Kai woke up to the feeling of light trying to invade his eyelids.

Squinting, he pushed himself off the soft floor and opened his eyes, spotting what had woken him up.

Above him was a few bright, white lights. The roof was padded and completetly white, much like the white room he had spent at least two months in.

Actually, it was very similar to the white room.

Wait...

Kai turned his head around and examined the area. A single mattress, a completely white room and lights that were way too bright for a human to sleep with.

It was definitely the white room.

Kai panicked.

For starters, he was alive, which was not something he expected. The last thing he remembered was that he was in a terrible state, one that he shouldn't have been able to recover from.

Like, his soul was cracking and he was missing an arm, but now, Kai had two perfectly good arms on his body. Still, his chest was stinging a bit...

Kai froze.

"No way, it definitely wasn't a dream. How could I have dreamed all that up? It's impossible!"

Just as he was about to panic even more, Kai got another notification that helped to calm down.

Congratulations on completing your tutorial!

Due to the fact that your tutorial had to end early, you must wait the remaining 4 days and 23 hours until all the tutorials are over before you can claim your reward.

You may use this time to rest, go over your status, or catch up on some you time.

Kai sighed in relief as he flopped back onto the mattress that he had only gotten to use once previously.

Even though it was only a mattress and not even a pillow, it was heavenly. Kai had been using a tree root as a pillow and grass as a mattress after all, anything was better than that.

It seemed that he had been asleep for around two days, considering that timer is a continuation of the time he would have had remaining if Failure didn't destroy the world.

But then a thought slipped into Kai's mind.

Wait... Since Failure was actually the Mother Tree and controlled the whole forest... Does that mean since I was sleeping on that tree I was technically sleeping with Failure?

Kai remained silent in thought as he gazed up at the bright lights that he hated, then just chuckled and rolled over on his slightly comfy mattress.

He was alive. He had no idea how, but he had ended up surviving that whole ordeal. Everyone had, Kai had watched everyone leave, meaning his efforts had paid off.

Well, his and Failure's, but Kai was still just gobsmacked at the fact he was actually alive.

However, the feeling of the mattress helped to bring him back to reality.

Ahh, a mattress, the last time I slept this good was when-

Kai's eyes widened as he quickly sprang up off the bed. Almost instantly, Kai had basically flipped himself over to be face to face with his shadow, which was near non existent considering nearly every single inch of the white room was lit up by the blinding lights.

There was one extremely pressing matter, one that he had temporarily forgotten in favour of savouring the comfy mattress.

Since he was out of the forest, did he still have Umbra with him?

Just as Kai was about to be dissapointed, a furry head popped out of his shadow, making him leap backwards.

Out came Umbra, in all her glory.

Only Kai couldn't be helped but be shocked at what he saw.

"U- Umbra?"

His shock was understandable. Umbra was quite a bit bigger now than the last time Kai saw her, which was her saving him from the arrow that was about to penetrate his skull when he ran out of Mana.

Now, Umbra's height was about up to the top of his chest, while before she would have been only slightly higher than his hip.

Her fur, which has already been pristine and shiny, now seemed even shinier and even pristine...er?

But those weren't the most prominent changes- well, maybe the height was- But no, the main change came in the form of Umbra's third eye.

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Instead of a cute little crescent moon being inside her eye, it was now home to a quarter moon.

Somehow, Umbra had increased in rank while Kai was struggling to accommodate Failure and fight against the Demon.

Or maybe it had happened after that, Kai wasn't sure yet.

Without warning, Umbra pounced onto Kai and pinned him onto the ground. She then started licking his face while not giving him any time to recover or breathe.

Then again, it's not like he needed to speak out loud to talk to her.

"Hey girl, how are you doing? Nice new style you've got there, a new eye too?"

"Yep!" Umbra responded, still not bothering to let go of Kai. "The Elder fed me while you sleeping, so me ended up evolving."

Kai's eyes widened as his hand froze on Umbra's head.

"You evolved?"

Umbra howled softly.

"Yep!"

Kai laid limply back on the mattress, deciding to just give up and let his familiar do whatever she wanted.

So Umbra had evolved.

Kai wasn't sure how much of an achievement that would be in the wider scope of things. She had been a crescent moon beast after all, the weakest of the lot.

Obviously it was incredible that she had evolved, but would she be able to evolve again or would that be the end for her?

Luckily, there was one way Kai could check.

He could simply just go through his familiars status.

