Tsukasa felt very strange.
When she saw the Wolf King charging over, her mood was one of confusion, because she had prepared herself for a magic attack and had mentally prepared for severe injury. Since she could recover by leveling up, even if she suffered a fatal wound, she could recover after leveling up as long as she could hold on.
But the Wolf King seemed to have underestimated her.
It didn't use magic, but instead pounced on her like a wild beast.
Its eyes were filled with possessiveness towards her.
That look was extremely human-like, making her feel utterly disgusted.
Of course, she knew the Wolf King's intention was to eat her.
The next moment.
The magic was unleashed.
A huge Fireball shot out from the magic circle on her right hand.
It heavily smashed onto the Wolf King's head.
The Wolf King fell to the ground, howling, but its magic resistance was very strong. Even a maxed-out Fireball, with damage approaching 2000, didn't instantly kill it, even though its HP had just recovered to 700.
But it didn't matter.
Because she had known this outcome long ago.
The next moment, just as the Wolf King was getting up and glaring at her, the second spell was cast.
An ultimate Flash.
The intense light and heat blinded the Wolf King's eyes.
The impact formed by the magic fluctuations blew the Wolf King to the ground.
The next moment, a short blade was savagely plunged into its neck, and its four limbs thrashed wildly.
Shi desperately shoved the short blade deeper into the Wolf King's neck.
Facing the Wolf King's dying counterattack, she neither dodged nor flinched.
At the same time, the voice of the System Goddess seemed to Flash through her mind.
"Skill
"Skill
At the brink of life and death, luck favored her once again.
Even though her HP had been cleared by the Wolf King, a new skill locked onto her health bar and began consuming her MP, successfully allowing her to outlast the Wolf King and kill this terrifying monster.
"Level up!"
"Level increased!"
"Lv7 → Lv15!"
"Fireball Lv5 → Lv8!"
"Flash Lv3 → Lv7!"
"Shadow Step Lv1 → Lv5!"
"Appraisal Lv5 → Lv8!"
"Patience Lv1 → Lv3!"
"Fortitude Lv3 → Lv8!
"
"Heretic Magic unlocked."
"Alchemy Magic unlocked."
"Evil Eye Skill unlocked."
"...
A series of upgrade notifications rapidly overlapped in her mind.
Numerous pieces of information flashed before her eyes.
For a moment, there was so much that she couldn't take it all in.
All her skills, except for the two she had just acquired, had now leveled up to Lv5 or higher, her level had risen to Lv15, and she had 2000 skill points.
She immediately learned all the passive skills that increased HP.
From then on.
Her HP and SP both surpassed the 1000 mark.
Her MP even exceeded the 2000 mark.
Her average stats all increased to over 300.
Her magic ability reached as high as 1800.
The gains from the adventure were enormous.
However, Shi's mood at this moment was not solely joy.
There was also a deep sense of lingering fear.
Because her calculations had been wrong before.
Neither of the two spells managed to kill the Wolf King.
Even the final stab didn't immediately deal a fatal blow to the Wolf King.
Moreover, she had overestimated her own abilities.
The Wolf King's dying counterattacks were originally powerless, but even so, they almost dragged her down with it. If not for luck descending once more, and her acquiring the new skill Patience at the critical moment, she would already be a corpse.
Patience was undoubtedly a super powerful skill.
But the latter, while seemingly impressive, actually had no effect.
It seemed to require leveling up to a certain degree before it could take effect.
Or perhaps it had corresponding prerequisite skills?
Just as Shi thought of this, she suddenly felt a chilling sensation of dread.
Even though there were no monsters around.
She just felt as if she was being watched by something.
That thing seemed to watch her for a while, then left.
She felt this shouldn't be an illusion.
Something had indeed been watching her just now.
No, wait, could that feeling have been Appraisal?
Did something just use Appraisal on her?
Shi felt things were getting a bit serious.
In fact, there was another reason why she didn't want to return to human society, and that was the Appraisal skill. Although no one in the village had this skill, she didn't believe that humans hadn't mastered it. Rather, this skill looked like it was prepared for intelligent creatures like humans, who naturally possessed higher intelligence than monsters.
She didn't want to expose her skills.
After all, the skill
Neither humans nor monsters had this skill.
And it couldn't be appraised either.
This was simply obvious.
Analyzing the currently known information.
She felt she already knew the effect of this skill.
The probability was quite high.
The effect of this skill should be Level-Up Recovery.
Since monsters cannot recover upon leveling up, she didn't believe the Human Race in this world would be superior to monsters in this regard. Moreover, if every member of the Human Race possessed this skill, the villagers wouldn't display such fear toward monsters. If all humans truly had this ability, then this world should be extremely enthusiastic about activities like exploration, instead of the current situation where not a single shadow of the Human Race can be seen in the Monster Mountain Range.
Therefore, the Appraisal skill was extremely dangerous for her.
But if what just happened wasn't her imagination.
Then something had used Appraisal on her.
The reason she tentatively called it'something' was that she wasn't sure if it belonged to the Human Race.
If it was a member of the Human Race, upon finding a little girl like her in the Monster Mountain Range, possessing unusual Stats and skills, what would they normally do?
But it certainly wouldn't be to just leave so easily.
Therefore, that thing might not be Human Race.
But... being able to use Appraisal means.
It was a creature possessing the same high-level intelligence as the Human Race.
If that wasn't Human Race... Si felt nervous.
It seemed the waters of this world were indeed very deep.
A world where even Systems and Goddesses truly existed.
Who knew what Monsters and Demons were hidden deep within.
"Although my skill remained, since that one left, it means it didn't take it to heart, right? And being able to use an easily exposed skill like Appraisal on me without being detected means the opponent's ability is stronger than mine."
Si let out a breath.
She tried to convince herself of this.
She hoped that one's departure wasn't just temporary.
After all, being targeted by something hidden behind the scenes like that was truly terrifying.
After much thought.
Finally, she carried the Wolf King's corpse back to the tree cave.
That scene looked particularly comical.
On the large tree Si had just leaned against, a white spider lowered itself on a silk thread, watched her retreating figure, and then silently followed. Its movements did not draw Si's attention at all.
At the same time.
In the for-
—est, in a certain area.
Two Persons in Black were dismembered on the ground, mechanical parts scattered everywhere.
There were traces indicating a huge monster had been there.
Judging from the surrounding Spider Silk Traces.
It should also be a spider-type monster.