The Many Lives of Cadence Lee

  What? Never seen an A-Rank [Goblin Hunter] before? You might think it is overkill, but I think I’m not enough. Think about it, Goblins are hunted worldwide - slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands each year. Tribes big and small are wiped out and exterminated whenever and wherever they are found.

  And yet, if you step outside a city - any city - chances are you can find a Goblin tribe within twenty miles.

  That probably sounds like a lot to you city-folk, but for an Adventurer that isn’t even a light jog. A D-Rank team of Adventurers can cover that distance, slaughter a Goblin tribe, and be back within a day - so long as there aren’t any Evolved Gobs. The Guild actively posts bounties on Goblin tribes within fifty miles of a settlement, not to mention a general bounty for their ears wherever they might be taken, and has for the past three millenia.

  Three thousand years of trying to wipe Goblins out and we haven’t even been able to get them out of walking distance of the Royal Capital.

  -Gerak, A-Rank [Goblin Hunter] having a conversation at a bar two days before the beginning of the First Goblin War.

  It was very strange not to be in the air, but my part in the strategy was even more strange.

  I had suggested just letting me poison the lot of them, but it turned out that Goblins also had the [Strong Stomach] racial ability. While I personally didn’t see that as too much of a problem so long as I used a toxin that worked on skin contact or something, Rauvin said that depending on how effective the poison was they would probably out breed it. Frankly, that sounded a bit ludicrous to me, but what do I know?

  With poison off the table, my next thought was to stay in the air and let Ray rain arrows down from above. However, the tree cover meant that it wouldn’t be very effective. If I was going to carry Ray into battle I would have to do it from the ground, but I was well aware that I was not exactly built for ground combat.

  Wyverns - myself included - with our powerful bodies and legs have clearly evolved (wait, how does Darwinian evolution work in a world like this? Does it work? I think I will just ignore that thought…) to dive down onto prey from above and land directly on them. The weight of the wyvern’s body slamming into and stunning larger prey while rending them with their large claws before bringing the jaws into play. A wyvern on the ground has difficulty bringing its claws into play and certainly can’t make the most of its strength and mass.

  Rauvin’s plan for me essentially split the difference between being in the air and being on the ground. After such a long time, I will be going back to toad roots and “hopping.” He wants me to combine my jumping and flying to make long, high jumps as a way to pounce on my opponents while helping Ray reposition. I was less than enthused about the idea, but I wasn’t about to argue over it.

  Rauvin, Tamlin, and Karlin were going to attract the Goblins' attention and tempt them into swarming them. Ylma will be hanging back - although within reach of Karlin - to fry them as they grouped up. Ray and I, meanwhile, would serve to disrupt any attempt at organization; attacking Hobs and Redcaps that tried to command the lesser Gobs. Her arrows and my flight would allow us to strike anywhere on the small battlefield and although a full grown Hob would be stronger than me right now, together with Ray - and my toxins - there shouldn’t be any problems.

  “Well, aside from the fact that you almost certainly are going to get hit,” Rauvin admitted with a grimace. “I could understand if you didn’t want to do this, especially if the Gobs have real weapons.”

  “She doesn’t think they can really hurt her all that much,” Ray translated my attempt at speech. “So long as she isn’t stuck in a fight alone, she is confident that she is tough enough to handle even Hobs given how you have described them.”

  Rauvin frowned at that, “You shouldn’t underestimate Hobs. Admittedly, Ray didn’t see any and Redcaps are generally not as focused on brute strength, but Hobs can have upwards of three hundred Strength.”

  Sure, but unless they have some kind of poison resistance and a way to actually stop me from flying away, it doesn’t really matter unless they can kill me in a single hit. Given my racial abilities and Stats I am confident that three hundred Strength would not be enough to kill me instantly unless my enemy was very lucky. Still I decided to let the point drop. Making Ray translate my arguments seemed rude, and why am I arguing that I can handle even more dangerous positions anyway?

