Bab 27: Chapter 26: Strive For Evolution!

I know it can get boring looking over status messages over and over. I'll try to keep them in small amounts going forward~

Who doesn't love a little power leveling?

With a stuffed belly not wanting to eat another bite, Miles was satisfied with how much progress he had made during his second day here in Cold Lake. He had finally come to terms with accepting this new life of his. He was a human no longer, but that of a fox. With such a frame of mind now, Miles knew he couldn't wander into human towns so easily anymore, until he had enough strength to do so. In response to that, Miles found solace in trying to upgrade his stats further and further. This was one of few things he could focus on doing now. He couldn't do any recreational activities that humans could do.

Foxes primarily either hunted or played around. Doing such repetitive tasks could definitely get boring the more Miles did them. Thankfully, he was given the Divine Fox System to help pass his time before things kicked into high gear. Right now, Miles's new lifespan only allowed him to live for five years. An average human's life expectancy in the late 1800s was around thirty to forty years, as they weren't equipped with the advanced medical technology that would get introduced in the 21st century. Those humans had it tough, but Miles had it even tougher!

He couldn't even live long enough to make it to the 1900s!

That was why growing stronger now was paramount for Miles. He wanted to achieve First Evolution at all costs, making this task his number one goal. In those fantasy stories he had read in his past life to where the main character would get reborn as a non-human like him, their lifespans were bound by whatever system was rewarded to them. If they grew stronger, then they would get to live longer.

Miles could assume the same for his Divine Fox System. If he achieved his First Evolution, his lifespan should increase accordingly. He just wasn't sure for how long. He also wondered how many Evolutions his system could do too, but that would be discovered for later.

In the meantime, Miles set aside some tasks for him to accomplish during this next year. With an end goal now set, Miles curled up into a little ball of fluff, and dispelled Illuminate with a single thought. Darkness invaded his entire burrow again. It wasn't snowing like it was yesterday, all he could hear was the stillness of winter as he snoozed off into dreamland. Miles decided to save the book reading for later. He was too tired now after making that list of goals.

Before he realized it, the dawn of the third day arrived.

Miles received a single notification, causing his mind to stir awake. Sunlight started to peer into his burrow through the cracks of the wood slab he had placed around the entrance. Rest triggered, which restored his health and stamina back up to full.

But just like last time, Miles was still sleepy. To his surprise, he wasn't groggy. If humans slept like this, they would struggle to get out of bed, and likely have a headache for most of their day. It was the opposite for Miles. He didn't have a desire to eat either. He was still pretty full from the previous night.

He remained curled up in his ball, and wandered off into dreamland again, letting the dawn of the third day pass uneventfully. He used to follow a nine to five schedule as a human thanks to his day job, but Miles started to find himself sleeping during the days now. It was as if he changed his shift to a night shift. Sleeping during the days, and being active during the nights.

Before Miles realized it, he entered a new rhythm as the sands of time began to churn. He would wake up as the sun set into the horizon. From there, he would leave his burrow and wander to the giant lake nearby. He would take a plunge, cleaning his body off of any dirt or grime accumulated from the day before. It wasn't a shower by any means, but it was the closest thing to one. Each time he took a bath like this, he would increase his Cold Resistance proficiency. Once his bath finished, Miles would enter his burrow again. He didn't have a desire to immediately set off hunting after cleaning himself off.

Instead, Miles took the time to use Observe on objects near by his burrow, trying to analyze every single thing he could. He was rather limited to how many times Miles could use Observe initially, but as he increased his proficiency, he learned that not only would it give more detailed descriptions of said object, his stamina consumption of using Observe would decrease! He used it on every single tree, shrub, flower, blade of grass, and so on that he could find. He also used Observe on the several kinds of birds that liked to perch higher up on the pine trees.

Every so often, Miles would spot a wild deer. Coyotes would lurk in the deeper sections of the forest. Very rarely Miles would spot a black bear or a large moose. Around where his burrow was, the more common sightings were squirrels and raccoons. He even spotted some arctic foxes! Compared to his onyx-colored fur, their fur was just like a snowflake, pure white. They blended extremely well with their surroundings. Miles couldn't even get near the arctic foxes before they fled away from him. It sounded like they wanted no part of Miles, and were just fine by themselves.

If Miles had an opportunity, he would try to hunt one or two to see if he could get any benefits from hunting a fox of a different species!

