6 Cave Raid I
White and desolate... When I woke up, I found my self in this strange place.
There was nothing here. All I could see was white all the way to the horizon, no other thing or color could be seen. I found myself floating there, but as I looked around, I couldn't see my body. Where am I? Where's my body? my mind kinda hazy. I remembered that I fell unconscious after the fight with the mantis, but now, where am I?
As I pondered, a cold voice rang.
"Level requirement has been achieved!"
"Skills requirement has been achieved!"
"[One who protects] and [One who devour the strong] optional achievement has been achieved!"
"[Guardian] title achievement has been achieved!"
"Karma : Law(14) Neutral(0) Chaos(2)"
"Altering evolution option!"
"Please choose your evolution!"
"[Armored Tiger], [Blaze Panther], [Ruby Cat]"
Evolution?
Wait, what?! Evolution?!
My hazy mind cleared instantly. I see, So this was the so-called " Evolution Space ", huh? Optional, title achievement? Karma? What's this? I guessed, that the evolution choices would be altered or selected based by one's action? Hmm, make sense. I appraised the optional, title, and karma, but it said my [Appraise] skill was too low.
Well, enough of that. Time to choose! But before that, I appraised the choice first.
Armored Tiger
A tiger with iron defense. All its body is covered with armor formed of their own furs, a keratin armor, with no gaps at all. The only part not armored on their body was the eyes, nose, mouth, underbelly, rear, and soles. Their armor provides them with strong defense from physical attack, taking them down will take a very long time without a proper strategy or strong magic. Their armor can regrow, albeit slowly. In exchange for their air-tight defense, their armor makes them very heavy and slow. Although they have a good physical might, the power of their fire suffers a downgrade. A good source for armor material. A carnivore. Inedible.
Blaze Panther
Dark eyes, blazing red fur, slender body, and crimson claws and fangs. With it's slender and tough body combined with its fire manipulation ability, the Blazing Panther is a born killing machine. It strikes fast and deadly and its fire can turn forest to ash. But it's not without weakness, albeit it has speed and firepower advantage, its defense is lacking. It held an absolute advantage in fighting slow opponent, but it loses its advantage against a fast opponent. Its fangs and claws are good material for fire-type weapon and its fur is good for fire-resistant armor. A carnivore. Inedible.
Ruby Cat
A strange breed of a feline with a crystal-like exoskeleton protecting their body like armor. The red crystal-like exoskeletons grew on top of the skin replacing the black fur, but it didn't cover their whole body. Their legs from knee down are completely covered with the crystal-like exoskeleton, like wearing crystal boots. Then from the knee, it travels to the shoulder in one line, from there it combined to one line covering the spine. Three exoskeleton lines extending from the spine to each side of the ribs and some of the exoskeleton protecting the head, forming a head armor. The tail is covered with the exoskeleton. Unlike what it's appearance suggests, the exoskeleton is quite elastic, not impending movement in any way. It has a good balance of defense and speed, it's power and firepower also good. Its crystal is malleable, good material for light armor and knife. Its fur is a luxury material for making coats and other clothes. An omnivore. Inedible.
Ruby Cat.
Definitely Ruby Cat.
Why? Easy. Simply because the first two just didn't match with my battle style.
The Armored Tiger was not bad and it had a good defense, just what I wanted. But ever since I made [Fire Burst] and used it in my fight with the mantis, I just couldn't neglect such a good skill. If I choose Armored Tiger, I would have an iron defense but [Fire Burst] would lose its effect. Not to mention, my other fire-based offense skills might weaken. I couldn't win a fight if I can only defend.
It's the same case with the Blaze Panther. It might have a good offense and speed, and they did say "Offense is the best defense." but unfortunately, I didn't have the confidence to be able to dodge everything my enemy threw at me. The Blaze Panther was a paper tiger, it has might but a good strike could destroy it in one hit. And also, these two were carnivores. I didn't have any healing related skill or magic, and I didn't feel like I can make it like I made my other offense skill as I didn't have an aptitude for healing magic or anything related to healing. So, right now, I depended entirely on herbs for healing. I couldn't heal myself without eating herbs, and I didn't think that carnivores can stomach eating herbs.
So, with these reasons, it was only natural I choose Ruby Cat. It didn't have an excellent defense, offense, or speed, but it still has some of it. It was like a jack-of-all-trades, it didn't excel in anything, but it had a bit of proficient in everything. And it also an omnivore, meaning it could eat herbs. Considering my choices and my situation, Ruby Cat fulfilled all my requirements for an evolved form.
Without hesitation, I picked the [Ruby Cat] and after that, the cold voice rang again.
"Confirming choice!"
