While gob- changeling Andrew was dealing with the mess caused by his Evolution, Beast Andrew couldn't get the image of his cores being merged together out of his head. It was just so… beautiful! It spoke to him on such a fundamental level that he couldn't even express it! Watching the disparate cores come together to create something more, fitting together like pieces of a puzzle… There was a sense of wholeness that Andrew couldn't get out of his head! If he could find a way to merge his Beast cores together…

"Okay, you need to chill." Cathryn insisted, giving him a worried look. "What is up with you?!?"

Andrew blinked at her, before flushing in embarrassment. "Sorry, it's just… fuck, I don't even know how to explain." Andrew groaned, wiping his face with his hand. "Okay, so, in the other world, I… so apparently when a beast kills- uh, I met the requirements for something called 'Evolution', and in the process, the cores I'd collected were… merged. It was… fascinating…" Andrew trailed off with a distant look in his eye, before shaking his head. "I just can't stop thinking about it." He finished with a sigh.

Li Jing leaned over to poke him in the side. "You're going to try merging your cores, aren't you." She stated more than asked.

"Not my cores." Andrew snorted. "At least, not ones I value. Not until I've practiced a lot…"

Cathryn glared at him. "Andrew, this seems a lot like the kind of thing that ended with you being reborn as a goblin, don't you think? Maybe it would be best to avoid that kind of thing for now?"

Andrew frowned. "I don't think anything like that could happen… worst case scenario, I make some kind of fucked up core that doesn't work, but that shouldn't affect anything, since I'm not dependent on any one core."

"Andrew-" Cathryn began in a worried tone.

"Cathryn, just trust me, alright?" Andrew cut her off with a sigh. "I don't know what but… this is something I need to explore. If it ends up leading to more me's somehow, I'll stop, but I honestly don't think that's going to be an issue. The cores should never leave my body. I'm just… figuring out how they work."

Cathryn still didn't look happy, but she eventually let out a sigh and nodded along. "Fine, whatever. But seriously, if you start popping up in different places…" She waved a fork at him in warning.

Andrew grinned. "Don't worry. I think I have a solution for that too. I didn't know to look for it last time, but I think I can just drag the core back before it gets settled somewhere."

"Why can't you drag the core back at any time?" Li Jing asked.

"The aura." Andrew replied. "It can stretch out between the two worlds a little bit, but… well, it's like a rubber band. Stretch too far and it wants to snap back. So once I have aura somewhere, I'm pretty much stuck."

Li Jing frowned. "But isn't the core the important part? If you took the core back, what would happen to the aura?"

"Well, I can only move aura between… huh." Andrew paused. Aura was anchored by the core, he knew that much. Whenever he stole a core, the aura would just dissipate, so theoretically, if he disconnected his aura from his cores, it should dissipate too… "I… may need to test that."

The two girls looked at him expectantly. "Well?" Cathryn prodded. "What are you waiting for?"

Andrew looked around the busy cafeteria. "Well, this isn't the best place for it, is it? Besides, aren't you the one who's always pushing me not to experiment?" He asked skeptically.

"If it gets you out of that goblin dream, you can experiment as much as you want." Cathryn retorted in a slightly bitter tone.

"Plus, no one can see your aura, so it isn't like you'll be causing a scene." Li Jing added.

"True…" Andrew muttered absently, more focused on the bitterness from Cathryn. Did his other life really bother her that much? He'd known she wasn't happy about it, but he figured that was because she was worried he was delusional or something… or maybe it was because she hoped he was delusional. Particularly after she learned what goblins did to procreate… He sighed. "Okay, give me a moment."

Andrew slipped into his inner sight state, focusing on his aura. He stuck out a tiny thread and carefully pinched off a small piece, observing it to see what happened. Quickly the piece of aura lost all color, and then… it just sat there. Andrew opened his eyes, blinking at where the small bit of aura sat. Why… could he still feel it? He moved it to the side, then back the other way, then sent it in a loop around the cafeteria. "Huh." He grunted, scratching his head in confusion, before shrugging and sending the little piece of aura shooting towards the edge of his aura sight, thinking that maybe somehow that was what was keeping him connected to it, but all that happened was that he lost sight of it. He could still feel it, flying around out there. He'd even catch a glimpse of aura when the little piece flew through something.

