As it turned out, finding the next place of interest wasn’t as easy as she thought it was going to be. She tried the park she and Amelia used to play at, but there was nothing there but a few fox dens. Admittedly there were a lot of foxes, and she made a bunch of conversions, but that wasn’t what Lia was looking for at the moment.

She had tried a couple more of their usual haunts, but only found more fox dens. By the third one, she was beginning to run low on modeling wax; the large chunk she had brought with her in her Dimensional Storage had run out and she was only working with what she had inside her. She had almost certainly hit the number that would be required for evolving into a fox monster, though, so that was fine.

She had given up on places she and Amelia used to hang out in, and had decided to walk to the church of commerce she used to attend instead. She passed by a few more foxes on the way, but there were no major obstacles, so she reached the church of commerce pretty quickly.

And, lo and behold, there was a note out front. Another pretty simple one! It read. You just have to pray at an altar and mean it. Should be easy-peasy.

Lia gave a nod and pushed her way through the flap in the door. The church was as empty as always used to be, meaning she didn’t have any trouble getting to the altar.

Umm…I know this is kind of awkward, since my takeover is going to affect the economy a lot, but…I wanted to give thanks to you for my good fortune. I understand it’s probably not your doing that got me reincarnated like this, but I wanted to thank you regardless. Um…I also wanted to wish that, until I can come and help them, that my family will be able to make enough to survive.

It was a pretty standard prayer, but it seemed to do the trick.

Again, it wasn’t a difficult task; it was something she had done countless times in her previous life, but…it would be something pretty difficult for a normal monster, wouldn’t it? The benefits of the Titles she had received sounded nice, too, but it wasn’t like she was about to equip them; her current Title was just too good defensively to give up. Being able to survive one lethal hit every…however often it activated was something she couldn’t afford to be without.

Now she just had to level up once more and complete any more of these tests that Amelia may have made. It…kind of made her wish she had some way of knowing how many trials she had left.

And then a piece of paper dropped to the ground in front of her. Sorry, I should have mentioned! It said. You only have one more trial, it’s at my house. And don’t worry about the level, you should be getting that prettttty soon. Rose has been busy while you were away ;)

Lia felt stupid for not thinking to check Amelia’s house. It was…wait, where was her house? Lia had never actually been there, there had been some…reason or other and she wasn’t allowed over.

Another note dropped on top of the last one. Riiiight. Um, it’s at number 1 Dream Road, on top of the hill. The gate should be open, just go up to the front door and there’ll be a note like the other trials.

Lia blinked in surprise. Dream Road was…it had always been where the nobility had lived. Did…did that make Amelia a noble? And she’d presumably been one the entire time they knew each other? Well…whatever, she’d just add that to the list of “things to ask Amelia” and not worry about it.

Fortunately, Dream Road was pretty close to the religious district, so the walk was short. She had been down this street once or twice before, but it never failed to impress her; the houses were…well, houses was an understatement. The mansions were huge, ornate things set onto large plots of land, gated so uninvited guests would have a harder time getting in.

She didn’t have to look hard to find Amelia’s house, either; it was set at the very top of the road, and it was the only one with a gate that was open. She walked through the gate with some trepidation, marveling at how opulent the grounds were. It blew her mind that Amelia lived here, she had always assumed that…well, Amelia was on the poorer side of things, like Lia herself.

After a minute or two of walking towards the mansion, she finally reached the door, where there was indeed a note.

Alright, hardest one! It read. All you have to do is talk your way out of the situation. The fake me in there is gonna freak out when she sees you, just use mental magic to try and give the impression that you don’t want to fight. You don’t need to actually use words, just transferring vague feelings is enough. Um…might want to hold off on this if you’re not over half of your maximum Mana, though, it’s gonna require a bit.

Lia tentatively stepped through the door flap, and was greeted by a distinctly un-Amelia-like screech. “Ah, a rat!”

It wasn’t that the voice was different, it sounded exactly like Amelia, but…Amelia was more subdued than that. Lia had never even seen her jump in surprise, let alone yelp or screech. And there was just…more emotion than Amelia usually showed to anyone aside from Lia.

But she didn’t have time to think on that. The fake Amelia had pulled out some sort of broom, and was edging her way towards Lia cautiously. So, Lia reached into her magic and tried to send out a blast of emotion to the fake, trying to convey that she would rather not fight.

The fake paused. “Are you…trying to tell me something?”

Lia nodded furiously and gave another blast of emotions indicating the fake was right.

“Sorry, you’re all…jumbled with those feelings. Do you want something? Just nod or shake your head.”

Lia nodded.

“And what would that be? Food?”

Lia shook her head.

“Shelter? Are you running from something?”

Lia stopped to think about how to answer that, before eventually nodding and then shaking her head.

The fake Amelia rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “So…yes shelter, no running from something? I’m sorry to tell you this, but this really isn’t a good place for you. The maids will kill you on sight, and the rest of my family…well, you don’t want to meet them. Look, I’ll open the door for you and see you out, you’ll want to go try your luck down the hill. You’ll find way more places to hide there.”

Not waiting for a response, the fake walked over and opened the door. “Now shoo before someone spots you.”

Lia nodded, then dashed outside. Once she was out, the fake closed the door, and two windows popped up in front of her.

Which just meant she had to hit level thirty, and she’d be able to evolve. Apparently, Rose was in the middle of something that would get her there, so…best just to go home and wait.

