Twig stretched his newly grown wings and enjoyed his much more robust legs. Finally he had gathered enough energy to upgrade all necessary things to unlock the [Dark Summoner] evolutionary upgrade. He had spoken to his master beforehand. Apparently he was really excited about the passive ability of this evolution [Rebirth: Dungeonstone]. For Twig all these options sounded pretty much the same so the additional approval set the decision in stone.

Immediately he went for the [Dark Summoner] path and, very similarly to last time, his body brimmed with energy. He got sleepy, rolled together and the energy began to spin around his body. After a short while he was deeply embedded in a cocoon of his own making. It felt peaceful and quiet and he quickly drifted off into a deep, deep slumber.

While evolving a lot of memories flooded Twigs mind. He dreamed of his past life, remembered being born with fangs, claws and wings. Hatching from a shell, harder than any steel. Soaring the skies and flying higher than the highest mountains. He had been fire incarnate and everything had been his prey. Be it troll, squirrel or bears. All animals fled on the spot once he arrived.

Why had his life ended? As Twig tried to focus and order his memories he remembered challenging a human city across the large sea, his older brother was not able to protect him from their magic and weapons that quickly burst through his not yet hardened scales. Had he been older, they would not have been able to even scratch him. Twig did not feel sad about his death. It was the law of nature. Now he lived again.

His new body felt different. Larger. He pushed against the cocoon that surrounded him and broke free. First his new hands crushed the layer and pushed it outwards, then his fingers that were still scaled in chitin tore it apart and he broke free. Twigs stature did no longer resemble that of a stick insect. In size he was around two thirds the height of a average human being but his head did in no way resemble them.

Sharp needle-like teeth with a scaled up face that resembled a humanoid dragon. No nose, only small nostrils, no hair and chitin scales everywhere. This trend continued throughout his whole body. Only the four arms and a few small spikes along the scales made Twig resemble his old insect body. Stretching his body, he noticed the elasticity of his scales and also… his wings.

They were not leathery and scaled like his old dragon wings had been, they were light, attached to powerful muscles on his back and most likely would allow for much quicker acceleration. Briefly testing them out to hover a few centimeters above ground Twig was satisfied. The huge room and the table on which Twig had been born now seemed ridiculously small.

With a little sentimental feeling he looked at the cut out tunnel in the wall, which now lead outside. Now he would barely fit half his body inside. Notizing that all his previous golems had collapsed back to their earthly origins he felt the need to create more. But everything felt very much different, so he checked his profile first.

[Twig - The Dark Summoner]

[Mana: 12/100.000]

[Mana Regeneration: 2 per second]

[Create: Monster Core]: Level 1

[Repair/Restore]: Level 1

[Absorption]: Level 1

[Ghost Shell]: Level 1

Apparently his entire being had changed alongside his body. Twig eyed the new abilities. The cultivation skill and his fireball were no longer available. Neither was telepathy. For a moment he felt anxious that even his golems would be gone, but then he saw another display of information down below. [Monster Book] it said. With a hopeful look he opened it.

[Monster Book]

[Golem] Level 3 - Mastery 07.17%

[Skeleton] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Zombie] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Water Spirit] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Fire Elemental] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Ice Ghost] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Possessed Goblin] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Possessed Hobgoblin] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Cave Troll] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Shadow Snake] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Barrier Turtle] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Inferno Beetle] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Spider] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Hellhound] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Mimic] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Tree of Darkness] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Myconid] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Slime] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

[Abyss Raven] Level 1 - Mastery 00.00%

Twig was a little overwhelmed at all these options. After tapping the golem option a further explanation popped up.

[Golems: A giant humanoid statue made of either earth, clay, stone or steel. Depending on the Mastery Level and material size or amount of golems summoned can be increased.]

[Manacost: 1.000 Mana]

[Monster Core Cost: 2.000 Mana]

Current Mastery Benefits:

3 Earth-Golems Maximum Size: 2 meters

2 Clay-Golems Maximum Size: 1,5 meters

1 Stone-Golem Maximum Size: 1 meter

0 Steel-Golems Maximum Size: -none-

Twig was really surprised how much the mana cost had increased. It was much more expensive and there was still a lot he did not understand. But he needed to find his master first. His master had ordered him to come to him, once the evolution had finished. And Twig somehow could not bare the thought of disappointing his master. He had been so good to him!

Twig walked towards the door and pushed at the handle. The door was not opening. He tried to apply a little more force and the door opened with a satisfying “Krraghrh!!” before it fell over on the floor. Huh. Twig did something wrong. His master needed to teach him how that worked. It had looked so easy when he had done it too…

Outside a guard down the hall came running, a halberd raised, ready to fight. “Who are you? Explain yourself!” Twig tried to explain. “Krring mi tk-to mashter!” It was hard to talk. The guard got more and more nervous too. Apparently the growling in Twig’s voice frightened him. Twig cleared his throat a couple of times and then tried again. “Bring me to mashter.” - “W-who is your master?” Twig had to think for a moment. “Teiming. Shecond-” He cleared his throat again. This talking was so hard! “Teiming. Second son. Prince.”

