Lucas pressed forward leisurely, taking in the sights and sounds of the cavern. No matter how far he travelled into the cavern, it seemed like the distance between him and the domain core was not shrinking. The cavern's wall and branching paths had grown so large he almost felt like a fly on the wall.

After an hour or so, he heard a familiar sound. No, it would be more accurate to say he felt it. It was the calming melody of the cavern. It resonated with his core and tried to control his mind.

Landing on a nearby wall, Lucas braced himself and easily resisted the pull. He could feel something about his Mind had changed. It felt like he was finally in the driver seat of his own thoughts yet his instincts were sharper than ever.

"Hmm… the [Daredevil] achievement is living up to its description. Before I got it, the sound would put me into a trance or even directly alter my thoughts. But now, it's just a minor inconvenience. Given how loud the melody is, I'm sure the domain core is just ahead in through this tunnel."

Lucas' pupils subconsciously shrunk and his muscles tensed at the thought. He knew that whatever laid at the domain core was going to be both unexpected and extremely dangerous.

Given that every cavern monster had surged towards the core just a few days ago, yet the cavern seemed to be operating normally gave him an inexplicably bad feeling.

Factoring in the fact that the cavern seemed to be manufacturing its inhabitants, he felt like he was playing in the palms of something unknowable.

"It doesn't matter. I can only find out what happened if I go take a look. But first, I have some changes to make. Let's see just how far my [Mimicry] has come."

Strengthening his resolve, Lucas' expelled a deep breath and leaped down to a sizable outcropping. He stayed in a crouching position in preparation of his transformation.

His eyes took on a sharp sanguine glow while the Rune of his back glowed faintly. He had been thinking about how to move faster throughout the cavern ever since the bat incident and now, he was finally ready to test out an idea.

A jolt of Life energy pulsed within Lucas as his dark flesh began to ripple and shift, his limbs spasmed then began to elongate unnaturally. Multiple wet cracking sounds could be heard as his bones grew, expanded and in some cases divided. Joints popped into new alignments as they adapted to their changes.

His arms lengthened past natural human proportions, shoulders broadening to support the extra reach. While his elbow bent higher than before to support the extra range of motions, allowing him to plant his hands flat while keeping his chest elevated.

His legs followed suit with his femurs lengthening and his knees adjusted to his beast-like stance. Tendons realigned, pulling his legs lower into an optimal angle for a bounding stride.

Clawed fingers extended further, becoming slightly curved as their joints recalibrated. Palms flattened while innumerable minuscule ridges spread across their surface for more grip. His toes took on a similar transformation while his ankles gained an inhuman degree of rotation ensuring stability and control.

His spine curved forward like a coiled spring as his skeletal structure adjusted and adapted to his needs. Each tendril retracted and regrew on his lower back, becoming hyper flexible tails as he developed complex tail bones for each of them. They all developed in bladed tips and edges, useful both in combat and movement.

Finally, his skull shifted with a slow, deliberate creak. It elongated subtly while his cheekbones sharpened. His eyes widened unnaturally, their shape adjusting for a much broader field of vision.

His eyes grew thin, translucent lids beneath his primary ones. They blinked rapidly before flickering shut, vanishing from sight due to their see through nature. His lashes also fell off as his primary eyelids became transparent as well.

His jaw stretched, the bones realigning with a quiet pop as his mouth lengthened beyond human proportions, becoming more of a snout. Teeth followed suit, lengthening into tapered points while the corners of his lips curled ever so slightly. His wide mouth naturally twisted into a grin that was neither human nor reassuring.

This transformation process took over ten minutes. When it was finally over, Lucas lifted up his right hand and took at it. Gazing at its now inhuman form his smirk widened subconsciously. He raised his eyebrows in surprise as he spoke to himself.

"It worked on the first try? No mind breaking pain?"

He turned to his volatile core and could see more than a quarter of his saved up Life energy had been drained by this transformation. It should be known that he could store up almost as much Life energy as the amount of Spirit energy he had.

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"Level 5 skills are no joke, without my high Spirit I could never make full use of [Mimicry]. Thankfully I used my Life energy instead of my Spirit energy for this, or I would be super drained as well. Anyways, time to take this baby out for a spin!!!"

With that excited howl, his voice boomed throughout the cavern as he shot forward like an arrow. Each stride brought him more than five meters forward and this was just the start!

Building up speed and getting used to his form, his velocity shot through the roof and the air wailed in his wake. Using his tails to adjust, turn, swing, and balance out his stride worked wonders for his efficiency. Thanks to them, he could make sharp turns without losing momentum and thanks to his flexibility and Runes, he has no worries about dislocating anything.

After goofing around on the wall for a full fifteen minutes, Lucas felt he had gotten a hang of it. His movements were smooth and he moved so fast he couldn't keep his eyes open even from his initial burst.

