Chapter 94 - Mimics

"What the-"

"There is nothing inside this..."

"Why would you even carry an empty drum?", was what the guard asked.

"Ah, it had fruits in it too but it got emptied while I was on the ay.", the trader said.

The guard just nodded his head and then walked back towards his position.

'Then what was that sound that I heard?'

'Was it my imagination?', the guard asked himself.

The guard had found nothing other than the shadow of the barrel and the darkness at the bottom. That was why he returned back, but if that was the case, then where did Shin go?

Did he learn some skill that allowed him to become invisible?

Well, the skill which he used was somewhat similar, but its main function was not about being invisible.

'Phew, that was close...'

'If I hadn't used this at the right time then I would have been found out!'

'Ding'

[ -> You have turned yourself into darkness ]

This was the skill that Shin had used a moment ago, since he had become darkness himself, he was able to hide easily in the dark areas of the barrel.

[ Dark Manipulation ]

[ -> the host will be able to command darkness ]

[ -> the skill will be at its highest potency when used by a being with Dark attribute ]

[ -> the level of skill will affect how much MP will be consumed and the area of effectiveness ]

[ -> 1 MP consumed in 2 seconds ]

[ -> Area of effectiveness: 20 sq. meter ] 

The skill was quite useful and the best thing about it was that it didn't need any transformation to be used, perhaps that was limited to Shin.

He took a look at his MP and then almost immediately disabled the skill.

'Ding'

[ The skill Dark Manipulation has been deactivated ]

The cart then started to move and successfully passed through the gates. It was now heading towards the market so that the trader could sell with his regular customers or other buyers.

Of course, since he didn't have that many barrels, he wouldn't go to maid buyers because they used to buy tons at once which he didn't have at the moment.

Shin knew about this, he knew the fact that the trader would go towards the market so he was thinking of a chance to sneak out.

He had never once seen human settlement, so h had no idea how the humans lived.

Of course, he had the memory about how they used armors and arrows which confirmed to him that they weren't that advance, however, he had never since seen their towns so he was a bit nervous.

At the same time, he was thinking about where Aella would have been taken.

'Elvion had said to me earlier...'

'The humans looked as if they were closely associated with the army.'

'Hmm, then wouldn't that mean they would have gone to the army encampment or somewhere they could brag about what they had done?'

When he heard Elvion say that this was the first time any human was able to exit the Land Of Lost Ones, Shin realized that they would brag about it and tell about their deeds.

Without a doubt, their location would be exposed the moment they would do that and he could then follow them to see where they would have kept Aella.

'The link is still active so I know that Aella is alive...'

'However I do not know if she is perfectly fine.', was what he said to himself.

The cart all of a sudden stopped, it was as if they had arrived at the market.

.'Damn, that was sooner than I expected it to be!', Shin was legitimately surprised.

'This isn't good...'

He reached out his hand after arrived at the rear end and started to put things down one by one.

Of course, if he had removed even one more thing, then SHin would have used his skill to blend with the darkness yet again.

But thankfully, he removed only two boxes and one barrel. The trader then had some chatter with a human in a language which Shin couldn't understand, of course, that was because he had asked the system for a skill in exchange for the direct translation by the system, needless to say, the system advised him to do that.

However the skill was a passive one and was enabled all the time regardless of whether he wanted it or not, but despite that, he failed to understand the trader and his companion with whim he was chatting.

But when he listened carefully, he could understand a word or two like 'Busy', 'Hectic', 'Rates' and 'War'. 

Everything else went right out of his head as if he hadn't heard it in the first place.

'System, what is wrong with the translation skill?', Shin asked.

The system immediately answered his question. 

'Ding'

'Then why isn't it working properly?'

'Ding'

[ The human language are of 5000 different types out of which the translation works only on 300 types ]

[ Advice: The system advice the host to try and learn the languages in order to increase the skills level to unlock many more features ]

'I see, that was why the skill didn't have much effect.'

'I need to try and learn a language too?', that was something difficult to do but if put his mind to it, he could do it easily, of course, with a bit of hard work.

In any case, he couldn't sit and learn in the barrel when Aella was in danger!

'I need to escape from here...'

He stood up on two of his legs and peeked a bit towards the outside to see the surrounding.

Unfortunately, the sudden flash of light from the outside was too bright due to which he had to close his eyes all of a sudden, but that didn't mean he couldn't see again.

He opened his eyes only to find many people walking here and there.

There were so many voices and other noises that were bugging him, he could understand none of them!

'Damn, there are way too many humans here...'

'And many of them have that weird expression of worry on their faces.'

Since he was a human before, he could differentiate human facial expressions. He could see that many of the humans who were either buying or selling were unhappy.

Either they were tired or were frustrated by something, this was different from the many traders that had entered the gates, including the one in whose cart Shin was hiding.

'The atmosphere is weird...'

'Way too weird when compared to our group...', Shin was talking about Kira's clan which he missed at the moment.

'I can't get lost in my own thoughts!'

'I need to look for Aella, goddammit!'

He knew that he couldn't roam freely in a city that was inhabited by humans.

'I need to disguise myself.', he said to himself.

The only foreign animals or inhabitants that he could see while peeking were none other than crows!

'Those will do...'

'Ding'

[ You have used the skill transformation ]

[ Choose the category from which you would like to transform ]

[ -> Links ]

[ -> Vessels ]

[ -> Mimics ]

'One day when the transformation skill reached the third level, it suddenly started showing these three options...'

'If I were to click on the link, it would show me other evolved options...'

[ -> Links ]

[ --> Midnight Wolf ]

[ --> Dark Wolf General ]

[ --> Flame Wolf Emperor ]

[ --> Half-Dragon Wolf ]

[ --> Spider Wolf ]

[ --> Aqua Wolf ]

'Well, I had only four of them out of which two evolved, however, I soon gained two more...'

How did he gain another two? It is a story for another time.

These were the options that popped up when he clicked on the links, he didn't want to evolve into any of these.

'And if I were to click Vessel, then...'

[ -> Vessels ]

[ --> Vessel 1: Aella ]

'When I found this, I was super surprised.'

'I tried this and it literally worked!', Shin was indeed surprised when he had seen such a transformation.

'However, the one that surprised me the most was...'

[ -> Mimics ] 

[ --> Option 1: Toxos Cenepede Lv.15 ]

[ --> Option 2: Heavy Slime Lv.10 ]

-< choose a beast into which you need to save as mimic >- 

'I had nearly fainted when I got this skill.'

'Of course, who wouldn't be happy if he were to transform into whatever he wanted?'

"..."

'However the option had a setback, it could only allow me to mimic beings less than Lv.20 and only those that are smaller than myself.'

"..."

'Ding'

[ Do you want to save a normal crow as the third mimic? ]

"Yes..."

"..."

To be continued...