  Probably because moving along the ground made me nervous in general. My instincts are frustrating like that, but they are easier to handle in a group like this. Ray’s calm through the Bond is incredibly helpful for maintaining my composure as we hike through the forest. We run into far less monsters than I thought we would. Apparently my valley had a higher than normal monster density because it was an ideal place for many monsters to spawn and it also kept that spawn in a relatively small location.

  And of course, the local Goblin tribe was also hunting the local monsters for food and experience. As a result, our hike was quick and quiet, allowing us to reach the Goblin encampment relatively quickly. Calling it an encampment seemed a bit wrong though…

  Den, maybe? No, that has too much of a cozy connotation. Perhaps nest would be a better word, because Goblin construction was more of a messy nest than it was anything that I would call an encampment. A generous woman might call their piles of sticks and hides crude lean-to’s, but at least for this life I am a wyvern so I am calling it them nest-like piles of junk. Rotting junk, because they haven’t treated the hide to make it leather; they hadn’t even removed all the bits of meat!

  For once, I was happy to have low Stats; what I could smell just now was already bad, I do not want to know what it was like for my teammates with higher Perception.

  According to Ray, the Redcaps had claimed a cave - well, more of an indent in the side of the hill - towards the back of the camp. This was good luck, because without a more Evolved Goblin around to keep the lesser ones in line they hadn’t even bothered to set a watch. We could have walked right into the camp, but Rauvin had a better idea.

  “Ylma, would you mind letting them know we are here?”

  “With pleasure Captain!” Her smile was downright evil as fire leapt from her hands.

  Fwooom! A fireball landed among the lounging Goblins, many of which died immediately and many more of which were injured or stunned. Screams of pain and anger sounded out and soon every single one of the Goblins were screeching and scrambling to their feet, looking for something to attack.

  Rauvin provided them a target. He Charged forward, activating multiple abilities at once, and literally running over multiple Goblins before crashing into the mass of them with a roar. He blew the mob of them apart, sending the Gobs that weren’t crushed flying with the strength of his Charge.

  I thought that they might break right then and run away, but a screech from the back of them seemed to put some spine into them and they tried to mob Rauvin - only to run into Karlin’s blade and Tamlin’s spear. More were incinerated by Ylma who strode in behind the three warriors.

  Another screeching order came from inside the mass and I felt a surge from Ray through the Bond. I launched myself into the air, rising above the battle near instantly. I had no idea where I was supposed to land, but I had to put my trust in Ray’s superior Perception and the impressions I got through our Bond.

  [Aerokinesis] and Air Magic at the peak of my flying leap threw me down to the ground, talons extended as I landed on - empty dirt, the Redcap I would have crushed beneath me had blinked out of the way and was now in front of me! I lunged forward with [Envenomed Bite] and the Redcap’s eyes widened and glanced to the side. Redcaps need line of sight to blink, and while it was able to dodge my bite it was not able to dodge the arrow from Ray who had expected the teleport.

  What neither she, nor I, expected was for the Redcap to simply grab another Goblin and use it as a shield. The smaller Gob took Ray’s arrow in the belly and the Redcap simply tossed the screaming creature away before blinking again, this time appearing in the air at Ray’s height to try and strike at her! While alarming, it wasn’t actually dangerous to us. Taking your feet off the ground when fighting a Gale Wyvern is just like asking to be smacked down and I immediately used [Aerokinesis] to that effect.

  The Redcap blinked away again but we had other problems to deal with. The Goblins surrounding us had regained their courage with our failure to kill their leader and were beginning to try and swarm me! Unlike Rauvin, who was also swarmed by Goblins, I didn’t have armor. Being bitten by a Goblin was like… Being bitten by a dog? A small dog though, not a big one.

  [You have been bitten weakly! You have lost 2hp!]

  I mean, really, does that deserve exclamation points, system? It is probably going to d-

  [You have defeated a Lvl. 3 (Juvenile Goblin) - Lvl 4. (Scavenger) and earned Party xp!]

