Evolution

Before arriving at the castle I put Noir away, although it was common for some to have magical beast's as pets, that's was only among mages. Knights didn't have the ability to tame magical beasts.

After sneaking back into the castle, I laid down to get some rest. I was surprised that Slyvia hadn't mentioned to the guard about my disappearance. I guess humans only care about themselves so if it didn't affect her then there was no need to.

As usual, the sound of two pots banging together woke us up. We continued our journey ahead in the carriage, only this time I was getting frequent stares from someone riding with us.

"Hey is it just me, or is Slyvia looking at you a lot."

Gary asked.

"Isn't it usual for people to stare at me."

I was used to getting looked at by now due to my red hair.

"Yeah but you're not the only one, and she was even looking at you when we were packing away."

I shrugged at Gary's response for I did not care. Most likely she was looking at me for the events of yesterday night. The reason why Gary had mentioned a thing such as this was because I wasn't the only person with red hair on this trip.

When I had arrived at Renny town there were four others who had red hair. Each of them was assigned a private tutor and special guard the same as me. Perhaps the kingdom also believed in the curse and wanted to keep us in check.

As night started to come for the third day we set up camp again. This time the conditions were not favourable as we were surrounded by a swamp. The group moved to a nearby hill which allowed you to overlook the whole swamp. A lot of the students complained about the conditions, for the smell was bad and their clothes were dirty.

They seemed to be a divide in the group, as the ones who often complained came from noble families while the others were used to these conditions and had the experience, working on farmland and all.

I was happy that the terrain had changed a bit this meant there was more likely to be a variety of different creatures. I had already got all that I could from the Fanged Boars.

As the sun went down and the moon rose I left to hunt. This time I caught Slyvia staring at me before I left again, I decided to ignore it and keep going, she didn't mention anything last time, so I didn't think she would do this time either.

When entering the swampland I summoned Noir and we began hunting. With the two of us hunting, we managed to gather crystals twice as fast. We came across many different magical beasts such as a Sharp worm.

The Sharp worm was the same size as a human but possed no limbs to move with. It had razor-sharp teeth on the inside of its mouth that it used to swallow its victims whole and then grind them up.

Although the Sharp worm was powerful, it was only dangerous if it managed to catch you. With dragon eyes activated and my speed above average, the worms didn't stand a chance.

We came across a Faly Hornets' nest but I quickly sensed there was an intermediate beast inside and decided against facing it. The problem wasn't with the beast was powerful but simply there were too many beasts in the nest.

Today's hunt in the swamp was a jackpot, it seemed to be a breeding ground for a variety of different creatures. I got so excited about the crystals we were obtaining I lost track fo time. The sun was set to rise in the next hour or so.

Before heading back I decided to feed all the crystals we had obtained today to Noir. While feeding Noir I got more and more excited as I saw the numbers go up. 36...48..69..82..94.. and finally 100.

As soon as Noir had maxed out on points a message window appeared.

<Pet Noir has reached the maximum amount of points>

<Would you like to evolve Noir into an intermediate beast?>

<Yes> <No>

Although I was half expecting this to be the result, at the same time I was surprised. I immediately selected yes to see what would happen.

<Please select evolution>

My jaw nearly hit the flaw, I was so shocked we never learnt any of this at school. The magical beast had different evolution branches. If it wasn't for the system would the beast itself chose an evolution, or perhaps the environment would affect what a beast evolved to.

For me, I had always been a dragon. there was no evolution step for us, we were on top of the food chain from the moment we were born. We could not evolve.

The message gave two branch Options.

<Option A>

Horned Wolf

A wolf with a black horn on its forehead. Although not strong physically its main strength focuses on speed. The wolf also has a slight immunity to elemental effects.

<Option B>

Blackened Wolf

A wolf big in size can grow up to 8 meters tall. Its main characteristics are its brute strength in its claws. Can also be used as a mount. Week to elemental attacks.

It looked like option B was the same type of wolf I faced in the forest with Gary. The mount option was very tempting to me. A wolf was a lot faster then a horse and meant if I wanted to travel out of Avion quickly I could. Also, I'm sure it would be able to outrun many beasts even of a higher tier.

While option A seemed a bit weaker then option B it properly meant that they would be more chances for the wolf to grow stronger in the future. There weren't many beasts that cast elemental attacks at the lower tiers.

In the end, I decided to choose option A, the fact that the blackened wolf was so big, was the biggest turn-off. I wanted to stay discreet and with a creature of that size, everyone would be paying attention to me.

I went ahead and selected option A, suddenly Noir vanished and went back into my mind. I tried to summon Noir again when an error message appeared.

<Noir is in the middle of evolution, a message will be received once evolution is complete>

With no way to speed up the process, I would just have to wait. The sun was starting to rise which meant everyone would wake up soon. I quickly ran back to camp as fast as I could.