I Level Up Dragons with My Evolution System-Chapter 97: Aurora’s Evolution
Suddenly, the Poison Spider grew; its legs became longer and its body larger.
But the very next moment, it shrank!
Its legs became significantly shorter, even shorter than they had been before. Its body also shrank, but its eyes widened with power.
They glowed with a greenish hue, and its legs stretched out lazily; on each of its legs, natural inlays began to grow—made of a precious metal that was astonishingly strong and beautiful, yet stained by the green venom within.
The entire spider shone with a radiance. Aurora, Edward, and Arnold had to look away for a brief moment.
When they looked at it again, the "skin" had taken on a new hue. It shone like a diamond and glowed with the poison in the dim light.
"I-i-it’s Diamond Skin!" Aurora roared in shock.
"I-in its fourth evolution?"
Finally, Edward did understand what this meant. "Fourth Evolution: Diamond Skin... One of its next evolutions could be adamantium," he said, recalling what he had read in one of William’s books.
Adamantium...
One of the strongest metals in the world, but whose greatest utility lies not in its strength, but in its versatility and penetrating power, which surpass those of diamond.
Technically, historical records state that there is a Poisonous Spider with Adamantium Skin of royal blood. It isn’t specified in which evolution it obtains the Adamantium Skin—it’s barely in the first evolution of the Diamond Skin—but it will obtain it at some point; it’s a recorded historical fact.
Aurora was immediately perplexed and pensive. The Poison Spider hadn’t yet completed its evolution, but most of it was already done. They just had to wait.
’Based on what I know now, Aurora’s beast should be around level 51 or 52, since the second evolution didn’t happen at level 20, but at level 21.’
Edward had managed to evolve over the past month.
His Fire Butterfly was no longer called a Butterfly, and it had lost that form forever.
As he thought about it, a snake moved through the air, as if curious about the Spider’s evolution.
The snake had two wings on its back, with which it floated like a bird, but it moved like a snake, in a constant zigzag.
Red and black markings, like those of an enigmatic and dangerous fire, adorned the figure of this Winged Serpent, formerly known as the Fire Butterfly.
[Winged Serpent: Level 21.]
After reaching level 15 in that mine and realizing how difficult it was to keep leveling up, he had to work twice as hard to reach that level. They went to dungeons and the Cursed Lands until he finally managed to level up.
Behind the Winged Fire Serpent, the Wind Butterfly moved, increasing its speed to avoid its erratic flight.
And further behind were two other butterflies: the Earth Butterfly, clumsy as always, and the Water Butterfly, whose "wisdom" made it move slowly so as not to waste energy.
[Wind Butterfly: Level 19.]
[Earth Butterfly: Level 12.]
[Water Butterfly: Level 12.]
Thanks to that difficult level-up, he had managed to make enormous progress in his stats.
[Statistics Window]
| Strength: 65.
| Constitution: 64.
| Intelligence: 38.
| Dexterity: 29.
| Agility: 27.
| Elemental Resistance: 63.
[]
’I wonder what they’ll look like when one of these little ones reaches level 50, like Aurora’s Spider.’
Although his strength had skyrocketed, he hadn’t been able to test it against anyone. The beasts outside the Cursed Lands aren’t that dangerous, and entering a Cursed Land isn’t something you can do every day.
He longed for the Mid-Year Battles to begin already; he believed he had enough strength to reach 4-Star status with just his current strength.
He sat to one side, waiting patiently for the Aurora Spider’s evolution, while taking out the Beast Cores he had been gathering.
Another way for him to grow: magic.
In a world where magic is like an RPG skill, these can also level up... albeit to a limited extent; by feeding the magic with Beast Cores possessing compatible attributes.
Edward moved the first fire core in his hand toward his own fire magic, Terminal Spark, which blossomed in his hand more brilliantly than ever.
Terminal Spark completely enveloped the core and began to devour it as if by magic... which it was.
