Emboldened and motivated by the notable increase in strength, Tara left the cave searg for new oppos.

  As she tio swim, Tara hat she was acclimatisio her new form.

  Figuring it was likely another iiht about by the immortal, or she was just more adaptable than she believed, she soon came upon suitable targets.

  At the bottom of the water on the s floor, a muddy and uneven surface filled with turtles ate the algae, pnts, and small is that skittered around.

  Despite their rge size, they did not seem dangerous on the surfabsp;

  She was even starting to wonder how such a slow, cumbersome being could survive such a dangerous pbsp;

  That was until she saw a familiar creature hem.

  A {Razor-tooth Eel} of simir size to the one she met before was floating around some roear the turtles.

  The eel was swimming with i while hunting the fish, ae being a distance away from the turtles, it did not seem to view them as a threat.

  Though the turtle's eyes creepily never left the eel as soon as they noticed its presenbsp;

  And Tara saw evident hunger in those eyes as the turtles synously fixated on the eel.

  Tara uzzled about how they inteo catch the Eel.

  The turtles were ridiculously slow, and with the Eel's speed, it could easily evade if they approached.

  That was until she saw the rgest turtle stare at it with a crafty gleam.

  Instinctively using {Insight}, she viewed its information.

  [Species: Snapping-Turtrake

  Cultivation: Qi Gathering 6]

  The leading {Snapping-Turtrake}, who was about to make its move, suddenly felt unfortable.

  The turtle's gigantic head began to search, looking around suspiciously.

  Tara remained low profile, hoping the {Snapping-Turtrake} would tinue fog on the eel, which it did after a short while si could deteothing amiss.

  Realising it seemed to have noticed her meddling, she paused. o be careful about relying on {Insight} too much, Tara thought.

  The rgest turtle gazed at the Eel for a while, and Tara figured the staring test would tiil the thing finally moved.

  If Tara were to describe a {Snapping-Turtrake}, they were simir to snapping turtles in appearahough super-sized with a gigantic head, a long tail, and covered in a highly thick shell that was a mix of dark green and brown.

  It had bes of scales along its head that seemed drake-like; uhe dark green, they were an azure blue.

  The most signifit {Snapping-Turtrake} movement was a blur; its neck abruptly elongated an absurd distance, crossing over 5 metres, with it tg onto the eel with its maw so fast it barely had the time to reabsp;

  Tara then saw the Eel get crushed iurtle's eager maw, as the others seemed to watch with envy as the enormous {Snapping-Turtrake} ate it up with a few gulps.

  ‘Nope, I'm not going anywhere hose things.’ Tara thought, turning around and running away without shame.

  Previously, she had the idea of slowly poisoning the rge, slow and seemingly immobile turtles, but seeing ahat was mile than her get crushed ie, she realised her previous thoughts were highly naive.

  Not to mention, a snapping turtle oh usually extend its o a length simir to its body, demonstrating the size of those turtles.

  Her poison would also be useless if she were to die from the first attack the turtle made with i.

  She did not pn on dying a mutual death with the turtle, having to make the thing swallow her to poison it.

  Though this did not mean she gave up on the rge turtles, she just decided to wait until she was stronger before ag against them.

  Marking this area in her mind, she tio search for suitable targets.

  Eventually, she found just the type she was looking for, as a small swarm of around nine fish with rge red eyes raced.

  The fish had jagged, sharp teeth that appeared threatening, but they were minor pared to her.

  They had a mixture of darkish green, brown-coloured scales with eerie crimson stripes that resembled blood.

  Using {Insight}, she brought up their information.

  [Species: Blood-striped Piranha

  Cultivation: Qi Gathering 2]

  Uhe first few times she utilised {Insight}, the {Blood-stiped Piranha} seemed he wiser she utilised it on them.

  She was unsure if this was because she now shared simir cultivation to the target or if the Piranha's intelligence was too low and did not pick up anything.

  Deg this was the perfect opportunity to utilise her new skill {Poisoion}, she approached the group of fish whose eyes lit up with hunger as their gaze id upon her.

  Magical beasts always hungered for Qi-rich flesh, and these piranhas were no different.

  Approag her rapidly. The piranhas seemed mindless, only i on filling their hunger.

  Quicker than she could blink, the first {Blood-striped Piranha} on her, narrowly missing it with her cws. The fish tore through her flesh with ease as its razor-sharp teeth ripped off a rge k before swallowing it.

  Before she k, the other Piranhas had surrounded her, each rapidly taking ks of flesh out of her as they moved impossibly fast to track. The nimble fish seemed to be set off in a frenzy by a mixture of her blood and the Qi it tained.

  Eventually, she mao cate, skewering a too-eager Piranha who strayed too near out of greed, yet by this point, she was left highly bloodied and in a terrible state.

  The notification came by immediately.

  [You have defeated {Blood-striped Piranha}, gaining 5 EXP. You are now 7/100 intressing to Level 3.]

  Simir to defeating the Eel, she gained five EXP. However, she wouldn't have lived long enough to be from it if the poison had not taken out these Piranhas soon.

  Eventually, after she lost a great deal of blood and flesh to the small swarm of Piranhas, they, one by one, began to slow before they finally stilled, dead.

  The notificatio off again and again before stopping.

  [You have defeated {Blood-striped Piranha}, gaining 5 EXP. You are now 42/100 intressing to Level 3.]

  ‘Finally’, Tara thought, relieved. She had no idea how long she was going to st.

  Those piranha teeth were absurdly sharp and torn through her flesh like butter, making her sider iing in {Iron Scales} for her mutation.

  Only the poison that drastically slowed them down from their first bite and the {Regeion} trait that kept her alive that she could no the rewards.

  She knew she required the energy to improve the effectiveness of the trait. That magical beast body that possessed Qi improved its effectiveness going by whee the eel; she would have to eat those Piranhas to help her recover.

  Moving over to the carcasses, she began digging into the piranha carcasses, which, despite being at a simir cultivation stage to her, were each a bit smaller.

  It demonstrated that the cultivation stage did not seem to be ultimately everything.

  There was a differen strength in each magical beast, with the Piranha being weak individually for their cultivation because they were swarm-based creatures.

  It was the reason she was ing them now instead ing them back to the cave. She khe blood might attract predators, but the Piranhas were small enough to eat within a few bites, filling her up quickly.

  Now plete, she decided to recuperate safely in the cave before returning outside to hunt again. After all, she did not want to get killed dumbly due to being ill-prepared.

  Her enter with the Piranhas demonstrated the effectiveness of {Poisoion} in dealing with numerous but weak enemies. However, she did not know how it would work towards an enormous, strong, magical beast like the {Snapping-Turtrake}.

  Tara felt satisfied with her first real hunt, deg to expand on this after she fully healed. Maybe a few upgrades would e along, and then she could make short work of those turtles.