Adon, Goldie, and Samson exchanged some more news.

The other children, while far from Samson’s level of proficiency in Claustrian, were learning the language rapidly. Goldie credited the fact that Samson was helping her reinforce the terms she taught his younger siblings—which was all of them, since he had been the first to poke his head out into the world.

Adon almost made a remark about Samson not being the little brother in this world, but it felt like it would be catty. He would have to be careful what he said. He knew in his heart that he was much too reflexively defensive about his past self’s relationship with Samson.

He needed his friendships with Goldie and Samson to work out, to get what he wanted out of this life—positive and meaningful relationships—and it was only natural that Goldie would become defensive if Adon started randomly verbally attacking her firstborn child. So the days of Adon just saying whatever he thought were over.

Hello friend, thought a tiny spider.

Adon’s attention returned to the little ones, who Goldie had just instructed to say hello to her friend.

Hello friend, echoed another three spiders.

Hello mama friend, thought a spider that seemed to be more of an independent thinker.

Adon raised a forelimb and waved awkwardly.

It is a pleasure to meet all of you, he sent. I hope we will all be great friends.

Goldie was fidgeting excitedly as Adon transmitted his thoughts. The sight of her made Adon feel a bit better. She was clearly incredibly happy to be around her children and her friend, and some of her joy rubbed off.

I’m interested in testing out some of the new abilities I got in the Evolution, Adon sent to her and Samson. He raised a limb, and with a thought, he turned the end of it into a scalpel-like appendage.

The spiders stared, both suddenly motionless.

What kind of power is that? Goldie asked. That looks very sharp. Her limbs moved instinctively to keep her hatchlings close to her so that they would have no chance of cutting themselves, though Adon was over a foot away and in control of his ability.

But it was hard for him to take it personally. He had only just discovered that he could do this. More testing was needed before it would feel truly safe.

Is it magic? Samson asked.

I really don’t know, Adon replied. He opened up his Status to check if it would offer any clues.

User: Adon, Mystic Crystal Butterfly

Age: 1 month

Sex: Male

Status

Health: 200/200

Mana: 9000/9000

Strength: 250

Agility: 2000

Perception: 500

Dexterity: 1000

Constitution: 500

Intelligence: 3000

Will: 6000

Charisma: 1000

Skills: Identify, Impeccable Memory, Mana Manipulation V, Past Life Connection, Shed Skin IV, Spine Shot V, Spiritual Sight

Evolution Points: 108

Biomass: 45/50

Well, my Status confirms that whatever this is, it’s an Adaptation rather than a Skill, Adon sent. Adaptations don’t show up on the Status screen, and Skills do.

The Status screen got a lot less informative now that I’ve evolved and don’t know what all my own body’s attributes are, he thought to himself a little uneasily. That means I might have a bunch of intrinsic abilities I have no idea about, because they’re body modifications instead of techniques.

He looked back up toward the top of the Status screen.

The only thing really worthy of note on here is how much my Stats changed. Most of them ballooned up nicely. My Mana’s up to 9000! That’s more than ten times what it was pre-Evolution. My Agility and Dexterity are pretty crazy too. But I actually lost a lot of Health. My Biomass is super-low too. It’s around what it was a few days after I was born. I guess butterflies don’t eat as much as caterpillars…

Adon was surprised to realize, as he thought about the changes to his body, that he did not feel particularly hungry. Normally, taking on a bunch of new Adaptations—usually changes less dramatic than growing a new pair of wings—would leave him famished. Pre-Evolution Adon would have definitely eaten his chrysalis already, just as he had eaten his eggshell.

Right now, though, he only felt the desire to fly.

Since I can’t fly yet…

He began to visualize how he might use the vastly expanded pool of Mana to compensate to some degree for his lack of Health and the fact that his Strength remained as low as it had been pre-Evolution.

I could spam Mana balls, I guess.

As he considered that idea, Adon realized the Mana was already flowing through him, toward his head, where he normally charged that particular attack. He ordered his body to stop that, and the Mana settled back into his core without any further thought.

It was very interesting to him that this happened when he simply thought about firing Mana balls, though. Pre-Evolution, he had needed to focus to use magic. It seemed as if some barrier to the application of his powers had fallen.

I think my Mana was moving faster, too. Considering the name of my new species, this body must be a lot more adapted to using magic.

It had been the same way when he wanted to cut through the chrysalis. The end of his limb had just transformed into a blade with hardly a thought from him.

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That gave Adon a big idea.

He allowed himself to think of the idea for a few seconds, holding it in his head as clearly as he had the idea of shooting Mana balls.

After a moment, his body began to respond.

Adon’s wings, which were still slightly damp, changed shape. They grew noticeably in square footage. Just as suddenly, they stopped.

Adon found himself confused.

He had visualized the wings expanding out until they were basically wallpaper, the size of the wall space between his body and the ceiling.

Instead, they expanded only a few inches in every direction.

Adon, what are you doing? Goldie sent. Experimenting?

Yes, he replied.

What were you trying to achieve? Samson asked, his eyes clearly fixated on the enlarged butterfly wings overhead.

I wanted to make them bigger, Adon sent sheepishly.

Butterfly wings are extremely thin, Samson thought. I would be careful not to overdo it.

Samson sounded much more like the little brother Adon remembered than at any moment before this one. Adon’s knee jerk reaction was to want to prove Samson wrong—to show that he was capable of growing his wings to a much larger size than this, safely.

