《A Life's Journey》Chapter 4.2 - Monster Instincts
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After going through that different experience Aster felt a lot of things, fear for the power of a simple memory, excited because of the artifact that he now have, thoughtful about his choices for the future and generally confused about the whole ordeal.
He understood that all that he saw was reality and not a hallucination or a kind of trick not only because he could see the changes on the necklace, which now look like it was lacking a piece, he could felt the changes inside himself too.
Inside his heart where he store his aura is now a different kind of power. At that place normally would only be present his stored aura in the form of a purple sphere of mist, but now that was different. Together with the purple mist ball was another mist shape but different from the one before, this one was a lying wolf.
The supposed skin of the wolf was made purely of gray mist, if one examined enough the wolf they could notice that there are wolf howls coming from inside the gray mist as if hiding . While Aster inspected the new thing inside him he noticed something instantly, the wolf had all that one would require to be a wolf, even if it was only energy.
The wolf was so real that it seemed to be read to jump out of his heart at any time, which really did. Aster was curious about the mysterious mist wolf but he did not knew how to interact with it, but going with his instincts he poked the wolf with his mind.
But at that moment something unexpected happened, his body started to shrink and turn in a black and white mist and at same time the lying wolf inside his chest got up and started to enlarge.
After the size of the wolf surpassed the human it soon started to materialize, taking the place of his original body. He was now a brown wolf puppy, needless to say that he was startled.Before he could even understand what happened to his own body he heard a sound coming from a bush behind him.
Rayssa was happily watching his son's first kill, strangely when he killed the wolf he became static for a few seconds. She thought that it was only a pause to confirm his first kill, she was quickly proven wrong when Aster became a wolf before her eyes.
she was shocked to the core when she saw him turning into a wolf, she could not understand what made it possible. Coming near the puppy wolf Rayssa asked, " Aster! What happened? How you turned in a wolf?" Aster gave a long glance at his mother and barked a few times, unable to pronounce human words with his wolf throat.
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Seeing Aster bark to her she felt relieved because she now knew that he still had conscience, sighing she asked him, " Can you turn back?" Aster did not thought about it for a few seconds, he had not thought about that.
He inspected again the insides of his heart, now in the place of the mist wolf there was now a black and white mist human seated in a meditative pose. Aster was truly happy seeing that mist form because he knew that it was the key to return to being a human.
Seeing Aster turn back to a human, Rayssa finally could relax now knowing that nothing permanent happened to him. Resolved to understand all that happened when they reach at home together with Dayno, Rayssa ignored all that happened and started to order Aster around, " Okay, now that we knew that it wasn't something permanent we can leave it for later. Now you'll learn how to dismantle something that you hunted." After Aster learning how to dismantle the wolf almost instantly because of his perfect memory about the anatomy of the wolf, they walked back home in silence.
At home while Aster was taking a bath Rayssa discussed about what happened at that afternoon. When Aster got back he was inquired about what happened, which made him explain what happened in the rock forest, about the man and the necklace.
The story was something hard to believe at first time but upon remembering that Aster turned into a wolf and seein the difference in the necklace they did not had any doubts anymore.
Now knowing all that happened the two looked at each other for a few moments, switching glances that only they would understand. When someone finally spoke it was Rayssa, " You'll need to start training how to fight in the wolf shape." The first thing that passed through her head was his fighting prowess of course.
Different from the barbarian the mage had different thoughts, " Do you have any idea about the races ? If not I'm going to suggest a pixie. The pixies are the specie more resourceful when the topic is mana manipulation, their racial traits made of them natural master of mana and not only that! They have a form concealment that the nature itself help them, another thing that was commonly known was that all pixies have the nature gift even if in different degrees. " The mage was fully focused on how the party may help him to grow as a mage. While both of them are thinking about Aster's growth, they are using totally different thought processes to reach the objective and it may be helpful or exhausting for him.
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Upon hearing the suggestion Rayssa remembered a foe that she found in the past, that monster exterminated almost all the expedition alone at that time, luckily she was able to escape unharmed that day. Reliving the dreadful memories Rayssa said in a hurried, almost desperated, tone, " A troll, you must find a troll. They're overpowered beings and if you have one with you'll be almost immortal because of the almost infinite regeneration. When a normal troll fight with a stronger opponent it would only exhaust it to the death, if you, someone training to be a warrior, are to have that regenerative power you'll be unstoppable." At end of her words she was even more excited, she feared that monster for agiod part if her life. Now knowing that her child may be the user of such a broken power made her really lively.
Rearing the suggestion Aster tried to remembered information about the two monster and what he remembered was very little, the only thing on the village's library was that both are Tier 4 monsters.
Nodding his head Aster answered the first question made by his father, " I thought about a bird! I always loved to see the sky when Mommy threw me up. The second one was a shapeshifter like the man on the necklace said, I don't know where to find one but I still want one." The later choice was expected as the it was a recommendation that he asked to someone who knew more than him but the former was something really childish. Even for someone mature for his age like Aster it was impossible to escape the fact that he was still a child.
Nodding her head Rayssa said, " I know a place where we can find both of them. The bird we can find easily in the forest and the shapeshifter we can find in the dungeon of Arniel city, five days of travel from here."
Now having at least a base on the future the mage made a different question " Do you think that you can evolve your wolf form now?" His thoughts are purely about the unknown fact about the monster evolutions.
Before answering the question Aster switched to his wolf form, somehow it was easier. The process itself was not faster by any means but the time need to activate the mist wolf inside his heart was faster than before.
Hearing the question Aster remembered something that he read in a book before. Monsters evolved purely based on instincts and the natural characteristics of the individual. He knew that as a human, he would never have that instinct. That is why he switched forms before answering.
Now in his wolf form Aster though again about the evolution and different from before he understood that he was ready to evolve but before evolving he needed to select among the various things that may influence his evolution.
His elemental images are the first. Using his images to evolve he may become a elemental wolf variant. This was something positive because in this form he would connect himself with the element much easier than before.
The second choice was using mana as the base of the evolution. This was not a path that Aster liked because he understood that he would become a blue wolf if he choose so. Blue wolves are a evolution that had a better capacity to use mana but giving up their physical abilities to do so, and it was not something that he was positive about.
The third path was surprisingly his connection with Kiel. He felt that using their bound to evolve he would become a wolf leader, it was a kind of wolf that had superior leading ability boosting temporarily the power of the subordinate.
The fourth was the somehow expected the gift, he knew that following this path he would become a werewolf, a extremely defected one but a werewolf nonetheless.
And the last choice was using his aura, this one was his favorite option because he could feel that by concentrating part of the aura he could strengthen only a specific part of the body or let it lose to evolve normally.
Transforming back to a human Aster reported all of that to hei parents. To ask for their thoughts about what evolution was the best.
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