Chapter 35

  Owln’t You Glad To Learn Something?

  Instruments returned to Inventory

  Evolution Unlocked:

  Dragon Toothpick: D

  This Evolution was obtained by completing the Trial of Evolution without waking the Dragon. It is a Dragon Mite that specialises in eating food that is stuck between a Dragon’s teeth.

  New Class Trait Unlocked!

  New Class Trait unlocked:

  Symbiote: D

  Eating the food of another gives them a temporary boost to Health and makes them more likely to see you favourably.

  You have reached Level 1 in D???r???a???g???o???n??? ???T???o???o???t???h???p???i???c???k???!???

  +1 Perception

  +1 Agility

  +1 Dexterity

  +1 Intelligence

  ZZZzzzz…. ZZZzzz…. ZZZzzz….

  “Wake up!”

  Elijah came to with a start.

  “Wha…” he snorted groggily, clawing himself back to consciousness. A wooden ruler smacked down on the side of his desk, and he was startled back into wakefulness.

  “I wasn’t sleeping; I was just resting my eyes,” he retorted reflexively.

  The teen looked about rapidly, trying to blink the sleep from his eyes. What class was he in?

  No windows, so that ruled out maths. He was sitting in a chair and not on a stool, so that ruled out any of the sciences… Also, he wasn’t in a lab.

  As his vision began to clear, he finally saw the board. It was a blackboard. Wait, his school didn’t have blackboards.

  The desks were also wrong; they were the old wooden fold-open kind; his school hadn’t used those in decades. That wasn’t the only strange thing. He was the only student; all the other desks were empty.

  Turning his head to examine the walls, he discovered they were plastered with diagrams and designs written on yellowed vellum; none of them made any sense to him.

  There was even a model, made from copper wires and green glowing gems that appeared to represent… Earth mana? Elijah couldn’t be sure; he was never able to see it that well.

  That thought gave him pause. That was right; he knew about mana, he knew about fighting, and he knew about the System. He couldn’t be in class; it was impossible!

  The warm, orange light of the candles that illuminated this low-ceilinged, wooden-beamed, doorless room suddenly seemed far more oppressive.

  “What are you looking at, eyes front!” a chuffing voice with feathery undertones ordered from right behind him.

  Elijah almost jumped out of his skin. He had forgotten about the voice that had awoken him. He stared in confused wonder as the figure to whom the voice belonged stepped around the desk and into view.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  A dark blue cloak, embroidered with golden stars, swished in time with the round figure’s movements. The teen’s eyes worked their way up the garment, surprised by the quality of the velvet, not a thread out of place.

  A tassel, woven out of the same golden silk as the stars, caught his attention. It swayed in time with the person’s surprisingly graceful movements. It was attached to the end of a long pointed hat that matched the cloak.

  The teen’s eyes caught halfway between the hat and the cloak. He was staring at the figure’s face. And they were staring right back.

  He found himself gazing into the large black eyes of a tawny owl in person form, the tops of their eye dishes, their eyebrows perhaps, scrunched up in confusion. As they continued to stare at one another, both of them surprised, a notification appeared.

  The Trial of Evolution 1: Owlkin

  You have reached Lv 25 as an Owlkin! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: Impress Professor Tawny to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.

  “You're an owl person,” Elijah observed astutely.

  “And you’re a human,” said Professor Tawny, regaining some of his previous gravitas.

  The teen didn’t know why he was so surprised. He had already met a toad person and seen the bodies of cat people. Perhaps it was the idea of something so alien as an owl person in such a familiar setting as a classroom?

  “Well, I have to say, I am intrigued. I have never seen a human here,” Professor Tawny began before picking up a gold monocle off of his messy desk at the front of the class. He held the lens and began to examine Elijah.

  “What are you doing?” the teen asked, contorting himself in his seat to follow the owl man as he circled him, looking the young man up and down.

  “Twit? Twho are you?” the wizardly professor asked in a resonating, chesty voice. Elijah started to answer before he realised the question wasn’t directed at him; it was more a rhetorical muttering.

  “I see you are a Tier I Elijah, but I have never heard of that type of monster…” Professor Tawny continued.

  “I’m not a monster!” Elijah objected, strangely offended by the notion that he was the same as the person in front of him. What was a monster anyway?

  The cloaked owl seemed surprised that the teen could talk, having forgotten what he had said only seconds before and seeing him more as an interesting oddity that was worthy of study.

  “No… No, I suppose you’re not…” the owl man allowed, trailing off in his hooting language, another language that Elijah was inexplicably able to speak and understand.

  “I can see that you have a Class. No, wait, your Class is listed as None… No, that's… impossible… thirteen?”

  Elijah unconsciously started to cover himself. Even though he was fully clothed, he felt exposed under Professor Tawny’s monocled examination. He knew, of course, what was causing this scholar distress. He didn’t imagine that having multiple Classes was regular… or even supposed to be possible.

  Wait, Elijah thought; his brain had just caught up to what was being said, and something stood out to him.

  “Does having a Class preclude me from being a monster?” Elijah asked, not having put that together before now.

  Tawny snapped out of his state of stunned awe. He seemed far more at ease when answering students’ questions.

  “Yes. Monsters have Evolutions; the five sentient races have Classes,” the Professor answered, as if the words were being recited from some big book of System stuff; for all Elijah knew, they were.

  “Aren't you sentient?” the sixteen-year-old asked, confused.

  “Of course,” Professor Tawny replied with a chuckling hoot, as if the question were ridiculous.

  “And only monsters have Evolutions?”

  “Of course.”

  “But surely, Owlkin, Toadkin, and Catkin should be considered sentient races?” Elijah asked.

  “Hmmm, that’s a much more complicated question than it at first seems. What is and isn’t a monster, according to the System, is quite the confusing thing…

  There is no such thing as Catkin, but there is such a thing as Khati, and they are one of the five races deemed worthy of Classes,” the professor elucidated.

  “But why?”

  “That is a tricky matter. It pertains to gods that aren't even around any more, and it is certainly well beyond the scope of this class.

  I apologise that I got distracted by your… unique… condition. You are certainly interesting, but I don’t believe whatever quirk of the System created you would be at all reproducible, so studying you would only have limited use.”

  “But,” Elijah tried, wanting to learn more.

  “No, this is outside of my field. I am here to teach, and teach I shall. Tell me, Elijah I, what do you know about mana?” the Professor asked in such a way that indicated that was the end of the matter. They had started a new topic, and there was no going back.

  Elijah considered trying to return to the subject of monsters and Classes; there were just so many questions that he had, but he decided to secede to the owl man’s wishes. He wasn’t likely to learn anything if he pissed off the first person he met who might have answers.

  “Truth be told, I don’t really understand mana,” the teen admitted with a sigh. “Mana Manipulation lets me see the dancing motes, which feel like different types of mana to me.”

  “Interesting,” Professor Tawny allowed, stroking his feathered chin.

  patrons: