Early morning had come, and Lyra and I had woken up at 5:30 and after getting showered and dressed we left the house at 6:00 AM. We were meeting up with Alexis at the gate so that we could take Mira to the beginner forest so she can evolve her smokescreen python Lyra.

I had no idea what she would turn into, but I had high hopes for her to transform into something strong and capable of protecting and guarding Mira. She was one of the few people I cared for in this world, and I would do anything to keep her as safe as possible, I would die before letting her be harmed again.

I couldn't be upset that Mira hadn't evolved Lyra after all of this time, Lyra was great for helping escape a dangerous situation, but she had almost no offensive abilities. I was hoping to shore up her abilities to give her something to attack with. Running was great and all, but you couldn't always outrun an enemy, so being able to kill them is a must when in a dangerous area.

I will probably have to baby her for quite some time, like helping her summons evolve or to bond with more summons, I had hopes that she would at least have the capabilities of a summoner even if that wasn't her main occupation. This was a dangerous world, and I wanted her to be strong enough to at least not be oppressed or harmed by most people.

I was more concerned about her being hurt by people than monsters, monsters at least stayed in a separate plane most of the time, and we know they will try to harm us. Humans will pretend to be friendly and then stab you in the back when you're most vulnerable, and those in positions of authority are the worst of all.

If any more people tried to harm us, I could always just dig a second grave for my next deserving victim. It was much easier to hide a body or make a person disappear in today's era with no technology and monsters that would kill us without a second thought. I didn't want to go killing people, but I wouldn't hesitate to if they attempted to harm me or anyone I cared about.

I'm done being victimized and stepped on by others, I now had the power to back up my conviction, but I was smart enough to realize violence wasn't always the right or best answer to things.

....

"Tommy, are you even listening?" (Mira)

I finally began tuning back into whatever Mira was talking about, and now I would have to admit my wrongdoing at least in her mind it would be.

"Sorry Mira, I was thinking about something. What were you talking about again?" (Mira)

"Ugh, you always tune out when I start talking. Am I really that boring?" (Mira)

"Of course not Mira, I just have something on my mind from a dream I had. Why don't you tell me again and this time I promise to listen." (Thomas) Whew, crisis averted, an Angry Mira is not something I want on a long trip in the wilderness.

"Well, I was telling you about my newest discoveries for the universal antidote I've been working on. I'm getting so close, I just need to fix the ingredient ratios and then I'll have a working product. I can't thank you enough for the manticore venom, I don't know what I would have done without it." (Mira)

"That's great Mir, I'm so proud of you. I'm just glad I managed to actually help you, just let me know if you need anything else and I'll try to get it for you. I also want a few vials of your finished potion when you complete it, never know when that might come in handy." (Thomas)

We continued on talking about her work until we made it to the gate right as Alexis did.

"Hey Alexis, over here!" (Mira)

"Hey guys, are you ready for this early hunt?" (Alexis)

"I'm still trying to get my eyes to stop drooping, luckily we can ride our summons to get to the forest quicker." (Thomas)

We scanned through and as soon as we passed through the gate we summoned our respective summons. Alexis was riding Hemlock, I was riding Jotun, and Mira was riding Brutus while Lyra remained draped around her.

I would have let Mira ride Jotun, but his skin is ice-cold and I can only stand it due to the minor resistance I have to the cold from being bonded with him. The resistance is enough for me to not develop frostbite, I was just thankful that my armor was enough to keep me warm while riding my frost wyrm.

Our mounts ran quickly, and we arrived at the edge of the woods within 20 minutes of riding. At this point, I unsummoned Jotun and instead brought out Emett. The little humanoid rock golem was still a tier 2, but he was now at a level where he could fight off most tier 3 monsters thanks to his defensive outer-layer of rock.

He would be able to help Lyra hunt while not doing all of the work for her, this was necessary to jumpstart Lyra's evolution. She had more than enough DNA absorbed from the tier 4 snake core, all she needed now was a difficult battle to start the process.

It seemed like it was true that battle was necessary to evolve despite any cores that may have been fed to a summon, the excess amount of cores would simply make it easier to evolve.

"Alright, let's head into the woods and find some monsters to fight for Lyra. Alexis, you'll stay back with Hemlock in case any dangers come close while Lyra is pre-occupied. We want her to get some real experience and any real danger to her will be taken care of by Emett." (Thomas)

We continued on with Brutus in front of us to search for any monsters and to warn us about any attempted ambushes by monsters. Just because the monsters here are weak compared to the ones in the marsh, doesn't mean they can't be lethal in a moment of luck or a lull in alertness for danger.

.........

We had made a decent ways through the forest and Lyra was able to handle the tier 1 monsters that tried to attack us occasionally. Although it was fairly rare due to the imposing presence of Brutus and Hemlock nearby, it was the most aggressive of monsters that attacked us.

Unsurprisingly the horned rabbits seemed to have a vendetta against us as they continually charged towards us either by themselves or in a pair. Any extra monsters were taken care of quickly by Emett who was impervious to their attacks and simply rushed up and snapped their necks.

About an hour later of fairly continual movement, we made it to the barrier between the first and second-tier areas of the forest. We took a moment to rest and have a quick snack before continuing on, by this point, the sun had already risen and the bright orange glow from the rising sun made for a picturesque moment in our journey.

After we and our summons ate, we made our way within the second area and searched for a worthy opponent that Lyra would be capable of fighting. She really only had the ability to constrain with her body and attack with her sharp fangs that would inject a fiery concentration of ash into the body of her opponent.

Her fangs could be quite lethal, but it was difficult to use them against an even-strength opponent since to bite them she would need for them to be relatively still. She easily proved that when some drill rabbits charged at us.

Rabbits seemed to be making up for all their years as prey, they were by far the most aggressive monsters I've encountered so far. Just imagining a group of them charge at me alone is enough to induce nightmares, luckily I'm usually cognizant enough to know that I have my summons to count on.

The python quickly slithered over to the first of the drill rabbits and quickly constricted the monster all over with her body. Her next move was to use her concentrated ash to begin internally damaging the monster. By the end, the rabbit had turned crispy and smoke was pouring out of all orifices, many blood vessels had burst from the heat and blood was leaking everywhere.

The worst parts were where the initial injections occurred, and by the time the monster was dead, there were at least 6 bites on its' body.

There were 3 more rabbits to take care of, and Emett plowed through 2 of them while leaving the other one for the strained snake. Lyra wasn't used to regular exercise or expending so much liquid ash, and it showed in how much stamina she had after facing just one low-class tier 2 monster.

The small scale skirmish ended quickly, and what was left at the end were 4 wild monster bodies, a stone golem, and a tired smokescreen python. Lyra was tired but still capable of moving on and continuing to fight.

I would need to take her abilities into account and finish up the hunt before Lyra became too tired to even fight a decent opponent.

"Brutus, go and search for a decently strong monster for Lyra to fight in this section of the forest." (Thomas)

My Grim hound went off while sniffing at the ground and not 10 minutes later he came back excited indicating that he had found something. I just hoped that it was strong enough to be a challenge while still remaining beatable.

"Lets go see what Brutus found. Lyra you get ready to fight your last battle, only rush in if I tell you, I wouldn't want you to waste your energy or get injured by a stronger enemy." (Thomas)

We came to a copse of trees fairly far apart and in a den was an Ironhide boar. This wasn't the most ideal opponent for Lyra since its defense would pose a significant challenge to her fangs. It didn't really have any capabilities to fight back effectively, it probably won't be any easier to find a better opponent so we might as well use this monster to fight.

"Alright Lyra, go and fight that Ironhide boar. You'll have to be careful though, aim for getting up close to it and finding a way to get past its defense in order to kill it. Fight smart, not hard." (Thomas)

The little python nodded to me before sneaking off over to the sitting boar. After about a minute of waiting, Lyra came into view and had silently snuck up on the tusked pig. She used her long body to wrap around the tree trunk and slither up onto an overhanging branch.

She was in the perfect position to ambush and used gravity to help give her fangs an extra piercing boost. Her body flew like a little grey missile, and when she reached the boar managed to barely puncture the neck of the boar.

Unfortunately, she didn't get very far into the hide, however, some of the ash concentrate had made its' way through the boar's body. It was squealing in agony and Lyra used her advantage to wrap around and constrict the frantic monster.

She made sure to remain clear of its head and sharp tusks while constraining the movements of the pig. It took a while, but she managed to slide into the correct positioning on the body while the monster was bucking around trying to get her off. With a sudden and sharp contraction, multiple bones were heard snapping or dislocating and the monster ceased most movement.

Lyra remained cautious of the suspiciously still boar and carefully made her way up the side to where she had already punctured the tusked monster's neck. She carefully positioned herself and struck the boar again in the same area so there was no resistance from the hide.

Soon liquid ash was injected into the once more squealing pig and it quickly became cooked from within. It threw its' head back despite the many broken bones in an attempt to gore Mira's python, unfortunately for it, Lyra was ready for such a desperate move and darted to the side as soon as movement was detected.

Lyra had managed to finish the fight fairly easily and quickly, however, I suspect that the element of surprise had a large part in such a successful hunt. It didn't really matter anyway as the cloudy featured reptile began to glow and evolve after such a battle.

Light suffused the area, and motes even began to travel towards Mira as well. She seemed ecstatic and shocked as she continued to gain strength and a new ability from Lyra.

Not long after, Lyra turned from a grey 5-foot python with cloud patterns overlayed on her into a storm-toothed python, and bright yellow zig-zags began running about all over her. Her fangs released a combination of smoke and lighting and together looked like a miniature lightning storm.

She had the same dark color interwoven with small lighting bolts branching all over, and had gained an additional 2 feet onto her already impressive length. She looked positively lethal, and I now felt much better about Mira's safety.

All she would need now is a few additional summons for her, but we would cross that bridge later. For now, we could revel in Mira's success and head back to drop Mira off before Alexis and I went to the far more dangerous marsh.