Chapter 681 – Dreamweaver World 19

A cool dampness crept upward through her root system, and Mo Lan instantly felt so comfortable that all her petals unfurled, their color shifting from dark purple to a bright pinkish-blue.

Her leaves unconsciously stretched toward the window, capturing the sunlight streaming through.

“This soil is a bit dry…”

Her plant instincts sent out signals of dissatisfaction as her roots continued exploring deeper, soon hitting the hard wall of the pot. “Hmm… it’s a little cramped in here too.”

The flower at her crown swayed with displeasure: “If only there were a bit more sunlight…”

The moment that thought surfaced, Mo Lan froze. Her petals instantly contracted into a defensive state.

She had completely slipped into a plant’s way of thinking!

Hastily dispelling the transformation, Mo Lan collapsed into the chair. Her hands—human hands once more—rubbed against each other involuntarily, confirming the sensation of touch.

That longing to root into soil, that urge to chase sunlight—all of it had vanished, as if it had been nothing more than an overly vivid hallucination.

“No wonder the forums all say that when Dryads first use their special transformation skills, their cognition gets slightly affected!”

Mo Lan murmured to herself, “But it’s fine—it only affects biological instincts. It didn’t make me lose my mind.”

After taking several deep breaths to calm herself, curiosity won out again.

Mo Lan turned her attention to the other racial special transformation skill—Shadow Cat Transformation.

This time she deliberately stood in the center of the room, making sure there was enough space around her to move.

As the skill activated, an energy utterly different from the plant transformation radiated from her Dryad racial core. This time the feeling was far more… lively.

At the same time, her spine began to flex with newfound agility. Her limbs shortened and thinned, her nails sharpened and became retractable.

The strangest part was the tail—she had never had a tail before, yet now she could clearly feel a new appendage extending from her tailbone, one she could even control freely.

She looked at the mirror she had set up in advance. A jet-black cat with deep purple eyes stared back at her from the glass.

Her ears twitched. She seemed to hear the clinking of dishes being put away downstairs, along with faint snoring.

Mo “Shadow Cat” Lan tried taking her first step. The sensation of her paw pads touching the floor was extraordinarily vivid.

Then her thoughts began to wander of their own accord: the crossbeam on the bookshelf looked like the perfect jumping target, and the half-open window exuded an irresistible air of adventure.

“Meow…?” The sound she instinctively made startled even herself.

When a breeze carried the scent of a moth from outside, her ears automatically swiveled toward the source and her tail swished with excitement.

She leaped lightly onto the desk, her gaze involuntarily locking onto a moth fluttering on the windowsill. Her hind leg muscles tensed automatically, ready to pounce—

“Stop!” Mo Lan’s reason reasserted itself, and she dispelled the transformation.

Standing upright in human form once more, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

It seemed that whether in plant or animal form, Dryad transformations brought corresponding instinctive influences.

Whether it was the Trailing Orchid’s serene yearning to root in soil or the Shadow Cat’s hunting impulses, both were entirely novel experiences for her.

As long as she didn’t lose her rational mind, these plant and animal instincts were actually rather relaxing.

At the very least, whether she transformed into a Trailing Orchid or a Shadow Cat, studying was the last thing on her mind.

Mo Lan rubbed her now-normal human eyes and decided to set the transformation experiments aside for the time being. The priority was to look into how the Beast Speaker profession worked, so she could study those Beast Speaker skill books. After all, there was no telling when dawn would break in the real world, forcing all adventurers back to reality.

She turned her attention to the 《Beast Speaker Profession Template》 in her mental sea.

Just as with the 《General Skill Book – Dream Language》, through it Mo Lan instantly understood the Beast Speaker profession’s capabilities.

The Beast Speaker profession focused on developing the Dryad’s animal transformation talents.

After becoming a Beast Speaker, as one’s level increased, one could learn various animal transformation skills, and one’s combat power while in animal form would be amplified.

The trade-off, however, was permanently losing the ability to learn plant transformation skills—with the exception of racial special transformation skills.

In other words, aside from the racial Trailing Orchid Transformation she already possessed, she could never master any other plant forms.

Fortunately, Old Groot was also a Beast Speaker. Of the skill books Mo Lan had purchased this time, all of them were learnable by a Beast Speaker—except for the 《Grey Cap Mushroom Transfiguration》, which she couldn’t use for now.

However, skill learning was also restricted by profession level. She pulled up her profession panel:

【Profession: Level 1 Beast Speaker (0/100)】

【Experience: 700】

Without hesitation, she poured all her experience points into leveling up. The numbers on the panel began to change rapidly.

【Consumed 700 experience points. Beast Speaker level raised to 7. Mana increased to 70 points.】

From levels 1 to 10, each level required 100 experience points.

Each Beast Speaker level granted 10 additional mana, and every 5 levels earned 1 skill point.

Mana was the resource used to cast magic skills.

Each magic skill had a fixed mana cost, but skill effectiveness would increase as one’s profession level rose.

Beast Speakers below level 5 could only learn transformation skills for small land animals, while those at level 5 and above could learn transformation skills for small flying animals.

Of the skill books purchased from Groot, only two were suitable for her current level—《Professional Skill Book – White Cat Transfiguration》 and 《Professional Skill Book – Titmouse Transfiguration》.

Beyond those, two Beast Speaker-exclusive nature magic skills had also reached their learning thresholds: 《Professional Skill Book – Human Speech》 and 《Professional Skill Book – Soothe Animal》.

These two were nature magic skills exclusive to the Beast Speaker profession.

Counting the skill points from leveling up, learning Dream Language, and changing race and profession, she now had a total of 4 skill points—just enough to learn all four skill books.

《White Cat Transfiguration》 allowed her to transform into a white cat, gaining feline agility, perception, and night vision.

《Titmouse Transfiguration》 allowed her to transform into a titmouse, gaining the ability to fly.

《Human Speech》 allowed her to speak while in a transformed state.

《Soothe Animal》 could calm an enraged wild animal and make it favorably disposed toward her.

Even though White Cat Transfiguration overlapped with her Shadow Cat Transformation, Mo Lan didn’t mind. Skill points weren’t exactly scarce for her anyway.

She pressed the four skill books to her forehead one by one. The familiar flow of energy returned as pink energy branching from the Gate of Dreams enveloped the skill books, settling them into her mental sea.

The panel notification popped up right on cue:

【Consumed 4 skill points. Learned 《Professional Skill – White Cat Transfiguration》, 《Professional Skill – Titmouse Transfiguration》, 《Professional Skill – Human Speech》, 《Professional Skill – Soothe Animal》】