After obtaining the ability 【Devouring Mimicry】 and miming a Forest Slime, Xia Mi had been pondering a question.
Does the ability to mimic require consuming a creature in its entirety to transform into it, or is consuming just a part of it sufficient to acquire the ability to mimic?
Along the way, to verify this hypothesis, Xia Mi occasionally conducted experiments using insects found everywhere.
After many experiments, facts proved that even by consuming only a part of an insect's limb, one could still mimic a complete and intact insect.
Now, looking at the strands of hair left on Sylvia's clothes, a new idea involuntarily popped into Xia Mi's mind.
Since a part of an insect's limb could satisfy the conditions for activating 【Devouring Mimicry】, could the hair of humanoid creatures satisfy the conditions as well?
The fluttering in her heart prompted Xia Mi to hop over to the tattered robes.
To be honest, since coming to this world and realizing she had turned into a Dragon Hatchling, she had the thought of turning back into a human.
After all, having been a human for so many years, she was already accustomed to it. Even after becoming a dragon, she would subconsciously imagine walking upright like a human.
However, she was ultimately a Dragon Beast and could not naturally awaken spells like Polymorph to change her physical appearance as she grew, unlike a true Dragon.
Therefore, she had to temporarily give up the unrealistic idea of restoring her human form.
But now, having obtained the ability 【Devouring Mimicry】, Xia Mi felt... she might be able to do it again.
If the condition for mimicking a human required eating a person or a part of their organs to trigger, she certainly wouldn't be willing; that would be too inhuman and disgusting.
But if it were just eating some hair.
That was definitely easily acceptable!
The small tentacles created by mimicking gently pulled a strand of hair from the clothes. Preparing to take action, Xia Mi nervously wanted to swallow a mouthful of saliva to calm her nerves, but her slime body didn't allow her to do so. She had no choice but to take a deep "swallow" of air, causing her body to swell by a circle, and then slowly exhaled.
This finally calmed her nervous mood a little.
Then, here goes! ...With her heart set, she no longer hesitated, and with a push, the tentacle holding the hair reached directly into the gelatinous body.
Feeling the hair floating in the translucent slime jelly, Xia Mi felt deep down that the conditions for 【Devouring Mimicry】 had been met. She could no longer suppress the surge in her heart and immediately activated the ability with her mind.
As the ability was activated, the spherical slime body began to transform rapidly. Feeling her hands and feet gradually regrowing, Xia Mi couldn't help but roar happily in her heart: "Human form, a long-lost feeling, here I come! (≧w≦)!!!"
A short while later, the transformation of her body ceased. A cold breeze blew, and her long golden hair fluttered in the wind. Feeling the long-lost coldness, the girl who looked exactly like Sylvia opened her eyes again.
She raised her hand, looked at her slender fingers, tilted her head, and couldn't help but exclaim: "A long-lost feeling, familiar five fingers... finally, finally turned back!"
Then she looked down at her body proportions, which were clearly different from her previous life, and the agitation in her heart cooled a little.
"It's a pity there is no hair or other body tissue from my previous life, otherwise I could have just turned back into that appearance... However, this is not bad either; at least it is a human form."
Not yet having forgotten the experience accumulated as a human in her previous life during these past two weeks since crossing over, she walked to the riverbank with practiced control. Lowering her body,, she looked at the reflection in the river, and Xia Mi suddenly discovered that she looked quite good in this appearance.
Of course, she knew very well that the face she had now did not belong to her, but to Sylvia.
When she first met this Half-elf girl, she was covered in dirt, making it hard to see the true face hidden beneath the stains.
Now that she had mimicked her, she naturally wouldn't mimic the stains as well, so she took the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the girl's beauty.
After observing for a while, Xia Mi soon discovered that her eyes were clearly not as lively as the girl's.Although they were also blue like sapphires, she always had the illusion that golden threads were flowing within them.
"Mimicry is only a disguise after all; it can never replace the original," Xia Mi said sheepishly, feeling somewhat uninteresting.
After these days of developing her ability, she had gradually understood that 【Devouring Mimicry】 could not truly make her become the other person. Even if she could disguise her appearance, she could not imitate the soul, let alone memories and other things; she could not imitate those.
