After running at full speed, we arrived completely exhausted in the cave. Due to the amount of energy we had expended, I was starving. But even though my stomach was rumbling, my anxiety to use the essence we got didn't allow me to pause even to eat.
Opening the system interface, I wanted to clear a doubt, so I decided that I would first put Rin at level 9. Since there was an abundance of essence, I wasn't afraid of lacking.
From what I could understand, as long as we are close to each other, I can send the essence to her.
In the blink of an eye, Rin went from level 7 to level 9. Unfortunately, because my unique skill was still low level, I couldn't choose where to allocate the essence, so everything went to her racial characteristics.
Solving my doubt, Rin seemed to face the same bottleneck as I did. The amount she needed from level 9 to 10 was absurd when compared to the amount of previous levels.
With that said, I now had plenty of XP to use, so I wasn't worried about it. But of course, as a system bearer, I wanted to have the honor of being the first to go to level 10.
Selecting strength and magic, I put in enough essence to raise my level.
*Ding*
---
You have risen to level 10!
---
I had barely begun to rejoice that I was out of level 9 when I heard more notifications.
---
Due to the interference of the unique skill, Self-Evolution, your physique was slightly improved!
Monster Tamer skill has risen to level 2.
You have acquired the active skill, Body Reinforcement: Physical Strength.
You have acquired the active skill, Heavy Blow.
You have acquired the passive skill, Cooking.
You have acquired the passive skill, Handicraft.
You have acquired the passive skill, Sword Mastery.
You have acquired the passive skill, The One Who Understands Animals.
---
I was awestruck.
Although I expected something good after such a painful bottleneck, I never imagined that I would gain so many skills.
Unfortunately, two of them seemed useless to me. Cooking and Handicraft, if I could, I would trade them for a combat skill.
Even though Cooking was one of the candidates with the most potential shown by the sphere when I was with Shadow-san, no matter how I look at it, it doesn't seem like a useful skill.
Even its description is simple, it will help hone my abilities in the kitchen.
Leaving aside whether Cooking will be useful or not, I started to analyze my new skills.
Starting with the passives, they are similar to Self-Evolution. Even Sword Mastery, no matter how hard I look, there is no mastery or anything that says the skill is getting better or stronger.
As for the active ones, they have a mastery bar to increase.
Just from the names alone, I already had a basic idea of what the skills could do, so I left it to test them later.
"Time for the main course, Monster tamer," I said jubilantly and was even happier after I read the changes in the skill.
Now that it is at level 2, I can keep two monsters tamed.
Gesturing my hand, I called Kurama, "Come here, I have a gift for you."
Since Kurama was willing to be by my side, the process was quick. In a matter of seconds, he appeared again on my list of tamed monsters.
"Rin, now it's your turn to get stronger," I said.
After putting enough essence into her to go to level 10, a blue light completely enveloped her body.
"What's happening?!" I yelled in surprise.
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Calming my nervousness, a system notification sounded.
---
The tamed monster, Rin, has risen to level 10!
Due to interference from the unique skill, Self-Evolution, the race of your tamed monster Rin changed to Variant Goblin.
---
When I was digging into the functionality of the system, I discovered that it was possible to search for a specific race in the Glossary. With Rin's race in mind, I tried searching.
Despite my expectations, I could not find anything about her evolution. Apparently, evolution is not as uncommon as I thought. From what I have seen, there are some goblin evolutions, such as goblin warrior.
After they accumulate enough magic in their bodies, there is a possibility that they will evolve, but it is very low.
However, Rin's evolution was not categorized, it just says that it is an unknown variant, so I don't know what to expect.
Since there was no point in dwelling on this now, I started to snoop around her information. Like me, she also gained some skills. Besides the Heavy Blow that she already had, Cry of Intimidation and Sprint were added.
I am not sure, but I believe that besides my physical improvement and Rin's evolution, Self-evolution was also responsible for our skills.
It seems that accepting Shadow-san's suggestion was a good choice.
Since it seemed that Rin would still be some time inside the blue cocoon, I decided to take Kurama up to level 10 to see if the skill would affect him as well. Besides, I knew how important it was to have strong companions when fighting enemies.
Although I used a lot of essence, I had not yet consumed even two-thirds of what I harvested.
