[Congratulations, your pet Paquerette has reached lvl 5 !]
[Congratulations for upgrading your vehicle to lvl 5. You are the 1st player to do so on your server. Rewards will be issued at the beginning of the next day]
[You have filled the hidden conditions for the evolution of your pet Paquerette. Check its panel to use your evolution chance]
[You have fulfilled the hidden condition to level up your job. Check your panel to choose your level up direction]
Sandrine read the messages again and again, her brain freezing. It took a few seconds and the realisation that she was still naked after her shower to suddenly come back to reality. She put on her frog onesie while thinking.
"Wait, was killing a player the condition for leveling up Paquerette ? Or was it just because the bastard was strong and gave a lot of experience ? Anyway, it seems like reaching level 5 was the condition to evolve Paquerette, and reaching the first evolution was the condition to leveling up my job…"
The guilt she felt after killing another human slowly melted. After all, she had gained so much, protected her family, and even got the chance to become stronger.
"Sorry fellow human, but you are too profitable !"
This did not mean that she would go around killing people, she still felt very sick after today's event, but at least psychologically she felt better.
Anyway, now that she had clothes on, she could finally check out Paquerette's panel.
[Name : Paquerette
Species : Earthen equine (Evolution chance available)
Lvl : 5
Favorability : 36
Health : 84
Fatigue : 41
Strength : 16
Constitution : 21
Agility : 18]
As expected, the 3 points all went to agility. It seemed that Paquerette was initially made for a constitution build, but was bent into agility by Sandrine's need to catch up to other players' vehicles.
The favorability had gone up quite a bit too. Was it one of the other hidden conditions for evolution ?
Speaking of evolution, the button next to the species section was shining, as if to urge her to press it.
Sandrine took a deep breath and mentally selected the button. Immediately, a description filled her mind and a type of slot machine appeared in front of her eyes.
"To sum up, pets can evolve into plenty of things, and even gain powers and magic, or divinity, but it all depends on luck and their overall characteristics. For example, a cat can become a sabertooth tiger, but not a pegasus. And I have to pull the lever of the slot machine to see what I'll get, but I shouldn't get my hopes up since it's only the first evolution… Makes sense."
Sandrine didn't mind if the evolution didn't change Paquerette much. She was only worried that the mare would evolve towards a constitution path instead of an agility one, because of her stats. This would be a problem for all of them.
"Bestie, you need to be fast, alright ? I'll try to evolve you but we really need to be quick to match the other players. You saw it today, we couldn't escape even if we wanted to, his jeep was faster."
Paquerette snorted and shook her head, as if to tell Sandrine not to worry. The girl sighed but didn't say anything else.
"Ready ?"
She mentally pulled the lever and watched the little pictures spin in front of her eyes. To be honest, she had no idea what it showed, everything looked like little horses to her. Eventually, the first row slowed down and stopped, followed by the second and third, and a loud rigging filled her ears, with blinking lights. The celebration looked impressive, but Sandrine still had no idea what the three little images represented.
[Congratulations, your pet Paquerette has evolved from an Earthen Equine into a Wind Horse !]
Sandrine scratched her cheek.
"Is that… Good ?"
They say horses are fast like the wind, so surely a wind horse is a fast horse, right ?
A sudden burst of light grabbed her attention and Sandrine turned towards Paquerette. The mare was covered in light, so blinding that it was impossible to distinguish her features.
"Bestie ?"
Sandrine had to squint because of the phenomenon, but still reached out her hand to try and touch her pet. But before her fingers could reach the light, it disappeared like an illusion, and the evolution was over.
Sandrine blinked and ran to Paquerette, observing her from all angles. Not much had changed per say. The mare was still gray, with black feet and nose, as well as a black mane and tail. However, the black was not just darker gray, it was now more profound, as if it was swallowing all light. It felt like velvet, soft to the touch, with slight blue highlights when the light hit the coat just right, as if it was a night sky or a galaxy. In comparison, the gray on the rest of Paquerette's body had started to have more accents and contrasts, no more just dull but now ever-changing like a rainy sky with passing clouds.
