As the two beautiful aquamarine eyes of the small white fox fluttered open, she looked around with hazy eyes. As far as she could tell, she was in a small cave.
Soon, the memories of what happened quickly returned to her, making her sigh in relief.
'Thank god, I survived. Just what happened so suddenly?' Aurora asked internally; however, she expected no answer.
Not even checking any of the dozens of messages she received from the system, she directly walked towards the cave's exit.
As she stepped out of the small enclosed space, she took a deep breath of fresh air and looked around. The forest was still the same, with no signs of Rejoke anywhere.
'He probably went to eat something; it has probably been at least a few hours.' Aurora swiftly climbed on a nearby tree and looked for the sun.
Just as she expected, it just now began to rise, meaning that it was early in the morning. When she started to evolve, it was almost noon, meaning at least more than twelve hours had passed by.
'I'm thirsty.' Aurora got off the tree and, with light steps, headed to a nearby stream.
Leaning down, she stuck out her small, pink tongue and began to sip away at the crystal-clean water. However, as she moved her head away from the water and opened her eyes, she gazed into her reflection, only to be stunned the next second.
What stared back at her from the water was the same cute white fox. It was just that this 'same' white fox looked substantially different.
Its fur was still the same; however, on her cheeks, there were more marks that joined the previous ones. But unlike the original ones, these weren't blue at all; they were red.
But this wasn't the biggest difference. Where there previously stood her fluffy white tail, there were now two, equally fluffy ones. The two tails were basically identical, with the difference being that their tips were of different colors. Just like her cheek marks, one was her traditional blue, while the other one was red.
If before she looked mystical, now she looked like some of a mythical beast from a different world, which she technically was.
For a few moments, Aurora just stood in one spot, gazing at her reflection with sparkling eyes. However, it didn't take long until...
'I'm so cute!' She began to jump around excitedly, just like the first time she ever saw her original reflection.
One thing was for sure. Aurora may hate snakes that she considers to be gross, but she adores fluffy creatures and thinks of them as incredibly cute. No matter what, she was still a woman who loved cute things.
Slowly, she calmed down and stopped jumping around, and after a bit, she was completely calm once more. Not only was she calm, she was also very serious; at least she tried to be. There was no suppressing her current excitement.
She quickly ran back to the cave in case Rejoke returned so he wouldn't go looking for her. It took her no more than a few seconds to get back, something that was very much impossible before she evolved.
Aurora paid this no mind. Actually, she didn't even really realize just how fast she got back due to her excitement. And so, after she made her way back to the cave, she lied down in front of it and quickly opened up all those messages she had received from the system.
[Evolution complete! Congratulations! You have evolved into a Fiery Icebloom Kitsune.]
[All your stats have risen in response to your new race:
- Health: +22 (+2)
- Intelligence: +30 (+3)
- Mana: +30 (+3)
- Strength: +22 (+2)
- Agility: +26 (+3)
- Defense: +20 (+2)
[Your affinity with ice has risen substantially.]
[Your affinity with fire has risen tremedously.]
[All your ice-type skills have reached level 3 due to your newfound understanding of ice.]
[You have unlocked a new skill Fire Magic level 3.]
[You have unlocked a new skill Fire Creation level 3.]
[You have unlocked a new skill Ice Resistance level 3.]
[You have unlocked a new skill Fire Resistance level 3.]
[You have met the requirements to obtain the title The One and Only.]
[You have unlocked a unique skill The Flame of Conversion.]
'E-eh...' Aurora's eyes went wide at just the sheer amount of messages, stats, new unlocks, and other things. She didn't even need to read the messages to understand just how absurd her evolution was.
Just the stat increase alone would be enough to make her totally overpowered among those of the same level. She was sure that Rejoke didn't receive such an absurd boost in stats when he evolved.
If she ran the calculation in her mind, she estimated that Rejoke's strength has increased by about 20 to 25 points after his evolution. On the other hand, both Aurora's intelligence and mana went up by 33 points, not to mention all her other stats. Heck, even defense, her weakest stat, went up by 22 points.