An E-Rank Fire Magic has a base (initial) power and a maximum power defined by a numerical system for differentiation.
E-Rank: Ranges from 1 Point to 10 Points.
Achieving a higher score will make the Magic deal more damage and have a greater range. So far, Edward has been using his magic at levels 1 through 3; not very much, but it has proven to be astonishingly versatile.
That’s why he didn’t regret it when he started feeding them, even though he knew those Cores cost quite a bit of money.
The Terminal Spark swallowed one whole, and its power rose to 5.
Then it swallowed another and rose to 6, then to 7... then made a quantum leap to 10. The number of power points gained depends entirely on the quality of the core. If it’s good enough, it could gain 10 power points in an instant.
The Spark had grown noticeably larger, yet at the same time more compact. The power was firmly concentrated throughout the spell, and its range had increased to the sides; although the real improvement lay in its casting speed, the time required to cast it had been reduced.
Edward smiled with satisfaction and did the same with the other spells.
"I always thought your spells were already improved..." Aurora approached him and decided to ignore her own beast.
"I tried to improve them before, but there was no gain in consuming low-level Cores. I had to resign myself to it and wait to hunt better beasts."
"Your E-Rank Spells are very special, Edward. They just don’t make sense." Arnold joked from the side while holding a book. "They can burn you to death and you have no way to get rid of them—they’re horrible for the enemy."
"Isn’t it good that they’re horrible to our enemies?" Edward replied.
"Even if it sounds a little cruel, it really is," Arnold replied with a laugh.
"The world is already cruel enough; a little more cruelty won’t hurt it," Edward joked back, and Aurora burst out laughing—she couldn’t agree more.
After calming down, Aurora leaned back against Edward’s back to stare intently at the growing magic.
"Now it’s going to be problematic," she said suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Edward glanced at her sideways.
"You’ve been playing on the fact that you always have a caterpillar to pull out and cover up the progress in the others. But now you don’t have them anymore," she replied and sighed. "And seeing as you’re now strengthening the magic, I suppose the time has come for you to reveal yourself."
Edward frowned; he hadn’t wanted to talk about that.
"If they find out that all four of your beasts have evolved, everyone who looked down on you will probably have a heart attack. Especially that Robert; lately he’s been strutting down the hallways with such arrogance that it’s stressful." Arnold curled his lips in frustration.
"You’re stronger than him. Why don’t you beat him up every time he struts in front of you?"
"Do you think I’m suicidal? The guy rejected Elara Vire and joined Myles and his 01st Regiment. Hitting him would mean drawing Myles’s hatred—and maybe Elara’s too; it would be horrible. Not even I would survive."
"You’re right about that." Edward acknowledged.
Although Robert had reason to strut through the hallways, it was always annoying to deal with such an arrogant guy.
"I have to keep my beasts hidden for now. I have the advantage that they were caterpillars; no one’s going to suspect a thing if I keep them hidden," Edward said.
Just then, the Poisonous Spider uncoiled from where it had been and stood up to reveal its evolution. The atmosphere in the room shifted; the cold suddenly began to sting.
It wasn’t the temperature dropping—it was the spider’s venom taking effect. Though it only lasted a few seconds.
"Finally..." Aurora stood up and ran toward it. She began to examine it, scrutinizing every inch of its shrunken body. She tested its resistance and made sure the venom was potent.
Her beast had evolved successfully.
"Congratulations." Edward approached her.
"Thanks, Ed." Aurora smiled and looked at him strangely. "I think... I’m going to evolve, too."
Edward looked at her, confused. "What do you mean...?" His words trailed off mid-sentence as realization hit him.
Even Arnold jumped up from where he had been sitting lazily, stunned, and watched her intently.
Both of them witnessed the moment when Aurora was forced to close her eyes and enter into perfect sync with her Poison Spider.
This was one of the most crucial moments for a Beastmaster—the moment when them would take that first big step.
The First Human Evolution.
Aurora was about to take that step.