However, this ability was not just that shallow.
Snap—
Xia Mi snapped her fingers lightly, and her face and hair color in the river reflection began to change accordingly.
This was a new technique Xia Mi had gained through developing 【Devouring Mimicry】 over this period—"Face Molding."
Just like in some games from her previous life, in a mimicked state, she could adjust her own appearance and body shape as she pleased.
Of course, there were limits to Face Molding; that was, one could not deviate too much from the mimicked form.
For example, one could mold the appearance of a human into an elf because the difference between them was very small, but one couldn't mold into an ogre because the difference was too great.
After a short while, looking at the reflection in the water—fiery red long hair, bright golden eyes, ears no longer sharp, and a slightly arrogant face that looked just like a human girl—Xia Mi nodded with satisfaction.
"I don't know if it's because I'm a Red Dragon in this life, but I always want to dye my hair red and eyes golden... It doesn't look bad now! Hehe! As expected of me!"
"But two people with one face is still too eye-catching. Hmm... let me adjust it again... That's much better..."
Splash—
Just as Xia Mi was admiring her new appearance, the calm water surface suddenly rippled, and the reflection turned blurry due to the waves.
Unsatisfied that she hadn't enjoyed her current look enough, Xia Mi looked up and saw Sylvia looking down at her.
The sunlight was just falling behind the half-elf girl; wet, golden hair was reflecting brilliant light at this moment, and hazy water vapor was steaming off her body. Those sapphire-like eyes seemed even brighter than usual.
"Uh..."
After a brief moment of stupefaction, Xia Mi skillfully turned around, covered her eyes with her hands, and muttered in a low voice: "Do not look at what is improper, do not listen to what is improper... Lust is emptiness, and emptiness is lust..."
Sylvia, who had just finished bathing, had a strange expression. She didn't quite understand what antics this strange little red dragon was up to again. Just a moment ago, she had happened to witness the entire process of this creature eating hair and transforming.
When she first saw Xia Mi turn into her, the young girl thought this creature had developed some weird hobby and couldn't help but feel a bit shy. However, fortunately, the series of things she saw afterward quickly made the strange flutter in her heart dissipate for the most part.
"Miss Xia Mi... do you feel that the slime appearance is inconvenient, so you want to disguise yourself as a human?" After coming ashore, Sylvia picked up some bought clothes and asked tentatively while putting them on.
Xia Mi was silent for a moment. Considering that her identity as a transmigrator was not easy to explain, she had to nod in agreement and tried to say: "Um... yes, that's right, just as you thought!"
Because this body had been deliberately adjusted, the voice that came out was clearly different from Sylvia's. This obviously surprised the Half-elf girl again, and even her movements in putting on clothes paused slightly.
However, she quickly regained her calm. After getting dressed, she took another set of clothes to Xia Mi's side and handed them over to her solemnly.
"Then... Miss Xia Mi, since you want to disguise yourself as a human, I suggest you put on clothes. As a Dragon, you might not know, but in the human world, running around naked is a very impolite behavior."
Perhaps because Xia Mi looked very non-threatening now, and after half a month of getting along, she understood her personality, Sylvia seemed exceptionally playful when saying this, even using honorifics. That expression was as if to say... Hey! I admit that I can't compare to you in other aspects, but in terms of acting like a human, I know much more than you!
"Actually, I know this too, no need to remind me..." Xia Mi, who realized in a daze that she had been running around naked for the whole time and had become accustomed to it, argued in a low voice.
But when she picked up the clothes Sylvia handed over, her expression suddenly became very strange.
"What kind of clothing is this?"
"Corset Gown."
Probably thinking that Dragons never wore clothes and wouldn't understand human attire, Sylvia enthusiastically picked up one piece of clothing after another to explain: "This piece, and those pants are worn inside, this is socks, this is boots, worn on the feet..."
The young girl rambled on as if teaching a toddler who didn't know how to dress, while Xia Mi was already frozen in place, with nothing left in her heart but deep confusion caused by overly sluggish neural pathways.
"Dre... dress?"