She’d have thought that suddenly growing a bit over half a foot would have just made her feel taller, but it actually just made the entire world around her feel discomfortingly smaller.

It would take some getting used to.

All of this would, she imagined.

Despite having drank more than her fair fill just a few minutes ago, she was already starting to feel like she wanted a bit of blood. That would probably get annoying fast.

She lifted her right arm, slowly turning it, flexing her fingers.

It was hideous, bulky, and it looked like it was made to pull people’s guts out of their stomachs.

She loved it.

It felt strong, and it was. Axehead-shaped talons made of white bone at her fingertips, with the bottom side stretching forwards, before fading into a plated gauntlet of black chitin past the claws.

Just past the wrist, it shifted into a mess of different materials.

But it wasn’t as random as it looked. Patches of fur sat just around her wrist, elbow and shoulder joints to allow her maximum mobility. Her lower forearm had a slanted triangle of thick scales, but from there, it was a spinning mess of faintly iridescent black scales, chitin, and fur, like someone took strips of each material then twisted them up with a clockwise vortex before gluing them to the muscular limb all the way up to the shoulder. There was not a hint of skin to be seen.

Kat said it would unbalance her with how thick it was, so she’d have to put a bit of weight on her left side, likely some kind of pauldron, but that would be fine.

She shifted her head away and turned to look at her right shoulder. It was not difficult at all. She felt like she was made of rubber and could twist herself into a knot if needed.

Her shoulder had a few patches of short and stubby chitin spikes around the joint, and then the skin turned into something that looked like a mix between bark and leather, slowly turning gray then white as it met her equally white skin.

She lifted her left hand, and rubbed the odd leather-like flesh.

Certainly felt like it.

She turned her head down, absent-mindedly listening in on a conversation between Katherine and Scruffy, a stumbling, confused one. The wolf was busy gnawing on the husks he dragged through the portal on the other side of the outcrop they were waiting on.

So greedy. It was funny, for some reason.

Her attention turned back to her chest, which… well, she was not particularly attached to whatever bust she had, but it was… odd, to see and feel parts of herself so suddenly different. It was like someone made a breastplate of black scales and chitin and just covered her with it, except it was patchy and the scales sank into her skin along the edges before fading.

And there was some padding behind this armor, like... scar tissue or fat or something, even if there was nothing salacious behind it. It didn’t feel like the humanoid mind was wired well to such things. If she hadn’t been wanting this so much, she’d probably feel oddly sick and repulsed by it all.

But in a way, it covered her modesty better than a bra would. Which was good, because her old one didn’t fit, and her bottom underwear barely did.

She brought her left hand forward a bit to examine it in the scarce yellow light from the lanterns below.

Her skin was ridiculously pale. Not corpse pale, but literally fresh-fallen snow pale. Katherine had looked quite shocked when they came out here where there were actual hints of normal light besides the white from the flashlight, and she could guess why now. Kat had likely thought the white skin was just a trick of lighting before they came out here.

There were strange things and people in the Dungeon, everywhere, but she likely ranked quite high on the absurdity scale.

She’d have to cover up a lot better soon, but once the wolf was done chewing, they could go kill the people below and she could use whatever clothes survived.

She jutted her hips and stomach out a little, staring at her abdomen.

She never had visible abs before.

Certainly not weirdly rectangular ones like this, that were for some reason all leaning downwards on the inner side, forming chevrons on her flesh, following the V of her hips.

Huh, no belly button either.

There were segmented plates of chitin on the left side of her abdomen, hiding a portion of the odd chevrons, and there was a large patch of fur on her right hip. Three strips of black scales moved from just above said hip to the bottom of her ribcage on the right side of her abdomen, each a couple inches across, looking almost like claw marks.

For all she remembered of whatever bizarre visions she had during that ritual, they might be.

She twisted her torso to the side to look at the rope-like muscles on her waist and the side of her ribs, which were curiously devoid of rigid materials, only strips and winding patches of fur, then turned even further to look at the base of her back, and the seven foot long black tail extending out of it.

It was extremely flexible and actually helped with her balance a lot, thankfully, or otherwise it would be nothing but a pain in the ass tipped with a bony spike at the end. Just to get it out of the way, she tightly wrapped the patchy tail around her own neck like a scarf.

Her spine, whatever she could see of it past her waist-length pitch black hair, looked… solid. Oddly blocky, but thick and strong.

It took a moment to realize she had essentially twisted her upper body around without moving her lower, and she blinked in surprise for a moment, before experimentally trying to turn even further, keeping her feet pinned to the ground.

