A Salamander, but Mighty

Vanilla FF7 enjoyers will get the reference in the title :3

POV: Tamara

“[Humanoid Form]!” She exclaimed once again, surprised by the first gift that fate decided to give her, “anything else now takes second place, first of all, I want this!”

SYSTEM: You have chosen [Humanoid Form (Minor)], do you want to confirm? Y/N.

Yes, oh god! Yes!

SYSTEM: [Humanoid Form (Minor)] added to your Feats list. [2] Feat slots are still available.

The Feat she had selected did not cause any changes in her body, she did not feel any kind of sensation and her body did not change in any way, this was obviously expected since the description of [Humanoid Form] indicated a Mana expense for the activation and maintenance.

Good, it's time to test it! She said to herself mentally, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to be able to touch her source of mana with the fingers of thought.

Tamara felt her body changing, bones breaking and reforming into a new shape, muscles contracting and changing as they joined together in new positions, she felt her nerves tingling as they branched out to reach parts of her body that once before they were much more basic and less complex than a human body… then she opened her eyes again.

Judging the distance between her head and the ground, Tamara made the quick deduction that she had grown; she lowered her head to look at her body, which although still resembling that of a fire salamander, had now become bipedal, with the torso supported by stubby legs. Tamara raised her front paws and observed them: the short fingers closed and opened a few times before clenching into small fists.

“I have hands! I have hands! I can grab things! I can hold things!” She exclaimed, victoriously raising her fists to the... uhm, sky, realizing only then that her voice was still composed of sounds similar to screeches, sighs and hisses. “Well, I guess I can't have it all, at least now I can write if I need to communicate.”

The residual pain of the wounds that the pools of luminous water had not healed was easily ignored in that moment of excitement. Tamara tried to turn around and also look at her back, at the base of which a fat, long tail still protruded.

“Wait…” she muttered to herself, “am I not technically naked right now??”

Tamara raised her hands, touching her chest, encountering a nearly flat, slightly slimy surface right where a woman would have had breasts.

Nevermind, she thought, sighing disconsolately, is far from perfect, however…

Tamara raised her arms, laughing happily, and began running around the boss arena on her stubby legs, swaying on one leg and the other with each step.

“Thanks, system. It was what I needed,” she whispered softly.

Now that the most important thing of all was done, she hurriedly decided which other Feats to choose.

___

FEAT LIST:

► Bite (Lesser) I

Strenghtens all bites by 5%

► Flying Membrane I

Ability to fly increased by 10%

► Greater Reach II

Improves user’s limbs reach by 10%

► Horned Assault (Lesser) I

Strenghtens headbutt damage by 5%

► Nimbleness (Lesser) I

Makes the user move and react faster by 5%

► Scratch II

Strenghtens all claw attacks by 7.5%

► Tail-Whip (Lesser) I

Strenghtens all tail attacks by 5%

___

There were other Feats that had made their appearance for the first time, and they were Feats that didn't make sense with her physiognomy: [Horned Assault]? [Flying Membrane]? She had no horns or wings, it must also be said that before selecting [Acid Spit] she didn't even have an acid gland in her mouth...

“So, will I grow horns and wings if I select them?” She wondered, placing a hand under her chin, “a salamander with horns and wings… I could… I could become a dragon!” She exclaimed, raising her big, completely black eyes towards the ceiling of the room and snapping her fingers, or at least trying to.

Tamara thought about it for a moment... no, having wings seemed like a great idea to be able to escape in dangerous situations, horns seemed less useful compared to having sharper claws or a greater attack range. Finally, she made her decision.

SYSTEM: You have chosen [Greater Reach II], do you want to confirm? Y/N.

SYSTEM: You have chosen [Flying Membrane I], do you want to confirm? Y/N.

Y and… Y.

SYSTEM: [Greater Reach II] added to your Feats list. [1] Feat slot is still available.

SYSTEM: [Flying Membrane I] added to your Feats list. All slots are occupied, it is not possible to choose another Feat.

