Chapter 16

<Yuyeona Lv.25>

Strength: 130 [Gender│Female]

Agility: 150 [Height│177cm]

Stamina: 120 [Weight│55kg]

Magic Power: 400 [Alignment│Chaos]

Skills: [Devour Ω] [Attribute Unity] [Thought Acceleration] [Body Adaptation] [Domination X]

My body feels light. Not just in a “I’m in good shape” kind of way, but like I could literally fly. When I put a little force into it, my weight returned to normal. Kinda creepy. Something’s up with my body.

[Are you awake?] Belva greeted me cheerfully.

“Yeah. How long has it been?”

[About a day.]

Huh, not as long as I thought. As soon as Belva confirmed I was awake, she popped the bubble surrounding us, and a bunch of kids came rushing in.

Hmm… I looked around and thought, *Where’s Miho?* And why are there four kids? Three of them look familiar, but one is completely new. Red hair, snow-white skin, striking features like she’s wearing makeup, and the corners of her long eyes are slightly red. I’ve never seen a kid like this before. Super suspicious.

“Who are you?” I asked, ready to deal with her if necessary.

[Haah…] Belva let out a big sigh.

*

I never imagined a nine-tailed fox, let alone one that could turn into a human. I held Miho, who was clinging to me, and asked Belva, “Do they usually grow up this fast? I heard turning into a human isn’t easy.”

[Absolutely not. It’s probably because of Yuyeona’s Dimension Power. Her appearance and the fact that they look like family are likely due to that.]

Huh. I stared at Miho’s teary face. Doesn’t really look like me, though.

[The vibe is different. The kid is kind and pure.]

…What’s that supposed to mean?

Anyway, I told her to turn back into a fox. In an instant, she was enveloped in smoke and returned to her original form. Checking the magic consumption, there’s no real risk except for a small amount of magic used during the transformation.

Good progress. Reducing body size is a huge help for survival in this world. After petting Miho, who turned back into a child, I stretched vigorously. Time to check what changes have happened to me.

Let’s see. I was injured so badly it’s a miracle I’m alive, but there’s no pain. Leveling up doesn’t usually provide this much healing, right?

Plus, I’ve just gotten stronger. Not just a little, but ridiculously so. My stats have skyrocketed, and my skills have changed too. Even though good things are good, I need to figure this out. I stretched my arm and asked Belva, “What happened while I was out? I’ve changed way too much.”

[I’m not sure either. What’s certain is that something special happened, different from a normal level-up.]

“Yeah, no kidding.”

I brushed off Belva’s nonsense and started inspecting myself. My hair, which had grown down to my waist, was slightly annoying. Why did it grow so long? I couldn’t figure out the correlation, so I was suspicious.

Anyway, checking my body condition, it’s unbelievable. Is this really me?

Stats aren’t just numbers. Having double the stats doesn’t mean you’re twice as strong.

In real combat, flipping the difference in agility by one or two points requires intense strategy and psychological insight. Strength also needs to be supplemented with precise posture and technique. Stamina was always lacking.

So, with my stats jumping by tens, I feel like I’ve caught some middle-schooler’s delusion of grandeur.

My uncontrollable strength… The point is, I’ve become incomparably stronger than before.

To put it roughly, I feel like I could take on those dinosaurs I saw earlier.

[Isn’t that a bit much?]

Hmm… Honestly, I’m not confident, but I’ll say it anyway. I’ve surpassed being human for a while now, but taking on dozens of meters-long dinosaurs, especially primal fantasy giants, isn’t guaranteed. It’s just a possibility.

Still, it’s a huge growth. And that’s just based on stats. I need to properly check the skills that have changed just as much. It’ll make me even happier. Yay.

*

“Belva, look at this. My weight is kinda weird.”

I found something strange. My weight fluctuates between 30kg and 150kg, like some gym equipment, changing according to my will. Even for a superhuman body, this is kinda creepy. It doesn’t make sense physically.

