<~> Chapter 155

After we finished lunch, we were getting ready to continue the conversation about the hearts I had eaten.

Luna tapped the table with her nails. ("I was thinking, do you think we should speculate on what Helena may have gained from the monsters that she's unsure about? For instance, barlettes are known for their tough hides. Perhaps it increased her physical resistance to cutting weapons?")

I frowned and looked down. "That's possible, but mostly because I don't really have a good frame of reference to compare my hide's durability to. It wasn't something I was thinking about before I encountered the barlette."

Aria shrugged. "What about other umber hounds? Do you think your claws were stronger or weaker than the ones you fought on the way to Ironcastle?"

Pursing my lips, I looked up at the ceiling. "They were weaker than me, but I assumed it was because they were young."

"Helena has been killing a lot of tough monsters with us the entire time as well. She may also have just been stronger because of that," Maxwell pointed out. "Even monsters in the wild can become stronger over time if they regularly defeat challengers."

("I think it would still probably benefit us to make educated guesses,") Luna said.

"Put 'resistant to cutting weapons' down with a question mark then," Piper said. Maxwell nodded and wrote it next to the barlette entry.

"What about the bear and the goblin king you talked about?" Aria asked.

I leaned back. "I'm still not sure. The bear monster didn't seem all that unique. It just looked like a disfigured bear."

("Goblin kings are known to have a supernatural ability to command other goblins. Perhaps something in that vein?") Luna suggested.

"Do you think she would be good at commanding goblins or commanding people?" Aria asked.

"Or umber hounds," Maxwell added.

Luna turned to me. ("Could you turn into one? See if it tells you anything?")

I made a disgusted face. "Maybe the bear, but I still want to vomit just thinking about that goblin king. I really don't want to."

Maxwell shook his head. "I don't think there's any need. Let's move on. There were a lot of monsters that you ate on the eleventh floor, not counting the golems."

I nodded. "The really hot floor. At the time, I was desperate to eat anything that might keep the heat from bothering me. By then, I had realized that the frost salamanders had given me resistance to the cold. I was hoping for something similar for the heat."

"Well, I remember those striped horses. What did they give you?" Aria asked.

Tapping my lips, I nodded. "So, I didn't think I got anything at the time, but later I shifted into one to clear out the goblin caves. I think it makes me unable to be burned by flames."

Aria frowned. "Isn't that the same as heat resistance? You just said you didn't have that."

I shook my head. "Not exactly, the slow buildup of heat still bothers me. It's more like I can't be burned. The fireballs that hit me during the fight with the snake monster didn't burn me. I only felt the impact."

Luna nodded excitedly. ("I noticed that too! So that's why they didn't harm you. I assumed you would just heal any damage, but it didn't seem to burn you at all.")

"I also remember you running off to eat one of those fire cats," Piper said.

Sighing, I shook my head. "Don't remember that one much either. I was so focused on getting out of the heat, I didn't consider what it may have given me."

"Why don't you try transforming into that one then. It shouldn't be as bad as the stinky goblin king, right?" Aria suggested.

"I would be interested in seeing what all of you are talking about," Iris said flatly.

"Alright, alright." I stood up and took some distance from everyone. I fed my body with mana and let myself shift into the form of the black panther monster. This time, I shifted as close to its original form as I could, rather than allowing my umber hound form alter it.

Iris looked shocked as she gazed at my new sleek and dexterous form, but I could also see a hint of fear in her eyes. She was unsure it was still me in there.

("This is the first time I've shifted into this form,") I told Iris using the rings. I was mostly just trying to reassure her that it was still me. I wish I could tell everyone, but my ring didn't work the way that Luna's did.

I shook my body and stretched. I let my long tail flick back and forth behind me. Inside the core of my being, I felt a knot of power inside me that wasn't there normally. I guess that was what let the panther breathe fire. For whatever reason, I hadn't taken on its power in my umber hound form, even though I would be able to use it while in this one.

Stalking around the room, I looked around. All the colors looked different, tinged in blues, greens, and greys. I felt oddly graceful with all of my movements. For a moment, I glanced at the table and felt a tingle along my spine as I considered what it would take to jump up on it from here, and that sensation reminded me of the feeling I had gotten when I first ate the monster's heart.

I shifted back to my beastkin form and sat back down at the table. "I think I may have figured it out."

("What did you find out!") Luna asked excitedly.

"I think that monster gave me better balance. It seems like a relatively minor thing, but after walking around like that, it seems obvious to me. I think the only reason I hadn't realized that sooner was because I was so devastated that it hadn't given me heat resistance," I said with a chuckle.

"Balance? Why wouldn't it have given you the fire breath that thing is known for?" Aria asked.

I shrugged. "It is strange. When I'm in that form, I can feel the mana that I would need to activate the ability. I'm sure I can breathe fire when I'm shifted in that form, but I can't use it in my regular, umber hound form."

Piper tapped the table in thought. "I wonder what principle decides what kind of strength you gain from them."

"Your guess is as good as mine," I said.

"I suppose I'll put down improved balance on here," Maxwell said. "This means that our speculation on what you get from each monster are guesses at best, though. Notable traits aren't always what you seem to gain."

Luna frowned and nodded. ("It's unfortunate, but yes. I would have guessed she would gain the ability to breathe fire from those monsters as well.")

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"Next up is the first one I regretted eating," I said with a frown. "The bloody rabbits. They very painfully reshaped my legs and forced me to learn how to walk again."

"You did seem a lot faster afterward, though," Aria pointed out.

