Darya stood across from me in the meadow with a worried look on her face. “Are you feeling alright? You look a bit-”

“What?” I said, feeling panic rise up. I looked over at myself and noticed the differences. “Are you serious?”

So much for going only for internal upgrades. I had Stronger Bones now, and in fact they were so much stronger that they were protruding out at my elbows, shoulders and knees as dull spikes. This wasn’t exactly a terrible thing as far as fighting was concerned. The spikes could do some damage if I were to elbow someone in the face. Could be fatal even. However, in terms of looks and cuddliness, I had taken a serious hit.

The evolution process was a bit like [Measured Savagery] -- a punch in the gut, and a whole lot of pain. The [Measured Savagery] buff still had time on it, but I decided to call it a night.

“Does this happen to you often?” she asked.

“First time.”

In the status screen, another section was added toward the bottom listing my evolutions. For now, it had a single entry and I wasn't sure if I wanted to add more any time soon. This whole evolution experience had put a damper on my mood.

Darya handed me a handful of minor power crystals. With her taking the valuable quiver, the rest of the loot was now going to me. We walked back through the portal to my room to find Amelia sleeping soundly on my bed.

I turned to Darya and spoke in a low voice, “Should we wake-”

Amelia jolted awake and sat up, rubbing her sleepy eyes. “Oh, you’re back!” She yawned. “Is everything alright now?”

“Seems to be,” Darya replied. “I suppose we’re done for the night, unless you have-”

“No, that’s it for now, but let’s do it again after the Dark Night.”

“Was it some kind of a growth spurt?” Darya asked while pointing at the spikes on my shoulders and arms.

“It was .. uhm, an evolution upgrade. It really did a number on me.”

“Oh, that’s right. You Drakons got that going on, don’t ya?”

“Mhm.”

I handed the bar of chocolate to Amelia. “I’m sure the kids will love it.”

“You’re not going to take it for yourself?”

“Nah, I already had plenty before.” It was strange that as a kid, I would have killed for a single bar of chocolate, but lacked the money and opportunity to get any. As an adult, I had the money to buy a literal metric ton, but didn’t care for it.

After the two left, I looked over my items. Today’s [Measured Savagery] dungeon spree was profitable. I got new pants, and a plain steel fork for some very odd reason. Three dungeon orbs: [t3] Granite Island, [t2] Mineral Springs, and [t2] Courtyard. An alchemy ingredient and petrified wood.

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I gathered up the wandcrafting components lying on the table. I had plenty of power crystals, but they were of the minor variety. I was getting short on copper wiring, I needed amethysts, some leather for the handles, and more oak branches. I wanted to craft a super light wand for quick power-up times to take care of the riffraff in the dungeon. My Swift wand was strangely missing, Bolstered too.

I also needed to figure out what to do with the greater quality petrified wood. It had to do with wandcrafting, I was almost certain of it. The piece was already wand shaped, though a bit on the heftier side.

Gregor poked his head in, looked around and then stepped through completely. “Done already?” he asked.

His red scarf was gone. He wasn’t coughing or sneezing either. Miraculously, his cold or flu must have been cured, or he never was sick in the first place -- a more likely scenario.

I nodded. “You don’t happen to know much about wandcrafting do you?” I had asked him about evolution before, but he wasn’t familiar with Drakons, or their silly evolutions, as he called them.

“Not so much, no, but-” He floated closer and examined the petrified wood. “Did you happen to have a schematic that included this component when you killed the boss?”

“No,” I replied.

“Aha, then it’s quite likely it’s part of a secret schematic, and now the fun begins of finding the rest of the components that would work together. It’ll take some time, that’s for certain.”

“Wouldn’t serious wandcrafters have a library or compendium on all secret recipes by now that they have gathered over many years?”

“Sure, and a few would be happy to sell you the information … for a price.”

I sighed. “Yeah, figures.”

“It’s too bad that Amelia doesn’t do dungeons any longer, she would have been quite the powerful asset as a healer for you.”

“She used to? What happened?”

“You did.”

“I did? What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that she had made certain .. vows to her- .. what’s her name again?” He scratched his head, lost in thought. “The goddess of harvest. The Great Mother. I forget her name now, but it doesn't matter. Amelia made a bargain, you see? Give me a champion, and I’ll make sacrifices worthy of one. Then you showed up -- the very next day.”

“So she promised not to do dungeons?”

“Not just I’m afraid. A few other things such as no husband, no children.”

“Oof. I didn’t realize.”

“To be fair, I think it’s all just a coincidence. It’s not the first time she’s made such vows. It is, however, the first time someone showed up who didn’t simply take advantage.”

“Do you know anything about their mother?” I asked.

“I should, shouldn’t I?” He looked blankly for a moment as if recalling a memory. “Afterall, she is my daughter.”

“Huh, is that right? Why didn’t you say anything? That makes Amelia and Darya your granddaughters?”

He sighed, and his already grim expression turned gloomier. “My dearest Elena was taken from this world much too young.”

“I’m sorry. What happened?”

“A group of brigands came through the area.” He sniffled, his voice breaking as he spoke. “She uhm … she was caught outside in the fields.”

“Did they catch who did it? Did they make them pay?”

Gregor huffed, his face turning red with anger. “Pay? No. They were long gone when I- … when I.” Gregor stared in silence, as if lost in thoughts.

“I see,” I said after a long pause, interrupting his reverie and bringing him back to the moment. “Do these brigands come through the area often?”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Haven’t since.”