"A hundred, or so. Though…" Rosha squinted at me. "You will have to move closer to the capital to buy them for that price. Around Glesk you will get yourself thirty at most, with how prices rose because of all the creatures attacking cattle."

"Well, I was going to Blue Mountains, anyway. These griffins look just like something I'd like." Especially the elemental affinity. Magic abilities were something really tasty to use. I was more used to fire, which was often seen in Hell, but ice was just as useful in combat. "Risha, what sort of trophies the Guild needs as a proof?"

"I don't know, something that's only one on each griffin… Maybe a brush from their tails?"

"Yes, that will do," Rosha said. "Male Frost Griffins have it blue, while females have it white, like all their fur. The notice says that male kills worth more. You had to know, Voren, males are much rarer to see than females."

I shrugged. "But females are worth something, too? And either way, there are a lot of monsters in the mountains. I have to see them for myself."

Rosha lowered her face and sent me a suddenly unsure look from under her eyelashes. "You look so sure, Voren, but Blue Mountains are really a very dangerous place for adventurers. Will you be careful out there?"

I grinned at her. "Sure will. Have to return to my beauties, after all!" I ignored Rosha's annoyance and gave her a half-hug.

She sure had protests about her and her sister being my beauties. But actions spoke louder than words, and her actions when we were alone again in her room spoke otherwise. And even if she had a few choice words to say about me eating some innocent people, blah blah blah, she calmed down soon enough and gave me a farewell I always dreamed of having.

The very next day, as I already had everything ready, I began my next big hunt.

⠀⠀

A man needed a week on foot to reach Blue Mountains, but on my wings I flew over that distance in a day. From the small roadside inn where I stopped for the night, the mountain range towered like an endless wall of stone and moss. The caps of never-melting snow looked like a frosting on that cake of EXP.

But before I moved on to take my bite, I opened my evolution list at last. It was time to pick out new abilities tailored for the opponents I planned to hunt.

Frost Griffins. Something that would protect me from cold specifically would be helpful, but not as much as general protection. There I preferred dodging to other things. And for that, I decided, it would be the best to evolve my 'Flight' to the level 20 and gain the next additional perk to it.

Then I calculated how much it would cost me. I had 1186k EXP stashed after all the cattle I ate… But I knew that this number was deceptive. With the costs of levels doubling every level, and the ability having the base cost of two… Levelling it from level 15 to level 20 would cost me almost twice as much as I had! Over two million!

I sighed. It seemed like I grew too used to small numbers already.

There were other options, though, and something I wanted to experiment with. Specifically, 'Malleability'. The source it came from was shitty, but the ability itself looked like a defensive option that won't cost me mobility. And worst come to worst, I could afford the EXP cost of feeding it to Pest. It only had a base cost of 2 EXP.

With all this in mind, I put these 2 EXP in it and prepared for the pain.

It started small, almost unnoticeable, but in minutes is filled my entire body with its scorching heat. It felt like even my hair hurt as I laid, curled on myself, in my room's tiny bed. But since I only bought a single level of the ability at once, at least it didn't last long.

It didn't look like anything changed in me at first when I inspected my body. My skin looked a little paler, but it could've been because of the light of the moon. My muscles and joints felt more limber, too, but it could've been in my head.

'Ah, hell with it. Better to have all the pain at once,' I thought and levelled 'Malleability' up to level 15 at once. It immediately offered me to pick from an additional perk… but I didn't have time to even look at them before pain was at me again.

It was dawn by the time I woke up from it. Remnant cobwebs of that dream-like state chained me to the bed, making me unwilling to leave this place, where I was so comfortable it felt like my body melted with the mattress.

When I tried to sit up, I realised it wasn't that far from the truth. I felt out of balance—or, to be more precise, that the balance of my body shifted in a way I wasn't used to. Not exactly a new feeling, but a new in this exact form.

My skin looked greenish and had a translucent quality to it—enough that I could see every blood vessel in my hands under light. When I didn't flex my muscles, was as soft as a jello. Even my bones felt like wet wood, one that you could bend but not break. It took me more effort to simply stand up straight, but then I found myself able to reach my crotch with my mouth.

After some experimenting, I found that my jello-like body absorbed hits like, well, jello—but by now I already knew I would keep this one. There was only one thing left to do.

['Malleability' can be evolved! Choose: 'Adaptive Defence' or 'Fluid Transformation'.]