Andrew sighed, pulling the piece of aura back. "Well, that didn't work."

"Why? What happened?" Li Jing asked.

"Well, it disconnected well enough, but it didn't dissipate. It just… Well, I don't know what it did. I was still connected to it and everything." Andrew shrugged as the aura returned and seamlessly reconnected with the rest.

Li Jing frowned. "Weird."

"Isn't it?" Andrew smirked.

Cathryn groaned. "So you're still stuck being a goblin then."

"Actually, thanks to that Evolution, I'm a changeling now. Noble race even." Andrew replied. "Which essentially just means I don't need to feed off of anyone else to live or reproduce."

Cathryn blinked. "You- aren't a goblin anymore?" She asked in a hopeful tone, before frowning. "But you're still involved with that tribe…"

"Actually, I got picked up by…" Andrew paused. He'd actually never figured out what Justin's position actually was. "Uh, apparently people notice when something Evolves, and they send people to pick them up. This guy named Justin from the noble races picked me up, and now I'm in this city called Nobilis."

"Justin and Nobilis?" Li Jing asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Aren't those names a little too… normal?"

"Well, I don't know if those are the actual names. I got this trait which lets me understand people, so everything they say sort of gets adjusted for me." Andrew explained. "Like, I hear the words they're saying, which is gibberish, but I understand the meaning, which tells me the names are essentially Justin and Nobilis."

"Interesting." Li Jing muttered.

"Wait, let me get this straight." Cathryn interjected. "You're completely done with the goblins now? Like, forever?"

"Well… pretty much? When I have the ability, I'd like to make sure Corek and the Shaman are alright, but I don't plan on rejoining the tribe. It's just… I know they have to do it, but now that I'm something else… I don't want to be a part of it anymore."

Cathryn blinked at him, before letting out a choked, "Oh thank god!" Andrew raised an eyebrow at her as she flushed. "I-I'm sorry, I just- I know it was what you had to do, but I couldn't stand the idea of you being involved with something like- like that!"

Andrew sighed. "Yeah, I get that. I wasn't happy about it either."

"It's just so- evil." Cathryn grimaced.

Andrew paused. "Well, I wouldn't call it evil. Evil is knowingly causing unnecessary suffering. What the goblins do is necessary for their survival, so it can't be called evil… horrible maybe, disgusting definitely, but not evil."

Cathryn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm just glad you aren't a part of that anymore."

"Yeah, me too." Andrew agreed. "It sucks when good people are forced to do horrible things."

"Or whatever." Cathryn muttered. She wasn't sure if she could ever consider someone who did something like that a 'good person'.

*

Once they got back from school, Andrew immediately secluded himself in the beanbag room to focus on his cores. Specifically, the rabbit folk core. With the prospect of Evolution, the core had lost all its allure. Compared to just absorbing an ability crystal normally, the stat gain just didn't cut it, and he did like the idea of losing his Beast cores to a potential evolution, particularly if he risked becoming a monstrous race in the process. So instead, Andrew was going to use the rabbit folk core for practice. At least, eventually. First he was going to practice with some insect cores, which were relatively simpler, but once he started getting comfortable, he was going to try to build something interesting out of that core.

“Alright, let's see…” Andrew muttered, pulling up an ant core and a bee core, tentatively pushing them together, which… didn't do anything. “Yeah, I didn't expect it to be that easy.” Andrew sighed. “Maybe I should just start with one core…” He pushed the ant core aside, focusing on the bee core, trying to see if he could piece it apart. Maybe if he could see how it was put together in the first place, he'd have a better handle on how to put it together with another core. He concentrated on the core, examining intently. It- Looked like a bee core. “Maybe if I-” He pressed on the core with his aura, trying to see if he could break off a chunk of it or something, and the core shattered, dissolving into his aura. “Shit!” Andrew cursed, before pausing as he felt a tickle in the back of his mind. Like- like he knew how to make a bee core now. Or at least, he knew what a core needed to be a bee core. “Huh… but what can I do with it?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Andrew considered his options for a moment before deciding to crush a few more cores, slowly building up a little database on insect cores for himself. Then he grabbed another ant core and another bee core. “Okay, now… I still have no idea what I'm doing.” He sighed. Knowing what the cores were didn't make putting them together any easier. Particularly since he was aiming for something like his Changeling core, which would allow him to still switch between his different forms. He tried to think back to what he'd seen during the Evolution process, but it didn't help. The cores had simply seemed to slip together. Andrew paused. What if… what if the Evolution process had done something to the cores? Made them more… receptive to manipulation? He'd been in the process of becoming something other than he used to be, hadn't he? The cores had to have been primed for change, since any change in form would necessitate a change in the core, right? The question was, could he get them into that state…