Name: Umbra

Race: Wolf of the quarter moon

Level: 19

HP: 270

Mana: 150

Stats:

Strength: 35 (+20)

Dexterity: 40

Constitution: 27

Mana: 7 (+9)

Stamina: 41 (+3)

Will: 28 (+1)

Luck: 7 (+1)

Skills:

[Bite of Umbra (Rare)] [Coat of Night (Uncommon)] [Graced by Darkness (Uncommon)] [Grace of The Ever-changing (Legendary)][Stalker (Uncommon)] [Concise Claws (Common)] [Minor Restoration (Epic)]

Well, there was quite a bit different about Umbra's status since Kai last checked it.

For starters, her stats were much higher than previously and were also much better spread out than Kai's own. That was something he was planning on fixing soon though.

While having tons of Strength was cool and all, he would much rather have a decent amount while still having enough HP not to get one shot whenever not fused with Umbra.

But there was also a few changes in her skill section.

For starters, Protected by Darkness had downgraded to Graced by Darkness. While it was understandable considering the former version of the skill was to do with the Forest of Ethania, the downgraded version still wasn't that bad... maybe, Kai wasn't sure.

[Graced by Darkness (Uncommon)]

This wolf is blessed by the darkness. Any shadow will respond to this being with being with respect. Grants the user a slight affinity to shadows and darkness.

There it was again, a slight affinity. Kai himself had a slight affinity to souls that was given by Soul Sense, but he still didn't really understand what it meant.

Still, he could just ask his master what all of it meant the next time they met.

There was also a small change to the Stalker skill that Umbra had received from the Beast Pellet Failure had given Kai. While all of the description remained the same, there was now an extra line of text added to the bottom.

[Stalker (Uncommon)]

Allows the user to hide in the shadow of living being. Allows the user to teleport to their masters shadow once per week.

Honestly, Kai had no idea how that came to be. The skill hadn't even upgraded in rarity, yet it got an extra ability added onto it. As for why it was teleport into Kai's shadow once per week, he had no idea, it was a little random in his eyes.

Still, any upgrade was a welcome upgrade.

Then, there was the skill Umbra had received in her level fifteen skill selection.

[Concise Claws (Common)]

Ones word could be said to contain a fraction of their very being. Allows the user to convey a select amount of words through their claws, amplifying them.

It was kind of a strange skill, there was no doubt about that, but at least it wasn't that bad or that confusing.

It basically just meant that Umbra could kind of enchant her claws. She could think or manifest that she wanted to cut something, so her claws would convey that by turning ever so slightly sharper.

The same could be said for blunt damage. If she wanted to, Umbra could blunten her claws, though Kai didn't really know why she would want to do that.

Of course, that was only the tip of the iceberg. Kai honestly had no idea the extent that to which the skill worked, and it was still a common rarity skill, meaning it had plenty of room to grow.

Then, there was the final skill Umbra had received, and Kai had no idea how she got it.

She was still level nineteen, meaning she hadn't gotten a new skill by leveling up, and unless there was just an upgraded Beast Pellet lying around somewhere, Kai couldn't figure out for the life of him where the skill had come from.

Still, he was curious about the description of the skill that reminded him of Aldred.

[Minor Restoration (Epic)]

The blood of two powerful wolves flow within this pup, minorly enhancing everything it does. After a gift given by Aldred the beast of Renewal, Umbra obtained a portion of his Restoration ability. Unlike the original ability, Minor Restoration allows the user to heal small flesh wounds while also temporarily empowering the injured area.

Uhhh...

Kai didn't really know what to think after reading that description. There was the blood of two powerful wolves inside Umbra? Well, one was obviously Aldred, so does that mean...

[Grace of The Ever-changing (Legendary)] The Ever-changing expended some energy to humbly grace his apprentice's wolf with the blood of ???. Allows Umbra to bond with her contracter, allowing them to use Umbra as the base for Will of the Kaiser.

So that meant that the blood that Umbra had received from the Ever-changing had come from a powerful wolf. Well, at least that mystery wasn't as mysterious anymore.

But how did Umbra get Aldred's blood?

Oh.

"Umbra, what do you mean that the Elder 'fed you'?"

Umbra shifted slightly on the mattress.

"He gave me some of his blood."

Kai didn't even bother asking anymore after that, he had gotten basically everything he needed by that answer.

Still, he was a little shocked by how much had changed about Umbra. She had grown a lot in the time Kai had known her.

But then again, he was still yet to look at the notifications he had received.