46 Playing Hooky

The next day, John decided to play hooky from his afternoon classes. He'd been in Gallandwell for nearly 3 months and the Winter Break was approaching quickly. His afternoon classes were devoted entirely to combat classes. He'd already tested out of Beginner Marksmanship and Stealth, Movement class was the only one he had yet to pass and that was mostly because he hadn't chosen a technique yet.

Which meant that John thought it was more important to take his monster's to the Tamer's Club then to spend time in those classes. This was actually a fairly common occurrence in the battle classes, only someone like John who took his schedule seriously had made it nearly the entire semester before skipping a day.

"Alright buddy, time to to show yourself." John said as he walked towards the massive side entrance only available to club members. The ground shuddered and quaked as the croc appeared under John's feet and he found himself straddling the croc's neck. Laughing a bit, John pointed towards a massive garage type door that was slowly raising. "Lets go to the evolution chamber!"

This was John's first time entering through the side door so he was surprised to find giant rhinos, tigers, a lion nearly 10 feet tall that must've weight 3 tons roared at the croc as it walked out to join its owner. The further into the building they went the more powerful and dangerous monsters they came across. They even came across several Boss Level Monsters. Even the croc was slightly intimidated a couple times and kept sending messages to John trying to make sure it was OK to intrude on these monster's territory.

Thankfully, the road to the evolution chambers was clearly marked on the floor and it didn't take long before they walked into a massive elevator. Sliding from around the croc's neck, John inspected the options carefully. "Hmm, we're trying to help you gain the Metal Element so a Metal Element room would best but also dangerous." Going through the options, John finally came across a hybrid room where they concentrated two or more elements in high amounts. He was surprised to find that the VIP Package for Growth-Type Contracts didn't fully cover the larger rooms because they cost so much to operate, and the hybrid rooms he had to pay entirely himself. Sighing as he felt his newly earned credits flying away, John selected the hybrid Metal and Earth room. He accepted the base charge of 20,000 Academic Credits and the elevator vibrated as it descended a few floors into the ground.

Walking out of the elevator, John carefully read through the instructions to the room before opening it up. "Alright buddy, I'm going to get suited up and then fill the room with Elemental Energy. When the room is saturated you'll eat the core and I'll keep an eye on you. Hopefully when we're done you'll be one step closer to being a Boss!"

The croc made a weird hissing noise and somehow John was able to interpret that as an affirmative. Moments later, John and Snakey were both hidden under a hazmat suit that kept the Elemental Energy from effecting them.

"Alright, the levels are stabilizing." John yelled through the suits speakers about half an hour later. "You doing alright?"

The croc hissed in a slight amount of pain, the room was filled with such a concentrated amount of Metal and Earth Energy that it prickled his skin. If it was pure Earth Energy it would've felt amazing to the Croc, but the Metal Energy was mixed in with it was pure agony. The Metal Energy was so strong that it was penetrating his core and beginning the transformation before he even ate the core. Despite the pain, the Croc slowly stood and walked over to where John had placed the Rank 7 Metal Core and ate it.

Moments later, Metal Energy tore through his body and into his core. This was actually incredibly dangerous, not only where they trying to mutate the croc so that it'd gain Dual Earth and Metal Core, but they were also attempting to upgrade him to Rank 7. The amount of energy was so great that a single mistake could cause the croc to explode into millions of tiny pieces. Under the bombardment of the Metal Core, the croc's Rank 8 Core cracked down the middle and started to shudder on the verge of destruction.

Recognizing the signs, John quickly lowered the amount of Metal Energy in the room while simultaneously increasing the amount of Earth Energy. After several minutes of fiddling he finally found a balance where despite its lower level the Earth Core was equal to the energy coming from the Metal Core. When this happened, the Metal Energy occupied exactly half of the core and as the energy from the core that the croc had just swallowed continued to pour into his core it began to expand.

Watching carefully, John began to adjust the concentration Earth Energy down and increase the concentration of Metal Energy slowly over the next couple of hours until he finally reached a perfect equilibrium with 50% each and the crack on the croc's core began to fuse back together.

While all of this was happening inside the croc's core his body was condensing. Shrinking about 4 feet in length and one foot in height the croc actually gained several hundred pounds as a thick layer of metal surrounded his body making him incredibly tough.

Three hours after eating the Rank 7 Metal Core, the Croc woke and roared. The roar echoed through the Tamer's Club.

"A new rank 7 beast has appeared in our club." Ms. Winslow smiled slightly before lowering her head and returning to the latest report on the incoming monster wave. "Too bad it likely won't make too much of a difference." She sighed.

Several of the powerful monsters they'd past on their way to the evolution room roared in welcome, and just outside the room a man rushed in wearing a hazmat suit and sweating bullets. Luckily the evolution had been successful, he was supposed to be in charge of this chamber but no one had used it in nearly 6 months and he'd been outside of the Club when he'd received the order to return. If the evolution had failed then he would've been forced to stay inside the club at all times for the rest of his contract with Gallandwell High despite the rarity of the room being used.

Rushing to the controls, he pushed John to the side before going over the records of the entire operation carefully and sighing in relief. "No hidden damage, you got lucky young man!"

John was surprised because he'd didn't think anyone was assigned to this evolution chamber, and he watched as the man adjusted the dials quickly and hit a button to suck out the rest of the energy. "A total of 56,000 Credits." The man shook his head in amazement, "You're quite rich for someone so young."

Learning how much the operation had cost, John paled but then the advantages of gaining the Metal Element for a Ground Crocodile replayed in his mind. Number one among them being the ability to move through the ground without causing quakes while simultaneously increasing speed. Not to mention the increased weight, armor, metal claws and teeth...