An Owl's Rise

After having been taught the basics of alchemy by Melisandre, Evelyn spent her time creating items for personal use and to sell.

'That is the last of my regen capybara blood. I will need to restock before I can make more healing items.' Evelyn thought with a despondent frown.

This was the only ingredient that she had just gotten the bare minimum of, because the capybaras were so difficult to catch with their strong defensive abilities and ability to heal from injuries at a fast rate.

Still, she now had over a hundred bottles worth of healing potions, which was no small amount.

Along with that she had dozens of antidotes, bottles filled with magical energy replenishment pills, and a few fortification potions that made the body tougher for a short time.

'I suppose I will go practice my magical energy control for the day.'

With her brewing done for the day, Evelyn headed on over to the training room and got started on her daily training.

So far, she was still in the same position she had been before she left on her trip and was unable to gleam any insight into controlling her raw magical energy.

Nevertheless, she kept at it since she had seen how impactful the power was and she knew it would be better to learn sooner rather than later.

'I can't go on.' Evelyn thought as she slumped over.

She had already used all of her magical energy three times over by constantly refilling it with he replenishment pills she had made.

But her body had reached its limit and now she was exhausted from continually draining her magical energy over multiple hours.

Leaving the training room, she made her way next to the kitchen where she ate a meal comprising of pretty much meat as per usual and then headed off to her room.  And once there she would spend about an hour in the advancement chamber before going to bed.

'Okay just three blue magic crystals as Melisandre said.'

Following the strict guidelines that her master had given her Evelyn no longer tried gorging herself on magical energy all at once, but instead was taking it slowly as instructed.

And after being observed for four days she now finally had the privilege to use the chamber alone even after her earlier blunder that would have killed any other fiend beast but her.

However, not long after she started her session this time, she felt her beast core and magic core hit some type of bottle neck, and the Aethersphere began absorbing all of the magical energy instead.

Immediately Evelyn exited the chamber and went back up into the main section of her room.

She could already feel the drowsiness setting in as her body prepared to accommodate her growth and breakthrough to the peak of the fiend beast rank.

'I knew I was close already, but it really did not take very long.' Evelyn thought as she drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke, she immediately noticed that she had gotten a bit larger by the way her body was balanced.

'I think I might be about nine feet tall now. Close to what my mother was.'

Quickly going into the nearby washroom, Evelyn checked out her appearance in the mirror and felt a sadness welling up inside her.

She now looked quite similar to how her mother from this world did. Only being a bit smaller and having a smattering of purple feathers to go along with her green ones.

'I have reached the same rank that my parents were at before they died.' Evelyn thought as she remembered all her hardships and the progress she had made since coming to this world.

Eventually she shook her head to push the dark thoughts creeping out from the back her mind back down.

'I have just taken another step towards my goal. I do not know how long it will take me, but I will find wherever Mason is now.'

With her resolve steeled again, Evelyn put back on a smile and soon enough felt a rumbling in her stomach.

She had just had the equivalent of a massive growth spurt, and while she had been well fed before it happened, now she was feeling particularly ravenous.

There was also the fact that she had no idea exactly how long she had been out. Since last time it had taken her three days to go from the mid-tier to the high tier. Though this time was different since it had been a more gradual gain towards the end. Giving her body more time to adjust and get ready for the jump.

Luckily when she arrived at the kitchen and found Anneli cooking, she simply greeted Evelyn like normal and asked her what she would like to eat. Which made it clear she had not been out longer than a single day.

But her nonchalant and normal attitude faded quickly when she realized that Evelyn had changed since she last saw her.

"Evelyn! You have moved up to the peak of your rank!"

Anneli was very surprised to see this, since it was not long ago that Evelyn had just advanced from the mid-tier to the high tier. But now she was already at the peak.

Normally this would have taken her at least a few months if not a year, but she heavily advanced her growth when eating the beast core from the behemoth frog which was an awakened rank beast.

Along with that she was eating the high-quality food provided in Melisandre's mansion and had access to the advancement chamber which further increased her rate of growth.

Still, it was astonishing for anyone to see how explosively Evelyn had gone up the tiers of the fiend beast rank.

"I need to contact Lady Melisandre immediately. She is going to be surprised and overjoyed." Anneli said with a frantic but delighted expression.

Soon enough Melisandre came warping into the room and locked her eyes right onto Evelyn.

"It is true, you really have made it to the peak of the fiend beast rank! But how is this possible?"

Going up to Evelyn, she asked her if she had been pushing herself in the advancement chamber again, but Evelyn shook her head and denied this.

"Remember how I showed you the materials form the behemoth frog. I suppose that you did not notice that the core was missing." Evelyn said.

Coming to a sudden realization upon hearing this Melisandre remembered noting that it was not there but was quickly distracted by everything else Evelyn had brought out.

"I see, so you ate it. I must say that was a bit reckless, but it appears to have pushed you quite far." Melisandre said with an impressed expression.

She then turned around, and mumbled, "Even after consuming such a core, only now did she push to the peak of the rank. What kind of monster is she to be able to properly utilize so much magical energy?'

Once the shock and excitement had settled down, Melisandre told Anneli to put away whatever she was cooking and make something special to celebrate Evelyn's achievement.

"Now Evelyn I know that you have seen some explosive advancement, but things are going to be much more difficult from now on." Melisandre said with a serious expression.

Sitting up straighter and giving her master her undivided attention, Evelyn waited for her to continue.

"I believe I mentioned that past he fiend beast rank it is not just a matter of absorbing more magical energy, correct?"

Nodding her head Evelyn acknowledged that she remembered Melisandre telling her this before. Though at the time it was not pertinent to her.

"Good, so you remember. Now let me clarify what those requirements are. There are two things you will need to accomplish before you can evolve to the awakened rank. First, is that you must advance your understanding of you affinities. You will find that just producing wind or fire is only the basics of what you can do with magic. You will need to discover what each of these powers can really do and explore how it works for you. And while I can guide you a bit here and there. Often there is a difference between each induvial, so figuring out the majority on your own is important. The second requirement is likely going to be much harder for you. In order to go up to the next rank your body will need at least one catalyst. but likely more. Over the years we at the Roost have learned a great deal about this, and for most owls the requirements to go from a fiend beast to an awakened beast are known from past generations. But as you are a new species, you will need to find what items are necessary for you to evolve."

Hearing this Evelyn grimaced. She never thought that it would be this difficult to evolve to the next rank and could only lament that her merging with the Aethersphere was going to make this much harder.

'Still, I just need to persevere. I have seen plenty of awakened beasts out in the wild, so it must be possible to find or simply come across what is necessary to trigger my evolution to the next rank.'