Scarlet

Without any further hesitation, I finally let my System messages flow through.

{Congrats, you have leveled up to level 101. Three Free Points have been awarded to you and your stats have been updated.}

{Congrats, on account of ascending to Class II, your stat multipliers have been increased.}

{Your Species has changed from half human, half blood lycan to 62.5% blood lycan, 37.5% human.}

{Fifty Skill Points are awarded for ascending to Class II. Spend them wisely.}

{Thirty Skill Points are awarded for ascending to Class II within half a year of being initialized into the System. Spend them wisely.}

{Twenty-five Skill Points are awarded for ascending to Class II while less than twenty years old. Spend them wisely.}

{Common rarity inherent skill ‘Blood Claws’ may now evolve into uncommon rarity inherent skill ‘Metallicized Blood Claws’ while retaining any previous effects it may have had at the cost of losing three levels.}

{Common rarity inherent skill ‘Partial Shift’ will now evolve into uncommon rarity inherent skill ‘Partial Shift’ while retaining any previous effects. There is no cost in levels due to the skill being static.}

{Common rarity inherent skill ‘Blood Siphon’ may now evolve into uncommon rarity inherent skill ‘Blood Pull’ while retaining any previous effects it may have had at the cost of losing three levels.}

{Common rarity inherent skill ‘Life Drain’ may now evolve into uncommon rarity inherent skill ‘Life Drain’ while retaining any previous effects it may have had at the cost of losing three levels.}

{You have earned the rare rarity inherent skill, ‘Beast Form.’}

My jaw drops open as I hear the various different messages.

One hundred and five Skill Points for ascending?! That was absolutely worth the pain!

The rest of the messages are both expected and not expected at the same time. The extra free point per level at Class II is normal, and the increase in the stat multiplier given from the capabilities is expected as well. Since the multiplier generally goes up by about 0.1 for each tier, so it’ll increase by 0.1 for Tier E, 0.2 for D, 0.3 for C, and so on.

Basic stuff I learned in, well, System Basics.

As for the skill evolutions? That’s rather surprising. I knew that it happened, but normally people only get about two skill evolutions offered to them each ascension… not four.

“Well, the skill evolutions are affected by your etched skills and species, so some of them are more likely to evolve because of that,” Tar says, explaining it to me.

That’s good then. Skill evolutions are always great. They still have all of the effects the skills had prior to the evolution, with brand new effects and uses on top of it.

Although the metallicized blood claws skill is probably not something I’m going to be able to use in public. At least, not the metallicized version.

Because blood lycans are known to be the only creature that can metallicize their blood. Period.

But people are only offered skill evolutions once per skill, so it would be an absolute waste to refuse it just because I won’t be able to use the metallicized blood part of the skill out in the open. So I go ahead and accept all of the skill evolutions.

{Common rarity inherent skill ‘Blood Claws’ has now evolved into the uncommon rarity inherent skill ‘Metallicized Blood Claws’ while retaining any previous effects it may have had at the cost of losing three levels.}

{Common rarity inherent skill ‘Blood Siphon’ has now evolved into the uncommon rarity inherent skill ‘Blood Pull’ while retaining any previous effects it may have had at the cost of losing three levels.}

{Common rarity inherent skill ‘Life Drain’ has now evolved into the uncommon rarity inherent skill ‘Life Drain’ while retaining any previous effects it may have had at the cost of losing three levels.}

Now then. I go ahead and check out each of the skills’ new descriptions.

{Metallicized Blood Claws - Allows the user to coat their hands and feet with claws of blood. The blood used in the skill is either created through the user’s mana, drained from the body of whatever the user has their claws in, or drawn from the user’s body if they are out of mana. The user may also metallicize the blood claws into blood metal.}

{Life Drain - Allows the user to drain the life energy of nearby creatures into themselves and others, healing them in the process. Costs mana to use. Life energy drained can be directed to a particular area of the user’s body to speed up healing there.}

{Blood Pull – Allows the user to drain the blood of nearby creatures and to pull unattached blood from the air and the ground and use it for various purposes, including transfusing the user’s or others blood or using the blood for the user’s skills to substitute 50% of the required blood the user would have to personally use.}

I frown at the differences in Life Drain and Blood Pull. Specifically that there are no differences in Life Drain, and the difference in Blood Pull’s description should be something I already could’ve done.

“Not necessarily,” Tar says while floating in front of me as I still stand in front of the mirror with a frown on my face. “If I had to guess, you should now be able to pull blood that isn’t fresh or from a still-living being as well. That’s what it means by unattached. And normally, for skill evolutions, if the description doesn’t change then it just involves a pure efficiency boost for the skill.”

Hmm, okay, I can work with that. I can definitely work with that.

Should also make filling my blood bank a lot easier too.

As for the metallicized blood claws skill?

I grin as I raise my hand to my face before activating the skill, making blood quickly wrap around my entire hand to form the appearance of a paw. The blood then slowly gains a very faint silvery black sheen to it as it solidifies into metal.

“Now this is cool,” I mutter as I flex my fingers, feeling far better movement than I’d have expected for having what are basically gauntlets on my hands in the form of a werewolf’s hand. “Very cool.”

After messing with the skill for a few minutes, I deactivate it and begin heading towards my room again, leaving the bathroom behind.

I’d say this ascension was very beneficial.

“Of course it was,” Tar says, sounding amused as he floats around my head. “You basically ascended one step past the bounds of humanity. Or demon-kind? Past both.”

I snort at that.

“It’s what climbing the pathway of ascension means,” Tar says, ignoring my snort.

Yeah.

As I’m walking through the halls of my suite, I finally open the description of the brand new rare inherent skill.

{Beast Form – Allows the user to transform into a humanoid wolflike beast for the price of ten percent of their mana on use.}

Not very descriptive, but I did finally get a full body transformation skill. It only took reaching Class II for it to happen, but I got it.

“Considering that you’re part blood lycan, it was almost a guarantee for you to get it,” Tar says while still floating around my head.

Guess so.

Once I reach my bedroom, I stop before closing the door and putting my hands on my hips as I smile at the tanuki and state, “So let’s try it.”

Tar actually begins to look a little excited at that, the little tanuki stopping in midair in front of me with obvious interest on his face.

With that amusing sight noted, I walk over to the full body mirror that was in my room before I moved in here, wait for a few seconds, then activate the skill.