Chapter 1156 – Actually Pretty Decent

“Hey there, buddy,” Jake said as he squatted down in front of the large loot pile. “Everyone else either left or is busy doing their own thing, so the coast is clear now.”

The loot pile started rustling, and a few moments later, a head popped out. “Scary gone?”

“They really aren’t that scary once you get to know them,” Jake shook his head with a smile. “Heck, I’m pretty sure they would like you and you would like them. As long as you overcome your initial fright, things will get better. Besides, outside of the god who already left, I doubt any of us C-grades could confidently catch and harm you even if we wanted to.”

The Warpsnatcher didn’t seem entirely convinced, but did climb out of his loot pile and jump down to the floor. The little guy instantly made sure that everything remained in its right place before turning to Jake again.

“Still scary.”

“It’s normal to find what we don’t know or don’t understand scary, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t confront it. How else will we overcome our fears?” Jake said, shaking his head. “But enough of that for now. I actually came to talk to you about something else.”

The little fella looked confused at Jake, turning his head back and forth. “Talk?”

“Yeah,” Jake nodded. “I see you’re about to reach the peak of C-grade, which means the B-grade evolution is next, right?”

The Warpsnatcher nodded in confirmation. “Soon grow! Evolve!”

“Right. After doing your evolution quest, I reckon you’ll be good to go with the evolution,” Jake said, halfway thinking out loud. Recent happenings in the Warpsnatcher’s life definitely added a lot of Records to his Path; the fact that he was just one level off the cap in C-grade confirmed that.

“Quest? Me prepared quest!” the Warpsnatcher said, spreading out his paws proudly. “This quest!”

“You mean that the quest will be to collect things?” Jake asked with a frown. “How are you so sure of that?”

From what Jake knew, evolution quests varied… at least they did so for humans. Thinking about it, perhaps it wasn’t that odd if the quests for monsters were far more predictable, especially those with more limited Paths like the Warpsnatcher.

“Sure?” the Warpsnatcher tilted his head. “No sure. Believe!”

“Oh…” Jake couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, alright, that makes a lot more sense. Anyhow, it’s actually something regarding this upcoming evolution I want to talk to you about.”

The Warpsnatcher seemed curious and sat down as Jake began to explain. “You see, I have this ability…”

Usually, Jake was very secretive about this ability of his, and telling Artemis about it had been a great show of trust on his part. However, with the Warpsnatcher, Jake shared everything he believed the monster could possibly need to know, and then a little more to make sure.

He genuinely wanted the Warpsnatcher to go into this with full knowledge of what was possibly agreed to.

As for why Jake had even chosen the Warpsnatcher in the first place… well, there were a few reasons. Besides the obvious, such as the fact that he was repaying the critter helping him out greatly when injured or his own desire to experiment and improve his ability, the Warpsnatcher also seemed like a good candidate due to his race.

Jake wanted to avoid having another Vesperia on his hands. Not to misunderstand, Vesperia was great, and someone Jake considered family, but her birth had also been quite the debacle.

With the Warpsnatcher, Jake would prefer to have a situation closer to Sylphie or Sandy. More Sandy than Sylphie, as with Sandy, he had also simply helped an existing monster get a far better evolution. One that empowered the existing Path that the monster in question was already walking.

All while not causing multiversal upheaval or getting any major factions involved.

Jake truly laid everything out, including these thoughts, as he explained things to the Warpsnatcher. He also emphasized that there were massive risks involved. That Jake himself was halfway threading unknown ground, and that the consequences of a mishap could lead to the worst of consequences.

He even went as far as to briefly mention how he’d messed up his own soul, and without the help of a god, there was a good chance he could have lost his life or at least found himself potentially permanently crippled.

Of the risks Jake foresaw, the most likely one was an unwanted evolution. One that would turn the Warpsnatcher into something he didn’t want to be. This was, in general, one of the biggest concerns Jake had regarding helping monsters evolve into incredibly powerful variants.

If he somehow ended up turning the Warpsnatcher into a living calamity that had to be put down, Jake would feel absolutely terrible about it. Perhaps it would even put him off using the ability ever again, at least in the context of helping people he actually cared about.

Throughout this entire talk with the Warpsnatcher, the little fella remained mostly quiet, with a few nods here and there. Jake had feared that this conversation wouldn’t even be possible as he wasn’t sure about the mental maturity of the Warpsnatcher, but it seemed that the concern was unfounded.

While the little guy wasn’t very good at talking while looking, and acting very childish, he was still dealing with a mature, peak C-grade who understood what Jake was talking about. At least the understanding in the Warpsnatcher’s eyes told him that.

After Jake was done talking, they were both quiet for a while as the peak C-grade seemed to be thinking things over. A full dozen seconds passed before he spoke.

“Danger. Yes,” the Warpsnatcher said after considering things. “Also gift. Make strong. Risk gift.”

“Yeah, risk and reward,” Jake nodded. “I cannot tell you what the ratio is, though. If the risk of worth the reward.”

“Worth,” the Warpsnatcher said with little hesitation. “Become strong hard. Not strong bad. Risk fine. Life be risk. Gift… super. Worth all risk.”

Jake listened and was quiet as the Warpsnatcher truly made it clear it fully understood what Jake was talking about. While he lacked the words to fully express it, Jake knew what the little guy meant, especially with the last two fragmented sentences.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Getting high-level evolutions was something all monsters hoped for. Even races already considered high-level by default struggled to get the best possible evolution. As an example, all True Dragons were incredibly powerful by default, yet there remained a massive gap between the weakest and most powerful True Dragon variants.

It was akin to the difference between geniuses of the enlightened species. People like Reika, the Sword Saint’s great-granddaughter, or Matteo, from the Court of Shadows, could be comparable to True Dragons once they evolved to B-grade, but only the variants in the lower echelons.

To Jake, someone like Matteo couldn’t even be considered a threat, and in the same vein, peak True Dragons also looked down on other weaker variants of True Dragons, even if they were all considered powerful by others.

What was important wasn’t only power, but future potential. Despite being a top species, most True Dragons never evolved beyond B-grade. Having a more powerful variant did raise the requirements for evolution, but it wasn’t completely one-to-one, making the chance of evolving again higher when having a powerful variant race.

That’s why people were willing to do some truly insane things to try to evolve and get a strong variant. The most common cause of massive sacrificial rituals was people trying to get a better evolution or accumulate Records, once more with the goal of getting a better evolution down the line.