The Shapeshifter - Chapter 22 Inheritance 1

The monstorosity in front of him was a 10-foot tall humanoid scorpion.

Its body was pitch black which made it harder to look at whether it was day or night. Its arms were big and bulky, with its gigantic pincer; it looked incredibly menacing.

However, its other arm was nowhere to be seen. Looking at it, it seems like it was chopped off by a sword or something similar to it.

Alex’s mind was telling him to quickly look away and just as he was about to bow his head down, he saw a blade of what looks to be a black dagger, embedded on the creature’s chest.

‘What? This big guy’s dead?’ His expression changed from dread to relief.

He wiped the sweat on his face, yet for some reason, he still felt like someone was looking at him.

Alex wanted to look around, however his neck stiffened as an intense pain came from it.

“You shouldn’t move yourself too much. You barely survived that punch from the gorilla.” He heard a voice that was of a man on his mid thirties, it was like the voice of a friendly neighbor.

The voice echoed in the hall, so it was very hard for Alex to pinpoint its origin.

“Uh- okay? W-wait! Barely? I barely survived that punch? Pffft. Look at me, I’m all good! I’m not injured at all.” He wanted to flex his muscles to show that he was alright, but to his horror he was unable to move.

He could only sit still and wait for the other’s reply.

“Not injured huh? Why don’t you try moving your neck and see if it would go limp or something.” Alex’s eyes grew larger and he didn’t dare to move an inch or muscle, lest his neck would really go limp.

“You wouldn’t last for a day. So zip it and hear me out.” The voice continued.

“The injury in your body is severe, many internal bleedings. Even some of bones in your rib cage has disintegrated. Your neck’s barely holding on.” The voice talked to him like a doctor that just finished his check up.

“Then why am I not feeling pain?” Alex wondered of this since the voice said that he barely survived. Aside from the pain in his neck, no pain emerged from his body.

“That. Hmmm. I actually encountered such a thing in the past.”

“You were gravely injured too?”

“No. Not that. But I too, was sent here by the Goddess.” The voice stopped echoing in the halls and sounded right in front of Alex.

Alex, whose mind was jumbled by the sudden revelation of the voice, did not notice this change.

“W-what? What are you talking about?” It was his greates secret since he came to this world. He wouldn’t dare revealing such a secret to anyone.

“You and I both know what I’m talking about. The System! The power of the Goddess still resides on it, preventing ‘us’ from dying tragically!”

“Why did she do that? Wasn’t it a gift? Wait! Isn’t it supposed to be good? Not feeling a thing at all, when you die?”

“It definitely isn’t a good thing. It’s like you wouldn’t know the feeling of death yourself. like they say, there’s a first to everything.”

“You’re right, it makes us feel more like not human.” Alex ‘nodded’ his unmoving head.

“Hey kid, look at me. Do I look like a human to you?” This time, Alex clearly heard the voice infront of him. He moved his eyes just enough to see the entity infront of him, smirking.

“What!? You’re not dead? Moreover, why are you dressed up as a humanoid scorpion! You’re creeping me out!”

“No. I am not dressed up as a scorpion. Haha. Jokes aside, hear me out, for real.” The ‘scorpion man’ seriously said.

Alex exaggeratingly closed his mouth to show his willingness to listen to the ‘scorpion man’.

“First of all, I’m a human from Earth. I was diagnosed with cancer and the doctor told me that I wouldn’t live past 18 years old. As a kid back then, I wasted my life on computer games to overcome the sadness that I felt.

“I played hours of any game that I fancy. However, I also watched myself grew weaker day by day. I actually prayed and asked the Gods to help me.

“My head shined like a sun and I didn’t give a damn about it. I just continued on praying everyday. When I woke up I thank God everything.

“I did not lament on the fact that I was going to die. On the evening I prayed for help. Even though I already accepted my fate, I still didn’t wish to die and leave everyone behind crying.

“Until one night, a white being showed up on the bedside. At first I thought that she was a ghost or something, then she told me that she was a God.

“I didn’t suspect that she was pranking me. She had that ‘holy’ aura on her and had that benevolent look on her face, you could easily tell that she was a being, higher than a human.

“So as a kid, I thanked her arrival and asked her to cure me of my cancer. However, she only asked me ‘What do you think about living in another world?’

” I immediately accepted, because at least, I already have certainty for a chance to live again. But it was hard for me to leave my loving parent behind.

“Yet she told me that when I come back to Earth again, I would already be healthy and only a year or so may have passed. It was really a good deal, so I accepted it.

“Fast forward by a few years, I met a very talented man. Even when I have the system, I barely kept up with him. You might know him as the King of the Humans back when the demons arrived.

“We became friends and both of us are the elites of the human race. We made a deal. Theone who gets the ‘tails’ side of the coin would be watching the beasts and limit their growth.

“Guess what? I got tails! We experimented for years to turn myself into a spy and became like this.” He lifted his left arm as if showing what he currently looks like.

“Then I became the Scorpion King that dealt with the dark side of both humanity and beasts. Ah- no, not king, emperor. Scorpion Emperor.”

“Now. I will give you an opportunity of a lifetime. Do you want to grow stronger? Regardless whether you turn into a scorpion like me?”