Tara felt her mind slowing as her vision became even hazier.
She knew she did not have much time, so instead of her usual contemplation for her levelling process, she had to be swift on this occasion.
Bringing up the notification, she saw the information she had earlier dismissed.
[Congratulations, you currently have enough experience points to level up. Would you like to progress to level 4?]
Hurriedly, she selected 'Yes', feeling her cultivation level increase, providing the familiar warmth and vigour that filled her body from its increase.
[Your cultivation level has increased Qi Gathering 3 > Qi Gathering 4. All essential attributes increased. Qi capacity enhanced. Select two existing traits to improve. Then select your mutation.]
Instantly, she felt her mind grow sharper, and a newfound strength filled her body.
Knowing she needed to continue the process quickly.
She selected the two traits quickly and feeling the most useful in her current situation, she selected {Regeneration} and {Poison Secretion} with regeneration to help her recover towards whatever the Sphyrna Pikeake did to her, and hopefully, the increase in the poison lethality will give her the edge to finish off the creature.
She felt a pang of annoyance, with her previous plan of wanting to focus on {Metal Manipulation} since she already saw the benefits of the trait, yet with her both being desperate and rushed for time, she had to make the choices quickly.
She mostly had to skim-read the new benefits with the following notification descriptions.
[Regeneration {3}: You can regenerate complex limb structures...
*NEW* Regeneration improves further, becoming more efficient and less energy-consuming.
Your healing grows even more enhanced, and you are one step closer to reaching the peak of the Iron Salamander's bloodline inherent trait regeneration limit at the Qi gathering. Your immunity to toxins has enhanced further.
Trait level: {3} > {4}]
The trait described what Tara needed in her current situation; to date, it has remained her most consistently used trait.
She would have long died if it wasn't for her regenerative capabilities, allowing her to beat enemies that were superior in all aspects apart from resilience.
And the next one was {Poison Secretion}.
[Poison Secretion {2}]: An evolution of {Skin Secretion}…
*NEW* Your poison becomes even deadlier and more toxic; its additional effect has improved, making it more efficient at draining Qi. This effect will grow more potent the further the trait improves. Your mutation has further influenced your biology, and you are now naturally more resistant to friendly and foreign poisons and toxins.
Trait level: {2} > {3}]
'Friendly?' Tara thought. The added poison and toxins resistance alongside her regeneration was a helpful enhancement, but it made her realise she was not immune to her poisons.
Tara thought that the fact that she never once felt the effects of the poison showed her regeneration's effectiveness at purging poisons.
Or maybe she just avoided the poison entering her bloodstream.
Either way, she was already rushing through the mutations until she found one that was most appropriate for her situation.
There were general mutations that offered slight resistance to elemental damage. Yet, she needed something more against the Sphyrna Pikeake, and a specialised trait that gave her resistance against its most lethal means of attack seemed too perfect to pass up.
[Ice Qi Resistance {1}]: Your body has formed a resistance to Ice Qi. You are better adapted to survive the cold. Your adaptability and survivability in cold environments have increased. Your body breaks down invading Ice Qi more efficiently, and your flesh has grown more resistant to its general effects.]
Decisively selecting that as her mutation, her mind went blank.
Meanwhile, the Elder Iron Salamanders and the Sphyrna Pikeake continued their clash.
The Elder Iron Salamanders felt enraged as they witnessed Tara's still body drifting away, frozen like an ice sculptor. Her grip on the Sphyrna Pikeake ceased as it froze her body with its Ice Qi.
On the other hand, the Sphyrna Pikeake was pleased that it had effortlessly removed the troublesome little lizard.
Having a weak fledgling Iron Salamander hindering its efforts has made it furious.
The conflict with the Iron Salamanders has been developing for some time; it was intentional and long coming. The small slaughter of a number of its kind has only accelerated the inevitable.
It has always been full of desire to attack the Elder Iron Salamanders, its ideal targets from the beginning, as they are the weakest but most numerical of the beasts around its territory at the sixth stage of Qi Gathering.
It needed their rich flesh brimming with Qi to finally reach the seventh stage of the Qi Gathering.
The Sphyrna Pikeake thought there should be no problems with accomplishing its plans.
Not only will it be able to remove a potentially troublesome rival that was growing far too swiftly for its liking, but it will also be able to feast upon their carcasses to bring about an all-about improvement in its kind.
However, the simple slaughtering of the Iron Salamanders was awry from the start, yet it has finally accomplished its goals.
Though the loss of the two Greater Pikakes was somewhat painful, it will credit their sacrifice as it sunk its teeth into their flesh to add their strength to itself and its kind.
It may even have to pay homage to the bothersome little Salamander; maybe it will take its frozen carcass to serve as a trophy to its lair, as it allowed it to conveniently kill two of its kind that would greatly assist its cultivation.
Its gaping maw began to drool as its urge to consume became ravenous, yet it found something irritating.
