35 The Evolutions
After hearing what Alneth had to say, Faruth wanted to rush back over to the village immediately, but he knew that he couldn't . First, he instructed the newly arrived villagers to listen to the instructions of Hoki as if they were his own regarding the newly freed prisoners. Marth's evolution was the most important thing in his mind, so no matter how much he wanted to stay and appraise the remaining people, he couldn't.
While all of this was happening, Alneth was catching his breath in the background, watching Faruth silently, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. Without making a sound, he collapsed into the ground. Faruth only noticed after the exclamation from one of the newly brought over villagers that alerted him of the situation.
As he was looking at the collapsed Gnoll, Faruth noticed a stream of white light flowing from Alneth's forehead which gradually spread to cover his body, encasing him in the white light that Faruth had encountered so often he almost considered it a normality, but that was only when it happened to him, he rarely, if ever, saw it in others. So when it happened in Alneth, even the Conqueror's blessing couldn't quite calm him down fully.
'Not you too!'
Faruth swiftly caught on to what was happening shortly after seeing the white light. Alneth was evolving as well! Even after he had reached the maximum level and was eligible to evolve, he fought against the urge to pass out to inform Faruth of the happenings within the village. Faruth felt an indescribable sense of pride and loyalty coming from the unconscious beast, the fact that he was no longer awake didn't matter.
Shutting the shouts of confusion and worry from the villagers and the two elderly Gnolls, Faruth walked towards the slumped over body of Alneth with a smile on his face, before carefully picking him up. The chatter behind him grew even louder as he did so, but he paid it no heed. With Alneth hoisted over his shoulder Faruth ran off into the forest and towards the village, leaving the Gnolls behind shouting and the two elderly mages with an understanding smile on their faces.
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Faruth swiftly arrived at the wall of the village before sprinting through the opened gate and towards the cave centre. As he did so, he was met with a peculiar scene. Instead of the one body he expected to be covered in white light, there were 5 with Grimanth the shaman standing over them with a confused yet worried expression on his face.
Two of the bodies were much larger than the others, which Faruth could only assume to be Rath and Drath. One was lying next to them, much thinner than the two but the white light around him was the weakest, to which he knew that it was Marth, likely the first one to evolve, hence why his light was the weakest, he was the closest to finishing. One of the remaining bodies was roughly the same height as Marth, but slightly less muscular, judging by the absence of people in his village, Faruth could deduce that it was Wulfarth.
But the final body was the one that surprised him the most, instead of the bipedal body of a humanoid Gnoll, it instead had four legs and a long tail, Alice! He didn't know how close Alice was to evolving, in fact he didn't even know if she could evolve, but this answered both of his questions in full, the only thing he could do know was stand and wait for the results.
He placed Alneth down beside the duo and retreated back towards the entrance of the cave, next to Grimanth. As he stood beside him, Faruth decided to use [Appraisal] on the old Gnoll for the first time in a while.
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[[Name: Grimanth]]
[[Age: 84]] [[Level: 9]]
[[Race: Gnoll]] [[Title: Village Shaman]]
[[Job: Shaman]] [[Affiliation: Faruth]]
[[EXP: 7500/7500]] [[Stage: 1]]
[[Status: Healthy]]
[[Village Status: Elder]]
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[[Blessings:]]
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[[HP: 2784/2784]] [[MP: 3720/3720]]
[[Stamina: 1978/1978]]
[[Attack: 116.5]]
[[Defence: 141]]
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[[Strength: 21]] [[Endurance: 18]]
[[Vitality: 22]] [[Agility: 16]]
[[Intelligence: 68]] [[Wisdom: 98]]
[[Charisma: 12]] [[Luck: 20]]
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[[Skills:]]
[[Active:]]
[Curse Of Pain lvl.2]
[Curse Of Darkness lvl.2]
[Breath Of Wind lvl.2]
[Warriors Heart lvl.1]
[Resource Harvesting lvl.1]
[Potionmaking lvl.2]
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[[Passive:]]
[Mana Control lvl.4]
[Curse Magic lvl.2]
[Strengthening Magic lvl.2]
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Faruth paid attention to the slight increase in his skill levels since he last appraised him, but what caught his attention more was his EXP bar, it was full, but he wasn't evolving.
["Grimanth, do you not wish to evolve alongside them? Now that I am here, I can take your place and watch over them you know."] {Faruth}
To this, Grimanth looked at Faruth with a pained expression before he deeply sighed and looked back towards the 5 on the floor of the cave. After a few seconds of silence, Grimanth began to respond.
["Chieftain... It's not that I don't want to evolve, I apologise for my rudeness, but do you really think that I'd stay as weak as I am if I could help it? It's not that I don't want to evolve, it's that I can't."] {Grimanth}
He paused for a few seconds afterwards and sighed again, without letting Faruth get a word in, he continued once more.
["That's why I was so surprised when all five of them began to evolve. Not everyone has the privilege of evolving, I am a prime example of that. They must have all been chosen by someone or something. A higher power. That's the only reason I can think of. Through my life, I have discovered many secrets about the world, but some still remain a mystery. Evolution is one of them. This scenario is a prime example of how whimsical it can be."] {Grimanth}
Faruth was stunned to silence. He had no words in his mind that he could us to comfort the elderly Gnoll, no matter how much he wanted to. After a few minutes, the eerie silence turned painful and just when Faruth was about to speak, the light surrounding the body of Marth completely faded, revealing his new form within.
