Chapter 69: Evolution and Skill Predicaments.

Ok, the first thing that I need would be a song. I could use the one that Tasianna translated for me but that probably wouldn’t fit Saori’s taste. Considering how aloof she can be at times, I think maybe a more serious song would be better?

No, that’s just her working persona. She’s pretty fun and I’m more used to singing cheerful songs anyways. Also, considering the theme; a Christmas song might be pretty good but that would confuse Tasianna. Wait, maybe I should ask her if there are any winter-based Peolyncian holidays and celebrations, first?

“Hestia!”

“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”

While I was deep in thought, planning my first ever idol performance, somebody suddenly tugged at my tail, surprisingly me enough that I made a loud yelp. Noticing no hostile intents, I turned my head around with slight annoyance, neither baring my fangs nor claws.

Looking at the woman who pulled my tail, I could only think how childish it was of her as she tried to suppress her laughter, “You really love teasing me, right, Saori?”

Gleefully wearing a smirk, my wolf friend answered while giggling, "Hie, sorry, you were so concentrated on your drawing that I was unable to draw your attention. I just wanted to tell you that Tasianna and I were about to go outside the cave and we wanted to know if you wanted to come with us.”

“Outside? Brrr, I have to wear this bear fur here, as if I want to go somewhere colder,” I said showing off the giant pelt from the [Rock-Skin Horned Grizzly] that I was using to cover my shivering body. “I know I don’t like caves because of [The Light] but this one is small enough that it doesn’t matter. I can still see the entrance.”

“Oh, wonderful. I do miss your New Yorker accent, but I believe your current one is much better. More refined and less crude, just as I wanted it to be,” Saori said with a grin.

“Stop teasing me, it’s because of Tasianna. She didn’t know many colloquialism or abbreviations,” I said in exasperation.

Before I began speaking Common tongue well, I used to adopt a New Yorker accent as I spoke due to my past life. However, as I continued learning this Peolyncian language from Tasianna in addition to us three mostly speaking telepathically, I’ve slowly been losing my old accent while getting influenced by Tasianna’s.

Learning a new language really depended on from whom you learned it, as you will inevitably copy your teacher's accent. While that may have an effect, what influenced it the most is when you speak with others. Take it from me, I’ve learned my usual accent when I started mingling with people outside of my parent’s friendship circle, causing me to drop the accent I learned from my etiquette teacher.

I still am able to switch to it when I focus, but how I’ve been speaking until now was how I always speak

Unfortunately, after speaking with the lizardmen and Tasianna, I’ve accepted that I had to give up on my current accent as it didn’t fit with Common tongue. I couldn’t pronounce certain words correctly and Tasianna would chastise me if I tried to.

It’s sad to see that more of my past self is slowly disappearing but I couldn’t help it. I have to adapt to my new life. That’s what I once told myself.

“So, what are you doing?” Saori asked.

“Oh, this? Well, fulfilling my promise to you, of course!” I answered.

Yesterday, after I cried for the first time in nearly a decade, I made a promise to Saori to show her my first idol performance. Not some half-ass one or the one during my “Idol concert strategy”, but a full-fledged and properly prepared Idol performance that could pass as one on Earth.

Maybe, I’m putting a bit too much pressure on myself, but I ought to do so. I cried; I broke that oath that I made in my past life. Some may say that it’s healthy, that I should start leaving the past in the past. I did feel better, I felt liberated that I was able to just let everything out, even if it did last a whole day until I fell asleep with puffy eyes.

However, it still meant that I broke a pretty personal promise. I don’t intend to break the one I made with Saori, so I’ve been brainstorming ever since I finished breakfast. The song, choreography, outfit, special effects, etc. There are quite a lot of things that I needed to do for prep.

“Hmm, are you writing a song? That is English, correct?” Saori asked as she looked on the ground that I was just writing on.

Having no paper was pretty inconvenient but thankfully I was strong enough to just scratch everything on the ground. All that handiwork training I’ve had until now has really benefitted me, making me get used to using my strength in my dragonewt form.

