Biohuman

"Evolution has finished. Ability Mutation has randomly rolled at the end of your evolution and added a new skill." The female voice spoke. Lee Seng's eyes fluttered opened and the smell of dirt heavily surrounded him.

"Anything in the tunnels?" Zixin asked. Nabi shook her head.

"No. Nothing." Nabi answered. The energy surrounding Lee Seng had dissipated. His body wasn't held down by the Negative and he could actually move. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and saw Zixin had his back to him.

"And no more brethren to bring home?" Zixin asked. Nabi shook her head and peeked around Zixin. She noticed Lee Seng was awake and quickly moved past Zixin.

"You're finally awake." Nabi smiled. Zixin turned around and stood besides Nabi. "You feeling fine?" Lee Seng nodded and stood up. The two six-tailed Foxes watched as Lee Seng's tails split into three. The silver and gold streaked tails moved apart from each other and then merged into one.

"Congrats on your journey to three tails." Zixin spoke. "You're probably not used to this, but gaining a tail."

"T-thanks." Lee Seng's dry throat made him sound raspy. He rubbed his throat and coughed.

"I think we should go above ground." Nabi told them. "This tree and its roots seem… unresponding. I'm scared it'll cave in on us at any moment." Lee Seng looked around and noticed leftover purple and red energy slowly changing its colors. He put a claw over his heart and pulled the orb out. The familiar wash of pain came forward as the orb pulled out. He raised the orb to his eye and peered in.

Skills Unlocked:

Soul Eater Lvl. 4 0/500

Sky Devourer (Dark Matter Eater) Lvl. 5 0/1000 – 1 Skill Passive Available!

Twin Sun Form (White Fox Cloak) Lvl. 2 47/400

Tail Manipulation Lvl. 3 0/300

Shapeshift Lvl. 2 0/200

Blessed Fox-Fire Lvl. 1 0/100

Light Manipulation Lvl. 1 0/100

Other:

Blessing of the Two Suns (Guardian Orb of Life)

Soul Bead Lvl. 3 0/800 (1000)

"Devourer mutated into Sky Devourer and I still have a skill passive available… Fox-fire mutated into Blessed Fox-fire. Ability mutation gave me Light Manipulation as well…" Lee Seng muttered. He focused on Sky Devourer and the orb pulled up two available passive skills.

Sky Devourer

Glutton: Pulls extra energy off enemies.

For the Pack: Siphons extra energy to allies.

'Glutton or For the Pack? I'll have to go with Glutton. I don't need anyone to be wary of me.' Lee Seng thought. He watched as Glutton highlighted and For the Pack faded. He removed his eye from the orb and moved the orb back into his body.

"Are you good to go?" Nabi asked.

"Hurry up, we don't have much time. This place is making me antsy." Zixin impatiently motioned at him.

"Mmm, I'm good." Lee Seng nodded. His eyes watched the purple and red aura still moving around the space. It would take a long time for the tree to heal from the corruption.

"Zixin, you take him." Nabi motioned.

"Why do I have to take him?" Zixin complained.

"He can't fly."

"You could take him." The two began to argue over who would take him. Lee Seng looked up. He could definitely feel something was different about him. He crouched and jumped upwards. The loud boom alerted the older siblings. They watched Lee Seng rocket up the hollow tree trunk

"Ah, dammit." Zixin cursed.

"Let's go." Nabi motioned. The two took flight and quickly moved after the new three-tailed Fox. Lee Seng slowed a couple of feet from the exit. He began to feel the energy of gravity ripple from his hands when Zixin grabbed him and lifted him up the rest of the way. They flew in the air.

Large holes and unmoving roots were everywhere. The area had been cleared by the corrupted tree.

"Over there." Nabi pointed. Zixin followed Nabi over to where Lady Vix'i was. Lee Seng noticed Keng was talking to Lady Vix'i as they landed.

"Everything seems fine. I just don't know what happened." Keng told Lady Vix'i. Lady Vix'i's eyes went over to Lee Seng and the others.

"Maybe Lee Seng can tell you what happened." Lady Vix'i told him. They landed and Zixin released his arm around Lee Seng. Lee Seng moved over to Keng who was definitely wearing a silver outfit now. He looked at his outfit and saw the gold and shook his head.

