To Become a Troll Ch.11

Sitting up here, I try to relax and let the rest of the evolution take its course. But it’s hard. No matter what, I can’t let myself stop looking around me. If something were to approach me right now, I would definitely die.

It takes a few minutes, but the evolution does finally complete.

And I’m left in a form that, thankfully, actually has skin. And hair.

As a matter of fact, I am very hairy. My entire body, barring my tail, hands, feet, face and ears are covered in long, black hairs, each thick and strong like pines. Beneath this hair lies a strong hide. Strong in comparison to moss, at least. My tail - which has actually healed now - is mostly hairless apart from a large tuft of hair on the tip of it. Such a tuft can also be found on both of my ears.

But my attention is mostly drawn to one thing and one alone.

...Why is my nose so damn big?...

I get I’m supposed to have good smell and all, but this is actually ridiculous. I really should have asked the kid to describe the appearance of these evolutions, but-,

-Normal Skill Lizard’s Tail gained-

Eh? What is-, is this because I got my tail nipped off as a distraction? Seriously? Why didn’t you give me this earlie-,

-Evolution complete-

-Mossling(F-) has become Lilltroll(E)-

-The following skills have been gained:

Racial skills Strong Body, Tail Lv.1, Lesser Hamnskifte and Lesser Regeneration Lv.1-

-Racial skill Photosynthesize has been lost-

Ah. Is that so? Well, considering I just gained a skill that seemed to the exact same thing but without the sun part, I can’t exactly complain.

If that’s all you had to say, I’d like to see my stats.

-Lilltroll(E) Lv.1/30

Stage: Kid

Health 21/21

State: Normal

Strength: 5 (+0,5)

Dexterity: 4

Toughness: 4(+0,4)

Racial Skills:

Absorb, Strong Body, Tail Lv.1, Lesser Hamnskifte Lv.1, Lesser Regeneration Lv.1

Normal Skills:

Stab Lv.4, Stomp Lv.2, Choke Lv.3, Lizard’s Tail

Titles:

Oknytt, Bloodthirsty, Natural Deviant-

It looks like all my stats went up slightly, which is only to be expected. Since my dexterity lost the (+1), I assume that means Cap died?

Well… Rest in peace, Cap. You probably saved my life, maybe.

Anyway, moving on, I guess I’d better check out my new racial skills considering that they already seem to have a sort of effect on my stats.

-Normal skill Lizard’s Tail: Allows user to drop tail as a distraction. Tail can continue moving for several hours following severing.-

That would almost be expected, I suppose. I can’t tell how useful this is, but if I use it as a lizard would, then I could easily cause a pretty good distraction to escape under. However, I’m not a coward. Hence, how much I use this depends on the kind of battles I get into.

Also, the wording seems to suggest that it doesn’t grow back on its own, so if I had no regenerative skills, would I just be fucked if I dropped it?

-Racial Skill Strong Body: User has a strong body. Increases Strength and Toughness by 10%.-

Sounds useful. This will probably be even more useful once my stats get higher.

-Racial Skill Tail: Allows dexterous use of tail.-

In other words, if I got this skill higher, I could use my tail as a whip? Or two swing in the trees like a damn monkey? Looking at my tail, I don’t think it’s quite strong enough for anything like that. I can only barely move it in any direction, but I guess that just means I need more practice.

-Racial Skill Lesser Hamnskifte: Allows the user to take the form of something else.-

This is… A little off. I’ve never even heard the word, but it seems to translate to harbour-shift. The real question here is: take the form of what? A human? A child? A wolf? What exactly am I transforming into?

...There’s only one real way of finding out, isn’t there?

But for now, I’d like to finish going over my stats. The final one would be…

-Racial Skill Lesser Regeneration: User passively regenerates health to a lesser degree.-

As expected.

With that, I can focus on the absolutely most important fact of this evolution.

Why the fuck am I still Oknytt!?

Sure, I’m only barely bigger than I was before, but I’m still not mischievous! I’m a mild hindrance at most! This is ridiculous. I’m taking this to HR!

But, of course, nothing answers me.

I huff. At least I have lungs now. And a mouth. And hands.

...The tail is a nice addition.

Now, since I have a few minutes of calm up here in this tree, it can’t hurt to try out hamnskifte. Or, I mean, technically, should I transform into a larger creature, I may very well break this branch and fall down. But I don’t think that’s my main problem here.

Alright. Hamnskifte.

...Looks like the kid isn’t going to help me here, so I suppose it’s some instinctual thing.

Let’s see here…

Maybe if I fold up my legs, and hunch my back, and…

…

Nothing’s changed. I’m just sitting perched up here like an owl. This is a bit emberra-,

-Title Hamnskiftare gained-

Well, there we go. If that title means anything, then it would be that I succeeded in transforming, even if I can’t tell myself. Maybe it’s actually more of an illusionary skill than a physical one? That wouldn’t be all too strange, though I do feel a bit cheated. I wonder what I look like? Maybe I appear to the things down below as a massive, terrible bird.

Or I look like a stupid troll sitting stupidly on a stupid branch.

Alright, let’s stop this for now.