Beast-Tamer: Limitless Evolution
Chapter 26: It Worked

Chapter 26: It Worked

It Worked.

Fredrick managed to find a more established place in the black market that sold the service of safe spaces. It allowed people who wanted to do something in private to do so without any interruptions.

It was fairly cheap too, costing only 100 credits an hour.

Once he entered the safe space, he summoned his beast again and sighed.

He rubbed his hand on the body of the octopus and felt its emotions through their bond. Calling it depressed would be an understatement, and he was determined to bring it out of that hole.

"Not much longer." He said softly and felt it react softly under his touch.

Without further ado, he brought out the container and opened the lid. As soon as he did, the oceanic smell filled the room and he was dazed for a moment. However, this didn’t last long as he suddenly felt a surge of excitement from the beast.

For the first time in a long time, he felt genuine desire coming from the octopus.

At this, any doubt in his mind about the Maven’s capabilities had been thrown out of the window.

"Stay still for me Hydro." Staving off his excitement, he crouched in front of the squid and dipped his hand into the strange paste. It felt cool to the touch.

He swiftly started to apply it across Hydro’s body, and with each part of its body that was covered, the octopus sent a wave of pleasure through their bond that only made Fredrick even more excited.

He applied the paste with more gusto, making sure to cover every inch of Hydro’s body, even his beak. Not a single part of him was left untouched, and not a single bit of paste was left in the container as it had been emptied.

As soon as this was done, Fredrick felt a strange emotion coming from Hydro. It took him a moment to realize that it was...

’Relief?’ Suddenly, he noticed the paste starting to get ingested through Hydro’s skin.

The process took about ten minutes, and at first, nothing happened after. Fredrick started wondering if something had gone wrong when Hydro trembled again and a dark fluid started being ejected from its skin.

With its appearance came an extremely unpleasant smell and Fredrick had to take a few steps back and cover his nose.

To his surprise though, Hydro’s excitement continued to grow as this liquid was ejected, and he noticed the faded color of the squid was starting to become vibrant again. In fact, it wasn’t just becoming vibrant, it was almost glowing.

That’s when he noticed something else and his heart leapt with joy. The limbs of the squid were starting to regenerate, and they were regenerating far faster than they ever had.

That wasn’t all, from the bond, he could sense Hydro’s overall condition, and he could tell that his other hearts that had been severely damaged were also regenerating and restarting.

His eyes also started to regenerate. At first, it looked like thin films over where they were supposed to be appeared and then bulged out. Then they fell off revealing a new set of eyes that glowed like neon lights.

The process was slow, but also quite fast if you take into consideration the normal regeneration speed of the octopus.

After more than an hour, the process seemed to have ended, and the results left Fredrick ecstatic.

Hydro which was only tall enough to reach the chest of Osho, had now grown to exceed his height.

Moreover, his skin’s texture changed a little bit. Beneath the fluids that had been ejected, there was a strange slime-like substance covering it. If anyone tried to cut it while this slime was active, they’d find their attacks sliding off its body as their weapons found no purchase.

Then there were the tentacles. Each of them had grown longer than before and more robust, yet also more flexible, meaning that their capabilities had increased significantly. Not to mention, on the suction cups, there were tiny holes, and if Hydro were to stick to anything, sharp protrusion would emerge from these holes and stab into whatever it was clinging to.

Fredrick stared for a moment, and then a joyous and bitter chuckle left him.

"It worked." He whispered and ordered Hydro to clean himself with water, which the octopus obliged.

The dark fluid which Fredrick assumed was the thing preventing Hydro from properly regenerating was washed away, allowing him to see his beast in its full glory.

He walked to it and hugged it tightly, a wave of joy being sent through their bond both ways.

’Finally, a windfall.’ Fredrick sighed and his eyes sharpened behind his mask.

’I will not waste it.’

He retracted the hug and sighed. That’s when he finally noticed something I’m his pocket.

Surprised and confused, he reached into it and brought out a small business card.

He read through it and stifled a laugh.

"Want me to advertise eh? Well, you deserve that much, at least."

