The skill descriptions still hovered before Luke’s eyes, glowing lines detailing Franky’s new abilities:

  [Accelerated Flight (Rare)]: The wyvern can channel mana into its wings and muscles, allowing for a temporary burst of speed while flying. This acceleration is ideal for quick maneuvers, dodging attacks, or gaining a momentary aerial advantage.

  [Fireball (Common)]: The wyvern spits a small fireball from its mouth. The attack doesn’t have a large impact area, but it’s useful for dealing direct ranged damage, igniting fragile targets, or pressuring enemies.

  [Wyvern’s Roar (Epic)]: The wyvern unleashes a powerful roar filled with raw force and predatory instinct. Nearby enemies may be struck with fear, hesitating or momentarily losing the will to attack. A perfect ability for creating openings in battle.

  Luke skimmed through them again, searching desperately for a positive angle to offer the creature in front of him, who looked like he’d been dropped into the middle of an existential meltdown.

  “You may not have your fangs or venom anymore, but now you can fly, spit fire, and even unleash a terrifying roar,” he said, trying to inject enthusiasm that he didn’t quite feel.

  Franky, curled tightly in Lillian’s lap, blinked at him with deep suspicion.

  “Is she trying to crack my head open? The torture has begun, hasn’t it? She’s trying to split my skull?” he asked, voice high with panic.

  “I’m giving you pets,” Lillian said simply, running her fingers over the wyvern’s small, newly formed scales.

  “Oh no. No. Not that. Anything but that,” Franky groaned, arching his body as if her gentle touch were some divine punishment. “Why isn’t she trying to open my head? Why? What did I do to deserve this? I refuse to believe a human mouse is stronger than me.”

  Lillian giggled. “He’s funny, brother.”

  Luke moved closer, bracing his hands on the edge of the bed as Franky struggled to balance on his unfamiliar legs.

  “Can you fly yet? Do you know how to use your new abilities?” he asked. “Did all of this come installed in your head, like how a shark already knows how to swim when it’s born?”

  Franky puffed his chest, or at least attempted to.

  “I’m not stupid, human. I know how to do these things. I just don’t want to. I want to be a beautiful and powerful serpent again! I don’t want to be a rat with wings!”

  “Look on the bright side,” Luke said, raising an eyebrow. “Did you know some birds are natural predators of snakes? You’re basically a super bird now. That makes you the predator of predators.”

  “But what about my gorgeous fangs? And my beloved acid?” Franky protested, insulted at the mere thought of losing such defining features.

  With a dramatic twist, he wriggled out of Lillian’s arms and attempted to slide across the bed like his old serpentine self. He tripped over his own feet instead, landing awkwardly, but he pushed up again and toddled forward, running like a clumsy newborn animal discovering its limbs.

  “You have to undo this, human!” he demanded, jabbing one tiny claw toward Luke.

  “I want to as much as you do,” Luke replied with a sigh. “But according to this interface, there’s nothing here that even hints at reversing your evolution.”

  He frowned, still bothered by the fact that Franky reacted perfectly to information he couldn’t possibly read.

  Lillian watched them both, captivated, as if she were witnessing some rare theatrical performance.

  “You’re not going to abandon him, right, brother?” Lillian asked, tilting her head.

  “Unfortunately, he’s staying with us a little longer. But I promise I’ll kick him out of our house soon,” Luke replied, and Lillian let out a small giggle.

  “I know you won’t. You two are friends.”

  “We are not friends!” Luke and Franky snapped in unison, which made her laugh even harder.

  Franky clicked his tongue repeatedly as he paced in circles on the bed, growing steadier on his legs. He sped up, pushed off the mattress, and jumped. For a brief moment, he managed to flap his wings in sync well enough to hover before dropping onto the bedroom floor.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “See? You can fly,” Luke said, folding his arms. “Pretty sure you wouldn’t reach the sky as a snake.”

  “Of course I could! I had my super serpent jump!” Franky barked, stomping around the room and desperately trying to look dignified.

  “So, where are we, human?” he asked.

  “I already told you. My house, in my world. This is my bedroom.”

  “Your den?”

  “Something like that.”

  Franky sniffed the air and surveyed the space, inspecting every object as if he’d stumbled into the ruins of a bizarre foreign civilization.

  “And where are the bones of your enemies?” he asked casually.

