Chereads / The Strait Of Cosmos / Chapter 17 - The First Humanoid Tick

Chapter 17 - The First Humanoid Tick

Imogen awoke to the sound of a screaming human, along with a new body. 

 "To whomever is ruining my morning, I will personally rip you apart; brutally." Described Imogen as she watched a full garrison of guards run up to her.

 "My days are never simple, are they?" Complained Imogen.

~~~

"Be careful, this is an evolved specimen we've never seen before; we don't know if it's hostile or not." Said a guardsman pointing his spear at Imogen.

*System Quest Rewards: 3 skill stones and the skill - Verbal Communication

*System Gift: Skill - False Form has been given, auto bringing up status

Name: Imogen

Title: Heartless Bitch

Race: Tick - Adult

Age: 2

Gender: Female

Bloodline: Fragmented False Tick

Level: 10

Class: Heart Defender

Blood: 13/370

Hp: 40/40

Mp: 7.5/7.5

Str: 17 ---> 21

Vit: 2.8 ---> 4

Def: 36 ---> 37

Int: 15 ---> 15

Agt: 13 ---> 17

Quests: 0

Skills: Racial skill - Blood Absorb 2.0, Weak Pierce 2.0, 70/30 Luck, Negligible Illusion Resistance, Fast eyes, Fractured Language Comprehension 2.0, Heart Plate, Metal Heart, Steel Soul, Verbal Communication and False Form

*Error: Defense is too high, compensating with a skill evolution stone

"Great, you have the best darn timing I've ever seen." Said Imogen, staring at the guards warily. 

 "What a bunch of morons." Said Imogen unintentionally out loud.

"Did the tick just talk or are my ears fucking with me." Asked one of the guards.

"Did I really talk, I guess I can talk now; that's great!" Yelled Imogen happily

"It's a damned tier three, be prepared to run if things go bad." Declared the head guard.

"You know I can hear you right, you really are a bunch of dolts." Snickered Imogen.

"I know that, I was just showing you an example of how much we revere you." Sweet mouthed the guard. 

 "We formally invite you to meet the baron of this humble town, not that we have such a right to invite you; but I'm sure the baron would agree." Said the guard, silver tongue swirling. 

 "Not that it would matter if he didn't, it's only my insignificant job on the line after all. Continued the guard whose words were soaked with honey.

"Are you trying to guilt trip me or something, because it's not working very well." Asked Imogen, not completely understanding the guard.

 The guard was speechless for a while, but in the end he spoke up.

 "I would never, I was just trying my best to honor you." Said the guard unfaltering.

 "but we don't get beings of your caliber often, so I guess you could say that I've gotten rusty over the years; we wish you only our best intentions." Uttered the guard innocently.

 "Sure I guess, it's not like I have anything better to do." Decided Imogen. 

 "If you could, leave and come back in an hour or so; I'd appreciate it."

"I would be most obliged, I'll make sure to inform the baron of this event." Said the guard as he signaled his men to leave.

~~~

 "Now to look at all those notifications." Thought Imogen as she looked at the white and red boxes floating in front of her. 

 "Oh, that's how I was able to talk; thank you system." Praised Imogen. 

 "It also looks like I have a human form now, I'll have to try it out sometime." Acknowledged Imogen.

"System, I would like you to put skill stones in Blood Absorb, Weak Pierce and Fragmented Language Comprehension." Asked Imogen happily.

 "And after you're done with that, evolve Blood Absorb."

*System Has Complied: Opening status...now

Name: Imogen

Title: Heartless Bitch

Race: Tick - Adult

Age: 2

Gender: Female

Bloodline: Fragmented False Tick

Level: 10

Class: Heart Defender

Blood: 13/370

Hp: 40/40

Mp: 7.5/7.5

Str: 21

Vit: 4

Def: 37

Int: 15

Agt: 17

Quests: 0

Skills: Racial skill - Life Steal, Weak Pierce 3.0, 70/30 Luck, Negligible Illusion Resistance, Fast eyes, Fractured Language Comprehension 3.0, Heart Plate, Metal Heart, Steel Soul, Verbal Communication and False Form

"System, show me Life Steal please. Thought Imogen as nicely as possible.