The guard looked surprised, but finally he called over a couple more guards and the told Twig where to go. All in all they were really friendly, although he wished they would stop pointing their pointy sticks at him. As they were leaving the castle’s lower floors the ambiente grew to be much more beautiful. No old stone slacks as walls, they were mostly painted and polished off. As they walked up and up again they came across hundreds of rooms, all either filled with guards that rested or ate or prisoners behind bars.

Apparently Twig’s master had used to lowest of rooms, to experiment all by himself, without being disturbed. Considering that he himself had not needed a lot of time to get to the outside forests, his master surely had his own secret passages. About fifteen floors later, Twig was brought to the gates. Here another set of guards took over the duty of delivering him to his master. They too, pointed their swords at him as they walked.

Twig did not feel threatened, he was proud that they feared him. Fear was good. The place had a large ramp leading down the small mountain that was the royal palace. Dozens of guard towers and gates lined up down the way and would make sieges or attacks nearly impossible. Twig liked this castle. He wanted one too. Then he could make his golems guard everything and he would be a king too.

But first he had to help his master. That was the most important thing. The walking went surprisingly well, considering Twig had never really done that before. After a couple meters down the slope he stopped. “Where do I go?” Huh. It was easier to speak now. “Where is my mashter?” Urgh. That was still wrong. Immediately he corrected himself. “-my master?” The guards pointed over towards a building that lied on the other end of the city. “Royal Military Academy. The royal servants told us that he should be there.”

“Shanks.” Damn. Wrong again. Twig shrugged and unfolded his wings. The guards shouted and tried to stop him, but Twig would be much faster this way, and his master was waiting. He had to hurry. A couple of seconds later he was high above the city, only the white needle tower was still towering above him. It looked oddly familiar. He had a feeling he destroyed it once, for some reason.

About ten short minutes of flight later he arrived at his destination. Again his arrival brought quite the commotion. He landed in the middle of a training area and just asked the first military-looking human there, where his master was. Just a few moments later he was again surrounded, swords, bows and magic pointed towards him. The magical threat felt much more real than those pointy metal weapons so Twig was beginning to be kind of concerned.

This area was clearly much more dangerous. Luckily no one attacked him and a couple of dangerous looking officers brought him to his master. Teiming and a couple other high ranking military member stood on a balcony on the second floor of a training ground building. Most likely it was used for weapon storage or as some sort of living quarters, Twig did not know.

Teiming was quite surprised when Twig suddenly showed up. “Twig! You changed… wow. Come here. I want to introduce you.” Twig wanted to tell his master all the new things that he was able to do and how much he had changed, but he obeyed. “I am just discussing the new recruits we got from the general trial this month. This is lieutenant-general Samux and Artriara. And our respected elder Commander-General Roku of Sindarith.” The four humans briefly nodded towards Twig.

It seemed appropriate to bow, but he would only do so towards his master. “Hello.” A little growl remained in his voice. Maybe that would never really go away. The old Roku raised a eyebrow. “Not a creature of many words is he?” Teiming smiled and intercepted Twig trying to talk back. “Twig is still very young. Please excuse his lack of conversational skills respected elder.”

Roku waved his hand. “Fine. Let’s continue. I am thinking we all choose two or three of these new recruits and train them. And we do a small tournament in a month or two.” Teiming raised a concern. “Wouldn’t we be a little short on time with the war preparations and all?” The old man shrugged. “Just train them on the go. We need to have them at least ready for the battle. They are worth more than most foot soldiers and they lack quite the training.”

The woman with the short hair, Artriara, agreed. “I agree. We have seen what the youngers can do, I will go ahead and take myself three.” She jumped over the edge of the balcony and walked towards the training recruits. Twig shifted his focus on the young humans down there. One really took Twigs attention. A boy, around twenty years of age tried to form a fireball. Twig was able to feel the amount of energy he raised inside his body all the way over here at the balcony. Then the energy inwarded and he collapsed.

Barely able to stand up the boy was shaking on the ground. Interesting. “Master, can I train someone too?” Roku raised another eyebrow. “Hah. Your creature thinks he can train recruits. Hahaha. Give him one. This is going to be fun. Can’t wait to see that shit!” Manically laughing he walked out the door, and headed downstairs.

Teiming waited a bit for Samux to leave too and then finally spoke to Twig directly. “If you think you can train one and win the tournament, I will buy you anything you want. Hell, I will give you your own battalion!” Twig liked the sound of that. His own military force.

Teiming lead him downstairs, and Twig could not wait to claim this human for himself. He would tourtu- no, train the guy so much he would d- no, get really strong. His master had questions too: “Now. Tell me, how does your new evolution feel like?”