The Enthusiastic Foolish Dog

As expected, the narrator appeared.

[Your familiar has consumed an attribute core. Although the energy within the core isn't much, it will take a certain amount of time for it to absorb the energy, given its current state.]

[You've discovered one of the core's uses: it can be consumed by living beings.]

[As a reward, you've unlocked part of the core's information.]

[Living beings can consume cores, and by consuming a core that matches their attributes, they can increase their transcendent rank. The higher the transcendent rank, the higher their affinity for the corresponding attribute, making it easier to gain transcendent abilities related to that attribute.]

[Please note: Consuming a core that doesn't match one's attribute is extremely dangerous.]

[When consuming a core of an opposing attribute, the being's transcendent affinity will decrease, leading to confusion and the risk of transcendent abilities going berserk. Please use attribute cores with caution.]

[You've unlocked part of the core's information. Your familiar will finish digesting it in ten minutes.]

"Ten minutes?"

That's surprisingly quick. It seems the energy within this core is far less potent than the black fruit.

Sophia Johnson continued to level up the dog in the game while keeping an eye on Xiao Yi's progress. True to the timer, ten minutes later, Xiao Yi opened its eyes.

However, there seemed to be no visible changes. Sophia's attention shifted to the game screen.

At that moment, Xiao Yi's status sheet conveniently appeared on the screen.

[Familiar: Snake Lv12

Mental: 160

Physical: 640

Attribute: Blade

Traits: Poison Lv5, Sharp Lv3, Bloodthirsty Lv4, Cunning Lv2 → Lv3

Special Ability: None]

Cunning had leveled up, but the most notable change was the "Special Ability" section, which had a helpful "None" written under it.

Sophia Johnson immediately recalled what the narrator had said earlier: higher affinity meant it was easier to gain a transcendent ability.

She considered that traits were also a form of transcendent ability, though they were generally passive. Her familiars still relied on physical strength and these passive traits for hunting. There wasn't yet an active transcendent ability to speak of.

Perhaps active abilities were found under the "Special Ability" section?

Moreover, active abilities likely required a certain level of affinity to be obtained.

Even the modified Bloodthirsty ability she had gotten from her familiar was still considered a passive skill.

If all living beings followed this rule, human transcendent beings should work the same way. But during the year since transcendent beings emerged, there had been reports of newly awakened transcendent beings wielding powerful abilities that could be actively released.

Did human transcendent beings not follow this pattern? Was this only the rule for familiars?

Sophia tucked the question away in her mind, planning to verify it later if the opportunity arose.

It was also worth noting that Xiao Yi's evolution points had increased by five hundred, now standing at 700/2000.

From these changes, it was evident that level in some way represented a being's affinity with attributes. The higher the level, the stronger the being, and the greater the affinity for transcendent abilities of that attribute.

Perhaps after leveling up a few more times, Xiao Yi would gain an active skill.

Thinking about leveling up, Sophia Johnson found herself a bit exasperated. Having experienced the joys of auto-grinding, she was already starting to resent the necessity of manually controlling for the first ten levels. How could she level up the dog quickly to unlock auto-grind?

Sophia suddenly had an idea when she looked at Xiao Yi, who was idly standing nearby.

Why not have Xiao Yi level up the dog?

The dog leveled up slowly on its own, but with Xiao Yi around, wouldn't the process speed up?

Though this would delay Xiao Yi's progress, her priority now was to unlock the auto-grind for the dog.

With that in mind, Sophia quickly began adjusting the game settings. She set Xiao Yi to auto-grind while controlling the dog to meet up with Xiao Yi. However, even though Xiao Yi was now on auto, Sophia still had to manually control the dog.

So, Sophia set out to find stronger prey nearby. The higher-level monsters yielded more evolution points, and her progress was visibly accelerating.

While leveling up the dog, Sophia also kept an eye out. There was something that had been bothering her for a while.

In this area, there were only mutated animals, not any of the strange monsters born from the fog.

The dog had even encountered a crazed human, but no sign of a mutated creature.

How could that be?

When the fog had yet to fully gather around Yun City, strange monsters had already appeared in various places, emerging from the fog. Most of them were mindless, twisted and grotesque, lurking in dark corners and attacking humans. Every one of them had transcendent abilities and was incredibly difficult to handle, sparking widespread fear.

Now that the fog had nearly enveloped this place, there should be even more strange monsters, but she hadn't spotted a single one in days.

"Is something wrong?"

Her understanding of strange monsters was limited; she had only heard about them from the news. Now, she could only explore these questions on her own.

