Unidentifiable Tortoise.

All the gargoyles Ethan passed saw him as one of them, scaly silver skin, horns, large wings and a long tail. He had perfectly mixed with the crowd of gargoyles he passed by. Within 3 hours, he reached the last settlement before the tower. He had a few hours to evening so he decided to find a place to camp as he had been travelling nonstop. He managed to find an abandoned hut in a small forest that surrounded the settlement. This settlement looked rather advanced than the previous ones he passed by. The structures had unique designs and were well crafted. Even the abandoned hut looked rather advanced. Ethan looked around vigilantly and entered the abandoned hut which turned out to be not abandoned. In fact, it had quite a few residents. There was a group of wretched looking gargoyles, 5 in number inhabiting the place. The had strange black tattoos on their shoulders, making Ethan instantly recognize the. He had learnt a bit about the gargoyles through his travels and gargoyles with tattoos were actually outcasts. Outcasts were gargoyles who had plotted or gone against the settlement. The gargoyles wouldn't kill each other unless it was duel so these gargoyles were punished by banishment from the settlements. They could stay anywhere but they shouldn't be seen near or in the settlements or they would be killed instantly. They wouldn't have a second chance if that happened and it seemed that this group didn't care about that. They were literally chilling near the settlement without an ounce of fear. When they saw Ethan entering, they showed bone chilling and weird smiles and grins. Why? Their prey had delivered himself to them on a silver platter and they were elated at that. If only they knew...

Ethan also grinned. He could kill them with no penalties of gargoyles being on his tail. They were outcasts and no one cared about whatever happened to them. Not only that, they were all at Bronze Rank while their leader was at Silver Rank. It was bigger and with silver horns. The others had bronze colored horns, and they were clearly Yor gargoyles, the most common type gargoyles.

Ethan stopped hiding his aura shocking the beasts as to them, the innocent looking gargoyle had transformed into a weird creature with a red wig and weird things on its body. A red war hammer manifested in his hands while a red serpent slithered down its body.

Ethan had summoned Angitia as he hadn't used it in a while. It needed experience as well to help it more with battles. Just leveling up wasn't enough. Angitia immediately transformed into a 5 feet tall serpent, its horns glinting in the setting sun rays falling on them. All this took less than 3 seconds and Ethan used them to attack. That momentary surprise worked perfectly as they were shocked to see a creature appear out of nowhere, especially something they'd never seen before. Ethan attacked the Silver Rank gargoyle and two Bronze Ranks while Angitia pounced at the other two who were still stunned. The battle was fairly easy with the Bronze Ranks but the Silver Rank appeared to be a skilled fighter, something Ethan needed to practice. It had the Sand affinity and it controlled it well. It hurled sand balls and spikes at Ethan while brandishing a sand club with spikes all over it. Ethan evaded them easily even taking control of some of them and hurling them back at him. He finally clashed with the beast and he got the upper hand as he pushed it back by 4 meters. He had moved the battle outside the hut so he got more space to go all out. In the end, the gargoyle didn't last more than 20 minutes before it was killed, its skull caved in. Ethan reentered the hut just in time to see Angitia swallowing a gargoyle. He was sincerely scared shitless, it was horrifying. After it finished its meal of gargoyle soup, it coiled at a corner with a bulging stomach and closed its eyes. It was asleep the next second. That wasn't surprising as two out of four Bronze beasts had vanished; obviously, they had turned to soup for his serpent.

Ethan sat on the rocky bed and took out some meat to eat. After that, he lay on the hard, rough bed and he was asleep in no time. He was very exhausted.

...

A small gargoyle could be seen jumping from hut to hut with an innocent smile, garnering attention once in a while. Obviously, the gargoyle was Ethan. He was on his way to the tower where every question about the strange calling would be answered, hopefully. He had a day more and he would back at 3 am on his bed, in his room. He added more speed and in no time, he had reached the foot of the tower.

It was around 6 am and the two suns of Babel's Hive were now rising giving the tower a mesmerizing view but Ethan was lost in thoughts to even notice it. He was thinking of how to get into the tower. This time, he was replicating the aura of his surroundings and the tower to not raise suspicions. Why? The tower was the royal castle, the Tower of Babel which was said to reach the heavens where the almighty ancestor of gargoyles, Great Chief Babel resided. Only royalty, that's the Xor and Barix Gargoyles. He was portraying as a Yor gargoyle and any Yor gargoyle found around the tower will be killed. Unless, it was time for Hive celebrations where everyone will come there to meet a messenger of the ancestor. Ethan didn't want to fight again plus the calling had become very agitated, like it wanted to leave the place but the problem was, Ethan didn't know where to begin as it was all over the place. Plus the tower didn't have any openings, not ones he could see. He was so confused when he felt the strange calling, which turned out to be an aura coming closer to him. He felt strange at this as this was new development to him.

He didn't have to wait for long as the aura thinned out and something appeared before him. It was bit shiny but the shine dimmed for Ethan to see it clearly. It was two meters tall, a bit taller than Ethan with a wide and huge black shell with silver and gold designs on it, a long black scaly tail, a tortoise body with black scales and turtle-dragon mix head and two shiny black-brown horns. It's golden eyes glittered innocently in the rising suns. Ethan was too speechless to speak. The hell was he seeing? Before he could react, he was encased in an earth cave. But he was too shocked to notice.

He was seeing such a huge tortoise. He had never read about it anywhere so it was a very huge surprise to him. When he came back to his senses, he saw the beast's head lying in his palms with a content smile on its somewhat cute face.

Ding!

Quest Completed!

Reward: Race Unlock And A Bonus Surprise.

...

Ethan stared in awe at the rewards. He had no idea of the surprise but the Race Unlock, he had an idea. He would be awakening a race based on his ancestors races.

Before that, Ethan glanced at the beast lying in his arms and used the system identification skill.

...

Beast Identified!

Heavenly Tortoise: An evolved and mutated tortoise with an insane talent and potential to the Earth Affinity. They can be named as the Masters of Earth with their uncanny Earth manipulations. Very strong but are almost extinct due to their small numbers and being hunted in the past. They are very friendly and good judges and characters plus they make partners for eternity.

You are in luck if you get chosen by a Heavenly Tortoise as you would be protected for eternity.

Congratulations Host!

...

Ethan was so shocked that he nearly dropped the beast's head. A freaking Heavenly Tortoise chose him as a partner. This was different from a Spirit Beast who will always be beside him but still, it was shocking. It meant that, he had a partnership relationship with the beast just like his Spirit Beast plus he could turn it into his Spirit Beast without killing it or subduing because it would readily agree to a contract partnership no matter the disadvantages. Ethan was completely not prepared for this but it had happened. He started stroking the beast's head which turned out to smooth and soft to the touch. The beast enjoying the caresses, minimized its size to the size of a basketball so that would caress its whole body. Ethan chuckled in amusement as he caressed it along with Angitia who was showing signs of jealousy at the Heavenly Tortoise. Besides, he could tell that the beast was at least at the Gold Rank or Peak of Silver. He just got a beast which anyone back at home would kill to have, even the four big families. No one was exempted. Too bad for them, the Heavenly Tortoise had already chosen its partner.