She ended up with her shoulders parallel to her hips on the wrong side, seeing and feeling the muscles on her waist and chest pull and strain to keep her like this as she stared in mute amazement at her waist, which looked like a twisted, narrow stretch of fabric.

That looked disturbing, even to her. How was she even doing this?

Somehow, it didn’t hurt. Strained and burned a bit, like keeping a difficult stretch going for too long, but it was as if she didn’t have any organs to pull and stretch.

Wait, did she have organs? She had lungs, and she had a heart for sure. She couldn’t be sure of the rest though.

She also had a nice butt now, and her hips were a bit wider. Which… was nice for her self-esteem, she supposed, but it didn’t really matter.

She twisted her upper torso to face the right way again, and bent forward to examine her legs.

They were strangely armored, compared to her torso, which was much more important in her opinion. But then again, looking for sense in this kind of thing seemed nonsensical in itself.

Her left outer thigh was covered in large black scales all the way up to her hip bone, while the inner thigh had a few flat plates of chitin, but was mostly just white skin. Her right outer thigh was covered in two half-circles of bent, lumpy chitin plates mixed along with fur, up to just below her upper thigh, while her inner thigh was covered in a large patch of black scales, all the way down to her knee.

Both knees were covered in thin, almost skin-conforming plates, not quite as thick or angular as the rest, and her shins were covered in horizontally aligned V-shaped plates, each about two inches thick and curving around to the side.

There were some negligible patches and sprinklings of fur and scales on her calves, again looking more like ribbons or like something monstrous was about to burst out of her skin rather than randomly placed.

She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. It looked almost purposeful, but…

Well, if she had some kind of transformation ability, it would show up in her system screen, and she was curious regardless, so she stopped ogling at herself and glanced over the rocky lip of the outcrop they were on to make sure nobody would be coming out of the safehouse anytime soon.

Which, they shouldn’t, because according to Ghoul, his associate that they would meet “soon” had killed the gangster’s boss a few minutes prior, and they were to wait for him to return, however long it took.

It was a nice opportunity. A bunch of gangsters all conveniently boxed into that creaking shed of a building. Like meat in a can.

…

That was a more morbid thought than usual.

She checked her wings again, finding them to be roughly the same thing as her right arm, a spiraling mess of stripes and patches that were either chitin, fur, or scale, the hands themselves being the only parts that had skin.

The skin was pitch black and leathery, of course, but it was still skin.

She folded her wings back a little, and glanced at the wolf.

He had a couple dried husks left to go, and she’d rather not think too much about who he was eating, a sentiment Katherine shared judging by how she’d gone in the complete opposite direction to have her “conversation” with Scruffy.

She shook her head, and opened her system screen, still unable to keep the smile from her face.

-Species: Humanoid

-Race: Elven Vampire

-Name: Emhreeil

-Paths: [Augmentor] Level 18

Base Attributes:

Strength ( +0 )

Speed ( +0 )

Dexterity ( +0 )

Endurance ( +0 )

Perception ( +0 )

Resolve ( +0 )

Intelligence ( +0 )

Soul ( +0 )

Available: 18

She checked again.

Her brows lowered and lowered as she opened and closed the screen rapidly, seeing the same thing over and over.

That… she didn’t even know that that could happen beyond some very vague mutterings in the Guild, people wishing the system would give them a reset but not knowing how to get one or if it was just some stupid rumor.

Apparently it wasn’t.

She might have stopped to wonder if she could replicate such a reset again, but she suspected that she only got one because of the monumental change she’d gone through, or maybe due to her Race changing, so she wasn’t going to bother. Might trade the information with someone when she got back to another Adventurer’s Guild office though.

She moved on for the moment.

-Racial Skills: [Attuned], [Quick Learner], [Enhanced Senses], [Blood Dominion], [Psychometric Vision], [Arcane Heart], [Dominating Mind], [Form Release], [Bloodlust]

That- that was a lot of racial Skills.

What the hell?

Through fuzzy memories, she could guess where some of that might have come from, if that was how the ritual worked at all. [Enhanced Senses] and [Blood Dominion] seemed like vampire skills. [Form Release] sounded… concerning, and [Bloodlust] might have come from the wolf’s blood? She remembered what he was like when he was furious.

From what little she remembered of mythology, it fit.

She had no idea about the rest.

She squinted at the letters, letting the rest of the world fade into fuzzy shapes and dark impressions, not even paying attention to the messages she was relaying with the telepathic bond at this point.

