A few moments earlier, in a forest made of red and brown candy, located inside a Dungeon called Sweet Reprise, a one-tailed Rakna clenched the head of a large monster made of dripping blocks of chocolate.

“[Rift,]” he muttered and in a matter of seconds, the dimensions became erratic and due to the meager defense of the creature, half of its body turned into minced blocks.

“That was a level 60 Wilden with high physical damage resistance…” Kaelith commented from the sidelines with her arms crossed. “Are you sure that you’re a clone?”

Rakna snorted and mentally controlled his body’s nano-material to boil the chocolate on his hand and then shed it like some sort of dust. He passively noted that overloading was possible in order to gain short-term buffs. He wondered if his other selves had figured that out.

“To be fair,” Allan’s voice interjected as he rubbed his wrists, walking away from a field destroyed by the impacts of his fists and where remains of glazed creatures laid inert. “Dimensional power sounds like a cheat just by the name.”

The therian shrugged and turned to Nyx who was dragging a very large monster, this time organic, unlike the rest of the 50th Plateau’s Wilden, with her shadows. But it still had some… toppings? It was as if it wore cream as clothes.

“The Boss is level 80,” Flavia remarked and glanced at Pronos. “It should barely be enough, right?”

The little snake nodded eagerly and slithered around the bull-like monster’s neck. He enlarged himself a bit before biting and releasing a potent poison. At the same time, his eyes shone with an infinity sign and the creature swiftly died.

❮ ◈ ❯

You have completed the Sweet Reprisal!

Difficulty: Fiendish

Number of Participants: 7 | Average Level of Participants: 190

Rewards: 10 000 Talys, ‘Sweet Deal’ Proficiency Card, ‘Candy Potion’ x3

❮ ◈ ❯

A minute later, the group was teleported out and they all focused on Pronos who stood upright on top of a large confect flower. He seemed to be tilting his head at a notification he received.

“Hey, how many evolution paths can pets usually choose from?” Rakna asked Kaelith.

“Depends. Attribute distribution, magic elements, traits, personality, race… All of those variables determine possible evolution paths. As for your little guy… I wouldn’t be surprised if he had the maximum number of possible choices; which is ten.”

“Just like our Paths then,” Marie commented.

Rakna hummed and as he was observing Pronos, the little guy looked back at him with a probing eye. “No need to ask me. Take what you want,” he reassured him and the little snake nodded before using his tail to select something on his system window.

Instantly, Rakna’s Soul Sight activated and his eyes widened as he noticed an exchange between his soul and Pronos’. It would have been near undetectable if not for his absurd senses.

Then, it started. A green and purple aura erupted around Pronos and nearly knocked over a few members of the group. The pillar of light shrouded the little snake’s body but they could hear and see his silhouette twisting.

At first, Kaelith frowned at the sight and then opened her mouth wide as a very familiar feeling washed over her. Rakna didn’t seem to have missed it either as Eye of Symphony recorded every change in his sight.

Gradually, they saw the silhouette expand far over Pronos’ previous maximum size. His body grew wider, especially below his head, like a cobra, and glowing lines of blue energy shone through his scales. His head was then slanted to the side and instantly, eight other appendages grew out in the blink of an eye.

They branched out and extended before forming very menacing heads with prominent fangs and glowing green and blue slitted eyes. Right after, the aura dispersed into a shockwave and everyone could now see him unobstructed after stopping shielding their eyes.

“Shit… you take the scary crown from the dragon-wannabe,” Allan commented uneasily as he bent his neck to look at the nine-headed creature towering above him.

Pronos’ scales were far more distinct than before and there were random patterns of Eion energy coursing through the perceivable gaps. Additionally, some spikes had grown around his heads like a crude crown. But most importantly, he easily was over twenty meters tall without even counting the rest of his body slithering on the ground.

The nine pairs of eyes blinked and the heads momentarily moved on their own dissociated course before they all focused on Allan whose expression twitched.

“This is…” Kaelith mumbled in shock and one of the heads turned toward her while the eight others spread out to everyone else.

Pronos lowered one head to Rakna and hissed softly; at least from his perspective. Due to the size of his head and mouth, it felt more like a low purring sound.

