When I decided to try putting my body on autopilot for a few hours until the morning, I had only done so with the intent of refreshing my transformation capabilities. I hadn't put much thought into that I might dream, and with how different this body was from a human body, I hadn't even considered it a possibility.
To be fair, what I just went through could hardly be called a dream. It was more of a revelation, and it felt far too real to have been a creation of my subconscious. Even now, I felt a subtle but warm sensation of being embraced, although that was quickly fading. If not for the fact I was far more innately aware of my own body than I had been as a human, I might have even thought that I was imagining it, but I knew better.
What I had just gone through was eye-opening, to say the least, and it was a sudden and massive influx of information. Even now, I feel akin to what I had when I first gained consciousness in this world. My senses feel dull and weak compared to the omniscience that I had during the vision, and even then my senses were limited.
Monitoring the breadth of my detection radius, it was just as expansive as it had been before the 'dream', so I guess I was just acutely feeling the difference between what I had in the vision.
My surroundings were unchanged from how they had been when I had fallen asleep, and my body hadn't moved an inch, nay, a millimeter. Perhaps I had been too restrictive with my protocols. I stretched, feeling aches and cramps that I hadn't even considered to be possible with my new body. I could innately feel that the mental strain that had been building up in the week since I had awoken was gone, but I double-checked to make sure, quickly sending a ripple of movement traveling from head to toe.
Yep, full control and no strain. That ripple had also gotten rid of all the cramps that I had been feeling. I guess that the cramps weren't from muscle pain as that would have just healed with my regeneration and they were instead from keeping my body so still. Does that mean that there are downsides to not shifting my form? It's a bit of a stretch, but I am not too sure where to draw the line between just moving my body and having my body shift. Perhaps the only difference is that shifting my form brings me farther away from my true form and that causes the strain, but I have bigger things to worry about.
Like the vision.
The vision itself was an extremely disorienting experience. I had felt like it was me the entire time, and all of my movements had felt natural, but it hadn't been my body, my thoughts, or my actions. A lot of the things that I had 'done' had made so much sense at the moment, but now that I was once again in control of myself I had so many questions. I am guessing that the vision was a retelling of the history of the world that I was now in, ending with how I was created, but the actual things that had happened between my creation and when I woke up were still shrouded in mystery. I also, apparently, had siblings. And a mother.
But I also didn't have either. At least in my past life. I struggle to understand which one is more real, but while I have the memories of my past life, who I am now feels so much more real, and I think I prefer it this way. I didn't have a whole lot of good memories from my past life anyway, so I saw no problems with accepting that I now had a family.
And I hadn't even started thinking about the rest of the vision. If I discarded all of the probably very important details and just looked at the things that affected me directly right now, there were a few vital pieces of information to take away from this.
I was created by someone or something to cleanse this world. There were beings that had threatened the world in the past that were returning despite the best efforts of my creator, and it was my job to stamp them out. That was probably why my system awarded me XP for killing things, as I was just fulfilling my purpose. I suppose that that might mean that I might not gain XP for killing things that are untainted by foreign beings, but I had no way of being able to tell right now as I couldn't even tell what was and wasn't untainted.
There was also one being, that I had referred to as the One Who Watched in the vision, who had bound my creator, my mother, and stopped her from interfering herself for a long time. Thinking about them made me shiver, both in an undescribable rage as well as a perceived feeling of danger like the nonexistent hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. Like I was being watched.
Maybe it's better to avoid thinking about them, for my own sake.
That was about it. Maybe there was more that I was forgetting, as the memories of what I had seen were starting to fade away, turning fuzzy, but I'm not sure.
I clambered to my feet, my talon-like feet slightly ripping into the caravan roof as I stood. The sunrise was still underway, casting a dim but growing light onto the camp. Harland lay in his leather sleeping bag, seemingly defenseless besides the array that had been set up earlier that still stood strong. I knew that wasn't the case, however, as I could detect multiple layers of aetheric matter of some kind protecting his sleeping bag, and he even had two knives tucked into pockets on the inside of the sleeping bag.
Oh wow. I think I even see some sort of runes glowing under his eyelids. I guess I didn't stumble across just some random smuggler huh. Either the abilities of the average person in this world are far more advanced than I had considered or Harland has an interesting story to tell. Maybe one day I might get him to spill it once he trusts me enough, granted I might not even stay with him long enough for that to happen.