[Enhanced Senses] was self-explanatory, and she already knew she had those, she’d just assumed it was a part of her changed biology.

She could hear someone slurping soup down in the safehouse, the crunch of bone and tear of dried flesh to her right, and snippets of mixed conversation all around her mixing with the passive ambiance of a commercial spire, or the underside of one, at least.

So it wasn’t like she could not notice the difference.

She focused on the Skill for a moment, understanding filling her.

This Skill wasn’t just giving her enhanced senses, if anything, it actually didn’t give her that big of a boost compared to her biological alterations. Its secondary function was to make her more able to process whatever stimuli she was receiving, which was nice and explained why she wasn’t feeling very overwhelmed.

It could have accomplished the same by giving her a Perception boost, but this was the System.

Clunky, convoluted, nonsensical piece of shit. She was surprised anyone would ever worship this thing.

[Blood Dominion] was… nice, but weak and simple. It was essentially a form of weak Hemokinesis. She’d likely never be able to make people explode into a burst of gore or anything, not do anything like make blood whips or something truly incredible, but if her opponents were bleeding, she could yank that blood out, hasten how quick they bled, and she could make it draw itself to her, ready to patch up her wounds and rejuvenate her without chasing a meal in the middle of a fight.

Drawn out fights were her biggest weakness prior to this. Once she blew her mana, she was done for. With this and her new physical upgrades, she had patched up that weakness quite nicely. The longer a fight went on, the more their enemies would bleed out their strength and the more she’d heal from it.

Probably.

Did vampires heal from drinking blood? She wasn’t even sure. It wasn’t a well-researched race, if one could call it that, and definitely not something her family would have put in front of her.

[Psychometric Vision] was… an activatable Skill, which was rather rare for Racial Skills as far as she knew. Most were passive.

The impressions she got from it were tough to understand, so she tried to push the System to explain it with words, like it normally did, only just now realizing that it seemed to have changed.

It didn’t do anything like that. No words, no explanation, no description, not even a mental one.

She turned to [Sparkburst], a skill whose description she had memorized because it used to be the only thing she could actually see for a while.

It refused to show.

Her brows lowered with irritation.

“Nonsensical piece of shit.” She growled quietly, and turned her gaze back to [Psychometric Vision].

She activated it.

Nothing happened.

She turned the System screen off, and immediately, information began to flood her mind, like words that weren’t words but not sounds or thoughts either. Blinking rapidly, she turned her gaze to the building.

Old construction. Built anywhere from thirty to forty years ago by amateurs. Doors replaced the past decade, scuff marks and residue insinuate heavy passage and the occasional struggle, paint has faint claw marks along the edges, likely used for human trafficking or prostitution before owners changed its purpose. Leaking roof along the right side, less than an inch thick metal, eaten through with rust, non-treated metal-

She closed her eyes, taking a step back. Then she opened them again, and turned to look at the wolf, curious.

Impatient, eager. Wants to kill, will kill regardless of companions’ opinions.

Well… it was nice to have confirmation on that. The guilt had dulled significantly, but it had been nagging at her in her subconscious, asking if she could have found a way to stop the wolf from doing what it did.

Impatient for something else, unknown what. Posture and motions excited. Wants to kill with his companions. Sees it as a goal, a personal pride. Wants to test something, or someone. Way of eating and tearing with extra force suggests frustration at something. Slightly annoyed about sharing prey, isn’t aware, subconscious frustration. Wants to drink water, does not enjoy dried flesh, tongue feels dry. Bulges at waist, hidden limbs, dangerous. Tails are prehensile, spikes capable of something more, unknown. Spikes along shoulders and forearms are venomous, likely lethal. Build along the abdomen suggests lack of digestive system. Has eaten more than is physically possible for own size, has non-standard ways of digestion or possible non-standard space inside its body. Is a wolf. Extremely dangerous, confident. Proud. Male, used to pain, used to threat of death, fears little. Lacks reproductive system-

Okay, she didn’t need to know most of that.

And she knew a lot of what it told her already. Still, the Skill was incredible for information gathering.

Some of what it said sounded like simple, logical deductions that she probably wouldn’t or couldn’t have made, while others sounded almost like mind-reading, or like a limited sense of omniscience. The potential was wild.

She wished she’d turned this on before Ghoul had dropped them off here, tossed them a communication crystal and a piece of paper, then did that strange step-teleportation, gone without giving them the chance to ask even a single question.

What could she have learned about him?

Honestly, probably not that much. The guy seemed impervious to everything.