"Yeah, I'm still figuring out the theme so I'm just playing around with words. I wanted to try writing it in Common tongue but speaking and writing are completely different, especially when certain words have different meanings," I answered.

“True. Metaphors and similes are used quite often in songs, I believe? Figures of speech may be easy for fluent speakers, but we have merely started,” Saori agreed to my statement.

Flowery or poetic speech is a staple in songs as the best usually can intertwine words to form a story or image that you wish to relay to your listeners. Of course, there are simple ones with the sole role of just making you happy and fluffy inside, but I also want to make a meaningful song in the future. Call it a lyricist's pride.

"Well, I am glad that your new goal is making you active and work hard, however, do remember that we still have over a month left for you to work on it. Do not overexert yourself," Saori warned me.

“I know, I won’t. I want it to be perfect but collapsing on the day that I would perform it would not only be embarrassing but dreadful for me. I promise I’ll take it easy,” I answered making Saori nod in contentment. “Oh! Oh! Oh! Saori, that reminds me! An outfit! We need new clothes now!”

Grabbing Saori, I shook her like crazy causing her to let out “huhs" like mad, "Hestia, let go, please! I am already working on yours, Tasianna's, and mine. They require time!"

“Oh, Tasianna needs one? Oh right, her elven form doesn’t have any clothes!” I snapped my fingers, remembering that mana dresses do not grow with the user.

Agreeing that we had to get new clothes, I called out for Tasianna who promptly rushed over to us, “Lady Hestia! Is there anything that you need?”

Explaining to her that we three needed new clothes, I got Tasianna to agree to stop her plan to go out today, which made Saori a bit mad at me. I had to persuade her that she could use me as a dress-up doll as much as she wanted so she would stop looking at me as if I was an irresponsible teen.

I know we ought to scout our position but delaying it by a day won’t be the end of the world. When I scouted using my [Detection Sensor] this morning, I honestly didn’t sense that many monsters around us and if I did find something, they weren’t something I would consider a threat. There was no need to rush.

“Hmm, are you sure you want me to do this now, or when you reached level 10 in [Humanize]. I believe you will grow again, right?” Saori asked as she did my measurements.

“I mean sure, but I don’t want to waste any my SP on leveling it up when it’ll level over time…although, I would love to have my 15-year-old body back,” I stated. “I have a total of 5600 SP now but…you know, we aren’t in the Belzac forest anymore. Who knows when I’ll get a new level.”

“Oh, speaking of level and SP, Lady Hestia what will you evolve into?” Tasianna asked as she helped Saori measure me.

After that little rampage I had, I gained enough experience to reach the final level of rank C. I could finally evolve into a rank B, the same rank as those three wyverns, if I wanted to.

“I don’t know yet, Tasianna,” I answered. “The thing is, I haven’t actually looked through my list of evolutions yet. I actually was planning to use my remaining SP to learn some new skills to get a wider range of evolutions, but I’ve been pre-occupied with planning that idol performance for you two.”

“Mhmm, this will take a while so why not look it over? Both the evolution and skill list will take a while for you to look through. It would give us something to talk about,” Saori suggested.

Well, she’s right. Ok, might as well get this over with. Girls? Let’s get to it.

Evolution

[Young Black-Wrath Dragon]

[Young Angel Dragon]

[Young Lava Dragon]

[Young Magma Dragon]

[Young Volcano Dragon]

[Young Thunder Dragon]

[Young Mana Dragon]

[Young Arcane Corrupter Dragon]

[Young Noxious Blight Dragon]

[Young Dreadflame Dragon]

[Young Hellblade Dragon]

Huh, more options than I thought.