  -ie anyway, my skin is toxic. Our party has the Alchemy expertise to whip up an antidote for my poisons, so they all drank it ahead of time and I am free to go wild with my toxins. Seeing how effective it is, I feel like I could have just done my usual trick of leaving poisoned bait for them, but what do I know?

  I can see why regular Goblins are looked down upon so much. I can sweep the area around me clear just by spinning around in a circle and smacking them with my tail. They are mostly naked too, so the toxin will likely kill all of them as well.

  [You have defeated a Lvl. 2 (Young Goblin) - Lvl. 3 (Warrior) and earned Party xp!]

  [You have defeated a Lvl. 2 -]

  I’ll just ignore those for now, although it occured to me that Goblins were probably profitable - in terms of xp - to hunt because they had both a species and a Class. More importantly, Ray and I knew where that Redcap had run off to. Both of us had [Prey Sense], the basic Class ability that any [Hunter] would have. In general, it gave us a vague idea of where the thing we were hunting was. Somewhat useful, but not very accurate.

  However, between the two of us it worked a little differently. Because we both had [Prey Sense] and could share our feelings across the Bond we were able to narrow down the Redcaps location by comparing our senses and focusing on the spots they overlapped.

  I launched myself into the air again, but not at our target. No, I didn’t want to alert it to the fact that we knew where it was until the apex of our jump when I flared my wings upwards to obscure vision of Ray giving her time to twist, draw and fire an arrow at where the Redcap was, just barely missing my wing.

  The arrow took it through the eye.

  I landed heavily, crushing another Goblin beneath my talons, only for something large to slam into my side and bowl me over. Ray was knocked off me and came to her feet in a roll while I turned to face this new threat. A Hobgoblin.

  Meanwhile, I noticed Rauvin and the others had also been engaged by the Goblin elites. A Redcap appeared out of thin air next to Tamlin only to be intercepted by Karlin’s blade. It attempted to teleport away, but instead of blinking, it merely flickered and Tamlin planted his spear in its gut and nailed it to the ground. Ylma’s anti teleport magic was working!

  Of course, that distraction cost me as the Hob attempted to club me over the head.

  [You have taken a heavy blow! You have lost 10hp!]

  Ow. I tried to bite him, but unlike the regular Goblins the Hob had a crude shield which he used to block me, or so he thought.

  Wyverns have absolutely gigantic mouths compared to the kinds of predators I knew about from Earth. Instead of thinking of them like a puma or a lion, it would be better to think of them like a shark or a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Their wide heads were basically ninety percent jaws.

  So when the Hobgoblin raised his shield - a small buckler - I just decided to chomp down on the whole thing. I was not, unfortunately, strong enough to break it or large enough to swallow it whole, but I certainly could hold it and that was all it took for Ray to dart in with her blades.

  The Hob let go of the buckler and tried to block her, but I was so close all I had to do was step forward to throw it off balance and give Ray an opening. The Hob’s crude armor was not nearly enough to protect it as Ray sliced it up. A single knick would have been enough - I had lent my poison to her weapons - but she didn’t take any chances and stabbed it repeatedly. Having been a knife user in a previous life, I can appreciate the technique.

  Sure, it makes you sound crazy, but the proper way to use a knife is to get in close and stab and stab and stab. You’d think that being that close to your opponent would leave you open, but most people are surprisingly bad at reacting to being stabbed repeatedly and usually fumble their defense.

  “Ray, Hewka, kill that last Redcap!” Rauvin shouted over the fray, “it is directing the others!”

  Saying kill “that” Redcap gives us no idea where the damn thing is of course, and since Redcaps are smart enough to understand speech it has probably moved after being called out like that anyway. Still, Ray and I moved towards the location Rauvin indicated smashing and biting, cutting and slicing our way through the crowd.

  In some ways, I felt invincible as we slaughtered our way through the Goblins who just barely were occasionally able to bite or scratch me, but for all that we had killed the crowd of them had yet to thin. Even Ylma’s fire wasn’t enough to make a dent in their numbers it seemed!

