[Three-Tailed Fox-kin: The second step of kin-evolution in the Nine-Tails bloodline. An ancient bloodline long lost during the reign of Demon Lord Zarkoth. Due to their serendipitous affinity with Spirit Magic, they are widely feared by Demons and other creatures and races of the dark.]

The message appeared in her mind as Erin contemplated on the sudden choice of evolution. The choice was presented to her upon reaching the required level of ten. 

Zarkoth… Demon Lord? Those abominations have a king in this world— that’s… kinda bad. As if they weren’t a headache by themselves already. And Spirits… are they some sort of antithesis to Demons in this world? Good gods, it’s just a question after another. 

While an evolution was certainly a beneficial thing, Erin was only a Fox-kin recently. As a former human, she knew nothing about what evolution entails besides getting stronger. Also, there were various aspects that Erin was incredibly dubious of. Such as the part where the Demons culled the bloodline to extinction. She was not looking forward to becoming a race where she could be potentially lynch-mobbed by another race.

And there was also the matter of tails.

Nine tails? My tail will keep growing in numbers as I evolve? How am I going to take care of nine freaking tails when one was already enough? And what about my overall appearances? Would I eventually turn into an actual fox if I keep evolving? Hmm… perhaps not? It did say “kin” after all.

It was already enough of a huge shock for Erin when she found out that she had become a Fox-kin. Her chest and tail gave her quite a bit of trouble but she adapted to those quick enough in the span of about two days. She had adapted herself to her new body but it still wasn’t at a complete mastery level. Yet now, she was about to gain two new additional troublesome features. 

As a swordsman, the extra tails were definitely a demerit but then again, there was Magic. She had seen people with insane brawn doing movements that were otherwise impossible if it wasn’t due to Magic. What’s more, she personally knew some acquaintances who dressed so unconventionally for battles but it did not diminish their efficiency ever in the slightest. Although Erin understood that Magic could invalidate the impractical features of a person, she didn’t know how it works and she wasn’t planning to find out.

That’s what scholars are for, after all. Still, what are the benefits of this evolution?

[Upon the evolution into Three-Tailed Fox-kin, user will gain a higher affinity with Magic, mainly Spirit Magic, and the advanced tier of analysis Magic.]

Analysis Magic? Does it mean Self-Appraisal? I do want the higher affinity of Magic; it doesn’t seem like it favors physical abilities but… ah whatever, I was the Sword Saint and I still partially am. I have done it once without the help of some stats system and I refused to believe that I can’t do it again? So yes, it is.

Erin gave her approval with a proverbial tap on the “Yes” word in her mind.

[Commencing Evolution….]

In an instance, Erin’s whole body began to heat up but not in a licentious way. She could feel the Magic within her surging. It was a novel sensation. She lost count on how many novelty she had experienced but she was sure the number would only keep rising from now.

Feeling a wobbly sensation from her back, Erin glanced over her shoulders and saw that her tail was coated in an intense azure glow. Her tail bloomed like a bud into a flower with three petals. When the lights dissipated, she now had three tails which resembled one another without any discrepancy.

[Evolution Successful]

Wait, that’s it? 

Erin didn’t know what she was expecting but somehow she was kinda disappointed at the lack of suspense and display after making it such a big deal in her own conception.

[Arcane: 12 has increased to 15]

[Spirit Magic: Lv. 5 has increased to Lv. 6]

[Due to the user's high affinity, Spirit Magic’s Mana expenditure has been halved.]

[Self-appraisal Lv. Ex has evolved into Appraisal Lv. Ex]

When Erin witnessed the flow of information flowing into her head, she jumped with joy at the benefits she was bestowed for her evolution. A reduced cost of Mana, even if it was only for Spirit Magic, was definitely a welcome benefit. As for her Spirit Magic increase in level, she had acquired a spell named, Essence Flare. Apparently, it was a dispelling Magic for dark energy such as Miasma. It could be used to get rid of curses and various afflictions as long as they were a result of dark-type Magic.

But none of those benefits could compare to the one Erin had been dying to get her hands on. Although she had never explicitly expressed her desire for it, she had always wanted an appraisal Magic that wasn’t limited to only herself. In such a foreign world with so many new things to learn, witness, and experience, Appraisal was the foremost skill to be had.

Without hesitation, she used it on the dead wolf-like monster.

Hah!!

Erin was not prepared for the wave of information that flooded into her sight. Unlike Self-Appraisal which was all visualized in her mind, Appraisal’s information was displayed within her sights, in a window screen beside the subject. And only now did Erin realized just how much information there was in an Appraisal. It didn’t feel cluttered when it was presented in her mind. Calming herself down, she looked over the information displayed just beside the carcass.

