The Grind

"It's time to evolve you, Fenrir," Aurus could not help but say after knowing that Fenrir has been in the peak of B-grade for far too long already.

"Are you ready?"

"As long as it give me better power to protect Master, Fenrir always ready!" Fenrir happily replied to Aurus' question, wagging its tail back and forth with excitement. It could not help but wonder as to what its next form would be like.

"Alright then." Aurus released a cheerful aura as he gazed at Fenrir. He composed himself for a bit before commanding the system through his mind, "Evolve Fenrir."

Ding!

Not long after commanding the system to evolve Fenrir, a white light started to radiate from Fenrir's body as it became a haze that spanned a few meters in radius not long after. A minute passed with Fenrir's form being a white haze, only for it to change a few seconds after said minute.

This white haze started to madly pull in Wind energy particles from the surroundings, gradually giving the white haze a green tint to it. With each every particle absorbed by the haze, the green color of the haze became more and more intensified and pronounced, stopping at a point where it would be hard for anyone to differentiate the color of the haze from the grass covering the ground.

With the haze absorbing enough Wind energy particles, the haze started to coalesce into a structure that was even more of a wolf rather than a stick affixed with protrusions and smaller sticks. Although it was still green haze, the body was now attached to four stub-like limbs that allowed the body to hang a few decimeters off the ground. As for the tail, it now looked like it was composed by multiple small sticks rather than a single small one, giving it the feeling of fur when looked from afar.

As for the head, the other end of the body that was opposite to the tail gradually enlarged to a size bigger than the diameter of the trunk as some rough features of a wolf's head started to appear on it.

This process took a few more minutes, which was not too long for Aurus, who pretty much did not care about the passing of time anymore. As Fenrir's body structure became more and more solidified, Aurus was able to make out the color of Fenrir's new body, which was pretty much an extremely dark brown. As for its aura, it was for sure green since Fenrir was inclined towards the Wind element.

Whoosh!

A few seconds later after seeing the basic features of Fenrir's evolved form, the green haze covering Fenrir's body disappeared in an instant, revealing a wolf made out of sticks and branches, yet exuded a majestic aura fit for a small king.

"I have evolved, Master!" After evolving to the A-grade, the first thing Fenrir did was to call out to Aurus, which Aurus responded by nodding inwardly and saying, "I can see that."

With Fenrir being finished with his evolution, a screen that detailed Fenrir's evolution appeared in front of Aurus' field of vision not long after, giving him the knowledge of Fenrir's new species name.

'Fenrir has evolved from [Wind Wolf Branch (Rare+)] to [Gale Wolf Formosus (Rare+)].'

"It sounds more imposing, that's for sure." This was the first thought that came to Aurus' mind after reading Fenrir's new species name. Other than the fact that Branch Formosus was shortened to Formosus, it was pretty much a staple advancement in naming sense.

"I wonder how much Fenrir's stats have improved." Of course, with evolutions come improvements in skills, especially Ally Skills. Commanding Fenrir to stay guard and maintain vigilance for no apparent reason, Aurus decided to check Fenrir's new stats, including the newly evolved Ally Skill.

Ding!

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[Fenrir] (Level 1/50)

Potential Grade: S

Experience: 0/25 (can be filled with unused experience points)

Species: Gale Wolf Formosus (Rare+)

Existence Level: Inanimate

Grade: A

[HP]: 200/200

[SP]: 55/55

Stats:

[Toughness]: 75

[Thickness]: 75

[Density]: 100

Skills:

[Gale Wolf's Sprint Lv. 5], [Grand Wolf Morale Lv.2], [Careful Intuition Lv.12], [Gale Wolf SP Vessel Lv. 13], [High Wind Affinity Lv. 4], [Tempest Shot Lv. MAX], [Gale Wolf Seed Lv.1]

Ally Skill: [Blessing of the Gale Wolf]

________

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[Blessing of the Gale Wolf]

Grade: A (Mortal)

A Gale Wolf, a stronger form of the Wind Wolf, even better in terms of speed and Wind-related skills. Gale Wolves have strong affinity and control over Wind energy particles, allowing them to move and attack like it was second nature.

> Perception range +30%

> Movement speed +120%

> Attack and Vitality stat +30%

________

"…" Aurus was at a loss for words after seeing the improvement in stats and skills that Fenrir gained after evolving from B-grade to A-grade. Yet what truly left him dumbfounded was the fact that the Ally Skill Fenrir sported was improved by a great degree, especially in movement speed!