But her stats were just the tip of the iceberg. Her ice affinity has increased significantly, quoting the system's words, and all her ice-type skills have gone all the way up to level 3. Hell, she even got a new ice skill!
All that is good and all. Absurd, but still acceptable. But a tremendous increase in fire affinity plus three fire type skills... just, just—no, even I have no words.
'I—shouldn't I be weak to fire?' Aurora asked internally, as she was truly confused right now. Unfortunately, she received no answer.
Right now, there wasn't a single trace of her previous excitement. In its place was confusion, shock, and doubt. She had no idea what caused this sudden turn in her evolution, but she was sure that this situation was anything but normal.
'Just what happened? What could have possibly made things go so south? I mean, I should be happy that I got so strong, but, but...' She was out of words. She felt despair, something she hadn't felt ever since her first day in this world.
She was confused, lost even. Yes, she did get stronger, tremendously so. But was it worth it if she had no idea how she got this new power?
'No! Snap out of it!' Feeling the despair looming over her mind, Aurora hesitated no longer and slapped herself across her cute face.
The force put behind the slap was nothing to scoff at. Actually, anything that wasn't in the first rank of evolution could forget about surviving such a hit. Yet, even such a slap didn't faze Aurora at all. If anything, it helped her clear her mind.
'It doesn't matter how or why it happened; what matters is that it made me stronger. So stop whining like a little bitch and get yourself together.' She screamed at herself internally, slapping herself once more.
Spitting out a bit of blood, she gazed forward once again, no trace of her previous worries in her eyes. All that was left in her gaze was resolve, tougher than steel. But even that soon disappeared and was replaced by her previous excitement.
Now, with her regained confidence, determination, and excitement, Aurora once again looked at all those messages and, after taking one more deep breath, began to go through all the new things and changes that happened due to her evolution. And first was her status.
[Status]
- Name: Aurora
- Race: Fiery Icebloom Kitsune
- Rank: 1
- Level: 1
[Energy:
- HP: 180/180
- MP: 183/183
- SP: 181/182
[Stats:
- Health: 72 (+10)
- Intelligence: 83 (+20)
- Mana: 83
- Strength: 70 (+20)
- Agility: 77 (+15)
- Defense: 67 (+15)
Well, that's that. Basically everything in her status window, except her name, has changed. Her stats and energies went up, her race has changed, and her rank has gone up by one while her levels have reset. Still, with how high her stats were with her equipment, she could easily fight against monsters 20 levels above her.
'Phew, alright, deep breaths...' Taking a quick yet deep breath to calm down, Aurora closed her status window and opened up her skills interface, which has more than twice as many skills in it compared to before.
[Skills]
[Active skills:
- Scratch level 10
- Bite level 6
- Ice Creation level 3
- Fire Creation level 3
[Passive skills:
- Ice magic level 3
- Fire magic level 3
- Night Vision level 10
- Ice Resistance level 3
- Fire Resistance level 3
- Poison Resistance level 2
[Semi-active skills:
- Perfect Mind level 1
[Title skills:
- Leadership level Max
[Unique skills:
- Flame of Conversion level 1
'Seems like when you unlock enough skills, the system even divides them for you in the list.' Aurora snickered internally as she checked her Ice Magic. And just as she expected, it had a new spell for her to use.
[Ice Spear]
- Mastery: 1
- Grade: Basic
- Spell type: Active
- Attribute type: Ice
– A more complex ice-type spell with high piercing capabilities.
[On activation:
- Consumes 30 MP to shoot out a highly piercing ice spear.
- Deals considerable ice damage
'Hmmm...' For a moment, Aurora continued to stare at the spell's description wordlessly, thinking about its pros and cons.
'In one word—powerful. There's no doubt about it. Unlike Ice Bolt, this one can't inflict freeze, but that's basically ignorable. Instead, it has high piercing capabilities, meaning that it can be very useful against armored enemies.' In the end, this was what she thought about the new spell.
The spell was purely offensive, offering high damaging capabilities while having no support effects. Its damage was probably no joke, not to mention its versatility against high-defense enemies. The only downside could be its cost of 30 MP, which is equal to three Ice Bolts. So, unless its damage was greater than that, there was mostly no point in using it against normal targets.
