“Did she just shed her carapace to take on her adult form?” Lotus asked weakly, excited to see Rae’s transformation, but too weak to get up and inspect her properly.
“She did. Rae, come closer, you know Lotus wants a better look.” Karl laughed.
The Bloodbath Spider dismissed the Golems, and then called them back, revealing drastically changed bodies.
For an Elite, the progression was a smooth one. The beginning of the Commander Rank was only a fraction above the top of the Ascended Rank, but for beasts like Rae, it was an entirely different phase in their life cycle.
Her power as an Ascended Rank Juvenile was far below what she could wield as an adult, and the spiders reflected that. They had gone from being made of woven branches to being covered in small leaves, which were quickly shifting from their natural green to white and grey with red spots, to better match the battlefield.
Just like Rae, they could adapt themselves to their surroundings now, and the aura that they gave off was much more intimidating.
There was no low Commander Rank for Rae, she had evolved past that, and now that the fight was over, Lotus had plenty of time to get a good look at her.
Or, Karl hoped she did, anyhow.
They had failed the last trial. Successfully failed, whatever that meant. But it had promised them rewards, so they could be waiting on that to happen.
The first Trial Instance he was in gave them a chest when they returned to the starting position, but this one wasn’t returning them at all.
“I wonder if everyone has to be present to return? Like if we have to call Thor and Hawk back out?” Lotus wondered.
That could be possible. They hadn’t been out when they arrived at the trial, but they were when the first announcement that they got rewards was made.
“It will still be a while before Hawk is conscious and able to come out, so we might as well rest a bit.” Karl decided.
Lotus created a patch of wide leaves for them to sit on, out of the snow, and Karl meditated to help everyone recover, while he also checked on Rae’s space to ensure that it was suitable for her advanced state.
It seemed more alive now, with natural wind, and a sense of vibrancy that wasn’t there before. Focusing on the Dragon Scale in his mind, and letting that filtered energy flow to the spaces seemed to be the most efficient method, but even after warming Hawk’s space it still took him fifteen minutes before he was up and moving again.
[That was a close one, buddy.] Karl whispered, as Hawk began to stretch his no longer frozen wings.
[I thought I was done for, that the evil cold water had won. How long was I frozen?] Hawk asked.
[About twenty minutes in total.]
[Oh, that’s too long for you to fight without me. How did you survive without fireballs?]
[Flaming Body and a lot of luck with the Golems. But you missed the big news. Rae advanced to Commander first.]
[NOOOO! It should have been me, I was here first. I will never forgive them.] Hawk cried, while Thor made consoling noises.
It was a painful moment during an already painful event for Hawk, but putting off telling him would only make him depressed later when they might need him to fight again. Getting it all out of the way at once gave him time to recover and gather his wits before coming back out into the real world.
[We think that everyone needs to come out to get their rewards before we can leave this place, so once you are recovered, everyone can gather. Until then, just rest a little longer.] Karl suggested.
[Give me like five more minutes until the cold leaves my wings. Then I will come out, and the healers can heal me. If I go too early, I get the feeling that the Ice Magic will take effect again.] Hawk explained.
He did still look freezing all over to Karl’s mental sight, even in the tropical warmth of his space, which he would normally find stifling.
The first five minutes of meditation weren’t enough, but they did go a long way toward improving the four spaces, adjusting them according to the changes that were made when Rae advanced.
Now that he had seen it once, it was easy to adjust the other spaces to be more like the proper Commander Rank space. Hopefully, that would pull the others toward their breakthrough at a faster pace, and help them along their way to the next bottleneck between Commander and Royal Rank.
Karl was actually looking forward to seeing Prince Corbin at his full power, and not exhausted and defending weaker party members. He was certain that the Royal Rank Spellsword would be a real marvel to behold in all out combat.
The little that he had a chance to show his skills on the push to the cave was already impressive, clearing a smooth path for the group, but Karl was certain that was only a fraction of his power, as he had already been injured and near exhaustion.
The more that he could observe that power, the better his partners would understand it, and the easier it should be for them to understand the changes they needed to push through to the next rank.
They should already meet the minimum requirements, but for humans the Commander Rank was a major bottleneck, so it might be for them as well.
Rae didn’t think so, as Commander Rank was her natural state, and Thor would naturally make it to Ascended Rank. Hawk was a bit of a mystery, as he was evolved from his base state, but it shouldn’t be too much harder for him.
The first five extra minutes weren’t enough, so Karl gave Hawk ten more before checking in on him again, and found the bird gingerly flying around his space, shaking off the aches in his muscles.
[Are you ready to go see the healers?] Karl asked.
[Let’s go. Just tell them to warm the place, I’m still too tired for flames.]
The trio came out to meet the others, and the scenery around them faded away, replacing the battlefield with a plain black void, with a stone platform that held them all with room to spare.
This time the words didn’t appear in ancient script on the ground, but in Karl’s vision, in the increasing familiar font of the System interface.
[Ascended Round One and Two Trials] Complete
[Commander Round One Trial] Successfully Failed
[Calculating rewards]
[Reward Calculated] 6 Skill Points
[Skill Menu Activating]
Karl gasped as a beautiful picture appeared in front of his eyes, then turned suspicious when he realized that all but the bottom row was greyed out and unusable. But there were lines between all the skills, so perhaps he just needed to learn some of them?
So, he looked at the bottom row. There were only three options. [Offensive Specialist], [Defensive Specialist] and between those two [Balanced Combatant].
Each of them cost ten skill points, so if the next round cost the same, or worse, twice as much, he wouldn’t be adding too many skills, but the descriptions were interesting, to say the least.
[Offensive Specialist] Gains access to the offensive beast skills, which can be freely transferred to bonded partners by touch.
[Defensive Specialist] Gains access to the defensive beast skills, which can be freely transferred to bonded partners by touch.
[Balanced Combatant] Pays a premium price to gain access to any beast skills, which may be utilized with the [Command] ability or transferred freely to bonded partners by touch.
That last one sounded the best to him. If he could just pick and choose abilities and write them in skill books, he would be a living legend by the time he was an Overlord. But he didn’t know what the Command ability was.
It wasn’t listed under his class skills, which were now visible, and he couldn’t read any of the other skill descriptions until he picked a path.
Hawk and Rae were cheering on full offence, while Thor thought it might be better if they all had more defence, so they didn’t get smashed again.
[I will go for Balanced Combatant, so we can all get something we like, even if it costs extra.] He informed the team.
[Balanced Combatant] chosen.
[Command] skill gained.
[Command] allows the Beast Master to use their known skills on bonded partners which are not within the standard range.
