Chapter 38: Evolution-path

Shane's found was simple→ [Elemental crystals] crystals infused with compressed transmuted mana.

While normal mana crystals were already rare and sought out by many races, elemental crystals were even rarer and weirdly enough, the timing was perfect.

The most recent news from humanity's forum informed Shane and all humans that one of the newly occupied Basic primordial dimensions was a mountain range, which was said to have even more resources than the Deep Mountain-river dimension.

Because of that, humans tried to take a hold of the ruling position of the mountain range, but the Dimension was too vast, while the inhabitant beasts used the advantage of their landscapes to prevent humans from invading the mountain range to a certain degree.

Humanity found a few other races that tried to get a hold of the mountain range but they remained friendly enough with each other, without causing large-scale massacres, which was definitely a good outcome.

A rather unknown and quickly deleted thread posted pictures of crystals found within a cave of the mountain range and these crystals would be Shane's next target.

But there was still something that had to be done before.

First, mankind had to consolidate their stance of the shelter and enlarge it, before Shane would dare to go there.

He needed at least one secured position somewhere, otherwise, he would be lost in an unknown region which was definitely not something anyone wanted.

Outlining up a rough plan, Shane decided that there was more than enough time for him to increase his strength until he wanted to enter the [Radiant mountain ring] dimension, where his targeted ingredient was inside.

Time passed slowly and Shane was focused on noting down publicly known information about all types of elemental crystals, how to harvest them, what details he had to pay attention to, and even more important for his overall situation, what kind of dangers humans had found around the radiant mountain range until now.

From the name of the dimension, the mountain range seemed to be a gigantic ring, which was rare to be seen.

'The valley within the mountain-ring must be gorgeous, not like the shadow-snake valley that was eerie, muddy, and more than a little bit dangerous.' Shane daydreamed before he focused on his task once again.

It was still nighttime outside and this wouldn't change in the next few hours.

Looking at the timer, Shane noticed that only a few minutes from Umbra's quality enhancement were left and he anticipated his tamed beast's changes.

Even if he didn't believe that there would be many changes, because Umbra didn't evolve and only his quality upgraded, but he was sure that Umbra would look more refined and powerful.

Gazing at the countdown, which slowly approached 0, Shane turned of the system and turned to Umbra's dark cocoon, when he heard a notification.

[(Umbra's) quality has successfully been upgraded from (Uncommon) to (Rare)]

Without wasting any time, the darkness enshrouding began slowly to dissipate but Shane was impatient and opened Umbra's status panel to take a look.

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Name: [Umbra♂]

Race:[Shadow-snake]

Rank: [Low 3rd-Wild stage(Low-Wild)]

Quality: [Rare](+)

<Locked> |Evolution|(+)

Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow)(+)

Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)]

Loyalty: [39%]

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Umbra's rank has increased slightly, but other than that, nothing special changed except the quality, which was however obvious.

His loyalty increased to 39% which was a joyous occasion but somehow, Shane was still disappointed because he expected more, when he was bombarded with notifications

[A new evolution path [Rare] has been discovered]

[Innate-Skill upgrade (Trash |★★★★★|→Common |★|)] : Enhance the quality of one tamed beast, has been accomplished. Reward: [Cultivation-link] has been added to host's Innate skill's abilities.]

[[Cultivation-link] Host's Innate skill and Cultivation will be entangled with each other. The higher host's cultivation, the more and stronger beasts host can tame]

[Upgrade-mission Common |★★|<Unlocked>→Increase the loyalty of one of your tamed beast to 50%(39%)]

"WHAT!?" Shane shouted out unconsciously not knowing what was going on, as he was just shocked about the news.

There were four messages in total and one could say that discovering a new evolution path from Umbra was the easiest for him to comprehend within a few seconds.

Looking at the first notification, Shane anticipated the new evolution path, even though the |Evolution| section itself was still locked.

Nevertheless, Shane found out that he could look at Umbra's evolutions which made him curious as another panel appeared in front of him.

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Possible evolutions [Shadow-snake (Rare)]

1) [Common] Shadow-python

2) [Uncommon] Darkness-python

3) [Rare] Colossus Darkness-python

4) [Extraordinary] <Locked>

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Reading through the few possibilities, Shane's jaw dropped to the ground.

But this wasn't because of the first two evolution paths, as he knew about them but rather about the third one.

`Colossus Darkness-python?!?!?! Just like that?` Shane was more than a little taken aback.

The colossus darkness python he knew was a mid-awakened beast and a terrifying existence within the Basic Primordial dimension and his little cute Umbra was able to evolve into something like that after he unlocked its evolution function??

Shane couldn't believe it and it seemed way too unrealistic that 15 gold coins allowed his beast to be able to evolve into an awakened beast.

Thinking for a bit, Shane understood that if Umbra were to evolve into a colossus darkness-python, that his quality would be degraded to [Trash], causing its strength to be among the weakest colossus darkness python's out there in addition to it being unable to evolve until his quality was once again upgraded.

Normally one would not tame a Shadow-snake and increase its quality to such a degree like Shane did but even if one did, finding out the right ingredients to upgrade it with the same amount of funds he used was almost impossible without the guidance of the Innate Skill he received.

Nevertheless, everything seemed unreal for him.

A small investment of 15 gold coins gave Umbra the chance to evolve into an awakened beast? With a single evolution at that.

This seemed just too illogical but the system wouldn't lie to him.

This however meant that his Innate skill [Taming] was more than a little bit overpowered.

Previously he thought his taming skill was just like everyone else's. just with a few additional features added.

'Or were other's Innate Skills's similar magnificent?!' He thought shocked because the possibility of them hiding their most powerful abilities didn't sound illogical.

When he unlocked the quality-upgrade function Shane didn't think much about it but now that he understood the real importance of a beast's quality for its evolution was, goosebumps covered his whole body.

However instead of glancing too long on the [Rare] evolution path, what really attracted Shane's attention was the <Locked>[Extraordinary] evolution path that seemed to be the highest possible path Umbra had.

Shane started to wonder what exactly the last evolution could be, as he noticed the second notification in addition to the third one.

His lips curled ups subconsciously and Shane could only shout out in joy with a radiating smile plastering his face.

Not only has his Innate skill been upgraded to the [Common] quality, but the reward he received was at least as baffling as the news about Umbra's rare evolution.