8

Attibute Panel: Evolution from an Artic Wolf

8 - A battle of life or death

In all this time Luke discovered one very important thing, his main level cannot be evolved by points gained like the other attributes. Simply put, the points in his overall level go up naturally as he devours new creatures. 

His basic attributes are the ones that can be upgraded with the points he gains, so so far he had concentrated on speed at least until he reached level 4. 

Esper energy is a complete mystery to him, what is Esper and what does he mean by energy? If he relates it to a video game, Esper energy would be the same or similar to spirit involving something else he now doesn't know, and now with the messages from the evolutionary panel he discovered that the health regeneration effect doesn't kick in combat. 

But other than helping him recover from fatigue or wounds, there is nothing else to explain to him what Esper energy is for. 

But that doesn't matter now! 

"Roar!" 

In these moments now Luke is no longer dodging the lynx's attacks. 

Knowing that he was about to level up to level 4, he decided to engage in direct combat with the lynx and forced it to fight face to face. 

From one moment to the next the bites and scratches were fierce.
　
The white ground began to turn blood red, and both knew that only one would make it out alive and for whoever survived, would have very serious injuries. 　
　　
It also stands to reason that, as a solitary animal, the lynx would not be desperate enough to take on an arctic wolf. 

But as soon as the lynx attacked Luke, moments after being for a few minutes in a fight of attrition, Luke went into a frenzy and began to ignore the safety of his body. 

Not caring about anything else, the lynx also went into a frenzy. 

For the next few seconds blood was spilled everywhere without knowing from whom the blood came. 

At this moment, Luke was hit by the lynx's two front paws and it bit his chest again, tearing off a piece of flesh and skin. 

Even if the meat has hair, bleeds or tastes bad he didn't care, swallowing directly whatever he tore off the lynx. 
　　
"[2.4 Poins evolution points gained for eating lynx!"] 

As he had known, swallowing eating the same meat continuously will bring him a considerable reduction in evolutionary value. 

As long as Luke can bite the lynx twice more and swallow its meat, he can complete the points required to evolve one more time. 

Therefore, he fought more fiercely with the lynx without caring about his own wounds. Luke had never fought before, but as the fight progressed he became more resourceful in the way he bites. 

Although he is ignoring his own wounds, as long as the lynx's claws and teeth do not attack him in vital areas, Luke will ignore any other attacks directed towards his body. 

The fight was fierce and very close against the lynx, looking for the best opportunities to take part of its flesh. 

Boom! 

The lynx's front paw again struck Luke's back severely, creating a wound. 

But this time it had another chance and Luke directly attacked the muscles of the lynx's front paws. 

"[2.3 Poins evolution points gained for eating lynx!"]　 

When the lynx was wounded from its foreleg, its combat power was affected. 

Luke, who had been watching the enemy, saw that in that feline's eyes there were signs of wanting to retreat. 

The lynx's intuition tells him that if he continued to fight with the wolf that went completely mad, even if he wins his injuries would be fatal! 　 

As a solitary animal, serious injury equals certain death! 

"Roar!"

The lynx roared, wanting to get out of the fight. 

But Luke, if he were in a normal situation would prefer to retreat, but the gains in this battle are priceless so he did not give him this opportunity at all, relying on his speed faster than the lynx, he forced it into a straight fight. 

He threw himself again on the lynx's back, again bit off a piece of meat and swallowed it without chewing. 

"[2.2 Poins evolution points gained for eating lynx!"] 

The moment Luke swallowed that piece of meat with blood dripping down, he felt as if his strength rapidly increased once again. 

This evolutionary power for which Luke has no explanation ran through every part of his body. Every cell in his wolf body greedily absorbed that mysterious powerhouse surging inside his body, and that was the power of evolution. 
　
"[Congratulations on advancing to level 4!"] 

[... Name: Luke Mondragon
     
Species: Arctic Wolf 

Level: 4 <160 evolution points required to upgrade to the next level>. 

Esper Energy: 400 

Endurance: 43 

Strength: 47 

Defense: 43 

Speed: 80 

Evolution points: 10...] 

In these moments Luke distributed his attributes he had obtained in strength after directly reaching 80 points his speed attribute. 

In these moments, Luke felt the power rising in each of his muscles and couldn't help but howl from happiness. 

"Auuu!" 

And the lynx that had seen Luke stop, soon thought to flee frantically. 

But the original strong and swift lynx became quite slow in Luke's eyes. 　　 

His crimson wolf eyes looked at the fleeing lynx with murderous intent. 

When he remembered that this lynx wanted to kill him and steal his food, he had no intention of letting it live. 

