No one heard what Maya said, her voice was drowned out by the old man's excited exclamation.
"One try at controlling your beast energy and you have already crossed the threshold. Congratulations! You are a novice shifter now" he clapped his hand happily.
The other students were all surprised, they looked at Maya with jealousy, admiration and envy. But Maya herself wasn't very happy, she seemed lost in thought.
[Ding! Congratulations for advancing to a novice shifter]
[Stats will change according to which body parts have been transformed]
[Water Dragon ability unlocked: water spout Rank F]
Maya was surprised by the messages, looking at her scaly hands she thought 'system, if l want to change back into a human someday, can you make it happen?'
[Negative, only The Creator has that power]
'The Creator? The system mentioned that name a couple of times' she thought curiously.
'system, who is The Creator?'
[It is against The Creator's rules to reveal any information about The Creator]
'can l meet The Creator?'
[Affirmative, once you become a demigod The Creator will come to you himself]
'as long as there is a chance of returning to the human world, I will do anything'
She looked at her hands again 'time to get stronger'
When she looked ahead, she realised that at some point Smith had arrived and he was speaking to the old man and the group of kids were back to their positions to concentrate. Both their faces looked grim, thinking that something was wrong, she walked over while cancelling her partial transformation.
Upon seeing Maya coming over, the old man's face lit up "little female, since you are so talented to the point of doing partial transformation does that mean you can do a full transformation too?"
Maya shook her head "No, I don't have enough energy to perform a full transformation"
Smith and the old man looked at each other in surprise.
"It costs you energy to shift into your beast form?" Smith asked.
Maya nodded making the two even more surprised.
"Perhaps it's because we lack knowledge about dragons, maybe this is how dragon shifters are" the old man pondered.
Smith nodded but Maya was a bit lost "what's going on?"
" The great hunt is coming soon, this is the time of the year whereby different clans in each of the eight tribes compete to see who is the strongest. Clans also use this opportunity to showcase their power and if a clan is deemed too weak to be a clan they are disbanded. The relatively stronger members are taken in by other clans while the weak ones are discarded at the Valtori tribe" Smith explained.
"And our clan was weakened by a civil dispute that broke out last year, the clan head's whole family was eradicated. Two adept shifters, five apprentice shifters and nine novice shifters perished. The other clans have been eyeing us for a long time, they are probably waiting for us to perform badly at this year's great hunt. And am afraid there's really nothing we can do, our clan will be disbanded" he said with a sad expression but his fists were clenched.
"Isn't Smith very strong? Just let him participate" Maya suggested.
"This competition is not for us old people, it's for young people below 50 years of age" the old man said gently.
"is Smith already over 50 years of age?" Maya asked with a disbelieving expression.
The old man chuckled before saying with pride "of course! He is my big brother after all"
Maya's brain went haywire unable to digest what she just heard.
"It's true am already a hundred and fifty years old" Smith admitted.
Maya was even more astonished 'a hundred and fifty? You don't even look a day past thirty!'
'System, are they telling the truth?'
[Affirmative, adept shifters can live up to 250 years of age]
"That aside, we still have to participate though" the old man said looking troubled.
Maya regained a little of her composure and asked "how does it work?"
"We need to choose three of our strongest champions, the strongest novice shifter, apprentice shifter and adept shifter. And currently, all the champions l have in mind for those positions aren't all that impressive. Am afraid we won't be able to qualify even in one round" the old man said.
"I will train the others thoroughly, take care of our novice champion" Smith said as he left.
"I can be your novice champion, I will make sure you win one round at least" Maya said in hopes of alleviating their worries a little.
The old man was elated but then he shook his head "it doesn't work like that, you have to fight for the position. We already chose our novice champion in advance, you can just go challenge him instead"
Maya nodded "so who is your novice champion?"
"Master! Master! Sid managed to transform!" A boy came over while shouting excitedly.
The old man's eyes lit up "Really? Take me to him now"
The two ran off leaving Maya behind 'never mind, I will just ask him when he's done' she thought.