She focused on the next Skill.

[Arcane Heart].

It was actually fairly straightforward, but immensely powerful. It gave her instinctive, deep-rooted connection to magic, more than her [Attuned] Skill did.

In combination with [Attuned] however, she might actually be able to learn spells by watching someone use them a few times, or just skimming through a spellbook. Everything about magic and spells should make more sense, more like she was re-learning how to write by observation, rather than learning the alphabet from scratch to some day get to the writing part.

As far as she knew, only some Phoenixes and Dragons had this Skill, and…

She was a little scared to ask how Ghoul got his hands on dragon blood, if he even did. She vaguely remembered some vision of wings and a woman drinking her blood.

Maybe he got it from a phoenix. She hoped he wasn’t strong enough to hurt a Dragon, or find one in general, even if he was on their side. She’d be more comfortable if nobody but her and the wolf had such abilities.

[Dominating Mind] was also simple and straightforward, but she couldn’t exactly test it here.

It was essentially the ability to dominate lesser minds, even take control or just guide them, see through their lenses, or just feel their individual locations and distances.

Beyond that it had a number of applications she could come up with, but the disparity between her and the mind she was trying to control had to be quite extreme. She doubted she’d ever be able to use this on anything more than critters and maybe some rats, maybe mice. Bats would be amazing for sense sharing. They had good hearing, she remembered reading that on some monster manual for the mutated ones.

A distant explosion drew her away from her thinking for a moment, and she turned her head fractionally, rotating her ears to catch the sound better, the distant thud-rumble mixing with a dozen other ambient noises.

Assuming they were in the middle of the third floor, and close to the walls… that was probably just a chemical plant having its weekly hazardous explosion.

She ignored it, and tried to ignore how much this entire place smelled like burnt paint, the rickety old storage building underneath them nestled into a dead end corner along a massive spire that people built things on, for some reason. Likely because it was easier to hide.

She flicked the System screen back up.

The [Form Release] skill was a bit concerning, but also potentially powerful.

Her suspicions of why she had strip-like stretches of chitin and fur and scales, almost like a design meant to show there was something under her skin, were correct. She did have a transformation, a mix between every creature she’d drank from, and every type of blood that had gone into the ritual, if the word fit.

It took another mute minute of prodding the skill to figure out the full scope of this.

It was a transformation that had a simple expenditure, a simple cost.

Power in exchange for damage and exhaustion.

Everything about her, from her regeneration to her speed and strength and mana regeneration, everything would balloon and flare for as long as she could keep it up, but there was a backlash afterwards, and a significant drain on her energy.

She wondered what that form would look like, really.

She’d drank from rats, a bunch from people, a little bit from the slaughterhouse animals once or twice when Kat would buy blood bags, a lot from the wolf, some from a dragon or a phoenix, judging by both [Arcane Heart] and the bulky winged arms on her back, and she vaguely remembered Ghoul dropping some gigantic spider legs into the edge of her blood. Or, the… ritual’s edge?

He also said something about a demon’s eye, if she remembered right, which… was likely where [Psychometric Vision] came from. That sounded exactly like what a demon would have.

She tried to mash all the forms she could remember drinking from, or being involved in the ritual, all into some kind of singular body, and grimaced.

It would likely be horrific enough to make Katherine green in the face, and the wolf happy enough to tackle her. She’d keep it for an emergency, or when they had room to experiment.

The last but not least of the Racial Skills was [Bloodlust], which…

Honestly, it seemed like both a curse as a benefit, though the benefit seemed more potent.

She would apparently never be satisfied, not truly, and any satisfaction she could get would only last a moment before she wished for more blood again. In return, the more she drank over time, the stronger everything about her would become.

She couldn’t tell if this came from the wolf, or if [Form Release] did. This sounded like a regular vampire Skill.

It certainly incentivized overeating which…

Honestly, was she even against that anymore? She’d love to clean the third floor up, to slaughter every gangster, drug pusher, slaver and Guard, every loan shark and abuser, and eventually, her mother and near-vegetative father.

By the time she’d run out of those to kill in the Dungeon of all places, Katherine would be a grandmother.

Another thing she just realized. She didn’t age anymore. The wolf didn’t either. Katherine did.

She’d have to convince Katherine to go down the same path she did, unless Katherine truly wished to be a normal human, and refused to budge.

If Kat didn’t budge however, how would she keep up? How would Scruffy keep up?

Emhreeil and the wolf were… not on the same wavelength yet, not really, he proved he could still scrub the floor with her without much effort, but they could at least keep up with each other.

