As I couldn't really be of any help during the slaughter of the lesser undeads, I just ran around while clawing them to get a bit of extra exp. Luckily, now that the lich was out, the crusaders and priest had a tremendous vantage. Half an hour later the skeletons became bone powder and the zombies became cinders.The crusaders's flaming swords and heavy maces were the right tools for this. As for me,

Congratulations, you are now a lvl 30 Black cat STR +1 VIT +1 AGI +3 DEX +1 PER +1 LCK +1

I reached the first job evolution. Or specie evolution? When I was a human, reaching level 30 would give you acces to your first rank up, you could get a better job, like a wizard could become a mage or a warlock. Just as learning the job, you would need a trainer that already had mastered the job. Here it just seems like I need to evolve. But that's not the point, right now I need to get healed, my flesh is rotting and I can see most of the bones in my legs.

Without further ado, I rushed to the priest and meowed in a muffled tone. The priest noticed me and took a step back thinking that I was an undead. His sudden movement drew the crusaders attention to me. They unsheathed their swords and began encircling me, but stopped when the priest made a "halt" motion with his hand. He looked at me with curiosity as I meowed more.

After a dozen seconds of observation he reached a conclusion and started chanting, pointing his staff at me. Now that I was next to him, I could see his calm, focused face. It was stern, elongated and ended in a small greyish goatee. He didn't have any hair nor hat and his golden robe was actually a simple died cloth without enchantements. The only object of value he had was his staff, a long piece of white wood covered in gold on both ends. The bottom part was round while the top one separated in two large antlers, the great stag being the symbol of the church of order, this is pretty common. He finished his chant, and casted a pure bluish glow that coated my afflicted body. The gentle light seeped into my skin as it purged the roting flesh inside.

You have been purified! Undead necrosis(cursed plague) has been removed.

I sighted in relief as my savior stared at me with curiosity, he called one of his mens: "Do you have any idea of how a cat could end up here?"

"Probably not a cat, maybe a shapeshifter"

"I used true sight, this thing is not a masquerading monster. It's a nameless level 30 black cat"

Whait what? They can't see i'm a witch's beast? Is it because it's not faking being a cat but actually is a cat and a witch's beast? I should researsh this when I have the time.

"Isn't level 30 a lot for a lone cat?"

"Well considering that even the rats here are ranked up it would be surprising if he was weaker. Though now that I see it, he has reached the level for rank up but is still a black cat. We should find a safe place to rest and let him evolve."

"Wait are you thinking of bringing this thing back? Your holiness, it's wild and probably dangerous."

"Come on it's just a cat, and my daughter would kill me if I left such an "interesting subject" here."

"The young miss doesn't need to know, her hobby will bring disaster upon us."

"Either way you are not the one in charge and I say we are bringing it back!"

The suddent change in tone startled the crusader. He answered in a defeated tone:

"Yes sir."

I stood still during the whole conversation, which probably made the priest think I wasn't so wild, as he just invited me to follow him as a tamer would to a pet dog. And I did just what he expected. If i get a free ticket of safe evolution and a ride to somewhere more civilized, I won't refuse it. Our little group went back to the first fork in the dark hallways of the temple. There they just set camp, in the middle of a clearing in the debris. The crusaders each set a lantern in the corners of the improvised camp. Then most of them went on to eat rations or perform maintenance on their gear. The priest even gave me a piece of jerky that I snatched like a starving hyena, losing what was left of my human dignity on the way. Once they had decided who would be on guard duty, the guards went to sleep while the priest meditated on a broken stone slab. I decided it was the right time and found a place to evolve without any interuptions. Now I can see what options I have.

In front of my eyes, just like last time, a list of informations displayed itself.

You have reached level 30 in your black cat job! You can now rank up into a superior version.

This feels nostalgic, it's the exact same message than when I was a human. Four options appeared.

Midnight cat

Amethyst cat

Grave cat

Void cat

A night hunter that is extremely proficient at fighting in the dark, can use subterfuge to mislead it's opponent. Higher levels will grant illusion spells.

A cat with a mystic amethyst on his forehead, granting him acces to mind and telekinetic magics. Higher levels will allow the use of more spells from all basic schools.

A cat that spent a lot of time with undeads, high resistance to death attribute and higher damage against undeads. Can also wield minor necromancy at higher levels

When you stare into the void, it stares back. You have been corrupted by the void, embrace it to face it's powers. Allow the use of void walk. Higher levels gain void magic.

Hmmm

The choice is hard. Midnight cats are the most common black cat evolution, but they are weak when the sun is up. Grave cats are also renowned as good graveyard cleaner, they prey on the undeads and their necromancy magic can only temporarily raise the deads. But there is no way i'm becoming a gravekeeper.

The other two options are more interesting. Amethyst cats are part of the noble beast, they need to attain great knowledge to evolve. Most of them are companions of high rank adventurers or nobles. The last one is the most disturbing one, I never heard of a void cat. Actually I never heard that strange sentence in the description, but it seems odly familiar. I don't remeber ever being subjected to the void. Wait, could it be the spell I used to call Pampil? Did it use the void as an intermediate to comunicate between the world of the living and the world of the deads?

Anyways I won't get answers here, I need to choose.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

After an hour of calculations, I started evolving into an amethyst cat. The void cat seemed good too, but the status of a wise beast is too beneficial to pass on. With this I will get a good and rich owner. I closed my eyes and fell in some sort of deep sleep.

The strange thing being I am still conscious. It feels like i'm waiting in the middle of an endless darkness. And then...