*Life Steal: Your nails, claws, teeth, beak and almost any spell or any weapon you use will have weak life steal properties. You'll drain 0.5 points of health every time you attack with one of the methods above, you can also use any prevolved version of this skill. - cost 0.05 per second

"That's really good, certainly better than I thought it would be anyways." Thought Imogen.

 "I would like to try out my human form now, but I have to see what it is first. Admitted Imogen.

 "System, could you show me False Form?" Inquired Imogen.

*False Form: A humanoid form of something not human. As it's not your real form, you cannot express your true power. Even with the side effects known, a lot of nonhuman creatures indulge in using this skill. cost - none

"System, you're spoiling me; it doesn't even have a cost." Delighted Imogen. 

 "I have to try out this human form, so I can't waste any more time." Thought Imogen daringly.

 "How do I activate skills? I just realized that I don't remember how." Requested Imogen.

*Skills: The powerful aspects of the universe, they are the embodiment of power in language. Humans or any other creature can't grasp magic that's not a skill, actually no one can except the oldest of gods. You are only able to use them once the universe acknowledges that you have them. To use them you just have to want to use them, usually.

 As Imogen read the text she slowly morphed into a humanoid tick, she had dark brown hair with subtle garnet colored highlights; it was fairly short and easy to manage. She had dark green eyes with an in between kind of skin color.

 She had a tick tattoo starting at her breasts, of which are actually on the smaller side of things and ending on the lower part of her neck.

 She had carapace in a sort of scaled formation all over her body along with a crooked scar on her left side. She also had another tattoo, this time it was of a wyrm running across her right arm.

 Her upper canines were more pronounced than they should be and felt a bit out of place.

She unconsciously ran her hand across her well defined abs.

 "I could take the chance of being female so well because I was a tick and I couldn't really tell the difference. Realized Imogen as she looked at herself.

 "Now it's a bit harder, but since I've been a woman for so long that I don't actually care too much… gender is just part of a physical body right?" Pondered Imogen, though she was unintentionally relieved.

 "The biggest problem here is that I'm naked, I need to find some clothes to look decent." Thought Imogen, feeling a bit bare.

System Milestone: The system has been directed to give you 1 halberd and some clothes

 "That's probably my starting weapon, finally; but where is it?" Questioned Imogen as she looked around. 

 Before she could even think, a halberd dropped out of the air and after it came a folded pile of clothes. 

 "That's convenient, but I don't even know how to put on a bra." Thought Imogen as she fiddled with her clothes, trying to get them on.

~~~

 After a half hour of trying to get her clothes on, Imogen is clothed and definitely not ready to go anywhere.

 "What do I do with my clothes when I morph, if I have to take them off; where should I put them?" Pondered Imogen.

 "I guess I can think about that later, right now I need to mess around with this dumb looking weapon." Thought Imogen as she looked towards the halberd.

 "Who would ever use such a dumb looking weapon, I just don't get it and why did the gods have to give it to me." Wondered Imogen angrily.

 "They're probably laughing their a- I mean laughing their butts off." Thought Imogen pettily.

 "Actually, who the hell cares; I shouldn't." Grumbled Imogen as she calmed down.

*System Convenience: The system stores any items you have on you when you morph

 "Late as always system, well actually you've been pretty good lately; but you just broke that streak." Scolded Imogen as she went to pick up the halberd. 

 As Imogen swung it around for a bit, she realized that she had no idea how to use a halberd.

 "This feels way lighter than I thought it would, but I have no clue on how to use this." Rambled Imogen as she gestured to the halberd.

 "Maybe I could get someone to teach me. That should be high on my priority list." Thought Imogen, displeased. 

 "I also need to get some actual armor, these clothes are good for being clothes; but they're not armor." Ranted Imogen, getting overwhelmed. 

 "I just realized that I went from having nothing to do to having way too much, life likes to give me the middle finger way too much." Thought Imogen ironically.

 "Hopefully those guards come back soon, most of what I need to do now is in the human town." Despaired Imogen as she looked down at her chest disappointedly.

 "I may not have been a woman in my past life, but I think that they're supposed to be bigger than this. Figured Imogen as she tried to look elsewhere.

 "I always think of the depressing stuff, I need to do something that will take my mind off life." Suspired Imogen actually wondering, despite the halberd in her hands.

 "I know this will probably do more harm than good, but it'll take my mind off of things for a while." Said Imogen out loud, as she went off to go practice with the halberd.