Hmm… it doesn’t state its Might, Arcane, or Finesse. There are only its level, status, race, and skills. Well, its status reads; Deceased, of course. It might have been controlled while it was alive but now it’s dead. Damn it, if only I had this skill before I fought it. Its skills are… ah never mind, it’s already dead. As for its race, it’s a— oh? So this monster is a Dire Wolf but what’s with the tusk and the lightning? And its level… level fourteen!? Such ferocity and strength and it’s only level fourteen?

Erin had an apprehensive feeling about her future encounters. As her former world did not have such things as levels, she didn’t know if it could be compared to the monsters here. Even so, if she took level fourteen as only a step-off of level hundred, this Dire Wolf could be considered a beginner-tier monster. In her former world, beginner-tier monsters did not have such a monster with this kind of speed and strength.

If a mere level fourteen beast already had such an array of skills, she didn’t doubt how complicated higher level monsters could get with their abilities and skills. While it terrified her, at the same time, she was sensing a budding thrill within her.

It was the anticipation for a worthwhile opponent should she ever manage to reach such heights. Stronger enemies meant better improvement to one’s self, this was how Erin viewed her own prospects.

And what’s this extra to its name? Ruler of Domain?

[Ruler of Domain is the title given to the monster that stood on top of the food chain in a specific area. The title is immediately transferred to the slayer.]

Ah. As expected. The name pretty much says it all already but the title… I didn’t receive such a title though? Or are titles only applicable to monsters?

Erin checked her stats and sure enough, she found no column or row that had the word; title.

Well, whatever. What’s important is that someone or something was controlling this late Ruler of Domain. But who? Is this related to peculiar behaviors of the Goblins? This could be a clue but before that… let’s test out my new evolution.

It took some time for her excitement to die down. She attempted some extreme movements that require a degree of nimbleness to test her body in this new evolution. To her surprise, she was moving better than before. The extra tails did not make it harder for her to move. In fact, it didn’t feel like she had three tails. Best of all, she was able to wrap herself in the embrace of the new tails. She stayed in such warmth and bliss until she remembered she had a quest to do.

She wanted to continue her quest but… she no longer had a sword. She broke it in the fight with the Dire Wolf. Although she had Magic and a high affinity for it, she wasn’t a specialist and she didn’t even have any knowledge on how to use Magic as the main form of choice in combat. Sighing at the futile desire to continue the quest, she decided to return back to town for now. 

She had nothing to report about for her main quest but she couldn’t exactly forced herself to continue either when she was practically naked without a sword.

Maybe I can report about this? I doubt monster “taming” is a common thing in this world. Even if it is, it won’t be a common thing in a small town like this.

Even if that report should turn out to be nugatory, at the very least, Erin had an amazing Monster Core to sell. From what she had read in the adventurer’s handbook, Monster Cores sold for more if it was procured for a quest as the quest reward itself is included in the cost of the Cores. Which was why adventurers seldom hunt down monsters arbitrarily without first acquiring the respective quests.

There were cases where adventurers hoarded up Monster Cores preemptively and only sold them when the corresponding quests appeared for the specific Cores. This practice wasn’t illegal but it was highly frowned upon by not just adventurers but also merchants. Be that as it may, it was still a very popular practice in big towns and cities as it wasn’t deemed illegal, or so Lyra had told Erin. Of course, Lyra didn’t word it exactly like that. Erin was forced to put the bits and pieces together herself from Lyra’s rough accent and came to such results. 

Through the secondary effect of Appraisal, Erin could vaguely make out the size and position of the Dire Wolf’s Core. It was almost as if she could perceive the flow of Magic. 

Ha… it’ll be great if I can actually perceive Magic flows like I can for Spirits. Putting that aside, this Dire Wolf’s Core is the largest one yet that I have seen. Quest or not, it’s going to sell for a lot. Question is… how do I take it out?

After a brief moment of contemplation, she came to the idea of using the claws of the Dire Wolf itself. To her amazement, it cut better than Sven’s steel sword. She thanked her stars for not getting hit by one of these. It would carve into her flesh as easily as it would to a cake.

****

Contrary to her expectations, the harvesting did not take as long as it did for the Kobold Leader despite being roughly a size bigger. The organs and everything slid out of the body like an avalanche the moment she cut open the wolf’s stomach. Although, it was twice as smelly as the Kobolds. It took Erin a lot of mental strength not to just throw up right then.

After stowing away the humongous Monster Core into the sack that could barely fit, she backtracked the path she came through. It was the safest way as it guaranteed the highest chance of not encountering any monster along the way since she pretty much culled everything on the way.

That wasn’t to say that there were no monsters in the vicinity. As a matter of fact, there were still plenty of monsters lurking about but none of them had the galls to approach Erin. All of them were just watching her from afar. When she ventured into the forest just this morning, all of the monsters were waiting for their turn to have a piece of her but now, they exuded the feeling of wanting nothing to do with the Fox-kin.

Is this because I have defeated the Dire Wolf who was a Ruler of Domain? Hmm, if they don’t come at me, I don’t get any experience but if I have at them, I might end up biting more than I can chew.

