I was warm.

And there was something soft touching much of the top side of my abdomen.

My vision returned, albeit hazy. I was still on the ground in front of the campfire, which, strangely enough, was still burning as bright as ever. That was odd. It should have been reduced to glowing coals by now.

What was this softness?

When my vision fully returned, I noticed that there were two wolf pelts on my abdomen. Their soft fur enveloped me as if they were a comfortable blanket.

Cellestra…

It wasn’t hard to guess who was responsible for this. I don’t know why she did it, but it made my rest far more comfortable. It wasn’t too cold outside, but the added warmth was pleasant. I also noticed that some of the logs that were placed outside were missing. That explained the fire.

My mind was once more filled with images of Cellestra smiling at me which caused my heart to race. I had hoped that sleep would cause these thoughts to go away. Instead, it made things worse...

I forcefully pushed the thoughts away, which caused pain in my mind.

How early was it?

I stood up and moved my head to the window. I raised two legs against the wall and peered inside. There was no sign of Cellestra anywhere. I had to assume she was still asleep.

I hope she had a good night’s rest.

Seeing as she was still asleep, I decided to look at my evolution. I imagined by the time that was finished, she’d be awake.

I added some more wood to the fire to keep it going while I was out, before I turned to look at my only evolution option.

There would be two more evolutions after this, and I had five days left until I wanted to scout the area around where I’d seen the humans make camp. I was certain that I was strong enough to take on a human as it was, but I didn’t know their numbers or skill level. I was very much restricted by my mana in my current evolution. Hopefully, this new one would allow me to fight well against creatures without having to rely on mana so much.

It would be like going back to my old self.

It was quite odd to think about it that way. I was certain I’d be much bigger than my old size, at least in mass. I had a feeling I was stronger as well.

Scrap that, I was certain I was stronger.

And I still had to see what these new skills would do. Elysa, can I see my evolution option one more time?

Strength orientated. I wondered what skills I would get from that, and how they could be merged into new skills. Several of my skills had already merged into new ones earlier, such as the barrier.

I was quite curious what new types of venom would show up as well. They always seemed to synergize well with the venom bolt ability. If they had separate reserves too, it would make things even better.

At the thought of my barrier spell, I cast said spell on myself so I would be mostly safe during my evolution. I had already slept through the entire night without problems and wasn’t afraid anything would try to attack me in broad daylight. There was still a campfire burning as well.

I moved away from under the shelter that Cellestra had created and laid myself down in the grass. I didn’t want to accidentally grow large enough to ruin the roof by knocking over the pillars.

The grass was still slightly damp, but the sun was already up and warming the clearing in which Cellestra’s house stood. With the wolf pelts still on my abdomen, I confirmed my evolution into a giant red Kizerain.

There was no pain this time as my senses dulled and everything turned black.

____________________________________________________________________________

The same old grogginess that came right after an evolution hit me. I even had trouble standing up this time. It appeared to be worse than usual. I decided to wait until the daze passed before trying to stand up.

My head hurt…

What had happened that it was so bad right now?

“Kealyna?” I heard Cellestra’s voice call out my name, followed by footsteps in the grass.

She knelt down next to me and placed a hand on top of my head. “Are you okay?”

I guessed she was worried about me trying to stand up, only to let myself fall back onto the grass. It was very sweet of her, but there was no need to worry.

I nodded with my pedipalps as my head was still on the ground.

“Same old?” She asked.

I nodded again.

“I can imagine you need some time. I can’t imagine the time I would need if I woke up one day to find out that I’d grown by half my old size.”

What? Was it that bad? I’d been about seven and a half feet before, if I’d grown by half, I was… eleven now?

My vision started to clear up slowly but steadily. I could now make out Cellestra’s figure properly, and noticed that my head reached up to her waist quite easily. Granted, she was on her knees, but still, that was big…

“I’m going to need more pelts if I am to cover you at night. I’ll also have to get some more wooden panels, it seems. I only have two remaining.”

Cellestra started placing all the pieces of paper in the grass before me. I was still waiting for the side effects to fade away before I was going to use them. In the meantime, Cellestra asked another question.

“Did you sleep well?”

I nodded.

“Good to hear. I didn’t, which is why you woke up with those pelts on you. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to keep you company for a while. I felt it was a bit chilly, so I decided to cover you and keep the fire going while you slept.”

I wasn’t as susceptible to the cold as she was. I obviously possessed a way to stay warmer during the nights. If only that worked with cold rain…

“You know, it’s hard to tell if you are awake or not. I mean, your eyes can’t close. It was weird.”

She smiled at me as she said that.

“Anyway,” She continued as she stood up. “Do you think you can stand?”

I extended my legs and stood up. I noticed it was exactly as Cellestra had described; I was huge.

My abdomen extended to the right and left, which reduced my field of vision by a bit as it had grown considerably, as had my legs. They were longer, and felt stronger. They were also colored red now.

The rainbow was complete. The pattern on my rear was finalized, and I was left in awe at just how big I’d grown with this one evolution. It was even more evident when I looked at Cellestra when I stood at my normal height. Whereas I had reached slightly above her knees before, I now reached to her waist.

“Please do tell me what happened yesterday that you managed to get your evolution so fast.”

I prepared myself as I had a lot of explaining to do. I focused on the letters before me and started pointing at them. The pieces of paper had shrunk considerably, but this was still an effective way of communicating.

If things kept going as they had, I would get my speech ability soon enough. It wouldn’t matter how big I was at the time. If I could talk, I wouldn’t need this paper anymore.

“Found massive tree in clearing. Killed deer near it. Tree came to life. Put barrier around clearing. Had to fight it. Was tough battle. Used all mana. Tree uprooted itself and revealed a tunnel that belongs to dungeon. Was planning to head inside today.”

“A dungeon?” Cellestra asked with a frown. “That’s interesting. I never knew there were any in the area.”

“Did not know either,” I continued writing. “Hope it is good source of experience. Starting to become problem.”

“I hope so too. You are getting close to that speech evolution, right?”

I nodded with my front two legs.

“If I’m honest, I hope you don’t grow too much bigger. I’m already starting to wonder if this roof I made is going to work out…”

I saw her turn her head to the makeshift roof. I didn’t have to turn mine to see exactly what she was talking about. There was no way I was going to fit my entire body under it. Even if she extended it with another two panels, I’d barely fit. My abdomen was the main problem here.

I guessed the only other option I had was to make a large nest out of silk that would be built against one of her home’s walls.

What a struggle…