"MOTHER, NO!"
Sephiran shouted, fluttering back in panic, his tiny fists clenching.
"It won’t beco you! It’ll just be a very bloated, very full worm! Please... give it to Big Brother, Arach! He’ll... he’ll handle it! Right? Right, Big Brother? Oh... Mother is having so really... really not good thoughts!"
Arach stepped forward, blades partially drawn.
"Hand it over, Mother. It’s a pest."
Maddy shook her head, still in full-field zoologist mode.
"No! He’s like my brother! Or sister! Look at this!"
In an instant, she shifted into her Chira Worm form, perfectly mirroring the tiny worm before her. The mont her belly touched the ground, the worm froze—its attempts to bite halted, as if it recognized her. Then, with a joyful bounce, the two worms leaped in unison, tail thrashing and bodies wriggling.
"See? It just wants to play! Hahaha! This is so much fun!"
Her children clutched their heads in disbelief, eyes wide at the chaotic scene.
"Oh no..."
"Wait... Who is Mother?"
Sephiran asked, curiosity tinged with fear. Suddenly, the tiny worm’s head pivoted toward Sephiran. Its gaze narrowed, and its jaw opened wide enough that the boy could easily fit inside in a single gulp.
"Gah! It’s going to eat !"
Sephiran shrieked, scrambling backward as the worm lunged forward. Its vertical snap cracked the floor beneath them, a pure display of instinctual ferocity. The tiny predator pivoted with terrifying precision, its hunger blind to the strength of its targets, every body around it was just high-level loot, potential fuel for its next evolution.
It lunged first at Frovian, snapping and thrashing, then at Dyralfa. Frovian bristled, fists clenching.
"One more jump at and I’ll crack your body with a spinning earth attack!"
Sephiran was paralyzed with panic. There was nothing he could do, his mother was entirely focused on this precious visitor.
"It’s... it’s revenging its kin! It knows we wiped out the others during the mana distortion! It’s a tiny, beige ball of vengeance!"
Maddy’s eyes softened as she watched the little horror snap and jump at her children. A pang of lancholy tugged at her heart. She rembered her own first monts...
"Oh... it’s literally like , invading this cave back then, facing devils who imprisoned a princess... but..."
She finally understood the difference. This worm wasn’t fighting for soone, it wasn’t protecting, it wasn’t surviving for a cause. It was just living, driven by pure monster instinct.
"But I was fighting for soone... and this worm? It’s fighting for nothing. It’s just a living stomach."
She glanced at Lucy, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.
"Hey, Lucy... this worm... it doesn’t have, like... you, does it?"
Lucy’s ntal voice chid softly in her mind:
[Response: None. You are the special one, Maddy. You possess what you call... self awareness and emotion, and you have a special need for a... friend.]
"Of course I’m special! I was reincarnated into a worm, after all! That ans this one isn’t... I thought it would be like , though. Ugh, what a waste! I even hoped I could have soone from Earth, too! Geez..."
She glanced at the wriggling Chira Worm, then back at her children—who were treating it like a playful dog while it tried to eat them.
"I can’t gain anything from it by eating it; its traits are basically the sa as mine—a lesser version of what I already am. But... I also can’t just let it run wild. What if it accidentally ate one of my children? You get that!?"
Maddy thought it through carefully, her eyes narrowing in resolve.
"Right. I won’t let this at go to waste. If I can’t teach it, then at least I’ll make sure it becos part of my life... by transferring this worm’s traits into one of my children."
She finally moved. In a blur of motion that the worm couldn’t even perceive, she reached down and pinched its nerve center. The creature went limp instantly... a painless, rciful end.
"I’m eating it."
Her children erupted in exaggerated cheer.
"OH FINALLY, MOTHER, YOU ARE YOURSELF!"
Sephiran, still fired up, grabbed a nearby cooking implent, shouting,
"PUT IT IN BOILING OIL! OR STICK IT AND MAKE A HUGE SKEWER!"
Maddy waved him off, her eyes glinting with divine intent.
"No... This is a private al. I’m taking back the essence of my own kind."
Without further ceremony, she activated Advanced Mineral Assimilation and Accelerated Digestion, ingesting the rare chira.
CHOMP!
As Maddy ingested the essence of the Chira Worm, her Divine Body humd with a frequency that made the very air heavy. A series of translucent windows flickered before her eyes, faster than thought, scrolling through the fundantal code of her existence...
Maddy’s eyes widened as the traits scrolled by. She wasn’t just looking at new skills; she was looking at the schematics of her soul.
[System Notice]
[You have ingested an object containing traits.]
[Trait Acquired: Omnivorous Assimilation]
[Can consu organic, inorganic, and biological matter. Can extract traits from ingested materials or creatures.]
[Trait Acquired: Adaptive Integration]
[Absorbed traits may be integrated into the base body or reserved for future evolutionary forms. Allows selective incorporation rather than forced mutation.]
[Trait Acquired: Biological Compatibility Analysis]
[Subconsciously evaluates consud materials and organisms for trait compatibility. Reduces rejection rate and instability when assimilating foreign biology.]
[Trait Acquired: Mutable Physiology]
[Body structure is highly flexible at the cellular level. Allows rapid reshaping, limb formation, internal restructuring, and controlled mutation.]
[Trait Acquired: Trait Slot Stabilization]
[Maintains structural balance despite multiple assimilated traits. Prevents trait overload, collapse, or biological rejection.]
[Trait Acquired: Evolution Path Selection]
[When sufficient compatible traits are gathered, allows selection of an evolved form rather than random mutation.]
[Trait Acquired: Residual Trait Storage]
[Traits that cannot currently be integrated may be stored in a dormant state for later activation, upgrading, or combination.]
[All of these traits are already inherent...]
[Storing already applied and existing traits...]
Maddy gasped. For the first ti, clarity struck her—she finally saw her own traits laid bare, understood the full scope of her existence, and felt the weight and wonder of what she had beco.
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