The last time Richard had evolved he'd been headbutted by a rat immediately afterwards, and the pain wasn't great either.
So he was a little reluctant this evolution around.
Nonetheless, it wasn't like he could just avoid it.
He was a monster now. Evolution was just part of life.
And... he enjoys fighting a little.
Finding solutions to the problems he faced in battle, finding a way to outsmart his enemies, there was something that just made him feel better.
His pride upon finding solutions to his problems perhaps?
Nonetheless...
[Congratulations for reaching level 25! These are the evolutions available to you!]
... He was going to move forward in his life.
It wasn't just fighting.
He had people waiting for him.
[Thunder monarch wyrm(juvenile)]
[Lightning Dragon (juvenile)]
[Stormback wyrmwhale (juvenile)]
[cloud dragon (juvenile)]
[storm dragon (juvenile)]
[lightning wyvern(juvenile)]
Richard immediately cast the wyvern, wyrm and lightning dragon options aside.
The wyvern and wyrm could be good options, bult ultimately Richard enjoyed his current body too much to change it out.
But what was a stormback wyrmwhale?
System?
[The stormback wyrmwhale is a creature following the innate bloodline of the storm monarch. To become a stormback is to forsake the land permanently, trading arms for fins and to trade in the dragon body in for a more whale like shape. While speed will suffer slightly, it will be traded in for immense strength, defense, and to also gain an adaptation for water.]
What?
So sister Alexandria isn't the storm monarch.
"Sister Alexandria what is the storm monarch?" he asked carefully.
He didn't want to sound accusatory, but he also really wanted to know where this came from.
Why would a whale have a adaptation for storms. A storm in the water sounded like a horrid thing for a sea monster to manipulate.
Thankfully sister Alexandria didn't seem insulted. She was taken aback a little.
"Did your blessing mention anything about the storm monarch?" She asked softly in return.
When Richard explained the evolution, she nodded in understanding.
"To think your system was able to detect the origin of the storm monarch bloodline. I was curious to see if it would connect that bloodline back to me or the storm monarch himself. It seems to have done both according to your explanation." She chuckled softly as her tail scratched her chin wistfully.
"The storm monarch was my teacher for a time, and was one of the greatest monsters in this world. He was a whale, yes, but not quite the type you're thinking of."
Oh?
Seeing his curious expression, she teased him a little.
"Looks like someone's excited." She cooed before chuckling.
"He was a skywhale before he became the storm monarch."
A skywhale? What is that. Could it be? It's in the name. But a whale! But wasn't he trying to achieve something similar? But how could such a thing exist and yet never be seen?
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
As Richard agonized over something that seemed so obvious but also impossible, she continued on.
"A skywhale is just as it sounds. They're whales that swim through air, but swim as altitudes so high that people never actually get the chance to see them. They weren't predatory by nature, but as a variant species, the storm monarch climbed the food chain to become the apex predator, taking that spot by sheer power."
A variant? Wow! Richard was breathless at the thought.
This skywhale already seemed to be a rare monster (he'd never heard anyone ever mention one before) but to also be a variant of a rare species?
Looking at Richard's astonished face, she nodded. "Indeed, the storm monarch was an impressive being. Unlike the others who bore a resemblance to whales like humpbacks or blue whales, as a variant, he always resembled those sperm whales, though he always denied it. He said it had to do with something... older." She squinted at those words.
"Frankly, I could never quite figure out what that meant. What kind of older whale could he be? But I also knew he had a point. There was something about him far more domineering than just a variant. Eventually he got too strong and became too much for this world. So he... ascended."
"... He became a god?"
"Nah. That's more of an eastern cultivators thing, like a friend of mine does. He just flew up further than any creature in this world has ever flown before. He went to the space in which there is no air."
Huh. That sounded pretty heavy, but storm monarch is what matters more now. "Then is he still alive?"
"Oh, totally. He gave me a candle tied to his life so if he died(cultivator thing again, learned it from a friend of mine) I would know."
She sighed forlornly. "It's been a thousand years so far. Lord knows what that geezer is doing now."