  “I don’t know what kind of madness you think humans get up to, but I don’t display the bones of my enemies as trophies,” Luke replied.

  Franky stopped, staring intently at something on the floor.

  “Hm. A dead human? I like it.”

  “No, that’s a Barbie,” Lillian explained. “I used to play in my brother’s room when we made a blanket fort.”

  Franky lifted his gaze thoughtfully, then jumped again. This time it was deliberate. He flapped his wings, spun once in the air, and landed smoothly back on Luke’s bed.

  “I will hunt magical beasts. I will devour their cores and evolve until I become a snake again,” he murmured to himself, as if unveiling a stroke of genius.

  “I don’t think that’s how it works…” Luke replied. “Besides, we’re in the part of my world where there aren’t any strong magical beasts. Animals have levels here, but magical beasts only exist on the other continent.”

  Lillian was growing more fascinated by the second, her eyes following every twitch and hop Franky made, as if she’d discovered her own personal magical creature, which, honestly, she kind of had.

  Meanwhile, the tiny wyvern kept opening and closing his mouth, testing the pressure of his new bite like someone trying to get comfortable in a borrowed body.

  “There’s chocolate cake. Can he eat it?” Lillian asked, glancing at Luke with the kind of hopeful innocence only children could weaponize.

  “Is this cake a powerful thing?” Franky asked immediately, as if its value might change his fate.

  “It’s really yummy, but Mommy doesn’t let me eat too much,” she replied.

  “Mommy?” Franky repeated, and Luke saw his expression shift. The wyvern’s eyes narrowed, scanning the room like he expected a colossal monster to burst through the wall at any moment.

  Luke let out a quiet sigh.

  I forgot this guy has mother trauma…

  From what he knew, Franky had been thrown out of his nest for being the weakest of his clutch. And the mental image of Franky’s “mother” wasn’t comforting at all, a monstrous serpent big enough to split a cow in half with a single bite.

  “Is that mother creature in this den?” Franky asked, glancing around like something might leap out and devour him at any moment.

  “Mom is downstairs,” Lillian replied, completely unaware of his panic.

  Franky froze. Then he bolted, springing onto Luke’s bed and hiding behind him like a wild animal scrambling for shelter.

  “We’re leaving, human.”

  “Leaving? I just got here. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon,” Luke said, adjusting the trembling wyvern in his hands.

  “T then show me the exit. I’ll go myself. Somewhere with magic beasts,” Franky insisted.

  Luke let out a long breath and held him firmly. Franky tried to bite free, but his new teeth, sharp, but without venom, without acidic coating, without anything special, couldn’t even scratch Luke’s skin.

  “I’ll honor our deal. Just wait. I’ll take you to a forest in the New World where you can hunt other beasts. But until then, at least learn to use your powers so I don’t feel guilty dropping you there.”

  He gently placed Franky back on the bed. This time the little wyvern didn’t argue. There was something in Luke’s voice he understood, resolve.

  “I don’t want you getting captured by humans or eaten by a goblin. And with your current strength, a human without a system could catch you,” Luke added.

  Franky clicked his tongue in irritation but didn’t deny it.

  “If I want to change rank even in this ridiculous body, I’ll have to figure out my limitations,” he muttered, thinking aloud now.

  He lifted his head. Deep in his throat, a faint yellow glow began to pulse and expand. Luke’s eyes widened, too late.

  A fireball burst forth.

  On instinct, Luke lunged, slamming both hands into the flaming sphere and smothering it before it reached the walls, the dresser… or worse, the carpet.

  “Do not do that in my house!” he snapped, his voice sharp for the first time. “You could burn everything down or blow something up!”

  Franky shrank back, startled by the seriousness. Lillian, on the other hand, clapped her hands in pure delight.

  “Do it again! Do it again!”

  Luke exhaled slowly, exhausted already.

  “Train, but not the fire,” he told Franky, mentally scrambling to reorganize his entire life plan.

  But Franky, perhaps out of spite, or wounded pride, or both, opened his mouth again. This time he used the roar.

  The air rippled in a short wave, and when the sound finally escaped…

  It was anything but frightening.

  Lillian brightened instantly, eyes sparkling. “Oh, that was so cute! He sounds like a tiny lion!”

  She rushed to his side. Franky landed on the floor, wings drooping, completely humiliated by the display.

  “You see, human? Being a rat with wings is awful! I’m weak!”

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