Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 58 5 Little Monsters

To Alex's indignation, he found out that his new body looked different from what he could have wanted.

He still had a humanoid body, but Alex found out that every part of him was covered with green, slimy tentacles that were all serrated with sharp teeth.

Needless to say, Alex knew that he just reached the scale of 'creepy and scary monsters that will eat you while you sleep' level.

This fact alone made Alex extremely angry, especially to the dumb fairy.

"Oi Asteria, why do I get to be a tentacle monster and Alina gets to be a hot Vampire Queen?" This the first question that Alex said as he finished acclimating to his new body. "This is just unfair!"

"Well, you need to have that body if you want to succeed on the Main Mission." Asteria replied as she idly played with Alina's new hair. "Being human won't cut it out here."

"No!!!" Alex tried to facepalm, but the best that he could do was to 'facetentacle' himself(Is that even a word?) as he realized that he really got the short end of the stick here.

"Does that mean that I will stay in this appearance for the rest of the mission?" Alex muttered to himself as he found himself disappointed with his luck. "This is just unfair!"

To Alex's surprise, Asteria had a reply to his latest question.

"Huh? Of course it will not be like that." Asteria said, as she gave an incredulous gaze at Alex. "You can still transform back to your Human Forms, as long as you willed it. However, I recommend you to stay in your Monter Form when you are under the presence of other Monsters, or else you two will be attacked."

"Wait, we can do that?" Alex suddenly found hope as he heard what Asteria said. "Is that true? We really can shift forms form Monster to Human?"

"Hey hooman, show Alex what I mean." Asteria said to Alina, who just gave a nod in reply.

"...."

Alex watched with fascination as he saw the Vampire Queen Alina turning back into the Human Alina.

The change was seamless, it was as if it was just natural.

The Human Alina then shifted her appearance back to Vampire Queen Alina, as Asteria chided her to turn back to that appearance.

"Do you believe me now?" Asteria said as she gave a smug grin at Alex. "Well, you can try it by yourself too."

"In that case, here I go." Alex declared as he willed himself to transform back to his Human Form.

At the first second, he was not sure on what to do, which made him slightly panicked.

But after focusing his desire to be Human again, Alex felt a warm sensation that covered his whole body.

The warm sensation only lasted for a second, and when Alex opened his eyes, he found himself staring down at his two hands.

"Hahaha! I am back!" Even if Alex will be crying right now, he would not be ashamed of it, as he was really terrified of his appearance earlier.

Alina did not seem to mind Alex's outburst, although Asteria wrinkled her nose in disgust as she muttered some rather crass words to herself.

"Are you done celebrating?" Asteria said after waiting for Alex to calm down. "If you are done, shift back to your Monster Form already."

"Hai, hai." This time around, Alex did not feel any hard feelings as he shifted back to his Monster Form. After all, he already had the assurance that he can still get back to his normal form, so there is no problem for him now to look like a tentacle man.

"Hey Alex…" Alina, who was in her Vampire Queen Form, averted her gaze from Alex as she asked him in a low voice,

"Which appearance do you prefer? My Human appearance or my Vampire Queen appearance?"

"..."

Alex did not reply quickly, as he knew that this was a test. If he gives the wrong answer, then he will surely be punished greatly.

Even though Alex was not an expert on what women think, Alex knows one thing that any woman loves.

Women loves to be praised.

If a girl asks you on which of her two dresses fits her better, do not just choose one dress. Tell that girl that she is beautiful no matter what dress she wears. That will be the best answer for that.

Alex nodded his head as he decided to apply this principle in his answer to Alina.

"It doesn't matter which appearance you wear Alina." Alex said, trying to make himself sound as nonchalant as possible. "As long as it is you, I will not get tired of looking at you."

Suffice to say, it sounded very cheesy and cringy.

Just as expected of Alex.

"Ew, that is so cheesy!" Asteria actually recoiled as if she could not contain what she was feeling right now. "And what made it worse is that you said it while you are in your tentacle form! It's just… ew…"

"Ew indeed." Alina nodded in agreement as she gave Alex a sly smile. "However I will give you points for being honest. But… can you please choose the right words to say next time? Your choice of words really makes me unsure whether you are serious or just joking."

"..." Alex was not sure whether to feel happy or sad by that.

"Anyway." Asteria managed to compose herself as she shook her head, presumably to remove everything that Alex just said earlier. "Now that you got your new body, it is time that I tell your Main Mission in this World."

"We're listening." Alex and Alina leaned forward as they focused on what Asteria was about to say next.

Asteria smiled, seemingly loving the attention given to her. She tossed her hair to the side as she said,

[SAVE THE CHILDREN]

"...." Both Alex and Alina waited for Asteria to say something more, but to their dismay, Asteria did not say anything after that.

"Wait, that's it?" Alex commented as Asteria went back to Alina's shoulders. "Save The Children? That is our Main Mission?"

"Yes, that is your mission." Asteria replied sagely, as if what she said was the universal truth. "So just do what the Main Mission told you to do."

"But how the hell will I do that?" Alex replied with exasperation as he wrapped Asteria with one of his tentacles. "Save the children? What children will I save? How many of them should I save? Why should I even save them? I should know about these specific things!"

"Hey!" Asteria let out some shouts of complaint as the tentacle wrapped all over her, with her failing to dodge the oozing slime that came from the tentacle. "Get this thing off me!"

