The middle shines again and new foes emerge.
This time, they are some strange white furry winged...things.
Type: Monster
Name: -
Gender: Male
Race: Gharri bat
Status: Enraged
Level: 700
Health: 24500/24500
Mana: 30500/30500
Bats...?
They don't really look like bats...
As usual, the bats start randomly attacking the illusions with a tackle or some needle-like thin white projectiles.
Since I'm still injured from the battle with that dragon, I let them be for a moment while I recover.
Once I'm all good, I get to work with stabbing those who leave an opening after their attack.
Initially, everything goes like the other waves.
It's just slowly picking them off one by one.
But then, when I finish off yet another one...
Something strange starts happening.
I start to feel something...changing...inside of me.
My entire body starts itching and I feel like my insides are pushing against each other.
That feeling is especially intense around the tail area.
I get a headache and my mana starts fluctuating and going out of control.
What's happening?
What did they do to me?!
It gets more and more intense in just a few moments.
With a feeling, I would compare to worms crawling under my skin, I collapse on my knees as I try to stay conscious.
As I feel my body change, I stop maintaining the illusions around and the bats swarm me instead.
I try to ward them off with a fire darts, but fail to properly realize the spell and it scorches my arm instead.
At the same time, the bats also shoot off a barrage of these white needles.
I obviously try to get out of the way, but my body already feels too numb and I'm unable to dodge in the end.
The projectiles hit all over my body, one of them even piercing my left eye.
With that, my body grows even more numb as one of these bats tackle me.
I fly through the air and land on the ground.
...but I'm still alive.
As I'm lying on the ground, unable to move, my enemies release another wave of their magical assault.
This time, they manage to hit even my neck.
But...I'm still...alive.
They don't stop and continue to storm down magic on me until finally...
...
...
...
I open my-
Ugh!
What?!
The same thing starts happening.
My entire being starts itching, hurting and feeling really uncomfortable.
I try to close my eyes and focus on at least calming down my mana.
But that only rewards me with headaches.
I open my eyes again and see the world around me spin as I fall down on my face.
An intense pain strikes my tail as if someone was pulling it out from its root while stretching it into all directions.
At this point, I just trying my hardest to not faint.
I endure this torture for what feels like eternity.
But eventually, mu blurry vision starts clearing up as I spot...my...hand?
Why is it...leaking something black into the air...?
What is going on...?
After a while, the pain finally subsides and my mana calms down.
With that, I use my arms to slowly get up as I let out a sigh of relief.
The first thing my sight lands on, is the chalice.
...but I notice...some small detailed markings on it, that I haven't noticed before.
Why is...wait, that's not important!
I quickly take a look at my...arms.
...and see that they transformed into something unrecognizable.
They used to be just like the arms of any other human I met, just smaller.
But now...they are all black and...
Wait...this is fur.
I can see it...
There's an extremely short but highly concentrated layer of black fur all over my arms all the way up to my nails.
Why is that...?
And why is there some black...thing leaking up into the air from them?
Is it...
...it's dark mana...?
Why is it leaking from me?
Stop leaking from m-
As if it was listening to me, it stops.
...
In awe from this, I will for it to flow out again.
And it does.
This...is...
As I'm looking down on my arms, I realize that my legs didn't grow any fur.
Is it just my arms?
I need to take a look at my self.
I extend my arm and start gathering mana.
[Ice plate]
With that, I create a makeshift mirror.
And that's when I see...
The giant mass of fur behind me.
Completely disregarding my initial intent, I turn my head around right away.
But I don't jump away or anything.
After all...
This is...
"my...tail...?"
My tail, which used to be barely half the length of my arm...has grown...a bit.
In fact, I think it's maybe even bigger than the rest of my body.
And it's also leaking out dark mana.
What in the world...?
Just like I would before, I try to move my tail.
But instead of a small movement, it smashes into a nearby wall and even slightly shakes the temple itself.
Instinctively, I try to move my tail back, which results hitting the opposite wall with it.
After that, I stop trying to move my tail and instead focus on calming down.
...
I thought this might be a curse of some sort.
But...
Never before has a curse followed me even after I died.
Not even the one in the cursed forest.
And also...
I don't feel weakened.
Quite the opposite.
I feel a lot stronger than ever before.
So, what's happening...?
...
Status screen...
Open.
Name: Reiza
Gender: Female
Race: Cataclysmic wolfman (prodigy)
Status: Nervous
Level: 5000
Health: 137826/137826
Mana: 1103016/1103016
Vitality: 912
Strength: 1141
Intelligence: 7688
Stamina: 972
Speed: 1785
...
The first thing I notice is that my race, which has never changed, changed.
Cataclysmic wolfman...?
Prodigy...?
What is this...?
Cataclysmic wolfman
The final evolution stage of a black wolfman.
Individuals of these species get the following abilities:
Dark mana generating fur (New)
Increased potency of dark based spells (Better than nightmare wolfman)
Improved general eyesight (Better than nightmare wolfman)
Night vision (Same as nightmare wolfman)
Evolution...
...evolution?
So I evolved...?
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Also...
Abilities...?
Night vision...increased potency of dark spells...
And...dark mana generating fur?
That's what this was?
But then, does that mean it doesn't use up my own mana?
...
Speaking of my mana...