Much as she wanted to launch herself straight into that safehouse and kill everything, to fight on somewhat equal ground to her monstrous little friend, see what she was capable of, she didn’t want to give up on Katherine. She refused.

She’d push and push if she had to, but if Katherine didn’t give up on her, she wouldn’t give up on her.

That meant that the fight they were waiting to get into should… probably change directions a little. Be more focused on Katherine.

She had no idea what to do with Scruffy, honestly. Soon, she’d likely die if she stayed with them.

Something Ghoul mentioned came to mind, and she frowned.

She could give Scruffy to him and his team, to learn from the woman of chitin. He had suggested it. It felt too much like getting rid of her, but the way Ghoul had worded it sounded more like a member swap so he could put Scruffy to actual use rather than having her tag along until someone accidentally sneezed the wrong spell in her direction and pasted her.

And from what she had observed, Scruffy was not stupid. She loved to mess with that clock she bought her, and in Katherine’s apartment, she’d started poking at the heating box almost immediately. She’d also worked in that waste facility for a decent while, she could guess.

Maybe that ‘chitin woman’ that Ghoul hadn’t named, could teach Scruffy a way to put that curiosity and interest to use.

She knew that she herself definitely couldn’t.

It would be better for Scruffy to go with Ghoul’s team, and even though letting her go would hurt a bit, because she honestly really enjoyed having her around, things were just… heating up too much, too fast. Scruffy could not tag along with them for long and survive.

Well, she had the dimensional ring, and she had the crystal. She could tell Ghoul anytime. And with her telepathy, Scruffy could probably talk for herself now, finally, or try for an approximation of it.

She let the rest of the symbols fade past her sight, checking for any other significant changes.

-Acquired Skills:

[Magic Resistance - Level 5]

[Mental Resistance - Level 6]

[Poison Resistance - Level 13]

[Pain Resistance - Level 26]

[Illumina - Level 8]

[Sparkburst - Level 21]

[Haste - Level 21]

[Mana Perception - Level 24]

[Mana Manipulation - Level 26]

[Mana Tank - Level 9]

[Mana Conduit - Level 13]

[Mana Touch] - Level 14]

[Tough Skin - Level 9]

[Infection Resistance - Level 4]

[Disease Resistance - Level 2]

[Telemantic Construct - Level 18]

[Telepathic Link - Level 1]

[Telepathic Message - Level 1]

[Telepathic Bond - Level 1]

-Acquired Traits:

Enduring (1 / 5): You have felt the chill of death multiple times, and survived. You are slightly tougher.

-Acquired Titles:

Wolf-Blooded: Your hunger will never truly be satisfied, and you are destined for conflict and struggle. You are tougher, and your limits are more malleable than most, should your will be found to match your needs.

Dragon-Blooded: You and your flight are destined to reach for the top where you belong, whether consciously, unconsciously, by circumstance, or by necessity. Your hide is made of iron, and your magic is as pure as pure can be, regardless of yourself.

She lost the Vampiric trait, which made sense.

And she got two Titles. Sure, they sounded just as much like curses as they did blessings, but the curse-like parts were already things she was probably heading for.

'You and your flight' caught her eye. A gathering of dragons was called a flight, like how a gathering of crows was called a murder. A flight of dragons, a murder of crows.

Did that mean that this Title would only work on any draconic companions she had? She hoped so. She was a bit iffy on having a title that nudged or dictated 'destiny' for her entire group.

She wasn't sure what it meant by saying her magic would be pure, but that sounded positive as well. Maybe it meant efficiency? Impurities in the world's mana tended to make things inefficient.

Interesting, but she had more things to check. She brought up the Attributes again.

Base Attributes:

Strength ( +0 )

Speed ( +0 )

Dexterity ( +0 )

Endurance ( +0 )

Perception ( +0 )

Resolve ( +0 )

Intelligence ( +0 )

Soul ( +0 )

Available: 18

She already felt stronger than ever, and she still had eighteen points to put into things. She felt like making excited 'squee' sounds, like a ten year old.

But she had to put thought into this. She’d likely never again go through another change so monumental that the System would give her a reset. She couldn’t believe her luck in getting this one in the first place. Resets were so rare they were basically a rumor in the guild, from what she remembered.

She wasn’t sure what to go for.

Her magic remained her greatest weapon. She could throw herself into a melee now, especially if the Dragon-Blooded Title was accurate about her skin being made of iron.

