Chương 81: [2.07] What the Puck?! (Part 1/3)

As Angelica's being lay formless in the flood of purple Pestilence, she had a brief few moments with her thoughts while her new body was being constructed. The first thing she noticed was that all of her pain was gone. Without a physical form, there was nothing to hurt, and it almost made her lament going back to the suffering of existence. At least her new body would be at 100% Health.

She could sort of feel it already as the development continued, the same energizing feeling the few times she'd managed to hit the upper limit when eating poisoned food. The second thing she noticed was that her head suddenly felt quite a bit clearer, like the foggy mind of an Imp's childishness had dispersed and she'd matured. But with that came the innate loss of wonder, thrust into the more harsh depressing reality of adulthood.

Well, she probably couldn't consider herself an adult Demon yet, still rather low in the hierarchy of Hell. Or was she, though? Because her Evolution had gone awry. What the heck is a Puck?! It honestly wasn't ringing many bells. Of course, her mind went to the small disc-like shape that would be most associated with the word. But she did have some vague remembrance of hearing the word in some fairytales or fantasies. Whatever it was, the concept wasn't common vernacular. Oh, maybe it's a rare Evolution!

Hey, DGS, did I trigger some special thing?! [No. Where did you get that ignorant idea?] Umm, but I thought Hellions came after Imps. [Wrong. Evolutions are linear. There can be rare variations of each Rank, but there are no deviations in sequence. An Imp will always Evolve into a Puck] How could that be? Gelic had genuinely never seen a Puck.

Granted, she hadn't scried every single Demon she came across, since that felt kind of rude and overbearing, like if she knew the private information of every passing human stranger. Though, she also hadn't met another Imp until today for certain, to follow that same logic, at least. Maybe her world just didn't see a lot of the two lowest Ranks, and she had what felt like a plausible theory as to why. First, it would seem Imps in general didn't get a lot of Summoner time.

They were all sent to "that place" at first, then depending on their development, might be allowed to respond to some simple calls. Pucks might be in the same boat, generally having their summonings more restricted for their safety and growth. But there could be a second reason.

A few worlds were apparently limited by Tongues' level, either needing max level or enough to get by, probably with the inhabitants speaking either a language very far from base Demonese—what she randomly decided to call it—or for worlds that had a diverse set of languages spread about with its array of inhabitants. Her world could definitely be one of those with restrictions, since there were a few dozen regularly spoken languages.

Meaning, it probably had a higher level requirement, which leant more to Hellions and above appearing there. Does Casniem have a Tongues requirement? [Go to your local Demon Services Office if you wish to discuss world restrictions] Back to being unhelpful. Also, something felt different about the Demon Growth System. Since she'd triggered the Evolution, or actually even back since she'd met the requirements, it felt like its responses were more verbose than usual. Had it Evolved, too?

Or maybe some limiter was removed. And it could just be that short, simple answers were better for stupid Imps. She did have one more question that it could hopefully clarify. So does that mean Hellion is next after Puck? [Shouldn't you have learned the Rank sequence by now?] Yup, unhelpful. She must have used up her daily amount of usefulness credits, or something. Was there a premium version she could subscribe to that was actually helpful all the time?

Though the thought of gating that behind a subscription irked her even more. But she didn't have time to fret, because her new physical body had begun to manifest. That whole thought tree and dialogue had taken but mere seconds. It was funny how fast the mind could work when unshackled by the constraints of life. Angelica's vision blurred back into place. She caught a glimpse of the liquid that had dissolved her draining from the room, if it had ever existed in the first place.

Since it was just sort of vanishing, and since she could theoretically Evolve anywhere, maybe it had been more metaphorical, or her mind filling in the gaps about the process. Her eyes immediately snapped to her hands, the first thing in her field of view. Except… they weren't hands. Yes, no matter how she looked at them, they couldn't really be described as such in shape, but perhaps similarly in function. They were now nubs with no fingers.

Rather, she had claws, three pointy claws on each that were a few inches long. The outside edges were rounded, but the insides were straight, so she tried pinching them together. The trios came together perfectly, combining them each into one long spike. Definitely a dangerous weapon. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Sadly, they were undeniably a lot less practical and functional compared to what she was used to working with for everyday life.

She could wiggle around and maneuver them a bit, essentially making them fully extended, sharp fingers, so she could pick things up gently and move them, but the dexterity aspect would definitely be missed. No scrolling or tapping away on her phone like she could get away with in her Imp form. Probably no drawing, either, unless she resorted to carving into dirt or rocks with her new pointy digits.