With a fast speed, Luke moved like a white shadow towards the enemy. 
　　
Now that his speed is 80 in a very short time he caught up with the lynx. Considering his strength of 47, the leap he made towards his prey was very powerful. 

The lynx looked back, with fear described in its eyes for the first time since it started fighting Luke. 

But there was no time to do anything else. 

The powerful shock force crushed the lynx's back, generating some fractures on the enemy's back. 

Being hit by a great force, the lynx fell to the ground and Luke no longer accelerated his speed. 

Luke's appearance could be described as savage, the blood on his body was dripping and his mouth's sharp teeth reflected a savage intent to kill and bite. 

For anyone in this situation would know that it would be impossible for him to survive. 

At this point, Luke did not torture the enemy and with a direct attack to the lynx's neck killed it in short order.
　　
Luke's first life and death struggle finally came to an end with a successful victory. 

At this point, the wounds on Luke's body began to slowly heal. 　　 

After the lynx died completely, several light gray messages appeared in front of Luke's eyes right on the evolutionary panel. 

"[.... Fight the strong before you defeat the weak! 

Fight until bathed in blood! 

Win by ignoring death! 

First memorable blood! 

No fear of death! 

Combat rating: S...]" 

"[Hunting talent obtained: Grade D!]" 

"[Additional remarks: If the battle grade is lower than S, the message will not appear]." 

"Huh? Now what's this?" 

When Luke read the message on the evolutionary panel in front of his eyes, he was surprised for a moment. 

He hadn't expected there to be this kind of gain from fighting. 

But if he thinks about fighting and evolving, it seems that the difficulty in continuing to gain this kind of profit will not be small. 

"S combat ranking..."

It seems that it can only be obtained after a brutal fight like this one... 

But now Luke doesn't know how far this evolutionary panel will go. At first he thought that this panel would help him evolve into one of the most powerful wolves in history, and even if part of his thoughts are true, there are many things that are unexplained. 

Esper energy and now abilities that are not based on experience, but delivered directly to him by the evolutionary panel.
　
At this point, Luke shook his head without thinking too hard.　 

Instead, he looks at the so-called talent. 

"...[Hunting]: level D (upgradeable), active talent. 

After activating, it can increase its speed by 50% and increase attack power by 50% as well as grant increases in stealth.

Duration: 60 seconds. 

Cooldown: 24 hours...]" 

Seeing this talent, Luke was even more surprised. This attribute not only gives him stronger combat power, but also his speed reaches new levels.

The growth of strength, in the ice and snow of the Arctic, will not only bring him confidence, but also a sure chance to eliminate enemies by surprise or get safe food. 

However, Luke did not waste too much time, just checked and closed the one on basic attributes. 

After all, there was still an arctic reindeer and a lynx he had to take care of, so he needed to drag his two trophies back to the cave. 

Otherwise, the delay would be too long and other predators might be attracted to the smell of blood as well as the lynx. 

After biting the lynx by the neck, he dragged it away and put it on top of the lynx. 

Looking around once more so that no other enemy in the dark would surprise him again, he dragged the reindeer carcass and the lynx back to the cave. 　　 

... 

Several hours later. 

When he threw two corpses in front of several wolf cubs. They all looked at Luke with their blue eyes, as if he were their father. 

No, beyond considering Luke as a father, they felt awe and admiration for him. 　　
The lynx carcass, set aside by Luke, did not let any cubs care to eat it. After all, lynx meat can still provide him with many evolutionary points. 

As for the arctic reindeer, he pushed it into the cave and told his wolf sister and the girl who took care of the cubs to eat. 

Among wolves, there are different levels of class and reputation. 

Therefore, he instructed his wolf sister and the wolf girl to eat first, and he also wanted to establish a rule among the other cubs. 

Among the strongest pups, the lone wolf is the biggest of all. Followed by him are the others. But still, the lone wolf is below the girl wolf who stays in the cave. 
　　
In general, the other wolves are at level 1 and 2, but their attributes are lower than Luke's at the same level. 　 

There was a gray wolf that was only a month old and had reached level 1. And among the weakest, there were the level 0s. 

However, those little guys were born a little over a month ago, so that base point attribute is normal. 

After all, no wolf can grow as fast as Luke does. 

As for his sister, she is strong but still has a lot of growing to do, so she can't bite too hard food. 

So Luke, who was resting on the rock, saw this scene. Watching with amusement his sister's effort to eat, he tore some easily digestible pieces of meat from the belly of the arctic reindeer and threw them in front of his sister. 

"Ow!" His sister's immature howl expressed her love for Luke's observation and she began to eat. 

After that, Luke helps her tear off pieces of meat more suitable for the puppies to eat more easily. As for the adult wolves, they could eat the rest.