The usual sensations began to course through her body, focusing mainly on her stubby arms, legs and… under her armpits? Contrary to what she thought, the tingling did not branch out from where she imagined her wings would grow but rather from under her armpits and from there it went down almost to the base of her tail.

In short, she had not grown wings but rather the skin on the sides of her body had expanded and thinned as one would expect from some animal capable of gliding gently from one tree to another... a flying squirrel?

So, a fire salamander-flying squirrel-monster.

Great.

"Status!" She declared still excited to have hands again.

___

[Tamara Parker][Salmadrer][Monster (lv.15)]

[Health: 45/90 (70)][Mana: 28/60 (40)][XP: 2762/29269]

[TRAITS MODIFIERS]

Satisfied

[TRAITS]

[15 points to place]

► Dexterity: 12 (16)

► Faith: 8 (12)

► Knowledge: 8 (12)

► Resilience: 14 (18)

► Speed: 11 (17)

► Strength: 13 (17)

[FEATS]

► Acid Spit 1

► Flying Membrane I

► Greater Reach II

► Growth (Lesser) I

► Humanoid Form (Minor)

► Obsidian Defense I

► Scale Armor (Lesser) I

► Scratch I

___

She was happy to have more points to distribute: so many points meant that at least this time she didn't have the anxiety dictated by the thought of having little to work with and that even the slightest mistake in choice would be crucial. While speed had served her well thus far, she wasn't entirely convinced that she wanted to abandon the idea of ​​becoming tankier, especially with [Obsidian Defense], which fit very well with the idea of ​​a defensive build.

“If it were a video game I'd say it would be better to maximize useful Traits at the expense of secondary ones, but this is real life, and so far I haven't found a Trait that's truly expendable,” she muttered to herself, “until I get at least as big as a great dane, Strength seems useless to me. Faith is another matter, because I bet that if I had a higher score, I would have been able to resist the Core Guardian's special attack.”

Tamara turned her head to one side and shifted her body weight from one leg to the other, it still didn't seem true to her that she had managed to recover at least part of her physiognomy and body language.

“Well, let's try this: two points in Knowledge, two in Speed, four in Resilience, four in Dexterity and the remaining three in Faith.”

She nodded to herself smugly and after checking the panel of her characteristics one last time she decided to close it and dedicate herself to the second door of the arena, the one that Tamara assumed would lead her to the core room and the probable treasure that would be waiting for her there.

She swayed up to the door and placed her hands against it to push it a little more and thus be able to slip into the available space without opening it fully; from there, a staircase led down to another room which of all those in the dungeon was the darkest and had the most oppressive air. There were no pools of light down there although the room was still lit so evenly that it was impossible to find a single source of light, the walls were gray and so smooth that Tamara couldn't find even the smallest imperfection.

It feels like we've entered another world... Tamara thought, my salmadrer instinct is screaming at me that I'm in danger, yet I don't see or hear any threat.

With absolute caution - and ready to flee at the first sign of concrete danger -, Tamara reached the actual room; a small chest was waiting for her, her reward for defeating the Core Guardian.

Here is my reward! Her eyes shone.

She would have approached immediately if it hadn't been for the thing that towered immediately behind the chest: it was a structure that jutted out ahead of the rest of the room, a sort of column sculpted to take on a disturbing shape. The column had been worked to resemble enormous roots or veins, which branched downwards and upwards, producing, in the apparent randomness with which they stretched, impossible geometries that Tamara tried to ignore as they caused pangs of pain in her head.

The most disturbing thing of all, however, was the fulcrum from which the roots or veins branched out... it was a gigantic heart sculpted to perfection and which, despite not knowing whether she was self-suggesting or whether it was reality, Tamara saw slowly pulsating, almost imperceptibly.

Then something woke up in that heart, and this time, Tamara was sure she wasn't imagining it. She felt the presence of something powerful and ancient scrutinizing her, analyzing her with the typical curiosity that a child would have in observing an ant struggling to drag the body of another insect into its nest or a butterfly struggling to get out of its own cocoon.

“What are you, little thing?”

Tamara stiffened from head to toe, petrified by the power that transpired through that ancient, if letargic, voice.