Lillian and Franky were both on Luke’s bed. But something had changed, something impossible to miss. The little snake that had fought beside him was no longer a snake. The deep forest-green scales were gone, replaced by a glossy jet-black sheen and sharp obsidian spikes running along its body. And the most obvious change of all: Franky now had two hind legs, and his forelimbs had fused into what looked unmistakably like wings.

  The snake had become a… wyvern.

  “No, no, this cannot be happening,” Franky muttered, horrified. “I turned into a rat! A flying rat! A damn rat with wings!”

  He spiraled, staring at his own body. Every new detail sent him deeper into panic.

  “He’s really cute, brother,” Lillian said as she crawled across the bed toward him.

  “Cute!? Absolutely not! Stop that, I’m not cute!” Franky trembled, offended to his core.

  Luke had already pulled up the system interface. He tapped into the Familiar tab, just as stunned as Franky by the creature in front of him.

  A notification blinked at the top.

  [Familiar Evolution of the Dark Lord has been completed!]

  “What did you do to me, human?” Franky hissed, equal parts furious and terrified.

  “I didn’t do anything, little snake. I’m just as confused as you,” Luke muttered as he scrolled through the notification history.

  He went all the way back to the first time the familiar interface had been opened. There, buried among the logs, he found what he needed.

  [Familiar: Frankzaroth

  Race: Jormungandr

  Rank: F

  Familiar Skills: [Serpent’s Leap (Rare)], [Corrosive Venom (Ultra-Rare)], [Acid Jet (Epic)]

  [Evolution to Rank E]:

  To evolve from Rank F to Rank E, the familiar must consume Rank E Magic Beast Cores.

  Rank E Cores (0/100)

  [Dark Lord Familiar Evolution]:

  As the Dark Lord’s familiar, the Jormungandr is granted an alternate evolution path. This special evolution requires the familiar to absorb the core of a creature at the peak of Rank E.

  Peak Rank E Core (0/1)]

  There were two possible evolutions. The first was the standard path from Rank F to Rank E, something every magical beast could eventually achieve. The second… that one existed only because Luke carried the title of Dark Lord, or whatever bloodline had awakened it.

  “I thought you’d get stronger if I gave you the wyvern core, not… turn into one,” Luke said after piecing the situation together.

  “Human, fix this! I don’t want to be a rat!” Franky barked.

  Luke glanced between the panicked wyvern and the interface, finally understanding what the evolution description implied.

  It didn’t just say the familiar would consume the core. It said the familiar would absorb it. And that meant… becoming whatever creature the core belonged to.

  “His name is Franky, right, brother?” Lillian asked, eyeing the wyvern hatchling. She reached out to pet him, but Franky tried to scramble away. He didn’t get far, two steps and he collapsed back onto the bed.

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  “I can’t crawl anymore!” he cried, outraged.

  Artemis’s laughter echoed inside Luke’s mind.

  “You have legs now,” Luke said, trying to sound encouraging. “You’ll have to learn to walk with them.”

  “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, human?” Franky hissed, struggling to stand. “This was your plan all along, wasn’t it? Turning me into a rat!”

  “No. Of course not. And are rats really the only animals you know?” Luke asked.

  “Is he your pet, brother?” Lillian chimed in. She was lying on Luke’s bed with her chin propped in her hands, staring at the little winged creature as if he were some adorable puppy or kitten.

  “Who is this human rat?” Franky demanded, dodging Lillian’s hand as she tried to pet him.

  “This is my sister, her name’s Lillian,” Luke explained, then turned to her. “And this is my arch nemesis. His name is Franky.”

  Lillian burst into laughter.

  “She’s laughing at me!” Franky yelled.

  “He’s so cute. Can I pet him, brother?” she asked.

  “I am not cute! I am a terrifying, powerful, deadly beast!” Franky insisted, though to Lillian it apparently sounded like the punchline to a joke, because she collapsed into even louder giggles.

  “Human! Make her stop laughing at me!” Franky snapped.

  But Luke wasn’t even paying attention anymore. He was still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. Franky waking from hibernation had been abrupt enough… but this transformation?

  Was it because I had evolved to Rank E?

  Franky’s interface had changed dramatically.

  [Familiar: Frankzaroth

  Race: Ancient Wyvern

  Rank: F

  Familiar Skills: [Accelerated Flight (Rare)], [Fireball (Common)], [Wyvern’s Roar (Epic)]

  [Evolution to Rank E]: To evolve from Rank F to Rank E, the familiar must consume Rank E Magic Beast Cores.

  Rank E Cores (0/100)]

  A lot was different. The most obvious, of course, was that Franky was no longer a snake. He had genuinely evolved into a wyvern. The new skills were impressive, but something else caught Luke’s attention.

  He’s still Rank F. So what happens when he reaches Rank E? Now that his race changed, will he grow faster?

  As a Jormungandr, the Beast Lord had taken a thousand years to reach the size Luke fought. But now he was a wyvern.

  “Look on the bright side,” Luke said. “You might grow faster now. Honestly, that’s a relief. When you were a noodle snake, I kept thinking that abandoning you in a forest would basically be sentencing you to death. At least now you can fend for yourself.”

  “Abandon?” Lillian gasped, turning to him with wide eyes. “Please, brother, don’t abandon him. He’s tiny and so weak, he’ll die. Adopt him! Please?”

  “I am not tiny and weak!” Franky snarled, trying to march across the bed… and immediately tripping over his own legs.

  But suddenly Franky froze. His eyes went wide. His jaw dropped open as far as it would go, and Luke watched his tongue feel around inside his mouth.

  “No. No, it can’t be!” Franky cried. He whipped his head toward Luke. “My fangs! My two mighty fangs are gone!”

  “Look on the bright side,” Luke said, suppressing a smile. “You’ve got plenty of teeth now, and they’re sharp.”

  Franky swallowed hard and collapsed onto the bed. “No. It’s over. I’m done. My beautiful fangs… gone.”

  Lillian just giggled again, her gaze locked on the tiny wyvern.

  “He’s really cute. Can I feed him, brother?” she asked.

  “So that’s what this was, human?” Franky groaned. “To humiliate me? You took everything from me, my pride, my fangs, and now you’re letting a human mouse child torture me.”

  He didn’t even resist when Lillian picked him up.

  “She’s not going to torture you. She said she was only trying to feed you,” Luke told him.

  “This is torture! I’m a hunter! If I’m hungry, I hunt!” Franky thrashed in Lillian’s arms, trying to escape, but he didn’t have the strength to break free from her grip. He couldn’t even walk yet.

  'Being fed by someone isn’t torture. It’s paradise', Artemis remarked inside Luke’s mind.

  Luke opened Franky’s skill window to check what kind of abilities the former snake possessed now.

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