The Divine Hunter Chapter 39: Shapeshifter

Early morning.

In the gloomy sky, thick marshmallow-like cumulonimbus clouds swelled larger and larger.

The cold wind passed through the long street with few pedestrians.

Quasimodo, or Gal Samsa, couldn't help but shrink his neck and tremble all over.

He thought about the smoked chicken, grilled squid, and mushroom pies next to the market - because his home in the urban area is not far from his work, it is very convenient to commute to work every day, so he usually takes advantage of the time to eat something hot while he is on the road. food.

Then he dozed off step by step for half a day in the cold morgue, and went out for a stroll pushing a wheelbarrow in the afternoon.

"Well, I'm just a corpse collector, a nobody. All other troubles have nothing to do with me!"

Thinking of this, Gawain suddenly stopped and squatted down with difficulty, leaning against his hunchback, and pretended to dust off his moccasin boots.

Two yellow eyes, one big and one small, secretly glanced at the back of the body through the crotch——

The empty and neat long street is lined with hornbeam trees whose branches sway in the wind.

Not even a ghost!

Gawain raised and lowered his eyebrows more tightly.

After he came out of the house, he saw strange eyes lingering behind him, like needles pricking his neck.

Not like most humans. Their race has some unique talents.

For example, crisis intuition is extremely sensitive to all kinds of gazes. Although he couldn't see where the guy was hiding, he was sure there was a stalker.

My heart started beating again and I sighed.

The hard-earned peaceful life will be disrupted again.

Then the biological clock is reversed and life is worse than a beggar!

But now is not the time to complain.

Gawain Samsa controlled his facial expression, tried his best to pretend as if nothing had happened, quickened his pace, passed a mother holding her child, and at some point on the left side of the long street, he suddenly got close to it and slipped into a Narrow, dark alley.

He has walked this road countless times.

Moss stained with water vapor, clusters of weeds, sewage flowing everywhere, and the terrain is as complicated as a spider web.

For most people, this series of alleys connected end to end with many twists and turns is like a maze that is difficult to get in and out.

But in order to protect himself, he had traveled through it hundreds of times, and he had already become familiar with every corner.

This complex alleyway became his strategic buffer zone.

He was confident that he could get rid of the unknown stalker.

Just like countless times before, get rid of the pursuers of the eternal fire - open the manhole cover on the other street and get into the sewer.

After the limelight is over, change your identity and start your life again in Nuo City.

If I were to change places, I'm afraid it wouldn't be as prosperous, nor would it have delicious food from all over the world, nor would it have the taste of hometown.

Gawain showed a bitter smile on his ugly face, and his steps became faster.

"Shua——" Suddenly, a black shadow passed in front of the ugly man, jumping down from the wall like a big cat preying on mice.

The wind is blowing!

Gawain turned around and ran away without saying a word.

But the other party was faster than he expected - a strong and powerful arm pressed down on his shoulder first.

The intensity is moderate, but does not allow resistance.

In the dark alley, an extremely strange scene happened.

A much smaller man was pressing his hands on the shoulders of a hunchbacked man.

Cold sweat broke out on the latter's forehead and he did not dare to move at all.

"Good morning, Lord Quasimodo, I am Roy, the witcher of the Viper School." The witcher turned the big man around, showed his white teeth and smiled brightly, "We have met once. , do you remember?"

"Oh, good morning, Master of the Snake Sect, what a coincidence. I didn't expect to meet you in a place like this." Gawain grinned, revealing a mouth full of incomplete yellow teeth and a face full of flesh. He forced an ugly smile and said, "I'm getting ready to go to work in the morgue. Do you want to drop by? Isn't the last investigation over yet?"

The dark gold pupils swept over Gawain's face and winked at him, "Let's talk openly, Your Excellency, there is no need to hide your identity in front of me, I know your race."

"But don't worry, I mean no harm."

"I don't understand what you mean, what other race? The younger one is just a morgue janitor, an ugly, penniless man." Gawain's eyes evaded, his face was timid, and he looked frightened. The image of a cowering person with low self-esteem.

"Don't you admit it? It doesn't matter. I just want to broaden my horizons today...see what the legendary shape-shifter looks like?" Roy suddenly grabbed a wine glass with his right hand in mid-air and pulled out a wine glass out of thin air. It's filled with silvery powder.

