Karshak’s large claws brutally smashed into the bark of a tree. The dense wood of the tree broke apart like styrofoam under Karshak’s impressive strength. As the smoke and dust created from the impact cleared, the trunk was left discarded on the ground and only a lone stump remained.

Karshak stared at the remnants of the tree, huffing through his giant fangs. It didn’t take long for him to stop looking at the current tree and move onto the next.

Stains of Kurushimi’s blood magic still soaked his face and around his eyes, but his bloodshot eyes still pierced through. They were reasonably small eyes but that didn’t make them any less intense.

-He… must be looking for me.

Karshak had supposedly recovered from Kurushimi’s blinding attack. Karshak’s bloodthirsty aura had burst forth, increasing even more after Kurushimi’s dirty fighting. It was understandable to be angry but tricks and methods such as this were why humans could rule over all other animals back on Earth. Though, Kurushimi didn’t know if humans were on top here as they were on Earth…

Anyway, it seemed Karshak’s plan here was to destroy every tree in the area until he found Kurushimi. It showed Karshak had no way else to find her, which reassured Kurushimi. But at the same time, if Kurushimi were to be unlucky, she could be found purely by chance. And she couldn’t move positions as doing so would compromise her current position. Kurushimi would be dead if she were found.

Kurushimi attempted to ignore the earthquakes created by the heavy trunks slamming against the floor. She just wanted to see how much time she had left. Though it wouldn’t guarantee her survival, if she got rid of the debuff before being found, her chance of survival would greatly increase.

KREEEEEEE EEEEEEEE EE!

-tch, so loud…

Kurushimi flinched at the roar of Karshak. She didn’t understand how the already annoying shrieks of the canisfangs could possibly get any worse. After rubbing her ear which had been hurt by the ear-piercing sound, she quickly and discreetly looked at her status.

《HP: 5/33》

《MP: 22/23》

《SP: 18/19》

《Currently under status effect ‘Predatorial roar’.》

《Remaining time left: 2 minutes.》

2 minutes were left so about half the time had passed. To Kurushimi it had felt longer but she couldn’t do anything about that.

-I doubt the system would be wrong about something like that… It is what it is I guess. Anyway, I seem to have lost 2 HP in this time. I used to lose 1 per 30 seconds from bleeding before, but now it seems to be 1 per 1 minute?

Kurushimi had observed her bleeding to be not as bad as before. She wasn’t sure as to why this was so she just passed it off as likely to be because of her higher level or higher endurance stat… or something. Well, Kurushimi wasn’t complaining about it.

As Kurushimi was looking at her status, a much louder boom came from near her. But this sounded different to the sound of a tree being smashed in as she was expecting. It was more like a sonic boom, accompanied by the sound of trees around it receiving collateral damage.

KRAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

“What in the actual hell is that?!”

Kurushimi couldn’t keep her voice in this time. She was simply too surprised by the sudden visuals she was seeing. Luckily, her voice blended in with the surplus of noise being produced at the moment.

Kurushimi’s eyes were wide open and she was in shock. Karshak’s entire body had transformed. His skin was a glossy shade of dark purple and black mist circulated around his body. Along with that, his entire body shape had changed too. His large, muscled frame had become more streamlined and aerodynamic. His rough and heavy claws that used to be unreasonably large, were now sharp blades protruding from his paws. And finally he had grown a long, deep-black tail.

The entire 5 metre radius around Karshak had been destroyed. Seemingly, it had been done by wind pressure from the transformation process. Trees were completely scratched-up and foliage had been either ripped apart or crushed.

《Boss monster: ‘Karshak’ has used skill:『Body transformation stage one Lvl. 17』!》

Along with the shocking visuals, Kurushimi got a system message notifying her of Karshak’s use of a skill. The fact that the system had actually officially notified her of the use of another monster’s skill greatly worried her. This had never happened to her before.

The time when she fought the pullumskāl, it had used a skill in front of her yet she had not received any notification. Even when Karshak had used ‘Predatorial roar’, she hadn’t received a message the same as this one.

