‘Clearly it’s something to do with her clan,’ Leo pointed out disdainfully.

  ‘I know that, genius,’ Dominic snapped at him. ‘But what does it do? Just like how the Protective Mother Ability that Isis has could be a shield or an enhancer for her own body, but actually is a way for her to designate a number of Pride members as temporarily almost invulnerable, I can imagine that Clan Matriarch could offer all sorts of benefits.’

  ‘What have we actually seen from her, though?’ the lion asks pointedly.

  ‘Well… Somehow, she was able to bring a whole load of her fellow hyenas into the Challenge, despite it technically being limited to only Challengers. Crushing Bite is nothing special, and Keen Intelligence doesn’t offer that. Which must mean it must come from Clan Matriarch,’ Dominic realised. ‘The Ability must have something to do with being able to count some or all of her clan as being part of her and not as separate beings according to the System.’

  ‘And perhaps it allows her to summon them from a distance – you noticed before that the hyenas appeared to come out of nowhere when we were chased out of our territory.’

  ‘Good point,’ Dominic admitted. He then hesitated. ‘It’s very expensive – almost half our Enhancement Points for just that.’

  ‘Which might indicate that it’s also very powerful,’ pointed out Leo.

  ‘Quite probably.’ Dominic considered it. The ability to summon his Pride members, to be able to bring them even into a Challenge…. Then a thought struck him. If it was possible to use this Ability to bring group members into a one-on-one Challenge, would it be possible to use it to overcome dungeon party limits? Because if so, that would make the Ability very powerful – and make it easy to cheese dungeons. After all, the spider boss had been difficult with six of them, but if there had been twelve at the same average level of the party? It would have been far easier. As long as they hadn’t tripped over each other, that is.

  And ultimately, he had enough Enhancement Points that even if he took the Ability, he still had plenty of Points left over for other options in the list.

  ‘Alright, so we’re in agreement? Clan Matriarch is a definite?’

  ‘Agreed.’

  Dominic didn’t waste any time and ‘bought’ the Ability bringing his number of points down to a still-decent twenty-nine.

  ‘So, do we want to mop up all the little points next or consider the other more-expensive options?’

  ‘The low-point items are things we already have – taking all of them will enhance our strengths,’ Leo said logically.

  ‘That’s true,’ agreed Dominic, ‘but perhaps we need to shore up some of our weaknesses – we’re going to be facing lots of enemies in the future, and we don’t know whether they’ll have a good counter to our speed and damage-dealing. Things that we already have, we can improve by ourselves. The higher point items are new options which might give us more flexibility.’

  ‘We already have lots of flexibility,’ argued Leo. ‘Too much, in some ways. Consider how many Abilities we have. We don’t even use half of them! And the ones we do use frequently are still not all that high level because we’re spreading ourselves thinly over them rather than concentrating on one or two things and getting really good in those.’

  Dominic was silent. Leo had an interesting point there. He had been so busy grabbing everything he could that his build was…kind of messed up. He had a strong offence, a lot of speed, a bit of defence, a little bit of ranged, a hint of magic, some crowd control, some healing, and some stealth. He really was a Jack-of-all-trades – which ultimately ended up being a Master-of-none simply because it was impossible for someone to be good at everything unless they had unlimited time. Which, as Dominic had seen from Selessa’s story, even deities couldn’t claim.

  That said, so far it hadn’t been a problem. If anything, it was the reverse – he had been able to hunt alone or carry his party members in the dungeon simply because he was able to fulfil so many different roles. Specialism might be the way Evolution worked – each type of animal finding its little niche – but it might not be the way to survive under the System where all the niches had been thrown out of the window and everyone was gunning for everyone else’s throat. At least, maybe not to start with though that might change as things settled over time.

  ‘I hear what you’re saying,’ Dominic said, finally replying to his companion. ‘And you have a good point. And perhaps we need to figure out what role we actually want to play when we’re in a party – and grind those Abilities so that we have an edge on our competition. But I don’t think that hyper-specialisation is the way to go here. Consider the Challenges we’ve had recently. There was the ulla who could hit hard and fast, but struggled to turn on a dime. If all we’d had there was offence, it would have come down to a war of attrition between us. If all we’d had was speed, we wouldn’t have had the power to bring him down. We needed both, along with a high health pool and enough defence or regeneration that we wouldn’t go down in one hit. And then the most recent fight where what we thought was a one-on-one battle turned into a one-on-many! If we hadn’t had the regeneration to keep up with the damage they were doing, as well as the offensive ability to take out our attackers one by one, we would have been ripped to shreds.

