In the morning of the next day, as everyone was slowly waking up, Edward was supporting his back on one of the dungeon’s pillars and practicing his mana control with a small water ball.

“Morning, Edward.” Said Ingvar as he came walked up to him. Edward was still thinking about last evening and jolted slightly at Ingvar’s voice sounding nearby.

Seeing that Ingvar was giving him a weird look, he nodded back and cleared the thoughts running rampant through his mind: “Good morning, Ingvar.”

“What’s going on with you and Echo?” whispered Ingvar after coming closer and resting his back on the same pillar as Edward.

Edward felt quite panicky as he heard the question and responded stiffly: “Me and Echo? Nothing. Nothing is going on.”

Ingvar shook his head and said: “If you don’t want to speak about it, it’s fine with me, but be careful, her situation is a little complicated.”

“Complicated? What do you mean?” asked Edward, but before Ingvar could reply, the girls also started approaching them.

“Shall we go? Edward should be able to level up today.” Said Echo, acting completely normal, at which Kara and Ingvar nodded both nodded in agreement.

Edward also sat up with a sigh and nodded, deciding to ask Ingvar what he meant another time. The party quickly got ready, ate some light breakfast from the merchants in the safe zone, and went hunting once again.

It was awkward at the start, with Edward stealing glances at Echo from time to time, but after never spotting her looking back at him at all, he put last night at the back of his mind and stopped thinking about it.

Kara noticed Edward’s peculiar behavior, but even if she wanted to know, she didn’t ask about it. Another day of hunting went on uneventfully and a couple of hours later, as Edward placed his tablet on a lizard’s body, the tablet shinned brightly, and he finally reached level 3.

Excited, Edward quickly checked the tablet to see the changes.

<Name: Edward Black>
<Class: Beginner Water Mage>
<Sub-class: Shadow Walker>
<Sub-class: Night Hunter>
<Sub-class: Swordsman>
<Sub-class: Shape-Shifter(Unique)>
<Mana: 226/261>
<Stamina: 162/162>
<Strength: 3.9>
<Dexterity: 3.7>
<Level: 3>
<Level Life Force: 1/450>
<Spells: Water Ball, Cost: 2 mana;
Water Blade, Cost 5 mana;
Water Barrier, Cost 1-10 mana;
Elemental shifting, Locked>
<Skills: Wolf Shift: 11 stamina/minute; >

“Finally.” Exclaimed Edward in unconstrained joy before turning towards the others and asking: “Do you guys mind if I gave my Wolf Shift skill a try to see how it feels? I didn’t have the stamina to do it beforehand.”

Seeing the others nod, with even Kara looking curious, Edward focused and used his Wolf Shift skill. It took him around ten painful seconds until, instead of Edward, a black wolf stood up in front of the others. He had the same pure black eyes, but that seem to contain excitement instead of the hunger they usually did.

Edward was indeed excited. This skill also increased his senses, agility, and strength. Last time when he overdrew his stamina, he didn’t completely turn, and the situation didn’t let him carefully feel the changes in his body.

Edward tried to speak, but seeing he could not, he quickly gave up on it and started running in the distance to test the limits of his speed. He was fast, faster than he ever thought possible, and, after reaching some distance from the others, Fenrir’s voice sounded from one of his front legs.

[Check your status tablet.]

Edward didn’t know why, but summoned it in front of him and looked at it.

<Name: Edward Black>
<Class: Wolf (Temporary) >
<Mana: 226/261>
<Stamina: 142/162>
<Strength: 7.8>
<Dexterity: 7.4>
<Level: 3>
<Level Life Force: 1/450>
<Spells: Water Ball, Cost: 2 mana;
Water Blade, Cost 5 mana;
Water Barrier, Cost 1-10 mana;
Elemental shifting, Locked;>

‘So it changes my class as well while doubling my strength and dexterity. This way I’ll for sure be able to help.’

Wishing to let the others know as well, he rushed towards the others, stopped running a small distance away to not scare them, and walked in front of them before summoning his status tablet in his jaws so that the others could see as well.

The three other members of the party took a peek at the tablet and Ingvar said in wonder: “Your strength and dexterity double? That seems too strong even for a unique class.”

Edward nodded with pride as he canceled the skill, not wishing to waste all his stamina. After turning back into a human, he cracked his joints, stood up, and said: “Now I should be able to help as well.”

“Congratulations on your level up, Edward.” Said Echo first, prompting the others to follow up on congratulating him as well, Kara included.

Edward thanked them before asking: “What about now? Shall we hunt some more?” it was late, but there was still an hour or two until the evening and Edward couldn’t wait to see how he would fare in a fight.

“No problem. Do you want to take my place so you can try your wolf form?” asked Ingvar, already guessing what was on Edward’s mind.

“If it’s all right with you, yes.” Ingvar moved to the back line and Edward moved to Echo’s side as they started looking for more lizards to hunt.

After walking for a while and not encountering any lizards, Edward turned towards Echo and said: “About last night…”

Echo interrupted before he could finish and said with a troubled look: “Edward, could we forget about it, please?”

Edward nodded, understanding from Ingvar’s words and her behavior that something was bothering her, and continued walking forward in silence. It took around five minutes before they encountered a group of five lizards. As the lizards started charging toward them and Echo was ready to take action, Edward started his transformation while saying: “Do you mind if I try taking them on alone? I want to test the limits of this skill.”

“All right, but I’ll stay close in case anything happens.”

