['Malleability' can be evolved! Choose: 'Adaptive Defence' or 'Fluid Transformation'.]

I had to say, this time the System came up with some decent names. That didn't change the fact that I had no idea what these evolution options did. Alright, anything with 'defence' in the name was a good pick, as far as I could say, but the other option was intriguing too.

It was time to pull out my trump card. 'Pest? Are you there?'

'The answer to this inane question is, as always, yes.'

I think three weeks of not listening to him did me good. Pest's voice didn't seem so annoying now. 'How fast can you suck 'Malleability' down to level nine?'

'Oh! That's… I had to count. But with my current speed, I'd say, five days straight?' The hope in Pest's voice was audible.

I took in a deep breath. 'You can't even do a single thing right! Five days? Why so slow?'

'Because you never let me drain more EXP and level up my draining skill! Do you know how fucking much it takes to level it up? Yes, it's slow, of course it's slow when it's still on level four!'

'Keep complaining and one day I will order you to kill yourself. Tsk. How much EXP this ability of yours needs to level up?'

'Sixteen thousand.'

So it had a base cost of a thousand EXP, I calculated. Awfully much, but Pest, it seemed, was an expensive tenant to keep around. But five days… By that time, I hoped to be on my way back to Glesk already. 'Then start draining EXP out of my 'Malleability' until you get exactly sixteen thousand out of it, then level up your EXP draining and report that you finished. Understood?'

'Yes! Finally!'

I left Pest at it. Until he sucked all the EXP I put into the ability to level it up, its level won't drop. In theory, this was free EXP for me, but in practice, this only meant that I had to put more EXP to level it up later. But right now, I only wanted to pick an upgrade to use for the next five days.

I chose 'Adaptive Defence'.

['Malleability' successfully evolves into 'Auxetic Malleability'.]

Auxetic? What did that even mean? And here went my hopes for decent names for abilities. I shook my head and examined myself once again. Elastic limbs, translucent skin that seemed to have darkened somewhat now. Or maybe it became even more see-through, and it was just all the blood that filled me looking so red. The vision of muscles contracting under my skin when I moved my arms around was a little grotesque even for me.

But a quick examination found out what adaptive defence meant. Before, when hit, my body just jiggled like a jello, absorbing impact but leaving me shaken. Now it hardened instead, reflecting the force of the impact back. I could still cut just as easily as before, but this still promised to save me from a lot of pain in the future.

And, since I had EXP left, I decided that investing in something as simple and convenient as claws was a way to go. 'Claws' were a very common ability in animal world, and with no less common base cost of 2 EXP, they weren't expensive to buy and level up to 15.

On level 10, the System offered me a choice between 'Blade Claws' and 'Hidden Claws'. Since I still wanted to use my hands, I picked the second option. As a result, the new sharp claws I got now hid, just like my stinger, in the tips of my fingers.

Fur would've been a wonderful ability to get, but none of the animals I ate developed it enough for it to be an ability. Abilities were just weird like that, though I was sure to find something in the mountains. If I won't freeze to death before that. Rosha fitted me with a set of warm clothes in case I went higher up, but then also told me to hunt only at foothills.

I also bought 'Berserk' again. It forked into 'Blood Berserk' versus 'Trance Berserk'. Since I've never used this ability before—wasn't even sure how to, in fact, though I guessed being angry was a prerequisite—one option was as good as another to me. I threw a coin to decide, and the coin chose the second option. Now my 'Berserk' was 'Battle Trance' instead. Whatever that meant.

Not the best way to pick them, but I had no better one. Levelling it up to 15 cost me 160k EXP in total, but it was worth the trouble to have a hidden reserve like that.

I hoped it was, at least. Time would tell.

After that I put as much as I could, 454k EXP, into my main weapon—my stinger—and called it done. I still had a hefty sum of 443k EXP to use if I wanted to evolve something new later.

My character sheet now looked like that:

[Voren]

[General Info]

Species: Human

Sex: Male

Age: 65d

Height: 179cm

Weight: 65kg

Emotional state: Calmness

Titles: Devourer, Alpha Predator, The Lord of Nine Hells

[Contracts]

Unnamed contract (expiration date isn't stated)

Assassination Contract (expiration date isn't stated)

[Stats]

HP: 9/9

EXP: 443 342

STR: 12.31

DEX: 13.1

CON: 12.4

INT: 11.9

[Abilities]

Devourer (lv MAX) (Evolution options available!)

Agile Flight (lv 15) (Can be levelled up!)

Venomous Stinger (lv 18)

Steel Web Spinning (lv 15) (Can be levelled up!)

⠀⠀

Auxetic Malleability (lv 15) (Can be levelled up!)

Hidden Claws (lv 15) (Can be levelled up!)

Battle Trance (lv 15) (Can be levelled up!)

This was when I finally took notice of the irregularity. What was that blank line in my abilities list, and how long it was there?