Down the backtracking path, she eventually came across dozens of carcasses laid strewn about. They were exactly as they were when Erin left them. Not even an inch was moved. She wasn’t so surprised that the monsters she slain were still unharvested. After all, it was rare for adventurers to venture so deep into the forest. She would like to harvest them now but her sack was full with just that one Core. For such an issue, the adventurer’s handbook spoke of hiring a porter, an individual hired for the reason of carrying spoils. It made her think about how higher level adventurers handled their spoils considering how much the high level Monster Cores cost. Erin just couldn’t accept the notion that they would just let some strangle handle what was essentially their money, professionals they may be.

Although it would be a different story if she was talking about banks but those services were only employed by the richest.

While she pondered about such a dilemma, her luck came to an end when her ears picked up the sound of numerous feet skittering towards her.

Oh great. Rot-rats.

Unlike the other monsters, the Rot-rats were all converging to her position. Erin wagered the Rot-rats must have come back to avenge their fallen brethren that Erin had slain. Slayer of the Ruler or not, the Rot-rats didn’t seem to care.

Without holding back, she activated Fleet Foot and began sprinting at her full speed back to town. She was now level ten. Her Might was nineteen and Fleet Foot was level five. Potentially speaking, she should be able to easily escape the pursuit of the Rot-rats.

But she forgot about one tiny factor.

Just as she started to relish in the difference of her abilities from two days ago, her negligence poured on her parade. The sack burst apart with the Core of the Dire Wolf falling through the torn opening.

Oh my fucking god! I’m such an idiot!

Instead of stopping, Erin kept running but she did not leave the Core behind. As if it was the most natural thing to do, Erin swiftly scooped up the Core with her tails and rolled it back into her hands.

The feat hadn’t been intentional. It was just another beckoning of her instincts. 

Well, I’ll be damned. They are more useful than I thought.

Praising her tails so, Erin kept her speed until she could no longer hear the Rot-rats’ skitters. While she was glad her tail had such uses, it also induced a strange sense of disbelief of how these movements and maneuvers came so naturally to her. And there was also the matter of tails’ robustness. They were stronger than she had believed. It was becoming apparent to Erin that a tail was more of a limb rather than an appendage.

What if I trained them to wield swords? It should be possible if I focus on increasing Finesse.

As her mind wandered into her own land of reverie and possibilities, a familiar scent snapped her out of her daydream. It was a scent that she had least expected to encounter in the middle of the forest out of all places. Besides the familiar scent, there were two other scents that were only mildly familiar but she recalled picking up these scents at The Guild.

Adventurers, huh. But what is that person doing out here with two adventurers? 

Erin made a slight deviation from her path back to town to meet up with this acquaintance. She came to a grove with trees smaller than the other trees in the whole forest. These trees had orange leaves and the trunks and branches were of a pale brownish color.

In front of one of such trees, there were a pair of adventurers, a boy and a girl. Her appraisal showed their levels, their skill sets, their status, their ability stats, their name, but not their age. Although, Erin could easily discern with her own eyes that they were around fifteen to sixteen years of age. In the middle of this pair, was her acquaintance; a dark reddish-haired boy of a short stature with a small axe in his right hand, Aedan.

Erin didn’t have a good impression of him and he was just barely an acquaintance. She didn’t want to strike a conversation with him but she was quite fond of the gracious Sven. 

Maybe I should just give a brief greeting for the sake of his brother.

Just Erin was about to open her lips and expressed her greetings in a reserved manner, she froze at the results of Appraisal. It wasn’t her intent to appraise Aedan but by appraising the two adventurers, Aedan was just coincidentally in the picture. And this coincidence led to a shocking discovery.

What the fuck….

His name said Aedan in the appraisal result. His status was healthy. But the rest of his results were simply labeled as “unknown” or just in gibberish; even his level was replaced by a string of unintelligible symbols. 

However, the “Race” tab wasn’t masked with drivels. It was displayed as clears the name and status. Be that as it may, at the “Race” tab that clearly said Dwarve, there was another word overlapping the word “Dwarve” in a translucent manner.

And that word was “Dragon-kin”.

 

Erinthea - Faerie-kin: Three-Tailed Fox-kin

Level: 10 | Status: Mildly Exhausted 

Might: 19 | Arcane: 15 | Finesse: 14

Magic Arts - Spirit Magic Lv. 6 | Arcane Edge Lv. 2 | Arcane Armor Lv. 5

Combat Arts - Sword Art Lv. 6 | Fleet Foot Lv. 5 | Brawler Lv. 4

Innate Skills - Appraisal Lv. Ex | Night Vision Lv. Ex | Sixth Sense Lv. Ex | Toxin Resistance Lv. 1 | Lust Deviant Lv. Ex

Unique Talent - Mystic Blade Lv. Ex

 

Level Progression: 25%

Remaining Skill Points: 2

Remaining Ability Points: 2