The mane and tail were no longer straight but slightly wavy, and ever-moving, as if a breeze was eternally passing through them, even though there was no season on the eternal road right now, and not a speck of wind. It was the same for the feathering, the long hair above Paquerette's hooves. It hadn't been that long before, but now it was cascading and rustling above the dark hooves.
Overall, Paquerette hadn't changed much, she had simply become more beautiful and elegant. A bit taller and wider too, you could see rippling muscles underneath the velvety coat.
"You're sublime, my darling !"
Imitating a fashion host, Sandrine ran around Paquerette to take it all in, marveling at her new form.
"So impressive, so beautiful !"
Truly the perfect mount for a goddess ! Too bad Sandrine was only a crazy woman in a frog onesie, it diminished the overall elegance of the scene.
"Let's see if it changed anything."
She opened Paquerette's panel.
[Name : Paquerette
Species : Wind Horse
Lvl : 5
Favorability : 36
Health : 100
Fatigue : 0
Strength : 18
Constitution : 21
Agility : 25]
"Finally, agility is the highest stat !"
Going from 18 agility to 25, Paquerette was guaranteed to be really fast now, overtaking all level 1 vehicles easily, and maybe even some level 2. This was good news.
"Even the health and fatigue reset. It's good to know. If I have the opportunity, I should keep an evolution chance ready. It could heal you and save your life in a desperate moment."
For now, everything was very good ! The evolution wasn't incredible, but this was still the newbie protection period, Paquerette was only level 5 and her favorability was only at 36. They had all the time in the world to get stronger.
Speaking of getting stronger, while Paquerette was admiring herself and Gribouille was smelling her in excited confusion, Sandrine opened her own panel.
[Player : Sandrine Legrand
Nickname : 84jojo84
Species : Human
Vehicle : Paquerette (Select to see profile)
Job : Tamer (Choose level up direction)
Health : 86
Fatigue : 58
Strength : 8 (Average human : 7)
Constitution : 9 (Average human : 6)
Agility : 10 (Average human : 7)]
Sandrine was really happy with her current stats, she doubted a lot of players had similar ones, unless they were special force soldiers before coming into the death game or something. But her 10 in agility was something else. Sandrine had noticed that 10 was the maximum value for the human species, it was the maximum potential she could muster, she couldn't go higher without changing her species inwardly.
As a comparison, her 10 of agility was more focused on dexterity, but if she focused on speed, she would be even faster than the faster human runner. She would reach such a speed that she could rip her own muscles by running too fast. The human body just wasn't able to be faster.
Sandrine was slowly reaching that point with constitution too, and she still had a bit of time for strength, but she would also get there eventually. This meant that from this moment on, to get stronger she would need to break the limits of her species. This should be possible, right ? After all, this game didn't make much sense. And if there was a 'species' category on her panel, it meant that this could be changed, right ?
Anyway, she would worry about it when she would get a hint to change her species. For now, she pressed the button next to her tamer job.
Contrary to Paquerette's evolution, this time there wasn't a slot machine. Instead, she saw a kind of tree. It looked like those skill trees in video games. At the bottom, the root of it all, there was 'tamer', and when Sandrine focused on it, information about the job would flow in her head. But now, just above it, there were three other options branching out. Sandrine studied them carefully.
[Steed elitist : You specialize in horses. Only the best ones. Your horses are better, faster, stronger, truly the most marvelous creatures !]
[Friend with the barn : You like the farm and its inhabitants. You don't specialize in a particular species, as long as it has its place in a farm]
[Noah's ark : All animals are friends, you must collect all animals ! No specialization]
Sandrine frowned. This was saying a lot while saying nothing at all. But this wasn't new, the death game wasn't exactly accommodating to the players. There were always a lot of hidden conditions, hidden knowledge, and you could really understand things only by exploring yourself. But Sandrine was starting to get used to it.