"Transferring new skill(s)!"
"[Dominate] skill activated!"
"The body is now fully dominated!"
"The body can now be customized!"
"Do you want to customize the body?"
New skills? I wonder what skills I got. Customize? Do you mean like a Gundam and the like? I'm gonna try it, it's faster that way than guessing all day.
"Yes." (MC)
"Understood! Beginning customization!"
In a second, some kind of hologram appeared in front of me. A hologram of a black feline with red crystal armor in life size. From the appearance, I guessed that this was the Ruby Cat, it was cooler than what I imagined. As I admired the hologram, the could sound rang again.
"Please imagine how do you want to customize the body!"
"With the [Dominate] skill level, only the body structure can be customized!"
Structure, was it? Then, I want it to be a humanoid. As I imagine the form, the hologram in front of me started to change. The once four-legged feline changed to bipedal. The foreleg became longer and slender, the paw loses it's pad and turned to a human hand, only with furs and long nails. The hind leg became bigger and longer as to support the body. The body let out sounds of bones rattling as it changed closer to a human. The face and exoskeleton didn't change much, and the neck only changed a little as to adapt to the new body.
After a few minutes of applying the finishing touch, the customization was complete. The hologram changed from a big feline to what's commonly called beastmen. A strong body with a well-sculpted muscle, tough limbs filled with vigor, a whip-like crimson tail, shining red crystal exoskeleton. A face filled with wildness, the burn scar on my face add a kind of dangerous vibe to my charm. An astounding male, if I say so myself.
If a complaint exists, it was only one thing, it was that my "little brother" not hidden anymore. Back when I was still a kitten and a ruby cat, it was kind of hidden, with only the balls exposed. But now, with this new body, it completely visible for all to see. And maybe because I messed with it for more than I ought to, it became quite a something. But still, it's something I made and I'm proud of it.
After the customization, the cold voice rang once again.
"Confirming the customization!"
"The species has changed from [Ruby Cat] to [Ruby Beast]!"
Oh, it's a beast alright.
"The evolution is finished!"
The moment the cold voice finished, I blacked out.
************************************************\\\\\\\\********************************************************
My heavy eyelids slowly opened, blinding light entered from the gaps. Squinting my eyes as I looked around me, caging me was a dome made of ice. I raised my arm and saw a humanoid arm with sharp black nails. It was completely covered with the red crystal exoskeleton from the elbow below, and black fur covered the arm from the elbow up. I opened and clenched my palm and inspect my body feeling with a series of small movement, noticing no discomfort or foreign feeling, my lips curled up. Even though my body changed, it still felt like my body, no, it even felt like my body has always been like this.
"[Dominate] has reached level 2!"
"Active skill : [Enslave] has been acquired!"
"Any skill related to domination increased by 1 level!"
I was startled by the sudden notification, a flux of information about the skill appeared on my mind abruptly. Enslave? All I could think of about this skill was the scene of a loli lady knight turned slave being violated. I wonder if I could do something like that too? Ah, I got a little horny.
My unhealthy imagination was interrupted when a little white face suddenly entered my view. The beautiful fox's eyes were red like she was just crying, and she was gazing at me intently before suddenly tearing up. Before I could say something, she cried as she clung to my neck. Helpless, I patted her on the back as gently as I could. Even though my arm was covered with an exoskeleton, I could still feel how soft the beautiful fox's fur, fortunately. She told me what happened after I fell unconscious while crying, her already broken sentence became even worse, but I managed to piece it together through much effort.
When I fell unconscious, the beautiful fox panicked and ran toward me while crying. She tried waking me up, but I didn't wake up no matter what. Only after she confirmed that I was still breathing, she calmed down. After that, she made this dome to protect me, she anxiously waited for me to woke up this whole time. My heart warmed, back when I was still a human, there was no one that worries about me like this. I hugged the beautiful fox and rubbed my head against her's like usual. I did this to appease her and also because the beautiful fox looked really cute and dear to me now.
"It's alright, I'm okay. I was just evolving, I'm sorry for worrying you." (MC)
"Nn...." (beautiful fox)
Maybe because she was tired of the wait and crying, the beautiful fox fell asleep after I said that. While holding the beautiful fox in my arms, I rose up but I couldn't stand straight because the dome height was too low. As to not disturb the beautiful fox, I activated [Fire Clad] on my right arm while the left was holding the beautiful fox. Different from before, usually my whole arm would be covered with fire right now, but now, only the part of my arm that wasn't covered with the exoskeleton was clad on fire. The deep red exoskeleton on my right arm changed color to burning red as it emitted strong heat.
