After a week of only sleeping and eating Ves'ra had finally finished her evolution. She packed up everything and started her trek back, she’d have to hurry, summer was fast approaching and she didn't want to get caught in the open when it did.

She wasn't sure if she’d manage in time, she did need a month to get here, but she was confident she made no mistakes when evolving, so she should be able to move a lot faster, especially if she only hunted for food.

---

She did move a lot faster, it was inconceivable, with a small change to her spine her walking speed increased by nearly twenty percent. Thanks to that, and only hunting when necessary, she managed to shave off nearly two weeks. She had more to carry, even with her increased strength, so her walking speed wasn't as fast as it could be.

Even though she made utmost haste the suns grew apart with every day, with nights growing shorter while the suns stayed in the sky for ever increasing times. Three days before she arrived at the city - just as she entered the road - summer truly began.

The days had been getting hotter daily, and days were long indeed, further adding activity to both herself and Arvog. That didn't last long, Ves'ra had to cool both of them only a day after summer begun. At least the spell didn't use any energy - she transformed the heat she drew out of them back into energy, making the spell essentially self-powered.

There was only one guard standing in at the city entrance, and nobody wanting to enter before her. The guard seemed quite bored, so his eyes lit up as he saw her approaching.

“You late eh? What happened?”

“I evolved, took me a week to be able to travel again.”

“Oh you evolved? You’ll have to go in and change your identity then? What are you if I'm allowed to ask?”

“I don't know, I was a kobold before though.” The man raised an eyebrow.

“A kobold? That was one hell of an evolution then, congratulations.”

“Thank you. Updating my identity is done in the same building I registered in?”

“You know it. Good luck.”

“Thank you. Have fun guarding the gate.”

“Haha. Very funny.”

She entered the administration building a few minutes later, finding the same woman that had already registered her when she came into the city.

“Hello there, I would like to update my identity.”

“Oh, reason for your update?”

“I evolved.”

“That's good. You got a core now?”

“I can get a core when evolving? I thought you had to form them.”

“Nah, only us humans have to do that, we don't evolve after all.”

“You sure that's normal, and not just your own fault?”

“Well, there is the odd adventurers that does evolve, but that's so rare you can ignore it.”

“No wonder, adventurers are the only ones that get to eat the monstermeat they hunt within a reasonable timeframe.”

“Yeah, I know, I know, people can evolve when they eat enough mana filled meat. You do know we can't really eat raw meat? It’s not healthy for us. And the ingested mana has to be from something more or equally powerful to really work, and you build up an immunity really fast. We’re not stupid.”

“So, what am I now?” She asked.

“You’re yourself. Every evolution is individual, so we just add monikers to your base-race. You’re a kobold, so now you’re a high kobold.”

“That's neat.”

“Yep. … Here you go, good luck.”

“Thanks, so, anyway I can get money in the city? I doubt the rewards from my quest will be enough to last three months.”

“I’d look at the enchanters guild, you’re a mage yes? They always search for new mana.”

“Thank you, I’ll be on my way then, bye.”

“Good luck.”

Ves'ra didn't bring Arvog into the same place as before, she’d search for an apartment of her own - there was little reason to pay for an inn if she wanted to stay these three months - and use the city as her base for some time.

First she had to get her quest reward though, hunting and killing the elder lynx had been a C-rank quest and the rewards would last her and Arvog for about two months, so not enough. She approached the counter for small people again, she was still smaller than an adult human.

She didn't know what race the girl at the counter was from - or if she was just a hatchling - but it didn't matter to her.

“Hey, I’d like to complete my quest.”

“Sure thing, can I have your card?”

“Oh, you killed an elder lynx, nice, I'm sure Mister Bronson will be happy to hear of it. Now, if you’d hand over the fur I’ll mark the quest as complete. You’ll be able to get your money at the merchant’s association.”

“Oh, I can't get it here?”

“Well, it’s standard procedure, requesters promising missions with high monetary rewards will have to show a voucher that they do indeed have the money. I’ll give it to you so you can redeem it at the merchant’s yourself.”

“That's smart, safer too.”

“Yep. Can I do anything else for you?”

“You can. I’d like to get the rewards for a few standard monsters I killed.”

“No problem, show me your proofs and I’ll get to it immediately.”

“Here you go.”

“Wow, this’ll take a minute. How long did you take to find this many?”

“I killed them on my way, my familiar saw them so we took care of it.” She said, pointing at a curious Arvog.

“Ooh, that's a beautiful familiar, where did you find him?”

“His parents killed one of my band. One was killed by human adventurers, and I killed the other.”

“I'm quite envious, I do hope to get a familiar as beautiful as this once I manage to awaken.”

“You aren't? How do you operate these machines then?”

“It’s not that you need to be a mage for them, it’s just easier as a mage.”

“That's good to know. Well, I wish you good luck with your hatching.”

“Hatching? That's a curious word for it, I wouldn't have thought common wasn't your first language.”

“Thanks, I still have some problems with some of the words but I’ve been using it ever since I met that human caravan. Practice makes perfect.”

“That's true. Now let's see, you get another five hundred thirty-two silver for those.”

“Yep, now I know that's not something you have to do, but I’ll ask anyways, are there any dwellings that wouldn't mind my familiar that I could rent for the summer? I don't want to be in inn, and I really don't want to separate from him like I did the last time I was here.”

“No problem, we’re here to help, and summer is sooo slow, any distraction is good. I would ask around the outer quarter of the city, there always are a few rooms available. At least if you don't mind stairs.”

“I don't. It’s probably better the higher it is, as long as I have a window - Arvog can come and go as he likes.”

“If you do that you’ll have to pay extra, cooling down apartments is quite hard.”

“Can't I do it myself? I'm a mage and have control over both heat and ice.”

“You’ll be able to get a room easily as long as you help cooling the house down then. Good luck.”

“Thank you, and a good day.”

“A good day to you too.”

The advice proved to be right, the second owner was more than willing to offer her a few rooms under the roof as long as she helped him cool the building three hours a week. She was pleasantly surprised - she didn't have to actually pay any rent for the whole summer - cooling things down with magic was quite sought after it seemed.

Ves’ra was fine with that, she’d have three months to search through the huge amount of memories that had appeared in her mind after her evolution. Visiting the enchanter’s guild would be interesting too, she really wanted to learn more about enchanting - all of hers decayed over a few days without her supervision.