When she turned around to go sit beneath the big tree she saw Void who was fidgeting a meter away from him.
"Are you okay? Where is your brother?" Maya asked as she looked around for Shadow.
"He went to relieve himself" he said with a blush.
"Oh, then why are you here?" She asked.
Void suddenly knelt on the ground "please female, teach me how you did it, help me subdue my beast. I-l...l don't want to become a mindless beast!"
Surprised by his behaviour, Maya ushered him to get up "first of all, my name is Maya not female. Secondly, l can give you some tips but l can't guarantee if you will successfully manage to transform"
"Thank you....thank you so much fem- Maya" Void said happily.
"Okay then sit down like we did in class" Maya said.
Void did as told and closed his eyes, knowing that she couldn't teach him the same way she did it, she decided to use the teacher's method.
"What emotion stimulates your beast?" She asked.
Void said immediately "anger"
"Good, now think about what makes you angry" Maya instructed.
Void thought for a long time but he still couldn't come up with anything "I...I don't know?" Even he himself want so sure.
Maya was puzzled "you don't know? Have you ever transformed before?"
"Yes and l lost control every single time l did" void said with a troubled expression.
"Oh, what made you lose control?" She inquired.
Void thought for a moment but he didn't say anything.
"You have to be truthful if you want me to help you. I will ask you differently this time, what's the last thing you feel before losing control?" Maya asked sternly.
"I feel anger...l always feel very angry right before l lose control" Void said in realisation.
"And What makes you feel that anger?" Maya asked.
Void said subconsciously "my... brother"
"Bingo, you have your answer." Maya said cheerfully before frowning "but why your brother? Aren't you two very close?"
"We are, but... He has become strange ever since he became a novice shifter." He said sadly.
Knowing that it wasn't any of her business to intrude Maya ignored it "from the way l see it, these emotions are double edged, if anger can stimulate your beast it can also make you lose control. I want you to think of how your brother make you angry, when you feel your energy moving, let go of the thoughts and focus on controlling the energy." Maya explained.
She had speculated that since too much anger will lead to losing control then why not control the amount of anger instead?
After waiting for a while, a struggling expression could be seen on his face as beads of sweat tickled down his face. This made Maya nervous, was she wrong? What if void turns into a mindless beast? What should she do then?
'I should probably go call the teacher'
At that moment, Void fell on his knees as he continued to struggle, then cat ears, a tail and black fur began growing on his body. After a few moments, he had transformed into a pure black panther, he looked at Maya with his golden yellow eyes and pounced on her but Maya was a step ahead of him, she dodged.
"You jinx! What did you do to my brother?" Shadow who came out of nowhere asked in anger.
The other students noticed what was happening but they didn't dare approach for fear of getting attacked by the mindless beast.
Before Maya could respond, Void reverted back to his demi-human form but this time around he had a pair of identical black cat ears and a long black slender tail.
"It's okay brother, Maya just helped me breakthrough. I'm a novice shifter now, just like you!" He said with excitement plastered on his face.
Hearing this Shadow's expression became even darker "you recklessly placed my brother's life in danger, if something had gone wrong, would you have taken responsibility?"
Maya was stunned but she couldn't refute because it was true "I'm sorry, l was just trying to help him"
"Brother don't be so angry, l was the one who asked her for help" Void defended Maya.
"Shut up!" Shadow yelled at Void making him shocked.
Shadow looked at Maya "I heard you wanted to challenge me for my position at the great hunt, am here now. Fight me!"
He shouted as he crouched down and started to transform into a black panther.
Seeing this, most of the students were shocked
"When did Shadow become an apprentice shifter?"
Maya was alert and ready to evade Shadow who was preparing to attack her.
[Ding! You have been challenged by an apprentice shifter]
[Ding! New quest has been assigned: defeat Shadow]
Rewards:
The Water Dragon's ability – regeneration -Rank F
+30 exp
+2 stats
Evolve one ability to a higher rank
Failure:
-5 stats