  ‘Ultimately, I agree with you that we need to focus a bit on our build – we decided ages ago that we needed to focus on overwhelming force and speed with regeneration serving as our main backup. But when we’re being offered the opportunity here to shore up a few of our weaknesses, practically for free, I think that it’s worth the investment.’

  ‘What are you suggesting, then?’ Leo rumbled thoughtfully in question.

  ‘Well, my eyes are on Defensive coat and Powerful muscles, first of all. Defensive coat might help shore up our defence a bit – even if we mostly rely on our regeneration, an attack that doesn’t get through is one we don’t have to heal. It also reduces the chance of being one-shotted.’

  ‘Obviously,’ commented Leo.

  ‘I know,’ Dominic responded with a hint of exasperation. ‘But I’m just making sure we’re on the same page here. Powerful muscles can help enhance our body – our speed, our strikes – and more.’

  ‘That’s not shoring up a weakness,’ Leo pointed out.

  ‘Do you remember just how hard it was to bite through those muscles? No? Because I do! Tell me that’s not defensive,’ Dominic challenged his companion. The lion was silent. ‘Anyway, since it’s likely to be something that will help every aspect of our life, I think it’s an option we should take. Finally…’ Dominic hesitated for a moment. ‘My vote is on Keen Intelligence.’

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  ‘Like several of our Pride have?’ Leo asked with surprise.

  ‘Yes, it seems to have done them good,’ Dominic explains. ‘And…maybe we could do with it too.’ He didn’t like admitting it, but if he was honest with himself, he’d made some rather stupid decisions in the past, ones which he might not have made if he’d properly thought about it. The use of Rage while in the middle of enemies and already struggling was just one of them. And perhaps Keen Intelligence would be able to counteract the mental effects of Rage, at least in part.

  Leo had apparently been following his thought process as when he spoke, it was in a considering way.

  ‘Keen Intelligence may indeed be useful,’ he allowed. ‘But even if we really want it, why choose it at this moment?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Dominic, confused.

  ‘We know several of our Pride have it. And we have just brought many winged canines into our Pride. Why not get it from someone using Pride’s Tribute rather than using our Enhancement Points? Or look around, there are so many bodies containing Cores here – we might easily find ones with Keen Intelligence held within them. That way, we will be able to get other items here which we cannot get elsewhere – I thought that that was your argument to start with.’

  ‘It was,’ Dominic agreed, his mind mulling over Leo’s suggestion. It wasn’t a bad one – definitely not. But at the same time, their Pride Points could be used for so many other things which would help the whole Pride – using five of them just to give himself an Ability which he could get here at no cost to the Pride at all seemed a little stupid. Then again, if there were other items here that he could really do with, and wouldn’t have the points to get if he chose Keen Intelligence, then perhaps using Pride Points would be the better option. And if he could earn the Ability for free from some of the Cores around, obviously, that was the even better option. ‘Alright, let’s see if we really need other items on the list, then. Are we in agreement about Powerful muscles and Defensive coat, though?’

  ‘As long as Defensive coat won’t make it even longer than it currently is,’ Leo warned. Dominic hesitated.

  ‘I…don’t know. We’ve experienced physical changes from gaining an enhancement before, but there’s no information about whether that’s true in this case – or what the changes would be if so….’

  The lion made an unhappy noise and Dominic felt torn – so far it hadn’t been possible to get rid of any enhancements they made; only add more. So if it wasn’t any good then they’d still have to live with it.

  ‘The hyena matriarch didn’t really have long fur,’ he ventured, thinking back to the fight. ‘It was just…really tough. If that’s any indication, I think we’ll be fine.’

  ‘Well, if you’re sure….’ Leo trailed off.

  ‘I’m not, but I think it’s worth risking,’ Dominic emphasised. ‘And what about Powerful muscles? Do you agree to that one?’

  Upon the lion’s confirmation, Dominic bought the two new enhancements. A rush went through his body followed by a sense of burning as if he’d just taken adrenaline, and then sprinted as fast as he could until his muscles were full of lactic acid and his breath was coming in pants. Only to soon be followed by itching, like ants were crawling beneath his skin.

