Once the soulscape ends, I take Lin with me and head to bed, where I try to find out what the goddesses said. Despite using every trick I know, I don't manage to get any information from her. Although I must say, I certainly have a lot of fun trying to get her to tell me.

Once Lin falls asleep, I head out to the main room where the kids are all sleeping. Mulan is curled up with them in her human form, since her normal form is too big. I wonder if now that she is a teenager I should make her her own room?

I will just ask her when she wakes up, if she wants a room I will make her one. For now, the first thing I need to do is make myself some new clothes. It is a pain to remember to make clothes every time I shapeshift.

Luckily, I have already made them before so it is a simple process for me. Since the clothes will be shapeshifting, it doesn't even matter what the base clothing looks like. As soon as I am done, I put the clothes on and shapeshift them into a nice suit.

"Athena."

Athena appears and says "You called, master?"

"Yes. I want you to turn back and head southwest. We will follow the coast and continue west. Since we don't have any charts, we are going to be relying on your senses to keep the ship safe. Don't go at max speed, just in case."

Athena says "Understood."

"Although, staying near the coast will probably attract attacks from demonic beasts. If it is more than you think the elves can handle, you can move away from the coast. Just, if you do that, be careful of ocean beasts. They are probably more dangerous away from the coast."

Athena says "I understand. Master, does this mean that you are leaving again?"

"No, I will be going through an evolution. It is possible that I will be asleep for several days during the process. While I am asleep, I will be depending on you to keep everyone safe."

Athena says "I will not fail you, master!"

"Oh, right. Jarvis, come out."

Jarvis steps out of a gate and says "You called, maker?"

"Athena, this is Jarvis, the artificial spirit I made for the castle. He has a golem body that he can control remotely and can help you fight. Jarvis, this is Athena, she is the spirit that I studied to be able to make you. You can consider her as your big sister."

Jarvis says "Greetings, big sister Athena."

Athena says "Hello, Jarvis. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"I hope that the two of you will be able to get along. There are things I think you can learn from each other."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jarvis says "Yes, maker."

Athena says "Understood."

"Alright. I will be undergoing my evolution in my lava bath within the castle. Jarvis, please inform Lin once she wakes up. Athena, if you encounter any problems, go to Lin for help."

Both say "Understood."

With a single thought I enter into the castle, which Lin left sitting on a table. Thanks to the enchantments, I would be able to enter it even if it was in Lin's pouch. When I enter the castle I head downstairs, drop shapeshift, and climb into the bath.

Evolution Ready! Would you like to proceed? Y/N

'Yes.'

Evolution Beginning! Calculating Sources...

Insect DNA: 65%

Lizard DNA: 15%

Magic: 10%

Fire: 5%

Miscellaneous: 5%

'Crap! That means that the sources of the evolution points matter? I don't want to become an insect!'

Preparing Evolution.... Complete! Evolution Starting!

Before I can even think of stopping it, everything goes dark as I lose consciousness. The darkness is complete, there is nothing, not even dreams and even my awareness quickly fades. When my awareness returns it feels like only a few minutes have passed and I wake up.

Stage 1 Evolution Completed! Hp +1,000, DP +1,000, MP +1,000, Strength +200, Agility +300, Endurance +150, Intelligence +200, Wisdom +200, Charisma +100!

New Ability Gained: Communication with insects!

'No! I don't want to communicate with insects! I don't want to be part insect! Is there a way to redo this evolution??'

Unfortunately, there is no response to my request no matter how many times I repeat it. It looks like I am stuck with these results, but it could have been worse. The first thing I do after opening my eyes is to check and make sure that my appearance hasn't changed.

That is a major relief, I was worried I would grow antenna or some other insect parts. While I could hide them using shapeshift, it is still something I don't want to happen. I will need to make sure that from now on I don't get any more insect evolution points.

That shouldn't be too hard, I just need to avoid absorbing the cores of insects. That might make it take longer to get to the next evolution, but I can accept that. Considering how much of this evolution came from the ants and scorpions, I am lucky I didn't mutate.

'Wait a minute, I could already shrink and now I can talk to insects, doesn't that make me Ant-man?!'

That thought is both disturbing and amusing at the same time, which makes me laugh out loud. After laughing for a few minutes, I calm myself down and climb out of the bath. Unfortunately, I miscalculate and end up falling to the floor, which is what Jarvis sees when he walks in.

Jarvis says "Maker, are you finally awake?"

"It's only been a few minutes. What do you mean finally?"

Jarvis says "Maker, you have been asleep for a little over a week."

"What?! Are you serious? Did Lin put you up to this?"

Jarvis says "No, I am not joking. I don't know how to joke. It has been exactly nine days since we last spoke."

"That's longer than I was expecting, but there isn't much I can do about it. What has been going on while I was asleep?"

Jarvis says "As you ordered, we returned to the coast and followed it west. We suffered from several attacks over the first few days, but the elves were able to handle it. However, three days ago we encountered a massive swarm and we had to flee. There were no casualties, but there were many elves who were injured. We only managed to escape thanks to Mulan. She used her new powers and incinerated thousands of them."

"Alright. It seems that I missed a lot. What's the current situation?"

Jarvis "We have sailed north for a full day and are now at anchor. Athena wants to stay put until all the elves are fully healed before resuming our journey. Since Lady Lin agreed with her, no one else was against the idea."