Inside a big mansion, a few streets down, a huge snake corpse was lying in the middle of the living room. 

Lu Chen, Alex, and Guan Ye were busy removing the flesh from the skin. They sat around and patiently used their daggers to tear through the flesh without damaging the skin and the scales on top.

And while they did that, Xu Meilin and Luo Zu cooked the meat strips inside the kitchen. Luckily, there was still gas in this house so they used the stove.

They didn't waste anything including the blood, bones, and brain, and cooked everything.

Qin Hua, on the other hand, did not care about the meat being cooked or not anymore. Mutated beast meat was both nutritious and delicious and it tasted the same to her irrespectively.

So she already ate her fill and rested on one of the extravagant Italian couches lying around, messing with the system interface.

She was particularly looking at two new notifications that popped up.

<Ding. 50 Experience points gained>

<Ding. Intelligence +1> 

<Ding. 50 Experience points gained>

<Ding. Intelligence +1>

[Hmmm… So eating the brain is different than eating the other parts of the snake.] 

Qin Hua's eyes darted towards the four small balloon sort of things that were carefully placed on the side, except these were smeared in blood. These were the venom sacs of the snake.

[Will I be able to get some sort of poison resistance if I consume those?] 

She wanted to try it out. In the worst-case scenario, she could simply take a health potion to heal the venom's effect, but skill points were precious. So she hesitated.

[Woof! Let me deal with that later. I should check all the upgrades first.]

She used her paw to tap on the notification that she was most excited about.

<Ding. Unique quest: Can you change your fate? Completed>

<Ding. Hidden evolution paths have been unlocked>

[Woof! What the heck? I can't see what they are?]

<Ding. Criteria for evolution has not yet been fulfilled>

Grrr… Woof! Woof!

Qin Hua flicked the notification away in anger and then took a look at some of the other ones to feel better.

<Ding. Skill [Dash] has been upgraded to [Sprint]>

<Ding. Skill [Rip] has been upgraded to Level 2>

<Ding. Skill [Maul] has been upgraded to Level 2>

<Ding. Skill [Majestic Roar] has been upgraded to Level 2>

<Ding. Skill [Leech Bite] has been upgraded to Level 2>

<Ding. Skill [Blending into Darkness] has been upgraded to Level 4>

Because of her fight with the boas, most of her skills were upgraded and one was completely overhauled. This was good… but the dog did not look happy.

[Damn. All my physical skills are very enhanced but my magic skills are very lacking.] She snapped her canines in annoyance as this was an obvious error in her fighting approach.

[I need to focus on my magic skills more. Otherwise, I will only be forever running and hiding. Woof!]

[System, what about the mana core?] She swiped the skill upgrade notifications and before the system could answer her, her gaze fell on another new notification hiding in the back.

<Ding. Criteria for forming mana core has been fulfilled>

<Ding. Method for forming mana core is available for purchase in the shop>

Qin Hua did not even bother to complain about the unfairness of it and directly opened the shop to purchase the damn method for the mana core formation from the greedy system.

<Ding. Shop>

______________

[Inspect] [Purchased] - Cost: 2 Skill points; Allows the user to obtain information about an object, both animate and inanimate; Can be leveled up for upgrades.

[Space vault] [Purchased] - Cost: 10 Skill points; A dimensional magic spell that enables the user to store various items; Can be leveled up for upgrades.

[Dark shackles] [Purchased] - Cost: 2 Skill points; Allows the user to bind the target in place, preventing any and all movements; Can be leveled up for upgrades.

[Chaos ball] [Purchased] - Cost: 5 Skill points; Consumes 30 mana; Deals 20% of magic attack power damage; Has a high chance to ricochet off the enemy and land on a nearby enemy dealing double the previous damage; Can be leveled up for upgrades.

______________

[Corruption] - Cost: 5 Skill points; Deals damage to mind, body, and soul; 10% of magic attack power instant damage and 50% of magic attack power damage dealt over 20 seconds; Can be leveled up for upgrades.

[Chaos bolt] - Cost: 3 Skill points; Deals 110% of magic attack power damage; Can be leveled up for upgrades.

[Beast Mana Core Formation Method] - Cost: 3 Skill points; Method to form a beast mana core; Beast mana cores cannot be upgraded further.

[Superior Mana Core Formation Method] - Cost: 10 Skill points; Method to form a superior mana core; Superior mana cores can be upgraded further.

[Health potion] - Cost: 2 Skill points; Recovers the complete health of the user and removes all effects of toxins in the system.

[Mana potion] - Cost: 2 Skill points; Recovers the complete mana reserve of the user and removes all disorienting spells in effect.

[Cleansing potion, Low grade] - Cost: 5 Skill points; Removes all the impurities present in the physical body

______________

The next second, a loud growl sounded, and the expensive Italian leather couch took the brunt of her anger.

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

GROWL! GROWL! GROWL!

Sponge and pieces of leather flew everywhere and the dog was going completely crazy. The others even stopped what they were doing and looked at Qin Hua dumbfoundedly for a second.

But even Lu Chen did not dare to interrupt her tantrum.

She ended up only settling down after a good couple of minutes when the couch was completely destroyed.

[Fucking RIP OFF! Bastards!] Qin Hua gnashed her canines. 

From the three level upgrades, she had a total of 11 skill points saved up and the damned method cost 10!

She was livid with rage, but there wasn't any other option. 

It would be foolish to save skill points and buy the [Beast Mana Core Formation Method] especially when the other one was far better, at least it sounded better from the description.

So she could only indignantly select the purchase option.

<Ding. Superior Mana Core Formation Method has been purchased>