  I caught a glimpse of our target through the crowd: a slightly larger Redcap flanked by two Hobgoblin bodyguards. I could see it shouting and pointing, ordering the Goblins about. Rauvin had explained that Goblins were simultaneously suicidally brave and utterly craven at the same time. They would die for their leaders - generally Evolved Goblins - but without their leaders they would not even take a fight they would win anyway. So if we killed that Redcap and Hobs this tribe would likely break apart and flee.

  Which, ultimately, was our goal. Because actually killing every Goblin was widely considered to be impossible, general practice with Goblins was to kill their leaders and scatter the tribe. Most of the ones that ran would be picked off by wild monsters because a lone Goblin is a dead Goblin. Personally, I had difficulty imagining living in a country that would tolerate any amount of monsters. Were it up to me, I’d have taken armies and scoured the entire world of monsters. Don’t get me wrong, I am kind of liking being a badass wyvern, but if I wasn’t a mass of teeth, toxin, claws and magical death I would be less happy about the whole thing.

  Ray vaulted onto my back and we took to the air again. I was kind of getting the hang of this now and was able to snag a Hob when I landed! For all that Hobs were stronger than regular Gobs and that my Stats were low, the physics of gravity and sharp claws were still mightier than the numbers of the system.

  [You have defeated a Lvl. 0 (Adult Hobgoblin) - Lvl. 13 (Scavenger) - Lvl. 6 (Warrior) - Lvl. 2 (Bodyguard) and earned Party xp!]

  The other Hob clubbed me in the head hard in recompense, and I stumbled dazed. Ray ignored the Hob for now and tried to shoot the Redcap before Ylma’s spell wore off. This Redcap was better than the other one though and while the arrow hit, it took the blow in its shoulder instead of through its throat. Meanwhile, I was still trying to get my bearings as the Hobgoblin advanced. A blast of compressed magical air pushed it back slightly, but it had both feet planted and was able to resist. My [Aerokinesis] could stand to be stronger, I think. The only reason I was able to knock the turtle tentacles away was because it tussled with Thunderbird beforehand.

  I tried to move forward and bite this Hob but it was smarter than the other one, merely taking a step back and to the side while swinging its club at my head again.

  [You have taken a heavy blow! You have lost 20hp!]

  Why do they keep hitting me in the head!? Oh, yeah, because I have to put my head out to bite them. The Redcap was advancing - it had an actual sword - and I was too unsteady to allow Ray to aim properly so she jumped down. I could feel her worry through the Bond, but I sent reassurance through it. If she left to fight the Redcap I would take the Hob.

  She did and I got my feet back under me as I faced my foe again. This Hob really was different from the others. Even the first Redcap hadn’t fought with any technical skill, it had just taken advantage of its bullshit racial ability. This Hob, on the other hand, was in a fighting stance. It seemed to know how to fight properly!

  It had higher Stats, equipment - including armor - and knew how to fight while I had toxins, some magic, sharp teeth and claws, as well as the ability to fly. My best bet would be to try to poison it and run, but given that it wore clothes and armor that wouldn’t be so easy. My best bet would be to not fight this enemy at all, but if I did that it would join the Redcap fighting Ray.

  No, I had to fight and I would have to fight this battle straight up, but I had one last advantage. Sure, this Hobgoblin knew how to fight, but so did I. As a [Battle Maid] I had been trained to fight whereas this Hob would have had to learn from observation; it wasn’t just facing some wild wyvern, it was facing me.

  And I had killed far better warriors than this.

  I spun, bringing my tail to bear. The Hobgoblin dodged and then moved forward to take advantage of the opening, only to be caught by my suddenly extended wing! [Aerokinesis] brought the off balance monster to the ground and I pounced. It struggled underneath my claws as I tried to bite it, eventually using its great strength to throw me off but as far as I was concerned I had already won. Cuts from my claws could be seen through tears in its clothes, leaking blood where the armor had failed to protect it.

