Chapter 18 - 17

[Evolution Complete]

The familiar mechanical voice announced. When I heard that, I instinctively opened my eyes. Then as I felt my senses slowly coming back to life, the mechanical voice spoke once again.

[As a result of evolution, Racial Skill Rabid Fangs has evolved into Racial Skill Blood-Soaked Fangs]

[As a result of evolution, Inherent Skill Scratching Claws has evolved into Racial Skill Sharp Claws]

[Potential Boost's effect has been invoked, all basic traits of the individual (Unnamed) have all been doubled. And all on hand skills before evolution have also ranked up]

[Congratulations. Individual (Unnamed) have successfully evolved from Dire Wolf Variant into Great Wolf Variant]

'Finally, my second evolution.' I thought as I started checking my newly evolved body.

First, I checked if all of my injuries were truly healed just like what I had theorized. Luckily, it looked like it was all truly gone without even leaving any scars behind. And not only that, but it also felt like I was way stronger than ever before. It was a completely different feeling compared to my first evolution, because this time, I could clearly tell the difference in power.

But of course, I have already learned my lesson and I was not gonna let this power go over my head. Unlike last time, now I had personally experienced how cruel this world could be. Moreover, I had already seen two truly powerful creatures with my own two eyes. And clearly, I was still just a small fry compared to them even after evolving.

After I had made sure that I have no other lingering injuries, I proceeded to check what was new with my body, and the first thing I noticed was how much my body had increased in size. Of course, it was not a huge increase, but it was still significant enough that it would probably take some time before I get fully accustomed to it. To top it all off, there was also the change on my paws and fangs.

As for my paws, they now looked like the paws of a tiger. Because of that, these paws of mine now looked stronger than ever before. It even has sharp and pointed claws attached to it. And if my guess was right, I was pretty sure that these new claws of mine could now inflict some serious damage. Probably, these changes in my fangs and claws were due to my newly evolved skills.

When I was finally done checking the changes on my body, I then decided that it was finally time to check my new skills. And so, I summoned my status screen.

[Name: (Unnamed)]

[Race: Great Wolf Variant]

[Level: 20]

[Status: Healthy]

[Titles: Awakened One, The RunAway, Predator, Survivor]

[Skills: Blood Soaked Fangs (Rank D), Call of The Moon (Rank A), Night Vision (Rank S), Enhance Smell (Rank S), Enhance Hearing (Rank S), Recovery (Rank S), Detect Malice (Rank S), Sharp Claws (Rank D), Potential Boost (Rank C), Assess (Rank A), Presence of Mind (Rank C), Swiftness (Rank B), Haste (Rank B), Devour (Rank A), Hunt (Rank B), Antibodies (Rank C), Toughness (Rank C), Pain Endurance (Rank C), Conceal Presence (Rank C)]

'Wait a minute... If I am remembering it correctly, skills will evolve the moment they reach rank S. But if that is really the case, why do these skills remain at rank S without showing any signs of evolving at all?'

Actually, I have already noticed it for quite some time now. But for some unknown reason, some of my skills didn't show any kind of signs to evolve even after reaching rank S. I haven't paid any attention that time, but now that I have five rank S skills, I was starting to suspect that just simply reaching rank S wasn't enough for a skill to evolve. Of course, there was still the possibility that the skills weren't evolving because that was their maximum limit. But even if that was the case, I still couldn't get rid of the feeling that maybe there were some hidden conditions for a skill to evolve.

'Well, I guess there's no use in thinking about it now since I am really lacking in information… Okay, let's just check the effect of my two newly evolved skills. Oh! I almost forgot about it because of everything that had happened, but there is another skill called Conceal Presence in my skill tab. Guess, I'll also check it out.'

[Blood Soaked Fangs (Rank D)]

[Passive]

[Racial Skill]

[Every injury inflicted by this skill can cause intensive bleeding. Additionally, this skill also has the same effect as the skill Rabid Fangs]

[Sharp Claws (Rank D)]

[Passive]

[Racial Skill]

[Claws can inflict shallow wounds on tough objects and scratches on hard objects]

[A skill that gives the ability to hide the user's presence as long as the user isn't moving]

'These are some nice skills!!'

All the skills I acquired were actually really useful. Furthermore, because of that Sharp Claw skill, now I had two offensive options for combat purposes. And seriously, that Blood-Soaked Fangs skill was incredibly powerful. Honestly, just being able to inflict madness was already great, but now it was also powerful enough to cause bleeding along with madness. Unfortunately, the Conceal Presence skill's effect was quite mediocre. Though, I guess I could probably use it when during a hunt and when trying to avoid a battle against opponents that were out of my league.

'Not bad.'

While I was celebrating internally because I acquired another powerful skill, I noticed the leftover carcass of the Horned Umbrazard was already gone. Because of that, I stood up immediately then cautiously looked around if there was any sign of the monster who had stolen it. But no matter how hard I searched around the area, there wasn't any sign that a monster had entered the cave. Even the anti-cavalry spike I have put around the area wasn't showing any signs of being disturbed. And another thing was; 'if a monster really has entered while I am fast asleep, then why am I still alive?'

It was really a puzzling question. I mean seriously, I was pretty sure that I would die if a monster truly has entered while I was in the middle of an evolution. Even I wouldn't pass off a chance like that. And given the behavioral patterns of all the monsters so far, I highly doubt that any monster in this area would ignore a free meal like that.

'But if that is the case, then it can only mean one thing.'

Since it was pretty much impossible for a monster to just go and ignore a free snack, then that could only mean that the left-over carcass wasn't stolen. But if it wasn't stolen, then where did it go? Does that thing just magically resurrect on its own and run off to who knows where? Of course, not! That was absolutely outrageous! Well, who knows, maybe resurrection was actually a thing in this world. But I was pretty sure that wasn't what had happened. So, what actually happened, you asked? For that, I have the answer.

Remember my theory about evolution needing enough nutrition to be completed? Well, I was pretty sure that this incident had something to do with that. Most likely, the nutrition inside my body during the evolution wasn't enough to complete the process. So, to complete the evolution process, my body must have moved on its own to find a portion of food and eat it. In short, I may have eaten the left-over carcass unknowingly while I was asleep.

'So, it is really possible to sleep eat during an evolution huh? Man, that is a lot more terrifying than sleep-walking…'

But because my theory was correct, another problem arose along with it. For one, now that I was aware that evolution would force my body to find a source of nutrition even while I was asleep, then I couldn't possibly risk starting evolution again if there wasn't any stocked-up food nearby. Seriously, I didn't even want to imagine what could have happened if there wasn't any left-over carcass this time.

Of course, it was also possible that I only sleep eat this time because I was so injured that to complete the evolution, I was forced to search for additional nutrition to completely heal my injuries. But even if that was actually the case, I couldn't be so sure next time. After all, it might be possible that as the higher the evolution stage, the required nutrition for the body also increases. And then there was also the problem of me not knowing what would happen if I didn't manage to find a source of nutrition during that time.

'Man, I really need to be careful next time.'

Unfortunately, all I could do for now was consider the verification of my theory as a blessing. And while it was true that there were still a lot of things that I have yet to understand about evolution, at the very least, I was now aware that evolution carried along with it some risk.

'Well, there was little to no use in dwelling with this issue at this time. For now, I guess I need to get used to moving with this body first. But before that…' I gazed at the anti-cavalry spikes I had set up before starting the evolution process. 'Yep, I really need to remove these things firsts…'