Chapter 9 – Another Painful Evolution
[Warning - There is gore and massacre in this Chapter!]
It's been 25 days since he started to hunt for his prey. He didn't directly fight anything out of his league, mostly because he ambushed all of them. That didn't stop him from provoking some of his enemies and then using [Burrow] to hide in the ground and confuse them, before killing them. This was also a great way for him to increase its Level.
That night he activated Sprint again. He managed his Stamina well, so he always had his Stamina topped up, to the point that he increased his [Stamina Recovery] to the 3rd Level. He also increased his [Health Recovery] to the 4th Level. He experienced many hardships, mainly because he overestimated his luck. There was a landslide nearby chopping his HP almost down to zero. That was also the first time he experienced the effects of Low HP. His body felt heavy and unresponsive and for Stamina it felt like he was dizzy and out of breath, his coordination in both cases dropped sharply and as such he always maintained full HP and Stamina whenever he could.
What made him very upset was that he never levelled up again at his main Level. It stood at 100 this whole time. It seems like he will have to Hunt a much more powerful beast for him to increase his Level again.
He only had a few days left while the forest grew restless. He also spotted Buddy a few times. He was bloodied alongside his fellows. The least injured was the panther, but guessing by his fur he was probably also a shadow predator, allowing him to avoid much more damage than someone like that lizard or lion, who confronted their enemies up front.
He snacked on some more eggs and returned to his Den. He realized that his [Burrow] skill softened the ground so that he could 'move it' out of the way when he burrowed. This could also be used during digging. He could soften the ground with [Burrow] and then 'shovel' it away with her paws.
He laid down in his enlarged Den. She was worried that she would be stuck inside if his Evolution enlarged her too much.
She lay down and waited for the counter to finally finish. She would then hunt for some food later once it was finished. It would take her about half a day to 2 days to digest the eggs, and she was fine without eating for just 3 days. He had water nearby so that wasn't a problem, but even then he could go for 5 days without water. Not that he would...
...
[Starting Evolution process: [Shadow Fennec Fox] - 0 days, 0 hours, 1 minute]
The Evolution was upon him. He was waiting for it to start, quite anxiously. He noticed things like [Reduced Pain] or [Increased Pain Tolerance]... but they were too expensive. He would have to bear with his skin and teeth.
[Evolution is in process]
'AGHHHHHHHHHHH'
Her mind immediately blanked from the pain soon after he heard strange voices.
-100Hp
'It's nice to be in the darkness right? You can kill anything you want and nobody will find you~'
'It's nice to be female, they dote on you so much and when you are pretty enough they even worship you. Imagine having everyone at your beck and call~'
'It's fine to just murder everyone who enters your domain, after all, it's yours!'
'You should enjoy your beauty and create a harem, so you don't need to hunt for yourself and just wait for the delicious meat dripping with juice to arrive in front of you~'
'You should expand your domain, so you can continue Hunting! The Hunt never stops!'
-100Hp
They were strange noises that gnawed at his Willpower. His mind was in turmoil asking questions about his race, attraction, murdering, hunting... everything was asked, but only some were answered. This was the burden of the Unique rarity.
-100Hp
Then he heard another snap. Her body shook as unimaginable pain coursed through it. Her body swelled as her bones expanded. Her muscles and skin ripped as it couldn't accommodate her new larger body. Her fur was died red from her bleeding and she soon lost the ability to feel her body.
-200Hp
She lay there motionlessly, the pain still torturing her body as new bones, muscles and tissues for skin were swiftly created.
-1 Vitality
She could feel this draining her greatly as something small was slowly forming in her body, something so minuscule, yet...
-1 Vitality
-1 Vitality
-1 Vitality
-1 Vitality
It was draining her so much. The system didn't expect her to reach Unique rarity so soon. It was supposed to guide him through a few worthless rarities and slowly make it up the chain, but the one who controlled it was currently making a new Feather Duster and wasn't watching all that much.
Her Vitality dropped to 5, yet it was not over. She could feel her life flashing in front of her eyes as her vitality slowly dropped to 1, but it stayed there. Soon a violent draft of air entered her Den. It collided with her body as her body was trying to greedily suck everything in. The dirt turned from a nutritious black to mere brown and soon into sand. The Den was slowly collapsing and outside it was no better.
A huge whirlwind was above the forest, cycling the Energies of Heaven and Earth, trying to maintain their balance. Yet one greedy little bastard was not satisfied and was continuously sucking it's energy! Soon it couldn't sustain the whirlpool and nearby trees withered, having their Essence forcibly stolen. Yet the culprit was currently marvelling at the fact it didn't hurt her as much anymore. She quietly lay as she waited for her Evolution to finally pass. Unaware that she alerted not only that friendly Village but many Cultivators in nearby... War was upon them. Who would be the first one to find the cause of this?
...