[Your second Evolution will cost you seven Evolution Points for an optimal Evolution, Host.] Hana's ever helpful voice replied Mian.

'Hmm, that's quite good. I'll be left with seven Evolution Points after my Evolution.' He thought to himself. But that was not all he had noted from Hana's reply.

'An optimal Evolution? What does that mean, Hana?' He curiously asked. It would be best to know all the ups and downs about his latest Evolution before going through with it. That way, he could know it anything would be detrimental to himself.

[Let me be clear.] She began, [An Evolution can happen in two different ways. Firstly, there is the choice of undergoing an optimal Evolution. During this Evolution, every parameter of your physical body, as well as your internal energy reserves will be raised and elevated. This is the Evolution that will benefit the Host in every way possible with no set backs or side effects...]

'And?' Mian urged Hana to carry on after she paused.

[...There is also the sub-optimal Evolution. This Evolution does not elevate all the parameters of your body, but instead forcibly raises one of your stats to a very high degree for a short period of time. This change is not permanent, only lasting for a few seconds to a few minutes. Of course, there are other disadvantages to this. The backlash caused from forcibly raising your stats could range from losing your consciousness, all the way up to permanent damage to your physical body.]

Hana dutifully went over all the things that Mian needed to know about the two types of Evolution he had access to. Mian listened carefully as the seconds and minutes ticked by, slowly absorbing all the new knowledge he was just getting to hear about.

'I see... Very well, then. There isn't much suspense to what I'll choose, I guess. Let's go for the optimal Evolution, Hana. Evolve me.'

[This Evolution will cost 7 Evolution Points, and will render you unconscious. Do you wish to proceed?] Just like the last time, the system asked for his confirmation.

'Yes.'

As soon as Mian gave his confirmation, his vision swam, before turning dark.

...

Dion kept his eyes open, watching Mian from his spot on his cot. His face was half hidden by his knees that he had pulled up against his chest, as he sat in silence.

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He felt a bead of sour emotions plant itself in his heart. He had been treating Mian very wrongly for the past week, and he felt bad about it. He forgot Mian was not one of those other dominants that he used to compete with back in the pack. When he had seen Mian land all those killing blows to their beastly opponents throughout the past matches, he had felt a flame of competition get lit up in his heart. That caused him to treat Mian like an opponent, and rival, instead of just a fragile friend.

"I'm such an asshole and bad friend." He sighed before laying down in his cot. There was literally nothing else to do aside from sleeping and resting, after their match for the day was over. Some demi-humans were let out to somewhere that wasn't a match, but Dion had no idea. The only other place that they could go to was the toilet, and he highly doubted that they would spend hours there like they did. Instead, he believed that there might have been some sort of recreational area around here somewhere.

Dion sat down there for the next two hours, thinking over his plans. He had not told Mian yet, but he planned on making his escape tonight. To him, it was the best time to conduct a perfect escape.

Over the past few days, he had noticed that the number of guards patrolling had gone down drastically. At first, he had thought it was just part of his imagination, but after monitoring the number of guards for a couple of days, he had finally determined that the number of guards around had truly gone down by several notches. The guards who remained were roughly thirty percent of the numbers that were once posted here!

"The perfect time to strike will be at sunset. The security will be lax around then. It will be the perfect window to escape."

After running over the primary escape plan, he finally laid down on his cot to rest his tired body. The fight today had been drawn out and very taxing on him. If they managed to pull off this escape and return to the pack, then the first thing he would do is to ask for a week off from pack duties.

A few minutes later, Dion drifted off into a light sleep. His ears constantly twitched as he slept. Any slight sound by their cell would wake him up from his light slumber. That made it easy for him to react if someone tried to sneak up on them, not like anyone could in this place. The humans didn't even bother with trying to be discreet when approaching cells.

The skin between Dion's eyes wrinkled ever so slightly as the thought of the vile humans that captured them passed through his mind. He was sure that they were also related to the running of this torture house.

He couldn't understand how the humans gained satisfaction from seeing other sentient beings that were like them fighting it out to the death. Even in demi-human packs, one rarely saw a battle to the death. Most times, it was just a simple spar, or the winner would back off from the fight without dealing fatal damage to their opponent.

This was one of the reasons he disliked humans. They were not much different from advanced savages who took part in savage acts to sate their inner desires, and what he was witnessing only fueled that opinion of them in his eyes.

'They are the enemy we know.'

Dion whispered that line that had been told to him by the Patriarch when he was still in his teens just before his mind was claimed by sleep.