Free Web NovelChapter 6: Evolution Available
Ren looked around, but everything was pitch black. His dragon vision turned on without his permission, everything seemed visible after that.
"Whoa, pretty cool," Ren muttered. He could tell that he was inside a deep underground cave. He looked at the hole where he had fallen into, and there was definitely no way that he was going out.
The hole required him to fly up and fly properly. Yeah, that was not happening, not in his current state.
"Yeah, I’m for sure going to skin that squirrel when I get back."
He looked around for a bit, and with no way up, he decided to head in deeper. That would be one of the worst decisions that he had made because a few meters inside, he met something he was not ready to meet.
He had thought that he would easily find a way out of this underground place, but it had other plans for him, and the more he went in, the more he realized this.
The cave swallowed sound the way water swallowed stones, every drip and shuffle of his own claws against stone echoing back distorted and strange. Ren moved carefully, Dragon Vision keeping the dark from being a real obstacle, though it didn’t make the deeper tunnel feel any less unwelcoming.
"Okay," he muttered, voice low. "Worst decision, definitely making the list. Right up there with falling for the squirrel fake-out."
He’d gone maybe a hundred meters when something shifted in the dark ahead of him, a long, low shape detaching itself from the shadows along the tunnel wall.
It was a salamander, but not the harmless kind he vaguely remembered from old nature documentaries. This thing was easily four to five feet long, slick black skin glistening wet even in the dry cave air, a row of faint orange markings pulsing along its spine like dying embers. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of needle teeth, and a low hiss rattled out of it that vibrated through the stone beneath his feet.
"Yeah, no," Ren said immediately. "Nope. Not today."
It lunged.
Ren scrambled backward, claws skidding against loose rock, and bolted deeper into the tunnel without really deciding to, pure animal instinct taking the wheel completely. The salamander gave chase, faster than something that shape had any right to be, its body coiling and uncoiling in quick bursts across the cave floor. He rushed as fast as he could and then spotted an opening, a way to probably get away, so he rushed that way.
The tunnel opened up ahead of him into a wider chamber, the ceiling rising higher, jagged formations hanging down in clusters, stalactites thick and heavy with age.
An idea hit him fast, the kind of idea that only made sense because his brain was thirty-some years old crammed into a body that was barely a day old.
He angled hard to the side at the last second, putting himself directly beneath the densest cluster of hanging rock, and the salamander, locked entirely onto its prey, followed without hesitation.
Ren went as high as he could and slammed into the tip of a stalactite.
The vibration rattled up through the stone.
It wasn’t much. It didn’t need to be much.
A long crack split through one of the largest stalactites overhead, decades or centuries of slow erosion finally giving way all at once, and it came down exactly where the salamander had just committed its entire charge.
The impact was instant and total, the massive formation driving straight through the creature’s back, pinning it to the cave floor in a single brutal strike. It thrashed once, twice, a horrible wet sound accompanying each spasm, and then went still.
Ren stood there for a second, breathing hard, staring at what he’d just done.
"Okay," he said slowly. "That actually worked. That should not have worked, but it actually worked."
[You have defeated Rare Cave Salamander]
[EXP Gained: 400]x10
The numbers hit his vision and kept climbing, refusing to stop at a single notification.
[Level Up! You are now Level 6]
[+2 to all stats]
[Level Up! You are now Level 7]
[+2 to all stats]
[Level Up! You are now Level 8]
[+2 to all stats]
[Level Up! You are now Level 9]
[+2 to all stats]
[Level Up! You are now Level 10]
[+2 to all stats]
Ren stood frozen in the dim cave light, watching the cascade scroll past faster than he could properly process, each chime layering over the last.
"Okay," he said, voice cracking slightly. "Okay, that is, that is a lot of leveling up for one salamander."
[New Skills Unlocked: Claw Strike, Ember Breath]
[Evolution Available]
He blinked at that last line, reading it twice.
"Evolution," he repeated slowly. "Like, actual evolution. Like the thing that makes me less of a sad little lizard."
He looked down at himself, flexing his claws experimentally, feeling the new weight of strength sitting under his scales that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. He focused inward, calling up his status the way he had before.
[Status]
[Name: Ren]
[Race: Dragon]
[Level: 10]
[EXP: 0 / 2000]
[Strength: 29]
[Speed: 31]
[Stamina: 31]
[Skills: Glide, Dragon Vision, Claw Strike, Ember Breath]
"Twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-one," he read aloud, something like genuine awe creeping into his voice now. "From one. From actual one." He let out a short, disbelieving laugh that echoed strangely off the cave walls. "Mom would be shocked how much I have grown in a day, haha."
He looked at the word sitting patiently in his status, waiting on his decision.
[Evolution Available]
"Alright," he said, steadying himself, equal parts nervous and thrilled. "Let’s see what I actually turn into."
