(Chapter 43)
The two Adult Black Beetle (1 Star) became Adolescent Green-Shelled Black Beetle (1 Star), while it's exoskeleton is now green.
Yang Manli with still had a trace of crying on her face, inspects the Beast Soul after Shyrveen handed it to her before going back to the creek again, then she uses her mind to check her status.
Yang Manli: Not Evolved
Status: None
Life Span: 200 Years
Required for Evolution: 100 Geno Points
Geno Points Gained:
- Ordinary Geno Points: 100
- Primitive Geno Points: 100
- Mutant Geno Points: 58
- Sacred Geno Points: 43
Beast Souls Gained:
- Primitive Adolescent Black Beetle (1 Star)
- Mutant Crimson Iron-Bone Fish
- Mutant Soft Tail Harpy
- Mutant Chain-Tailed Scorpion
- Mutant Storm Plume Hawk
'It became Primitive!? Beast Soul evolution!... I need to protect darling... I'll swear that this secret will be with me in my grave...'
She sniffed after remembering how ruthless her family can be and shook her head to put it aside and glances at the back of Shyrveen.
'I wish he can accept me, and my selfishness...'
Then the thing earlier before the dawn flashes on her mind, how Shyrveen's body was shaking intensely while there's no fear inside his eyes.
'... It's terrifying... Not the way I can see that he is like a dead man staring at my very soul... But the way he can endure such pain with his body while no emotion he can express, no response for him at all...
Ahh! Stop thinking about this Manli, you will make him gloomier than he is now! Erase, erase, erase... Instead, I need to start to plan for the whole week of his birthday...'
She nodded to herself, slaps her cheek slightly, and called Shyrveen.
"Hey! Darling!"
"Yeah?"
"What do you want to do? I want to plan a one week date!"
"... Is it for the week of Ephialtes?"
"C'mon! Don't say that, change the name of the week, you already have me, stop being a cheerless person, pretty please?~"
Shyrveen glances back at her face that trying to make him laugh.
"Alright... The week of Kierkegaard..."
"... I don't know who is that, elaborate for me, darling~"
"A great philosopher once said, "Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced." By Soren Kierkegaard."
Then Shyrveen stabs his arrow to the belly of the Black Beetle and heard Yang Manli again.
"... Change~ I don't like it~"
He thought about it for several seconds, then replied. As he says his idea, he put back the arrow to the inventory and pinch the Black Beetle to death.
"... Then... The week of Lao, for there is another great philosopher once said, "If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present." By Lao Tzu..."
"... Hmmm, this is good... I like it but gimme more so I can compare this one."
"Hee, no need to compare them for they have different perspectives."
"I know~ But I want that week, especially for you, to remember that I'm at your side~ I can't?~"
"... Hmmm... How about this? The week of Nietzsche... Another one, great philosopher once said. "Happiness is the feeling that power increases, that resistance is being overcome." By Friedrich Nietzsche..."
Shyrveen stands up from the side of the creek and went to Yang Manli as he said it.
"This! This! Change that week of Ephialtes to this one, darling!"
Yang Manli claps and became elated after hearing it and gave the one Primitive Adult Green-Shelled Black Beetle (2 Stars), one Primitive Green-Shelled Adolescent Black Beetle (1 Star), and one Ordinary Adult Black Beetle (1 Star) to Shyrveen after he got near her while saying this.
"... Got it~..."
Which made Shyrveen rolled his eyes as he agrees, took a seat and concentrate for several seconds, and successfully gaining Mutant Infant Red-Shelled Black Beetle (1 Star) that has a red exoskeleton.
"And now, get up from the mattress and we need to move to another location, sweety."
He stands up and helps Yang Manli to get up before putting the mattress back to his inventory.
Yang Manli jumps on Shyrveen's back and continued their talk until they reached the place where is the Ordinary Illusionist Snake's territory.
But this time, Yang Manli didn't stay on the mattress but help Shyrveen to slay the snakes as she requests it because she missed to hunt again.
With their tactics of alternating, three hours passed and Shyrveen evolved his Ordinary Illusionist Snake into Mutant Infant Rainbow Illusionist Snake (1 Star).
But he decided to take a break and found twigs and dry leaves to cook for their lunch.
"So, what's next, darling?"
"... You should have a Beast Soul Bow, right?... We will hunt the Azure-Tailed Eagles."
Shyrveen plans to hunt the Azure-Tailed Eagle, but he knows that it will be harder because the eagles are prideful creatures and had a habit to go solo and they will spread out once someone is hunting them. Then he asked Yang Manli if she does to make it easier.
Yang Manli replied with pride in her voice, and she summoned her Beast Soul and took the shape of a bow on her hand.
"Of course! I won't be the leader of the Bullseye Team if I'm not a good archer of myself~ This is from the creature Mutant Storm Plume Hawk. Only Mutant because it is so hard to get Sacred-Blood Beast Soul that is a bow and arrow...
Did you know? I sold my Primitive Beast Soul that is a permanent arrow, then bought this Mutant Crimson Iron-Bone Fish at the gang with its original price because I can't let the Beast Soul be on another hand of a stranger since this is already a momento of us for me..."
She elaborated while caressing the Beast Soul fish that is in sleep mode as she murmurs.
Shyrveen saw her face is smiling but he can feel some worries in it too.
'... What it could be?... Is it... Haa... Since we're already alone here, why not talk about all the worries and plan things ahead?...'
"... Now, sweety, tell me any worries in your mind..."
Shyrveen took a seat beside her and caress her back.
Yang Manli stared at his eyes with worries and longing.
"... Are you sure?... I'm scared of you leaving me, or seeing you feeling burdened by my selfishness, because if I compared my problems to yours, this is only superficial..."
