Now that she wasn’t holding back, Cara was the first to advance of the remaining pair. Not much seemed to change at first, her body wasn’t changing, just the energy. Maybe that was why she didn’t have the motivation that the others did. If she had learned or instinctively known in advance that she wasn’t getting a new skill, she might have lost motivation to be stronger.
Then, as her space stabilized and Remi’s began to surge in power, Karl got an unexpected notification.
[Racial Skill {Chaos Void} has improved shared skill {Nullify} to Overlord Rank.]
[You have a hidden racial skill?] Karl asked.
[I do? Oh, I do. Haha, all the Nullify. This is going to be so fun.]
That was going to be absolute chaos. But for the sake of their enemies, at least it wasn’t Disintegrate that went to Overlord as soon as she advanced.
Cara waited to come out so that she could show off with Remi once they were both done. The process had already begun, so it could be said that they advanced at the same time, but Remi’s Monarch Rank advancement was going to be a good one if the disruption of her space was anything to go by.
All of the elements were swirling around, making a mess of everything except the safe spot on her altar where the Queen in Spirit Snake form was meditating.
Hellstorm vortexes littered the landscape, and a flaming Blizzard filled the air while a hail of stones rained down from above. The unfortunate plants of her space were not faring well, and she would lose a huge number of resources, but it appeared that she was learning a new class skill as she advanced.
After a few minutes, the spell faded, and the flames vanished, leaving charred plants all over her swamp, but Remi had transformed back into a Naga with a pleased smile on her face.
She was larger than before, and more similar to her warriors, with four muscular arms, but a more mature look than she had before. It was hard to say why it looked more mature, other than the size, and the fact that for some reason Remi’s form had what appeared to be breasts over the upper arms’ pectoral muscles, despite being a reptile. But she definitely looked like a young adult now in Karl’s mind.
Her armour spell was fancier as well, with more gold and jewels, as well as dangling bone decorations and a belt full of potions.
[Congratulations, ladies. Looking good.] Karl congratulated them.
[You finally got a skill that isn’t evil.] Hawk agreed. Remi nodded. [It’s even got a great name. Apocalypse.]
[That is an outstanding skill name. We will have to find a spot for you to show it off.] Karl agreed.
Both beasts came out of their spaces at the same time, appearing in the middle of the living room in front of the sofa where Karl and Dana were resting.
{Tada!} Remi cheered in serpent.
“Ooh, ooh, is that a Queen Remi? Extra strong hug arms!” Lotus shouted as she vaulted over the back of the couch and into the Naga’s waiting arms.
Cara laughed as Lotus realized mid-flight that she had only seen one of them from her vantage point, but both had advanced.
Now, she was caught in a dilemma. Remi had her in a tight hug, but there was a soft and fluffy Cara at ground level who had also just advanced.
Remi knew exactly what she was thinking, and lowered her upper body, so Lotus could reach down to pet Cara. But stopped ten centimetres short, so she couldn’t quite reach.
“Karl, help! They have learned new torture techniques.” Lotus complained.
The ladies laughed as they realized the situation that Lotus was in, and how much fun the two beasts were having with it. Especially when Rae sat down on the sofa to smirk at the Nature Priestess and pet the Badger.
“Did you learn new skills?” Tessa asked as she settled down next to Rae.
Remi nodded happily, and motioned for Karl to explain.
“Remi got a new skill called Apocalypse, that appears to be a fiery blizzard with Hellstorm multiplying vortexes and meteors. While Cara had her Nullify skill advanced to Overlord as soon as she made Monarch.” Karl informed the group.
Tessa sighed and looked between the two proud beasts. “I’m not sure which one of you to congratulate first. Those are both remarkable advancements. The pure destructive ability of a skill that is literally called [Apocalypse] versus the usefulness of Overlord Ranked [Nullify]. Just trying to get past Cara’s defences will be a national security threat level event. If she can mess with the Overlords most potent abilities, then it will just come down to the group’s ability to deal with them.” Tessa congratulated them with a smile.
Remi put Lotus down, and the Nature Priestess ran over to hug Cara, then back to hug Remi, then back to Cara again, like a hyperactive pinball of celebration.
“Now that you have the whole team at Monarch, you must be able to accept a new team member, right?” Dana asked, looking up from Karl’s lap.
“Technically, yes. The space has formed for another partner, but I’m not in a hurry. It’s honestly not going to be easy to find a beast that has Overlord or higher Rank potential, or one that I have the confidence to improve to that level.
If we knew more about how to trigger evolutions for beasts, it would be so much easier.
Look how far Hawk has come from the humble Windspeed Hawk to a Ghostfire Thunderbird. Or Thor becoming a Divine Thunder Cerro. There is no formula or data on that, so the only sure options would be a Dragon or a Phoenix, and I’ve been warned not to abduct the children of either on this continent. There should be stronger beasts on the other continents, though. When I was sent to the past, they warned me that there were regions with Second and Third Advancement beasts, meaning there should be species peaking at Overlord strength if I interpreted the danger level correctly.
Perhaps, like Cara, I might get lucky finding new friends there again.” Karl suggested.
“You could try for an Elemental. I don’t know if they count as beasts, but they certainly have a peak strength that is high enough. There are Totem Rank water Elementals in the ocean, and I heard a rumour that there is a Totem Ranked Magma Elemental in one of the coastal nations.” Tessa offered.
“Well, we can sort that out when we find the right partner. For the next week, we’ve got young ones to train, and we need to civilize Miss Sybil enough for her to successfully attend the Academy.”
Sybil smiled at the mention. She was getting better with people, she was certain of it. It helped that people didn’t try to bully her anymore.
Once that had changed, she found it much easier to get along with people. In fact, being a deaf Elite was almost like a cheat code. So few people could speak sign language that they rarely bothered her, and instead went to others to get answers, but still gave her the level of respect that Awakened Rank Elites were seen to have earned.
That was not much compared to Karl’s group, but it was way higher than what she was used to.