"Ughh..."

I looked down. My chest was torn open by the gunshots. Although no blood was spilt, excruciating sharp pain surged up into my head.

"Mother!"

"I'll keep you safe, Smoothie," I gasped as I grabbed around her waist and dashed into back into the forest. Then, I used [synthesis] to recover myself while forming protective shields behind us as we fled. Thankfully, the snipers had not taken another shot at us.

I had no time to concern myself for Haelley's safety. The contract between us was that she protected me while I taught her the common language. Even if I didn't directly teach her, listening to Smoothie and I chat should be helpful for her learning.

Haelley, I'm sorry, come find us.

Boom!

An explosion shook behind us. As if it was just a warning shot, tens more explosions echoed behind us dampened by the forest. There were also lights periodically flashing in the sky.

I flew as quickly as I could, I didn't dare glance behind me. I just wanted to get to safety as soon as possible.

"I'm so sorry Haelley. I should have checked more carefully," I murmured.

"Mother, Haelley will be fine. And, you can let me go now. I can fly with you."

"Oh oops. But, where should we go?"

"We should continue north as fast as we can."

We flew north while keeping our heads low. Only after flying six hours straight did we stop for some rest.

"We should be safe here."

The trees in this region had not yet been ravaged by the passing insect swarms. The thriving lush forest made great covers for us.

"Do you think Haelley will catch up soon?"

"Yes, she has [tracker]."

"I'm very sorry I didn't check thoroughly. To think there were even had canons set up..." I sighed. 

If those canons had hit any of us directly, I feared the worst. I honestly didn't believe all mortals were evil and ruthless. That just simply couldn't be true. Honestly, I had never been more glad I was a plant fey being. I could survive almost any type of injury with little consequences.

"Mother, it's not anyone's fault. If anything, you should blame those insects!"

"Yeah! Those worms. They should learn to bow down to me!" I joked.

The two of us had a good chuckle before we returned to a more serious topic.

"Mother, you should evolve now. I believe you should have earned at least one ability and trait. Once you have checked, let me know which options you have and I'll advise you of the optimal one."

"Sure."

This time, I was again given three options. I wasn't sure if this was standard but I had nothing to complain about. More choices was always better.

The three choices were: [Strawberry Menace], [Strawberry Phantasm], and [Strawberry Faker].

Faker? Was god listening in our conversation? That can't be, right? Stop eavesdropping!

Personally, they all seemed like unique species to me, not the good ones either.  If I had to choose by myself, I might actually choose Strawberry Faker. It was probably the furthest away from the demon path. Anyway, I disclosed my three choices to her. I wanted her advice.

Unfortunately, she dropped the bomb, "They are all equally close to a demon path. You haven't made any progress."

"That can't be! You know, I helped you escape from bad people. I helped Haelley with her level ups and I helped her find a river! I should get bonus marks!" I pouted, much dissatisfied with her remark.

"It can't be helped that you're selfish. But, I still love you!" She hopped onto my laps for a hug.

I'm very selfless, thank you.

"Tell me which one is best suited for me."

"Alright. The first option, Strawberry Menace, likely would not grant you any transformation type traits or abilities. Hence, I don't suggest you picking that. That leaves you with two other options. Strawberry Phantasm should help you with transformation and evasion. Similarly, Strawberry Faker should help you with deception and counterattack. Both of them should have transformation related abilities involved."

"I see. So, I only have two viable choices."

Calling myself a "faker" even if it's part of the species name just gives me a bad taste. In the first place, I'm not good at deception. Phantasm sounds cool though. Yep, I've made up my mind! I'm going with the one that I can make the best use of.

My lips curled into a grin. Evolutions were the most important moments of my life. How could I not be excited?

"Have you decided?"

"Yes!"

I had dropped a clone next to me earlier which had matured thanks to [synthesis]. Once I merged and then emerged, my evolution was complete.

[Level 51 Fey (plant);
Species: Strawberry Phantasm;
Physical: 67/67;
Spiritual: 314/314;
Traits: Bewitching, Devious, Rapid Growth, Parallel Bodies, Gourmet, Reaper, Progenitor, Integrator, Escapist, Enhanced Spiritual;
Abilities: Absorption, Charm, Conglomerate, Strawberry Substitution, Synthesis, Transformation;
Description: An elusive plant fey shrouded in mystery.]

I can't say I'm happy to be called an escapist. But, the other upgrades make up for it, certainly.

The new traits were |integrator|, |escapist|, and |enhanced spiritual|. One of my abilities [supply chain] had evolved with me into [conglomerate]. And finally, after all my transformation practices, I gained the ability [transformation]. This was truly a joyous occasion.

"I'm a Strawberry Phantasm now. What do you think?"

"Splendid! Mother, you always amaze me no matter how rotten you are." She patted my head with an adorable smile. Whatever she just said didn't match her actions. Despite that, I wasn't irritated, not at all!

"Smoothie..."

I can't tell if you're evil or not.

"Mm. You want the explanations, no?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

The first one to be explained was the ability, [transformation]. With this, I wouldn't need to merge with my plant body every time I needed to change my appearance. This didn't mean I could change into anything I wanted either. The parameters were vaguely defined but aside from what I already could transform into, now I could adjust my body size fairly freely with only a limitation on minimum size. There was no limitation on expanding my body size but the drawback was that controlling my body would be more difficult. Lastly, although I had this ability, transformation itself still took time, but it was now much quicker. Only a few seconds was needed for a full transformation.

"Can I transform into you?"

"No! There can only be one Smoothie." She pouted with her arms crossed.

"Is there any ability that can hide my status? I'm thinking if I transformed into a bird, would it still say that I'm a fey?"

"Those abilities are rare. If you had picked Strawberry Faker, you might have gained an ability that altered the examination results of your status."

"Oh what. You didn't tell me!"

The next one was [conglomerate]. It was an ability I seriously desired. With this upgraded ability, my resources could now be shared across all of my bodies regardless of distance and size. Well, physical stats couldn't be shared but spiritual stats and energies, and things I absorbed could be. This should come super handy in combat situations when I needed excessive amounts of mana to use my abilities, especially [synthesis]. Furthermore, I could now track every part of my bodies, and examine their conditions and locations. This ability was basically an ultimate ability for someone like me.

On a side note, I could now examine my physical stat and spiritual stat to find new stats. One of them was <health> and the other one was <mana>. The numerical figures were identical to the main stats with no differences whatsoever.

"What's the big idea? Why have new indicators when they are the same as the regular stats?"

"There will be more stats to be seen likely the next time you evolve, which is past level 70. Those stats have no denominators and most do not affect your principle stats."

"Ooh, what kind of stats are they? Wait, if they don't affect them, why even bother having them in the first place?"

"They are considered hidden stats. They aren't useful to know until you have high enough level. For us, we might never get to see hidden physical stats until much later after the double evolution."

"If I remember correctly, Haelley can already see one of the hidden physical stats even though she's lower levelled than me."

"She is physical combat focused and a winged beast. Those stats are important for her to know before she engage her foes."

"Oh, so it's like that."

I guess that's what I get for being a plant. Plants don't need to see stats, do they?

blanksphere

(August 17) Got a review, and not happy one. I can understand why, because I haven't wrote about any heroic or even decent human character, and fluff is yet to be found. I guess if I write another novel in the future, I'll try to have decent humans at the beginning. No one likes the ruthless evil guys. As for fluff, it seems tough to write. Someone enlighten me? Maybe I can add some later?