Alyria continued through the cave, encountering two more blue slimes, which were enough for her to level up. Thanks to her Skill Tree ability, she gained a point, so she checked her class skill tree.

The tree was divided like this: first was the Devouring Mist ability, which then branched into three paths. The first branch had the Devouring Dog skill, the second had the Scavenger skill, and the third, Energy Consumption.

The first skill allowed her to create a dog from the same essence as her Devourer ability, the second regenerated mana and vitality by consuming corpses, and the last allowed her to store Devourer energy in her body after consuming a corpse.

“The first gives me a companion, the second makes me last longer in battle, and the last one is probably the one with the most potential, but I need to unlock more skills to use it,” she told herself as she thought about which skill to choose.

“Well, I think there’s only one realistic option.”

[Name: Alyria Valenwood

VITALITY: 37

STRENGTH: 31

DEFENSE: 29

ENDURANCE: 35

MIND: 20

MANA: 21

SPEED: 11

CLASSES: Young Devourer 2 / N/A / N/A

TALENT: Multiclass

SPECIAL SKILLS: Devour / Skill Tree

CLASS SKILLS: Devouring Mist 1 / Devouring Dog 1

SKILLS: Etiquette 6 / Mathematics 5 / Tailoring 6 / Hunger Resistance 3 / Sleep Resistance 2 / Slow Regeneration 1 / Elasticity 1

BLESSINGS: Strong Body / True Beauty / Material Manipulation / Bloodletting]

Seeing her new stats and skills, she smirked and, eager to try out her skill, opened her mouth. A purple mist flowed from it, descending to the ground and slowly transforming until it took the shape of a Doberman, only it was purple with black details and parts of its body shifted between solid and gaseous.

Seeing the dog, which looked at her as if waiting for a command, she found it a bit intimidating—and also… cute? Yes, a bit cute.

“So this is the house dog. I’ve heard so many legends about it that I imagined it… a bit bigger. Maybe if I level up the skill…” she mused.

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(Anyway, I should keep going) she thought, snapping out of her previous train of thought. Thus, the princess and her dog continued their journey.

They soon encountered more enemies: a group of five regular blue slimes accompanied by another blue one with several spikes on its back, seemingly made of the same material as its slime but hardened.

“Five normal slimes and a Shooter Slime… this could be tough.”

Shooter Slimes were known as one of the deadliest varieties in their rank. Although still rank G, they were starting to pose a threat to normal people.

While still devising a plan, she heard a sound she couldn’t recognize at first, but as it grew louder and clearer, she identified it as flapping wings. Still hidden around a corner, with the dog at her side, she watched what was happening.

From the other entrance to the chamber she was observing, she saw a band of six brown bats, which she recognized as Cave Bats, enter and begin to attack the slimes.

First, the bats emitted a screech that seemed to disorient the slimes, then dove straight at them, biting them. In less than ten seconds, they had already finished off one slime, leaving only the core, and were close to doing the same to another. But at that moment, one of the bats got hit by a hard slime spike in its wing, causing it to fall to the ground, where it was crushed by another slime.

Another bat lunged at the slime on top of its companion, but was quickly hit by another spike and, in turn, got crushed by yet another slime.

“Are they crushing or suffocating them?” the princess wondered, unsure of the answer.

For about half a minute, the battle continued with the bats trying to attack the slimes, the Shooter Slime taking them down, and the other slimes crushing/suffocating them. The skirmish ended with all the bats either impaled by spikes or crushed under the slimes.

(Now’s the time) the girl thought, giving her dog a mental command. The dog charged at the Shooter Slime first. Although it took a spike to one of its legs, it managed to tear out the slime’s core with its jaws.

Seeing the main threat disappear, the princess emerged, starting to crush both the slimes and bats with the help of her loyal companion.

When it was over, the princess was panting—not so much from physical exhaustion, but from the mental toll of seeing so much blood, a sight she wasn’t used to. But she didn’t hesitate to swallow back the bile rising in her throat and activate her skill.

“Devouring Mist,” she said, and one by one, she devoured the fallen enemies.

[SKILLS ACQUIRED: Echolocation, Disorienting Screech, Quick Attack, Hardened Slime Spike, Improved Precision]

“Well, all the skills are pretty obvious in what they do, but… how do the slime spikes work? I don’t produce slime… unless… do I have to use my snot?!” This thought genuinely worried the girl, given her high-class education; something like that was truly concerning for her.

“Uh… better test it out… a ranged attack would really come in handy now.” So she extended her hand, silently praying to her goddess that the skill wouldn’t work the way she imagined. Fortunately, her prayers seemed to have been answered.

A spike formed from her own blood in the palm of her hand before shooting out and hitting the wall. She sighed in relief and decided to check the skill description.

[Skill: Hardened Slime Spike

This skill grants the ability to use the body’s natural substances, hardening them to form a spike that can be launched without harming the user, aside from the loss of the substance itself.

This skill scales with Mind.]

And to be sure, she also checked the description of:

[Skill: Disorienting Screech

The user’s screams can disorient those who hear them for a brief time.

This skill scales with Mind and works based on the difference in Mind between the user and the target. If the target’s stat is higher, the skill has no effect. This can be reduced with skill level upgrades.]

“This skill is quite useful, but it has the advantage/disadvantage of comparing the user’s and target’s stats… though now I understand why the skill didn’t affect me,” Alyria told herself.

Afterward, she decided to continue on her way.