That''s what I''m talkin'' about, I thought. That, right there. That''s what I oughta be doing, boy.


    "Protean" was one thing. I discovered that I could summon the System Menu even while using a Receptacle. Well, given the fact that I was initially built to always go around using Receptacles to not die, I guess that made sense.


    Navigating through the Skill Tab, I selected "Passive Skill: Protean" — ? "Passive Skill: Protean" — Ability to have a varied nature. Ability to assume different forms. To be mutable at will. Master of Disguise. Only usable if coupled with "Passive Skill: Jelly-like Shapelessness." Non-rted to "Unique Skill: Faceless." ?


    It basically granted the user the ability to shapeshift. Not in a physical or deeply biological way, though. Only outward appearance was affected. The bit about the skill not being rted to [Faceless], a unique skill that sounded a little bit too OP and that I also didn''t have, meant that I couldn''t change my facial features at will, while in the form of the Character.


    After some time, I got back to it. The slime king, controlled by me, jumped from one ce to another, swimming across the private garden full of magical wonders, crystals, and flowers. I remembered how the slimes got down to it—they first absorbed a flower or crystal within their "stomach."


    A red glowing rocky crystal flew to the giant slime''s stomach.


    And then they…


    ? The new Active Skill <Melting Acid> has been acquired! ?


    They ate it.


    Before it evolved into other skills, that skill couldn''t be particrly useful or deadly in any way, I thought. Couldn''t be so bad, but mostly non-important.


    The giant-sized slime king wasn''t done yet. I wasn''t done yet. I couldn''t be. With as round and funky a body as I had, there was no way I wasn''t going to exploit it more than that.


    I thought about it really hard, and I found a new way to make profit from my Receptacle again. When the slimes attacked me, the poor little things had one way to surprise me: Closing in to the pure stream of cold water along the side of the rocky hall, I let the slime king plunge in the stream, absorbed some water inside its stomach, and backed off.


    Spurting the water at a nearby rock with all the slime king''s might, I made it roll around by a few feet. That was how the slimes had surprised me and how I wished I would copy them again.


    Well, that was kind of a letdown. First off, there wasn''t that much might to the jet of water, and secondly, I failed the learn the skill I wanted.


    "Active Skill: High-Pressure Water Jet" couldn''t be acquired, the System notified. At the very least, I managed to learn the passive skill [Talent: Water Magic]. I guess that meant I could be a mage of water now? Was that a good thing? I didn''t know. I didn''t care.


    After long, I thought I was done here. I obtained what I came here to get: Skills. I was Skill, so it was only natural I did that. Still, by mindlessly ying around the area, I managed to obtain more without really meaning to. Slimes melted rocks, crystals, and flowers in order to eat from their energy. By chance, when I sucked at a rocky wall with <Melting Acid>, I made it evolve into <Melt>, then <Forge>.


    A title was obtained. "Rookie cksmith." Where the hell did thate from? Probably because of a vein of gold I found buried in the wall. If you tried and melted some metal, you automatically became a forger. Well. That was a stretch, but whatever.


    The passive skill [Talent: Heat Magic] was also obtained.


    After a while, I was thoroughly done in my cave. So I jumped off my Receptacle, observed the slime king rise back in control of its own body, then thanked the monster-type before I threw a banana at it. Talk about a badass way to end a rival. It didn''t do as much damage, too bad. shing at it with <Chain Attack>, I saw to it that it was totally defeated.


    Going off, I exited the cavern.


    With my little excursion, I gained 5 levels.


    ? Level: 53 ?


    ? Status ?


    ? HP: 3200/3200 ?


    ? MP: 650/650 ?


    ? Vit. 89 ?


    ? Strength 248 ?


    ? Agility 91 ?


    ? Intelligence 87 ?


    ? Sense 89 ?


    ? Fatigue: 11 ?


    A few days ago, I was irritated. My human form looked young. Sometimes, even childish. Well, it kept growing up as long as I kept leveling up and cing all my Stats Points into STR, but even at level 53 with 248 in STR, I couldn''t force people to respect me, or my outward appearance.


    When I first got my human form from the System, I looked like a middle schooler. Today, I looked like a high schooler. I was way above 5 feet, but I wasn''t nearly as close to the size of the average adult person. To remedy that…


    Outside the cave sanctuary, I settled my sword on my belt, fisted my hand into a trembling ball of excitement, and imagined tears of satisfaction streaming down my cheeks.


    "Finally…" I dered, mumbling how satisfied I was. "Today, I…"


    I used [Protean] with perfect control over the skill. Long ago, I got to use some swordsman''s body as a Receptacle, remember? That guy who killed me on my first day. Remembering the man''s shape and form, I let myself grow into an adult. I was tall and my shoulders were square. I was manlier. Was it how I would look after months of leveling up? Of growing up? Most likely. The skill barely consumed any mana at all once I settled for the adult-like of the manly middle-aged version of myself.


    "Humph," I unleashed my sword, shing rapidly in front of me, "it does feel different," and I sheathed back my sword. "Hmm, my voice''s different, too. Lower. Deeper. Well. I definitely got what I came here to get." Shrinking back to my "natural" human form, I was satisfied. "As expected, slime was the monster to pick. Anyway. I''m pretty much done here now. …Or no, wait—"


    After some time, I realized that, no, I, unfortunately, couldn''t grow wings from my back thanks to "Protean." I mean, I definitely could shape "wings" behind my back, or shape my arms into wings altogether, but I could never hope to fly with such a shabby version of grand, majestic wings.


    "Too bad."


    The next thing I tried was to shape myself into a woman''s body, and sure enough, I could. Only the silhouette was different: Obviously, I couldn''t go from one sex to the other. Maybe that could prove to be useful, too.


    To put an end to my spontaneous little outing, I celebrated: Running all around the dark woods, I cut down a few dozen monsters with my eyes dancing and sparkling. Yes, I was happy.