Chapter 31: New skill.

As dirty as the mattress was, Zyra settled on it for a moment, just to catch her breath. After what she had been through, she needed it. Reality was much different to her imagination. The fighting skills she had could not be compared to battles against beasts outside.

The dangerous Wild lands could not be compared to the safety of the towns and cities. She had lived her first life like a fish at the bottom of a barrel, never knowing anything.

The sound of a key scratching against the lock brought her from her thoughts. The door creaked open, a woman stepped in, with a plate of food. She didn’t say anything, just set it down and left, locking the door again.

"System, can you check for poison?’"

[1 resonance point.]

"Check." She answered forcefully. Madame Cameron had been a little too interested in buying her. The post apocalypse was a dangerous world. It was not uncommon for young women to go missing, only to be found a year or two later, in a brothel in another city.

[No poison detected, just dry bread and inadequately flavored bean soup.]

"I am good with that." She replied. As long as it doesn’t kill me. She would consider it as saving her food rations. Zyra sat on the floor and began to eat ravenously, starving after many hours of no food.

With every bite, she winced. It was completely bland and dry, tasting absolutely nothing like the delicious, comforting home cooking of Mrs. Munch. A sudden wave of homesickness hit her throat, making it hard to swallow. She missed Mrs. Munch. The old nanny was probably the only one back in the clan that cared about her.

But in her previous life, Mrs. Munch had died a month after she failed to awaken. It would probably be the same in this life.

Hoping to escape her depressing reality, Zyra quickly closed her eyes and entered the Beast Dominion. She was met with a sight that made her gasp in sheer surprise and shock.

"What in the world?!" Zyra cried out, rubbing her eyes.

The snake looked noticeably bigger. It had grown a whopping ten inches longer! But that wasn’t the craziest part. The little Storm Tail Squirrel scurried out from the nut trees and hopped toward Zyra. The fur on its tail had completely transformed.....it was now a brilliant, shimmering golden color, especially at the very tip, pulsing with tiny, faint static sparks.

"Beauty... what happened to them?" Zyra asked, her jaw dropping.

Beauty let out a proud, smug chuckle. [Hehe, don’t look so shocked, Host! This dominion has good air, the water is the highest quality. The soil, the trees and the herbs you found...these are all premium growth nutrients for beasts! Just resting in here for a day makes them experience an evolution that is comparable to ten days out there. I bet you wish you were a beast now.]

Zyra ignored the jab, crouching down to gently stroke the squirrel’s newly golden tail. At least someone was having a good time. She wanted to rest in the dominion as well, however, she knew being there without cause was unnecessary as she didn’t want to accidentally consume too much of her precious time.

"Grow big and strong, little guy," Zyra whispered to the squirrel. "I’m going to need your lightning soon."

[You must train the beasts, host... just bonding with them is not enough. The herbs you discovered were consumed by your half-life beasts, increasing your resonance by 10%.

Congratulations Host. You have activated the skill, Soul sight.]

"Soul sight?!"

Zyra blurted out, her voice cracking so loud it changed pitch.

Soul sight was supposed to be a myth for someone at her level. Usually, only those legendary powerhouses who could completely fuse with their half-life beasts could use the skill.

And those people? They were rarer than a cat that listens when called. Even though this bizarre System had already given her a ’resonance scale’ that defied all common sense, this new reward felt like she had just accidentally won the lottery of the century.

[This means you can see the true nature of beasts... whether they are weak, strong, poisonous, strengths, weaknesses, feral.]

"Feral beasts, the ones that are declared mad." She said slowly.

[You may not have met any... yet. More good news, with Soul sight, you can track soul connections, like a beast’s soul bond. If a random half-life beast attacks you, follow the connection to the owner.]

Zyra’s eyes lit up. This wasn’t just a good addition; this was another straight-up cheat code! Even if she saved up money for three lifetimes, the most expensive skill books in the capital couldn’t teach her something this divine.

Humans used half-life beasts for good and bad. Some used them to rob. Others used them as assassins. It was very difficult to track one half-life beast in the sea of millions, especially the common ones.

"Alright, system, let’s see how this works, I can’t wait." Zyra muttered, turning her gaze toward her companions.

She focused her mind, and suddenly, her eyes flared with a soft, ethereal glow. The world around her de-saturated, losing its sharp colors, but the life forms in front of her exploded with light.

She looked at Spice first. The snake was currently coiled up, trying to bite its own tail like a complete idiot. Threads of hunger pulsed through its soul, sharp and insistent. She saw its nature: loyal, gluttonous, venomous, resilient.

Weak in size, but not ambition. Its fangs carried a deadly poison that could paralyze or kill. Its weakness was clear, fragile scales, easily pierced if struck with precision.

Spice was small, but its soul burned with ambition and defiance.

Then she glanced over to the Storm Tail Squirrel, which was busy stuffing its cheeks with leftovers. Its aura was a storm of gold and shadows, darting like sparks. She saw its nature: Agile, cunning. Its claws were not meant for brute force, but for speed, slicing through armor and weapons.

Its strength was unpredictability. It carried scars of survival, always ready to flee when cornered. Its weakness was its desire to hoard every nut in a five-mile radius.

"Wow," Zyra breathed, watching the beautiful threads of light pulse in sync with their heartbeats. "Is it my fate to only take in gluttonous beasts? How much can you eat?"

Spice stopped chasing his tail and hissed softly, looking at her with big, innocent eyes as if to say, Master, did you call me? Do you have more deer meat?

The squirrel just burped.

Seeing that her beasts were perfectly normal, the awe wore off, and a wave of exhaustion hit Zyra like a brick wall. She rubbed her eyes, the glowing aura fading back into the normal, boring colors of the beast domain.

She let out a massive, ungraceful yawn that nearly jaw-locked her.

"Alright, I have to go" Zyra mumbled, shaking her head. "No point staying in the beast domain and taking up oxygen unnecessarily."

She exited the space. The moment she returned to the cold, dimly lit room, she curled into a tight ball on the mattress and fell fast asleep, letting the loud, chaotic sounds outside fade into nothing.