Within the illusion world named Power.

"I'll be taking your life then!" Aurus dashed towards the dog in front of him as he raised one of his front paws up as a precursor to one of the skills his dog body has, [Scratch].

"Awh!" Although the dog in front of Aurus was shocked that he would retaliate against its chase all of a sudden, it was still part of the illusion world that was extremely difficult, hence Aurus would not be able to harm or kill the dog in front of him that easily.

As if the dog was blessed with the luck of the world, the dog sidestepped to its left from its perspective just as Aurus' paw was going to land on its head.

Whoos.h.!.+

At that instant, the dog could not help but let out a sigh of relief as it knew that if that paw landed on its head, it would end up with it being severely injured, becoming a feast for Aurus that was in front of it. But sadly...

It was going to become a feast for Aurus either way.

"Awh!" All of a sudden, as the dog was engrossed in its thoughts, Aurus used the momentum of his descending paw to swerve his head to the right to bite down on the dog's head. Feeling the dog's snout inside his own jaw, Aurus knew that he was successful.

The dog tried to escape from Aurus' clutches yet Aurus did not even give the dog a chance to escape, as he did not feel any mercy for the dog in front of him. It was just part of the illusion world anyway, so why should he feel mercy?

Chomp!

Biting down with all of his jaw's strength, the snout of the dog was crushed into bits, making it wail loudly in pain as the crushed snout dissipated into small fragments rather than blood.

Seeing the dog in front of him lying down on the floor, he raised his front paw once more and pressed down on the dog's head.

"Any last words?" Aurus asked because it was the first dog he would kill in this world in order to become strongest.

"Woof." Although the dog's snout was crushed into bits, the throat and vocal cords of the dog was not affected at all, thus letting out a bark filled with sadness and acceptance.

Feeling the dog's emotions pa.s.s through his body, Aurus remained silent before steeling himself to put more pressure onto the paw that was above the dog's head. Little by little, the dog's head gradually deformed under the pressure of Aurus' paw until...

Crack!

The sound of a skull breaking was heard before the dog gradually turned into little fragments that dissipated off into thin air.

Ding!

Not long after, Aurus was covered in a white fog as he felt his body gradually changing in structure as he felt more power course through his body. A few seconds later, a screen appeared in front of Aurus' field of vision.

'Aurus has leveled up!'

'Aurus has evolved from [Domesticated Dog] to [Rabid Dog]!'

'The skill [Rage] has been obtained.'

As the fog gradually dissipated into thin air, Aurus was left standing where he was as he looked at his surroundings from a new perspective. The size of his body was slightly bigger than his previous one, being 1.5 meters long and 1 meter tall now. He then felt compelled to open his current status screen since he did level up.

Ding!

________

[Aurus] (Level 2)

Experience: 0/2

Race: Rabid Dog

[HP]: 10/10

Stats:

[Vitality]: 10

[Strength]: 10

[Defense]: 10

[Agility]: 10

Skills:

[Strong Bite], [Strong Scratch], [Rage]

________

"Eh? My power has basically been doubled just by looking at the stats?" Aurus was somewhat shocked although he knew that he evolved just by gaining a level. Looking a bit further, he noticed that the experience points required to level up was considerably lower than leveling up in reality, which he then thought was understandable since he was racing against time.

"Let's try out my newfound power!" Aurus said to himself before running at a speed that was extremely faster compared to his previous speed. Within a few minutes, he spotted a dog that exactly looked like his previous body.

Leaping up in the air as a way to ambush his prey, he howled loudly to grab the attention of the dog, which was successful. Hearing Aurus' howl, the dog was petrified as it knew that a bigger dog was eyeing itself. It didn't even dare as it knew that its death was inevitable.

Swoos.h.!.+

A gust of air could be heard through the surroundings as Aurus' front paw swiped horizontally, aiming for the dog's head. With Aurus' boosted agility, the dog was sent flying to a nearby tree headfirst. Not long after, the dog that Aurus attacked turned into little fragments before dissipating into thin air.

After seeing the dog disappear, Aurus opened his status screen and noticed that his experience was now filled halfway, which meant that he only needed to kill one more Domesticated Dog before leveling up once more.

And so, he continued to run through the spa.r.s.e forest.

Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+

"I'm glad they didn't emulate blood. I know I won't be able to handle it if they did do that," Aurus said to himself as he noticed that not far away from him, was a dog that was the same size as him.

Hastily calculating the distance between them to be around tens of meters, Aurus then slowed his steps as he went through a detour, trying to not alert the dog that was the same size as him. As he was trying to move in a roundabout way towards the dog's blind spot, a feeling that killing a dog of the same level would be better than a dog of a lower level filled Aurus' body.

A few seconds later, thanks to his careful footwork and high agility, Aurus was able to sneak up behind the dog without alerting it of his presence.

"[Rage]!" Aurus silently commanded in his mind as foam started to drip out of his mouth while his eyes turned bloodshot. Not only that, the fur all over his body started to stand up, making him look like a bigger dog.

Feeling an intrepid sense of strength coursing throughout his dog body, Aurus took a few steps before...leaping up into air!

Whoos.h.!.+

At this instant, the dog was alerted of Aurus' presence as it bent its knees, maintaining its vigilance while looking at its surroundings for any sign of life. Sadly, the being it was trying to find was up in the air!

Aurus opened his jaw widely before clamping down on the dog's neck.

"Awh!" The dog wailed loudly as it was caught by Aurus in surprise. It tried to move its body side to side as it wanted to shake Aurus off, yet Aurus was like a parasite that was sucking its blood, not letting go.

A few seconds later, the intensity of the dog's shaking gradually became lesser and lesser until the dog stood still in its place before dissipating into thin air as it turned into little fragments.

After this, Aurus stood up on his four paws before feeling a fog covering his body once more. This time, the color of this fog was a faint red, as if the fog was mixed in with hints of blood. Nonetheless, Aurus did not care about this as he just wanted to get out of this world.

He felt the structure of his body changing within seconds as a greater power coursed through his veins. He felt that he was significantly bigger than before, and his guesses were confirmed to be true after the fog dissipated.

Whoos.h.!.+

Aurus looked at his new body after levelling up to Level 3 and could not help but say, "Well...this is a big leap."

The current size of his body was incomparable to his previous body, being 5 meters long and 3 meters tall. If it was any other world, Aurus would already be considered as a monster.

Ding!

And not long after checking his body out, a screen appeared in front of his vision. Aurus instantly moved the screen to the side as it updated before continuing to traverse the forest with his higher agility.

'Aurus has leveled up!'

'Aurus has evolved from [Rabid Dog] to [Wolf]!'

'The skill [Survival Instinct] has been obtained.'