As Sophia continued to level up the dog, she also explored the surrounding environment. Aside from the disappearance of strange monsters, she noticed that the mutated animals seemed to be growing stronger. At least compared to the low-level creatures Xiao Yi had encountered earlier, these mutated animals were now at least two levels higher on average.

They were growing.

"And where did all these animals in the city come from?"

It was as if, overnight, the animals from the wild had all run into the city.

Could it be because of the fog and the departure of humans?

By nightfall, the dog reached level 10, but she still hadn't seen any mutated creatures.

"Looks like someone's been leveling up for me. It would've taken at least two more days for the dog to level up on its own."

With Xiao Yi around, the time needed for leveling was cut by more than half.

Sophia watched with satisfaction as the progress bar for the gray dog filled up, eagerly opening its status screen.

[Familiar: Dog Lv10

Mental: 98

Physical: 740

Attribute: Blade

Traits: Strength Lv6, Sense of Smell Lv4, Vigilance Lv2, Sharp Lv3

Special Ability: None]

[Required Evolution Points: 0/1000]

Compared to Xiao Yi at level 10, the dog had slightly lower mental stats but was much stronger physically.

After confirming the attributes, the familiar narrator voice reappeared.

[Your familiar has reached level 10, and its intelligence has awakened. You can now give it a name.]

Sophia had already decided on a name. She quickly typed in "Doggie."

Though she was familiar with the auto-leveling process, she hadn't expected what would happen after reaching level 10. Instead of unlocking a third familiar, the game displayed new information.

[Congratulations! You've enabled two familiars with basic self-sufficiency. When a familiar reaches level 20 and evolves to a higher level, you will unlock a third familiar, expanding your available choices.]

[You now have the ability to compete in this conflict, but you're still too weak. Against stronger foes, you're but a fragile being. To secure a foothold, you must grow stronger.]

[You've unlocked ability: Spiritual Body.]

[By using an attribute core, you will obtain a randomly generated spiritual body. It will be randomly placed somewhere in the city, and your consciousness can inhabit the body to walk the world. When the time limit is up, your consciousness will return, and the body will vanish.]

[The more cores you invest, the stronger the attributes and transcendent abilities the spiritual body will have. The longer it will exist, too. If the body naturally dissipates when time runs out, all items obtained during your possession will be stored in your inventory.]

[If the spiritual body dies before time is up, no items will be retrieved.]

With this, a gray pixel girl icon appeared in the bottom-right corner of the game screen.

Sophia curiously clicked the icon. A pixelated black-haired girl appeared in front of her.

Despite the pixel art style of the game, the graphics were surprisingly good, almost beautiful. At that moment, Sophia couldn't help but notice a faint resemblance between this girl and herself.

"...That's creepy."

Beside the girl was a brown box labeled "Deployment Location," offering selectable items.

Sophia clicked it, and a choice popped up.

[Please set the number of cores to invest.]

[Note: Only cores of the chosen attributes can generate transcendent abilities.]

Sophia was tempted to try and use a core now. She had a [Moth] attribute core and a [Winter] attribute core. But after glancing at the time, she decided against it. She wasn't sure if the spiritual body would be able to move around during the midnight hours, and it would be a waste if it couldn't.

"I'll sleep for now."

Just then, Xiao Yi and Doggie were about to return. She was a bit excited to see how the dog would behave in real life.

"Hopefully, it won't be too clingy. One Xiao Yi is enough!"

Soon, the game screen showed both familiars returning to the house. Sophia Johnson put her game console in her pocket and walked to the door.

She had mentally prepared herself, but still, nothing could have quite prepared her for the moment when she opened the door—only to be greeted by a huge gray dog leaping toward her, tail wagging furiously, its tongue licking her face before she even had a chance to shout.

Sophia clenched her fist, the weight of the "burden" and the damp sensation on her face draining her patience in an instant. She pushed the dog away with force, but...

She couldn't budge it.

...What kind of silly giant was this?

It seemed like the dog, noticing her displeasure, stepped back slightly, but as Sophia observed, it wasn't the dog that had stepped back—it was the black snake tail coiled around its waist that had forcibly pulled it back.

Even then, the dog wasn't done and tried to lunge toward her again.

"Hah," Sophia let out a cold laugh, watching the overly enthusiastic dog staring at her with wide eyes, its tail wagging like mad. It seemed completely oblivious to her current mood.

She walked into the room and ordered Xiao Yi, "Drag it in and close the door."

Once both were inside, Sophia looked at the dog and sternly commanded, "Sit