“I’ll do it,” Isa said firmly.

“As you see fit. Come closer, and I shall transport you to the highest concentration of energy in the tower – you may work on improving your core and heart there.”

Rai and Isa approached the boulder. The air seemed to distort as they got close, and then with a sudden yanking sensation they were teleported elsewhere.

Rai looked around at what had clearly once been some sort of laboratory. There were large containers with lines made of runes connecting them to other containers; there were pieces of the star; there were various measuring tools; there were stone benches and tables… and there was a Record Tetra. Turning on Mage Sight, he immediately flinched as he was nearly blinded by the thick concentration of mana, the magical energy swirling around like water in the air without a clear purpose. Upon turning on her own Mage Sight, Isa let out a whistle.

“I guess the divine snake spirit wasn’t kidding about this being a good place for meditating,” she said. “We should start with the qi medicines and then switch to mana circle. No sense in you not taking advantage of it, too.”

“Good point.”

Rai swallowed one of the six qi medicine balls they were given and immediately started meditating, guiding the rush of energy to build upon his qi core. The process of using all the energy took several hours. When he finished there, he turned his attention to continuing construction on his next mana circle. Progress was lightning fast, a combination of the very effective technique he had learned and the extremely high concentration of mana. As he worked, though, he noticed that there was another energy besides mana that was building up inside him. At first, this worried him, but it didn’t seem to be having any ill effects, so he began shoving it aside into its own little space and otherwise ignored it.

Near the end of the day, Isa and Rai ate from the cornucopia (which they had brought with them) and then exercised, mostly by sparring with one another, before going to sleep. When they woke up, they repeated the process, each taking another qi medicine, which was less effective than the first when they used the energy, then changing over to mana meditation. Rai noticed that his internal concentration of the mysterious energy had risen while he had slept, so he shoved it over with the rest before starting in on his mana circle.

On the third day, they used the last of the qi medicines, which continued to have diminishing returns. By the end of the third day they had both made great progress toward completing their qi core upgrades and fourth mana circles. On the fourth and fifth days, they still worked on both, despite not having qi medicine, and by the end of the fifth day they were getting very close. Halfway through the sixth day, Isa stopped.

“I’ve hit a wall. I’m very close to finishing, but I just… can’t. I’m truly at the peak of the third realm, at the cap for kobolds. To advance to fourth realm, I need to evolve. We only have three and a half more days anyway, so… it’s time.”

Rai nodded. “I’m very close as well. I’m not certain I’ll finish both by the time you’re done, but I know I’ll be done by the time we get back to the Isle of Heaven’s Reach.”

Isa sat on the floor and closed her eyes.

To become a saurian, I must change myself, she thought. And to change myself, I must understand myself. I am a kobold, but more importantly, I am Isa Bloodscale: warrior, explorer, mage. I am not limited by my form; I will change. Taller. Stronger. Tougher. Harder scales. Bigger, sharper claws and teeth. Better athleticism. A fourth-tier core. A fourth mana circle. And… this mysterious energy that has been building inside me. I’ll use it. I’ll use it to reinforce my body – mostly to maintain my dexterity and agility, since that would probably otherwise decrease with an increase in my size – as well as infusing it into my mana heart and my qi core. I’m not sure exactly what that’ll do, but… it should affect my magic and my arts.

She took in a deep breath. And to do all of this, I need to be… recreated. Hatched again. Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly requires a chrysalis, I will create an egg. And within that egg, I will develop, grow, and change. She exhaled slowly. Construct the egg… surround myself with energies… and then…

Rai watched Isa in silence as the mana around her swirled. Ever so slowly, they began to form the shell – and strange albumen – of a large egg. As the egg continued to form, Isa floated in the albumen, rising toward the center height of the egg. Eventually, the egg completed, standing at about five and a half feet tall. When he deactivated Mage Sight, the egg was still there. He was tempted to touch it to see how solid it was, but he didn’t want to risk anything going wrong, so he resisted the impulse.

Before continuing his meditations, he decided to see if he could activate the Record Tetra. Fortunately, it wasn’t locked, so using Discern Flow he was able to figure out how to get it to work. It didn’t question him about how he obtained it, but it did have an artificial intelligence to assist, albeit one without an avatar.

He watched audio-visual recordings. Some of them were about the research on the fallen star; some were about the deterioration of what was left of the city and its people. All were in the same ancient language used by those of Dragonia.

“The Black Sun Starfall. That’s what people were calling it, before a star crashed into our city, taking out part of our Magic Tower and a good chunk of the governmental district,” an image of a wolf beastfolk woman said. “We immediately lost contact with the rest of the world. Not only did communication devices cease functioning, but even teleportation went awry. We think that the unknown energies emitted by the star – the same energies that mutated plant and animal life – are responsible. That’s part of why we’re studying the star; hopefully we can figure out a way to fix things enough to evacuate. We’re not a peninsula any longer, so evacuation over land is impossible.”

