Chapter 52 - Evolution (1)

"Let's go Cero!" Zok exclaimed as he climbed on top of the beast as it began charging away from the herd of Hranta.

Taking down one or two of them wasn't that big of a task. Mostly a lone Hranta wouldn't put much of a fight either. It was as if they had already given up on living altogether. But that wasn't the case when they live in a herd.

It was because the male Hranta tends to fiercely fight back especially in presence of females. While the females tend to fight back when there were young fowls around. Unluckily, the herd of Hranta Cero had charged into so proudly had both females and fowls. Making both the female and the male Hrantas act out.

Even then, Zok had nothing to fear. Slowly with time he managed to get used to the Hrantas movements and came up with a tactic to hunt them down effectively. That is, Cero would anger one of them, and then they'll run as far away from the herd as they could.

It usually resulted in the females charging after them, but as they get farther away from the herd, the females stopped chasing after them and rushed back to their fowls when they sensed that their children were left behind. Also, Zok did not prefer to kill the females in order to not cause any long time harm to the Hrantas as a species altogether.

Their male counterparts, on the other hand, were so caught up in proving themselves, they ended up chasing after Zok and Cero as long as Cero didn't outrun them. Which was easy as Cero did not have much agility in the first place, that was in case he did use his charge skill.

Sometimes, using this tactic they managed to lure two or even three Hranta at once. But they didn't mind, after all, three was a manageable crowd. In fact, it was a number they welcomed every time. Just like now.

"Cero slow down a bit. Be ready to use charge when I say so."

"Hmph!" Cero acknowledged Zok's command with a loud snort.

Cero slowed down and almost as soon as he did, one of the Hranta caught up to them. Exactly like Zok had planned. All of a sudden, Zok jumped off of Cero's back and plunged his spear deep into the Hranta's neck before swinging around its neck using the spear to support his weight.

With the help of his raging momentum, Zok managed to snap the beast's neck in half before clinging onto the bone protruding from the Hranta's back. The second Hranta was behind the Hranta Zok had just killed, but he was at a distance so Zok did not dare to pull a similar trick on it. While the third one had already caught on to Cero from the other side.

The moment the first Hranta fell on the ground dead, something happened to the Hranta behind him and it charged straight at Zok. It was almost as if the creature wanted to avenge the death of its fallen comrade. However, its bravery was shortly rewarded by Zok in the form of a kick right to the face.

"What was this fool thinking charging right at me? I might be small but come on, at least try not to look down on me!"

Zok had no idea, but he ended up cracking its lower jaw with the kick. The Hranta wailed in pain and it lost its balance. However, before it could get away, Zok plunged his spear through the creature's head and slammed him on the ground till it was dead.

"Tsk! I took too much time!" Zok cursed under his breath when he realised he was out of reach to attack the third ghoul with his spear, "Guess, I'll have to use a cheap trick then."

He took out a fist-sized stone from his inventory, took aim and hurled it in the direction of the Hranta. As for why he had stones in his inventory... well, let's just say he had developed a habit of picking up random things and storing them in his inventory. However, most of the time he ended up using these things to come with impromptu solutions to his problems, just like he had now.

The stone hit the third Hranta right in the head and it lost its balance. However, instead of hurdling and falling down as Zok had predicted, the beast ended up stumbling right in front of Cero.

"Cero, charge now!" Zok yelled over the hivemind and Cero obliged his tamer's request, and as he did, his horns plunged right through the Hranta's flesh, killing it after a couple of moments.

[Your familiar <Cero> has slain a level 16 D-grade Hranta. Exp +1750]

[You familiar <Cero> has levelled up to level 23.]

"Yes!"

Zok threw a fist in the air as Cero levelled up again. However, something was wrong. Usually, when his familiars levelled up, there was a glow all over their body which disappeared after a brief moment, signifying that they had levelled up.

But this time, Cero didn't stop glowing and fell onto his knees. Fearing something was wrong Zok rushed over to him to check if he was hurt or something. However, as seconds passed, the light lept getting brighter and brighter till Zok was forced to look away. The following moment, there was a loud explosive noise, and a text appeared in front of Zok's eye.

[Conditions for evolution have been completed.]

[<Andesite Abyssal Cerotidae> has evolved into <Andesite Abyssal Titanotops>]

[You have become the first person to ever evolve an Andesite Abyssal Cerotidae. Additional rewards would be provided!]