DriftingLeaf

Hello everyone, how are you doing? Well, I hope. 

Here's today's chapter. I hope you will enjoy it.

Thank you for reading. Y'all the best.

Have a good day

‘Alright, let’s get to business,’ Leo said as he rubbed his belly, a satisfied smile on his face. Now that he ate his fill, it was time to start thinking about how to deal with all the evolution stuff as soon as possible.

Unlike his first evolution, the evolution conditions this time around were a lot more complicated, and whether he could fulfill the conditions of a path was going to greatly influence the choice he was going to make.

‘It would be great if I could fill the conditions of all the paths. Alas, I don’t even fill the most basic attributes conditions for any of the possible evolution,’ Leo muttered as he checked his status windows.

‘Though it isn’t that bad as most of the attributes are close to the value required. It should be alright once I have dealt with the orcs,’ Leo said, finding one more reason to kill those bastards. Since their shaman and chef were rank C, he should be able to obtain a pretty decent number of attributes by killing them. 

‘With that, my attributes would reach the required threshold for all if not most of the evolution paths. If one of them didn’t, I can rely on the potions,’ he said.

‘Now that I have taken care of the attributes part, it is the turn of the skill condition,’ he muttered as all the evolution paths required him to have reached level max in his basic elemental manipulation. This one could be the simplest and the most troublesome condition.

The simplest because he could simply spend skill points to level up the basic elemental manipulation. The most troublesome because he only has sand and wind manipulation. Unless he could find a way to put his hand on the other elemental manipulations, he would have to choose between the griffin and the sand demon path, whether he wanted it or not.

‘Hum, first, let’s check if I can find them in the store,’ he muttered and without wasting too much time, he opened the skills section of the system shop.

‘It seems that I am unlucky this time around,’ he thought as after scrolling through the shop, though he found plenty of new and interesting skills, he could only find one elemental manipulation skill. It was basic earth manipulation. Also, it was worth a whole 25 SP. Even with the quick learner bug, it was still expansive. Not even talking about buying it, the 34 SP he has would never be enough to bring it to level max.

‘Luxia, why is the basic earth manipulation available while the others aren’t?’ Leo asked curiously.

[I already told you that the contents of the shop aren’t fixed, they will change every week,] Luxia reminded him.

‘Ah, sorry, I forgot. I can only try to rely on myself this time,’ he muttered as he understood that unless he want to wait a week and once again try his luck with the shop, he would have to try acquiring the elemental manipulation by himself if he were to settle on a path other than the griffin and sand demon ones.

‘Then that would leave me with the kill missions, the resources collections, and the bloodline trial,’

‘The kill mission shouldn’t be a problem, since the level of my targets isn’t required to be at a certain level, I can complete it any time,’ he said. With the big forest surrounding him, the lack of prey wasn’t a problem he was going to care about anytime soon. Besides, there was the dungeon crystal from the system and the orcs waiting to be slaughtered. Anyway, it wasn’t things to kill he was going to lack.

‘Luxia, is everything I am going to kill from now on going to be accounted for in this condition or do I need to select one evolution path first,’ Leo asked as he was probably going to get rid of the orcs before finally choosing an evolution path. It would be a waste if he couldn’t get as much benefit as he could out of this mission.

[No, you don’t need to. Since the evolution tab is activated, everything you would do will be considered,] Luxia answered.

‘Oh, that is great,’ Leo said, happy that his assumption was right.

[Also, sorry to disappoint you but only prey with the same rank as you will be counted,] Luxia said, ruthlessly pouring cold water on Leo’s enthusiasm.

‘Damn, look like I can’t have it all,’ Leo complained.

[Don’t worry, you can do it,] Luxia cheered.

‘I guess. Next would be the resource collection part. Other than the cores, I have no idea where to find the remaining things,’ Leo muttered as he didn’t have the slightest idea of how he could collect the additional materials he needed. He didn’t even know what most of them were. Whether it was the gold essence, the wind gems, or the demonic crystals. Here the easiest thing he could get was the poisonous creature's blood.

‘Luxia, is there no way that I can get those things through the system,’ Leo asked helplessly.

[Yes, the dungeon crystal,] she said.

‘Eh, I can get them inside those,’ he asked curiously.

[Well, they are there for a reason, right? Once you complete a dungeon you will obtain various rewards depending on the nature of the dungeon you completed. Even though there are no materials in the system’s shop, you can obtain materials that way,]

 ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he asked, a little bit annoyed at only learning all this now.

[You never asked me,] she retorted clearly unwilling to let Leo blame her. After all, he would have learned about this if he had shown any interest in the dungeon crystal. Unfortunately, he focused on other things and forgot to enjoy the pie that was right in front of him.

‘Alright, I will ask next time,’ Leo said as he once again opened the shop to check the available dungeon crystals.

‘I am lucky with this,’ he smiled as he found as many as six dungeon crystals in the system’s shop. Two were of rank D and Four of rank C.

‘First, I will use the crystal I have then I will see if I can find the things I lack through another channel first. If not, I will try with the dungeon then,’ Leo thought as he decided to look around first before using the system’s help. After all, the crystals were far from being cheap and he was anything but rich.

'Finally, the bloodline trial. Luxia, could you enlighten this foolish cat on this subject, please.'

[It is the test the bloodline will give you to check if you are worthy of receiving it. You don't have to worry about it now. You will only have to deal with it once you fulfill all the other conditions and start the evolution process, ] she explained.

'What if I fail the trial? What are the consequences?' He asked warily.

[You will have to choose another evolutionary path and start from zero.]

'So, if I am careless, I may fill all the conditions but need to start from zero if I fail the trial. No second chance. Sigh, why do I feel like my first evolution was a freebie?' He asked, understanding that things were even more troublesome than he expected.

[It was a freebie, ] Luxia said with a chuckle.

'Damn, you didn't have to answer that.'

[So, have you made your choice?] 

'Yeah, let's say the griffin first, it is the one I satisfied the most conditions for,' he said.

'I will confirm my choice after dealing with the orcs,' he added as he wasn't sure if the system reward would bring him any nice surprise.

'Alright, let's go.'