Edward nodded, and his transformation was soon complete. Fixing his eyes on the rapidly charging lizards, their speed that made even following them with his sight before a pain now looked like a joke. He felt they were maybe too slow.

Excited, he started running towards them. As the distance between Edward and the lizards reached only a few feet, he quickly summoned three water blades which he launched at three of the incoming lizards from the side before opening his mouth and leaping toward one lizard in front of him, aiming to bite at its neck.

The lizard tried to avoid the attack but was slightly slower than Edward, a fact that brought about its swift end as Edward plunged his sharp fangs straight into its neck.

As he felt the fangs piercing through the lizard’s scales like a knife through butter and the blood squirting in his mouth, a sudden disgust made his stomach turn, but he ignored the feeling and pulled back hard, ripping the flesh from the lizard’s neck and killing it in an instant.

The remaining lizard plunged its teeth into one of Edward’s front legs just as he ripped the other lizard’s throat, causing Edward to swallow the mouthful of the lizard’s flesh.

Enraged and nauseous, Edward quickly threw a water blade, cutting the lizard’s head mid-bite, before ending his transformation. After he turned back to normal, Edward started vomiting the lizard meat and blood he just swallowed.

Echo, who was not far, quickly started absorbing the dead lizards, wishing to make the meat Edward swallowed disappear. Once she was done, she bent down at his back and, patting his back gently, she said: “Are you all right?”

Edward also stopped vomiting after Echo absorbed the lizard’s life force and nodded to let her know he was all right. Ingvar and Kara also arrived and Ingvar said: “That was not bad, but you should have been able to win without getting injured. Be more careful next time.”

Edward nodded, fixing his eyes on the bite mark still present on his left arm. He knew he was reckless, but he just lost himself in the feeling of power the wolf shift gave him.

After a small discussion, the party rested for today and start hunting to increase Echo’s level from tomorrow onward.

As they were heading back towards the safe zone, Kara said to Edward: “Are you going to sleep tonight?”

Edward was startled, not expecting Kara to suddenly speak to him, and said: “I am planning to. I think that, with the level increase, I can go one more day without sleep, but I will be too tired tomorrow if I were to do that.”

“Do you want me to keep watch over you?” asked Kara, surprising Edward once more. He pondered for a moment and, after looking at Echo in front for a moment, said: “If you don’t mind. Thank you.”

Kara nodded, and the silence returned. Once they reached back, they ate once more, with Edward declining, the taste of lizard flesh still vivid in his mind. Once they were done, Edward let them know he was going to sleep and left with Kara just outside the safe zone.

“Are you ready?” asked Edward, feeling a bit reluctant to turn in front of Kara once again.

Kara nodded and created a small cage made of earth spikes around him, with her sitting on top of it. Edward let out a small chuckle, seeing that she locked him in a cage before he even turned, but felt a bit more ensured she will handle the wolf and sat down.

Closing his eyes, he soon got back inside his mind and the wolf took over.

As the wolf slowly stood up, it looked around and saw the dome surrounding it. With a small growl, it bent its body slightly and plunged into one of the dome’s walls, surprising Kara, that was sitting just above by destroying it with ease.

As the wolf jumped out, he gave Kara a mocking look before ignoring her and running into the distance. Kara quickly panicked and jumped down to follow him, only to be surprised once more that she lost it completely. She looked in the direction the wolf ran into with a conflicted look before sighing and muttering: “I’m sorry, I can’t…”

She rushed back to let the others know what happened as well. In her right hand, she was squeezing a weird-looking amulet tightly.

As she entered the safe zone, she spotted Echo and Ingvar discussing something with serious faces, but she didn’t care what it was and ran up to them.

“Bad news.” Said Kara as she got close, startling the two who were engaged in a serious conversation and prompting Echo to ask: “Where’s Edward?”

“He ran away and I couldn’t stop him. He was stronger and faster than you guys said before…”

Echo panicked and quickly sat up, ready to rush outside and search for him, only to be stopped by Ingvar who grabbed one of her hands and said: “Don’t bother, you won’t be able to catch up to him. Kara, tell us exactly what happened.”

Kara quickly described everything that happened, prompting Ingvar to sigh and say: “It appears the wolf will also grow stronger as Edward does, which I don’t know why I didn’t consider. They share the same body after all…”

Echo turned around with a hopeful look and asked: “Does that mean it will protect itself from the lizards?”

Ingvar nodded. “If it’s at least just as strong as Edward when it transforms, it should be able to. We can only wait until morning to know for sure…”

Echo also calmed down when she heard he will probably be all right and sat back down. Since there was nothing to do but wait, the three of them soon sat down and got ready to sleep for the night.

Edward was having a similar discussion inside his mind with Fenrir. “Are you saying that the wolf is now also stronger?”

“Yes. With you leveling up in the shape-shifter class, the wolf also received a boost of power. He’s just wiped out a group of nine lizards with ease, so there’s no reason for you to worry about its safety. It was normal for you and the wolf to share any boost from the start. I don’t know why it didn’t happen until now.”

“That’s good and thank god it didn’t choose to attack Kara before… Why is that I wonder?”

Edward spent the entire night until he got control over his body back speaking with Fenrir and Azure inside his mind. As he returned to his body, he cleaned all the blood and gore and asked Fenrir: “Can you tell me the way towards the safe zone?”

[All right….] Fenrir then proceeded in guiding Edward back towards the safe zone, which was not that hard. Midway through his journey back, Fenrir suddenly asked: [Can you check your status tablet? I want to confirm something.]

Edward nodded and pulled out his tablet, only for what he saw written on it to leave him speechless.