But even if she put half a dozen points into Strength and Speed, she doubted her strikes would do as much damage as a well-charged [Sparkburst] detonated against a weak point. It was one thing to stab straight through someone’s torso or punch someone's ribs to splinters, which was arguably survivable if she missed the heart, it was another to make someone’s torso explode like a bag of gore.

There was no surviving that, not if something was alive in the first place.

And with how the points worked, according to the literature, it was always better to focus on one’s natural strongpoints. A flat ten percent increase to something someone sucked at was a wasted point, whereas if tossed onto something one was good at, it could have much higher yield. She wasn’t sure if the ‘ten percent’ example was accurate, a rule, or an example, but she agreed with it.

Play to your strengths instead of wasting points trying to circumvent shoring up your weaknesses naturally.

So what were her strengths, really? Magic was the biggest one. She could probably detonate someone into little gibbets now by just shoving her hand against their ribs and using [Sparkburst], assuming they didn’t have too much Endurance or [Magic Resistance] or some other esoteric effect to protect them.

She was probably about as strong as Katherine right now, physically, and probably a bit faster, without any spells or Attributes in the way.

Her soul felt vast and powerful, but it wasn’t like she had a frame of reference there. She could have a soul weaker than Scruffy’s for all she knew. So maybe making it bigger by putting some points into the Soul Attribute would be nice, allowing her to regenerate mana even faster.

Speed and Strength were a possibility too, but she could get Speed from [Haste] without huge costs now that she had Augmentor as a Path, and while Strength was useful, she couldn’t really come up with too many ways it would benefit her in a fight. She wasn’t a brute, she didn’t want to be getting into fistfights if she could avoid it, and if she did get into one, her right arm should be enough.

Resolve was… not really something she needed. She had plenty by herself.

Dexterity…

Dexterity might actually be useful. She was always clumsy. And even though she felt more aware and in control of her body than she had in a long time, it could really help her to be able to be pinpoint accurate with her movements and be able to twist herself around even more. If she combined [Haste] with a field of [Mana Touch], and had a bit of Dexterity, she could probably dance circles around most opponents without even trying.

She was no wolf. She couldn’t tank the amount of damage he could. She still remembered trying to break his ribs when she was overcome with rabid hunger and madness.

It had felt like punching an iron wall covered by a layer of rubber.

So dodging would be much more efficient than tanking hits.

Perception felt unnecessary because [Haste] could fill that gap exceedingly well, and Intelligence… Intelligence helped with pattern recognition, deduction, and memory retention. There were probably other bits she’d forgotten, but it had been a while since she’d last had an actual conversation with someone who knew about any of this stuff.

Intelligence was also something that she couldn’t exactly naturally increase.

So her focus should be… Soul, to generate mana faster, grow her mana core faster, and fill her body up with mana even faster. Maybe a couple points into Dexterity to get rid of any clumsiness left over, and for dodging. A couple points in Endurance so that slipping up once wouldn’t kill her, a couple points in Intelligence for overall benefits…

And maybe save a couple points for when she had a better, more accurate reading of her situation and newfound fighting “style”, if one could call her flailing as such.

She spent a minute rethinking it all, and eventually felt sure enough to commit.

Strength ( +0 )

Speed ( +1 )

Dexterity ( +2 )

Endurance ( +3 )

Perception ( +0 )

Resolve ( +0 )

Intelligence ( +2 )

Soul ( +7 )

Available: 3

She almost physically felt something in her chest swell like an overfilled balloon, a strangely euphoric feeling. She felt her body harden, her mind get noticeably sharper, her body a tiny bit lighter, her limbs more present and responsive.

With a deep, pleased breath, she closed the screen with a mental flick, focusing back on the bizarre, stilted conversation Scruffy was having with Katherine. Something about Katherine trying to get Scruffy to recite her system screen to her...?

She glanced to the side at the wolf, then at the warehouse below.

She wiggled her toes onto the cold stone, the sensation being oddly pleasant, then bent down to grab her modified clothes off the floor.

They consisted of her cloak shredded into five thick ribbons, so she could be able to extend her wings without throwing the whole thing off, her dart launcher attached to a full left sleeve of armor, significantly loosened, her trophy mask with an extra strap on the top to go between her new ears and keep the thing steady, and her dimensional ring.

That and new panties. The size barely fit, but it was what they had in their backpack.

She wasn’t sure if it was confidence or just desensitization, or just her body being weird and inhuman at this point, but she didn’t feel all that embarrassed to be naked in the open, even if they were in a dark corner. It was strangely liberating, and nobody here cared.