  Finally, as the sensation became almost unbearable, it died away and left his body feeling…strong. Like he could leap halfway to the clouds in a single bound or run as fast as a train at full speed.

  Dominic took a moment to inspect himself, ignoring the list still present in front of his eyes. The differences were immediately obvious. His muscles were corded enough that he could see their outlines even through his fur, and when he licked at them, they felt like they were made of iron. As for his fur, it had grown a touch, but barely noticeably. The main difference to that was that it felt wiry. Even his mane was tougher than before, sticking out more stubbornly from his head and neck and less affected by the wind which had been ruffling it before.

  ‘If this new fur means that we stab the females with our mane when we mate with them…’ threatened Leo ominously.

  ‘Then we’ll have to adjust our position,’ Dominic finished, poking at Leo with an imagined paw. ‘This is our fur now; we’ll have to get used to it,’

  ‘Hopefully it’s worth the change,’ Leo grumbled.

  ‘We’ll take a look when we’ve finished up here. Now, we have fifteen points left and, technically, if we wanted to get everything remaining on the list, it would cost us…thirty-one. So either we get Keen Intelligence and something else worth two or three points, or we get some or all of what’s remaining apart from that. Thoughts?’

  ‘Commanding voice sounds interesting,’ Leo commented cautiously. ‘It sounds like something that could enhance our Roar.’

  ‘Or perhaps any other vocal expression,’ Dominic agreed thoughtfully. ‘I don’t think that Large body is worth it – we’ve seen that size isn’t everything and can, in fact, be a significant disadvantage if the beast doesn’t have the agility to manage their size properly.’

  ‘True,’ Leo agreed, though it sounded rather reluctant. ‘The others would just enhance what we already have by a little.’

  ‘Which basically means that they count as free perks which we don’t need to choose on level-up – fortunate since whenever we level up in the Place of Power, we need to choose our Mana Heart and Soul to repair those.’ Dominic sighed, a gust of air emerging from his mouth. ‘I think you’re right – we should get Keen Intelligence another way rather than here. If it comes to it, maybe we could copy Keen Intelligence off Sekhmet, assuming that she’s already level five in it. Regarding the other options, Quick reflexes in particular would be useful to get since we’ve probably just increased our speed with Powerful muscles.’

  ‘Then we are choosing everything except Large body and Keen Intelligence?’ Leo checked.

  ‘Unless you have any objections?’

  ‘No.’

  With their mutual agreement confirmed, Dominic started selecting the desired options. Sharp teeth made his teeth ache for a moment before the sensation returned to normal, though a careful testing with his tongue revealed that all his teeth were slightly sharper, his canines in particular. Next, he selected Commanding voice, unpleasantly surprised when this seemed to cause a problem for the System.

  Error: the user has no vocal Aspect.

  Solution: enhance the Ability containing the vocal Aspect.

  ‘I guess that it will only affect Majestic Sonic Roar,’ Dominic sighed. ‘Or Fearful Voice, maybe.’ A pity, but probably something he should have expected – there had been warnings about the consequences of combining Aspects with Abilities after all.

  He continued to select Sharp eyesight, Quick reflexes, and Crushing Bite. Fortunately, despite a brief sensation in the relevant body parts, there were no further issues.

  Triggering Consume on the matriarch’s body, he quickly absorbed the dust, presumably accumulating some progress in one of the Abilities he’d taken from her.

  He noticed her core that had dropped when he had absorbed the matriarch’s body, it was an impressive size. Touching it, he checked what was available.

  [Beast Core: Spotted Hyena Matriarch, Evolved beast level 27

  Ability option 1: Crushing Bite (40%))

  Ability option 2: Keen Intelligence (30%)

  Ability option 3: Clan Matriarch (30%)]

  Though the Abilities were just as Dominic had expected, the percentages were a little surprising – usually, he was significantly more likely to receive the first Ability than the last. He guessed that it just proved how much the matriarch had leaned on her Keen Intelligence and Clan Matriarch Abilities.

  Since any of them would be fine for him, Dominic wasn’t too worried when he absorbed the Core. He did try to push it towards Keen Intelligence over the other two as that was something he needed to build to a hundred percent if he wanted to gain it, whereas the others he could just increase with practice.

  About to open his status to check which one he’d actually received, his attention was abruptly caught by two figures moving towards him. One was welcome – Sekhmet. The other was far less so – it was the large male lion with the deep dark mane he had seen fighting next to Sekhmet in the battle.

  here!