But Rakna simply snorted and stroked the serpent’s head, a bit over his nose, and he let out a cry of contentment. As he did that, Rakna mused as he opened his pet’s status.

❮ ◈ ❯

Name: Pronos

Master: Rakna Xiorra

Age: 4 | Level: 100

Race: Nine-Headed Eion Hydra | Path: Ouroboros (+)(Path Quest Available)

Titles: Poison Master, Legendary Imperial Guardian, Mythical Serpent, Serpent King

Potential: S | Pet Rank: VIII

Attributes:

STR: 35.6 -> 55.6 | END: 90.8 -> 100* + 16.26

SPD: 95.9 -> 100* + 15.9 | DEX: 14.2 -> 34.2

INT: 68.9 -> 88.9 | LCK: 3.5

SPD and END capped until First Ascent is carried out.

Statistics:

STA: 522.3 -> 600 | MP: 1048.5 -> 1363.5

SWI: 337.6 -> 387.8 | AGI: 134.3 -> 178.4

SEN: 374.3 -> 323.1 | ATC: 313 -> 382.2

ATT: 320.6 -> 426.6 | DEF: 413 -> 450.72

MA: 223.7 -> 286.7 | MR: 5.44 -> 7.02

Proficiencies:

- Bite (Lv. 15 ⋆)

- Grapple & Strangle (Lv. 13 ⋆)

- Mana Control (Lv. Ex)

- Mana Sense (Lv. Ex)

- Tracking (Lv. 9)

- Magic Theory (Lv. 8)

- Melee Combat Mastery (Lv.6)

- Flight (Lv. 6)

- Magic Circle Theory (Lv. 3)

- Magic Formation Theory (Lv.3)

- Runecraft (Lv.2)

- Soul Sense (Lv. 5)

…

Magic Skills:

Myriad Poison Magic (Lv. Ex) => [Bane of Atrophy (T.5), Gu (T.6), Myriad Death (T.6-5), Salve of Toxin (T.7), Poison Arrow (T.8-6); Acidic Venom (T.9-6); Poison Fog (T.9-7); Paralyzing Fog (T.10-9)]

- Infinity Magic (Lv.8) => [Mana Accel (T.7), Kinetic Accel (T.8), Status Alteration (T.10)]

- Mystic Magic (Lv.1) => [Uniform] – [Infinity Non-Compatible]

Cognitive Skills (Passive):

- Poison Immunity (Lv--)

- Physical Damage Resistance (Lv. 18 ⋆)

- Magical Damage Resistance (Lv. 15 ⋆)

- Aura (Lv. 12 ⋆)

- Pain resistance (Lv. Ex)

- Fear Resistance (Lv. Ex)

- Fatigue Resistance (Lv. Max)

…

Spontaneous Skills (Active):

- Poison-Secretion (Lv.18 ⋆)

- Anesthetic Secretion (Lv.14 ⋆)

- Reinforcement (Lv. 12 ⋆)

- Camouflage (Lv. 11 ⋆)

- Stealth (Lv. Ex)

- Gigantism (Lv. Ex)

- Mana Air Step (Lv. 9)

- Scan (Lv.9)

- Projectile Reinforcement (Lv.7)

- Eion Burst (Lv.3)

…

- Call of Fangs (Lv.1)

Nirvana Skills:

- Nine-Fold Kaleidoscope: A Nirvana Skill born alongside the Mythical Birth of a Unique Creature; The Nine-Headed Hydra. The user possesses nine heads capable of parallel thinking and united processing capability.

As the strength of the user grows, they will be able to use more and more heads to cast magic at the same time with reduced mana consumption.

Current Number of Multi-Casting Heads: 5.

Current Multi-Cast Mana Consumption Reduction: -50%.

Next Upgrade: Lv.100/Lv.200

It is also possible for the heads to unify their efforts to cast a spell. The latter will have potency proportionate to the number of heads used to conjure it.

Unique or Racial Traits:

- Eion Scales

- Eion Poison

- Eion Blood

- Night Vision

- Thermal Vision

- Echo Vision

- Living Pool of Fatality

- Nine-Headed Hydra’s Verve: The holder of this trait possesses nine heads and cannot be killed as long as one head remains intact. If all heads are not destroyed before at least one is regenerated, the holder will eventually regenerate all damage.