Dragon Type Descriptions

Young Magma Dragon

An immature lava dragon that possesses a body equipped to traverse the searing hot sea of a volcano. Compared to their cousins, these dragons are magquatic, perfectly able to maneuver through molten rock. Rank B

Young Volcano Dragon

An immature lord of molten flames and the leader of both lava and magma dragons, that has not even touched its immense potential yet. This superior dragon swaggers through its obsidian realm in the depths of the earth, ruling over their molten domain with ruthless aggression. Either on land or magma, this behemoth of a creature will chase off any intruders with its titanic body and piercing lava beams, while being invulnerable to most weaponry with its harder-than-metal scales. Rank B

Young Thunder Dragon

Soaring through the sky like a thunderbolt, these immature dogmatic fighters of the sky will shoot any wannabe challenger down in a heartbeat. Whether with talons or arcane thunder, these dragons are masters of blitzing down others just like their wind elemental cousins. Rank B

Young Noxious Blight Dragon

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An immature dragon with a toxic factory of a body, able to produce sludge waves of toxic fluids to mark its territory. Although passive, extreme caution should be shown against these creatures as getting too close might spell the end for the careless. A threat to the environment if it is found outside its natural habitat. Not the most proficient of fighters. Rank B

Young Dreadflame Dragon

An immature, mutated inferno dragon who rules the sky with powerful wings, shimmering with an intense crimson red. Soaring through the skies while turning the ground under it into ash and ruins, these wrathful predators will descend on anything to reap its offering from the land. They are most vulnerable in their immature state, not having the strength to carry their fearsome body to the skies. Rank B

Young Hellblade Dragon

An immature, mutated inferno dragon with a hell blaze core protected by an armor of scales and razor-sharp blades. Wielding its blade-like tail like a massive greatsword, these ferocious brutes can turn any defense into little more than crumbled remains as they relish in their impending victory. Any challenger should also be wary of the mineral dust that these dragons can send into the air using their special claws and tails, as even a little spark will cause a hellfire of devastation. Vulnerable in their immature state due to their weaker scales. Rank B

‘Oh shit, so we have a choice of becoming something like a leader for a group of lava and magma dragons,’ parallel mind #1 commented.

‘Yeah sure, but look at Dreadflame and Hellblade. I guess we should have anticipated an evolved version of [Young Spark Inferno Dragon],’ parallel mind #2 remarked. ‘Dreadflame seems to make our already powerful fire magic even stronger, while Hellblade would improve our body. I do hope we won’t lose one of them upon evolving. That would be a scam.’

‘Ehhh?! Come on, girls. Look at that [Young Noxious Blight Dragon]. I want to already veto that option!’ #3 shouted. "Its description is frightening, and I get the feeling we will be hunted down if we took it! Besides, ewwwww, sludge!”

‘Am I the only one who is interested in [Young Thunder Dragon]? It’s quite low-key compared to the others, but the descriptions sounds rad,’ #4 stated.

Sure, but that’s not our endgame, right, girls? Come on, let’s go to the skill shop.

As impressive as these dragons sounded, I was actually a bit more interested in expanding my horizons here. If you looked at my current skill set, you would notice that I had quite a few skills that improved my fire attacks or were related somehow to it.

My unique skill [Spark Fire Dragon] by itself is already an amplifier while also granting me quite a lot of dragon abilities with the element fire as a focus, especially [Spark Claws] and [Spark Fangs] which were the only abilities that allowed me to contest others in close combat.

On the other hand, my other elements lacked firepower due to having no amplifying-like skills. One of the reasons why I wanted [Venerated Saintess] from my follower milestone was to make my light spells hit harder. I don’t want to be a one-trick pony here, something that I painfully learned from the garm matriarch.

Thankfully, I’ve been able to broaden my fighting ability by getting [Toxic Secretion] and [Poison Creation] which enabled me to produce and use different assortments of toxins. I've also [Trap Creation] which gives me the ability to make my bombs, although, I’ve been thinking of getting a more specialized one for the job.

This would be my B rank evolution. Considering how strong those wyverns were, I have to make sure that I chose the correct one. Whenever we will meet again, I had to be ready and strong enough to fend them off…if Saori and Tasianna can’t reach a proper power level until then.