I sighed and nodded. "Yeah... it honestly may have made a lot of difference in my ability to fight later on, but I don't think I can understate how much it hurt."

"You were running faster than the bison on that floor. I think that upgrade may have saved my ass," Aria noted.

Luna flushed a little. ("I remember what the bison seemed to give you, it made your umber hound form a lot more muscular.")

Piper snickered at Luna's reaction. "You were drooling over her anytime she wasn't looking at you."

I turned to Piper. "She was?"

Piper laughed. "Yeah, she really was. I didn't think muscles were really her thing, but maybe muscles on a girl is right up her alley."

Turning back to Luna, her face was bright red, and she was looking down at the table. She didn't even try to defend herself, which was a pretty good indicator of how true it must have been.

"Did it make you stronger too, or just make you look more muscular?" Maxwell asked. He was very nicely trying to divert some of the attention away from Luna.

Finally drawing my eyes away from Luna, I nodded. "It made me stronger too, but it was a bit hard to gauge by how much. That form was already considerably stronger than my human form, so adding some extra strength on top wasn't easy to measure."

Maxwell nodded and scribbled a few notes down on the page.

"I think the only other thing on that floor that you ate were the hawks that wouldn't leave us alone," Piper said.

"Those hawks made me feel a bit lighter when I ate one. At the time, I remember worrying that it gave me something like hollow bones or something equally detrimental after the bloody rabbit legs, but it just seemed to make me quicker on my feet and slightly faster."

Luna cleared her throat as she attempted to suppress the remains of her blush. ("Monster hawks have a lot of wind affinity in their feathers. Maybe it gave you something like that?")

Aria nodded. "That would make sense. Monster hawk feathers make good arrow fletching because of the wind magic in them. Maybe you took some of their magic."

"I'll just put down, lighter slash faster," Maxwell said.

"Does that mean you can turn into a hawk?" Iris asked curiously.

Suddenly, everyone's eyes turned to me, which caused me to chuckle. "I actually have been meaning to test that, but I think it would be weird to turn into something so much smaller than myself."

"Should we test that now?" Maxwell asked.

I hesitated before giving him a nod. "Alright. Why don't we give it a shot?"

Standing up again, I took a few steps away from everyone and began shifting into a hawk. It felt very odd, but my body quickly changed into the new form. Though rather than transforming into a smaller hawk, I turned into a gigantic hawk.

"Helena, what the hell? You're huge! You look like a bloody albatross!" Aria exclaimed.

Flapping my wings experimentally, I tried to stretch them out. I couldn't quite fully open my wings in the space I had here. Deciding I wouldn't learn much right now, I shifted back to my beastkin form. "That felt strange," I said as I wobbled back onto my feet.

"Why were you so huge!?" Aria asked.

I laughed and shrugged. "I have no idea. Although, where would all the mass go if I shrank into a little bird?"

Piper laughed. "Same place all that muscle goes when you shift back from your umber hound form."

Luna quickly glanced away again with a returning blush.

"I wonder if I'm too heavy to fly like that," I said while opening and closing my hands. They still felt weird after shifting back from wings.

"Alright, let's move on. Nothing on the clockwork floor, right? What about the one with the misty wolves and the rats?" Maxwell asked.

I nodded. "I got that misty dodge ability the misty wolves have, and my whiskers got a lot more sensitive in my umbral hound form from the rats. I can feel the change in air pressure, which can lead me in the direction of the entrance or exit in the dungeon. Provided there isn't too much wind on the floor like in some of the open ones."

"That's right, I remember that," Maxwell said. "After that was the desert. More hawks, and the acid lizards you didn't want to try eating. You know, maybe we could have cut one open and taken out the heart if we had acid-resistant tools with us."

I made a face. "I don't know if I even want to try."

Piper frowned. "I don't think I ever want to delve that dungeon again."

All of us nodded knowingly. Even if the Lost Halls were gone now, it would bring back bad memories.

"What did you get from the coyotes?" Maxwell asked.

I shrugged. "I recall not knowing what I got from them, and nothing comes to mind now. They seemed oddly able to dodge things as if they could see things coming that they shouldn't, but I don't feel like I got that ability. Not to a noticeable extent."

"Want to shift into one of those too?" Aria asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe later. Let's finish up our list first."

"Well... the only thing left on the list is the monster in the Lost Halls that you managed to kill," Maxwell said, meeting my gaze.

I nodded. "I call it a 'doppelganger' from a superstition where I come from. It was a monster that could steal forms. When I ate its heart, I gained the ability to shift into any of the things I had eaten the heart of before. The first thing I shifted to was the frost salamander. Looking back, I think that monster had been a fae. Its power seems to have coupled with the power I gained from the changeling. Between the two, I can turn into any person I've eaten as well now. Though, for whatever reason, I can't turn into whoever I want, unlike changelings. It also lets me alter my own appearance, it's why my ears and tail are real now."

"I wonder why it lets you change your appearance, but doesn't let you turn into other people?" Piper said.

"Your guess is as good as mine," I said, shaking my head. "It could be a weird interaction with whatever is allowing me to take monsters' abilities in the first place." I shrugged. "Anyway, the only other monster of note that I've eaten since was that floral king deer that I ate in the woods on the way to Ironcastle. It lets me rapidly grow plants."

Emi cut into the conversation for the first time since we started back up after lunch. "Miss Helena, did you say that you can rapidly grow plants like a floral king deer? I think that's something Mistress Celeste will be exceptionally interested in."

I frowned, a bit confused why that of all things would be of note to her.

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