"70% more boost in movement speed…this…this is a lot!" Aurus could not help but shout inwardly from disbelief. He could not help but look at Fenrir as if it was a demon in disguise. Fenrir subconsciously felt Aurus' gaze and looked at him with its head tilted. "What's wrong, Master?"

"Ah." Aurus could only think up of a reply after seeing Fenrir's gaze. "It's nothing, I was just wondering if I should evolve now."

Although Aurus' reply was made on a whim, the last part of the statement he blurted out was filled with his own hidden thoughts. He had been suppressing his evolution for far too long already. Although he could suppress his strength even more in order to gain a stronger species for his S-grade evolution, he knew that suppressing strength would eventually hit a wall in terms of improvement.

Ever since he evolved to A-grade, he had obtained a lot of skills and stat boosts, most of which were left unused. Nonetheless, he was still able to make a name for himself, obtaining the ability to easily kill X-grades as an A-grade.

But he knew that he could not stay in A-grade for far too long, as he had to grow stronger in order to have a greater chance of avoiding the prophecy that Kevin told him, a fate where his current body would be put in great danger.

The only way to avoid this according to Kevin was to activate the [Spirit Clone] skill, which would consume 10,000 SP. Oh wait, it would only consume 2,500 SP now thanks to his Spirit Energy Core and SP Storage being evolved in purity.

"Open status screen." Remembering this way out, Aurus could not help but pull his status screen up, revealing his progress in terms of stats and whatnot.

Ding!

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[Aurus] (Level 10/10)

Experience: MAX

Species: Wind Walnut Spiritas (Rare)

Existence Level: Inanimate

Grade: A

[HP]: 616/616

[SP]: 1700/1700

[Life]: 125/125

[Will]: 125/125

Stats:

[Tenacity]: 63

[Vitality]: 112

[Spirit]: 126

Synchronization Rate: 40%

Unused Experience Points: 214855

Unused Genesis Points: 32

________

"I only have 800 SP left to gain in order to activate [Spirit Clone]," Aurus muttered to himself as he looked at his maximum SP amount. He could not help but be satisfied with his current HP amount, which was pretty much at the level of a normal max leveled S-grade Executive level member.

When his eyes wandered onto the unused experience and Genesis point bar, he could not help but be dumbfounded at the amount he had. "Over 200,000 unused experience points and 32 Genesis Points? Where did the extra 9 Genesis Points come from?"

He knew where the 200,000 experience points came from, which came from the 136 X-grades he killed in order to obtain [Spirit Aura]. As for the 9 extra Genesis Points, he truly had no clue as to where it originated hence he looked at his notification log, only to find out that it came from the 136 X-grades as well, each Genesis Point being a matter of luck to obtain.

Seeing that he still had a lot of unused experience points, Aurus decided to level Fenrir up to Level 25/50, which would allow Fenrir to become a more decent tank to Aurus, who was pretty much part ranger, part mage.

"Distribute my unused experience points to Fenrir to level it up halfway to max," Aurus commanded the system not long after making that decision, a glow covering Fenrir's body a few seconds later as Fenrir grew a few centimeters or so in size.

Ding!

'7500 Experience Points have been distributed to Fenrir.'

'Fenrir has reached Level 25!'

Although only 7500 experience points were used to level Fenrir from Level 1 to Level 25, he knew that it was enough for now since he still had no idea on how much experience he would need to level from Level 1 to Level 20 at S-grade.

Of course, other than the [Spirit Clone] skill, he knew that there was another way to escape the danger his current body would befall, which would be evolving to a higher grade and perhaps even reach the Animate existence level.

With the thoughts of evolution filling his head, he was now adamant on evolving to S-grade. But he still had some uncertainties in his mind, hence he decided to level up some of the skills he had rarely used, opening up his skill screen in order to find out which skills he had not used yet.

Ding!

Looking at the screen for a bit, Aurus could not help but hem as he noticed that a skill he had obtained from the inheritance which was important for his survival…was not leveled or evolved at all.

With a solemn aura surrounding his body, Aurus gazed at Fenrir and said, "Fenrir…"

"Hit me."

"Eh?" Of course, since Fenrir was caught off guard, this was the only reply it could make. "Why Master? I serve to protect you, not harm you."

"If I told you that it would allow me to become stronger, would you still not do it?" Aurus could not help but push the matter further as he went closer to Fenrir.

"Come on, go and hit me!"

"Don't hold back!"