"There's no such thing as 'superficial' for any individuals. I have my life, you have yours, what you experienced is what made you, you. And it's the same for me... Ah no... Myself is very complicated so let's say like your friend Xuan... Is it about your family?..."
"Yeah..."
Yang Manli nodded and proceeds to tell-tale about her life, and went about her feeling like a merchandise that will be given to one of the traders soon by her parents once she is done serving the five years in the military, and use the engagement thing to be it more legal to the eyes of Alliance.
And then she went to be anxious for the future if she decided to be disowned by her parents.
She said that her parents have a power if they decided to post them as criminals on the whole Alliance and will find Shyrveen's home planet to be raided.
Like her friend's father, Qin Xuan. Her father is in the military too.
"... It will be lucky if that thing won't happen, and they will just be angry with us and cut off their ties with me... But I don't think it will happen..."
Shyrveen asked a lot of questions about her life and her family, with the laws of the Alliance and other things that he can think of that can be related to this and found an answer.
He too felt guilty that Yang Manli is thinking so seriously about what he said from the past; "Don't leave them..."
'... Sometimes what you suggest or opinion based on your experiences will cause bad than good, eh?...'
"... Set an appointment for us to meet your parents or family. Knowing that your father is only a Mutant Evolver. It will be fine. As long as there's no Surpasser in your family... I'll take care of everything... And don't worry, I didn't mean to say that I'll kill them..."
Shyrveen said what is in his thought and elaborated on the last thing.
Yang Manli released a sigh of relief after hearing what Shyrveen said.
"Phew, I know you won't... I'm angry at them but it won't be to the point of wanting them to be killed... And no, there's no Surpasser in my family but my older brother will step in the Third Sanctuary soon to be one but he will achieve that around one more year or so..."
"... Alright, since I'll meet your family soon, let's push this Beast Souls to the Sacred-Blood then."
They started to get busier for the two days for Shyrveen to evolved all of his Beast Souls into Sacred-Bloods (4 Stars) and gave Yang Manli another Sacred-Blood Spectral Snake (4 Stars) to use as her lifesaver after knowing the ability of snake's Beast Soul now.
Yang Manli declines to evolve or have the snake into (4 Stars) because it will be a waste in the future since she will max her Geno Points soon and will trade or buy the Second Sanctuary Beast Souls instead, before evolving into Evolver.
But Shyrveen insists for Yang Manli to hold onto it and told her not to evolve yet for he will have something good for her in the future before evolving into Evolver.
'... What's the use of Second Sanctuary's Beast Souls if they're only Mutants? There's Super creatures and I can evolve Beast Souls...
If my conclusions and calculation will be right, First Sanctuary's Super Beast Soul (5 Stars) can be compared to Second Sanctuary's Super Beast Soul... And it will be the same for the others too...
And, it's better to collect the Beast Souls of what I need than to collect most of them... It might be my downfall instead of saving my life in a pinch...'
And because they had a hard time hunting the eagles without Shyrveen's ice, because they are near the shelter and might get the attention of a passerby.
They didn't go back to the shelter and camp outside near the creek for two days and two nights.
On the morning of their third day, Shyrveen check his status.
Shyrveen Yñiguez: Not Evolved
Status: None
Life Span: 200 Years
Required for Evolution: 100 Geno Points
Geno Points Gained:
- Ordinary Geno Points: 100
- Primitive Geno Points: 71
- Mutant Geno Points: 43
- Sacred Geno Points: 22
- Super Geno Points: 9
Beast Souls Gained:
- Sacred-Blood Jade-Scaled Fish
- Sacred-Blood Infant Jade-Scaled Fish (1 Star)
- Sacred-Blood Gold-Shelled Black Beetle (4 Stars)
- Sacred-Blood Spectral Snake (4 Stars)
- Sacred-Blood Cerulean Sky Eagle (4 Stars)
- Sacred-Blood Obsidian Dragon (4 Stars)
'This is good... But my Geno Point doesn't increase anymore... I need to explore new places and hunt new creatures now because I already tasted all kinds of the meats here and don't yield me any more points...'
Shyrveen thought and glances at the woman who is swimming on the pond where the waterfalls that streaming down to the usual creek.
"Sweety, since I achieved my goal here, care to tell me where I can find a sickle and short staff weapon Beast Souls?"
"... Are you collecting? It will be bad in the future."
Yang Manli answered after she went to the surface of the water from diving and gave her opinion about it, then gestured for Shyrveen to swim with her.
And that's the reason why she only holds four Beast Souls because she doesn't know how to use the other Beast Souls if she starts to collect them, and it will just make her busier if she decided to know all kinds of masteries of fighting styles with the Beast Souls.
Shryveen stands up and took off his clothes, leaving his underwear. Then shook his head to her as he replied.
"No, I just need these weapons to supplement my fighting styles because I'm already used to this. There will be a time that I need to fight in close combat... And I should start training grappling techniques too against humanoids creatures after you told and show me that Harpy Beast Soul of yours... Lastly, I need to find a Beast Soul Wings too."
He swam to where she is and Yang Manli hugs him.
"But you already have wings though?... Ahh! Wait! Is it because it will reveal your identity as 'Coin'?"
"Yeah, and if I use my ice. It can increase my Beast Souls capabilities so you can say I can hit two birds with one stone here..."
Shyrveen stops speaking for several minutes and Yang Manli waited for him, before he continues.
"... And I need to get these things first before I can start my training than start training before gaining the said Beast Souls..."
"... Then I'll accompany you to get what you need and be your sparring partner in the combat room. I'm curious about these fighting styles that you had and talking about because they sound... New? or Old?"
"Old."
"Ohh! And we can compare it to the Hyper Geno Art that has been forced on me to learn... And you can improve your styles on the way too..."
Yang Manli is really curious for where and what kind of her boyfriend's home planet...