Worst case scenario, I can use healing magic to fix them, he thought.

And he still remembered the initial purpose he’d had for expanding them.

If they were bigger, they would dry faster due to the increased surface area. With luck, Adon would be able to fly in minutes, rather than hours.

He pushed a bit more mental energy into expanding his wings, and after a moment, he felt it beginning to work.

How are you doing this? Samson’s voice cut into Adon’s mind.

But Adon was not certain himself.

He watched as his wings expanded from the size of a very large sheet of paper, until they almost touched the ceiling.

He wiggled them slightly, and he felt and watched them move far more convulsively than he intended, fluttering wildly with just a hint of motion.

He felt two other things as well: the wings were much drier than they had been—and he was growing a little weaker with every moment that he kept them that size!

Adon opened his Status again to try to figure out what was going wrong.

The answer jumped out at him immediately.

Mana: 8500/9000.

Mana: 8300/9000.

Mana: 8100/9000.

Crap!

But he kept a cool head. This was one of his Adaptations. He needed to understand how it worked. Adon kept his wings at their vastly inflated size for a few more seconds, both to show his brother and his friend what he could do and to measure his own capabilities.

As he watched, the rate of Mana depletion slowed without stopping.

That’s not bad… I could work with that. If I needed to, I could expand the size of my wings for a little while. And that’s without increasing my Mana reserves or practicing using this Adaptation.

The rate of Mana loss was something he could handle for a few minutes, as it had stabilized at a lower level of depletion per second than it had demonstrated while he was staring at his Status.

Maybe 50 per second once I had been doing it for fifteen seconds or so?

The initial loss of Mana was a killer, but perhaps changes he made to his body acquired some ontological inertia the longer he maintained them. If that was the case, it might be possible for him to make changes to his physical shape permanent if they were not too radical.

Wings the size of a house, too much. Turning my proboscis back into mandibles… I think that might be possible.

Adon, you have to explain what just happened! Samson thought.

That was crazy, Goldie sent. You can change your size?!

I had to use Mana, Adon sent. That lets me change my shape a little more than I can do without that.

It seems like a lot more, Samson thought. If I had any doubts, that settled it. I’m going to buy the Mana Manipulation Skill right now.

Make sure you get Mana Perception, too, Adon sent, resisting the slight reluctance he felt.

He is my brother, he reminded himself. I should be helping him get used to this world. Not resenting him for existing and having hopes and dreams of his own.

Thanks, Adon! Samson thought. I will also buy Telepathy. Mom made sure we ate lots of good stuff before we came up here, and I’m in the mood to splurge!

Great idea, Adon sent back. This way, you won’t need your mama or me to facilitate conversations anymore.

The thought of Samson talking to the King and Princess sent another stab of jealousy through Adon, but he pushed it down.

The Royal Family aren’t mine, for the Goddess’s sake! he told himself. Just because I met them first… I have to get a grip on myself.

His whole body shuddered as he fought the unpleasant emotions.

But the tremor that went through him also reached his wings. He felt them as if they were limbs waking up for the first—which, in a way, they were—and he knew instinctively. It might be clumsy, he might need to practice to get used to them, he might crash into things—but they were ready to fly.

My wings are ready! Adon sent excitedly, all traces of envy banished for the moment.

How could he possibly be jealous of a landbound spider, when he was about to take flight?

Go Adon! sent Goldie in a tone of exultation. Show us what you’ve got!

Very cool, bro, Samson added.

Adon felt that his brother was not as impressed as Goldie—he had seen plenty of insects fly in the past, and it was not as impressive to him as a former human who had a much greater recall of his past life than his mother did—but Adon did not care.

He felt the urge to fly as the culmination of everything that he had done in this life. The greatest possible expression of the freedom he liked to think he had gained from his past self. The liberation that, in the darkest parts of his heart, he knew he was actually still working to achieve.

Adon shrank his wings effortlessly back to their normal size—it was as easy as simply cutting off the energy he’d poured into the transformation.

Then he funneled all of his emotions into muscle power, he flapped hard, and his body lifted off of his plant. He felt the air more sensitively than ever before, began to fall, and flapped his wings a second time.

His body rose to a level just above the chrysalis, began to fall, and he flapped again.

And he entered into a rhythm.

His flapping grew more consistent, more elegant and graceful, more controlled and precise, with each passing second. Even though his Strength had not increased since his Evolution, Adon felt immeasurably powerful, almost invincible, as he flitted around, defying the law of gravity.

I am the air, he thought. I am the sky.

As he relaxed and let his body do most of the work of guiding his flight, he imagined he could taste the clouds outside. Feel the touch of salty sea air against the membranes of his body.

But mainly just being the air. It was hard for Adon to describe the transcendent feeling of flight any other way.

He could imagine how it could be better, if he had more of a breeze to flutter on, but the sensation of being airborne was so beautiful in this first flight that he could not possibly have found something to complain about at that moment.

Adon! Goldie’s voice called out to him, breaking the feeling of immersion.

Bro, where are you? Did you fall? Samson thought.

Are you all right?! Goldie seemed almost panicked.

Adon forced himself back to the present moment to address their concerns.

What exactly is wrong? he sent, more curious than annoyed at the interruption.

Where did you go? Samson thought back.

Go? Adon replied. I didn’t go anywhere.

But as he turned his head to look around, he understood what Samson was talking about.