Andrew refocused on the two cores, trying to make them more… malleable. Then, carefully, he tried to push them together again, and… it worked! Kinda. The cores merged, but it wasn't anything like his Changeling core. Instead the core contained the unholy amalgam of a bee and an ant, something he wasn't even sure was functional. It definitely wasn't pretty. “Shit.” Andrew sighed, before pausing as a slow grin began to spread across his face. “Let's see how ugly I can make this thing.” Andrew began to merge more insect cores into it, until he was left with not one, not two, but four sets of legs, giving him twenty-four mismatched appendages, all clustered around the tiny body of a fuzzy black and yellow flea, with a (relatively) gigantic set of wings, a head that was just a large set of eyes and mandibles, and a stinger that was bigger than the body. “Oh, I have got to show this to the girls.” Andrew cackled evilly, his clothes disappearing into his storage ring as he transformed and took flight. He buzzed down the hallway, heading towards the kitchen where the girls were chatting and preparing for dinner. Once he got closer, he landed on the ceiling, creeping along until he was hanging just above the table, before letting go and dropping. *BOO!* Andrew shouted through his connection with Cathryn as he landed right in front of her, causing her to shriek and jump out of her chair, tripping and falling in the process. Andrew was laughing his ass off when a hand slammed down on top of him as Li Jing tried to squish him.

"Wait! It's Andrew!" Cathryn cried in a panic, scrambling to her feet only to find Li Jing frowning down at a perfectly healthy insect. "Uh…"

Andrew snickered. *Even if I'm small, I'm still a Beast. It's going to take more than a light slap to even hurt me.*

"This is Andrew?" Li Jing asked skeptically, examining the bug a bit closer. "No wonder it's so ugly."

*Hey! No need to be rude.* Andrew pouted.

Cathryn rolled her eyes. "You know she can't hear you."

*That's why you're supposed to translate. Chop, chop!* Andrew retorted. Cathryn responded by flicking him, sending him flying across the room with a yelp. Durable he may be, but he wasn't heavy. Andrew shifted back to normal with a grumble, walking back over to take a seat at the table.

"Put on underwear." Li Jing demanded before he sat, raising a warning finger.

"But I left my ring in the other room…" Andrew complained, but when she didn't relent, he sighed and headed back to the room, before returning fully clothed. "Happy?"

"Very." Li Jing smiled.

"So, do you mind telling us why you decided to grace us with that… thing?" Cathryn asked with a disgusted expression.

"What, don't you think it looked neat?" Andrew asked with a grin as he sat down.

"It looked disgusting." Li Jing commented.

"As I said." Andrew chuckled.

"But again I ask, why?" Cathryn insisted.

"Well, remember how I was planning on messing around with cores, seeing if I could take them apart and put them back together?" Both girls nodded. "Well, that's what happens when you mix an ant, bee, flea, and fly. Not pretty, with a slight thirst for blood."

"Did you add in a mosquito?" Li Jing asked.

"No, I think it came from the flea." Andrew shrugged.

"Ah, that makes sense." She nodded.

"Hold on, were you trying to make that abomination?!?" Cathryn asked incredulously.

"Oh, no. What I wanted to do was make something like my new Changeling core in the other reality, but… it didn't work. But I'm making progress!” Andrew explained.

