Monster Pet Evolution

With his Extrasensory ability, Gao Peng slowly became used to his incredible strength. That being said, it did still take him nearly 30 minutes to do so. Even then, he still had to tread carefully, in case he put a hole through the ground with his foot again.

He pushed open the door of his lab and was greeted by the sight of Xu Qingzhi gingerly rubbing her knee as she shot him a baleful look.

Nonchalantly, he chided her, "How are you going to be my assistant if you're so clumsy?"

With that, he strode away from his lab. He was walking a little funny, like a cat walking on its tiptoes.

...

Dumby was still harvesting souls at the slaughterhouse. The only ones around the mansion now were Da Zi, Goldie, Flamy, and Silly.

He waved his familiars over. "Let's go. We're bringing Stripey back."

Stripey?

Da Zi's eyes lit up. Like a bolt of lightning, it streaked across the lake to meet Gao Peng.

"Gao Peng, was Stripey secretly eating yummy food out there on his own?" Da Zi asked.

"In a way, I guess."

"That's no good. I want to eat fried spider skin!" Da Zi wasn't happy. How could its underling have been eating something yummy behind its back?!

"...Why don't you go get it from Stripey yourself?" Gao Peng chuckled.

"Great!" Da Zi was overjoyed. The gears in its head whirred as it started scheming ways to take more spider skin from Stripey. To think it had ever worried about that big goof. All Stripey did was secretly eat yummy food by himself.

The Thunder Shell Lord stuck his head out and peered around inquisitively before withdrawing into its shell. Lightning danced around it as it resumed absorbing electricity from the device.

The Thunder Shell Lord was growing at startling speeds. Ever since it had started using the device, it had been working nonstop, and as a result, had grown a whole two levels.

Just to put into context how impressive that was, the Thunder Shell Lord was a Lord-tier familiar. To grow even a level would require preposterous amounts of energy.

"Whoa!" Flamy screeched to a stop in front of Gao Peng, wings beating furiously.

After half a month, Flamy had almost completely regrown his feathers. Even though they weren't as thick as before, it didn't really affect its ability to fly.

Goldie was despondent when it found out that Flamy's feathers had regrown.

How could you possibly have grown them back? Didn't we say we would be featherless together??

Goldie was experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions at that point. It was happy for Flamy, but at the same time, it had trained so hard, too… It had even cut its daily rest from five hours to four hours.

Goldie glared angrily at the feathers on Flamy, as though they had each done him a great personal wrong.

Acting like it didn't care, it turned away from Flamy, yet it couldn't help but sneak one more look at those feathers.

Gulp.

Hideous!

"Gao Peng, why don't you get on my back?" Da Zi flew circles around Gao Peng lazily.

"I'm good. In fact, why don't we have a race?" Gao Peng chuckled.

Da Zi was taken aback. It hemmed and hawed for a few seconds before asking hesitantly. "Are you sure…?"

"Dead serious! Are you in or not?" Gao Peng nodded confidently.

"...Will you get me something yummy to eat if you win?"

Gao Peng snorted. "I'll buy you something yummy if I lose! If I win, you get nothing!"

"Silly Gao Peng. You're going down!" Da Zi puffed his chest out proudly.

"Okay… Let's go!" The second he uttered "go," he was off like a cannonball!

Boom—

He was so blindingly fast that he left a vacuum in his wake, whipping up a gale-force wind as he ran.The ground exploded into huge clouds of mud and dirt where he tread, little craters forming where he stepped.

Da Zi stared dumbly at Gao Peng's rapidly vanishing figure.

That couldn't have been Dumby dressed as Gao Peng, could it?

"Wait for me, Dumby..." yelled Da Zi as he gave chase furiously.

Goldie had the cutest reaction. Its eyes were bugging out, and it was as still as a statue as it stared in Gao Peng's wake.

...

In the forest, Da Zi stealthily made its way behind Gao Peng and bit down hard on his butt with a vicious gleam in its eyes.

I'll get you this time, you cheater!

Bang! "Argh!"

Gao Peng's face darkened as he gently nursed his aching butt. Da Zi had a nice purple shiner on his left eye to show for its efforts, its wings also throbbing in pain.

"You've changed, Gao Peng. You never hit me before."

"Who asked you to bite my butt?"

Even though most of the pain was transferred to Goldie, surprisingly, it still hurt.

"Oh..." Da Zi's head drooped dejectedly. Who knew what was going on in its head?

"Gao Peng, have some juice!" Silly whipped out a bottle of fruit juice from God knows where and passed it carefully to Gao Peng.

Gao Peng emptied the bottle in one gulp.

Silly was heartbroken. All it could do was stare sadly at the empty bottle as it collapsed into a motionless heap on top of Gao Peng's head.

"Roar!" A thunderous roar cut through the stillness of the forest as a yellow blur launched itself menacingly at Gao Peng.

Gao Peng quickly took cover behind Goldie. "Goldie, protect me!"

Goldie looked up, only to have its head nearly chewed off by an enormous jaw. Out of pure reflex, it countered with a lightning-fast punch.

Bang!

Goldie was forced to retreat a few steps back, but so was the giant tiger.

As the tiger sized up Goldie, realization dawned on it. It wasn't worth it. All it wanted was to feast on easy prey, not get drawn out into a long fight. Without a sound, the tiger turned around and slunk away into the shadows of the forest.

"Let it go. Let's hurry up and find Stripey." Goldie, who had flown into a murderous rage, had to be held back by Gao Peng. Goldie had become more and more violent recently. He had ripped apart scores of monsters that Gao Peng had bought for him to train with.

All of a sudden, Gao Peng thought of when they had first met. Back then, Goldie had been just a silly, feathered duck, and now...

---

Stripey yawned as he slowly opened his eyes.

Oh God, I'm way too high up!

He quickly shut his eyes.

If anyone had taken a closer look at the mountain, they would have seen it trembling gently, like a leaf in the breeze.

"Stripey, I'm here for you." Gao Peng's gentle voice echoed within him.

Is Gao Peng here with me?

Stripey opened his eyes eagerly only to see...

Rumble—

Suddenly, a monster hunting squad in the midst of a hunt nearby felt the ground shudder violently beneath their feet.

"Steady! Steady!"

"Was that an earthquake?"

"I don't know. Just be careful."

Before they even had a chance to catch their breath, the sky darkened ominously as a powerful gale split the very clouds apart. A strange, keening wail could also be heard in the direction of the forest.

As they were enveloped by a giant shadow, a hunter raised his head, only to witness a mountain come to life...