Last time I checked, I had a maximum of hundred thousand mana or so...
But now...
Mana: 1103016/1103016
More than ten times as much...?
That's...amazing...
But why so much?
All of my stats have been raised, but my mana and intelligence seem to be way higher than the others.
Is it because I mainly use magic for combat?
That's probably it...
Now, what is this '(prodigy)'?
Prodigy
This individual is a special variant, who managed to reach an evolution very quickly after the previous one.
Effects: double maximum mana and intelligence and triple maximum intelligence cap.
...
So this was the cause.
But, I don't really understand what it's saying...
A variant...?
Managed to reach an evolution quickly after the previous one?
...when did I evolve previously?
It said, that cataclysmic wolfman is the final evolution stage of a black wolfman.
So I used to be a black wolfman and evolved into a shadow wolfman at some point.
But...I don't even remember it.
It has been too long.
How can that be classified as 'quickly'?
Hmm...
...wait.
What was this 'Better than nightmare wolfman'?
What is nightmare wolfman?
Was I supposed to evolve into that?
Did I evolve into something different instead?
Or maybe I evolved twice...?
But why?
This doesn't make sense...
...
But I don't need to make sense out of it.
After all, I'm stronger now, so it doesn't matter.
With this, these trials should be easier...
My freedom...should only be a few steps away from me now.
I clench my fist as I look at the endurance door.
Out of habit, I also spin my tail around.
But that makes it slam into the ground, which shakes the surroundings.
...
I should also learn how to control this tail now.
Why is it so big?
Well...let's go again.
With a touch of my hand, the door opens and transports me again.
When I open my eyes, I see the familiar hordes of angels.
In order to test just how much I have changed, I decided to not use illusions.
And so, I simply run up to the angels in front of me and punch them.
What I notice right away, is that I've gotten a lot faster.
They barely even drew their bows and I have already eliminated a fair bunch of them.
And it seems that the dark mana leaking from my arms turned anyone I touched into dust.
The angels were getting slaughtered one after another, but because I was only using fists, they still kept up with reviving the ones I killed.
Hmm, I guess I need to use magic to wipe them all out.
...I wonder if I can control this dark mana that's leaking from me?
I try to move the leaking mana to my will, but as expected, I can't do it.
Since it already left my body, it just disperses and turns into pure mana in the air.
...
But that means...
I try to will for it to stop leaking.
And as I expected, the fur keeps generating dark mana.
But does not leak it anymore.
Can I use this...?
I stretch out my arms and try to shoot a simple dark blast.
And what comes out, are two small projectiles.
It works!
But...
It's not all that powerful.
...maybe I can use my tail as well...
I waved my tail in front of me while releasing the accumulated dark mana toward the angels.
This time, the blast was a lot stronger and managed to defeat a big group of them.
Alright, this can work...
At that point, the angels finally started to retaliate.
But the arrows they shot at me seemed a lot...slower.
It didn't even take too much effort and I managed to dodge all of them.
This has gotten easier...
I swung my tail once more and eliminated another clump of the angels.
...way easier...
It doesn't take long until all my foes turn into dust and the arena shines.
As I'm waving my tail around to practice its movement, the middle glows and reveals the armored beast.
It starts charging at me as soon as it spots me, but for some reason, I don't really feel threatened.
For a second, I get the feeling that I might be getting too cocky.
But at the same time...
When it gets close enough, I whip my tail out and smack the beast in its face.
The impact slightly pushes me backward and completely stops the monster's momentum.
When I take a look at it, its mask has shattered and its face flattened.
It's not moving.
...
This just doesn't feel like a threat anymore...
----------------------------------------
Bonus:
"DAAAAMNIIIIIT!"
"I knew I was forgetting something!"
"Ugh...where was it..."
"Mm...m...this...and then..."
...hey, what is this all about?
"Ugh, what the hell?!"
"This wasn't supposed to be...ughhh..."
Can you just calm down and explain what happened?
"..."
"Fine..."
"You see..."
"This world has an evolution system."
"You reach a certain level and your species evolves, your stat cap gets raised and you get a few bonuses."
Mhmm...
That much is obvious.
And...?
"Well...umm..."
"The levels at which evolution happens are 100,500,1500 and 5000."
Sounds good.
But that back there was...a little too intense.
"Weeeeell..."
"Have you ever made like...a typo?"
"Let's say...wrote another zero by accident?"
Of course.
That does happen.
What do you...
Wait...
"Yeaaah..."
"Sooo...what if I....just hypothetically...accidentally set the evolution levels of Reiza's species to be 100,5000,1500 and 5000...?"
...
"So..."
"She was stuck at her second evolution...and now she...evolved three times in a row...?"
How exactly do you make a mistake like this...?
Are you retarded?
"H-hey!"
"You know..."
"Everyone can make a typo like this!"
"It's just an extra zero!"
...I mean.
Weren't you watching Reiza all the time?
You should have found out she wasn't evolving when reaching those levels and fixed it a lot sooner.
"Ehhh...but who cares about levels...?"
...you?
Why did you make a world like this then?
"I thought it was cool at first..."
"But I got quickly tired of all the numbers and stuff..."
"I started feeling like some accountant or a secretary..."
...
I have no more words for you.
I'm done with you.
"C-come on!"
"Scold me!"
"Insult me!"
"Anything!"
No.