She shrugged the cloak on, fiddled with the straps of the arm-brace for the dart launcher until she finally managed to squeeze her arm in it without tearing it to pieces with her bulky right arm. Then she picked up her ring, and put her mask on.

It took her another three minutes to bundle up the explanation of what she wanted to do her general plan, and shift it into a sort of mental package, but she eventually managed. With a faint struggle, she pushed it to everyone she’d linked up, right as the wolf finished eating the last scrap of meat off the floor.

He jolted in surprise for a moment, then smacked his jaws shut and stared off into the distance, deciphering her reasoning.

She activated [Psychometric Vision].

Frustrated. Annoyed at the suggestion of being the only combatant denied actual combat. Understands reasoning. Agrees with reasoning. Does not want to agree with reasoning. Hopes that its companions will miss some fleeing humans so it can have some fun too.

She could do that. Leave the cowards for him to toy with while she and Katherine practiced both fighting, and kept the fight challenging and dangerous enough to not skimp out on Levelling.

Preferably while having him somewhat close by, just in case.

Hungry. Impatient for something else. Curious. Has questions for Emhreeil. Has questions for Scruffy. Finds Scruffy weird. Finds Scuffy endearing, surprised and confused about her lack of fear. Confused on why Katherine’s fear won’t fade, has questions for Katherine. Wants to toy with prey, wants to drag it out for sadistic pleasure and spiteful satisfaction. Does not want to agree with Emhreeil’s plan. Will likely agree with Emhreeil’s plan. Does not want Katherine to stay weak. Understands his companions have a bond and history, does not care to get in the way or interfere with it. Is inwardly jealous of the bond, to some extent. Unaware of it, entirely subconscious. Perceived cowardice of Katherine and jealousy is slowly budding into gradual distaste. Does not dislike Katherine yet. Will likely not dislike Katherine until a fair period of time has passed without anything changing.

Oh.

That… that could be a problem in the future. Maybe.

She turned the Skill off to think.

The solutions were to either make Katherine stop being ‘cowardly’, or in her opinion, a perfectly normal and sane response to what is happening around her, really, or to find ways to make everyone in the group feel included.

Likely the telepathic bond then. She imagined them talking with words rather than the link so the wolf could be included too when the option was available would feel like a purposeful exclusion to him. She could see that being the case, and how it could build up drops of resentment or annoyance.

The last thing they needed was group friction. They couldn’t afford it, and she’d never be able to make a choice if it came down to it.

She disliked using this link, truth be told. It felt like learning how to speak again, like she was some stunted toddler trying to figure out how to translate feelings and ideas from words and sounds into bizarre mind-bending concepts so the wolf could understand.

It was a sudden role reversal from the wolf trying to learn human speech, to her now trying to learn a wolf's way of thought.

On the upside, the method definitely helped expand her way of thinking in an oddly pleasant way.

Katherine sent uncertainty, a question of confidence directed at her.

That was… asking Emhreeil if she was sure of her plan?

She bundled up confirmation, send it out, then took a short few seconds to bundle up a request for the wolf to stick close in case they needed backup in there, and a promise that she’d toss out anyone too strong for them, as well as let any cowards flee so he could take them.

The wolf sent back disagreement, much to her surprise, then sent something different as he turned away from the warehouse, staring at her with a serious, hungry gaze.

She had known he was smart, but she still felt her brows raise at the plan he gave them.

It began with a detailed, mental map of the entire area around the place, including the underground sections, with mental buzzing around where the groups of people were concentrated, and paths of entrance for them to sandwich the people inside, one for her and one for Katherine, while leaving just enough wiggle room for the cowards of the group to flee from the available exits around the back.

The picture, the plan, the layout and ideas, they were so crisp and vivid. It was just a mental map and some conceptual ideas attached to it, but it was worth more than a thousand words.

Maybe learning how to think and communicate like this would be better in the long run. It sure felt like it. It had visualization skills she didn’t.

An idea rose.

She could teach him so much magic. He was so talented in visualization that it would be a piece of cake if she could somehow explain the basic principles of magic to him. He even had human hands to do the first couple casts with until he got the Skills to do it for him.

A project for later. A very interesting project for later.

For now, the wolf’s plan was similar to hers, but more thought out, and actually had an interesting, albeit cruel idea tacked on at the end.

The wolf could crawl along the rafters or prowl around the building, waiting for escapees or survivors, strong or weak, and put a little bit of paralytic in their veins to make them stay down.