In another recording, a bear beastfolk man said, “Matsuen went insane today, without warning. One moment he was using analysis spells on the star; the next he was throwing fireballs at people. We managed to kill him; subduing him was impossible.” The next recording: “Fuck! I’m done. We thought that people with higher willpower, aka the higher level mages, would be more capable of resisting whatever made Matsuen and Ricardo go mad. Turns out it’s the opposite. The archmage lost it. As in, our ruler. Ninth circle spellcaster. He massacred us; only three of us managed to escape. He’s still rampaging around the city This city is done for…”

In the last recording that Rai watched, a goat beastfolk said, “I’ve managed to redirect most of the loose energy within the tower to this room. In so doing, I noticed something odd. While the mysterious energy of the star is quite obviously toxic normally, if I use mana to filter it, it becomes harmless. If only we’d learned this sooner, maybe our city and surrounding towns could have been saved. Heh. Who am I kidding? This is just what’s in the tower. There’s no way to corral the energy all over our peninsula – sorry, archipelago. I wonder, though – since the energy is harmless now, what would happen if I tried to cultivate it like mana or qi? It’s obviously quite potent. Hm… I could try to reinforce my body, my qi core, and my mana heart. But, eh, I think I’ll pass on that. Not much point.”

Rai, however, thought there was a lot of point to trying to harness the mysterious star energy. It was building up within him whenever he worked on his qi core or mana heart. Might as well see if I can harness it, he thought. And so for the remaining days, he used the mysterious energy to reinforce his body, his qi core, and his mana heart – just like the goat beastfolk man had suggested. He hadn’t quite finished using the energy within himself, nor had he risen to the next tier or completed his next mana circle, when, at the end of the ninth day in the Tower, his meditative trance was broken when a loud crack resounded through the room.

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He opened his eyes. A large fracture ran from top to bottom of the glowing red-and-black egg encasing Isa. As he watched, cracks spread out from it, until suddenly the egg fractured in countless pieces of shrapnel that exploded outward, some of which struck him. Floating in the air where the egg had been was a gradually uncurling reptilian person that he knew had to be Isa, but which was clearly no longer a kobold.

Isa finished uncurling and touched down on the floor. She opened her eyes, which were no longer yellow but molten gold, and looked around for a moment, disoriented. Upon seeing Rai, who stood up and picked a few egg shards out of his skin, her eyes widened.

“You’re so small!” she exclaimed.

“Ouch! No, I’m not small, Isa. You’ve grown a lot bigger. You’re twice as tall as you were. I would say with proportions to match, but that would be a lie. You’re much more visibly muscular than you were as a kobold, and your body actually looks sturdier. Your scales… I can tell by looking that they’re much tougher. And your claws…”

She held up a hand. “Dragonfire!” she swore. “These are a lot bigger and sharper. I’ll have to be careful until I figure out how to avoid accidentally cutting things.” She twisted this way and that, taking a good look at her new body. “I look strong,” she said appreciatively. “I feel strong. Like I could take on anything! I bet I could take down one of those Terror Spiders with a single blow without even using arts other than my passives, Bloody Blade and Heavy Blade.” She flexed. “I feel like I could take some really powerful hits now, too. Hah! This is great!”

“Not to mention, your remaining lifespan just tripled,” Rai pointed out. “Saurians live for about as long as humans. You taken your first step on the path to becoming immortal.”

“Hell yeah I have!”

Isa looked at the iron ring on her finger. “Huh. The ring grew with me.”

“Well, magic rings resize to their wearer, so that’s not surprising.”

She activated the ring, and her (appropriately-sized) cloak appeared on her body… and her halberd appeared in one hand. She frowned at it. “I think I’ve outgrown my first Silver Halberd. I need to find something to make a haft for my larger Silver Halberd blade.”

“Maybe whatever wood the head shamans used for their staffs?” Rai suggested. “It looked pretty interesting, what with it being purple-black.”

“Worth checking out. Isa walked over to Rai and patted him on the head. “I can’t get over how small you look to me now. We’re the same height!”

“Are you fourth tier and fourth circle now, too?”

“I am! Didn’t you tell me that fourth realm was considered a Master in human-elf-dwarf-gnome-beastfolk society?”

“That’s right. Honestly, it’s almost frightening how quickly we’ve advanced. Our mana circles can be attributed to the ancient method and this high-concentration area, but even with the qi medicines, I don’t understand how our qi cores have gone up so fast. If it were as simple as taking qi medicines, highly-tier qi cores would be a lot more common.”

“Well, you have to keep in mind that we’ve been lucky to find people with ancient qi medicine processing artifacts that have produce qi medicines with no side effects, but even accounting for that… yeah, it does seem a little strange. Huh. Maybe we’re just better at it than other people?”

