I'll be happy as a monster

Chapter 5 : Cave Raid I

(Another upgrade, thanks for waiting! Please enjoy and tell me if you find anything wrong :)

White and desolate... When I woke up, I found my self in this strange place.

There was nothing here. All I could see was white all the way to the horizon, no other thing or color could be seen. I found myself floating there, but as I looked around, I couldn't see my body. Where am I? Where's my body? my mind kinda hazy. I remembered that I fell unconscious after the fight with the mantis, but now, where am I?

As I pondered, a cold voice rang.

"Level requirement has been achieved!"
"Skills requirement has been achieved!"
"[One who protects] and [One who devour the strong] optional achievement has been achieved!"
"[Guardian] title achievement has been achieved!"
"Karma : Law(14) Neutral(0) Chaos(2)"
"Altering evolution option!"
"Please choose your evolution!"
"[Armored Tiger], [Blaze Panther], [Ruby Cat]"

Evolution?
Wait, what?! Evolution?!
My hazy mind cleared instantly. I see, So this was the so-called " Evolution Space ", huh? Optional, title achievement? Karma? What's this? I guessed, that the evolution choices would be altered or selected based by one's action? Hmm, make sense. I appraised the optional, title, and karma, but it said my [Appraise] skill was too low.

Well, enough of that. Time to choose! But before that, I appraised the choice first.

Armored Tiger

A tiger with iron defense. All its body is covered with armor formed of their own furs, a keratin armor, with no gaps at all. The only part not armored on their body was the eyes, nose, mouth, underbelly, rear, and soles. Their armor provides them with strong defense from physical attack, taking them down will take a very long time without a proper strategy or strong magic. Their armor can regrow, albeit slowly. In exchange for their air-tight defense, their armor makes them very heavy and slow. Although they have a good physical might, the power of their fire suffers a downgrade. A good source for armor material. A carnivore. Inedible.

Blaze Panther

Dark eyes, blazing red fur, slender body, and crimson claws and fangs. With it's slender and tough body combined with its fire manipulation ability, the Blazing Panther is a born killing machine. It strikes fast and deadly and its fire can turn forest to ash. But it's not without weakness, albeit it has speed and firepower advantage, its defense is lacking. It held an absolute advantage in fighting slow opponent, but it loses its advantage against a fast opponent. Its fangs and claws are good material for fire-type weapon and its fur is good for fire-resistant armor. A carnivore. Inedible.

Ruby Cat

A strange breed of a feline with a crystal-like exoskeleton protecting their body like armor. The red crystal-like exoskeletons grew on top of the skin replacing the black fur, but it didn't cover their whole body. Their legs from knee down are completely covered with the crystal-like exoskeleton, like wearing crystal boots. Then from the knee, it travels to the shoulder in one line, from there it combined to one line covering the spine. Three exoskeleton lines extending from the spine to each side of the ribs and some of the exoskeleton protecting the head, forming a head armor. The tail is covered with the exoskeleton. Unlike what it's appearance suggests, the exoskeleton is quite elastic, not impending movement in any way. It has a good balance of defense and speed, it's power and firepower also good. Its crystal is malleable, good material for light armor and knife. Its fur is a luxury material for making coats and other clothes. An omnivore. Inedible.

Ruby Cat.
Definitely Ruby Cat.
Why? Easy. Simply because the first two just didn't match with my battle style.

The Armored Tiger was not bad and it had a good defense, just what I wanted. But ever since I made [Fire Burst] and used it in my fight with the mantis, I just couldn't neglect such a good skill. If I choose Armored Tiger, I would have an iron defense but [Fire Burst] would lose its effect. Not to mention, my other fire-based offense skills might weaken. I couldn't win a fight if I can only defend.