Then they could just take the stronger members of the safehouse with them for her and Katherine to train with, by force, in another nearby area. Plenty of abandoned places around the Dungeon.

Meanwhile he could play around with the weaker members until they gave up and it killed them for its amusement, providing a fresh snack for both of them.

It was quite horrible, morally.

But these people were a walking cancer upon the Dungeon. She remembered hearing what gangs did to people, enemies or just victims who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Children taken from their families at swordpoint for the brothels, led to an early, diseased grave. Men and women senselessly murdered in dark alleys for their organs and a small handful of coppers from the butchers and the witch shops, wives torn from their families for the sadistic pleasures or whoever was willing to pay, endless masses destroying their lives in the clutches of addiction of one drug or another, people trying to provide for their families being beaten and tortured and enslaved.

Ghar had quite liked tormenting her with tales of how nice and benevolent they were when they enslaved her, rattling off all the different ways she could have met a horrific end in this place if it weren’t for his kindness.

This strange little group they had here, the four of them? They could kill a thousands of innocent people and they’d still not have done as much damage to the people of Carmera than even just one or two gangs.

So why not use them for a bit of light practice before killing them? Why not let the wolf have his fun? It wasn’t like he was likely to listen to her unless she managed to make it sound like a logical argument instead of a moral one, and she didn’t care enough to argue in the first place. Fuck them.

They had made their choices, just like she and Katherine and the wolf had. Even Scruffy.

Ghoul had phrased it well. They were just acceptable targets.

The main difference between his worldview and the worldview she was just now starting to solidify in her head, was that Ghoul considered strangers what she considered her acceptable targets.

Meat.

Katherine sent reluctant acceptance to the wolf’s plan, surprisingly.

She sent a firm acceptance.

He bared his teeth and sent a mental push for movement.

She didn’t need her Racial Skill to see how he was practically vibrating with the need to move and kill something. She felt something similar.

In the dark, as he glued his chest to the stone and began to crawl over the uneven lip of their perch, his bared teeth looked like a fox’s grin.

She extended her right hand to gesture Kat forward, and idly wondered what name the wolf might pick when she asked him.

Probably something exceedingly arrogant. Or he would refuse a name.

Katherine gathered herself quickly, letting Scruffy clamber up onto her back, and a brief use of her [Psychometric Vision] had her brows raising.

Her friend was just as eager for a fight as they were. That was a surprise.

Maybe she wouldn’t need to do anything about the potential friction in the first place. At this rate, it would sort itself out.

“How many?” Katherine asked as Emhreeil turned around and kneeled, spreading her wing-arms to the sides. "And what are you doing?"

“They are enough. And I'm giving you a piggyback ride.” She said, and unwound her tail from around her neck, using it to balance. After a moment, she felt Kat's hands on her shoulders, before she clumsily wrapped herself around her.

She rose, and... it was surprisingly easy to lift them, even if the backpack had been left behind for now.

How strong was she? Enough to tackle the wolf, at least, she remembered doing that. She'd get to test her strength in a minute.

She turned around before creeping down past the edge and on the slanted wall, using her wings’ claws to slowly scrape and slide her way down. The movement jolted her passengers a bit, but they could deal with it.

She was surprised to see and feel her wings' claws cut into the rocks, leaving deep marks and furrows or just catching randomly.

After how easily the wolf had shrugged her attacks off, she'd thought they weren't all that sharp or pointy.

“Enough is not really an answer, you know.” Katherine said absentmindedly, glancing around above them, and she huffed through her nostrils as she used her left hand to make sure they wouldn’t tumble down and break a bone or something. It was hard to balance like this, with so much weight on her back, even if the rock wall was slanted forwards.

It felt like gravity was always about to yank her backwards and give them a few broken bones.

It took her more mental effort than she was willing to admit, to send a telepathic message to Kat urging her to just ask the wolf how many there were inside.

She didn't know, but if he could somehow map out the entire building, he could probably figure out specific numbers.

Kat’s face twisted in distaste, something she felt with a pulse of mana, but she nodded.

Turns out that he did know, and after another minute of slowly scraping down as the wolf paced around a walkway just next to the warehouse’s roof, he sent them the answer as they touched down on the lightly rattling catwalk.

Fourteen people.

Huh.

Something told her that Ghoul knew they would pick this course of action instead of bringing the wolf with them inside to kill everything, because there was no way just fourteen people in a random warehouse would be ‘enough to not be a slaughter’ if the wolf was involved.

Either that, or they were fairly strong people and were not random at all.

She wasn’t sure she liked either possibility, honestly.

-

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