'There's no doubt it will be useful in the future, so I should probably start working on its mastery alongside Ice Bolt.' Making a quick mental note, Aurora moved on to other skills, checking her Ice Creation.
'No change, huh? I expected as much.' She nodded to herself, getting the exact result she was prepared to see.
Leveling up Ice Creation didn't really do anything for the skill. Rather, it just increased Aurora's understanding of ice by a bit. The amount wasn't anything significant, but it did slowly add up. After a few more levels, it might even decrease the amount of mana she spends every time she uses the skill.
Next up was her new Ice Resistance, which did exactly what you would expect it to do. It increased her resistance to the ice attribute as well as lowering the effects freeze debuffs have on her.
With all her ice skills out of the way, it was time for the completely new fire skills. However, there wasn't really much to check.
'All the spells provided by Fire Magic are basically the same as those provided by Ice Magic, the difference being the debuffs they inflict.' Aurora sighed internally when she realized that, other than inflicting burn effects instead of freeze effects, her two magic skills were basically the same.
Unlike Ice Magic and its spells, Fire Magic was purely offensive. Even the effect its spells inflicted only dealt damage in the form of a dot and did nothing else. Not that it was bad; if anything, having a form of a dot was something Aurora welcomed with open arms.
'The same could be said for Fire Creation. It's just Ice Creation but with the opposite attribute. Fire Resistance is no different.' In the end, Aurora just shook her head and moved on from the skills and opened up the information about her new title.
[The One and Only]
– A title given to those who became a unique being, effectively becoming a one-of-a-kind individual.
[Requirements to obtain the title:
- Evolve or become a unique grade being.
[Effects:
- It is much more difficult for you to level up compared to beings of other grades. However, in return, you receive much more stats per level-up.
- Current points received: +2 points into all stats, +2 free points that can be added into any stat. (Normal stat gain: +1 point to all and 1 free point.)
'If you combine this title and my other title, I basically receive a whole bunch of stats. I don't even mind the slower leveling speed. After all, I'll much rather take strong level-ups than fast level-ups.' Aurora snickered internally, very satisfied with this new title.
'But now I'm even more interested in this than ever.' She looked at another window, one that she had deliberately ignored until now.
[Fiery Icebloom Kitsune]
- Rank: 1
- Grade: Unique
- Threat level: D+
– A never-seen-before variant of the kitsune species. Not much is known about this magical beast, but it is said to be able to wield more powerful magic than any other beast of the first rank. It's also a complete enigma with the ability to wield both ice and fire magic.
'I truly became something absurd.' Aurora didn't even know whether she should laugh or cry when she saw the D+ next to her threat level. Heck, even the system called her an enigma!
'There's also tha-' Just as she was about to check the last bit of information she had yet to check, she felt a presence nearby.
With swift motion, she got up to her feet and trned around while jumping away from the direction she felt the presence coming from. Quickly taking a battle stance, she got ready to fight, not even realizing that the presence she felt was one that she knew very well. And soon enough, the form of a large black wolf came into view.
'Right, it's just you.' Aurora let out the breath she held back and relaxed her stance, looking at Rejoke with neutral eyes.
However, unlike her, Rejoke's reaction was much stronger. Just now, he went for a quick snack and made sure to come back as soon as possible. After all, he couldn't leave his evolving alpha alone for too long.
Yet much to his surprise, once he came back, what greeted him was the sight of the new and improved Aurora. What's more is her aura, which was basically suffocating. The pressure her body gave off was absurd, proving just how powerful she was.
Thankfully, the pressure quickly disappeared as Aurora left her battle mode. This finally gave Rejoke time to take a breath and understand the situation.
'Whatever, that can wait.' Aurora thought as she closed the last systen screen without even reading it. Then, she just walked over to Rejoke, jumped onto his back, and cutely petted the wolf's head.
There was no need to rush. After all, she just took her first baby steps on her path; she shouldn't try to run while she just started walking.