Mira's entire body hummed with an intensity she hadn't felt in what seemed like forever.
The energy swirling around her felt familiar yet overwhelmingly new, the feeling of power coursing through her veins almost too much to bear.
Her muscles tensed as the System's evolutionary process began, filling every single one of her cells with vibrant energy.
Her vision blurred momentarily, and then the world around her shifted, the colours more vivid, the details sharper than ever before.
She could see the way the air particles danced in the light, how the shadows intertwined and separated, and even the faint distortions of space itself.
It was as if she had been living in a fog her whole life, and now, it had been ever so slightly lifted.
[Evolution to C- rank has been completed.]
The System's cold voice echoed in her mind, but she barely registered it.
She was now lost in the sensations, feeling everything around her more acutely.
The very essence of space seemed to pulse with her senses, bending and warping subtly in response to her presence.
'What... is this?'
She thought to herself, glancing down at her hands as if expecting to see something different.
'I see now why having basic control over an element was a requirement to reach C tier...'
And in a way, there was something different.
The shift in her perception was astounding.
It wasn't just her eyesight — her other senses felt heightened too.
She could hear the faintest rustle of leaves from a kilometre away, smell the earthly scent of the soil beneath her feet, and most of all, feel the vast expanse of space all around her.
And she wasn't even using her spatial perception at that time!
If this was what Alex felt when he first reached C tier...
Mira glanced over to where she knew Alex was standing.
Even though he was hidden far away, concealed by the thick foliage and his presence very muted, she could sense him now — but not just his physical form, she could sense the very space he occupied!
Previously, she couldn't do this...
But her mind quickly moved to her spatial perception.
She wanted to see just how far her range extended to now!
If she was thinking correctly, then this phenomenon wasn't just limited to Alex...
As Mira felt her perception expand to its full 100 kilometre limit, she confirmed it.
The sensation repeated itself in other areas.
Bird beasts filtering through the tree tops, tiny beasts scurrying along the forest floor — each one caused the space they occupied to warp just slightly.
She could see, or rather feel, these distortions, like faint ripples in an otherwise calm pond.
'So I can't detect their life signatures, but I can sense the effect they have on the space around them...'
She thought to herself, her heart rate increasing with every second in excitement.
'I can sense the way they occupy space!'
It was an entirely new way of perceiving the world. And it would change everything about how they hunted in the Primordial Expanse...
Well, for the next time they visited...
The timing for gaining this ability was a little unfortunate for her, as she had only just obtained it at the very end of their current stay in the Primordial Expanse.
In the corner of her perception, she noticed a ripple of movement as Alex stepped out from behind a large tree.
He had been watching her, silently observing her this whole time.
"Mira, are you alright?"
He asked softly, cutting through the silence with his voice.
"You seem... different."
She opened her eyes and turned to face him, practically gleaming with excitement.
"Alex, I... I can sense everything! All the creatures, all the beasts... even you!"
She stammered and stuttered as she tried to get all of this new and exciting information out to Alex.
But it seemed he misunderstood her.
"Yes, yes. Isn't that what usually happens when you rank up?"
A flicker of discontent flashed across Mira's face as Alex clearly didn't understand what she was referring to.
"No, you're not listening Alex! I can detect your presence with my spatial perception!"
"I know, I know Mira! Like I sa—"
Alex paused, dumbfounded.