"Hmm, I thought both of you would wear the same outfit, but I guess I was wrong." Nabi pointed out.

"What happened, anyways?" Keng asked. "I only know what skills we have. Did something else happen? I feel like I missed out on something."

"A strange memory." Lee Seng answered. "You didn't hear the female voice?"

"What female voice?" Keng narrowed his eyes at Lee Seng. He took a step forward and whispered, "Are you hearing it again? Is something gonna happen? Should I– Should we be careful?"

"I don't think it's anything like that." Lee Seng pushed Keng away. Keng moved back to his spot, grinning at him like an idiot.

"I'll tell you later. There's a more concerning thing happening here…" Lee Seng slowly turned around. He could see leftover purple and red energy surrounding them.

"What?" Zixin asked. "We managed to destroy the thing that took our brethren and corrupted this place. What more do we have to do?"

"Not everything is solved by killing a single thing." Lady Vix'i quickly responded. "Sometimes the aftereffects of the curse stay for a while. That could be all you're seeing."

"So you do see it too?" Keng stood next to Lee Seng. Lee Seng nodded.

"I get that a place under corruption wouldn't heal so quickly, but…"

"It seems like the curse has fully lifted." Keng finished. Lee Seng nodded. The large moon made the forest seem brighter than it was. The heaviness of the cursed forest wasn't as strong.

"For now, we should return to the Village in the morning. Our brethren should be buried." Lady Vix'i spoke. "You did put them into your dimension, Nabi?"

"They're there. They'll be fine for a week before the injured stir inside the dimension." Nabi answered.

"Let's return to the Tomb and rest. When the sun rises, we will leave for the Village and tend to our brethren."

The group moved back to the temple. Lee Seng trailed behind the rest as they climbed the stairs and entered the Tomb. Lee Seng looked around. He could feel something else was still gripping at the forest.

'Is this what they felt?' Lee Seng wondered.

"Lee, come in!" Keng shouted. Lee Seng turned and saw Keng holding the door open. Lee Seng moved up the stairs and inside. The large stone doors shut behind Keng. A silver shimmer moving over the door. "Woah."

"What?" Lee Seng turned.

"The door shimmered silver."

"The Tomb recognized your intention and sealed us inside." Lady Vix'i told them. "Zixin and Nabi are looking for the sleeping quarters. We should get some rest before the journey tomorrow. The Family will be happy to bury our brethren and celebrate your evolution."

Lee Seng and Keng followed after Lady Vix'i. They didn't wander too far in the Tomb before finding sleeping quarters. The rooms were all unused and looked somewhat deserted. Lee Seng pushed open a door and noticed a twin size bed and a chest at the foot of the bed. The bookshelves in this room were unfilled. There were only a couple of books and scrolls left on different shelves. Keng shut the door as Lee Seng pulled the covers and inspected the bed.

"So, are you gonna tell me what happened?" Keng asked. Lee Seng nodded, satisfied with the sheets, and sat on the bed.

"I did tell you what happened." Lee Seng answered. "You want me to explain more in detail?"

"You seemed like you weren't telling me the full story."

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know, anyways." Lee Seng yawned. He began to retell the events that happened. The strange memory that was pulled into the forefront of his mind and the flower field that gave off heavy deja vu. He didn't leave any details out and by the time he was finished, he was propping his head up with his hand and turned on his side, facing Keng who was sitting on the ground.

"So Eshra's mutation ability is actually working?" Keng leaned forward. He began to roll himself in his spot, on his butt, intrigued.

"Mmm. Two skills were mutated and the ability mutation gave us a third one." Lee Seng nodded. "Sky Devourer seems like it's a more evolved version of Devourer. Blessed fox-fire sounds like… the ability mutation was just merging and evolving two existing things in our bodies and making them one. As for the new skill, Light Manipulation… I have no idea what that is."

"You haven't tried it?"

"I mean… No, but if you're curious, you can try." Lee Seng motioned at Keng. He removed his hand from propping his head up and hit the pillow. "If you wanna try, go ahead. I'm gonna sleep… I'm feeling tired–" His eyes closed and sleep took him.

"I guess." Keng answered. "I'll try it and see…" Keng's ears twitched as Lee Seng let out a soft snore. He smiled and looked at his hands. "Now, what can we do…?"