Even without directly touching the ice wall, the heat emitted from my hand melted the ice. After I went out of the ice dome, I looked around for any enemy sign. There was no enemy sign and even the mantis and humans corpses were gone. The suspect was revealed when I found goblin's footprint around. Well, I didn't really need the corpses, so I didn't think about it for too long. Besides, I knew where to find the goblins who stole it. I think it's time to visit them.
But before I went after the goblins, I need something to cover my groin. I walked toward the base, I recalled I still had the clothes that I took from the dead adventurer back then. I could just stay naked as I'm a monster, not a human, now. But being naked in front of the beautiful fox was kind of...
As I walked, I opened my status.
Name : unnamed
Species : Ruby Beast (Rare)
Type : Beast
Sex : Male
Rank : 02
LV : 005/100
HP : 160/160
MP : 05/05
STM : 205/205
ATK : 50
DEF : 80
MGC : 1
MND : 40
DEX : 25
AGL : 43
Points : 102
Active Skills :
Appraise LV04
Intimidation LV06
Fire Breath LV03
Fire Clad LV09
Fire Ball LV06
Fire Claw LV06
Fire Burst LV04
Fire Drive LV01
Stealth LV05
Dismantling LV06
Enslave LV02 (0/2)
Passive Skills :
Languages comprehension LVMAX
Pyrokinesis LV01
Crystallokinesis LV01 (Ruby)
Dominate LV02
Resistance Skills :
Heat Nullification LVMAX
Poison resistance LV03
Paralyze resistance LV03
Title :
Otherworlder
Harem seeker
Guardian
Oh! It was a long fight but it was worth it! My skills got a big upgrade! I also got new skills! And 60 points bonus! Sweet! Now, how should I distribute this? First, I want more DEF, so 20 points to that. Next, definitely more power, 30 points there. Then more stamina and HP, 10 points each. And last, 10 points for MND, 12 for DEX, and 10 for AGL. Ahahaha, I could feel the power coursing through me.
Name : unnamed
Species : Ruby Beast (Rare)
Type : Beast
Sex : Male
Rank : 02
LV : 005/100
HP : 160/210
MP : 05/05
STM : 205/255
ATK : 80
DEF : 100
MGC : 1
MND : 50
DEX : 37
AGL : 53
Points : 0
I reached the base after I'm done with my stats. When I went in, I realized how big I am now compared than when I was still a Fire Kitten. I put down the beautiful fox on the ground gently, I found the clothes but the pants size was too small for me, so I just tied the torn shirt around my groin like makeshift underwear. It's a little weird but it's good enough to cover me before I found real pants. I threw the rest of the herbs and food in the bag, as for the sword and shield, I want to use it but I never use a sword or a shield before. Plus, I'm kind of used to unarmed fight. As a monster, I couldn't use a weapon before I evolved. And back when I was a human, I got involved in a fight quite often because of my face, and because of it, I'm kind of use to fight with my bare hands.
So, I left the shield at the base, as for the short sword, I'll use it for dismantling my prey. The dismantling result would be much better using the short sword than using my claws. With this I'm ready, when I turned around, The beautiful fox was already awake.
"Let's go. We'll head to our new home." (MC)
When I said that with a smile, the beautiful fox showed me a bloodthirsty smile. She knew what I was talking about, she was probably waiting to do this. The beautiful fox ran ahead without me impatiently. I let out a helpless sigh before catching up with her. After, at least an hour, we reached our destination. It was a cave located far to the west from our base, but this was no ordinary cave. The current tenants of this cave were goblins, this cave was a goblin's nest. We discovered this nest when we tailed a group of goblins coming back from hunting. The first time we're here beautiful fox was almost running inside the cave if I didn't hold her down. We were strong, yes. But we were outnumbered, if we were to raid the cave, we would definitely die.
So I persuaded the beautiful fox to come back to raid this nest after we grew stronger. And so, now we're back. The beautiful fox and I were far stronger now, and I even evolved. Now, as long as there were no high leveled rank 2 goblins in the nest, no matter how many goblins there was in the nest, we would definitely massacre them. There were 4 normal goblins guarding the entrance of the cave, all of them only had crude wooden cubs. While I was observing the cave and tried to smell any clue of strong goblin inside the cave, the beautiful fox ran toward the cave and shoot icicles spears at the 4 goblins, killing 3 of the goblins instantly.
The last goblin had an icicle spear embedded in its stomach before it was awarded one more icicle, it managed to let out a scream. Alerted by the sound, many goblins came out of the cave. Faced with number disadvantage, the beautiful fox didn't cower, it only increased her bloodlust. With the situation had reached this point, the options left was to retreat temporarily or just went in guns blazing. Retreat was impossible with the beautiful fox already riled up now, so gun blazing it is.
