In a windy mountainous region, two animals stared at one another. One was a ferocious carnivore that would provoke most creatures into instantly running away at the sight of it. A mountain lion with a surprising light pink coat, sharp teeth, and deadly claws. It was because of this pink coating that this big cat is one of the top predators within these mountain ranges. No, it wasn’t because there was vegetation that allowed it to camouflage better. Its pink fur was actually due to the mana core laying active within its body. Due to this active mana core, this mountain lion had the ability to slightly manipulate the wind around itself. Allowing it to have an edge over the numerous other predators that lived in this region. And now it has come face to face with some prey that dared to confront it head on instead of fleeing immediately at the sight of him.

“Growl...” He threatened.

“Bah.” She responded.

The second animal haughtily looked down on the cat. It was a goat with large mighty curved horns and sleek white fur. She was smaller than the mountain lion, but with how she presented herself, it didn’t look like she was small at all! This little cat interrupted her grazing and thought it would be a good idea to try and prey on her of all animals. Does he not understand that she’s an apex herbivore? The only thing she needs to fear is old age and humans.

She humored the cat and taunted him to attack her. It wasn’t until recently that she unlocked her mana core and also gained a form of magic. A form of magic that’s so simple that she’s already mastered it with a few days of practicing. If he wanted to take a bite of her, then he’s going to need a little more than just claws and teeth to do that.

“Rawr!” It took her bait and ran towards her with the wind aiding its agility.

The confident goat stood up on her hind legs and raised her head up high just as the mountain lion was coming toward her. In the way this fight was unfolding, she might not even need to use her magic. And surprisingly, she was right. Those horns of hers, which probably weighed almost as much as herself, bashed against the skull of the mountain lion and knocked him out like a light. It released an ear-piercing cry upon feeling the impact of her horns before falling silent.

“Mah.” She stomped on his unconscious body a few times before repeating her motions from before to put him out for good.

An audible crack echoed out as her horns crashed against the cat’s head once more. She continued this until she managed to fish out the mana core inside the animal and chew it. Mana cores were the only way that animals like her could continue to evolve into monsters. Little Miss Goat has yet to experience her first evolution. It was something she was looking forward to after unlocking her mana core.

After dealing with the mountain lion, Miss Goat continued to forage for clean and delicious-looking vegetation around her. This grassy plain was filled with all sorts of interesting plants to eat on. There was also very little cover for predators to use to hide. Miss Goat was lucky enough to only encounter one predator on her little solo journey down the mountain. Most of her herd gobbled up the food up the mountain, which forced her into having to come down the mountain if she wanted to fill her belly.

But Miss Goat was wondering if she needed her herd in the first place after unlocking her mana core. Not even their leader managed to unlock his, and he was the strongest male goat she’s ever seen! Well, probably not stronger than her now. And considering that he wasn’t as strong as her and she could find food on her own down the mountain without having to worry about predators, why would she return to her old herd? Sure, she could protect them, but that wouldn’t feed her. That would only take more of her food as they live longer!

Miss Goat had a feeling that these plants down the mountain were more valuable than the ones up the mountain too. To prove this feeling of hers, she started to explore this vast expanse of nature. But just simply walking to explore was too boring when she could use her magic to cross distances faster. Her eyes locked onto a rock far into the distance, and she felt herself being magically relocated through space. The next second she opened her eyes, she was more than 1000 steps away from where she used to be and where she used to be, a rock took her place.

This was her innate ability: Swap. It allowed her to swap places with anything she laid her eyes on. Its only limit was the size of what she was trying to swap with and needing to focus her eyes on it. Miss Goat couldn’t swap herself with something like a mountain or anything too fast to see. For now, anyway. The thing with bigger objects was that it took too much of her mana to swap with. An issue she believed that could be solved in time with enough evolutions and eating enough mana cores. She didn’t know how to solve the second problem, though. Could she make her eyes better somehow so that she could see fast objects? Miss Goat planned to find out eventually.

“Baah.” There was movement in the distance.

Trees started to populate her surroundings instead of plains of grass, rock, and lakes. Below these trees were small little creatures that resembled humans. They held strange objects in their hands while searching around together. Miss Goat was interested in them due to their resemblance to humans. The last time she saw a human, it was a long time ago in her herd. She saw them while they were traveling across the mountain tops. Their tools also looked similar to the tools those humans had back then when they slew that evolved beast.

Maybe they were out hunting for food. Did she count as food? Miss Goat thought it was better to avoid the creatures, but her decision came a bit too late as the little human-like creatures came running towards her. She stared them down with an arrogant look. Unlike the mountain lion from earlier, they didn’t care for how little she regarded them. Whether this was a testament to how much dumber they were or how cowardly the big cat was, it would show in a moment.

“Bleee.” Miss Goat swapped places with a bush near the trees, leaving the goblins standing out in the open, very confused.

“Greh?” One goblin scratched its head.

“Groo! Groo!” The other pointed at her near the tree with a cocky smile.

“Halall!!!” This one screamed as it ran towards her with its tool.

Miss Goat gracefully ran through the forest with the goblins on her trail. A teasing grin was on her face as she played around with the dumb goblins. With their tiny legs, they couldn’t match up to her max speed if she truly wanted to get away. But why tire herself out by doing that at all? Occasionally she let one of the goblins catch up right behind her and then swapped herself with the goblin and rammed him at full speed with her horns.

His high-pitched cry as he face-planted right into a tree was too funny not to laugh at. Miss Goat laughed at the poor monster and almost suffered a sharp stick to the butt if it wasn’t for her great eyesight that saw it being thrown from more than 320 degrees behind her. She swapped with the brain-damaged goblin, and he screamed once more after being impaled by the pointy stick in the butt. As an apex herbivore, how could she willingly let herself be hunted by these lower-class creatures? The point of an apex animal is that no creature preys on you.

Miss Goat domed the goblin with a headbutt, and he fell to the ground twitching with his eyes wide open. Her eyes focused on the two goblins standing next to each other, and she prepared another devastating headbutt before swapping with the one on the left and putting the 2nd goblin out of commission as well. By this point, the last remaining goblin understood that she was no simple animal and not anything to mess with. He ran in fright of her strange magic without a care for his companions.

“Bleh.” Miss Goat laughed at his fleeing figure.

Looking at the two goblin bodies before her made her curious if they also had mana cores inside them. To find out, she lowered her curved horns real low and started to prick, prod, and poke with the sharp end on their bodies. Cutting open their bodies and drilling into their brains to search for it. Miss Goat was glad to find out that they both held tiny mana cores inside their brains. Neither one was unlocked, but upon chewing on both of them, she found out that they directly strengthened her body and mana. Maybe she should find more cocky predators to take mana cores from. Then she could truly evolve into the ultimate apex herbivore.