The way back to the cave felt long and full of apprehension, and she was stantly looking around for danger.

  She was severely injured, fatigued and wanted nothing more than to rest.

  Though until arriving at the retive safety of the cave, that would be suicidal.

  Eventually, she returned safely.

  Relieved to have not bee by any more magical beasts, she secured the eel corpse in the cave.

  Despite being twice her length, the eel was slim, allowio fit in the cave.

  Tara felt extremely weak ahargic.

  Staring at the eel corpse hungry, Tara knew she o e it for energy to heal.

  Hesitating briefly at ing a raw eel, she ignored her human impulses, knowing applying human straints to a samander was impractical.

  ‘Well, here it goes.’ Tara thought before taking a tentative bite.

  ‘Hmm, not bad.’ Tara thought her first perception was that the meat was very pin, likely due to the ck of seasoning. The eel's texture was chewy, but her teeth made short work of resistance.

  After that, she felt a burst of energy and was feeling reinvigorated.

  Her wounds began to itch, likely the {Regeion} trait in a.

  Deg to tinue, she had eaten over half the eel before long.

  With her cravings now satisfied. It was time to address the notification she had put aside.

  [gratutions, you currently have enough experience points to level up. Would you like tress to level 2?]

  Viewing the notification, she decisively selected ‘Yes’.

  [Your cultivation level has increased Qi Gathering 1 > Qi Gathering 2. All essential attributes increased. Qi capacity enhanced. Select two existing traits to improve. The your mutation.]

  Tara felt a warmth suddenly wash over her body; briefly gng around, she found everythi clearer. It was as if all of her bodily funs had improved.

  The itg of her flesh intensified further, making her feel the o close her eyes even more, yet she still had to look over the traits she wao improve.

  [Regeion {1}: You regee plex limb structures...]

  Seeing the familiar description, she moved on to the upgrade aspect.

  [*NEW* Regeion is more effit and costs less energy. Every aspect is improved.

  Trait level: {1} > {2}]

  Tara found it was a meneral upgrade to the trait, but with the importance of the trait on dispy against the eel, she was in favour of improving it.

  The one was {Iron Bones}.

  [Iron Bones {1}: The durability of your bones has increased…]

  Viewing the familiar description, she moved on to the improvements.

  [*he strength of your bones is enhanced further. Your cws ah' sharpness and hardiness increased. Your improved boructure further improves your bodily attributes.

  Trait level: {1} > {2}]

  Arait of high importaara knew she had been relying orait since she arrived.

  Lastly, she looked at the final trait listed.

  [Skiion {1}: You secrete a slimy mucus…]

  Skipping past the familiar description, she saw the potential enha.

  [*NEW* Skiion is more effit and requires less energy. The fluid secreted is thicker and more slippery, making it harder to grasp by attackers. It slightly improves damage resistance.

  Trait level: {1} > {2}]

  Although the trait souhe most cklustre of the three, it already demonstrated its effectiveness against the eel, possibly saving her life even and givihe edge she needed.

  Though she already had a pn with the trait and thought there might be some iing mutations, after all, oh, some Samanders secreted poison from their skin.

  Therefore, she decided to enhahe {Regeion} and {Iron Bone} traits to the sed level.

  firmiwo trait enhas allowed her to move on to the mutations.

  Moving onto the s for seleg mutations, Tara found she could evolve aing trait or create airely new mutation with no base.

  The advantage of this is developing a new species trait that will be unique among her current species or expanding upon an already existing trait.

  Although it does not provide her with an additional trait, it expands upon aing trait to create something more substantial.

  Looking through the mutations, she found {Iron Scales} w with {Skiion}.

  {Iron Scales} would increase her skin's durability aance against physical and elemental-based attacks while maintaining its smooth and moist texture.

  However, the mutation that caught her eye was one she was hoping for.

  [Poisoion {1}]: An evolution of {Skiion} it maintains creating a slippery substan the skihis substance is now toxid poisonous. The poison is discharged at will but be energy-intensive depending on toxicity and volume.

  Despite the other mutations that would make her more potent and durable and even allow her to create wings, she found this oo be the most attractive.

  After all, she found that upon killihe best means of levelling was to defeat enemies above her level.

  And there are few better ways to beat a superior oppohan utilising poison.

  Acc to the mutation, though more energy-intehe poison she create bee so toxic that it transmit from skin-to-skin tact, and it will prove even more effective in water.

  She may diverge and take another route iure, but at the moment, when she was both smaller and weaker than many things here, she decided she would use poison.

  Seleg {Poisoion} as her mutation, she found that the sleepiness suddenly became even more overwhelming and unwittingly; she closed her eyes, letting the darkake over.

  Upon awakening, she felt strange. Remembering she seemed to fall asleep? Seriously, out of all the pces. However, it was unusual, as if her sciousness slipped away for a moment before she came back with it.

  Tara figured it must be a bination of my heavy injuries and my upgrades.

  After all, she had no idea if it was a figment of her imagination, though she felt the cave seemed more cramped than before.

  Instinctively, she felt her body size had grown noticeably since her perspective seemed different.

  She also discovered that the lost appeten off by the i had seemingly reappeared as if nothing had happened.

  She wao find somewhere to be able to look at her appearance, but sihere was nothing around to do that, this would have to wait for now.

  It was then she heard a weird scuttling sound.

  Searg around, she found a rge crab that appeared menagly at the cave entras dark, beady eyes searched for something until they nded on the carcass of the eel.

  Eeek. The crab did a little jig as it excitedly approached the half-eaten body.

  Almost zily, Tara instinctively pounced on the crab, which seemed to be only a bit smaller than her.

  Surprisingly, she found its seemingly hard shell giving way to her cws almost instantly. Her cws pierced into the soft flesh underh, ending its life swiftly.

  [You have defeated {S Crab}, gaining 2 EXP. You are now 2/100 intressing to Level 3.]

  ‘Huh.’ Tara thought, surprised at the ck of resistance.

  Only then did she realise that the cultivation level may have more significe than she believed, or perhaps it was the enhas.

  Looking at the EXP ter, she realised the level might take a while, so now that she had levelled up and healed, she decided to ve and begin to hunt.