[It seems like the muscles themselves are changing in nature and type… I’m not sure either. Honestly, I gave up trying to understand a long time ago.]

You’re walking the exact opposite path of your role.

Truly impressive, Kim Belva.

After clicking my tongue, I decided to test the attribute unification first.

As expected, attribute immunity was naturally included, and the skills I already had, like Lightning, Freeze, and Ignition, worked perfectly.

After testing a few more things, I realized why the word “unification” was attached to this skill.

“Ohh!”

[……]

“Ohhhh!!”

[Are you cold?]

My entire body was covered in ice.

No, not just covered—it turned into ice.

I had completely become one with the attribute I possessed.

Looking at my frost-covered white hand, I exhaled into the air.

Sparkling snowflakes drifted out.

Turning into ice was a whole new experience.

Thinking I could turn into fire next, it didn’t happen immediately. After fully restoring my original state, my entire body burst into flames.

When I stuck my hand into my body in that state, it went in smoothly without any resistance.

It meant physical force didn’t apply.

A strange and bizarre sensation.

Is this what life is like for natural-type ability users?

I couldn’t use physical force either, the casting time was long, and maintaining it drained a huge chunk of my magic power, making it not very practical.

But it was undeniably cool.

After releasing the unification state and feeling the return of my body’s sensations, I tested thought acceleration next.

If a skill has no level, it probably means I can adjust its power based on my will.

As I slowly increased the tempo of thought acceleration like pressing the accelerator, my head started spinning at some point, and blood flowed from my ears and nose.

Drip. Drip. Drip…

The speed of the falling blood droplets confirmed the effect of thought acceleration.

“This much…”

It’s slightly below the level of the Awakening Elixir.

It was a better skill than I thought.

In fact, it’s not the skill’s power but Belva’s ability showing what my body can do, so if I wanted, I could probably accelerate even further.

As I gradually withdrew my magic power, the slowed-down world began to return to normal.

If I use it weakly enough not to strain my brain, I could probably maintain it even in daily life.

And the last physical adaptation… seems to be related to my weight fluctuating rapidly.

An ability to change my body at will, perhaps.

I’m not sure.

I’ll have to test it multiple times to get a feel for it.

That’s it for now.

Overall, if I were to evaluate it…

Excluding all other daily efficiencies and focusing solely on combat.

I’ve grown tremendously.

If I were to fight my past self, I’m confident I could take on ten of them at once without losing.

I could probably take them all down in less than ten minutes.

That’s how dramatic the growth was.

The basis for this claim isn’t just the growth in stats and skills.

It’s rooted in the fact that my senses themselves have been refined much more precisely.

Whoosh!

I let a bit of magic flow through my fingertips to visualize it.

A pure white light swirled.

Drawing a line in the air with it, the aura left a vivid afterimage along the trajectory.

The aura I could barely create yesterday even after taking the elixir, I can now form without much difficulty.

Of course, part of it is due to grasping the knack after one success.

But more than that, it’s because my overall level has risen.

Simply put, I’m incomparably superior to my past self.

It’s as if my very essence has changed.

It might sound arrogant, but this is the most objective judgment I can make right now.

“Am I a genius or something?”

[To say something so shamelessly annoying…]

Let’s get going now.

Staying holed up here is pointless.

Even though I’ve grown stronger faster than expected, let’s not get complacent.

Carrying Miho in one hand and placing the three demon kids in the front row.

It’s safer to keep an eye on them.

It should take about a day to reach the destination.

That place will become my first base.

A place to gather and protect scattered intelligent beings and educate them.

If I can stop the Great Cataclysm as planned, that place will likely become the birthplace of the first civilization.

Should I name it in advance?

That might be a good idea.

“Belva. I’m trying to name the shelter I described. Any ideas?”

After pondering for a moment, Belva suggested a familiar word.

[How about Academy?]

“Academy?”

[Yes. It’s going to be the first place in this dimension to teach something, right? Isn’t it fitting?]