Her level up came about three quarters of the way back to her house, and with it, evolution options. But…she wasn’t in an entirely safe space yet, so she decided to forgo looking at the options and wait until she was in her room.

But, as it turned out, there was a problem, one that became obvious when she turned onto her street. She had converted all those foxes into drones and told them to go and wait at her house when they finished converting, but…she had left the door closed.

And that meant there was a huge group of forty or fifty foxes just…waiting around her house. So, she had to have her replica open the door, wait for all the foxes to get inside, and then she could close the door and head to her room.

It was a bit of a squeeze, but she was able to maneuver through the crowd and into her room. Once she had secured herself on her bed, she ordered the foxes to stand guard in case something attacked, then began to look over her options. There were a few rat queen variants, but those weren’t interesting at all to her.

There were another two options that were just…essentially fox-based versions of what she had been before she had become a rat queen, and those were definitely a step in the right direction, but there was one final option that was definitely the best of the bunch, at least for what she wanted.

That’s definitely what she wanted. It was a step down the totem pole, from a champion race to an elite race, but she was sure that, in the end, it would be far stronger than the rat queen line would be. Besides…it had better stats, and she wasn’t actually losing anything from evolving; she would still have access to the rat queen abilities, thanks to that Special Title she had received.

And…there was the chance this would actually be easier to level and even evolve than her current race. It would…sort of make sense that champion races leveled up slower than elite races, but she hadn’t really been able to check before. Actually…could Analysis tell her?

Not definite, but promising. Either way, it didn’t change her mind, so she began the conversion process, and let herself drift out of consciousness.

A little earlier…

“You’re going to have to try a little harder than that.” Rose taunted, nimbly dodging the spiked club that had just come swinging down towards her. The troll she was fighting bellowed, lifting the club out of the huge gash in the earth it had created.

A spear dripping with poison materialized in her hand as she thrust forward, catching the troll in its side and causing it to bellow yet again. She began to pull the spear out, thorns erupting from the spear shredding the inside of the troll, before the spear’s movement was halted by the troll’s flesh knitting back together.

She let the spear vanish and forcibly grew a flower under her feet at an angle, the momentum from its growth hurling her far back and out of range of the troll’s wild swings. A moment later, a flaming arrow punched through the troll’s arm, the force of it knocking the troll off balance.

The troll stumbled just long enough for Chrys to dart in and loop a set of rope around its leg before speeding away. The rope pulled taut as the various drones and foot soldiers Rose had stationed pulled, their combined strength forcing the troll to trip and fall.

Rose propelled herself back towards the troll with another flower, growing thorns from every limb as she landed on top of the troll, impaling it. As she did, she pumped modeling wax out through each of the thorns and watched as it started to cover the troll.

But the progress was slow, and the troll was huge, easily four times Rose’s own size. It began to thrash about, threatening to break Rose’s hold on it, but Chrys darted back in once again, grasping the troll’s head between her hands and applying her own modeling wax. And, a moment later, Bella was there and providing her own modeling wax.

Between the three of them, they were able to half-cover the troll before it broke free, and its struggles faded to nothing. Rose wiped her brow, nodding at the other two girls as the modeling wax finished covering the troll. “Phenomenal work, ladies.” She said. “Lia’s going to be super proud of us once she gets back.”

“She was supposed to beat that on her own after evolving only twice?!” Chrys panted, taking her hands off of the cocoon. “Are you sure that’s what she said? That would have been like…what, last evolution for her?”

“Positive.” Rose confirmed. “I’m pretty sure this Amelia is bad at judging what should and should not be possible for someone.”

“And we just let her take Queenie, without so much as a fight.” Chrys said flatly. “Are we sure she’s going to be okay?”

Rose sighed. “Probably. But I’ll be honest, there wasn’t much any of us could do about it. Maybe if I was at my prime, I could have put up a good fight, but…I get the sense that Amelia’s stronger than I was.”

“Impossible.” Bella interjected. “You were the strongest ever, yes?”

Rose grimaced. “Supposedly. But…Amelia’s an unknown. She’s managed to do things with magic that I never even got close to doing. Not just anyone can force a reincarnation.”

“Queenie can.” Chrys said. “She reincarnated all of us.”

“Lia’s…different. I’m reasonably sure that the gods helped her in no small way when she reincarnated us. Why…I can’t be sure, but Lia definitely doesn’t have the skill required to do something like that on her own. My point is, Amelia’s definitely a Hero, and a strong one at that. And none of us are Heroes, or even approaching heroic rank. We don’t have what it takes to defy Amelia.”

Rose shrugged. “But that’s a moot point, I feel. Amelia will be letting herself get converted once we finish these dungeons, and at that point it won’t matter much. We can talk her through her decisions at that point, so something like this shouldn’t happen again.”

She stood up straight, dusting herself off. “Now, Chrys, you oversee getting this cocoon back to base, Bella and I are going to mop up any of the remaining goblins.”

“Yes, mom!” Chrys said, scurrying off towards the small contingent of foot soldiers that had been brought along.

“On it.” Bella said. “I will return to the base once I am done.”

“Good. I’ll see you two there.”

Fighterman481

Like last chapter, I don't have much to say until chapter 32. Next time we're going to see the results of this evolution, so...look forward to it, I guess?

And, as always, thanks for reading!