Shaking her head, she looked at Richard again, choosing to change the subject. "So, what's your choice on the matter?"
"Probably not." Richard had no problem making this decision
She nodded. "As I suspected. Is it because of the mobility problems?"
"Yes, after all, it says whale so I'm going to assume the form is large."
"Skywhale's are on average the size of 2-3 castles.
My master was double their size."
"Well that confirms it." nods Richard. "I can't use a dragon form to blend into human society, but when traversing other areas in dragon form, the last thing I wat is to be a whale who basically can't navigate anything."
Alright, moving on.
[cloud dragon(juvenile)]
[Cloud dragons manipulate clouds in mysterious ways, choosing to not simply rely on clouds, but the art of mixing clouds with other aspects of air. Their manipulation over body of gasses will increase and the power of things derived of clouds will increase in power.]
[Storm dragon(juvenile)]
[The storm dragon is the center of the storm. Not content to merely generate lightning, the storm dragon is a dragon who's begun upon the path of storms, to start generating storm clouds as well as well as greater wingspan to increase flight ability.]
Those two...
Richard's pondered, before bringing up these two options to Alexandria, who also had to contemplate it.
"I have to say, it's somehow more difficult to have choices clearly present before you." admitted Alexandria. "Natural evolution kind of leaves you to accept because you don't have any alternatives, but when you're provided options it becomes harder to choose a path without regrets."
Richard nodded solemnly as he looked over these two.
They're both pretty good. Frankly, he was already leaning towards the storm dragon, but he had to acknowledge the great versatility this gas manipulation could have, and more importantly, the idea that most of what he did with lightning wasn't special enough to justify a second evolution into it.
From what he could tell, this would be his chance to switch over to another specialization.
On the other hand, lightning wasn't failing him, and this evolution would allow for more versatility, still allowing him to still develop cloud abilities, but without the tempting increase manipulation of the cloud dragon.
Richard agonized over it for a while before finally coming to his decision.
As tempting as cloud dragon was, Richard hadn't used it enough to decide upon a whole switch to only clouds, especially when Storm dragon still offered an upgrade to clouds in the form of storm clouds.
And so he chose storm dragon.
The pain was great, as Richard gritted his teeth, but he noticed it felt less painful for some reason. He could feel his body changing once more as his wings stretched and pulled, connecting to places it hadn't been connected to before.
He could feel change racing throughout his body, from the very tip of his tail to the end of his snout, as the evolution painfully restructured his body.
As he changed though, a sudden pang of pain happened, a flash seared through his brain, before Richard blacked out!
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Where was he?
What was this darkness?
Richard looked around, yet could see nothing but darkness.
There was nothing to be seen, but then there was too much to see.
A blinding light enveloped him from one direction, and Richard had to squint as he slowly adjusted. Turning to look at the light, as something instinctual pulled at him, some sense of reverence.
Not fear, but a sense of closeness unseen before.
Richard felt a weird sense of closeness, a desire to view this light. To praise it.
The light gave illumination to the darkness before him, as he looked at endless walls of plates, far larger than anything else he had ever seen before.
The light was split in half by a column of pure black, and as Richard stared at the light, he came to realize something.
The iridescent light wasn't a light, it was an eye.
That column of darkness was the pupil.
The eye stared at him.
It felt like an eternity as the eye stared at him, as Richard held his breath.
Something rumbled through his mind.
()#(*$)&#)%&(*# #*&%(&#(&^%(# &(%&#(*^(#)$$(
Something flew through his mind as the eye focused on him. Indescribably words and intent directed at him, overwhelming him.
The closeness did not disappear though, and if anything, a greater warmth enveloped him.
The eye was staring at him with affection.
It soon closed thereafter though, leaving Richard in darkness again, cold and alone.
It was cold without the eye.
A rumpling ocurred as the endless wall of plates moved in darkness.
JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT JKT
The endless sounds of the heavy plates clattering enveloped all of Richard's senses as he fell asleep in the darkness.
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And then he awoke.