<[Nether Gate] - Cost: 50 skill points; Opens a portal to the nether realm>

Qin Hua stared at the new skill that had popped up in the shop feature. She thought that she had seen a couple more new skills after she had evolved but it looked like she was wrong.

She was in a hurry when she had evolved so it was normal to have not looked at it properly but now that she did, she could clearly see that there was only one skill and this one skill cost 50 skill points???

[System, what the heck is this skill? Woof!] She couldn't even begin to comprehend this weird skill so she directly asked the mysterious entity.

<Ding. The skill [Nether Gate] opens a portal to the nether realm, which is the home of all shadow beings>

[Huh? Home? Do you that the nether realm is another world like our earth?]

<Ding. The skill [Nether Gate] opens a portal to the nether realm, which is the home of all shadow beings>

Arrrrr! Woof! Qin Hua could see that she was not going to get any further explanation so she decided to temporarily ignore the skill. 

Besides, the damned thing cost 50 skill points!!! An astronomical amount!

She might not have received a lot of new skill options in the shop which she could purchase and she also had a good amount of skill points saved, but wasting it on all a vague skill like this seemed like a waste of resources.

On the other hand, judging from the small details mentioned in the explanation, she could possibly travel to this new place using this portal and perhaps could gain more strength or some sort of treasure or something?

Just like the green-skinned goblins had come to their world, could [Nether Gate] allow her to go to their world?

Qin Hua snapped her canines in frustration. She had a lot of theories and conjectures but they were not really answers.

And she definitely did not have 50 skill points saved up yet. So she sighed and decided to worry about this dilemma when the time comes. Perhaps by then, she would have a better understanding of the new skill [Nether Gate].

She closed the shop in silence and wondered what exactly this evolution did for her. The entire thing was in fact still a blur as everything had happened so quickly.

[Wait, did I not unlock some hidden evolution paths and change my fate or something by killing the boas?]

[Woof! Hello, do you have some sort of explanation for this at least?] She asked the system once again.

<Ding. The hidden evolution paths unlocked by quest completion were [Shadow Anubis],

[Shadow Fenrir] and [Shadow Cadejos]>

[Ahh!] She shook her head in realization. She still remembered the skills of these two evolution options as she had also considered these two to be the most powerful options at least until she saw the [Shadow Fenrir] evolution path.

QIn Hua let out a long breath. 

Everything had happened too fast and she had taken rash and hasty decisions but now that she looked back at things, her choice indeed seemed to be the right one. Any other choice would probably not have given her that the burst momentum to deal with the goblins.

The only thing that still bothered her was the lack of future scope for evolution, but maybe being a wolf dog girl won't be too bad? 

And with her new shapeshifting skill, she even had high hopes of regaining her human form, if not at least half-girl, half-dog form!

She licked her lips in excitement and pulled down her status screen to once again look at all the updates. She wanted to take this rare momentary break that they had obtained and understand her various strengths and weaknesses.

Qin Hua did not delude herself. She was fully aware of what awaited all of them next. 

And to make things worse, she was no longer gaining any attribute or experience points from the mana zombies and weaker mutated beasts.

This meant that all her future developments would rely heavily on her battling stronger opponents just like the four boas and the goblin leader. In such cases, even one slip up might result in death.

So she needed to be fully aware of every single trick in her toolbox. It would be truly pathetic if she still ended up dying just because she didn't use her skills properly.

As a naturally hardworking person who was used to planning and preparing for everything in advance, she wasn't going to let something like that happen.

<Ding. Status Screen>

______________

Name: Qin Hua

Species: Shadow Fenrir

Rank: Soldier

Grade: Rare Beast

Level 20 (2700/20800)

______________

Health: 7500

Mana: 100

Strength: 670

Agility: 675

Stamina: 643

Intelligence: 620

Wisdom: 22

______________

Elemental affinity:

Shadow element affinity: Intermediate

Lightning element affinity: Low

______________

Skills:

Beastial Mana absorption (Passive; Gain 5 mana attributes every day)

Majestic Roar (Active; Commands the attention of the enemy and increases the morale and the stats of all nearby non-enemies by 5% for 30 seconds)

Enhanced vision (Passive; Able to perceive and see everything with a stronger and more accurate sense of sight)

Night vision (Passive; Able to perceive and see everything in complete darkness despite the absence of light)

Enhanced Hearing (Passive; Able to perceive and hear everything with accurate clarity, including frequencies outside the normal range)

Mana sniff (Active; Able to sense high densities of coalesced mana; Level 2)

Jump (Active; Able to push oneself into the air by applying force on the surface; Level 1)

Sprint (Active; Agility momentarily increased by 20%; Might not necessarily increase the speed of reflexes; Consumes 50 stamina; Level 1)

Rip (Active; Deals the target damage proportional to physical strength; Level 4)

Maul (Active; Deals the target damage proportional to physical strength; Level 5)

Fenrir's rage (Active; All stats are increased by 10% for 1 minute; Level 1)

Pack Leader's call (Active; Able to subdue and tame another beast into a loyal follower; Limit 1 beast; Not available; Limit reached)

Shapeshifting (Able to transform into the werewolf form for 1 minute; In the werewolf form, all stats are increased by 10%; Level 1)

A being of the nether realm (Passive; All shadow forms have agility +10% and defense +10%)

Blending into darkness (Active; Merge indistinguishably into the darkness, Level 5)

Darkness Manipulation (Active; Able to manipulate and command darkness to a small extent; Level 1)

Dark arrow (Active; Able to deal damage equal to the magic power attack; Cost 5% of base mana; Level 1)

Shadow Cloning (Active; Generate a clone from a shadow; Able to perceive everything that the clone perceives; Able to switch positions with the clone; Level 1)

Chaos ball (Active; Consumes 30 mana; Deals 20% of magic attack power damage; Has a high chance to ricochet off the enemy and land on a nearby enemy dealing double the previous damage; Can be leveled up for upgrades; Level 1)

Forging (Passive; The ability to craft weapons, armors, and trinkets; Can be upgraded for better results and efficiency; Level 1)

Herbalism (Passive; The ability to identify and procure medicinal herbs; Can be upgraded for better results and efficiency; Level 1)

______________

The dog's eyes eagerly flickered from top to bottom paying attention to every little thing that was mentioned. 

Apart from the fact that she had received a massive boost in stat points, new skills, and new elemental affinity, Qin Hua also noticed something else.

She now had a new 'Rank' and she was a soldier?

She scrunched her face and looked at the words again. [Soldier… Hmm… That is fine but who am I a soldier for?] 

[What the hell is this rank? Woof?] She asked the system.

<Ding. Requirements not met. Level not sufficient for more answers>

[Hmph! Woof! Woof!] At this point, Qin Hua wasn't even surprised that the system was not giving her the full picture.

She placed her head softly on the ground and stared ahead at an empty wall in deep thought. 

When Qin Hua had first received this special skill, everyone around her was also receiving special abilities. So for a minute, she assumed that her system and her leveling up was also a special ability.

But now that more days had passed… she knew that her ability was not as simple as the others.

[Wait, has it only been a fucking week?] Qin Hua shook her head tiredly and then lazily closed her eyes.

In a single week, so much had changed!!!

She didn't understand much of what was happening and even more so when it came to her peculiar special ability but she knew one thing for sure.

She was 100% certain that whatever was driving her and helping her to become stronger and more powerful than the others around her at an exponential rate was definitely not doing it for her own good or for the sake of humanity.

Perhaps the answer to everything was in the new skill [Nether Gate]?