  Except, it didn’t fall. No, it was still standing and watching me warily, but it was shaking now. Apparently my toxin was not enough to kill it, at least not yet. It advanced again, cautiously, and I decided to Jump into the fight talons first. It rolled out of the way, striking me painfully but not strongly - but I had expected this. I used [Aerokinesis] to blow myself off my feet, knocking me into the Hob.

  It could have hurt me very badly - perhaps kill me - when I did that, but I knew it wouldn’t. This Hobgoblin was smarter than the others, but intelligence could be a weakness in battle. It had Evolved from a Goblin and knew what it was like to be stupid, it knew that it was better to fight smarter, but it had yet to learn how to control the more complex emotions that went along with that.

  The average Goblin wouldn’t really be smart enough to understand that my poison would eventually kill it if it kept fighting me. Oh sure, your average Goblin could figure it out in a non-combat situation, but figuring that out in the middle of a fight was a bridge too far. This Hob, on the other hand, was aware of the danger.

  It was too aware.

  It was afraid of being poisoned more.

  It was afraid of death.

  And I was not.

  In its haste to get away I was able to bite down on its arm and push my venom into its blood. It screamed in agony and tried to force me to release it, but it was getting weaker and I wasn’t about to let it go. In fact, I took it with me as I spread my wings and took off.

  It had dropped its weapon, so it was trying to claw at me with its own free hand as we rose into the sky. I took damage, but not enough for me to stop, it was too ineffective in its panic. It hadn’t realised that we had gotten too high for realising it to be a good thing.

  I, on the other hand, did and decided to finally oblige the Hob and let go. Poisoned and bleeding, it dropped sixty feet to the ground.

  [You have defeated a Lvl. 14 (Adult Hobgoblin) - Lvl. 19 (Warleader) - Lvl. 15 (Barbarian) - Lvl. 12 (Raider) - Lvl. 4 (Skirmisher) and earned Party xp!]

  In a way, I have to feel sorry for that Hob. With better equipment and a modicum of training it could have beaten me without trouble. If Ray had known it was that strong she probably would never have let me fight it alone, but it probably couldn’t even use its full Strength without breaking its weapon.

  Plus, while the lesser Goblins threw themselves at me without a care, it treated me far more carefully because it recognized me as a dangerous type of monster. However, it didn’t know that I was actually weaker than it was. It didn’t need to dance around and try to avoid me, it could have just waded in and beat me to death.

  Ray was far more better matched with her opponent. No, she was better than the Redcap and was ending the fight now. I flew down to her side as the Goblins backed away. It took a little while longer for the rank and file Goblins to notice, but soon they were fleeing into the trees, leaving behind piles of their dead.

  “That Hobgoblin was actually quite strong,” I noted to Ray. “I was surprised by it.”

  “I saw the notification,” She smiled at me, patting my head. “I am amazed that you were able to fight a Hob like that, let alone kill it. It is incredibly rare to see one like that, and incredibly worrying…”

  I couldn’t really see why. I mean, isn’t one of the basic monster strategies to have a lot of offspring and let the best rise to the top? Given how numerous Goblins are supposed to be, I would expect that even rare exceptions would appear often. Not my problem either way, hopefully.

  We cleaned the area, in the sense that we executed any wounded or pretending to be dead Goblin, recovered as much of the raided goods as we were able to find, and put out Ylma’s fires (which she could do pretty easily, so we didn’t have to worry about a forest fire) and set off back to Evergold. There, we would be questioned regarding the recovered goods, myself included. Considering that bars of gold were part of what we recovered, I can see why they would be careful with that questioning and use magic to confirm.

  It was a tiny bit tempting, but gold was useless if you couldn’t spend it and what I wanted to purchase was from the Adventurer’s Guild itself: information about Wyvern Evolutions. The Guild didn’t give out information for free - unless it was directly related to a request above a certain level of danger or value - but you could purchase information on monsters from them. To an Adventurer, it was useful information that might save their lives; to a monster like me, it literally was my life.

