As Clifford feasted on the wendigo's corpse, the dark force within his body gradually increased until he couldn't handle it anymore. The moment the corpse of the wendigo was nothing but bones, its memories flooded Clifford's brain. As he relived its memories, he felt his body shift, slowly tearing apart his clothes as his size began to increase.
This made Clifford examine his body in silence. He didn't know why or how, but at the very least, he didn't outright reject it. Unbeknownst to him, it was the result of the Devil's Core action. As the core suspended and trapped the soul of the wendigo in Clifford's Sea of Consciousness, it allowed Clifford to take on its form freely as he wished.
Although it sounded like a good thing, it was risky as the repetitive use of this power would bring the suspended soul to life, and then that soul would start fighting for control over the body, which could end up negatively, especially in battle if it happens.
Unbeknownst to Clifford, this was part of the Rejection Stage, as the possessor of the core had to go through two stages before gaining full approval of the core and becoming its master. The core would trap any soul stronger than its possessor in their Sea of Consciousness as long as their corpses were devoured by its possessor.
As time passes, the trapped souls become a problem for the possessor. The longer the possessor remains in this stage, the harder the next stage becomes for them. It depends on how long it takes for the possessor to take action against the souls.
Simply put, to freely use this ability, he needed to destroy the remnant souls in his Sea of Consciousness, which he couldn't do since he had no clue.
Although he didn't outright reject the form, he didn't quite like it. It was too big, simply not suited for him as he thought he would scare off anything that came across him. Even though he knew that the majority of the forest inhabitants were no smaller in size than he currently was, he didn't know how their strength compared to that of the Wendigo he killed.
Taking his time, Clifford sat on the ground, thinking about how to proceed. For now, he wanted to master his shapeshifting ability and control his eyes. After a couple of hours of constant training and switching back and forth between his human and new form, he finally reached his goal.
At the moment, he could easily transform a single part of his body and leave the rest in his human form. He primarily wanted this to make his meals faster; larger jaws would be great for devouring his prey. No avail with the eyes, though; reverting to his normal human eyes seemed impossible, forcing him to look for another way to get rid of the halos he saw earlier.
Another thing he wanted to confirm was how the dark force worked. Earlier, it healed his wounds, and then it caused him to enter a berserk state, erasing all the pain he felt. When does it heal and when does it empower him? After recalling all the events that happened to him so far, he came to a conclusion.
His body healed slowly as it absorbed the dark force while he was asleep, but would the same apply if he went to sleep? Would simply sleeping end up the same way? Regardless, he had his theory to test if he wished to confirm it, which is what he planned to do later.
By the time he finished, the evening was approaching, prompting him to hurry since he wanted to get a better look at the area surrounding him. A little later, he was able to find a tree, one high enough to give him a decent view. After struggling for a bit, he was finally able to climb the tree with the help of the dual antlers.
Although not the tallest tree, he was able to see what he wanted. As he sat on the top, he could see two places from his current location: one was far in the distance across the horizon to the north, and the other was nearby in the opposite direction, his city, which he knew as Spiral City. The other one was too far; he could hardly see anything other than its outline.
The forest itself was gigantic, with trees of all sizes covering the entire area. The distance between his current location and the distant city alone could amount to 10 times the distance between here and Spiral City.
With a sigh, he decided to descend the tree as night was approaching, but a thought came to his mind. With his current mindset, he planned to return to the city to investigate the incident he caused alongside his foster parents and perhaps the medicine he used to rely on.
That's besides the fact that the academy never needed to throw him outside the city when they could simply bury him. Something didn't add up for him. However, at the moment, none of that was a priority. Until then, he would fight and hone his hunting skills.
Despite the tree being tall, it didn't seem as high as the walls protecting his previous city, probably a little less than 4 meters. This gave birth to a risky idea: if his body was strengthened after falling from that height, would the same thing happen once again? In the end, he decided to execute his plan.
Taking a carefree stance, he stood up on the large tree branch he was sitting on, pushing himself back with his feet, causing him to fall onto his back. This time, the same thing didn't happen again, as his body was stronger than back then. All that occurred was a little pain, which couldn't bother him, along with some minor injuries. Nothing else was affected.
The result left Clifford disappointed; this meant he couldn't use this method to rapidly grow stronger, which in his opinion was an easier and faster way than finding an opponent that could push him over the edge. With a sigh, Clifford got off the ground and made his way back to the cave to spend the night.