Chapter 349: Tier 3 Evolution.

Chapter 349: Tier 3 Evolution.

“Woof!”

“Hey, calm down, just give me a moment...”

“Awoooooo!”

Roland was looking at an over-excited ruby wolf that was jumping around his backyard. The moon was peeking out from behind some clouds and barely illuminating the night sky. Even with no natural light, the two could casually see everything. There was no need for runic lights thanks to easily produced spells that allowed for night vision.

Agni knew that today was the day that he would be allowed to turn into a new form. His owner just needed to choose the option and the transformation would take place automatically. Monsters did not have to go through tiresome trials to finalize their tier 3 ascension but their change was sometimes brutal. They could turn into entirely different creatures with different skeletal structures and sizes.

‘He won’t set the whole place ablaze after the change, right?’

After some deliberation and input from the Solarian church nun, he had decided to use the most unique evolutionary path from the four choices available. All of them had their pros and cons with the exception of the volcanic variant that seemed the weakest of them all. The Lesser Mystical Ruby Fenrir for instance would probably be quite powerful but also the largest one of the bunch.

A fully adult Fenrir was a tier 4 creature and it was larger than a wooly mammoth. Even the lesser version here was supposed to be comparable to an elephant. Then there was also the possibility of the mystical ruby variant becoming even larger as it was a rare variant. It would become quite hard to bring Agni in a Fenrir form into the city or even into the dungeon as he might become too large to fit through some of the tunnels.

Then there was the Orthrus which was a lesser form of the more known Cerberus. It only had two heads instead of the three the other legendary creature was known for. It was an evolution that belonged to the hellhounds and many of them ended up as a variant. While this was an interesting option, Roland almost instantly tossed it out after putting in some more research.

The biggest problem with this one was that Agni’s personality would be split between the two heads. It would create a whole new being born out of one with none of the two heads being the original Agni. When advancing further into a Cerberus the process would somewhat repeat itself to a somewhat lesser extent but the main problem was still there. The main persona would be somehow divided into two and then three heads and that was not something that Roland wanted. After all he and Agni went through, he wished to keep his canine companion’s brain intact.

The third option was the most basic one. It would just transform Agni into a finalized version of the Dire Ruby Wolf. Probably if it wasn’t for the fourth option, Roland would have decided to pick this one. The size wasn’t as huge as that of a Fenrir, nor were there any problems with him losing his identity. However, the Sunlight Wolf was something that could not be ignored, a divine beast form was something special.

‘Sister Kassia confirmed it so it should be fine...’

His main gripe before consulting with the nun was the Solarian Church. He wasn’t sure how those fanatics saw monsters related to their god. It wouldn’t be strange for them to either want to capture all divine beasts or even to try to exterminate them. Perhaps a monster born of the sun would be seen as a blasphemy against Solaria.

Luckily this wasn’t the case and they were seen more as something worth protecting instead. It was like a lucky charm for the church, some religious convocations would even flock to be near such a beast. They saw it as a blessed creature by their deity that could bring them good fortune.

‘But not like I’ll make it easy to identify his status.’

Roland nodded while bringing up the options screen. Thanks to his recent research into status screens and runes that could alter it, there was no problem in giving Agni a special evolution. Even if someone tried to identify him they would be given faulty information. If they got a sniff of divine energy he could easily deflect it. Constructing divine runes was not a problem and he could always claim that to be the source of the magical wavelength his wolf was using.

Name :

Mystical Ruby Dire Wolf

[ L 150 ] [ Ex 100% ]

Type :

Fire/Earth/Beast

HP

6150/6150

MP

7123/7123

SP

10287/10287

Strength

193

Agility

267

Dexterity

130

Vitality

220

Endurance

243

Intelligence

216

Willpower

202

Charisma

18

Luck

Dexterity

140 [+10]

Vitality

230 [+10]

Endurance

253 [+10]

Intelligence

231 [+15]

Willpower

217 [+15]

Charisma

20 [+2]

Luck

18 [ +3 ]

Mystical Tier 3

Trait

Increases MP by 100%

Tier 3 (Divine Beast)

Trait

Adds a multiplier of 3.777 to all of the basic stats with the exception of luck and charisma

‘That’s an interesting multiplier, do gods in this world believe in lucky numbers?’