  Although I thought that withholding for payment what I viewed as critical information from Adventurers was probably bad for the Sapient and Demihuman races of this world overall, the information was not expensive. I just wouldn’t have any money until I got my share of the reward for this request.

  On the way back to Evergold, I did ask Rauvin - through Ray - about the Hobgoblin, because with how things generally worked out for me I presumed it would become my problem regardless of what I hoped. The answer I got was surprising though:

  “Well, I have to correct you a bit first,” Rauvin began as we hiked, or everyone besides Ray and Ylma hiked. I was carrying them because I thought it was hilarious when Ylma told Tamlin that only plebs had to walk. They would have to get off soon, I was too tired to carry them for long, but it was worth it for the laugh.

  Turning my attention back to Rauvin he began to explain a bit about the Hob I fought.

  “[Warleader] sounds like an intimidating Class, but it really isn’t great.” Rauvin began, “same with [Barbarian]. The images that pop into your head when you think of that are - wait, how do you know what a barbarian is? Whatever, the point is that the Hobgoblin probably wasn’t as strong as you are imagining it to be. [Warleader] is a combination of [Warrior], [Leader], and [Tribesmember] and it is an ok Class, but it really isn’t great. And [Barbarian] is actually a lot like [Commoner] or [Tribesmember], just a basic Class that some groups of Sapients and Demihumans can have. It might have broken three hundred Strength, but I doubt it would have gone much over two hundred in most others.”

  That seems plenty strong to me. Over three times stronger as a human? Plus twice as fast, durable, and perceptive? Of course, the average here would be higher. Even someone who is merely a [Commoner] would have at least some Statbenefits from their Levels, but I suspect twenty points here or there wouldn’t make much of a difference.

  But I do get Rauvin means by that, because when he was talking about the Classes he was talking about more than just Stats. Pure Stats don’t make up for abilities unless the difference is massive, and I have three defensive abilities that improve my hide. It would be different if the Hob was armed with better weapons - a battleaxe might have allowed it to kill me in a single blow - but bludgeoning me to death was simply not easy to do.

  “What Ray was worried about…” Rauvin seemed to think for a second and then shook his head, “Nah, I just can’t see a Goblin Swarm happening here - not with just that. The area around Evergold is too wild and that mass of Goblins would attract a monster that they weren’t capable of dealing with. Like the Thunderbird.”

  “Why did you think that Hob might be a sign of a Goblin Swarm?” I asked Ray, “and what exactly is a Goblin Swarm?”

  “It is exactly what it sounds like, but no amount of imagination can really compare to seeing one,” it was Tamlin who answered, I was surprised he was able to understand me! However, I didn’t interrupt him because he was very grim and serious about this topic.

  “Everyone knows that Goblins breed. They breed like crazy, but they usually die just as fast to monsters or Adventurers or just your average guards. It might sound obvious, but more Goblins means more Goblins breeding which means more Goblins, so if Goblin numbers aren’t kept low they can eventually explode out of control.”

  “Goblins are true omnivores; it's a racial ability - they can eat very nearly anythingand everything, but when they hit that tipping point and their population climbs there isn’t even enough dirt to keep them all full.”

  “So they go looking for more. Spreading out and breeding out of control, they can scour a land down to the bedrock if given time. Just an unending wave of green that eats everything in its path and doesn’t even leave bones behind!”

  Karlin put his hand on Tamlin’s shoulder and the kid nearly jumped out of his skin. There was a story there, but I knew better than to pry - it was a story that I didn’t need to be told to be able to guess what it was about.

  The rest of the group changed the subject while Ray filled me in - quietly - why stronger Hobs could be a sign of a Goblin Swarm. Goblin Swarms happened when Goblins began to suppress the monsters around them. When that happened, more Goblins lived, which meant more Goblins Leveled. So a high Level Hobgoblin - especially in a tribe that had multiple Evolved Goblins - could be a sign that too many Goblins were surviving too long.