'What is this annoying thing?' The Sphyrna Pikeake thought. A hostile foreign substance has entered its body out of nowhere.
Although it recognised it as poison from its encounters with the poisonous toads north of its territory, it did not recognise how such a poison appeared from nowhere.
Suddenly, its red eyes flickered to the small, bothersome, frozen Iron Salamander as it thought, 'You? How? Iron Salamanders do not have poison…'
The Sphyrna Pikeake has lorded over this territory for an incredibly long time.
Herds of Iron Salamanders like this one have come and gone with time, either from being wiped out or migrating. Iron Salamanders are a populous species that ran amok in these swamps.
Although it has encountered them frequently, it has never seen a poisonous Iron Salamander in its long life.
It was something that the Sphyrna Pikeake never associated with its species.
Investigating the poison, it found it was growing and a big annoyance.
Though reasonably weak, and it could get rid of it eventually in normal circumstances, the presence of the Elder Iron Salamanders gave it no time to recuperate, and it also utilised much of its Qi during the earlier battle.
It also found whenever it took its mind off the poison to concentrate on defeating the two Elder Iron Salamanders, the poison would sneakily steal slivers of its Qi to empower itself.
'Truly an annoying, unique poison.' The Sphyrna Pikeake thought, though it did not believe, that it would affect the overall outcome of the battle.
It felt itself trying to press down the two Elder Iron Salamanders, believing it would take them down eventually, though at some cost now due to the irritating poison.
The Sphyrna Pikeake was used to battling for its life as a magical beast and would never shy away from doing so.
However, the next scene shocked it. Looking up, it saw that the previously frozen, still body of the believed dead Iron Salamander began to glow brightly as it suddenly felt the aura on it increase, signifying a cultivation increase.
That was not all; the Iron Salamander's body size began to increase as it witnessed its body's maturity rise rapidly.
The changes seemed to speed up, and suddenly, the Sphyrna Pikeake found its powerful Ice Qi wrapped tightly around the salamander's body, which began to crack off harmlessly.
For the first time, it made the Sphyrna Pikeake feel doubt, and with it being a powerful magical beast that lived countless years, the sudden feeling of the poison flaring up with its effects seemed to become even more potent was the last straw.
'This has been a part of success. Retreat now, recuperate; I will finish these pests when I'm at my strongest; no need to risk myself at my weakest against them. With the two Greater Pikeakes dead, I can consider my goal fulfilled. I will return when my cultivation increases; no matter how strange that puny Salamander is, it will be no match against absolute power.' Thought the Sphyrna Pikeake.
Believing it had enough carcasses for its cultivation, it decided not to risk itself when it was this vulnerable.
Now that the Sphyrna Pikeake knows about the unique Salamander tricks, the subsequent encounter will not be dangerous.
It even tried to finish off the annoying Salamanders unconscious body a few times, but the Elder Iron Salamanders were too fiercely protective, so it just shrieked, using the unique Salamander as a distraction; it allowed its kind to gather the bodies of the fallen, the most important being the ones at the sixth Qi gathering stage.
Ordering a retreat, the exhausted and depleted Iron Salamanders could do nothing but watch the Pikeakes flee.
They have earned a hard fought victory with the rulers of the territories retreat, but at what cost?
On the other hand, Tara did not know anything about this, as her last thoughts were when she found her vision going black and waking up to two ginormous salamander heads looking at her curiously.
She did not think she could be shocked any more until she heard a wise-matronly-like voice enter her mind.
'You have awoken my child. Now we have much to discuss.' The voice seemed to come from the more sizable Salamander of the pair, who was female, with her also noticing it had a more rounded head than Salamander by its side.
Tara's mind froze, and she did not know what to do when she saw a massive talking Salamander in front of her.
The large Elder Iron Salamander seemed to quickly notice as it continued, 'You need to have no worries, my child. We only seek to talk as equals. In a herd, we must delegate with the strongest, and you, with that display, are worthy.'
Tara wanted to reply but found she had no idea how, and it was something the large Elder Iron Salamander seemed to notice.
'Oh, you have no idea how to transmit thoughts through Qi? Where have your elders been? You poor, poor child.' The large Elder Iron Salamander seemed to become all motherly for a moment, starting to fuss around her. Tara had no idea why, but she suddenly felt absurdly emotional.
She weirdly began making a strange noise that sounded like a bizarre cry.
'Seriously, a giant Salamander had to be the one to make you cry because she reminded you of your Mother?' Tara thought, feeling annoyance at the show of emotions.
She had managed to keep a tight lid on such thoughts so far, so suddenly breaking down like this was strange. Despite the human in her trying to tell her that a salamander cannot fill her need for companionship, she felt warm and accepted by a group of Salamanders that were strangers not long ago.
It was then time for her to open up about herself, though if you had told her she would be telling her life story to a bunch of Salamanders on Earth, she would have broken down in hysterics.