Chapter 97: Mimetic Waterform (Fifth update, a bonus chapter for Alliance Leader Tu Ah)

It was only because Ji Yu heard the game’s notification sound that he broke off his meditation and awakened in the fifth hour.

[Congratulations. After a period of growth, the player’s third avatar has successfully given birth to a new trait: Water-Mimic Form (Intermediate).]

[Trait: Water-Mimic Form (Intermediate)] The body can assume the outward appearance of water without altering its own flesh and bone, becoming as clear and lucid as flowing water, with excellent stealth capabilities.

Under the amplification of the special-grade trait Absolute Zero, the cave salamander’s potential was truly formidable.

In five hours, its vitality had increased by only 0.3, yet its body length had grown to three meters.

More than that, with so little as a 0.3 increase, it had already produced an intermediate trait.

To be honest, Ji Yu felt that once the cave salamander entered the second stage of life, it might well become even stronger than the deer calf and the oak tree.

Take its size, for instance: even at the peak of the first stage, the cave salamander’s body would not be smaller than the deer calf’s.

Ji Yu looked again at the salamander’s data panel, carefully noting the increased upper limits.

[Avatar: Cave Salamander (Female)]

[Cave Salamander State] (Expanded)

[Good]

[Life Level: 1]

[Vitality: 0.32 (Upper Limit: 5)] (x100)

[Body Length: 3.12 meters (Upper Limit: 50 meters)] (x100)

[Age: 2 years (Upper Limit: 15 years)]

[Trait 1: Environmental Adaptation (Low)]

[Trait 2: Absolute Zero (Special Grade)] (Mastery: 1%)

[Trait gained this time: Water-Mimic Form (Intermediate)] The body can assume the outward appearance of water without altering its own flesh and bone, becoming as clear and lucid as flowing water, with excellent stealth capabilities.

An upper limit of fifty meters, and it had only reached three.

A hundredfold amplification was no joke.

Of course, size alone did not necessarily mean strength, but at the very least, a cave salamander endowed with the special-grade trait Absolute Zero was certainly far stronger than the vast majority of living creatures.

“Water-Mimic Form?”

Ji Yu found the salamander’s translucent body at this moment most intriguing.

For now, the cave salamander, coiled in the stream, looked like a pillar of water rising upright in the shape of a cone.

Its entire surface was completely transparent; one could even see straight through it.

Naturally, because its body was like water, the view through it to the far side carried a faint refraction and a gentle ripple.

And beyond the change brought by Water-Mimic Form, Ji Yu discovered that the salamander’s eyesight had finally returned to normal.

Not like five hours earlier, when its field of vision had been less than three meters and its sight had been severely limited to dull shades of black and white.

With normal vision restored, Ji Yu could at last look far beyond the immediate stream.

Looking out past the water, he saw that beyond the sparse trees on either bank lay a meadow.

In the distance across the meadow, he could even make out a scattering of houses.

There were only a few of them, and they were the two-story little cottages peculiar to the Western Alliance.

Beyond those cottages, Ji Yu saw fences surrounding the houses, and within the fences, a row of dairy cows lazily swishing their tails as they grazed.

“This place does seem rather quiet.”

He was fairly satisfied with the surroundings.

At the very least, there was very little foot traffic here, and apart from the little girl from the salamander’s memories, no one else ever came to this stream.

This was a textbook rural scene in the Western Alliance.

The environment and the air were both beyond reproach.

As for the little girl in the salamander’s memories, Ji Yu had no particular thoughts about her.

He sympathized with her experience, but he did not wish to involve himself too deeply.

After all, with three avatars to manage, Ji Yu already had more than enough to keep him busy just maintaining communication with them; entangling himself with too many other people was not in line with what he wanted.

Besides, even if Ji Yu did not intervene, there was still the cave salamander itself.

With the salamander’s slowly awakening intelligence, Ji Yu knew that with its pure, newly born mind, she would certainly not abandon her “friend” to its fate.

Ji Yu found the developments that would follow rather interesting, but he had no intention of stopping them.

This was the little salamander’s own social world. Ji Yu did not want to overstep. In dealing with his own avatars, he would guide them, but not rule them too harshly.

And given the little girl’s self-reliance and isolation, even if she were immature, she still would not likely go around telling others about the little salamander’s existence.

Even if such a possibility did arise, Ji Yu could easily guide things from the shadows.

So, thinking about the relationship between the girl and the salamander, Ji Yu actually found himself looking forward to what might come next.

Seen from a god’s-eye view, the bond between the cave salamander and the little girl was no less compelling than the storylines of certain films.

Since his interest had been stirred, Ji Yu naturally did not mind being a spectator.

After observing the surroundings, Ji Yu dismissed the cave salamander’s Water-Mimic Form and carefully examined the changes in its body.

Once the watery state was lifted, the salamander, now a little over three meters long, was still snow-white all over.

Even the body that had once lacked scales now slowly grew the kind of scales most aquatic creatures possessed.

The scales were pure white, flawless, and matched the body’s color exactly.

At the same time, beneath its feet, all four limbs had grown sharp claws.

Each foot had four claws, and when the claws flexed slightly against the rounded stream pebbles, they could even leave deep scratches in the stone.

As for its head—

Ji Yu looked at the reflection on the water’s surface.

At this moment, the cave salamander’s head looked more and more like that of a dragon.

Its former gills had transformed into a flattened oval shape and swept backward along the body, while at the front of its mouth, two long white whiskers gave it a striking lightness.

The only shortcoming was that the cave salamander had not grown horns.

Although sharp teeth had already emerged, the lack of two dragon-like horns made its appearance resemble a mythic flood dragon instead.

“A flood dragon?”

“That’s not bad either. There’s still room for growth ahead.”

At this point, Ji Yu could be certain that the salamander’s growth was moving almost entirely toward the appearance and build of an Eastern divine dragon.

As for whether it would ultimately become one, that remained to be seen.

A dragon—this was the miraculous creature that even the people of Lion had long dreamed of seeing.

After all, a totem that had been revered for thousands of years had long since sunk deep into the human heart, and Ji Yu was no exception.

So, seeing the cave salamander now developing in a direction closer and closer to a dragon, Ji Yu only grew more expectant.

He even found himself wanting, instinctively, to let the salamander grow toward the path of the divine dragon.

And because of that anticipation, Ji Yu had no intention of wasting time.

It was only one in the afternoon in the Franc Federation, while it was already night in the Lion Federation.

Six hours of time difference was not too hard to adapt to; compared with the Barn Federation where the oak tree was, this was much better.

Having confirmed the approximate time difference, Ji Yu once again had the cave salamander enter its Water-Mimic Form, then curl itself up and resume meditation in the very shallow stream.

The water was shallow, but it did not hinder the salamander’s meditative growth.

For once Ji Yu entered meditation, the surrounding current would be drawn toward him and spiral outward around the salamander’s body.

The sight was fantastical, almost exaggerated, but after all it was only water, and here in a sparsely populated rural part of the Western Alliance, the chance of anyone noticing such a change was vanishingly small.

Besides, Ji Yu had no intention of meditating here forever.

After tomorrow, he would have the cave salamander swim downstream to a wider river.