Fully satisfied with his speed, there was only one more thing to test out and he knew just where to run said test.

"Okay, Crash. We are heading in. You pumped?"

"Crash! (•̀ᴗ•́)و"

"Hell yeah! Let's go!"

BOOM!

Lucas rushed forward leaving behind a small shock wave and a crater. He could feel a euphoria surge within him as his speed reached an extreme. To an outsider, his figure looked like a black blur with soft white trails on it.

As he sprinted forward, he activated his [Spirit Sense] and kept it as a steady fifty meters. Even though this was just 5% of his [Spirit Sense]'s range, he could feel it straining his Mind by a very miniscule amount. In order not to get a migraine before an actual fight, he focused the skill on his sight and hearing so that he could navigate ahead safely while keeping the strain to a minimum.

In no time flat, he stepped into the tunnel he sensed the domain core from. With each stride forward, he could physically feel the Spirit energy rising higher and higher. He also sensed something strange coming from within the tunnel. It felt as if the space around him was shifting and stretching before him. When he turned and tried to go back out, the exit stretched away from him indefinitely.

"The hell?"

This strange development caused Lucas' already high guard and caution to rise by several degrees. The cavern never ceased to surprise and scare him. His crimson wisp-like pupils shrunk into pins as his mouth arched dangerously, revealing his row of serrated teeth.

"I already bit the bullet and it seems the cavern wants to put me to the test. Fine by me, let's see what's really going on here."

With that rushed forward once more. Though his pace was considerably slower as he treaded forward as carefully as possible. As he moved ahead, he began to notice the usual cavern inhabitants. All of them headed towards the deeper into the Domain in sync.

At first he saw just a few centipedes here, a rat there, and so on, all of them scuttling forward. Strangely, every single creature moved ahead calmly. It was almost as if they were in some sort of formation. Lucas picked up on this detail but just followed them forward, there was nothing else to be done.

As he travelled further, he finally heard it. Numerous battle cries and roars sounded out while animalistic shrieks and wails could also be heard greeting them.

Lucas immediately stopped moving forward and spread out his [Spirit Sense]. What he saw left him flabbergasted. Deeper within the tunnel, scores of bats alongside numerous critters could be seen facing off against dozens of tree humanoids.

The floor was filled with monster corpses which the cavern creatures crushed beneath them in their efforts to launch their frenzied assault. The tree humanoids on the other hand stood stalwart at the tunnel's exit. Fending off the waves of monsters with ease.

They were equipped with rudimentary wooden shields and spears but thanks to the Runes covering their armaments and their more sophisticated use of Spirit energy, they easily held strong even with much fewer numbers.

Watching this epic clash, Lucas' mind was transfixed. The battle was pure, unadulterated violence. During the core surge, he was blind and too focused on his survival to witness such a sight but now he could.

"Crash!"

"Yeah I know, they are dangerous. I'm not going to lose my head now of all times. If my guess is correct, the domain core is behind the tree humanoid's defense. If I get a little closer and stretch my [Spirit Sense], I should be able to sense it and complete the [Quest]. Then I can proceed further with some information to work with."

With a simple plan, Lucas moved forward for about a kilometer and then activated his [Spirit Sense] at max power for an instant. Given how vast the tunnel was, he had to repeat the process multiple times before he got a better picture of what was going on.

The mental snapshots he had been taking with his [Spirit Sense] fused into one coherent map in his mind. The image contained the entire battle and something more. Behind the tree people laid a village. Within it, he could see lush plant life and tall trees.

Interestingly, he could see some tree humanoids within these trees. Some were quite literally growing out of these trees. But all that took a backseat to what stood at the center of the cave.

It was a single, small tree. This lonely tree seemed to defy logic and Lucas tried to create a mental image of it. One moment, it would be the same size or smaller than the rest of the trees and in the next it would be beyond the scope of his perception.

When he ignored this and tried to focus on its finer details, the tree simply refused to be watched. The colors it produced were simply incomprehensible to his mind and they filled him with various sensations and emotions.

One moment he would feel the weightlessness of a rooftop jump and in the next he would feel that fleeting desperation of a life and death struggle. Each new emotion he felt, the more obscure the tree's image appeared in his mind. It felt like watching existence in its purest form unfold before his very eyes .

Within Lucas' mind, he saw its mythical branches gently swaying in the nonexistent wind, Lucas could hear the melody of the cavern directly in his mind. The sound immediately magnified as if trying to sear itself into his mind but this time not in an effort to control him but to—

Suddenly, he was snapped out of his reverence by the cool indifferent voice of Wiki.

{[Quest]-locate the domain core- completed. Reward received. Should I activate the information packet now? [Yes] [No].}

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