Sprinkle forward.

"Shua——"

The silver powder spread all over Gawain Samsa, and his whole body began to tremble violently. His skin and bones expanded and contracted like boiling water.

The deformed features on the face disappeared strangely, like mud and flour that had been rubbed repeatedly, squirming.

"Zizi——"

Two seconds later.

The tall, ugly, hunchbacked man from before disappeared and was replaced by a strange humanoid creature.

Wearing baggy overalls, he has grown from being a head taller than Roy to being as tall as a dwarf. However, he has an unusually large head, with facial features squeezed into a pile, and yellow eyes the size of rice grains. , round nose, thick lips, and pointed ears that are thicker and shorter than elves.

The face is still full of wrinkles like an old man in his seventies or eighties.

Downward, there is no obvious neck, and the chest and abdomen are connected together.

His limbs are as long as a spider——

The two arms are like chimpanzees, hanging down past the knees, and the palms are half larger than ordinary people, and the backs of the hands are covered with black hair.

A pair of feet that are twice as big as ordinary people, and the insteps are also covered with black hair.

Quasimodo/Gawain Samsa

Gender: Male

Age: 25

Identity: Shapeshifter (a humanoid creature that can change its shape at will.)

Health: 60

Attributes:

Strength: 5

Agility: 7

Physique: 6

Perception: 7

Will: 5

Charm: 5

Spirit: 5

Skills:

Mimicry (passive solidification): A shape-shifter can copy the voices, ways of thinking, acting styles, and professional knowledge and skills of most creatures from birth, but there are certain restrictions.

Crisis intuition (passive solidification)

Others slightly

……

Dark golden pupils turned slowly, Roy looked at this weird humanoid creature and couldn't help but marvel,

It turned out that the shape-shifting monster was so ugly, and its strength was far less powerful than he imagined.

"Revealing your true colors before negotiating is the only way to be honest. What should I call you now, Mr. Gawain, or Mr. Changeling?"

The shape-shifter did not answer his question, but stared straight at Roy, its skin bulging like an inflated dummy, and its skin color changed unsteadily.

"Hey, I'm warning you to stop quickly, otherwise don't blame me for being rude."

The demon hunter kept an eye on his changes, and if it didn't work, he planned to shock him, but he didn't have time to take action.

A flash of horror suddenly flashed in the shapeshifter's yellow eyes, and all the abnormalities on his body disappeared with a pop, and he just stood there dumbly.

"Tick-tock——"

The thick clouds in the sky finally couldn't bear the moisture, and a drop of rain fell from the sky and landed on the forehead of the shapeshifter.

As if he saw something incredible, he suddenly covered his face with his hands, huddled in the corner, screamed and wailed,

"Master Roy, have mercy on me! Gawain is just an ordinary shapeshifter who lives an honest life abiding by the law. He has never harmed any human beings, and he has never used his abilities to cheat. Please don't kill me!"

"Stop! I stress again, I will never hurt you!" Roy spread his hands and stepped back, leaving him enough space.

In his understanding, most shapeshifters are neutral and kind-hearted creatures, with peaceful and self-disciplined personalities, and at most they occasionally cause mischief.

The silverware cannot harm them, it only restores them to their original shape.

So they are essentially like other non-human beings.

If he hadn't provoked him intentionally, Roy wouldn't have wanted to kill him.

"Are you serious?" Gawain glanced at the witcher through his fingers with yellow eyes like sesame seeds. Gawain asked cautiously, "Then, why did you stop me just now?"

"Let's talk about a big deal! If it turns out to be enough, you'll be a rich man for the rest of your life! But first I have to confirm your identity as a shapeshifter."

"A lifetime? Prosperity and wealth?" The shape-shifting monster's body stopped shaking, but his voice began to tremble, and he lowered his hand covering his face. His yellow eyes turned, flashing a hint of cunning, "What kind of business? You don't know how. After using my abilities, kick me away or kill someone to silence me?!"

Gawain has had enough of the hard life of hiding around and playing the ugly guy!

If he could escape from this life, he would even be willing to rob the treasury!

"Think about it, I called you a shapeshifter from the beginning, not those insulting words..."

Mimics, doppelgangers, mimics, and shapeshifters are all their nicknames.

