Sorry guys, this page crashed without me saving it so I had to redo the whole thing. Yikes!

  Happy early fourth of July!

  The next few days following his evolution were quite peaceful.

  For one thing, Ats had become an amusing sight, and helped Richard discover why people had pets.

  They were just so cute to watch!

  Krackle and Panda had never quite given off the vibe of wanting to be taken care of.

  Despite being newborns, they very much acted mature, with Krackle being a silent and independent hunter, managing their own life, and Panda being a loud rambunctious middle aged man who basically cursed him out whenever he had the chance to. Richard was sure it was out of affection, but that didn't exactly endear him as a pet, with Richard treating him like an old man.

  And Ats had been extremely quiet, to the point he was more like an ornament than an honest to goddess familiar.

  Nowadays however, he acted wildly different.

  Stuffing his cheeks, dawdling around, Ats had become more childish, less like the quiet blood tick he had been before.

  Richard wasn't quite sure why this was the case, but nonetheless, it made Ats so much cuter, especially since he was now prone to falling over.

  Now Richard knew why people kept pets, and wondered a bit if his own life would have been more fun with a little grub like Ats.

  When the little brat known as Smolderfang saw his new evolution, he challenged him again.

  Thwack!

  And like st time, Richard throttled him all the same.

  While there though, and while Smolderfang was being babied by sister Alexandria, Silverwind had something to announce.

  They were leaving.

  Turns out that they had to migrate to new nds for the young.

  While Sister Alexandria was rather sentimental about it, saying her heartfelt goodbyes with her weird wrap hug, Richard was more practically curious.

  Why were they migrating.

  "To help them get stronger." She said simply.

  The young wolves needed a chance to get experience, so throughout the year gdius lupin raveled through different areas with different densities of mana and thus different levels of monsters, all the while the elderly and the strong oversaw their growth, making sure they didn't see anything too far beyond their strength.

  It made sense from a practical standpoint, since monsters need experience and mana to evolve. Rather than just staying in one area, traveling through multiple and slowly raising the difficulty scaling seemed the safest and most controlled way of doing so.

  In particur, they intended to travel near human towns in order to collect more weapons for their youth.

  This gave Richard many mixed feelings, most having to do with who he was.

  As a human, he worried about the innocent people likely to be dragged into an unfortunate situation.

  This was likely to end up with some dead people, but it ultimately couldn't be helped.

  Because as a monster, Richard understood the desperation of the world.

  The gdius lupin need their bdes in order to survive, and unfortunately, they can't purchase them.

  Monsters that do live amongst the people such as lizardmen, dragonewts, minotaurs, and others often suffered prejudice in spite of their very obvious sapience.Richard hadn't even seen any monsters save his childhood friend Lyssandra, who had been a dragonewt, and despite having lived in the temple for years, had still faced judgement in the temple.

  Richard was gd he had shapeshifting, otherwise he wasn't sure how he would sneak into human society ter on.

  Monsters like gdius lupin wouldn't even be given a chance to ask for weapons.

  And so, they saw the gdius lupin off. And while he wasn't particurly emotional about it, he was going to miss the wolves.

  Just a little bit.

  Maybe he'd get to see them again next year.

  Apparently when aquatic monsters gain the ability to fly, they ultimately just look like they're swimming but through air.

  This was the lesson Richard learned by observing Krackle, who looked like they were just traversing the oceans, and could almost pass off as doing so were it not that Krackle was flying.

  It was an interesting sight for sure.

  He had been a bit worried initially about any possible feedback the new form may have had on the octopulse, but the happy chirping of the little critter and the assurance of the system allowed Richard to remain assured this new ability was not affecting his familiar thankfully.

  Speaking of the system...

  [Congratutions! You're efforts have paid off, and Krackle has gained the air attribute! The system does recommend continued feedings nonetheless, to increase air attribute concentrations to shift the favor to air evolutions]

  Awesome. Richard was curious. 'Does that count as a new form or just a new attribute?

  [Well, you see...]

  As Richard asked the system some more questions in regards to the status of monsters, Panda heard something unusual.

  'Krackle can't wait to go show master Krackle's new ability!'

  Wait a minute when did the inkbag have a master?