  However, Rauvin had a very good point. There were monsters here that wouldn’t give a damn about numbers and could turn almost any amount of Goblins into a buffet. I can’t imagine any amount of Goblins bothering that turtle, for example. Plus, even if there was a Swarm, Ivano would just wave a hand at it and it would go away - along with everything in that general direction.

*The Next Day*

  [Dancing has Leveled up! Dancing is now Level 3!]

  ...Yes, I’ll admit I was dancing in place with excitement. How could I not? I had purchased - or Ray had purchased for me, using my money - information on Wyvern Evolutions! Ray and I had simply walked down to the Guild and bought it! I had not honestly expected them to hand it over; I sure wouldn’t have done so if I had to decide whether or not to give the flying magic shark information on how to become an even more deadly flying magic shark!

  Perhaps it was because it was printed with magic into a packet, and the [Guild Receptionist] was well aware that I didn’t have the ability to turn the pages! Ray had to do it for me! Well, Ylma was doing it now actually. Ray, Ylma, and Tamlin had all been interested in my future Evolutions - although I think Tamlin was mostly interested because Ray was.

  “Wow, there are a lot of Evolutions,” he was saying with a whistle.

  “Wyverns are considered one of the most adaptable monster species that exist,” Ylma noted as she scanned each page quickly before turning it. “They can live just about anywhere and their eggs are easily affected by high mana concentration - although I do have to agree, this is a lot more than I expected as well.”

  It had cost me a lot more than it would have if I had asked about another species because the Guild had to print multiple pages, and magic printing in this world was not nearly as convenient as the scientific one was.

  “Volcano Wyvern, Lava Wyvern, Magma Wyvern - how are they even different!?” Ylma started muttering, “Even if we just stick to Evolutions that come from Gale Wyverns, there are so many!”

  “Why not just pick the strongest and head towards that?” Tamlin asked, and frankly it wasn’t the worst idea. However, I could tell Ray was about to respond to that.

  “‘Strongest’ isn’t something so easily measured. Consider yesterday’s fight,” Ray pointed out. “Hewka already has her own strength; she should choose something that enhances what she already has.”

  “Poison and/or durability then,” Ylma says, passing the booklet to Tamlin who begins to leaf through it. With her eyes closed she begins to recite from memory, “So for poison you’d want a way to deliver it from range. Let me think… Smoke, Ash, Mist, Fog, or Cloud Wyverns would be the best bet there. As for durability… Dust maybe? Honestly, starting from Gale you don’t have many choices in that unless you want to aim for a triple Element Elder stage Evolution, but only Ray and you would be alive to see something like that.”

  “She could do a horizontal Evolution,” Tamlin suggested, shrugging as Ylma’s face twisted into a scowl. “Sure, it adds a lot to her needed xp, but it opens up a lot more options, doesn’t it?”

  “The issue with that would be that my Stats would still be low,” I said, with Ray and Tamlin nodding in understanding while Ylma was still confused as to what I said. “They don’t show the exact Stats in this information, but based on what I have seen I am expecting a large boost from my Juvenile Evolution. Enough that I won’t have to worry about a random Hob braining me.”

  Ylma though, once it was explained to her, had an idea.

  “You were a Lesser Wyvern, and now you are a regular Gale Wyvern,” she said smiling at me suddenly. “But you could be a Greater Wyvern if you did a horizontal Evolution, right?”

  She grabbed the booklet back from Tamlin and flipped to the page she needed, “You could Evolve into a Young Greater Lake Wyvern, I think. You have that ability called [Breathes through her Skin], right? It would take some effort, but with proper training you could meet the requirements for that and it would probably be a better Stat boost than the one that you got for becoming a Young Gale Wyvern, plus it would set you up for a dual-element Juvenile Evolution!”

  At first I wasn’t so sure, but for all of Ylma’s flaws, being unpersuasive was definitely not one of them.