Chapter 206: A menacing look- The start of a concern
Everyone looked at the being that had sliced the poison sac open. The beast looked directly at Theo with its big eyes.
"Mantis..." Theo muttered, yet his voice was low from shock.
The mantis came out of the sac completely, and some sticky lines came along with it.
Its body seemed sticky at the moment, as if a membrane were attached all around.
The mantis stopped looking at Theo and first began cleaning its body off the sticky substance.
Theo chuckled, but still had that surprised look on his face.
"Is that... really the same bug?" Ithira spoke without filtering her words; she was that shocked.
Right now, the mantis’s body was dark crimson-colored, and there were black stripes at the bottom of its body that they all could see as the mantis had its upper body raised.
Its head had even bigger antennae now, and more than that, its eyes were the same color but a lot bigger.
There were still small patches of moss on its back, the only difference being that the moss was now reddish in color too, which almost looked like it was the mantis’s hair.
The status showed the name ’Bloodbloom Mantis’, and just below that, Theo saw something that made him want to scream out in excitement, yet he refrained due to being in the forest.
"I-It’s uncommon grade now...!" He couldn’t hold his voice and let out a slight shout in the end.
Yet right now, it didn’t matter. One of the strongest in the whole kingdom stood beside him—his father.
"What was its grade before?" Ithira asked, and Rhys showed her a sign that made her even more shocked.
"This is the legendary level up! Oh my god, did I witness a grade change before my eyes?!" Ithira screamed with bewildered eyes, which pulled Theo’s mind to what she said.
"It can’t be that, you moron," the baron spoke with a serious tone, "Only the beasts that are above level 15 get a grade change. It can’t happen in the lower grades, or we would have seen someone who had experienced it by now." He explained.
"But it doesn’t change the fact that the grade did change, and it is not just right now, the grade went from ordinary to common, and now, it’s uncommon..." The baron spoke again, gaining the attention of Ithira once more.
Theo crouched down and moved his hand forward to get the mantis on it, and that was when he realized its size was now bigger than before.
The mantis took a step on his joined fingers, only to place the next one on his wrist.
When it came fully into his hand, Theo could feel the change in its weight. It felt almost twice the size it had been before.
The mantis tried to stabilize itself on the hand, and when it finally did, Theo could see its legs were in some uncomfortable positions.
He moved his other hand close and connected them, and finally, the mantis was able to stand properly.
"It grew in size too..." Rhys spoke in a not-so-sleepy voice.
"Yes, it did." With pride, Theo looked at the mantis with confident eyes.
’I knew you could take that poison eating, mantis.’ Theo thought, and the mantis just tapped his thumb in return, making him chuckle.
"Nothing about today’s discovery should ever leave this group, EVER." The baron spoke in his serious voice. "I will only tell Seraphine about this, that is it."
When the baron said that, it almost felt nostalgic, as he had already said the same thing a second time this week. Even he had realized that, seeing the expression on his face right now.
’Can you use your poison right now, mantis?’ Theo asked in the bond, curious to see if its intelligence had improved with evolution or if it was always tied to a stat increase.
The poison was something he had been waiting for too for a while.
The mantis looked at Theo for a moment before it took a complete turn to look forward. Its mandibles moved a few times before Theo saw a reddish drop come out of them.
PHIII...
Right that second, a spray of that red substance came out of the mantis’s mouth and went into the atmosphere.
Theo was astonished by the wideness of the poison spray, and when the mantis was done, the baron slowly tugged at Theo, making him step back.
"That poison looks dangerous, Theo." Aldric spoke in a menacing tone. "I want you to give a sample of it to the research department. They will make sure if it is a normal variant or not. If it’s not, we will get an antidote ready for it, in case of a dangerous spray like this one..."
When Theo listened to that, he awkwardly nodded. Getting the mantis to spray the poison while he was so close was a dumb decision.
"I will get the sample to the research department, young master. I will make things ready when we get back." Elias spoke in a professional tone.
Theo looked at him and saw the job seriousness in him that he had, with a lot of effort, gotten rid of before. But due to the baron’s presence, he was back at it again.
"Yes, let’s get it ready. I will also look at a book on how to take care of a poison affinity beast, as it’s very new to—"
"With breaks of fun in between."
"Yes, breaks for fun in between," Theo spoke after the baron’s words with a sigh, just to make him happy too.
Looking at the mantis one more time, Theo felt ridiculous to believe that evolution was already done. A thing that he had prepared for as long as he could remember in the previous months.
All that hard work had finally paid off. While the mantis was strong before, it had that cuteness when it came to its looks. But now? It felt like a walking disaster.
Which made Theo think about the next thing.
’Let’s see if it can camouflage anymore.’