Zildra, unaware, smiled. "Oh? What nice thing has Tilda got for me?"

But Tilda remained silent, and Zildra's expression turned... Worried.

Zildra peered closer, and Tilda blinked. Rapidly. And the next words made Zildra freeze.

"Blessing... Of Adventurer." Her voice was strange, and Zildra drew back. Blessing... Tilda felt like a different being. Tilda felt strange, in this moment.

In this moment, before Tilda started pacing, she felt like... She wasn't a friend.

But the feeling, brief as it was, passed, and even though Zildra's heart was beating, Tilda's voice made it clear she'd returned to her normal thoughtful self.

"Zildra can... Get titles. She can level up. She can train. She can learn through doing, not just knowledge..."

Even this made Zildra's mind stop for a moment.

Monsters don't do that. Monsters can't do that. Monsters can think. They can learn in a sense... But the skills they're born with are the skills they have, no more, no less, until the day they die. Even monsters like Zildra. And yet this doll, Tilda, was saying that Zildra was different.

"...And so can Tilda... Tilda needs to think for a moment... To try and know things clearer."

Zildra was, like Tilda, normally happy about the acquisition of knowledge. But this was something that frightened her. She could see its potential, certainly. She was already an enemy of both monsters and humans, as she had painfully learned since her birth. But this, this-

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Title

A voice. The voice she'd heard before, although only a few times. Title. A thing only adventurers have. A thing that makes her more of an enemy to both. She knew, in this moment, that forward, the same forward that drove her bondmate, her friend (Yes... Still a friend... Still a friend), was not always a good thing.

They had both opened a box. And the lid would always remain open.

Tilda was still thinking, her head always tilted at the same angle, muttering. And then she looked at Zildra, and her voice was clearer, if still wary.

"Tilda will try something... And then Tilda will explain. Tilda thinks she understands."

Zildra nodded, and then flinched.

Something was in front of her.

[Party invitation: Tilda. YES/NO?]

Party? She didn't understand. She was a bondmate, a pact, was this... She took a deep breath. It didn't matter. Tilda hadn't lied a single time so far.

[YES]

And that something expanded.

Numbers. Words. And, at the bottom, the words Tilda had spoken.

[Blessing of Adventurer]

She understood it all. And Tilda's voice was bitter and amused as she saw Zildra's face.

"Numbers. Disgusting."

Zildra nodded. Those two words were a good summary of the whirlwind of thoughts and their conclusion. It was. It was disgusting. It was demeaning.

And yet... It was important. Just as much as this Level.

Zildra was clearly lower than Tilda. She was the less powerful. Tilda had become, in every sense, the more dangerous of the two.

But it didn't scare her. If anything, it reassured her. Their bond had doubled, and this was offered freely by Tilda. Tilda most definitely remained a friend, her only friend in a world that has suddenly needed a friend more than ever before. Sharing knowledge. Sharing the ability to move in the only direction they wanted to go.

No, Zildra corrected herself. The only way they needed to go. She would tell Tilda. She would... Other words she saw caught her own attention, those on Tilda's... Board? Screen? The name didn't matter.

What mattered was her title. The third one.

[Blessing of Evolution]

"My skin feels... Strange..."

Zildra held her breath. She knew...

...Something was about to happen.