But they only like the name shapeshifter.

Other nicknames are insulting to them.

"I think shapeshifters and witchers have an equal relationship! I respect you, so I won't lie to you." Roy said, "But now, Lord Gawain, can you answer a few questions for me first?"

"You can ask." Gawain's muscles were still tight as he sat slumped in the corner, and his body contracted inward in a self-protective posture.

"You wanted to copy me just now?"

"Don't get me wrong, I just turned into a more flexible creature and escaped!" Gawain quickly explained for fear of angering the other party. "But I don't know what's going on. I just tried it and it felt very difficult. My whole body hurts like it's going to explode!"

"You obviously don't look much taller or heavier than me, but you can't copy it! This is unprecedented, I have never encountered this situation!" Gawain's wrinkled cheeks showed confusion,

Roy nodded. There is no doubt that this should be the result of the template.

To copy itself, a shapeshifter must copy the template at the same time.

But he doesn't have that ability.

"So the ancient races and humans are all in your copy list? Whether they are dwarves, halflings, goblins, Iron Sheedy, or witchers?"

Roy remembered that Geralt once fought with a shapeshifter.

And the latter copied all his abilities in an extremely abnormal way.

Nearly capsized Geralt's boat in the gutter.

"I have copied everything you mentioned..." Gao Wen said honestly, "I think the difficulty is about the same."

"What about creatures other than humans?" Roy finally encountered a shapeshifter, so naturally he had to fully satisfy his curiosity, "Beasts like cats, dogs, wolves, grizzly bears, and water ghosts , ghouls and other humanoid monsters..."

"Um..." Gao Wen pursed his thick lips and hesitated for two seconds, "A dog, or a wolf, or a cat should be fine, as long as the size and weight are not much larger than mine. Large animals like grizzly bears, then Not within the deformation range."

Can’t the size and weight be too much?

Not even large animals or monsters.

"As for water ghosts and ghouls..." A complex look appeared on the face of the shape-shifter, "To tell you the truth, I have never tried to become that kind of monster. I don't plan to try in the future either, because once When I become a certain kind of creature, I will think according to their physiological habits and way of thinking."

"The brains of monsters are very poor and they are born with imbecility. If I want to become one of them, I may forget my true identity and start attacking humans, and I will never be able to change again."

"So, can you copy warlocks, high-level vampires, and other magical creatures?"

Roy's dark-gold pupils seemed to be shining, as if he was seeing some kind of rare treasure, which made Gawain feel panicked.

If the other party can become a high-level vampire, does his blood essence meet the requirements for the elixir of tempering? Maybe it can save Roy a lot of time.

"To be honest with you, I have simulated spell casters... As long as I observe them for a period of time, I can copy them, but my spell casting ability will be weakened a lot... My transformation is not enough to control too much magic... As for what you said A high-level vampire, I'm sorry, I've never seen this kind of creature with my own eyes, so I can't explain its transformation."

"Can you maintain that form after you transform?"

"Yes, as long as I am willing..."

Then, the ability of the shapeshifter perfectly meets the needs of the demon hunter, and his eyes become more and more interested.

"Your Excellency Gawain, your transformation ability is so outstanding, why do you hide in the dark and smelly morgue, disguised as an ugly and cowardly hunchback?"

The shapeshifter pursed his lips and looked a little nervous,

"The eternal fire has been hunting me and all shapeshifters!"

His fingers were trembling, and he was hysterical, "I want to live, but I don't want to leave Nuo City... If I can disguise myself as an ugly enough human being, the soldiers of Eternity will not want to take another look at me."

"Then, I can live safely and peacefully."

"I have been like this for two years, until today, you are here. How did you find me?"

Gawain asked cautiously, "I don't remember showing up, or showing any flaws."

"Do you understand the witcher's intuition?"

Of course, with the help of the dreamer, he confirmed his idea.

Now, Roy has new questions.

The First World War has not yet begun, but the extremist organization Eternal Fire has already begun to exterminate non-human beings?

"Why does the Eternal Flame hunt down the shapeshifters? What grudge does it have against you?"

When Gawain heard this, his face turned red with anger,

"This is an unfounded crime. Eternal Fire is guilty of committing the crime!"

He explained the reason with spittle.

Metamorphs can impersonate human beings at will, acquire their minds and memories, and silently take over all a human's property.

