I couldn’t question the Administrator’s final words as I was pulled deeper into true unconsciousness. Time flowed without my being able to form any conscious thought, and I felt myself be pulled along without any understanding of my self or anything else for that matter. Before long, my mind was blank, and then, I awoke.

With a twitch, I tried to rise to my feet, but my shoulder immediately made its complaints known with a sharp twinge of discomfort. That it was only discomfort was a good sign, but when I turned my head to look, all I saw was a mass of improvised bandages. At this point, I knew that the leaves and vines binding my shoulder wouldn’t do anything to help me, so with my left hand I gently cut through the mass of plant matter.

As my shoulder was gradually revealed, I was relieved to see that the flesh was all knit back together once again. Even small movements sent shocks of pain down to my fingers and all the way to the center of my back, but that might be something that would improve over time and evolution. At least I still had the arm. The rest could follow.

I slowly strode over to my bath, taking special care not to jostle my arm as I went to begin my cleansing. With only one of my arms, covering myself with the fine sands was significantly more difficult than before, but I still relished the gentle scrubbing of the silt beneath my scales and across every inch of my body. With every movement I could feel the cracked and shed skin being softly lifted away by the special sands, and I nearly purred in pleasure. After just a couple quick minutes, I was as clean as I could manage without hurting myself and I finally turned myself to look at the series of flashing [System] notifications.

[Quest completed. Growth achieved. Quest board updated. Status updated.]

[Status updated. Evolutionary progress: Young Bloodletter Brood Alpha; 48/48. Evolution unlocked.]

[User has effectuated a magical phenomenon. User has qualified to develop a magic manipulating organ at the next evolution. Organ acquired: sonilphon.]

[Status updated. Evolutionary progress: Young Magicblood Brood Alpha; magic manipulating organ acquired. Evolution unlocked. Racial designation: Sonic Magicblood Keelish.]

[Evolution commenced. Evolution typically requires a basic restructuring of your body. You will fall unconscious as the reconstruction takes place. Evolution to: Young Sonic Bloodletter Brood Alpha Keelish from your current physiology will take place over the duration of 20 hours. Evolution will provide a marked bonus to your stats, as well as certain obvious physiological changes. Note: the evolution into any magically inclined subspecies of keelish requires vast changes to the basic physiological structure, thus the extensive length of time required for evolution.]

So many notifications, and I’d yet to look at my [Status]. But this did give me a beginning of an understanding of why the Administrator had seemed so interested in this evolution. It was effectively two in one, and I was sure that my [Status] would reflect that. But now, to move past the notifications to see the [Status] itself.

[Status:

Name: Ashlani

Race: Young Sonic Magicblood Brood Alpha Keelish

Current quests:

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Hunt 3 new species. Reward will vary depending upon the evolutionary level of prey. Base reward: Constitution, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic +2.

Gain control of 15% of the entire swarm. Reward: Constitution, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic +5 Progress: 5%

-Subjugate a group of at least 10 individuals with at least 5 Intelligence. Note: Cannot be keelish members of the user’s current pack. Base Reward: Constitution, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic +1.

Titles: none

Stats:

-Constitution: 19+1=20+3=23

-Strength: 23+2+2=27+3=30

-Agility: 23+2+2=27+4=31

-Intelligence: 18+1+1=20+5=25

-Magic: 4+1+2+2=9+7=16

Skills:

Bloodlust: 1/2

Exceptional Individual (Cannot Evolve)

Innate Leadership (Cannot Evolve)

Pack Tactics: 0/10

Dominance: 29/100

Sonilphon: 0/50

Evolutionary guide: (Cannot Evolve)

Evolutionary foresight (Cannot Evolve)

-Adult Sonic Magicblood Alpha: Survive 60 days. Progress: 15/60

Other evolutions possible, but not currently foreseen. Progress further, and such possibilities will be presented to you.]

The first section of bonuses to my Stats seemed to be from my [Quest]’s completion, along with the one point bonus from becoming leader of the brood in Intelligence and Magic. The second section of bonuses was from my evolution, so far as I could tell. If that was the case, then this new evolution was, in pure Stats, more than twice as beneficial as my evolution to Bloodletter, to say nothing of my evolution to Alpha. Additionally, I would continue to see more benefits from the evolution in just three days, as I would experience my third growth spurt. I was excited to see what bonuses I would receive between this evolution with [Exceptional Individual].

It was somewhat sad to see no new prospective evolutions beyond that of aging, but I was confident I could find new ones, given enough effort and time. The other changes to my [Status], however, took me by surprise.

First, I now had three [Quests] displayed. I had learned from the accidental completion of a [Quest] before that the [Quests] seemed to all have been already laid out before me, even if I couldn’t see them, yet being able to see multiple at once was a great gift from the Administrator. Disregarding the substance of the new [Quests], I also had access to new records regarding each of my existing [Skills], and with a brief moment’s deliberate thought, I had the description of each flashing before my eyes.

[Bloodlust: Skill Evolution requirements; Skill user must succumb completely to the influence of the Skill at least once. COMPLETE. Skill user must entirely reject the influence of the Skill at least once.

[Pack Tactics: Skill Evolution requirements; command 10 large scale battles, each ending in the Skill holder’s foe’s complete defeat. Note: to qualify as a “large scale battle”, the Skill holder must be in command of at least 50 troops.]

[Sonilphon: Skill Evolution requirements; full and complete depletion of the sonilphon from full capacity 50 times.]

The explanations of how to evolve my [Skills] were clear, and without them, I couldn’t say how long it would be before I was able to evolve [Bloodlust]. Beyond that, it was rather frustrating how narrowly I’d missed out on progress on [Pack Tactics]. But finally, I needed an explanation of the capstone of this new evolution–the new magic manipulating organ.

[Sonilphon: a rare magic manipulating organ which passively gathers and converts ambient magical power into the sonic attribute. The sonic attribute is typically used to dampen or enhance sound, though specialists have found manifold uses for the attribute.]

So my new magic… is sound? My disbelief was punctuated by a sudden [System] notification.

[The Administrator laughs at your confusion.]