The Last Primal

Before leaving Gom stopped at the doorway for a moment and peeked back at the elder that gave them such a weird assignment. The whole thing… go out targeting a goblin envoy specifically? Why? While it will be fun to acquire new slaves and be the first to taste them, it was still borderline taboo to assault and rob other members of the horde. If the other leaders and captains would hear of this, the repercussions would be grave. What could the old man be playing at?

Looking at the old man, Gom raised an eyebrow in surprise. The elder was prostrated on the ground, his back turned towards the door so quite luckily, Gom wasn't spotted as the shaman was prostrating to the seemingly clear, empty wall before him. 

However, a moment later, the air trembled, a low-toned monstrous grumbling could be heard as a small tear appeared in the air. Although it was dark in the room, and the tear itself was black, void-colored as well, the blurry air, distorted space made the spectacle clearly visible. The thin tear began to expand, tiny spiderweb tails spurted all around as it continued to take more and more space to itself. 

The sight was otherworldly, and even for Gom, who was now a battle-hardened warrior of his tribe, caused shivers to run through his spine. Fear? Was he scared?!

'Impossible! He mumbled inwardly, as he clenched his fists and forced himself to continue watching. He wanted to see where this all would lead to, what was the old man worshipping so reverently.

A few seconds later when the spiderweb cracks expanded to take a great deal of the surrounding space, the tear slowly started to expand itself, it's thin narrow crack began to slowly but gradually expand, swallowing the tiny spiderweb cracks in the process. Black, otherworldly darkness greeted the shaman, and Gom still spied in the doorway. 

What was even stranger was the unnatural, thick dark grey smoke-like substance it began to emit rapidly filling up the entire room, shrouding the event from the hungry eyes. 

Squinting, Gom tried his best to make out anything from inside, but unfortunately, he was unable to. Turning around, he was about to give up and leave, before he took one last look at the shrouded spectacle, only to have the greatest scare of his life. Amidst the thick dark smoke, a humongous dark red pair of eyes appeared looking directly at him. There was seemingly no body attached to them, but still, the pure, unfiltered evil it emitted was too much to handle for such a simple orc as Gom. Without thinking Gom immediately bolted, making his way out of the building not daring to take another look back. 

The memory segment completed, the image faded, returning clarity to Aiden once more. With the other pieces of Gom's past discarded by him, the Memory was successfully assimilated, returning control to him again.

'What was that thing at the end?' Sitting up from his meditative position, he leaned against the back of the tent as he thought back to the last moments of the vision he had just witnessed. That huge, incorporeal, floating pair of eyes amidst the thick, dark smoke… Was that just an illusion? On the other hand, was that a being that came forth from the tear in space? There was a single moment, a fleeting fraction of a second when he could get a quick peek inside the void… and it felt… familiar? 

Heaving a longer than usual sigh, Aiden shook his head. 

'To get more information, I will need the shaman's memories as well…' He scowled at the thought. Although the old man seemed strong, and it was probably practicing something dark, just based on Gom's last memories… Would that be justified for outright killing him? Wouldn't he go against the very first teaching Granny taught him? 

However, on the other hand, the old man was clearly making plans against him. Why? From the small talk they had, Aiden never felt that they were too hostile to each other. Yes, there was some friction, but that should be normal amongst the races. At least, that's what the memories of the goblin leader and Gom have taught him. Would that justify sending two bulky warriors at their location, to beat him to half-death, and steal his slaves?

Before swallowing the orc's heart, Aiden was hoping to get answers to his questions, but unfortunately, instead of answers, he got several dozen more new questions with little to no answers to his earlier ones.

Still, the most pressing matter now was that just as he thought, the old man, somehow was able to track their position through the forest. Although he was unable to gain proper vision, some sort of magic-induced sense has to be at play here or some other type of trick. Whatever the reason, they were no longer safe, and had to set out as soon as possible.

With that thought in mind, Aiden stood up, and was about to leave his tent to gather up the girls to continue, when he realized he didn't check all the notifications he received when he swallowed the precious organ! Remembering all the benefits and that incredibly addictive feeling when that new source of energy splurged through his body… A smirk appeared on the scowl that previously dominated Aiden's visage he quickly brought the system interface back up and began opening all the notifications one after another.

[New Life Essence Found - New Form Mountain Orc created!

Warning: Mountain Orc Life Essence was mutated, the new form will have an unknown mutation! Analyzation is recommended before choosing to evolve into it.]

[10000 XP received!]

[Primal Absorb skill has gained 100 XP and has leveled up! New level: 3]

[Shapeshifter Innate has received 1000 XP!]

'Woah, slow down, slow down!' Surprised, Aiden was barely able to process all the new information he received. Scrolling back up, he first checked the strange note about the new form he gained just as he expected and hoped.

What he did not expect and saw no traces of it even in Gom's memory was any sort of mutation. How could his life essence be mutated then? Did the system make a mistake? No, that's impossible. However, now he couldn't use that form as a backup plan, without first assigning some system resources and most importantly, time to investigate it deeper, in more detail.

Second, was the huge, incredible amount of experience he gained. He was happy, as he wanted to increase his attributes for a while now, he couldn't really find a proper way. Yes, he was stronger than the weak, average humans, but after facing off against his master he realized that what he had seen of the world was only a very tiny piece. There were other, powerful beings out there that Aiden's very being was trembling at the thought of. His primal core wanted nothing more than to face off and absorb these existences. Aiden felt a need, no, a hunger for their power…

Going to the next note, he checked the Primal Absorb skill. Thanks to his continued usage, it directly gained enough points to level up and reach a new height! Knowing that this skill was very special and one of the key components of his core form, the Primal one, he was hesitant to level it himself and wanted to simply let it grow through continuous usage.

Eager to see if the skill itself had any changes he brought its details up.

[Primal Absorb (Level 3): Absorb the life essence of the defeated enemy. Based on the lifeform, you can acquire its unique skills, and get an increase in one or more of your attributes, or obtain attribute points to spend. You can absorb lifeforms 1 Tier higher than your current skill level. Works in any form.]

'It did change, look at that…' He smirked contently. The main thing to note is that there were no mentions of level restrictions at all, not that it had ever given him any difficulties. In fact, he has never seen any numbers or power levels for the enemies he faced. First, he did wonder if there was a missing feature or anything, but when he asked Enya at the time, she only said that he was still missing a system feature and he will gain it in time. Ever since then, he had almost forgotten about it.

'Well… There's no point thinking about it now…' Aiden shook his head and shifted his attention to the last note in the system that gave him the last and probably the biggest surprise. His innate skill, which so far, didn't know how to train, finally grow! Although, not enough to reach a new level or rank, but it was still something that had not happened before. 

'Hmm… Was it because of my continued usage of this goblin form or the absorptions I did recently?' He wondered. Although he wasn't a saint and had no qualms about killing monsters in whatever shape or form they may be, he himself did not want to turn into one...