Thanks to his wandering around the forest, the proficiency of Observe rose at a rapid pace. He solely focused on using Observe until it reached the latter levels. Once his stamina consumption became less and less, he started to split up his proficiency farming. He went from using one Skill to two. He started to use Marking along with Observe after he spent a couple days solely focusing on Observe. Along the way, just after his first week, Cold Resistance reached its max level.

Cold Resistance now provided a full ten percent decrease to all ice-type damage received! Unfortunately, despite it having the plus next to its description, it did not trigger a Skill Upgrade. That caused Miles to wonder if there were any hidden criteria to meet before he could do such an upgrade.

For now, Cold Resistance was maxed out, and could no longer be worked on. After a few days, Observe was next to come. It only needed one stamina point now for him to use it on a target! It now gave much more detailed descriptions too. Marking also steadily rose, and each time Marking leveled up, it increased how long Miles could mark from a single use of the Skill.

He strayed from hunting for the time being, and focused on raising these three skills. Once the second week passed, Observe maxed out at level 10. It would seem his Skills couldn't level beyond ten. Perhaps they could, but Miles didn't know the method to uncap them. Marking was getting pretty high up there as well.

Along with that, he was able to complete his newest mission, which was to expand his territory to 10%!

Thankfully, Miles had enough goose meat to last him during these two weeks. Shortly after increasing Observe to its max level, Consume was the next one to follow!

Miles did listen to his stomach during these two weeks of time, and didn't have a constant craving anymore to dive into eating meat each night. He was able to split up his portions, and ate at certain intervals throughout his time spent. It left his stomach satisfied with each meal. The one thing Miles did decide to do though was consume the Unique piece of meat first.

And as he had guessed, consuming this meat did give Miles a new skill! It was called [Light As A Feather]. Just as its name implied, it softened the impact damage Miles took when falling. Foxes did have the ability to climb trees with their claws, but had a harder time getting down. Now, Miles could directly jump down from much taller heights without taking too much damage from falling down. He had tested it once to see if anything would happen, and it did inflict some damage, albeit not significant.

And thanks to having Traction, it allowed Miles to climb up trees even easier. The rougher the surface was, the easier it was for Miles to move around on. It really was a handy Skill to have.

Apart from making the most use of his time during his outings while not hunting, during the times when Miles retreated into his burrow, he would cast Illuminate and take a book out of his Inventory to read. Doing this increased his knowledge of his surroundings, and what happens to the X-Men in general.

That led Miles to think of how he should handle the X-Men plot.

'This world is doomed if I don't do anything about it. Should I attempt to fix it, or should I try to flee with X-Men I've bonded with, and head to Earth-616?', Miles pondered. He wasn't sure what the future had in store for him.

For now, he could only shake that thought aside. He worked hard on leveling up his skills during these two weeks. The passage of time might have been short, but he had an explosive growth by consuming most of the goose meat. He decided to have a look at his new gains. He was only inches away from achieving his First Evolution!

Miles's tail thumped in excitement as he reviewed his new status. It was explosive alright!

[Ding! Several instances of Consume and double points have triggered. Now calculating...]

[Ding! 3000 EXP awarded to Host. EXP from Mission and several stat points have been obtained.]

[Ding! Host has reached 100 in each stat. A new Skill, [Protean](+) has been created.]

[Ding! Minimap function is now online.]

[STATUS]

Level: 9/10 (2525/2560)

HP: 439/439 Stamina: 409/409

Strength: 211 Endurance: 161 Agility: 221 Luck: 45

Available Points: 40

CRIT: 45% CRIT RES: 100% (-)

No longer was he super squishy. He now had some stats to back him up. Miles didn't even fear the attacks of the Goose Leader he hunted earlier. He also decided to have a look at his new skill Protean. It also had the potential to upgrade.

[Protean](+)

-Special Effect 1: Attack Damage multiplier x3 -> x4.

-Special Effect 2: Toughness multiplier x3 -> x4.

'Holy shit...', Miles cursed. He wasn't expecting to get a Skill that could directly affect his system like this. If he dealt 600 damage to a target previously with his x3 multiplier, he could deal 800 damage now with a x4 multiplier!

'Is this where the craziness starts? I might be able to take down the whole forest like this...', Miles mused. His tail thumped even harder just imagining the thought.

I left out all the math involved. Would some of you actually be interested in seeing it?