I still think it is probably my best course of action, but things never go as planned. I might find a better opportunity, he might die, we might get separated, who knows.
Jumping down, My feet made a light thump as they contacted with the dirt off the side of the road that made up the floor of the campsite. Harland's eyes opened immediately and looked straight at my back. Either his defense mechanisms were really good, or he hadn't been as asleep as I had thought.
I turned around to look at him, or at least face his direction to give a semblance of looking at him. From an outside point of view, it might have looked like he wasn't moving an inch and was frozen in fear, but I could tell that he was inching his hands toward the hidden daggers in his sleeping bag.
Somewhat confused as to why he was acting so warily when after the conclusion we had reached yesterday, it took me longer than I care to admit to remember that I had told him not to interact with me until I spoke with him 'for his safety'. Oops. I guess that had sounded a little more ominous than I had intended.
"Good morning Harland. Sleep well?"
He softened, sitting up a little bit and ceasing his movement toward his weapons.
"As well as one can in the Wildwoods. I'd ask if you slept alright as well, but you didn't seem to sleep much. D'you just not need to or do ya have an automated setup for sleeping and that's why I wasn't to interact with you?"
As perceptive as ever. I should probably start making a greater effort to hide my capabilities from this man. We may have an alliance and all, but he is uncannily good at being able to figure out these things and I'm not sure I want him to know everything about me.
"Something like that." I answered offhandedly, deflecting his subtle probe for information as best I could.
Harland shrugged, seemingly expecting that answer and deciding to not pry any further. He sat up straighter and stretched, raising his hands over his head and letting out a big yawn, lumbering up before sliding himself out of his sleeping bag and rising to his feet.
I turned back around, glad that he dropped the matter, and plopped myself back down where I had been sitting when he had first arrived. Now that I had regained my full capabilities and had a little bit of freedom, I wanted to experiment with creating some modifications that would help me in combat. I hadn't had the luxury to do so while I had been traveling, and I had just been instinctively shifting to make whatever came to mind at the moment. It worked, but I felt like it could be improved upon.
Harland yawned once more before quickly rolling up the tarp and stakes that had made up his shelter for the night. Opening the back door of the caravan, he chucked the supplies in before sticking his head in and rummaging around for something. After a few seconds, he came back out with a flat circular piece of stone almost like a plate, a tea kettle, and two mugs.
"Hey Dusk, you want some Matek?" He called to me, halting with the door open and ready to put one of the mugs back if I said no.
He must have noticed my confusion because he raised one eyebrow questioningly, looking somewhat amused.
"You know what Matek is, right? Morning brew? Herbala? The thing you drink in the morning to help you wake up?" He grew increasingly amused and somewhat annoyed with each question.
"You mean Coffee?
"I have never heard it called that, but sure let's go with that. No clue how long you been asleep if you haven't heard of Matek man. I might have my work cut out for me re-educating you on modern society."
He took my lack of an answer as confirmation and slammed the door shut, walking over to the center of our little camping spot. Picking up the stone that had powered the defensive array while we slept, he brushed his hand over the runes and chucked it into the woods, never to be seen again. He replaced it with the circular stone plate that he had brought, and I watched as he poured what I assumed was mana into it and it began to heat up.
Placing the kettle on the plate, he left it to brew as he returned to packing up the camp.
I put my curiosity aside for the moment and returned to experimenting with my form changing. So far, when I had been morphing my hands into claws, I simply sharpened the tips of my fingers into points. It worked for thrusting attacks, but I noticed that it had absolutely failed me when I tried to swipe at my target. Along the way I ended up curving my claws to be a little more hook-like, which had helped with tearing at things, but it did little to help with killing blows, causing more superficial damage than anything.
Looking down at my hands, I formed them into claw shapes. Their ivory coloration was a seamless transition from my fingers, and it was basically just changing the form of the last joint of my fingers. I kept a lot of dexterity like this, so it wasn't too bad. I wouldn't mind keeping them like this if my true form updated as I grew. There weren't many downsides to them, it's just that they weren't as effective in combat as I would like.