Doing as planned, I took Kurama to level 10.
After the System's warning, he began to change and his size slowly increased while his fur became more vivid.
In short, it just changed from an ordinary animal to a monster breed called the Crimson Fox and got a few inches bigger, to about the size of an average ordinary dog.
Unlike Rin, he was not cocooned, it all happened before my eyes.
Self-evolution didn't seem to have affected him one bit. As confirmation, there wasn't even a notification of interference from the skill. As for the skill he gained, it was called Violent Bite. According to the Glossary, it was a common skill of his species.
Considering that Rin was affected by Self-Evolution and Kurama was not, I think this is because Rin spent more time as my tamed monster. While this is just a guess of which I am almost one hundred percent certain, it is not something I can confirm at the moment.
Well, even if he is not as good as Rin, Kurama now has two skills that are useful for combat.
From now on, I believe that we will not have as much trouble as before.
***
Since Rin was still enveloped, I made a quick meal and was now testing my newly acquired skills.
After carefully examining the passive ones, I was certain that they could not be improved through mastery.
Although this is just my guess, I believe that the system should judge that it does not have an upper limit to achieve with these skills.
I haven't used these passive skills much yet, but from what I've seen, I've noticed that they store the experience acquired by the user and use it to help me improve in the area related to the skill. In short, everything that I learn is recorded in the passive skill, and since everything is stored in the skill, it makes it harder for me to make mistakes.
Cooking, Handicraft, Sword Mastery and The One Who Understands Animals do exactly as their self-explanatory names say. Among these four, I was very excited about the last two, since they can increase my overall combat ability.
The One Who Understands Animals is supposed to make it easier for me to communicate with animals, but since there were none but my tamed monsters around, I didn't get a chance to use it. But if it helps me communicate with the animals, I can assemble my monster army without relying solely on the Monster Tamer skill.
After testing the passives, it was time for the actives.
Although they also used mastery like the Monster Tamer skill, they were not categorized into levels with each one having their own mastery bar to be filled. From what I understand, they went up to a maximum of one hundred percent mastery and that was it.
Unlike unique skills, the normal ones have no detailed explanation.
As I tried them, I noticed something quite interesting, the skills had no cooldown time. As long as I have mana, I can use them for as long as I want, even activating and deactivating them successively has no restrictions.
When I used Body Reinforcement: Physical Strength, I couldn't tell how much stronger I got, but I was sure I got stronger. Unfortunately, it looks like it won't be easy at all to increase the mastery. After I had used it for about 30 minutes, the mastery bar didn't move an inch.
But that doesn't matter, now I've got a powerful combo. When I use the boost together with Heavy Blow, I can execute a deadly stroke at close range. Due to the explosive speed of the blow, not even wolves can escape when they are within my range.
A negative point of Heavy Blow is the fatigue and pain I feel in my arm after using the skill. As for the body reinforcement, I feel only a slight fatigue even after using it for a long time.
After I was done with my skills, it was Kurama's turn. I must admit that I was very surprised by the power of the Violent Bite.
"But that said, I feel that the power of the bite still doesn't seem to be comparable to the power of the giant wolf even if both are on the same level..."
As I pondered, I noticed that the light from the cocoon surrounding Rin was fading.
Running up to her, I arrived just in time to see the walls of the cocoon falter, ready to reveal Rin.
This scene made my heart flutter momentarily.
If it is like the novels and manga I have read, after she comes out of this cocoon, she will probably look incomparably beautiful.
What made me more hopeful was the fact that Kurama, even without being enveloped by a cocoon of light, has undergone changes. In Rin's case, these changes should be even more drastic.
My heart palpitated even more at the thought of the possibility of the beginning of my monster girl harem.
*Crack*
As I prayed for the sake of my dream, a small crack appeared in the cocoon. Like a chain reaction, several other cracks appeared and growing fast, they took over the surface of the cocoon that seemed ready to crumble at any moment.
*Gulp*
As if my gulp of anxiety was a sign, the blue cocoon shattered completely like cheap glass. The shrapnel immediately turned into countless pinpoints of light that hovered around Rin before disappearing completely.
Being completely honest, Rin's new appearance left me speechless.