Mira cursed, but unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about this situation. She could only accept it and move on, which Mira did immediately.
Now, she felt like she definitely didn't have the time to be sitting around. Her once ample amount of time has now been reduced to a tenth of what it was and although she felt like that was still plenty of time to complete this trial, it might not be enough to where she can act carefree and take her time.
Raising her vigilance to the maximum, Mira walked out of her new birthplace, which seemed to be some type of igloo.
Mira had a few things she wanted to test out, so she searched the surrounding area for some prey she can feast on.
After leaving the igloo, it didn't take Mira long to find a lone Penguin walking around the snow and ice.
She knew that as a baby fox, she wouldn't be a match for the penguin in a direct confrontation, but if she can successfully sneak attack it, then there should be no problem killing it.
Mira also noticed, that as an Artic Fox, she could manipulate ice and snow to a certain extent, but it was only enough to serve as a form of camouflage. She'd probably have to grow up a bit more if she wanted to use stronger abilities.
Still, that didn't stop her from using this ability to the fullest as it's exactly what she needs in the situation.
Covering herself in snow, Mira slowly approached the penguin, and when she eventually got in range of it... She pounced on its neck!
*SKREE*
The penguin managed to get a screech out before Mira successfully ripped open its throat, killing it.
Mira wasn't strong enough to carry away an entire adult penguin, so it could only eat it right then and there. She wasn't too worried about retaliation from the penguins though as they aren't exactly the smartest species. More than likely, when the other penguins heard the terrified cry of one of their brethren, they'd already fled the area thinking that a polar bear or something was hunting them down.
Mira was able to finish eating the penguin in peace, but as soon as she finished eating it, something weird happened.
Her body began growing and maturing at an abnormally fast pace, and she felt her body getting stronger. Not only that, but her affinity with ice was slowly rising, although not as much as her body and strength.
Seeing all of this happen to her body, a few of Mira's questions about this trial were answered.
"So, I'm guessing that I need to hunt, kill, eat, and evolve in order to pass this trial. Although that is just a guess, I'm 90% sure that's what the trial wants from me. It wants me to become a Legendary Ice Beast! Does that mean that the Blood Essence that I'll receive will actually be the Blood Essence of the Legendary Beast I evolve into? Also, what are the bloodline rankings in this trial? Are there humans? What Legendary Beast should I shoot for now that I've started out as an Arctic Fox? I suppose the only logical solution is to try and evolve into a 9-tailed Fox that has dominion over the element of ice!"
As Mira came to a few conclusions, more questions were raised.
She felt like this trial was a bit too easy if she only needed to kill and consume beasts to increase her strength and bloodline. Not only that, but things were clearly different in this trial world. In her world, beasts don't just grow stronger and increase in size by consuming other beasts. That especially doesn't work for trying to raise the strength of a beast's bloodline. Doing that takes talent, resources, and luck in her world, but here all she needs to do is eat a few beasts and she'll be fine.
Wouldn't that mean she can complete this trial in a few years if that was the case?
This also begs the question, is she the only one who has this ability, or is every beast in this world able to evolve like her?
Her intuition was telling her that it was the latter and that every beast in this world could evolve so long as they keep consuming other beasts.
Mira shook these thoughts out of her head and began running around, hunting more penguins. Now that she was a bit bigger and stronger, she had more confidence in taking them head-on. Not only that, but now she could kill them without them ever releasing a sound, making Mira's growth much more explosive.
Unfortunately, after killing about 100 penguins, Mira found that her strength no longer rose after killing and eating these penguins. Whenever she ate a penguin now, she would feel a tingling sensation in her bloodline, almost like it was telling her that it needs stronger prey in order to grow.
Mira was never one to disregard her body's instincts, so she immediately began looking for stronger prey and sure enough, it didn't take her long before she came across a polar bear. This polar bear was only slightly bigger than a normal mortal polar bear and was probably only slightly stronger, but Mira knew that there was basically no way she could kill this thing even if she tried killing it with a sneak attack.
Right now, she only has the strength of a fully grown Arctic Fox, which wasn't much, to begin with. Her claws and fangs probably weren't even long enough to deal any severe damage even if she managed to latch onto its neck!
However, she wasn't willing to give up just like that. She knew that, as a fox, she'd have trouble taking down anything much bigger than her so even if she didn't try to kill this polar bear and went after something else, she'd still be in the same predicament.
That being said, Mira began thinking of ways she can take down this polar bear and consume its flesh.
Wait for it to die to another beast or at least get injured by one? No, that's too time-consuming and who knows if it'll actually happen. Plus, what if it actually dies? Not only will she lose her prey, but she'll have to deal with an even stronger predator.
Wait for it to go to sleep and dig her claws into its skull while it's sleeping? It could work in theory, but there is a bit too much risk with this plan. If for some reason the polar bear wakes up before she's able to kill it, she's done for.
"It seems the only answer is to create a trap and I think I know exactly what kind of trap to make. Hehe~" Mira's fox face turned into a vicious smirk before she ran off to start making her traps.
***
A day later, Mira appeared in the same spot she was yesterday and observed the polar bear, who was just wandering around the frozen tundra lazily. Mira's already sadistic grin grew at this sight and without hesitation, Mira jumped out of the snow so the polar bear could see her. Then she opened her mouth ad began yapping at the polar bear.
*Yap!**Yap!**Yap!*
The polar bear, who was just walking around doing nothing, immediately shifted its head in Mira's direction. When it saw a little fox jumping around in the snow, yapping at it almost like it was looking down on him, the polar bear grew furious and roared.
*ROAR!!!*
After that terrifying roar, the polar bear charged at Mira with the intent to kill her.
Mira, seeing this, turned around, and shook her butt to taunt the polar bear, before running off.
The two of them played a game of cat and mouse for a while before Mira reached a large conspicuous pine tree. When Mira saw this tree yesterday, she wasn't sure what to think as she didn't know trees could actually survive in this harsh weather, but who was she to question nature?
Mira, with her small fox body, was able to swiftly jump onto the tree from a few meters away and start climbing it without much difficulty.
A few seconds after Mira began making her way up the tree, the polar bear charged head first at the tree in hopes of running it over, but before it could even reach the tree, it fell down into a 5-meter deep pit!
The momentum of its fall caused the tree the violently shake and because it shook so hard, a massive icicle broke off of one of the tree's branches, falling onto the polar bear and penetrating its neck.
*ROAR!*
The polar bear screamed in pain and rage and was about to get up in hopes of at least bringing that damn fox down with it, but how could Mira possibly be outsmarted by a dumb bear?
Mira had already jumped off of the tree as soon as the icicle fell and began digging into the polar bear's neck with her teeth and claws.
The polar bear kept screaming in agony, but that didn't last very long as it soon breathed its last breath.
Seeing this, Mira was incredibly happy and didn't waste any time consuming her prey! As she ate the polar bear, she could feel her body slowly growing along with her strength, but the discovery that shocked her was that she could feel her species and bloodline evolving!
Although she probably won't be able to completely evolve just off of this one polar bear, it was still a groundbreaking discovery! Just this alone cleared up many of her doubts as she felt much more confident about the goal of this trial!
Unfortunately, Mira would soon come to know that evolving one's bloodline is much harder than she originally thought, even in this unique trial world.
