Chương 306: Evolution

The Snow Hawk's feathers were glowing with a soft white light. Its beak and talons were also glowing, and Damion could feel the Snow Hawk's magic power was increasing. At first, he had been worried this was a side effect of giving the Ferocious Beast a Healing Potion. However, when Phil's magic power reached B Rank and the Snow Hawk's entire body was enveloped in a blinding light, Damion realized this was something else.

True Sight allowed Damion to keep looking at Phil through the brightness and he could see the Snow Hawk was not just reaching B Rank, it was changing. Evolving into something else. That thought helped Damion realize what was going on. Phil was evolving into a Demonic Beast. Supposedly, the process of Ferocious Beasts evolving into Demonic Beasts took hundreds or even thousands of years. Longer than the lifetimes of all but the strongest creatures.

Damion could only guess that his bond with Phil and the fact that the Ferocious Beast had consumed so many Ice affinity cores, the Snow Hawk's body had become saturated with enough mana that it could trigger the evolution. Grabbing his tablet, Damion quickly started recording Phil's transformation before the process was over. This was quite likely a once in a lifetime opportunity and if he could get a recording of this and let researchers study it, there was no telling what humans may learn.

After a few more moments the glow around Phil began to dim. At the same time, the Snow Hawk began to grow, nearly reaching two meters in height when standing on the ground. Any larger and Damion might be able to ride the beast instead of using his Ice Sword to fly. From the crown of Phil's head grew a horn that was pure white like its feathers but bore a strange pattern that almost looked like snowflakes scattered across the surface of the horn.

The alulae at the second wing joints also grew and turned from just winglets into something resembling one of Phil's other talons. With such a weapon on its wings, the deadliness of Phil's physical attacks would increase considerably since it could just swipe its wing across something to open a gash. As the glow around Phil continued to fade, the former Snow Hawk's growth, both physical and magical, came to an end. Damion paused to take a look at the majestic creature Phil had become.

It did not look like any Demonic Beast he was familiar with. The closest he could compare Phil to would be a Blizzard Hawk, but the horn on Phil's head told Damion that was not quite right. A horn on the top of the head like Phil now had, was usually considered a crown. And it was only found in the more powerful of Demonic Beasts. Since, as far as Damion knew, Phil was a new species of Demonic Beast, he decided to give it a new name.

"You are now a Blizzard King," Damion told Phil and stopped his tablet from recording. He chose the name since he was no longer sure if Phil could still be considered a Hawk and the snowflake patterns on the Demonic Beast's horn when looked at closely somewhat resembled a blizzard.

'Blizzard King.' Phil repeated through their bond. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. A moment later, Phil's horn started glowing and in a radius of twenty meters around them, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. Snow began falling and Damion realized he was in a miniature blizzard created by Phil.

"That's great Phil. Looks like you have new magic attacks."

'Stronger in snow.'

"Stronger in the snow? Oh, well that makes sense," Damion said. His own Ice spells were stronger when the mana around him matched his main affinity. He learned this from his use of Frost Over. Phil, being an Ice affinity Demonic Beast would naturally be stronger in its natural habitat.

Ding [Spell Ice Familiar mastery increased to C Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit] The notification from the Magic System brought a smile to Damion's face. Now, not only had Phil evolved to a Demonic Beast, but their bond even rose to the next level.

Damion quickly set his tablet to forward his recording of Phil's evolution to Mage Teft and Arica in a few hours, just in case his messages were being watched, he did not want to send a message from the location the Justiciar's had started fighting with Phil. He then did the same for a message to Leland that he was going to travel on to Bufort before setting out to explore. With no reason left to stick around the Benault Forest, Damion took out his auto-mapper artifact and summoned his Ice Sword.

"How about we try out those new wings," Damion told Phil as he started to hover. The Demonic Beast chirped back and then, with a few flaps of its powerful wings, took to the air after Damion. The pair quickly rose above the treetops and began flying over the forest. Since it was already night, and he could reach Bufort quite quickly by air, Damion decided to fly around Benault Forest and get an accurate map for the Explorer Guild.

Plenty of people had been through the forest before, but he wondered just how accurate a map of it there was. After all, he recalled the Falk Guild had once kept secret a Realm Breach they discovered in the forest and Damion had discovered a second Breach in another part of the forest. If two Breaches could go undiscovered, there was no reason there could not be more and Damion was betting that his new artifact could find them.

He did have to admit that it was unlikely the auto-mapper could find a Breach underground, but it was not out of the realm of possibilities. After a few hours of flying, Damion had circled the entire Benault Forest and was now lazily flying on his Ice Sword toward Bufort. The reason for the slow journey now, was because he was reviewing the map he had just made of the Benault Forest. There was no sign of any Realm Breaches hiding in the Benault Forest, which was a bit disappointing to him.

By the time Damion reach Bufort, the sun was peeking over the horizon. He flew down and landed outside the city gates with Phil, startling the young guard on duty.

"What is that thing?"

"This is my bound familiar. Don't worry. Phil is perfectly safe," Damion tried to reassure the guard, but the guard was clearly too terrified by the aura of a B Rank Demonic Beast to accept Damion's words.

"Phil, why don't you head out and explore. Here take this with you," Damion took his auto-mapper from his armor and with a short piece of rope, fashioned Phil a simple collar for the artifact to hang from.

"There, now you can go map things for me while I do some business in town." Damion thought his idea of having Phil do some exploring for him rather clever. He could earn some cores inside Bufort for System credits and Phil could be out searching for Realm Breaches. The Demonic Beast let out a chirp and took off into the sky back towards the Benault Forest. Damion had a feeling Phil was going to check on Mr. Galen, he just hoped the bird's new appearance did not give the old man a heart attack.

"Is it really alright to let that thing fly around?" The guard asked after Phil was out of sight.

"Phil is perfectly tame. Unless someone attacks him first, he won't harm anyone." Without saying another word to the guard, Damion walked into Bufort and headed towards the Adventurer Association.