I couldn't help but wait excitedly for the night to come. Frequently, I found myself opening my [Status], just to reread the words [Young Bloodletter Keelish Alpha: 10/10. Evolution unlocked.]

Finally, I had acquired enough followers to qualify for this evolution I had wanted from the beginning. In retrospect, this evolution was definitely better than the one that the other alphas had gotten, but I was still stoked to be where I was now.

However, it was still early evening, it was in my best interests to at least get to know the new members of the pack. All four were females, and, judging from their body shapes and so on, they were deemed less attractive than the other three that had chosen to follow Shemira. I paused, and realized that I was coming to understand the aesthetic sense of a reptile. Shaking my head, I began to talk with my new packmates.

"So, why did you choose to follow me over Shemira?"

"... Call it intuition, but I believe what you said before. I think that it is only a matter of time before you become the alpha of this entire group. Shemira is a schemer, but she will need to bow before your power. Thus, I think it better to follow you now, while you still need support from us. Once you have achieved your aims, I'm sure you will have established who your trusted followers are, and I wish to be one of your trusted."

Ok, she's smart. I had come to the realization recently that the more the pack grew, the more distant I became from all but the upper echelons. I looked her in the eye.

"What is your name?"

"Tieran did not see me deserving of a name before I bore him a clutch, and I disagreed with his general outlook, thus any chances of mating dwindled."

For the briefest moment, I thought of filling the '1' gap left by Oncli's death, but decided against it.

"Then, your name is now Sybil. I hope you live up to the name." I had thought of the name as it was somewhat similar to the word for 'wise' in the Veushten (my old tribe) tongue.

Sybil cocked her head, then nodded as a slow grin spread across her face. "I'll do so, whether my worth is found in following you or not." She was going to be hard to please, but I didn't much mind her upfront attitude.

I quickly named the other three females, Octavi, Illne, and Netre. Octavi was constantly hanging around Sybil, but always quiet. Illne, on the other hand, seemed to be enamored with Took and her powerful figure, and followed her around like a toddler, excitedly asking her questions about every inane thing. Took, for her part, didn't seem to mind much, but stayed her generally unresponsive self, which seemed to infatuate Illne even more. Netre followed the twins around, and was quickly adopted into their little group of now 4 (the twins, her and Brutus).

Sybil looked around the den, then turned back to me.

"So, we need more space. I imagine that once you get Shemira to join with you, you won't want to acquiesce to her and move over to her space. Is that correct? It seems like the kind of power play that she would make."

After she had spoken, I realized that she was absolutely correct. I nodded. "What would you suggest that we do?"

Sybil seemed surprised at me valuing her opinion, and cautiously began to speak. "I suggest we spend the rest of the day expanding here. If we have a couple of the pack dedicated to expanding from Tieran's den, then we could connect the two, thus lessening the necessary effort."

"Smart. From here, where do we need to dig towards?"

She looked briefly, and gestured towards a corner near the door in.

"Great. Then take Took, Brutus, Illne and Vefir and start digging from the other den. We'll take it from here."

I gestured to Took and briefly explained the plan. She was quick on the uptake, and gathered the others before pulling the baffled Sybil along towards the other den.

...

It was probably a couple of hours' worth of work to finish the tunneling, but we were able to cleanly connect the two dens and create one large one that would easily sleep the 30 or so spawnlings that remained.

Finally, it was time to go to sleep for the night, I had never been quite so excited for a night's rest as I was that night. It was different this time, since I hadn't known exactly what was going to happen the first time, but this time I basically knew what I was waiting for, so there was more excitement than nervousness.

[Would you like to commence evolution?]

[Warning: Evolution requires a basic restructuring of your body. You will fall unconscious as the reconstruction takes place. Evolution to: Young Keelish Bloodletter Alpha will take 6 hours. Evolution will provide a marked bonus to your stats, as well as certain obvious physiological changes.]

Oh yes.

[Evolution commencing.]

I felt the fog descend over my mind, and I immediately succumbed to the darkness.

...

This timeless feeling was strange, again, but this time I knew what was coming, and immediately began calling out for the Administrator.

{Quite the impatient one you are, little keelish.} I could hear the chuckle in the Administrator's voice.

Well, I don't much enjoy this situation, and, since I only have the one question, I might as well get it out of the way sooner rather than later, so I can just get back to the whole unconsciousness thing instead of... this.

{Does this realm bother you so much? I don't think it should differ too much from sleep for you.}

For a moment, I thought about trying to stall and get information from the Administrator without expending my question, but quickly realized that I couldn't very well conduct a real conversation without any questions and quickly gave up the idea.