I also need to find some sort of measure to stop [Battle Frenzy]. Saori said that we would handle it before it happens, but you can’t be sure of that. Being a whole week in that cave was enough to make my worry. For the sake of my friends, and my conscience, I needed some sorta skill to help me out.

With my many objectives established, I sent my parallel minds back into the fray that was the skill shop. There are thousands and thousands of skills in there that it would make you just dizzy if you looked at it.

With a proper idea of what I was searching for, I could pin down specific skills to make it easier on myself. Randomly looking around would prove futile, after all. Without any keywords, you can imagine it like trying to search for a niche video on YouTube, frustrating yourself ‘cause you can’t find it no matter how often you push that search button!

I better do something, too. How about this category: Display skills that protect you from mental status effects like [Battle Frenzy]

Skill List

Sort by: Mental protection skills

[Mental Corruption Resistance]

[Mind Protection]

…Is this all?

‘Original Mind, you have to understand that we already got a few when we last had a skill buying session. Remember [Mental Stability] and [Mental Warfare]?’ #2 said. 'We found a few skills that might interest you. Want to look them over?'

Feeling a bit irritated from the lack of choice, I simply agreed to my parallel mind’s suggestion and sorted through the skills that they found. Considering that my goal was to increase our evolution choices, I had to make sure that I would choose the ones that would benefit me the most with my limited SP reserve.

There was also the fact that I could try leveling a few skills up and hope to merge them into others to create an entirely new skill or even a superior version. That was the case when my [Enhanced Fangs] and [Enhanced Claws] transformed into [Draconic Fangs] and [Draconic Claws], respectively.

As I was mulling through literally hundreds of options, I thought that it would be useful to get some outside opinions. As efficient as my parallel minds were, they were still me at the end of the day.

Having explained both my evolutions and also my current plan to improve my skill set to my two companions, I awaited their responses.

The first to speak was Tasianna, “Hmm, Lady Hestia, I believe you still remember the concept of ‘Custom Spells’, correct?”

“Urgh, yes. Speaking of custom spells, I really have to get my own spell to finally work. That was so embarrassing when it fizzled out,” I said with dissatisfaction at my own skills.

My only custom spell currently was [Imperial Hellfire], a spell that I somehow created during my battle with the garms that didn’t even deserve to be called a spell, yet. It was unfinished. I thought I had everything prepared but when it just failed on me during my fight with Astalos, the Boltreaver Wyvern, I could only describe that experience as a blow to my pride. It was humiliating.

“I agree, you still haven’t mastered writing and reading yet, something that we must continue to improve. However, that was not what I meant when I mentioned it to you,” Tasianna continued. “There are two magic concepts in this world, the ones created by the origin gods and the one made from mortal hands. Custom spells belong to the latter, the traditional way to display arcane prowess.”

“You explained that to me already. To cast a custom spell, most of the hard work has to be done by the mage. That meant you were responsible for creating the Invocation, Incantation, and Activation,” I answered. “Not only must I be able to imagine the process, but I also have to make the incantation and magic circle on my own. That’s why I’ve been learning Common tongue from you. I needed to know how to pronounce the words correctly while also knowing the vocabulary to fill the runes for my magic circle.”

However, that didn’t mean that they were unaffected by the System. Custom spells still were affected by your Intelligence and Wisdom stats, in addition to any other skills that improved your magic power like [Magic Power Enhancement]. Think of it like so: you had to cast the spell without the System’s aid but anything that helped your System-based spells would also affect your custom spells.

At my current state, I was able to imagine how my [Imperial Hellfire] was supposed to work and I’ve already translated my incantation into Common tongue. The only thing that was left was my magic circle. If I only was able to read and write back then, maybe I would have been able to scare those wyverns away.

“Exactly, marvelous, Lady Hestia. Which brings me back to my point,” Tasianna raised one finger as she explained her thoughts. “The System is a wonderful gift from the gods, but you shouldn’t restrict your strength to it alone. Elves, masters of the arcane and martial arts, have long understood that they had to adapt their ancient arts and wisdom with the System to grow even stronger. Even without the full support of the System, I believe you can develop your own power.”

