The transition from a two-legged human to a four-legged predator was a dizzying recalibration of physics. Elias, now the Astral Grey Tabby, took his first step, and his back arched instinctively. Every muscle in his new, compact body felt like a coiled spring, wound tight with a cosmic energy that hummed just beneath his silver fur.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Passive Skill Activated:
[Lunar Stealth] Your footsteps are now silenced by the vacuum of space.
He moved. He didn't just walk; he drifted over the forest floor like a patch of grey mist. His sapphire-blue eyes cut through the twilight, highlighting heat signatures in pulses of crimson.
A rustle. Thirty yards out.
The System flared in his mind's eye, a HUD of starlight. A small, jagged creature emerged from the roots of a massive, glowing oak. It was a Shadow-Rat, a rodent the size of a badger, its fur matted with dark, oily ichor and its teeth glowing with a sickly green rot.
[TARGET IDENTIFIED: SHADOW-STALKED VERMIN (LVL 1)]
Threat Level: Negligible
Note: A perfect snack for a budding Dragon.
The old Elias would have screamed and run for a broom. The Galaxy Dragon Cat simply felt a cold, predatory hunger. He lowered his belly to the moss, his charcoal "tiger" stripes perfectly breaking up his silhouette in the dappled moonlight.
He waited. One second. Two. The rat sniffed the air, its red eyes darting.
Now.
Elias lunged. He didn't just jump; he felt a burst of kinetic force propel him. In mid-air, his claws unsheathed not as simple bone, but as shimmering, translucent blades of blue plasma.
Slash.
He landed silently behind the creature. The Shadow-Rat didn't even have time to squeak before it dissolved into a cloud of black pixels.
[HUNT SUCCESSFUL]
Experience Gained: +15 XP
Astral Essence Collected: 5 units
[LEVEL UP! LVL 1 -> LVL 2]
Stat Points Distributed Automatically to Agility and Mana.
Elias sat back, licking a stray silver hair on his paw. The taste of the kill wasn't bloody; it tasted like ozone and cold electricity. He felt... stronger. More permanent. The fragile human who died in a parking lot was fading, replaced by a creature that was becoming one with the stars.