"Can't you do everything your Changeling core can do without merging your cores?" Cathryn asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Andrew paused. "I can, but… I don't know, I feel like if I can figure this out, I can do something more. I mean, if I can combine forms, then maybe I could combine abilities at some point! They're obviously associated with the core. Maybe I could even develop new abilities at some point! But obviously I have a ways to go before I can do anything like that."

Li Jing perked up at that. "If you get good enough at modifying cores… Do you think you could give us abilities?"

Andrew's eyes widened. "That… ooh, I think-! Uh… maybe?" He frowned for a moment. "If I could somehow transfer a Beast core to you now… how have I never thought of this before?"

"Wait, wait, hold on!" Cathryn protested, looking between the two of them. "You want to mess with our cores?!? The things that, if you fuck up, means we die!?!"

Andrew and Li Jing shared a look, before turning back to Cathryn. "Okay fair." Andrew nodded. "No fucking with your cores until I'm a lot more skilled."

Cathryn shook her head. "I just… why do you have to mess with our cores?" She asked, exasperated. "It just seems like an unnecessary risk. I don't understand why you would even want to."

"Security." Li Jing interjected. "Bonded- the human side at least, we're… vulnerable compared to the dangers we have to face. It keeps our growth slow, because we have to make sure our human side is safe before we do anything. However, if Andrew could make the human side strong… then we could do so much more. We wouldn't need to be tied to the base camps anymore! At least, not to the same degree."

Andrew nodded. "Think about it. When we start going out into the wild to hunt, wouldn't you feel more confident if you had some physical power to back you up? How much do you really think you could defend yourself if you solely rely on our abilities? A wind blast or two might scare some things away, but it's hardly going to kill anything."

"It's even worse because Andrew can't rely on mutating his abilities to give you more capabilities." Li Jing added. "You're stuck with standard abilities without the versatility needed to truly be a threat."

"Why can't we just… not?" Cathryn asked hesitantly. "Do we really need to put ourselves in danger? Sure we're tied to the base camps, but… we have the base camps! Why push ourselves to do more?"

Andrew and Li Jing shared a look. "That's… a philosophy." Andrew replied. "There are those who never leave the walls of the base camps, focusing on slow and steady growth, because we are immortal, so eventually you'll be powerful if you just keep going, right? No matter how small your gains are, they are gains and eventually they'll build up. The only issue is that you can't really mutate your ability if you do that, because the stronger you are, the more energy you need, and at a certain point you simply can't consume weaker ability crystals fast enough to actually be effective. Not an issue for us, but it'd still be a problem for Jing. It's just… the Outside is dangerous. We could live that way, but the only way to do so would be by depending on others to defend us. We wouldn't be contributing, we'd just be… subsisting. It just- it's lazy. And cowardly. And… it just doesn't feel right. Not when we could be doing more."

"But how much can we actually do?" Cathryn retorted. "Can we really catch up with people who have lived for thousands of years?!? What difference can we really make?"

"Enough." Li Jing answered. "We can do enough. It isn't about doing the most. It's about doing what we can. Even if it's just supporting those stronger than us."

Andrew nodded. "Yeah, it isn't about doing everything, it's about doing our best. And hiding away in the base camps… that isn't our best. We can do more."

Cathryn frowned, before sighing and shaking her head. "I guess I'm just not used to the idea that we're… threatened. It just doesn't feel like we're in danger."

"I mean… we aren't, but we are." Andrew explained. "In our area, we're… secure. The biggest threat is the Orcgod and his horde, which is definitely a problem but not a major one. However, the Outside is huge, and we're a small part of a tiny alliance in an insignificant territory. There are Beasts out there who could wipe us out in an instant, and the only reason they don't is because we're too insignificant for them to care. Too much of our survival is based on luck, and if we all aren't doing everything we can to grow, it's going to stay that way… I don't know about you, but I'm not lucky enough to trust that."

Cathryn's expression twisted. "I guess I'm not either…" She muttered, before letting out a sigh. "Fine, you're right. We need to get stronger, in any way we can. Just… be careful, alright?"

Andrew nodded. "Don't worry, I will. I don't think we can afford to be lazy, but… I can't afford to lose you two either." He reached out to grab both of their hands. "Keeping you both safe will always be my highest priority. No matter what."