《Used skill: 『Fangs Lvl. 1』!》

Kurushimi dug her fangs into the cold meat of the deceased dog. All sorts of thoughts were running through Kurushimi’s head at this moment. Like how the gammy texture of the raw meat on her fangs and tongue felt, the taste of the rancid blood from the dog, whether the raw meat would make her contract a disease such as salmonella, and what she did to deserve this.

After Kurushimi had felt like she’d drunk a good enough amount, she hastily spat the remaining blood out of her mouth. Her eyes squinted and she had a facial expression of complete disgust. It was safe to say, this was the worst taste she had ever tasted.

When Kurushimi opened her eyes again, she hesitantly looked at the top right of her vision.

《HP: 20/20》

《MP: 10/10》

《SP: 4/4》

-My stats are back to full… and the bleeding is gone!

Kurushimi was incredibly reassured to see the bleeding effect gone, meaning she wouldn’t need to drink anymore of that rancid-tasting dog blood. As Kurushimi sighed in relief, she also witnessed another bit of text appear.

《Used unique skill: 『What’s yours is mine Lvl. 1』!》

《Gained +1 HP, +STR, +1 END, +1 SP, +1 AGI, +1 MP!》

[Kurushimi: ...What?]

Kurushimi was surprised at the sudden activation of a skill and the sudden gain of stats. The ‘unique skill: 『What’s yours is mine’ had randomly activated. Kurushimi had seen this skill before but…

[Kurushimi: I hadn’t read the description for this skill yet…]

《『What’s yours is mine Lvl. 1』: Sucking the blood of a creature you killed allows you to steal a very small percentage of its stats》

[Kurushimi: I- Isn’t that ridiculously powerful…?]

Kurushimi had been given a skill that lets her steal the stats of other creatures. The skill was also called a ‘unique skill’ rather than a regular ‘skill’. So there was a high chance that no one else had this skill.

[Kurushimi: The stats I gained right now are quite small but over time, I could easily build up an unfair amount of stats.]

The ability to raise her stats in another way other than levelling up would definitely make her stronger than anyone else at the same level. Not to mention her other skill 『Nightwalker』which rose her stats by 20% at night. She would be able to have her base stats and bonus stats combined and then multiplied at night.

Kurushimi looked at the two other dogs lying on the ground. They were two other targets to gain stats from since she had killed them herself.

-But I will have to suck more of their blood.

Kurushimi really didn’t want to drink any more dog blood.

[Kurushimi: But if I want to survive, I will need the extra stats!!]

Stuck with this dilemma, Kurushimi eventually chose her survival over her taste buds.

《Used skill: 『Fangs Lvl. 1』!》

. . .

Kurushimi wiped the dog's blood off of her mouth with her wrist. She slowly stood up as she did her best to try and ignore the nasty aftertaste. Her stats had risen a little bit overall but at this moment it still wasn’t very noticeable.

[Kurushimi: Let's go this way then.]

Kurushimi prepared to set off. Previously, Kurushimi had gone down a path that led her two ways. The left way led her to dogs and the right way led her to a strange area with larger crystals… and even more dogs.

Kurushimi with her amazing deductive skills deduced that… That way must be the way to go further into the forest! And with the three dogs that had originally blocked the opposite way and forced her to go down the path gone, she could now safely head out of the forest.

Her new mission was to finally escape this hellish forest! And any dogs she came across would no longer be the predators, but the prey!

[Kurushimi: Now that I’m going to be hunting the dogs myself, it would be great if I could learn some new skills to help me… I wonder if it’s possible to learn skills?]

There were two specific skills Kurushimi had in mind. But as to how to learn skills and whether the skills she had in mind even existed, she had no clue.

[Voice-san: You can learn skills with ‘skill points’, gained by levelling up alongside stat points.]

[Kurushimi: Oh… Is that so? If you knew, why didn’t you tell me about it beforehand? Would have been useful to know about it.]

[Voice-san: You didn’t ask.]

[Kurushimi: For what reason would the past me ever ask anything like that!]

It seemed to be a common theme where Voice-san would end up irritating Kurushimi. Whether Voice-san was teasing her on purpose or not was currently unknown to Kurushimi, but it was highly likely that Voice-san may be doing so.

Kurushimi sighed.

[Kurushimi: And how do I use these ‘skill points’ then?]

[Voice-san: Just think about the skill you want to learn and the system will do the rest.]

After the fairly simple instructions from Voice-san, Kurushimi did as told. She thought hard about the first skill she wanted to learn and…

《Currently you have 300 skill points.》

《The skill 『Appraisal Lvl. 1』 can be acquired by spending 100 skill points.》

《Do you want to acquire it?》

The first and most important skill she was hoping to exist luckily was a pre-existing thing. It was an incredibly common skill in fantasy games so it probably would have been weirder if the skill didn’t exist.

[Kurushimi: Yes, I want it!]

《『Appraisal Lvl. 1』 was acquired. Remaining skill points 200》

To acquire 『Appraisal』Kurushimi had to spend 100 points. With her remaining 200 points, if skills cost 100 points on average, she could buy two more skills.

With deductive reasoning, Kurushimi could also see that she had 300 points at first. She also is currently Lvl. 4. So, if she gains skill points every time she levels up, it would seem that she gains 100 skill points per level. At the moment that seemed like a lot but there’s a good chance that there may be a large number of skills and these skills may vary in cost. So Kurushimi decided to be careful not to overspend her points just yet.

Kurushimi bought 『Appraisal』for the sole purpose of seeing the enemy's level and stats. If she just runs in and attacks every dog she sees, she could end up running into a high-level dog without knowing and dying again. Now she could see their level and judge whether she could fight them or not.

With the first skill in mind learnt, Kurushimi thought of the next skill…

《Currently you have 200 skill points.》

《The skill 『Farsight Lvl. 1』 can be acquired by spending 100 skill points.》

《Do you want to acquire it?》

[Kurushimi: And she goes 2 for 2! Yes, learn it!]

《『Farsight Lvl. 1』 was acquired. Remaining skill points 100》

Combining 『Farsight』and 『Appraisal』Kurushimi could now scout out the enemy from long range and check their levels. Safely appraising her enemies from far away, Kurushimi could easily pick and choose her battles!

[Kurushimi: Just how smart am I?! Hahahaa!]

[Voice-san: Yeah… Very smart, well done.]

Voice-san very sarcastically and unenthusiastically praised Kurushimi who took no notice of it at all.