"Not until you explain on how we should finish our Main Mission." Alex said as he willed more and more tentacles to cover Asteria. "So, please do your best to answer, ok?"

"Help me, hooman!" Asteria pleaded for help to Alina, but to Asteria's disappointment, Alina did not do anything. She just watched as Asteira was covered with more and more tentacles…

"Fine! I will try to help you out!" Asteria said before the last tentacle could cover her. "I have a tip for you for the Main Mission!"

"Now we're talking." Alex said as he freed Asteria from his tentacle assault. "Now talk."

"Hmph!" Asteria certainly did not look good right now, with all the slime covering her body, making her look like a kitten that was drenched in rain.

"Just go hunting in the forest, okay?" Asteria said as Alina did her best to comfort the shaken fairy. "Do it, and you will see the meaning of your Main Mission."

"Hmm… Ok, I think that explanation is already suffice." Alex muttered as he decided on what to do next. "In that case, I guess I should get going now." Alex started to amble out of the clearing as he decided to start his hunt.

But before he could go, he paused as he looked back at Asteria.

"Hey." Alex said as he played with his tentacles. "What are my new abilities in this body anyway? I think I should know about them so that I can use them later."

"And you are just asking it now? Really, when will you learn to be alert?" Asteria cheekily replied, as she was seemingly back to her arrogant and vibrant persona.

"Do you want another tentacle treatment again?" Alex said as he waved some of his tentacles in Asteria's direction. "Because if you want to, then I will give it to you for free."

"Ah Alex I am just joking you know, hehehe…"

"...…"

*******************

1 hour later.

Alex walked freely through the woods, looking like he does not give a care about anything in the world.

His steps look confident, as if he was not afraid of any danger around him.

The truth however, was that Alex was deep on contemplating on what Alina told him earlier.

According to Asteria, Alex's Great Elderitch Form granted him with two abilities.

The first ability was Abyss Magic, and from the sound of it, it does not sound like your good old-fashioned magic.

According to Asteria, Abyss Magic was a magic that was concerned with channeling a kind of Energy from the Abyss Dimension, the dimension where Elderitch monsters came from.

This Energy, which Asteria termed as the 'Abyss Energy', will allow Alex to do incredible and scary things, as long as the grade of his Abyss Magic allows it.

Asteria said that there are 12 Grades of Abyss Magic, with the First Tier as the 'petting some kittens' type, and the Twelfth Tier as the 'everyone in the whole wide world gets f**ked-up' type.

Right now, Alex was said to be at the First Grade of Abyss Magic, although he still had not experimented enough to know what he can do at this level.

Asteria did not elaborate on how Alex will be able to raise his Grade, but Alex did not care for that now, as he was more focused on finding the crux of his Main Mission.

The second ability that Alex got was in loose terms, can be called 'Feeling, Emotions, and Desire Manipulation'.

For convenience sake, Alex decided to just call it FED Manipulation.

This ability allows Alex to control the feelings, emotions, and desires of anything nearby him.

He can make a person be extremely frightened of him, extremely loyal to him or even extremely disgused to him.

He can also make the same person feel hunger or lust, depending on what Alex wanted.

At first, FED might sound extremely BS and OP, but according to Asteria, this ability will only be highly effective on beings that are much weaker than Alex.

This means that Alex can fully use this power on normal animals and children.

But against powerful Monsters and Humans, Alex's FED Manipulation will be only enough to faze them for a second.

"Well, I can just make myself grow stronger to make both of my abilities stronger." Alex muttered to himself as he walked confidently across the forest. "Once I become so strong, I will have an easy time defeating anyone that I need to defeat."

Alex's trail was filled with small animals and Monsters, who were all frothing in their mouths, with some of them shivering and trembling in fear.

In order to not meet any nuisances, Alex decided to blast his FED Manipulation at its peak level, making anyone near Alex to feel great fear.

This tactic worked, as every weak Monster that approached Alex all collapsed on the forest floor, shivering in fear.

"Sigh, where are the powerful monsters here?" Alex muttered to himself as he started to get bored with just walking around the forest. "There is some Monster that should be powerful around here, right?"

"Squee!"

Right on cue, Alex heard a powuerful roar, coming from his left side.

"There it is!" Alex thought excitedly as he rushed toward the source of the sound with excitement.

What he saw however, made him stop on his tracks.

He could see a massive boar-like monster, standing around three storeys tall, with its 5-meter long tusk gleaming menacingly.

"Squee!"

This boar seemed to be screaming at something that was obviously not Alex.

Alex tried to see on what had pissed this boar a lot, and that's when he saw them.

He saw five little monsters all cowering under the murderous gaze of the boar.

Alex idly numbered them from 1 to 5, taking note of their appearances.

Little Monster No.1 looks like a literal dog, who was standing up even though its legs were trembling.

Little Monster No. 2 looks like a collection of numerous pebbles, while Little Monster No. 3 suspiciously looks like a shadow creature or something.

Little Monster No.4 looks like a collection of millions of insects, and finally, Little Monster No. 5 looks like a literal skeleton.

Alex was not sure why, but he could somehow feel that these 5 Little Monsters were important to him.

Not only that, but the fact that these 5 Little Monsters were all wearing Human Clothes made Alex think that they could be his clue for his Main Mission.

With these thoughts in his mind, Alex decided to save them.

"Hehehe, this is exicting." Alex thought to himself as he realized that he was about to fight his first battle here in the Monster World.

"I hope you won't disappoint me, little boar."