{Not a bad idea, but your thought process has led you where it should. I am not the most vindictive sort, but I follow the rules, and when users try to circumvent the rules, I show no pity.}

Well... I guess that's good? Anyways. I had thought about what my question should be, and, while I had thought about asking the question I had asked but hadn't had answered (what is interesting about me being a System User?), I decided I didn't get much out of that question. I'd better get real information from this question, instead of just a peace of mind.

So... other than to follow the quests given to me by the [System], how can I ensure that I am taking the correct steps towards growth?

{Ahh, a clever question, I see.} Again, the Administrator chuckled. They seemed the easily entertained sort. {The question, I think, takes a bit of history to fully explain, so here goes: The keelish race, contrary to its current state, was once much more prominent and powerful in the world. Their presence and power has been greatly reduced due to the combined efforts of others, thus they are seen as naught much more than vermin at this juncture in time. But once, there was an empire, and all knelt before the coming of the keelish emperor. It has been eons since, and the memory of this time has been washed from history. Therefore, here comes your question's answer: A keelish's place is constantly progressing, constantly dominating, and constantly ruling. Focus on how you can progress in your own path of conquest and domination, and the more you conquer, the more you will find yourself growing. You seem to already possess a rudimentary understanding of this yourself, as you have focused on packing the greatest number of evolutions into your progress as possible.}

I sat back, somewhat taken aback by all that had been dumped on me here, and was still trying to figure out what I was supposed to understand from all this when the Administrator spoke again. {A wise question there, little keelish. You have much to consider now. Sleep well, and I'm sure we'll talk again soon.}

I tried to come up with something to respond with, but darkness quickly overtook me, and then... nothing.

...

With a gasp, I sat up. Looking around, I again saw that the rest of my pack lay sleeping around me, and, just like after my previous evolution, I saw that several of my pack were radiating heat. Took, Silf, and Sybil were all evidently evolving. I wasn't too surprised about Took, given that I had long since acknowledged her as my beta, but I wondered what changes would take place in my newly evolved comrades. On the other hand, I was surprised that only Silf was evolving, not Vefir as well. Regardless of others, I was excited to check out my new status.

[Status:

Name: Ashlani

Race: Young Keelish Bloodletter Alpha

Current quest:

—Kill three Young Thunder Wolfstags. Reward: 1 Constitution, 2 Strength, 1 Magic.

Stats:

-Constitution: 5+3=8

-Strength: 9+2=11

-Agility: 13+2=15

-Intelligence: 6+3=9

-Magic: 1+1=2

Skills:

Innate Leadership—cannot evolve

Pack Tactics—current evolutionary progress: 0/10

Improved Bloodlust—current evolutionary progress: Unknown

Dominance—current evolutionary progress: 11/100

Improved Vision--current evolutionary progress: 0/18

Evolutionary foresight

-Adult Bloodletter Alpha: live 30 days. Progress: 12/30

-Young Magicblood Alpha. Prerequisites: Young Bloodletter Alpha. Requirements: Magic generating organ. Title of race will change with element of magic generating organ.

-Young Bloodletter Swarm Alpha. Prerequisites: Young Bloodletter Alpha. Requirements: acquire 50 followers. Progress: 10/50]

That's a lot of growth! 2 new skills, and a total of 11 points of growth, as well as three new evolutionary options! I decided to simply go down the list for explanations.

[Skill: Innate Leadership; a passive skill granted to all keelish alphas. All other keelish will feel a greater fondness and inclination to follow towards the skill holder. It will be easier to garner followers through the constant use of this skill. Skill cannot evolve.]

[Skill: Pack Tactics; blesses the skill holder with an innate understanding of command, allowing for clearer communication on the battlefield, as well as a rudimentary understanding of tactical advantage. Evolutionary requirements: conduct 10 large scale battles, completely routing the enemy.]

[Evolutionary foresight:

-Adult Bloodletter Alpha: A capable keelish warrior and leader. They show no mercy, and are a particularly fearsome variant of the typical keelish alpha.

-Young Magicblood Alpha: A particularly rare variant of the already rare Bloodletter keelish race. They are capable of leveraging both their physical might as well as their magic (created by their personal magic generating organs) to tear through their foes.

-Young Bloodletter Swarm Alpha: A capable keelish warrior, particularly gifted in gathering subordinates as well as larger scale battles. Their underlings are beginning to understand the meaning of swarm, and they pose a great danger to all surrounding life.]

Oh, this is going to be good.