-Is it possible to learn this skill?

Kurushimi was skeptical. The skill didn’t say ‘Unique skill’ but just said ‘Skill’ which generally should mean it isn’t exclusive to Karshak. Kurushimi hoped looking up the skill could get her more information on the strange skill.

“A skill should generally be available to anyone if it is labeled as just a ‘skill’. But that doesn’t mean just anyone can get it. A lot of stronger skills generally require conditions to learn that are unknown to anyone who doesn’t currently own the skill. But, I do suggest looking it up to look for any information.”

Voice-san cut in and added some input to Kurushimi’s thoughts. After being encouraged by Voice-san, who knows a lot more about the world than Kurushimi, Kurushimi decided to have a look at it.

《Would you like to view skill: 『Body transformation stage one Lvl. 1』?》

“Yeah.”

《Showing skill: 『Body transformation stage one Lvl. 1』...》

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Skill: 『Body transformation stage one Lvl. 1』

Skill type: Body enhancement

Mana cost: 50 MP

ACTIVE: Transforms the skill user into stage one of the Body transformation series. Includes a general boost and or re-allocation of the stats. Depending on the skill level, more is accessible.

Skill requirements:

-500 skill points

-???

-???

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As Voice-san had said, two of the three requirements for the skill were hidden. As for the first requirement and the most simple, skill points, she noticed the fact that this one cost 500 skill points.

The skills she had at the moment cost only 100 a piece, so the fact that this one cost the price of 5 skills on top of 2 different, unknown requirements must mean it really must be a remarkable skill… And it looked like she couldn’t learn it anytime soon, much to Kurushimi’s disappointment.

Kurushimi looked over to the active ability of the skill and sighed as she read it.

“With Karshak’s already stupidly high stats, he doesn’t need any more…”

Kurushimi was a little bewildered that Karshak’s stats could actually get any higher. It was rather annoying since she still wanted to get out of this alive. What Kurushimi saw was fairly simple in theory. A stat boost and re-allocation of stats.

Sadly, Kurushimi’s ‘Appraisal’ skill was simply too low to actually see what had changed in Karshak’s stats. Through observation, she could see his muscles grew smaller and he grew a tail and the like… So it was likely he sacrificed tankiness for speed? She couldn’t damage Karshak before and could only barely dodge him. Now, she may be able to damage him, but it didn’t really matter if she was dead before she attacked!

But what Kurushimi was most worried about was the last part. ‘Depending on the skill level, more is accessible’. Karshak’s ‘Body transformation stage one’ was at Lvl. 17. So there had to be more to it than just the active.

And worst of all Kurushimi had not a single clue what that was. The most dangerous type of fight was a blind one.

Kurushimi didn’t really understand what Karshak was trying to do by transforming here though. What was he going to do with his new form?

《HP: 4/33》

《MP: 23/23》

《SP: 19/19》

《Currently under status effect ‘Predatorial roar’.》

《Remaining time left: 47 seconds.》

-47 seconds…

All of Kurushimi’s hopes were riding on the ‘Predatorial roar’ debuff ending. Whatever Karshak was going to do, hopefully it wouldn’t compromise her position in the 47 seconds left on the debuff.

Kurushimi went back to observing Karshak. His rough figure had become elegant and beautiful after the transformation. Karshak stood tall and mesmerizing. Eerie black mist continued to orbit his body.

-Wait a second! That’s strange isn’t it!? Why is he just stood there?! Shouldn’t he be looking for me right now…?!

There wasn’t much time left on the ‘Predorial roar’ debuff. So it is naturally weird that Karshak would choose to stand still at this time.

As Kurushimi stared intensely at the still Karshak, a bead of sweat ran down her forehead. It slowly dripped down her face until it separated from her body and began to fall to the ground.

DROP.

Along with the sound of the bead of sweat dropping to the ground, Karshak disappeared.

“What?!” Kurushimi exclaimed as Karshak instantaneously disappeared from sight. Like mist being blown away by the wind...