After glancing over the increased multiplier he started going through some of the other improvements, one of them was the divine element affinity. While Agni had been granted this affinity it didn’t mean that he was capable of producing healing spells. Roland concluded that he would most likely only be capable of enhancing his flames with this new element. This would make it easy to contend with the undead creatures down in the dungeon and allow for a quick level-up experience.

Divine Element Affinity L1

Passive Skill

Allows the caster to infuse their spells with the given element. Increases the probability of learning divine elemental spells and lowers the failure rate of casting any divine spells.

Besides gaining a few more skills and the capability of producing divine spells, Agni’s charisma and luck stat had gone up. Roland wondered if this was one of the reasons for the sun church believers seeing these types of monsters as lucky.

Advanced Destruction Magic - Fire/Earth L1

Passive Skill

Gives the user the knowledge to cast advanced destruction spells of the given element. This trait also allows the user to learn other spells from the given element. If the spell can be learned depends on the user’s intelligence stat

To confirm his theory about Agni being more built for attacking spells he also saw the advanced destruction magic passive skill. It would allow him to produce better spells and perhaps infuse them with divine energy to produce some unique effects. However, this didn’t mean that he wouldn’t be able to learn any restoration spells that were usually locked behind priest classes. Devine monsters were different from human classes and the possibility was there, perhaps if he continued to level he would be able to unlock that spell tree as well.

“Woah slow down there...”

While he was looking over the stats, Agni started jumping around the whole compound. His body had increased in size and coupled with the increase in agility brought some downsides. He was clearly not used to the increase in his stats and after a few jumps collided with one of the wind turbines.

“Hey... stop moving!”

Before he could stop him from causing even more damage he saw him rocket into the air while in his divine form. He activated a strange skill that made his paws shine brightly. A magical circle appeared right under his hind legs which acted as a platform. He was able to actually push himself off it to jump higher where he created another magical ledge.

“He can do that?”

This started to remind him about his crash landing when he was trying to test out his levitation spell. Agni kept rising into the air while moving in one direction as if fascinated by the view. It was as if he was fascinated by the moon that had shown itself behind the clouds. Yet his wolf companion forgot about the rule of the world, what went up had to eventually come down.

“He's not looking at his mana at all...”

These platforms were not a skill, they were a magical spell. They all required a chunk of his mana that was getting drained rather quickly. Soon Agni would feel a sharp pain akin to having drunk a frozen beverage too fast. It would make him fumble the next magical platform to send him spiraling down toward the ground. The wolf had no experience in controlling this spell quite yet and found himself on a collision course with the nearby forest.

“You’re lucky that I’m here...”

Roland’s voice called out to Agni as his now enlarged form started to slow down. Before he could crash into the trees below he was caught in a levitation spell that lowered the speed of his descent. He was then able to regain some of his balance to produce some of those platforms and finally land down on his own four legs. His owner had followed the zig-zag pattern that went in the direction of the forest.

“Hey, stop trying to lick me...”

After the danger was gone Roland found himself getting assaulted by a canine tongue. With the increase in size, Agni didn’t even need to stand up on his hind legs anymore, he could just directly assault his face instead. Luckily, Roland still had the strength advantage in this case and was able to push his overzealous friend away.

“Bleh... Calm down, we need to get back before anyone notices... and remember, you are forbidden from showing that flaming form to anyone unless I tell you to, do you understand?”

“Woooo?!”

It didn’t seem that Agni was too happy about having to hide his true form from others but after getting glared down by his master he lowered his head.

“Good... I think you’ve gotten too big to fit into the house now...”

Even though the size was not comparable to a Fenrir, a horse-sized wolf would not fit well into his home. Some of the rubies covering his mane had become sharper and so did his paw claws. The floor and walls would become scratched up if he let him roam around too much. Instead, he would need to have his own dog house which was big enough to contain his enlarged new form.