This ability of memory, mind, and body to fully accept seems to prove that the soul and the body are one, contrary to the basic theory of the separation of soul and body in the eternal fire.

This shakes the foundation of the religion, so Eternal Fire hates them deeply and has been trying to kill them all.

In addition, many ordinary people also reject and hate shapeshifters because of fear and fear.

And using silver items, you can easily expose the disguise of the shapeshifter.

In this way, from ancient times to the present, almost all the shapeshifters have been killed.

It has almost become a magical creature that only exists in legends and stories.

Roy sighed. He naturally understood the nature of shapeshifters. Most of them were very kind and would not maliciously harm humans.

But there is an old saying that goes, "Every man is not guilty, but he is guilty of having a jade in his possession."

With this incredible ability, kindness has become their weakness, and their fate is predictable.

……

Seeing that the witcher was silent, Gawain stood up from the corner, took a deep breath, and calmed down his restless mood, "Master...have you finished asking all the questions? Is it time to talk about business?"

"As you wish," Roy ended the topic, "but I have to tell the rules first."

"Your Excellency Gawain, no matter whether the deal is concluded or not, you are not allowed to reveal any word I say next to anyone?"

The demon hunter's eyes turned cold, and a cold evil aura emerged from his body, "Otherwise, not only the eternal fire will be chasing you, but also a group of demon hunters!"

"But if you complete this deal, you will have everything you want for the rest of your life, including food and clothing!"

"You will enjoy the luxurious life of the top rich in Nuo City!"

The shapeshifter's heart skipped a beat and he swallowed.

My scalp felt numb.

As timid as he was about to shake his head in refusal.

Suddenly he thought of his current situation, one-on-one with this irreproducible demon hunter. Did he have any room to refuse?

Will the witcher let him go?

And the days when I was a coward.

He's had enough too!

The opportunity is right in front of you.

"Gawain, be brave and show the courage of a male shapeshifter!"

Repeatedly motivate myself.

The shape-shifting monster was shaking all over, his face was red, and he nodded seriously, "I promise, I swear, if there is any leakage, I will not die a good death, and my body will not be intact..."

"That's enough, that's enough, Lord Gawain, we are friends from now on!" Roy stretched out his hand and shook his hand gently.

"Getting to the point, what do you think of the Big Four, no, the Big Three now, in Nuo City? What's your impression?"

"Francis Beland, the Beggar King, Clifford the Butcher, Olof Beard the Collector?"

"Yes..."

Although Gawain didn't know why the other party asked, he still answered honestly, "I neither hate them nor love them for the first two. But I hate the Collector. This guy is a warlock supremacist and discriminates against everyone. Non-human! Including shapeshifters and demon hunters."

"And I heard that he had many outrageous hobbies in private, such as collecting corpse specimens... euphemistically called collecting art."

"Actually, he is just a pervert and a bastard!"

Roy nodded, feeling increasingly happy that things were going in the direction he liked.

"So, do you think that with a collector's behavior, are you qualified to continue to sit in a high position as one of the giants in Nuo City?"

"What do you mean?" Gawain couldn't help but take a step back. He was not stupid. He had a few thoughts running through his mind. He guessed what the demon hunter was thinking, and his face suddenly changed. "You, you can't be..."

"How can that work? It's impossible! The Olof family has a great business and has countless bodyguards around them. He is also a spell caster and wears countless enchanted items!"

But the demon hunter raised his lips ~IndoMTL.com~ and his tone was full of confidence and courage, which was inexplicably convincing,

"Listen to me, I and a few companions are responsible for eradicating the collector, and you don't have to take risks, you just need to cooperate with us, seize the opportunity, transform into his appearance, and replace him!"

"From now on, all his property and everything he owns will belong to you."

"Of course, after this is done, you will be the ally of the demon hunter. We will help and benefit each other!"

"Gulu..." Gawain swallowed.

The expression was frozen, and the whole person was so shocked that he could not make any expression.

"Gawain, now, I, Roy, the witcher of the Viper School, would like to formally ask you whether you are interested in replacing the Collector!" The witcher stretched out his hand and took a handful. The rain falling from the sky opened his arms and his face was calm and comfortable.

"Are you willing?!"

"Work with the witcher to destroy that bitch!"