Re: Evolution Online

Liam dismissed his soul minions and hopped onto Luna's back. The fox then happily used her new skill to disappear and reappear a few yards away every time. 

"You really can do this…" Liam became dazed. The feeling of going through something like teleportation was surreal. This definitely had to be one of the high-tiered skills, but how was she doing it?

He tried to sense something, anything, but it was beyond his understanding. He looked at the smiling celestial beast, who was showing him her latest improvement with great pride.

Was this an innate skill? Just how many more skills did she have?

Liam became curious as he gently patted the fox on her back, "Did you learn anything else, Luna?"

"Yes, Master. Lots of skills. Grandpa taught me a lot! Kyu!"

Sure, he did. Liam bitterly smiled. 

While he was undergoing torturous training, this little fox was happily eating and sleeping away the whole time and yet somehow ended up learning more things than him?

"Alright, why don't you show me everything that you learned? Look to the right. There are some beasts there."

Kyu! The fox nodded cutely. She then reached the spot Liam had pointed to in the blink of an eye. There was a small group of four spotted leopards lazily lounging around. 

However, these guys were different than the usual leopards as they had antlers on top of their heads and were eating grass. Perhaps they were omnivorous and were eating grass at the moment. They also looked very peaceful.

Luna immediately gave them a disapproving look. Choosing grass over meat? Blasphemy!

The fox snarled at the bunch of beasts and then, without any warning, she opened her mouth to produce a jet of flames.

"Fuck!" Liam was completely caught off guard. 

He was just about to warn her, as the strongest among the leopards was already at Level 51, but it looked like there was no need for it. The leopards didn't get a chance to react and were completely drowned in the flames.

At this point, he couldn't even see anything in front of him. All he could see was a wall of flames. It was truly shocking to see such a powerful attack come out of a little creature's mouth!

Well, she was not so little at the moment as she had increased her size to accommodate Liam on her back, but still, age-wise she was very young, not even a year old? Was this the power of a celestial beast?

Liam now understood why the old elf had called her nature's blessing. At this rate, it was going to be him who would be holding her back.

He hopped off of her and observed her from the side to get the full picture, and when he did so, he was once again shocked. 

There was a weird rune glowing bright orange on the white fur of the fox, extending from head to tail, the entire length of her body. 

Not just that, but one of her snow-white tails was also now slightly glowing with a reddish-orange-yellow hue like that of a flame.

"Hmmm…" Liam wondered whether this could be the flame fragment he had taken from the small village, the one he had stolen from Kouske's team.

Chances were that Luna was now finally starting to assimilate the flame fragments? There was also the nine-divinities crystal. He didn't know if she fully used the effects for her first evolution or if there was still something left behind. 

Of course, there were also the various items that the old elf had fed her every day. It could be any of those things that helped her reach this stage.

However, irrespective of what helped her, one thing was abundantly clear. This little fox was a black hole of resources. At least now she was starting to show some results for everything that she had eaten.

"Good job, Luna." Liam patted the smiling fox and watched as she killed all of the Level 50 grass-eating leopards like they were just gazelles. He even got some experience points for the kill. 

"Nice!" Liam picked up the couple of silver coins that dropped as loot and some hide materials and hopped back onto the fox. "Alright, head towards that direction, but if you see any beasts, you know what to do."

Luna happily shook her head, pleased with her display, and then continued to burn through the forest as she blinked from one spot to another, hunting everything in sight.

Surprisingly, this grind went even faster than the previous time they had ransacked this forest for elemental orbs. This was life! Hunting on the back of an overpowered beast!

And by the time the fox peeped out of the Forest of Echoes, Liam received a happy bonus of two orbs, one of water and one of wind. He also received a good chunk of experience points.

"I guess the fun times are over now?" The peaceful, tranquil forest region was quickly thinning out. With Luna's new blink skill, they covered the area a lot faster. The journey that should have taken an entire day was finished in just a few hours.

And now they were almost close to their destination.

Liam narrowed his eyes as he started cautiously observing everything around him. From this point onward, they were no longer in a peaceful zone. Dangerous high-level beasts could be lying in wait at any turn.

And considering the location he was headed to, he was pretty sure that his chances of making it there alive were rather low.

*****

A/N Top Fan Event: As we are approaching the end of Part 1 of the story, I have decided to organize a special event to commemorate this milestone. Top 20 fans of the book can now send me suggestions for new characters that they want to see in the book. (Can be new characters, new powers for old characters, new events post-apocalypse, etc). I will try my best to incorporate them into the story as long as they are not world breaking. You can contact me here through comments or on Discord. Cheers! (To check if you are one of the top 20 fans, you can check the about page of the story where the fan ranking is listed)