Shuu's POV.
The day flashed by in a breeze, Kashima actually talked to me, which made me extrmely happy. thought I got a scolding for knocking out in class but hey, who doesn't pull gaming marathons for their favorite game.
Looking into the afternoon sky, my bike in hand as I walked out of the southern exit. I noticed a petite figure in front of me and I a grin flashed onto my face.
"Ooh Kashima-san want to walk home together?" I asked her.
Kashima doesn't even give me a look and continues walking.
"I bet you really want to walk with me" I teased her, Kashima gave me a side glance and forcibly put a smile on her face.
"We live in complete different directions, walking with me is a burden to both of us, now LEAVE" she strained the last part really well.
I gave a hearty laugh and bowed forward.
"A gentleman such as myself will not allow a young lady such as you to walk alone, as it is my duty to walk you home and protect you from any and all harm" I gave a dramatic speech only to find the girl I was quotum quote "protecting" had suddenly disappeared from my sight.
"Geez, at least let me worry" I saddening feeling appeared in my heart and I turned my bike around and started to ride it toward my house in the Northern District.
I observed the night sky as I rode, walking with Kashima and making my way back took almost the entire afternoon, as the sun was peeking over the horizon, shedding the last rays of light for the day and the stars, faintly glowing in the sky yet not bright enough to notice if you truly weren't searching for them.
"Brother oh brother I am home, Dinner ready?" I announced walking into the house.
"Shut up and start making dinner, its your night remember" Jun exclaimed impatiently.
"Oh dear, why must I make dinner, I know I came late but it was because of a girl don't get angry at me for understanding the knowledge you lack" I proclaim.
Spluttering, Jun gave me a look which I thought meant "You're crazy, shut up". He proceed to get up and grab me by the scruff of my neck, "Get in the kitchen now, and make dinner, do you want me to confiscate your things" Jun asked menacingly.
"No no, I'll make some simple steak" I coward.
Placing the pan onto the stove to heat up, I grab a bowl and place meat inside. I added a bit of chives, sweet corn, onions, and mushrooms. I added a few tablespoons of soy sauce and honey. A douse of vinegar, and some diced peppers. I let the meat sit in the concoction after I had mixed it for a good five minutes..
I got out some peas and started to unshell them, After that I poured it into a broth of chicken flavored water and started to work on peeling and cutting carrots. I made them nice and big chunks, and then poured it into the soup I was simmering.
Taking the meat out of the bowl I place them in rows on the pan. I take the rest of the contents and drained it, letting the vegetables left behind go into the soup. (Don't try this at home, I do not guarantee how heavenly/good/mediocre/horrible/death-like this actual concoction is, so please cook at your own risk.)
I occasionally turned the steak over and finally put it onto two plates I take the soup and put some into a bowl, while a spoonful of the soup was poured over the steak.
"Broth-separate like your requested brother" I slowly gave it to him, not just to tease his rumbling stomach but also as payback for threatening me.
"So I finally get to eat huh?, that was an hour I could be using for leveling." Jun growled.
"I'm sorry I just like my food exquisite" I said sarcastically
"I thought you said it was simple steak" he retorted
"Let us just eat, I got an Evolution Change Test after this"
Jun spluttered for a second time, getting his steak all over my face.
Stolen story; please report.
"If you hate my food so much, don't let me make dinner again" I smiled.
"Its not that, the food is good, but your saying you get a rank-up as a monster?, I know this is a frontier for gaming but to that extent, this is insane" Jun muttered in disbelief.
"You better believe it, that is why I chose [Beasts of the Wild] because we can grow powerful, not some set mob that wanders the place just to be killed by players, we grow too" I explained passionately.
"Fine go, but after that you wash the dishes and clean up this disastrous mess you call food" Jun said.
"Didn't you say my food was good?"
"You heard me, now get going or else I will prevent you from logging in"
"Goin, I'm going"
I retreated to my bedroom after dealing with the remainder of my dinner. In my opinion it was good. I looked at my headset with the game inside of it.
"Evolution Change test, let us begin. Command: Log on: Zeliowrath: Location: Death Location. " I said into the console.
"Respawning Boss Mob Zeliowrath, in Monster's Den: Higal Ruins. You are eligable for an Evolution Change Test, Warning: this is an hour long test, if you exit during the test, the evolution is invalidated and you will not be eligible to evolve, would you like to take it now?" the computer AI asked.
I said yes and the area around me turned black. I woke up inside a maze.
"This is the Evolution Change Test, this maze is fitted with all the possible evolutions for your species. The next tier of evolution will be based on what you do to obtain it. Evolution Cards are what will advance you. In an hour, you can wander this maze looking for these cards. You must use your current abilities to find them. The abilities you use to obtain these cards will give you a higher evolution of that ability." the computer Ai explained.
"For example, if you use those String Pods of yours, to obtain an Evolution Card, then you will obtain an evolution that will be able to further utilize the string pods like a spider. IF you use your hooves to ascend a mountain quickly, than you can obtain an evolution with hooves, like horses, satyrs, etc. Do you understand this explanation" the Ai asked.
I nodded my head and with a sound the AI announces "Then may you have a good hunting, find the cards your hour starts now" and with a blink she disappears.
I was in the center of the maze, four directions opened up for me. I didn't want to waste my time and quickly gone through one of the passages.
I felt the air around me grow colder. more sinister. I used my long nimble arms to produce string and check out the surrounding area. It was mostly frozen cold, but for a puppet like me, Zone debuffs, didn't usually work on me unless it was fire related.
After some probing I found what I was looking for, In the center of an Iceberg, an Evolution Card was there. the only problem was that the Iceberg was the size of a mountain, and starting from anyway would result me taking a long time to get to it.
My option now is to take the risk and try to get it out, or leave it and find another card to evolve into. Suddenly the string on my other hand reacted to something,
I looked through my sense to find another evolution card, it was in a buffer area where the heat of another area was reacting the the cold air from this frozen wasteland to create a cyclone zone, amiss the tornadoes and 50 miles winds. A card was floating around.
Cyclone Puppet or Iceberg Puppet, which would benefit me more, or is there another card to get somewhere nearby?
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Author here, I hope you are enjoying this story so far. I have decided to make this interesting by majority: that is right, you are voting for Shuu's evolution, Cyclone puppet, or Iceberg puppet, or the mysterious third choice. (If third choice is chosen, then a surprise evolution will happen,, even I don't know what it is yet) Viewer's interactions.