“During my first two months in this world, you mentioned something very intriguing to me, Hestia,” Saori added. “‘Stats aren’t everything’, instead, focus on improving your skills, and I believe you meant both definitions. Level up your skills as they will help you in combat while also remembering that you must master them, also.”

Placing a hand on my chin, I thought over what they said, “So, you guys are suggesting that I focus on quality instead of quantity? Hmm, if that is so then it would be better for me to search for superior versions of my current skill sets, or maybe level my current ones up.”

“Come now, depending on if Tasianna’s memory of Peolynca’s map is correct, we might not have to endanger ourselves for very long anymore. You have time to think it through, Hestia, something I would personally endorse, too," Saori remarked. "As we are a team, I also would like to suggest that we chose our SP investments depending on our team's needs. We should complement each other, after all."

“Oh, that is a wonderful idea, Miss Saori! I haven’t spent my SP yet, so it has been accumulating ever since we fought those Panguanas,” Tasianna stated. “Now that I have the body of a wind elf, I should experiment a bit with it. My lack of wings is infuriating. I feel as if a part of me is lost.”

“Hmm? Didn’t you say that wind elves are the mortal children of Zephira and one of her subordinate gods? I thought that you would be more excited about it,” I said.

According to Tasianna, Zephira, the goddess of winds, once took up the hand of a mortal high elf and granted him godhood, all so she could make him into her husband. Now called by his divine name Krunal, he acts as the God of Weather and Harvest while also being the ancestral father of the wind elves.

“I’m afraid I must betray your expectations, Lady Hestia. The wind elves, although having an incredible affinity for wind magic, are merely like any other elves, so this body doesn’t grant me as many advantages as you might think,” Tasianna explained. “As my real identity is that of a fairy, a Faefolk, my current body also doesn’t have any flesh or blood. I am purely made of mana and still possess the same weakness as my fairy body, despite having lost my ability to fly."

Wow, she seems pretty down about that fact.

“But Tasianna, was not your goal for buying [Elvenize] being able to serve Hestia some of your tea?” Saori remarked.

“You…You are absolutely correct, Miss Saori! I must make tea! Only the finest tea for my Mistress and Miss Saori!” Tasianna jumped on her feet and went back to our campfire, getting ready to brew a warm tea. “I must find a tea making skill. There must be one in the skill shop! A divine tea to please Princess Hestia’s regal tongue! I must!”

…

“…She seems pretty excited now,” Saori said.

I gave a chuckle while making a wry smile, “Well, she’s happy and we get a warm tea to keep us warm for it, so who cares?”

Saori shrugged and then suddenly produced a black mana string, prompting me to ask her where she got, “Oh, this? Well, while you and Tasianna were talking about what skills you wanted to buy, I looked over my own skill shop and managed to find [Elemental Mana Weaving Lv. 1].”

Elemental Mana Weaving

A skill that requires [Mana Weave] to work properly. The user can create strings infused with the elements of a person's mana, creating magical tools that can display certain qualities of that element. Control and reliability depend heavily on the level of [Mana Weave]

“I made this black string by concentrating on trying to cast a dark spell, coloring the once blue fabric into black. It is currently a bit unstable…however, do tell me how you want your outfit to look like, Hestia. I am sure I will make you into a bright star.” Saori said.

With a creeping grin and a clear image of my new clothes, I told Saori all the details while she made her notes. Filled with extreme excitement, I finally caved in and decided to say, “fuck it” and bought the last two upgrades for [Humanize].

Not the smartest choice, if I wanted to become stronger but I wouldn’t say that I regretted it. My primary goal is to become an Idol and right now, I needed a body that fitted that image. Finally, I was back to my former body as I joyously looked in my status board at my “Age” which finally showed me the one number that I wished to see: 15.

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Humanize Lv. 8] evolved into [Humanize Lv. 10]. 4900 SP remaining

700 SP, worth it.

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