Congratulations, you are now a rank 1 witch's beast. Choose your new ability.

What? What is an ability? Some sort of special skill?

Path of magic I

Path of strenght I

Path of wisdom I

Path of speed I

Hecatoncheir

Gigantification

Cabal's secrets

Black winds

. . .

That's it? Can't I at least know what those abilities are? The "paths" seem to be here to help my choice but i'd rather just know what those abilities do. From their nam I can deduce that "cabal's secrets" is a bunch of knowledge about the witches, and "gigantification" must be a power to make myself bigger, but I have no clue about the others. Plus the number one next to each path must indicate there are stronger power to obtain on that path. I need to think wisely.

Considering I still need to seal the acces to the witch's town, I will take gigantification. It will also increase my survival rate more than cabal's secrets. And there is no way i'm choosing something that I don't know the use of.

Once my choice was made, I fell unconscious.

You are now an amethyst cat, INT+10 (New)WIS+10 CHR+5

I woke up a few hours later, judging by the way the humans are still sleeping. And I noticed three changes. The first one is that I am bigger and that my fur now had a bit of purple mixed with the nightblack it was before. The second is that my head now sport a large purple gem which hold a lot of mana. And the third is that I'm starving. I could eat an entire cow by myself.

After hunting and eating two rats, which were way easier to kill than before, I checked my status. I had three new skills:

Telekinesis (Active)(Linked)

lvl 1(0%)

You can generate force by will.(4m range, 1kg max weight, affected by intelligence)

Magic sight (Toggle) lvl 0(0%)

Allows one to see mana. Higher level will allow to differentiate magic types and mana concentration.(affected by perception)

Gigantification (Active)

lvl 0(0%)

You temporarily gain size and strenght to move with said size. The spell constantly drains mana and cost more for bigger sizes.(3s transformation time, 10 min cooldown after end of effect)

Also checked the one I got from my power leveling:

Natural weapons (Passive)

lvl 0(42%)

Your claws, fangs or other biological weapons are strenghtened. (+20% damage)

Stalk (Passive) lvl 0(13%)

Increase speed when following a target in stealth.(+15% speed, affected by agility)

Curse perception (Toggle)

lvl 0(0%)

When used you will be able to see curses. Higher levels allows to see with more precision and to differentiate curses. (affected by perception)

That is a great powerspike! With this I could probably kill a lesser undead without help. And gigantification should be enough to let me colapse the tunnel to the witch's town.

The rank up gave me a lot of intelligence to help with magic power. It seems that the amethyst on my forehead is necessary to use telekinesis, most noble beast can use one type of magic without spells. The amethyst is used as a mana converter instead of a spell or enchanted item, allowing me to use telekinesis by though and at lower mana costs.

The problem is that even with the 10 extra wisdom, I only have 30mp wich is clearly not enough for a caster. I'll probably get more with level ups but i should also read to gain a bit of extra. Every stat can be increased by training. Strenght, agility and endurance are obvious. Vitality is based on survival and adaptation to the environment. Dexterity is increased by aim practice or careful manipulations. Perception is increased by careful analysis or lookouts. Intelligence and wisdom are mainly obtained by reading, though intellingence require you to think while wisdom just need you to learn things. Charisma can be earned by socialising, that's why mine was patheticaly low when i was still human. And luck can't be increased willingly.

While thinking about how to best increase my stat points, i sneaked outside the encampement. I dodged a few monster and ended up in the ghoul-filled warehouse. But this time I didn't have to take detours, i could see them. The ghouls were cursed undeads, my curse perception allowed me to easily slip through them sparing me half an hour of lost time.

Now that i'm in front of the broken wall that leads to the witch's town, I think i was overconfident. The hole is taller than a flesh golem. How can i colapse it?

Wait I don't have to specificaly collapse this part, i can just destroy the corridor that goes here.

I went back to the last crossing and examined the walls on my way. I found a spot where the left one had a large crack and the ceiling was already partly collapsed. I triggered my gigantification skill. My body started expanding rapidly. The feeling it gives is similar to the sense of power a high strength potion would give. I could feel my muscle cells spliting into smaller ones to adapt to my new size. My fang reached the size of daggers, my paws are now the size of a human's head. I though i would become a sort of big panther, but that was an understatement.

With my new strenght, i slamed shoulder first into the wall, the impact shattered the last stone bricks that were still holding on. I rushed out as my body began turning back. My mana could barely allow one second of gigantification. The ceiling shook violently as dust fell from it. My feline instinct told me to run, which i did with my all. I could hear the stones crash into each other behind me. I ran back to the warehouse then did the same than before and walked toward the camp. It would probably still take another hour before the humans woke up. So i walked around, without any real goal other than toying with my new skills.

While wandering, i found a lone zombie. Perfect for target practice!

I started by going into stealth, got in his back and used my telekinesis to trip him. He fell headfirst with a distinct flesh noise. I pounced on the back of his head.

Your target suffer 125 sharp damage.

I used curse perception to find where the undead's power was coming from. The black mist curses could be seen as emanated from it's left arm. I pounced again, targeting the part where there was most of the flesh

Precise hit! Your target suffer 243 sharp damage. Your target is weakened.

Zombies of this level have an average of 400hp, meaning he's at death's door. I used telekinesis to grab a stone and throw it at the monster's face. The skull shattered on hit.

Your target suffer 56 blunt damage. Your target is dead.

Congratulations, you are now a lvl 31 Amethyst cat INT+1 WIS+1 AGI+1