Free Web NovelChapter 7: Evolving
Ren looked at the screen with a face full of confusion, shock, and wonder. He could evolve?
"I can evolve?" he asked, mostly rhetorical.
[Yes, you can.]
The system replied, and Ren immediately grew eager to see what this evolution had in store for him. But there was a problem. He was fairly certain something this big would knock him unconscious or leave him completely vulnerable while it happened. There was no way he was running into that without making sure he was safe and properly fed first.
He turned his gaze to the salamander’s carcass and scurried over without hesitation, digging in. His teeth broke through the scales fast, getting to the flesh underneath, and he ate without stopping until his body finally felt full, leaving little more than bones scattered across the cave floor.
"Damn, my appetite is really something else," he muttered.
He scanned the cave and spotted a hidden corner tucked behind a cluster of rocks, somewhere he could sit undisturbed. He settled in, lowered himself onto the stone floor, and exhaled.
"Alright, let’s see this evolution stuff."
[Evolution Paths Available: 5]
[Ember Infant Dragon]
[Devourer Infant Dragon]
[Spirit Infant Dragon]
[Undead Dragon]
[Warrior Dragon]
Five paths, and immediately that became the first problem. He needed details before he could choose anything.
"I’m guessing there’s more to it. Can you show me?"
[Ember Infant Dragon: Awaken a larger mana pool, allowing heavy dragon breath and magical attacks. Provides higher resistance to magical damage. Host will grow into a sleek dragon built for magical warfare.]
"That’s pretty solid, not gonna lie." Ren could already picture himself soaring through the sky, raining destruction down below. A nice image, all things considered.
[Devourer Infant Dragon: Consume to grow. Host embarks on a path that allows consumption of enemies to gain their strength and abilities endlessly. All abilities gained remain at the host’s permanent disposal.]
This one stunned him just as much. He wasn’t a stranger to the concept. He knew exactly what a devour-type ability could become if used properly.
’Well, from what I’ve read in novels, anyway.’
"I can’t lie, this is tempting as hell. But let me check the rest before I decide anything."
[Spirit Infant Dragon: Host embarks on the path of harnessing spiritual energy and magic, becoming a spirit dragon, losing physical form for an ultimate connection to the spirit realm.]
A hard no the instant he finished reading it. He had no interest in giving up his actual body to become some kind of ghost. He still had plans for this body.
[Undead Dragon: Host enters the path of the undead. Unkillable, with a massive magical reservoir and the ability to summon hundreds of undead minions to fight on his behalf.]
"Yeah, that’s a no. Tempting, sure, but I’d have to actually become undead first. Not really a fan of dying twice."
He turned his attention to the final option.
[Warrior Dragon: A path that forges a powerful dragon with a body capable of bringing down walls and tanking the greatest of attacks. Host becomes a moving grand war machine.]
Ren sat with all five for a long moment, but in the end only two genuinely held his attention. Ember and Devourer.
He turned them over carefully, weighing one against the other. The Ember path promised raw magical destruction, the kind of dragon that ruled the skies through fire and force. The Devourer path promised something slower to show off, but with a ceiling he couldn’t even properly measure yet.
He thought back to the wolf, to the small stat boost he’d gained from simply eating it. That had been one kill, completely outside any system tied to evolution. If the Devourer path turned that incidental bonus into his actual core ability, every single kill from here forward would feed directly into his growth, permanently, endlessly, with no clear limit in sight.
"Devourer it is," he said finally, conviction settling into his voice. "Strength through consumption. Yeah. That’s the one."
[Confirm Evolution: Devourer Infant Dragon?]
"Confirm."
The moment the word left him, his body locked rigid, every limb going stiff and unresponsive all at once.
"Oh, that’s, that’s a weird feeling—"
His consciousness began slipping, vision darkening at the edges, thoughts growing slow and syrupy.
"If I wake up looking ridiculous, I’m blaming the system. Just putting that out there in advance—"
Darkness swallowed the rest of the sentence.
The moment his mind fully faded, the system responded in kind. An invisible dome bloomed outward around his small curled form, sealing him off entirely, an unseen barrier settling into place that nothing in this cave would be able to breach no matter how hard it tried.
But evolution was not a quiet process.
Mana surged outward from within the dome, thick and heavy, pulsing into the cave air in slow, deliberate waves, the kind of concentrated magical pressure that didn’t stay contained to one corner of a cave system. It bled outward through the tunnels, seeping into every crack and crevice, impossible to miss for anything with even a basic sense for Essence.
Deeper in the dark, something stirred.
Then something else.
One by one, scattered through the winding tunnels beneath the forest floor, the cave’s other residents lifted their heads, claws stilling mid-motion, eyes turning slowly toward the source of the disturbance pulsing steadily through the stone.
Whatever was happening in that hidden corner of the cave, it had just announced itself to everything listening. Now they all started heading in the direction of Ren, eager to find the source and consume it for themselves, if they managed to do that for sure they woke be able to evolve and get stronger.
Ren on the other hand was fully oblivious of this and off the time that was passing around him, all he knew in his unconscious state was that he was undergoing change.
The change was not only internal but heavily on the outside as well. His size was growing and so was certain features on him.
