyes as he instinctively perceived that the trace of his aroma that lingered on the Gharial's body had been completely expended. As he was constantly surrounded by it, Prakash gained the ability to faintly sense the presence of the aroma that was generated from his body.
Purple smoke gushed out of the pores on his skin and coagulated into a cocoon that wrapped around him and shattered within the next instant to reveal a cute puppy from within.
Now, having his eyesight significantly improved, Prakash gazed at the mass of concrete he stood on in wonder. Large pieces of crushed concrete were buried under the water while pillars of iron protruded out. Heaps of messy objects that ranged from food, clothes, shelves, electronics, and furniture lay scattered around in a messy manner, forming heaps of unusable trash that gave out a faint stench that lingered in the air.
Prakash saw a small broken section in one of the walls that lead to the interior of what was supposedly a shopping mall. Through his powerful eyesight, he saw many sections of the shopping mall stood relatively intact with only its lowermost floor being submerged underwater.
A stream of purple smoke coagulated to form the 'Record' in front of his eyes as Prakash noticed the rate at which his Dog Karma was being consumed. Only a single Karma was consumed per second, which was in stark contrast to his other transformations that consumed hundreds of Karma in a matter of seconds.
The puppy dissolved into a mass of purple smoke that was absorbed back into a tiny human figure which seemed to be in deep thought. His thought process was disrupted when a trace amount of black smoke seeped out of his skin and dispersed into the air. He also felt a tinge of pain like he had been poked by a needle once before everything returned to normal. During the few seconds that the black smoke seeped out of his skin, Prakash felt like his body was being purified under the rays of the sun.
"I see. So, I would be able to avoid my body turning a deep shade of blue if I stand under the sun for a second after dissolving each transformation." Prakash made a mental note to avoid transforming when there was no sunlight if he could help it and proceeded to address his next objective.
Thinking back to his experiences of partially transforming into an ant back in his house when only the antennae manifested on his forehead and when hair-like projections grew on his palms and the soles on his feet, Prakash replicated a similar thought process as he activated his Dog Karma.
Purple smoke seemed out of the orifices of his face and settled on his skin. A couple of seconds later, two tiny buds grew on his head above the regions of his ears respectively. In a matter of seconds, the growing buds had formed into a pair of ears that looked just like the ears of a young German Shepherd.
The dog ears on his head twitched and turned in all directions as Prakash could hear many minute sounds that ranged from the flapping of a mosquito's wings to the soft wind flow. He could now hear sounds that were almost on the same scale as when he had transformed into a puppy; his hearing now was slightly inferior only to his complete transformation into a puppy but it should suffice seeing that the consumption of a Dog's Karma was only a single unit for every 10-12 seconds.
He then dissolved the dog ears into purple smoke and transformed his eyes into those of a dog's. His vision improved by leaps and bounds and was inferior to only the fully transformed version of the puppy.
He then tried to transform his nose when purple smoke coagulated around the regions of his nose, mouth, and lower jaw. The process was immediately accompanied by pain as his mouth and jaw region elongated forward while his nose began to fuse into the elongated region.
"Aaarrhhhwwoooo," His screams of pain transformed into a series of howls as Prakash sensed the intense aroma that was wafting out of his body. The aroma felt like a source of water to a thirsty traveller in a desert or a banquet of delicacies to a hungry beggar who hadn't had a morsel in years; it was absolutely drool-worthy and was irresistible to any creature that had a sense of smell, no matter how minute.
But strangely, Prakash felt neither hunger nor the desire to eat himself as he took a deep breath of this aroma. To him, it just felt like an expensive perfume was sprayed all over his body in excess.
"Now, I understand why every damn creature is intent on gobbling me up even at the cost of their lives," Prakash cursed his fate. If not for this aroma, his life would have been much easier.
The elongated nose of a dog dissolved into purple smoke which further converged upon his eyes and transformed them into a set of dog eyes.
"This is better," Prakash muttered in satisfaction as unlike a complete transformation, pain accompanied along with every partial transformation. He chose to transform his eyes into that of a dog's for two reasons. First, was due to the fact that he could easily cope with dangers with better eyesight which was what he majorly relied on when he was big; second, it was due to it having the least Karma drain as it consumed about a unit of Dog's Karma for every 18-20 seconds. It had the highest cost to effectiveness ratio among the three.
"Alright; this should do for now." Prakash began to walk towards the hole in the wall that was 20 metres away from him when he felt his chest constrict. He gazed at his chest in wonder at Ugly Shaggy's tail that was shrinking in size as he moved forward. It felt the same as seeing a rubber band getting stretched to its limit.
Prakash hurriedly traced back his steps until he stood at the edge of the concrete block and gazed into the waters below. After a moment of hesitation, Prakash tried to recall Ugly Shaggy.
The body of the Gharial lay motionless at the bottom of the murky waters as a purple snake emerged out of its head and shrunk in size until it contracted in length and hovered before Prakash. An ugly head reared its face in front of Prakash until it was sucked inside his body starting from its tail.
Prakash gazed at his 'Record' and found out to his surprise that he had gained a new row in his Karma Attribute.
Even though the amount of Karma he had gained was a pitiful sum, Prakash was seeking out different possibilities.
Prakash willed for Ugly Shaggy to appear but was disappointed again when nothing happened. It seemed he should try a different method to trigger it, just like how his transformations had a prerequisite to activate them.
Prakash recalled the four conditions required to activate his transformations; having the Karma of a creature, prior knowledge of the said creature, the mentality of his mind to become said creature, and the effect of the surrounding environment. He wasn't sure if the surrounding environment affected his transformations; sure they were the cause that induced some of his transformations unconsciously in the first place but it was still something he had to ponder about in the future.
"But, it does not seem to fall under transformations but an entirely different logic. Karmic Arts: Convert; does this mean I'm converting something?" Prakash wondered as he thought more about his conjecture. When the ability activated in the murky waters during his confrontation with the fishes, it invaded the body of a fish that had drunk his blood and made it his ally. A part of that scary phenomenon where his skin became a deep shade of blue was transferred to that fish through Ugly Shaggy.
And when it invaded the mind of the Gharial, Ugly Shaggy consumed a large amount of his Karma and converted it into his ally while also transferring the entirety of his disease-like state to it.
"No, it wasn't converted to become my ally, but more like it got converted into my puppet," Prakash modified his thought process as he tried to convert some substance into something else. He hadn't formed a solid picture in his mind yet but suddenly found through his 'Record' that the Karma of 'Fish 15' began to decrease while a new row flashed into existence.
"Didn't this disappear when I used up all of its karma?" Prakash gasped in shock as something that disappeared long ago had now reappeared. Moreover, the Karma of Ant was steadily increasing.
Prakash noted that for every decrease in 5 units of Karma of 'Fish 15', one unit of Karma had been added to the Karma of the Ant. He also noted that it took approximately 5 seconds to gain a unit of Ant Karma which meant that he could convert one unit of Karma per second.
"So, such a thing was possible too?" Prakash felt joy in discovering such a helpful ability. He had wanted to achieve a certain goal but instead got surprised with a new helpful discovery.