After a few more clacks with the metal-like claws, as one would do with a pair of tongs before cooking, her gaze finally shifted to her arms. Most notably was the fact that she actually had distinct arms now. Before, they were more like extendable appendages, kind of like Smook's lips, that stretched out with her skin. Now they were their own things, fully dangling out in the open at all times. She raised and flapped them a few times, feeling pretty close to human arms.

What was completely different, though, was the composition. Like before, as a Puffball, she couldn't see any of her skin, but now she couldn't really see any hair, either, or maybe she sort of could. Donning her arms from her hand nubs up to her shoulders was what looked like weird armor. She poked it with a claw, and it definitely had resistance, but wasn't super hard, either. Maybe like a soft shell of some kind.

Gelic then used one the pointy tips to try and pry the armor up around a seam, giving her a much clearer idea. There was the hair, hidden underneath, so she hadn't completely gone away from being fluffy, but there was also far less of it. The shell-stuff also pulled greatly on her skin, solidly grafted to it, so there'd be no removing it. And the color of it all was Pestilence purple, so the voices had been accurate about the Attunement really taking charge of her Evolution.

Not that she was complaining, since it looked pretty slick. Her torso was also completely covered in the protective layer, which she kind of liked. It made her feel well-defended, not needing to rely on her icy Coat of Arms or other protections as much in the future. And from what she could see of her physique, it was pretty well-defined and shapely, a bit more humanoid than before, and a touch feminine in overall shape.

Nothing egregious, but her shell-like chestplate definitely bumped out more than it felt like a male's would. The armor went down the sides of her legs. She had legs! That alone was a surprise, having basically been walking with her rump this whole time as an Imp. They were less humanoid than her upper half, however—something more akin to that of a marsupial. She had big and round meaty thighs that connected to much skinnier lower legs at a bent angle.

Maybe they had been created with bouncing in mind, not getting too far from her Puffball roots. To that end, she engaged Multi-Bounce and gave it three test hops. Using her legs properly to do that felt weird, but stronger at the same time. However, the rebounds were definitely a lot more staggering. More power, but less squish. It'd take some getting used to. She cancelled the Skill and landed delicately on her feet, her feet that felt like they were much too small for her new frame to balance properly.

Which in all, it seemed like she'd grown a bit, maybe another half-foot taller than her Imp form. But what was likely meant to account for the small feet were the two claws jutting out at the front of each instead of toes. They were much shorter than her hand claws, and much thinner, too, looking kind of like a bladed half-oval when they were pressed together at rest. She could make them wiggle and separate, then also snip together shut like a pair of scissors.

Her whole new build was definitely not the fluffy ball she was used to, but it wasn't bad so far. Angelica just kind of wished she could see the rest of herself better. She didn't exactly want to start poking at her face and backside and accidentally give herself a nasty cut. It would be nice to have a mirror. Likely cueing into her dilemma, the DGS decided to speak up. [Due to the volume of messages, Evolution notifications are being suppressed until you are ready. Take a moment to get used to your new self. Would you like another perspective so that you may better acclimate yourself to the changes?] Yes, please! Immediately, a reflective rift in the room opened up, basically just a mirror that was breaking the laws of space, nothing fancy. But it was at that moment that she really understood her new state of being. The protective pieces covering her were neither shell nor armor, they were carapace. Gelic was really putting the pest in Pestilence, because she had been turned into a bug.

What the frits, you made me a bug?! Now that Angelica knew that she wouldn't immediately damage her face, she began prodding at her visage, which consisted of a similarly hard material to that covering her body. But it wasn't really the same feeling as the protective carapace, more like a mask that was covering a hidden face that was best left unseen. The human side of her didn't really hate bugs, when they were outdoors, at least. They quite literally came with the territory.

She might find some flies annoying when trying to have a picnic, and bug bites during trail runs always sucked during meets, but there were sprays and ointments to alleviate that issue, so bugs in general were only a minor irritant for most of her life. What did bother her though was when they were indoors. More specifically, in her apartment, walking around like they owned the place when they didn't pay even a cent of rent.

Really what creeped her out was when she found one crawling on her, especially when she was shocked by the sudden revelation, either waking up to it or during a trance-like art session. Fortunately, it had only happened a few times, and thankfully, she didn't have to deal with them often. Bugs were the one time that Cherub got to activate his hunter's instinct. Mice, string, lasers, toys? Nah, he didn't care about any of them. But if a bug skittered in front of him, he switched to kill mode.

And now she would be the unwelcome bug in her apartment, ripe for hunting. I don't like it, change me back! Back to a puffball, and then we can redo this whole thing! [You seriously want to change back?] Yes! [Too bad. Evolution is permanent. If you had preferences, you should have vocalized them when prompted. Don't like it? Then grow. Grow and Evolve once more]