Eve of Evolution

Kai froze, then glanced back at Cecilia, then looked back down at the item to make sure what he was reading was correct.

And it was, the item they had been given for completing the trial was the Satchel of Salaciousness.

While there was a lot of words that he did not know the meaning of, Kai did know that salacious had something to do with lust or sexual interests or something like that, so... what exactly did the satchel do?

Lifting his head, Kai looked up at Frosty and smiled weakly.

"Are you, uh... you sure you don't just want to give us a different item? One maybe a little more fitting?"

Frosty laughed and shook their head, wiping another fake tear from their eye.

"Why would I? Have you even looked at what the item does? And I thought you wouldn't be one to judge a book by their cover, considering your party composition."

Kai sighed. What did his party composition have to do with anything? It was perfectly fine.

Still, he may as well at least have a glimpse at the description before making his final decision.

This satchel can perform wonders on near anything. Any item, skill scroll or consumable will have their effects enhanced the longer they stay inside the satchel. The most the item, scroll, or consumable can be enhanced is 3× its original properties. The amount of time it takes for the item, scroll or consumable depends on the rarity and the strength of the thing being stored. The amount of time the item is enhanced depends on how long it spent inside the satchel, while scrolls and consumables are a one time use item.

Kai blinked and shook his head. The item wasn't actually that bad, he could see its uses.

Like, if he took off his Chrome Skin and stored it in the satchel until it reached its limit, he would be able to reduce the damage of a singular hit by 150% rather than 50%. Or if he stored Esurient inside it, the blade would be able to give him even more stats and increase his Mana regeneration and Mana circulation even more.

The same could be said for his Flame of Hope, Soul Inferno would be able to give him even more bonus stats if that item was under a 3× boost.

If the thing also boosted stats, that is, which Kai wasn't sure if it actually would.

And consumables would be like the things he ate back in the Tutorial Shop, the Mana Stat Beads.

If he had possessed the satchel at that time and stored the beads inside it for a while, he would have been able to boost his Mana by 117 rather than the 39 it was actually boosted by.

So that aspect of the satchel was looking pretty good too.

But skill scrolls, that was a new one for Kai. Was it like for people who did not possess any magic, could they use one of those scrolls to cast a singular fireball or something like that?

So what if there was a skill scroll that was a massive explosion, what would it look like after getting a 3× boost. It would be like a nuke.

Kai sighed once more, deciding to give the satchel a small test and try to store it inside his spatial storage ring.

Luckily, the satchel went inside, meaning he wouldn't have to carry it around with him everywhere he went.

Which was a good thing, because with Cecilia's love for fashion it probably wouldn't have been a good look. Appearance wise, the satchel was incredibly basic and raggedy, not something that would suit any sort of outfit unless Kai was trying to dress like a beggar.

Oh well, at least it's useful.

Overall, the item wasn't actually that bad, probably could've been given a better name, but not too bad.

"Now that you have your reward, I'm assuming that you're all happy with that? Not like you'd be getting anything extra anyways."

Kai smiled and shook his head softly.

"Yeah, it's good, unless you want to give us an extra item to test it on? Maybe? ... Possibly?"

Sighing, Frosty clapped their paws together and a small potion appeared in the air. It didn't look like any potion Kai knew though.

Then again, he had only seen three potions, not a wide variety.

"Fine, take that, but that's it, that's all you're getting from me."

Grinning, Kai happily accepted the potion. With excited eyes, he glanced at its description.

Potion of Minor Strength (Uncommon):

Increases consumer's strength by 2%. Lasts for 10 minutes.

A basic item, but one that would be pretty good when it reached 6% after spending some time in the satchel.

Especially if Kai drank it after using Indomitable and Soul Inferno, considering that if he potentially reached 6000 attack that would be an extra 360, which could potentially be even more if he made use of everything he had, maybe that number could reach 4, maybe even 500.

At least they weren't going to be leaving here empty handed, unlike the first trial...

Actually, now that he thought about it, wasnt the first trial actually better considering that he had gotten a Divine rarity item from it?

How does that make sense? Why does the first trial have better rewards than the second trial? Maybe it was part of the fact that they probably weren't meant to kill that serpent using the flames in the first place.

There was no point worrying about it now though, at least now the group could relax for a little while.

And who knew what was going to happen in the third trial?

"So, you have a little over half an hour remaining here, then you'll all be on your merry way. Time really does fly when you're having fun. I wonder how long it will be before I have some more contestants? Boring Name, what was the population like when you ventured out."

Kai froze, his face paling at that one particular questions.

The... population?

It seemed that Frosty was not aware of what had happened in the outside world. Kai wasn't exactly sure if that was a good thing or not.

"The, uh, the population is, uh... basically non existent?"

Kai internally cringed. Why did the spirit have to ask that damn question? They had their methods of collecting various beasts from all around the Subdimension, so why the hell did they not know about this?

Frosty blinked, the spirit's icy eyes locked onto Kai, a blank expression on the feline face.

"Elaborate... please?"

Kai swallowed and looked away, scratching his chin with his finger.

"Well, uh, we were all sort of held hostage in the city, and I was particularly upset at that because I was under a mind hex, so was Cecilia too. So, to get back at them I sort of... freed a Plague Harbinger and let it run rampant in the city, wiping everyone out. I'm sorry to say this, but... we're probably the last contestants you're going to have."

Frosty remained still for a few moments, their eyes still locked onto Kai. It almost felt like the temperature in the arena had dropped a few degrees, but it was already freezing to begin with so maybe he was imagining it.

"I see... Well, at least it was a good batch of contestants to end with. It's a strange feeling this, I'm free of my duty as the guardian of the second trial, so it finally means I can attempt to evolve."

Kai frowned.

"Evolve?"

Frosty's eyebrows raised slightly before the spirit answered.

"Ah, right, you're probably still unaware of quite a few things. Evolution is just one of the steps on the ascension to Godhood, well, for spirits and beasts and such, that is, you humanoid species ascend rather than evolve. You probably didn't know this, but I am an S-Rank spirit, which takes quite a bit to reach.

F to A rank and moderately easy and simple, the difficulty of each rank increasing ever so slightly, but there's a massive jump between A-Rank and S-Rank, and an even bigger gap between S-Rank and SS-Rank."

Kai listened quietly, wishing he was still wearing his tunic so he wouldn't end up forgetting any of this information. This was the first time he was learning about and sort of definitive power scaling, so he would be trying his damn hardest to remember it.

"How are you going to evolve to SS-Rank then?"

Frosty simply shrugged.

"I'm going to sacrifice all of the beasts I've collected over the years and use them as fuel for my evolution."

Kai blinked.

"I thought they were your prized possessions? The gems of your collection?"

Frosty sighed.

"Yeah, my prized possessions because of the fact that when I'm relieved of my duty I'm gonna use them to try to evolve, why else would I bother collecting them? Do you have any idea how much of a hassle it is to keep all of them fed?"

Kai remained silent, not really wanting to think about the answer to that question.

"That's what I thought." Frosty laughed. "Well, you lot might as well enjoy your time remaining here, then I'm gonna send you off and attemt to evolve."