Alesha stood up, which broke the rest of her multi-layered white root cocoon into hundreds of brittle chunks and a big cloud of white dust. "Aghh, if I knew Evolution would have done this, I'd have laid out a garbage bag or something," Alesha grumbled, rubbing her hands all over her arms, legs and the rest of herself to get as much of it off as possible. She felt guilty for how much of a mess she was making. She was only staying temporarily in her dad's office, on a mattress laid out on the floor on the side of the room, and this white pile of whatever-the-cocoon-was certainly wasn't something her dad would appreciate, nor the white dust the cloud of it was leaving all around her. She'd have to clean it up before he found it.
Deciding to be quick about checking herself, Alesha peeked out the office door and into the hallway. Her mother, brother and sister could be heard in the kitchen, dishes clanging, so they were probably busy getting breakfast. What time was it? Would they be off to school soon? Wait, no, it was probably Sunday. Thousands of years later, the ancient Earth tradition of taking a two-day break each week was still being observed.
Whatever the case, the coast was clear enough. She hurried quietly to the bathroom, shut and locked the door, then leaned close to the mirror. She didn't trust the System to tell her about any bodily changes, so she would determine if anything had changed herself.
Looking in the mirror, Alesha first examined her eyes. She hadn't actually expected those to change, but upon seeing them, became glad she'd decided to check. Whereas before they'd been completely human albeit with unnaturally tinted irises, now her pupils had become subtly pointed, like those of a cat at ease. It wasn't an incredible difference but it still made her worry. The vibrant color wheel of her irises would draw peoples' attention, making the likelihood of her pupils' unnatural shape getting noticed more likely; the color was bad enough, but now the pupils had changed?! Hopefully people would think she was an eccentric wearing contact lenses, rather than suspecting she wasn't human. Actually, that was a good cover story. She determined that she would use that excuse if ever asked.
How would her parents react, though? She crossed her fingers mentally, wishing fervently they wouldn't look closely enough to notice the change; or that if they did, they'd simply think they'd missed it previously, when they took her home from the hospital.
Stepping back from the mirror, she turned in a circle, pleased to notice no other changes. She sighed in relief. Okay, she could live with this. She gave herself a big, toothy smile.
Then she froze.
Ah, crap.
Leaning close to the mirror again, she bared her teeth at her reflection, turning her head at different angles to get a better look. Well, that wasn't good. All four of her canine teeth had lengthened and sharpened. It was subtle enough to barely pass as human, but anyone who knew her would notice how much bigger they were immediately.
How would she explain these to her family?
She bit her lip out of habit, but with her newly sharpened teeth, it was more painful than she expected. Yelping softly, she released her lip; no blood was drawn, at least, but her lip did have a visible indent for a few seconds.
"Gahhhh what do I do?" She muttered, making several expressions at the mirror and trying to practice talking without revealing her teeth. It was harder than she expected.
[As amusing as it is to watch you worry about this, you actually don't have to worry,] the System unexpectedly piped in.
"Hm? Why not?" Alesha asked. She was genuinely curious.
[At least for now, you're protected by a "newbie" skill that camouflages minor changes to your appearance. Remember how none of the nurses asked about your eyes? Or how no one in your family, you included, noticed your vibrant eyes at first?]
"Yeah," Alesha said, thinking back. "I did think that was weird. My eyes are so stupidly obvious I was shocked I didn't notice them until you told me to look."
[Well look at this,] the System replied. With that, a System window pulled up, purple and semi-transparent as usual.
[(Hidden Innate Skill) Chaos Embryo's Camouflage (passive) -- Small changes to the Host since obtaining the System, such as from Chaos Sight, will go unnoticed unless attention is specifically drawn to them. This is a "Newbie Skill" that will disappear after the Host reaches level 10.]
[And because I know you're going to ask, check this one out too,] the System added.
[(Hidden Innate Skill) Chaos Sight (passive), level 0 -- Host cannot be deceived by low-level illusion magic. Previously damaged vision was healed and improved. Irises changed into a color wheel of rainbow hues.]
Suddenly some things made a lot more sense. No one at the hospital had asked about her eyes, her family hadn't asked for a while, actually did her parents even know? The only one who for sure did was Layla. Also, no one at Mrs. Green's Groceries had stared at her at all, in fact they'd treated her completely normally. The Chaos Embryo's Camouflage skill explained so much. As did Chaos Sight. She had wondered about her improved vision in the real world, but having had no answers and no way to find them, had set them aside soon after realizing it had changed.
Now, though, she felt pretty stupid for not even bothering to ask the System. If she had, she would have found out about Chaos Sight sooner. Then, discovering the existence of hidden innate skills, would likely have asked if she had any others, and found out about the camouflage one. Oops.
"Hey System, do I have any other hidden innate skills?"
[No. Going forward, any new "innate skills" will be Racial Traits. The only reason these ones are innate skills is because they came with me, the 'Seed of Chaos' System, as automatic add-ons.]
Alesha supposed that made sense. "Innate" did sound more like a starter term anyways, and the System was undoubtedly a fan of Racial Traits. After all, at only level 5 and having evolved but once, she already had 4 of them. What kind of hod-podge being would she become by the end of her evolution? Would there be an end?