  Who would be it's master. Panda got just the slightest bit worried, especially once it dove into the ke.

  A few moments in, and...

  Rumble

  Well that couldn't be good.

  Rumble

  Not good at all. The squirrel gave Richard a good face spping, much to Richard's confusion and chagrin.

  Rumble

  "Yes?" he asked, mildly annoyed by the sp.

  Rumble

  "Look you bnk-ass drifting lizard moron! The inkbag went to find their master!"

  Rumble

  Richard frowned for a minute. "What master could they be talking about? SIlverwind's gone and sister Alexandria most definitely isn't an aquatic combatant.

  Rumble

  Now Richard sensed the rumbling, and soon cracks made themselves apparent, very much worrying Richard.

  Rumble

  "That can't be good." He said. The groaning of the earth grew louder and the cracks spread further, causing Richard to take flight, picking up his little rat to flee with.

  As they flew upwards Richard witnessed a good chunk of the forest fall down into the crevasse, exposing a shiny blue carapace.

  Edges and rims made themselves apparent rising above the nd, as dirt slid itself off the newly revealed creature.

  A dark blue crab exposed itself, with one rger fiery red hand and the massive long spindly being decorated with crystals seemingly sprouting out of random locations.

  The crab was huge, easily the size of a small isnd crouched, to say nothing of the fact that it was crouched.

  On its back was a huge mountain, which Richard quickly came to realize was not just a mountain, but an extra shell, much like that which a hermit crab may have, spiraling high into the sky simir to a conch shell in nature.

  Its eyes were bck as the abyss themselves.

  Its aura despite how calm it was, exuded dominance.

  Richard had felt it twice already, making him feel almost ridiculous honestly.

  One familiar was fathered by a god,

  the second blessed by one, and apparently a third was taught by a god.

  Richard couldn't help but ugh in spite of himself. What were the chances?

  And the familiar in question?

  Currently floating in front of the crab whimsically as it swam through the air showing off all sorts of moves.

  The crab did not move, yet the noise vibrating through their mind was proof enough the crab was amused, as the rumbling ughter droned through their mind.

  Another shape came crashing through the air as sister Alexandria arrived next to Richard, making him feel much safer.

  Even though the crab had made no move against them, Richard still felt fear of the thing that could clearly grind him into paste with but one of its many legs.

  Sister Alexandria on the other hand, only sighed, exasperated.

  "Oh great, he's awake." she muttered.

  The crab turned towards them, before rushing over, faster than a creature that size had any right to be, as Richard clutched even closer to sister Alexandria, and even Pandamonium felt a little wary.

  'Little wyrm! Good to see you as always!" The crab boomed, it's voice reasonating through the groups heads.

  'Karkinos sees you've even brought a tiny lizard with you!'

  And as it looked at him he felt a ripple of astonishment in the endless abyss Richard believed were eyes.

  'You reek of gods'

  Whispered the crab

  The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate.

  Not because I'm American of course, I'm Nordic after all.

  However, I do enjoy myself a good barbecue.

  I prep my best cuts of dragon and pieces of dry aged erymanthian boar and cuts of the bull of Cretan. My favorite cuts of meat.

  I invite friends over, and the dragons who I got the cuts from as well as the erymanthian boar and the Cretan bull.

  I don't kill those dragons after all, and I do have a mildly sick sense of humor.

  Most of those dragons do come in the end, because dragon meat is tasty, so they do a little self cannibalism.

  The boar and the bull are very much not sentient so I'm pretty sure they just shred the invitations I send.

  It does get a bit awkward when the minotaur himself comes over for the fourth of july though, cause his dad's on the menu.

  I mean, he managed to drop the bad habit of cannibalism, so he gets kind of uncomfortable being offered sbs of cretan bull.

  But that special gu sauce is just to die for(after doing the ancient poisonous gu method but with living slime sauces) I have created a delicious mildly unnatural sauce that just goes great on everything.

  And the fireworks are just amazing and kind of have to be done on the mountain tops because if we did them in any city in new york it'd probably look less like a firework even and more like a terrorist attack.

  Happy early fourth of july everyone, and stay away from mt. olympus this year.

  We're scheduling a fire works event using phoenix down and the fmes of the sun so this year may be particurly explosive.

  -Grant