- Superior Hydra Regeneration: This skill allows for accelerated cellular regeneration. The effects are multiplied when regenerating heads and an injury is sure to be healed within ten minutes, no matter the severity.

Note: The regeneration speed is heavily influenced by the holder’s internal force. The lower it is, the slower the regeneration will be.

❮ ◈ ❯

“Mystic Magic…” Kaelith voiced out when Rakna finished scanning everything on the status. “Nine heads; along with the magic affinity only given to myths on par with our clan…”

“Is it abnormal for a Hydra to have nine heads?” Evelyn asked curiously.

“I don’t think so,” Nyx was the one who replied. “I have encountered Hydras in the past. It is true that most of them have eight heads but some rare mutations have 9, 10, sometimes 12, heads. But this is not anything like it, is it?” She followed up and the vixen nodded slowly as Pronos watched them talk from nine different angles at once.

“This ninth head of his is certainly a mutation; one caused by his connection with wolfy,” she said thoughtfully. “But what makes this unbelievable is the Mystic Magic he received. This is more than just a Nine-Headed Hydra… he’s existentially equal to the Nine-Tailed Clan.”

“Hm, do you think he’ll unlock specialized skills as he grows?” Rakna wondered. “For example, a variant of Tail Clone or the Tailed Pearl?”

“I don’t know… and that’s what’s scary about it,” she said with a shake of her head. “Awesome. One more thing to be careful about. If someone notices the Mystic traces in your pet as well as the nine heads, the council might get all cranky and insecure again. I’ll make sure to tell mom so that she can take them down a peg when it happens.”

“I’m just curious about your council at this point,” Rakna retorted. “Are they working their hardest in order to fill all stereotypical checkmarks of pompous nobility? If so, they’re nailing it.”

Kaelith snickered. “You have no idea.”

The two of them were pulled out of their conversation when they heard a resounding boom near them. They turned to the source and blinked at the scene of a fifteen-meter-tall Asura playing around with the twenty-meter-tall Hydra. They crushed several trees and boulders made out of sweets whilst rolling around.

“You dunces!” Higure shouted and grew to a height of ten meters with Gigantism. It seemed that undead creatures had great compatibility with the skill. She leaped above the two behemoths and hit both their heads, or at least one in Pronos’ case.

The lioness’ eyes glowed and shockingly, the two beasts were forced to hunch down as if a force was pushing them. This was one of the basic applications of Echo Magic, which repeated a physical hit several times.

“Now, listen here, you twerps.” Higure started a lecture about how they should be careful of their surroundings when playing while the others watched wryly.

“She has an unexpected motherly side to her, huh?” Flavia commented with a smile and the others nodded in amusement.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rakna was zooming through the air at three times the speed of sound when he spotted a red patch of terrain in the distance; a heavy contrast with the rest of the landscape.

“Finally,” he muttered and triggered Artzpul to make a sharp turn. His speed increased for a short burst and he quickly arrived at his destination. He then activated his skill again to kill his excessive momentum and land safely.

He turned off his ‘Accelerated Perception’ and exhaled as his left eye began to release a bit of fume due to the heating internals. Rakna grunted as he felt a pricking pain conveyed to him.

“I can’t use this thing for a long time as I am,” he said to himself and placed a finger on his closed eyelid. He conjured a small amount of frost energy to cool down Eye of Symphony. “Hm, even if I do this, it’s just a makeshift solution. I can probably resort to my augmented perception for five minutes if I keep it at x2. Higher than that and it would be dangerous.”

“{That is still decent. For what it does, the setback is reasonable,}” Fray commented. “{And your eye will probably become better as your organic parts grow stronger as well. Your body, machine yet not, is indeed a marvel…}”

Rakna hummed in agreement and used Fabled Sight to observe the weird patch of red grass a few dozens of meters away from him. It was about a kilometer wide and in its center was a sort of hole from which occasional embers would emerge.

“So, that’s a Fire Well…” Rakna muttered and star flashed to it. He peeked inside and his golden eyes pierced through the boundless fire he was presented with. After a moment, he extended his hand and started drawing a constellation.

When he completed it, he flicked it and cued it to manifest. He glanced at the figure that appeared next to him and ordered only one thing, “Aquarius, drown this well.”