“Maybe.”

“So, uh, how much time do we have left?”

“Another twelve hours, give or take, by my estimation. We should head back down… but I’m not sure how to do that. This place is sealed off, and I don’t see any teleportation gates or anything.”

“Maybe just try asking the divine snake spirit?” Isa suggested. “O Great Snake, we’re finished here!”

Several seconds passed.

Rai shrugged. “Well, I guess that didn’t wo—”

With a lurch, they suddenly found themselves standing in front of the snake and fallen star.

“—oh. I guess it did.”

“I see that your evolution was successful,” the snake said. “You were quite fortunate; chances of success were rather low. Rest now, and I will inform you when the Emperor of Orochi arrives again.”

“Sounds good to me,” Rai said, pulling out his blankets from his pouch. Isa stretched out next to him, and he passed her her blankets, which were now too small to make a nest out of, as she had been. Instead, she just put it under her body, mostly her head. Both closed their eyes, and soon enough they fell into dreamless sleep.

-x-

“He is here.”

Rai and Isa both sat up quickly, startled out of deep slumber by the snake’s mental voice.

“Hells that scared the life out of me!” Rai exclaimed.

“By the fires of dragons! I thought we were under attack!”

“Apologies. You startle more easily than I expected,” the snake said, not sounding the least bit apologetic.

They stood up and put their blankets away. Rai nodded to the snake.

“You have our gratitude for your information and assistance.”

“I have no cause not to assist. You engaged the culture of the Orochi without prejudice, participating in and winning their tournament to earn the right to be here.” The snake flicked out its tongue. “Had you attempted to force your way here by attacking the Orochi, that would have been a different matter.”

“We’re not monsters,” Isa said.

“I can see that,” the snake said in amusement. “Now, go to meet the Emperor, or he will assume you have perished.”

Isa nodded, and the two exited the tower, leaving the divine snake spirit to the company of the lesser spirits. It flicked its tongue out again.

“Strange. They integrated the power of the star far more smoothly than any other life form I have experimented with – or that has experimented on their own. Not only did the lizard evolve successfully, but she is a more perfect specimen than the average of her new kind. And both of them have bodies now permanently suffused with the star’s energy. How exactly it will manifest, I do not know, but they are now more than their respective kinds. Truly strange. I look forward to seeing what they will do next.”

As the snake spoke to itself, two wisps disappeared, the spirits vanishing from the material realm.

Outside, Isa and Rai reconvened with the Emperor. When they spoke, Rai translated.

“You have evolved!” the Emperor said enthusiastically. “Congratulations! I can nearly see your brimming vitality. We shall return to the city; this I decree!”

“O Great Emperor of Orochi,” Isa said, “I need a haft for a new weapon, now that I am bigger. It needs be strong and suitable for a magical blade. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Hm… the Tree of Whispers. It is off-limits to those other than shamans and myself, but I can send a shaman to bring you a branch. You recall the staves of the head shamans? They are made from branches of the Tree of Whispers. The wood of the tree is sturdier than any other, yet very light.”

“That sounds perfect. Thanks.”

“In return, you will spar with me once you have completed your new weapon. I will not use my venom. I will see how much stronger you have become.”

“Sure thing! I’m itching to test myself, too.”

The three of them returned to the city, where Rai and Isa were reunited with the rest of the group, who were still enthusiastically studying magical artifacts. Rai was still a little disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to take anything with them, but having the chance to study was still good… and he had swiped the Record Tetra from the Tower, so they wouldn’t be returning empty-handed.

Besides, he thought, we’ve made mostly-friendly contact with an entirely undiscovered race of people. It’s possible that that alone could prove valuable in the future. And both Isa and I have gotten a lot out of this, not only in terms of our development, but also knowledge: I know that resurrection magic is possible, and Isa now knows how to cause evolution.

By the next day, Isa had her branch from the Tree of Whispers, which she carefully cut and carved to make the haft of her larger Silver Halberd. Once she affixed the blade to the purple-black haft, they magically fused together. She sparred a few times with the Emperor, reveling in her newfound strength.

Meanwhile, Rai joined in on the artifact studies – and worked as a translator to assist the non-magical scholars who wanted to learn more about the Orochi’s culture. The days passed quickly, and soon enough the end of their six weeks on the island was approaching. Bidding farewell to their hosts, the team once again set out across the island. Thanks to both Yua and Isa, who were excellent at wilderness travel, they found their ship only a few days later than intended, still unmolested.

And so they began the journey back to the Isle of Heaven’s Reach, riding across the open ocean. Rai spent the majority of his time in meditation, breaking through to fourth tier and completing his fourth mana circle when they were only two days away from their destination. It was then that he remembered to check in with the Chancellor – and, by extension, the scholars of the Evergrass School and Lord Henrik.

He activated the pendant.