Alaric’s egg, which was left undisturbed, suddenly shivered a bit. The shivering grew along with the shadow of the room.

The egg stopped as the room was cloaked in darkness once again. The shadow retreated as a crack appeared on the egg. With each second, the crack grew all around the egg.

Reaching every corner of the egg, the crack stopped. Having its duty fulfilled, the egg disappeared from existence, leaving a pool of shadow on the ground.

Gaining consciousness, the shapeless, formless shadow moved as it tried to assume a shape. Strengthening itself, the shadow solidified, but before it could do anything, it dissolved into a pool of shadow once again.

He tried to do it once more, but the same thing happened. The shadow was finding it hard to assume a shape. It was hard, but the shadow was learning the way with each failure.

After multiple failed attempts, it finally managed to get hold of itself enough to have a humanoid shape. A layer of skin appeared on top of the shadow as Alaric once again formed his human form.

"Sigh! This evolution almost turned me into a shadow..." Sighing, he moved around a bit to get comfortable in the humanoid body.

While moving, he decided to test how well his power had been upgraded... and what better skill to start with than shadow sense. Closing his eyes, Alaric focused all his mind on sensing everything around him.

The light around him faded as he began seeing everything that was happening in the room...

In the house...

On the island’s living area and soon

On the entire island.

At this moment, Alaric could keep an eye on the entirety of the island without any problem. He could almost sense everything without making anyone aware of it.

’These two can sense me...’ Alaric mused as he focused his attention on Aurora and Lyra.

Alaric saw Aurora waving... looking at her shadow, while Lyra was bowing and smiling.

[Meet me.] A voice echoed in his head, forcing him to stop using the skill.

[Okay...] Saying these words, Alaric cut the connection and opened his status to take a peek at it.

---------

Name: Alaric

Species: Ebon Guardian [Variant Asteri]

Level: [0/80] [0%] [Tier 4]

Magic Affinity: Shadow (S), Shield (C)

Stats: Strength Lv. 25, Stamina Lv. 100, Agility Lv. 100, Magic Power Lv. 245

Exclusive Abilities: Soul Bond, Shadowkin, Ethereal Body, Mark of Asteri

Skills: Perfect Mana Manipulation Lv. 26, Perfect Shadow Manipulation Lv. 36, Master Shield Manipulation Lv. 19, Faster Shield Creation Lv. 10, Better Stab Lv. 10, Faster Shadow Cloak Lv. 19, Quick Shadow Meld Lv. 12, Mana Shield Lv. 2, Grandmaster Mana Sense Lv. 36, Tentacle Summoner Lv. 31, Quick Shadow Dive Lv. 15, Master External Mana Manipulation Lv. 12, Perfect Shadow Hardening Lv. 28, Ethereal Body Lv. 21, Shadow Blast Lv. 5, Perfect Shadow Sense Lv. 35, Umbral Surge Lv. 2, Quick Shadow Step Lv. 21, Night’s Embrace Lv. 4

Mutations: Stronger Flexible Shadow Skin +15, Perfect Umbrastone Core +15, Efficient Endless Stomach +15, Shadow Skin +15, Shadow Brain +0, Eclipsed Heart +0, Veil Veins +0, Nightmarish Tendons +0, Mana Lungs +0, Shadow Muscles +0, Twilight Eyes +0, Gastly Bones +0

Essence Points: 20

Skill Points: 72

Cosmic Coins: 650

<Cosmic Store>

---------

While Alaric was busy reading his status, the sixth guardian’s hands were full of something else.

"No... no, Vindicator... why are you killing all the slimes..." Archana urged, looking at the spider who was moving ahead of all his siblings and killing them before giving others a chance.

Listening to his mother’s orders, when Vindicator returned to the pack, all nineteen of his siblings jumped on him...

"No... no, don’t fight among yourselves..." Getting in between, Archana quickly disrupted the fighting.

Even with her quick intervention, Vindicator wasn’t left unscathed. It was fortunate that he was a knight... or else the poor hatchlings would be disabled at the moment.

"Look at what you did to this poor boy..." Casting a healing spell on him, Archana looked at the others angrily.

Sensing her gaze, all nineteen of them shivered and formed a line. Slowly, one of them moved forward to kill the slimes while the others waited for their chance.

Having reached Tier I, each of them now needed to reach Level 10 in order to evolve further.

’Hmmm! One day has passed; still, none of them have reached Level 10. At least Vindicator is at Level 9 should I let him go ahead and evolve first...’ Archana thought for a second but quickly shook her head.

’No... no, giving one of them extra attention wouldn’t be good...’ Nodding her head, she looked at her children with a smile and began recalling their names and the species they had evolved into.

Vindicator and Arachneus were the most aggressive ones. Both of them had chosen knight-type species. They had taken the responsibility to keep their queen safe.

Seraphe, Thalassa, and Aranea were the calmest bunch, which led them to become queens. They would be responsible for further expanding the colony.

Nurture, Careweave, Gossamer, Silkheart, and Cocooner would be the ones responsible for caring for the young. These five would be the first teachers of the colony.

Archana was quite surprised to find that these five had chosen the teaching-based class despite the lack of eggs. Instead of wasting her energy on finding the answer, she threw it to luck and moved forward.

Spindle, Spinneret, Trekker, Mender, and Forgeweb tasked themselves with the jobs. All five of them had chosen the worker class and would do most of the work of the colony.

Aranea, Morder, Shrouder, Glintweb, and Harbinger were the ones who would keep the colony safe. While none of them had personalized any particular area, all five of them had chosen the warrior class.

’Should I go hunting as well...’ An idea was forming in her head as Archana was getting bored of seeing them kill the slimes.

Shaking her head, she began practicing her weaving as time flew by, and after who knows how many hours later, all of them had reached Level 10.

"Leeet’s gooo..." Tiredly, Archana whispered and began leading them to her master’s house.