___

Osho ended up not getting any more customers for the rest of the night. But that was fine. One was good enough for now.

His hope now was that Fredrick would advertise his services which would allow more customers to find him the next time he came.

For now, though, his time here was spent. As soon as it was 9, he indicated he wanted to leave on the tablet.

A door opened behind the stall and he walked into it and he found himself in the same changing room as when he came.

He took off his mask and placed it on a designated spot, then he changed out of his suit and put on his hoodie and pants before putting putting suit into the suitcase.

As soon as he was done, another door opened and he stepped out to reveal the long staircase he’d come down, but he started going up this time.

As he walked, he tried to sense the surrounding Mana to see if he could catch it when he got teleported. Sadly, no matter how hard he tried, he sensed nothing, and he found himself at the top of the staircase again.

As soon as he arrived, he was met with the blind bartender.

"I hope your venture was successful?" He asked, his gray eyes staring right at Osho despite their inability to see him.

"Pretty good I’d say." Osho nodded and the man smiled.

"That is good to hear. I hope you can return soon." With that, the two of them exchanged a nod and Osho stepped out of the Littleton Lounge, not bothering to look at the guard that had led him inside the first time.

He took hailed a taxi and started heading back home. As the car drove, he started reflecting on the entire venture.

’Hm, I think everything went well enough.’ He mused. His goal of finding someone desperate enough to not ask too many questions had been fairly successful, and he managed to net 200,000 credits.

However, he didn’t for a second think that it was a large sum of money. He saw how Fredrick had spent 95,000 credits just to buy the materials needed to evolve his beast, and Osho doubted such an amount would be enough to buy what he’d need to evolve Gale again.

However, it should be enough to help evolve another beast.

That’s why he didn’t immediately go home but instead branched into the Beast Emporium.

When he stepped out of the taxi, he looked at the building before opening up his phone and scrolling through his gallery where he saw some of the pictures Ellie sent him with Sugil near her.

He focused on the snake for a bit before the family lines appeared in the air, just that they were amethyst-colored this time.

___

"I’m back," Osho said as he stepped through his door with a box in hand. As soon as he did, a grey blur smashed into his chest and almost threw him to the ground.

He was started as he saw Gale rubbing himself against his chest intensely, fervent and almost distressed chirping noises leaving his beak as he made sure to press himself into his master as much as possible.

Osho sensed the bird’s turbulent emotions and sighed. He put down the box and started the process of placating him, not just to make him calm down, but because he genuinely felt bad for leaving the bird alone for so long.

Again, Gale was still a few days and was heavily dependent on his Master, Osho. For him to be gone for a few hours is no different from him being gone a good chunk of the bird’s life, and the anxiety he felt from Gale let him know how the bird perceived such separation.

So it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he felt bad.

He continuously sent comforting emotions through their bond while giving the bird lots of physical attention, and only after a while did the bird finally calm down somewhat.

Seeing this, Osho sighed.

"You must be hungry huh?" He didn’t communicate with their bind and simply spoke, but Gake still perked up to his surprise.

"Oh? Did you understand that?" Osho asked curiously, but this time the bird just stared at him.

’Ah, of course, the first words he can comprehend are related to food.’ He chuckled and went to the kitchen to pour Gale some food, the bird clinging to him like a lifeline.

As soon as he set the bowl down, Gale started eating happily, glad that his master had come back.

Osho sighed and got ready to prepare his dinner, but then his phone vibrated.

He opened it and saw a message from Mrs Jane. Curious, he opened the text.

[Osho, I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow is our outing. I hope you’re in a good enough condition to come. Everyone is to be at school by 8 am sharp.] It was short, but enough to remind Osho of the outing that was stated to take place master every three days.

’Guess I’ll hold off making the thing till tomorrow.’ Osho mused and decided to put the box a cabinet in his kitchen.

He then sent a simple ’Noted’ to Mrs Jane and made his dinner.

After which, he got into bed and cultivated while Gale snuggled up against him.

He finished, took a shower, then went to sleep, expectant for what the next day would hold.