Spend, 3 skill points, spend, 5 free points.

Mia woke... Groggily. But she at least wasn't dead. Oh my god I'm alive! I'm aliiiive! I'm alive? Holy crap I didn't think I'd live through that... I-I-I want to live, really want to live. I-

Mia would've slumped to the ground if she wasn't already splayed across it. But she brought her front paws up across her head. Dexterity was an interesting stat... this was also when she learned that she didn't have tear glands.

Mia "cried" for a good few minutes, before she finally flushed the fear and sadness out of her system. Haaah... You know what they say about a good cry Mia. Don't be ashamed, it was necessary. Right, what did I even pick for my class?

Mia, Persistent Diminutive Shadow Wolf

Level 1

Class skills, Apprentice tracking III, Apprentice magic proficiency I, Apprentice willpower I, Low persistence I, Fledgling stealth I.

Skills, Natural born hunter

Stat gain, +11 strength, +11 dexterity, +18 constitution, +7 wisdom, +6 capacity, +6 intelligence, +3 charisma, +2 manipulation.

Uh, what? Did... Did my stat gain just... Double...? Bygone was her retroactive fear, returned was her bewilderment.

Mia thought about when she picked the class, the memory of it was buried somewhere in her mind, she just had to find it. That was a little hard as she was admittedly a bit loony while she had been doing it. But after a bit of mental fishing she managed to come upon it.

Persistent Diminutive Shadow Wolf

(EGO II ADVANCEMENT)

An advancement born of your persistence and fierce desire to survive. Persistent Diminutive Shadow Wolf focuses on survival above all else. Resisting death and avoiding conflict wherever possible.

Instant stats, +28 strength, +28 dexterity, +36 constitution, +18 wisdom, +16 capacity, +16 intelligence, +8 charisma, +7 manipulation.

Stat gain, +11 strength, +11 dexterity, +18 constitution, +7 wisdom, +6 capacity, +6 intelligence, +3 charisma, +2 manipulation

Skills recieved, Apprentice willpower, Low persistence I, Fledgling stealth I.

Skill points recieved, 3.

Free points, 5.

...wow. Just... Wow. What do my stats even look like right now? Status.

Mia, Diminutive Shadow Wolf

Level 19

Strength 138

Dexterity 133

Constitution 135

Wisdom 59

Capacity 51

Intelligence 58

Charisma 23

Manipulation 29

Abilities, Riftwalker, Touched By Death.

Holy CRAP! I was already leagues above most normal beasties... I think anyways. Maybe I just only ran into weak ones?... at least weak... individually... Mia shuddered for a moment. anyway! These stats are crazy though, from what I know this puts me at like, juggernaut tier monster. Very nice. N-hold on, touched by death? That wasn't there before... Abilities.

Riftwalker-Yada yada, next!

Touched by death, you have been inflicted with a mortal wound and survived regardless. The closer you are to death the further your physical attributes will increase. Retain your mentality even in the face of death.

Mortal... Mortal wound?! As in I was effectively dead, like. should've died without outside help? Holy crap... You know what? Maybe whoever summoned me here doesn't hate me, whatever divine intervention they pulled, I thank you very much for it! And uh constitution for the win, what a great stat. Also, helpful ability. But I don't exactly plan on getting anywhere close to the state I was in... How long ago? I'm not quite sure. It's dark out so...

Mia tried to stand, but immediately toppled back onto her side. It would seem she'd somehow been mentally tuning out the screaming pain in her side... Standing up reignited that hot agony fresh in her mind. The red gashes in her side inflicted by that one outrageously determined sabertooth still angry and blistering. OW OW OW OW OW OW OW! OK, FINE! NOT MOVING FOR A BIT JEEZE! I've gotta finalize some things with my advancement anyways, 3 skill points and 5 free points I believe? How did I open this thing again? Blah blah blah class, no, advancement, no, right, right. Ability points.

With the mental command the array for the free point menu popped up, the same as the last time she'd opened it but this time it was instead a big "FIVE" at the top of the menu instead of a "THREE". With a thought she distributed them, 1 each to strength and dexterity, and 3 to constitution. She liked not dying to be honest. Next up, the skill shop opened.

Upgradable skills

Apprentice tracking III, 0 skill points. Wait what?

Apprentice magic proficiency I, 3 skill points.

Apprentice willpower I, 3 skill points.

Low persistence I, 5 skill points.

Fledgling stealth I, 8 skill points.

Purchaseable skills

Sustainability, 1 skill point.

Bloodletting, 1 skill point.

Tough hide, 1 skill point.

Spri-Yeah, yeah I've heard all of this already.

OK! So, apprentice tracking is just... For free...? Give it to me I guess. I have a sneaking suspicion as to what exactly it is, and it's not quite tracking in the traditional sense... So gimmie!

Acquiring skill, Low tracking I.

Success!

Alright! Next up, do I want a upgrade or a new skill... Or can I just.. Can I just not spend them? Skill upgrades seem to cost less the more you work on them, so could I just get a upgrade after leveling a skill up for awhile? Hmmm... Let me check some of the higher cost skills and see if there's any that interest me. Not to say that all of the one point ones are bad, but I didn't really check the three pointers last time cause I, well, couldn't afford them. Come on, we're busting out the proverbial blank cheque here! Show me what you got skill shop!