When the goblins were about to attack the beautiful fox, I ran in front of her and let out a roar and activated [Intimidation]. The goblins faltered, some of them fell to the ground, another was scared stiff, and a few smart ones were already turned around to run away. But they have to ask my permission first if they wanted to run away. I took a deep breath and let out [Fire Breath]. In an instant, a sea of fire engulfed all the goblins in front of me. I stopped after 3 minutes or so, when the fire went out, what I saw was goblins burnt carcasses pilling on top of another. The ground was scorched just as black as the carcasses, the burnt flesh smell was strong. A slight breeze flew past and all the goblins carcasses crumbled and carried by the breeze.
Wow, was my [Fire Breath] always this strong or was it because of my evolution? Well, no matter. An upgrade on my power was always welcomed. When I looked at the entrance of the cave, a horde of goblins was just standing stiff there. All of them were trembling, I suppose they were scared stiff by what they've seen. While they were scared stiff, I signaled the beautiful fox. Catching my signal, the beautiful fox broke to a run and pounced at the group of goblins. At first, I thought to fight by myself, but I changed my mind. I'm gonna let the beautiful fox deal with them, although I wanted to protect the beautiful fox and never let harm came to her, I knew I would do more harm to her that way.
The time I spent as a monster maybe short, but I knew that living in this world as a monster meant that you need to be strong if you want to survive. You didn't have others to depend on, even if you have one, you couldn't keep depending on them. Make no mistake, I would definitely protect the beautiful fox, but the beautiful fox still needs to have enough power to defend herself. That's why from now on, other than when I would be tanking at the front and her attacking behind me, I would let the beautiful fox fight on her own whenever there was a chance. She would be hurt, I'm sure, but the pain would let her grew to be stronger.
In mid-air, she used [Frost Whip] and start spinning like a Beyblade. When the goblins snapped out, it was already too late. The beautiful fox's tail swung toward the goblin, due to the centrifugal force, her attack became more powerful. The foremost goblins were the unluckiest, they were hit by shredder like a club, the beautiful fox's tail not only broke their bones, a good portion of their flesh was also gouged out. The goblins behind the foremost goblins were hit by the goblins that were blown away by the beautiful fox's attack.
"[Icy Needles]"
Following the tail attack, the beautiful fox opened her mouth and shoot out numerous ice needle. The needles were small and thin but it was unexpectedly tough and sharp. Some managed to defend their head and stayed alive while some were hit in the head and died instantly, but the goblins who managed to defend wished they never did. None of the goblins were safe from the needles, they may defend their head but their body was turned to a needle pillow. Their expressions and screams told the pain they felt when the coldness from the needles penetrate into their body and froze their inside was excruciating.
The goblins that were unhurt were about to run inside the cave after seeing how the beautiful fox easily took care of their kind. But another group of goblins came running out of the cave, with their number bolstered and so did their courage. They trampled their own kind body and rushed toward the beautiful fox. Jumped back once, the beautiful fox swung her tail at the goblins. The foremost goblins were thrown backward and disrupting the goblins rush for a second, the beautiful fox shot out [Icy Needles] again. The needles hit many goblins but it didn't stop the rush. One goblin got near her and swung its club at her, the beautiful fox hastily defend using her tail.
The moment she stopped attacking, the goblins rush came crashing at her like a wave. Before she could push the goblin that attacked her, two more goblins swung their clubs at her from the sides. The beautiful fox managed to jump back at the last minute, dodging the clubs. But the second she landed, another goblin swung its club at her. The club hit her square at her chest. The beautiful fox coughed blood and staggered, the goblin gave her another kick and she fell to the ground. The goblin didn't give her a chance to recover as it raised its club for another strike and so did the goblins behind it as they came forward to attack the beautiful fox.
Before they swung their clubs, I used [Fire Burst] and reached them at a split second. I spun and hit all the goblin around the beautiful fox with a roundhouse kick. When I let out my [Intimidation], all the goblins stopped at their place. While they stopped, I let out another [Fire Breath]. Maybe because it had leveled up, it was stronger than the [Fire Breath] from before. After all the goblins in front of turned to ash or carbonized, I turned around and kneeled down before the beautiful fox. I dropped the bag in front of the beautiful fox, I took out some apples and kousu herbs and fed it to her.
"Eat some herbs and rest. You did great." (MC)
The beautiful fox smiled as she ate the apples and herbs. Now, while the beautiful fox rest, time to clean up the goblins. When I was taking care of the beautiful fox, a group of goblins came out of the cave. Just how many goblins were in that cave? No matter, I would take them all on. Activating [Fire Clad], I rushed toward the goblins. With this our first cave raid started.