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Sixth sense, 3 skill points.

Brazen, 3 skill points.

Charge, 3 skill points.

Shadow proficiency, 3 skill points

Mental proficiency, 3 skill point-HOLD IT!

What in the hell is Shadow and Mental proficiency!? System! I demand an explanation!

Shadow proficiency, provides understanding of the shadow magic archetype.

Mental proficiency, provides understanding of the mental magic archetype.

...Miiiiiiaaaa... Think this over, is magic worth it? Your mental stats are clearly dump staaaa... Wow, that sounds WAY better until you actually think it to yourself, yeesh. But yes, your mental stats are dump stats Mia, is this worth it? Or maybe... Maybe I should see this as a necessity? If I want to keep my options open learning magic is basically a requirement at some point. Maybe it would be better to start earlier? I think I'm just about capable of surviving without any other power ups, my stealth ranked up... I think, fledgling doesn't sound like a very good title but it's probably better. AND! My stats have massively increased when I was already able to keep up with just about everything I saw... Bar that massive bear. So... RRRghhhh NO! Do not look at other skills! You need to get this! Reign in the urge, lock in shadow magic!

Why shadow magic you ask yourself? Because I'm a shadow wolf! Surely I'll be better at it then the other one, right? Basic common sense really.

Acquiring skill, Low shadow proficiency.

Success!

Immediately a flood of information smacked right into Mia's brain. For the first time since she'd actually opened up her information pages the raw amount of information provided by the system gave her a good shock. But after a few moments, the sensation stopped. And Mia had to say it wasn't that bad really. Infact she'd like to think it could happen again if she managed to rank the skill up. Was that how people on drugs felt? Maybe.

After a bit of focusing inward she found out what exactly her new skill provided her. There was no actual description, but her new skill had A LOT to say to her. What...What is all this? difrerent shapes, runes, glyphs, circles squares all kinds of shapes...? What am I supposed to...

Within the mental space her mind had whipped up Mia floated in a half awake state of consciousness. Gazing upon the many options that this new skill had opened up for her. Almost unconsciously she gathered together three shapes, and focused upon their being. Instinctively, she could tell what she'd just made. The newfound knowledge in her brain guiding her actions.

Area... Darkness... And, uh... High? How can I... Use this? Mia fidgeted with the mental construct, trying to figure out how to work the assortment of runes. They jumbled and mismatched, almost as if they simply weren't ordered right... Which was exactly the problem. The knowledge from the skill gradually seeped into Mia's mind as she worked. And eventually, she realized that she was missing a rune to make this specific formula work to begin with.

Alright, this should be a functional spell, right? Medium, Darkness, High, Area. No special effects or anything, relatively simple spell. Now please tell me this is functional! I'm gonna lose my mind if this doesn't work. What is this, attempt number forty three? So for the love of whatever dragged me here. WORK!

The runes that she had mentally pored over for what was likely, hours, finally manifested into reality. The air around Mia shifted perceptively, darkening as an unnatural shade covered it. Actually, scratch the "likely" bit. It was daylight out. It had been hours of her trying to figure this out. And the successful attempt at LAST was a huge burden off her mind.

Magic, successful magic. Christ that took way too long for me to do. But this is kind of cool! It's clearly broad daylight out, and the trees aren't quite as heavy as they were further in the forest... Yeesh, I ran a real long time huh? Regardless! Had to have gone a real long distance for light to be getting through like it is. And the spell is blocking it out quite nicely as well. This could actually be kind of useful for stealth... I kind of want to do some more experimentation but...

Mia's stomach grumbled, she'd had to have been sitting here for a pretty long time. It had gone from dusk to day after all, so with a tentative action... She stood... And what do you know? No fiery pain followed suit. What a welcome sensation, no burning pain in my side! Nice! Mia was about to take off, before she almost went right back to the ground because her mind was just about to leave her. The spell! It's draining something out of me like crazy! Turn it off turn it off turn it off!

Following her mental orders the spell immediately turned off, she could feel the runes were still intact and could be used later. But the domain she had conjured up had drained whatever reserves she had so quickly that she had hardly noticed it in the first place! She didn't quite feel safe using it again to be frank. Maybe a modified version of it that covers less distance? Might take less... I'm gonna assume, mana? To use it. But I can mess with that later, I need FOOD! My body is a machine that turns energy into not energy, and it must be fueled!

Mia crouched low to the ground, and began the search for something to eat. She might be stronger then any nearby monsters but she didn't exactly want to put that to the test on an empty stomach. She didn't know much for certain, for all she knew she'd just been lucky. Or maybe everything else besides her was abysmally weak. She wouldn't know until she tried, and she didn't quite want to do that for awhile. After all, if I could reach this point in... Literally a single day, I'm under no inclination to think that I'm strong. For all I know I've just been slaughtering weak freshly born monsters. And that's probably the case, maybe I am that juggernaut tier monster, or maybe I'm pitifully weak. So be cautious, keep your head down, and survive.