"If I read between the lines, the specialization probably means that the hidden conditions for level up and evolution will be linked to the chosen job, and probably the rewards and what I find in chests too. If I choose 'steed elitist', I will have to focus on horses, and very few of them, just some that I will raise and level up as elite. On the contrary, with 'Noah's ark' I will have to find as many pets as possible, and I will have a wide range of rewards and hidden conditions."
Both weren't bad per say. Focusing only on a few horses meant she will pour all her resources into them and naturally they will grow very strong. The problem was… Where was she supposed to find more horses ? And horses were great as vehicles, but she already had Paquerette for that. What other purpose could they serve ? Fighters ? But if all her pets were horses, that was similar to having only warriors in your party, you couldn't be ready for all situations. You needed to diversify with mages and archers in order to counter any difficulties.
In that way, 'Noah's ark' was better. With a huge quantity of animals, Sandrine was guaranteed to have one for every situation. But the problem was that without any focus, her resources would be stretched too thin between all the pets, she couldn't focus on one to make it stronger. So she would have a lot of pets, but all would be weak. Also, she was alone, how many pets could she realistically take care of everyday ?
In comparison, 'friend with the barn' seemed to be the perfect middle ground. A specialization to make sure she would not stretch her resources too thin, but with a wide enough variety of pets that she could always find what she needed on board. With farm animals, Sandrine could also gain more ressources ! For example, she could raise poultry for eggs, or cows and goats for milk. All of this was very beneficial to her.
She decided quickly and chose 'friend with the barn'. Immediately, more information flooded her brain, just like when she had first obtained her job. Sandrine suffered from a splitting headache for a few seconds before the pain disappeared.
"Interesting… If what I received before were care guides for all types of pets, now I got lessons on animal products and how to take care of a farm… Very interesting !"
And this wasn't the only thing she had received. Because now, there was another blueprint that had appeared in her inventory.
"The barn… It's like a pocket dimension. I can enter it freely at night, but only one hour total per day. I can choose to put my pets inside and even arrange it as I see fit. Since it's a pocket dimension, it doesn't appear here. This means that when I enter it, I disappear. This is great to escape danger !"
However, as it was only a blueprint, Sandrine would have to build it first to explore all the possibilities. And she was far from having enough materials.
"Just the wood it requires is insane ! What do you mean 50,000 units of wood ?"
This was just absurd. Sandrine wouldn't be able to see her barn for a while.
She grumbled.
"Well, I guess that I finally have something I need from them."
Sandrine didn't hesitate and sent a message to her friends. She had checked during the day and both seemed fine, having survived their encounter with other players. They were both always complaining that Sandrine gave them too much, though she really just was getting rid of useless stuff. It wasn't that she didn't want to keep everything, but inventory space was limited, even with the 4 horse baskets and an extended backpack. She really couldn't keep everything. There were too many types of jars, cans, and other stuff. Two t-shirts couldn't be kept in the same inventory space if they weren't absolutely identical, so with all the necessities she had, the pet shampoo, the food for her and both of her pets, all the materials…
It was hard on her. Anyway, this problem would be resolved once she had the barn.
Both men were happy to help gather wood and sent her all they had. It was still ridiculously little compared to what Sandrine needed, but she still had more than a week before the end of the newbie protection period.
When that time came and everyone would be soaked at night, she would sleep soundly in her barn.
[MomImThristy : If you need so much wood, I guess you have obtained a crafting table ? I saw a player say in the chat that you could get it on the third day of the offroad event by getting the golden chest, but it was such a hard task that only two people are known to have one, Jackalope65 and AnaïsDu33. I didn't think you would get one too]
[MomImThristy : Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to blackmail you with this information, our business relationship has evolved into one of friendliness and I do not desire to end it. It's just that I have found a few blueprints myself in the metal chests from the double roads, but I do not have a crafting table. Would it be possible to strike another deal, independent from the water supply ?]
Such a cute guy, asking for permission and speaking of a fair deal even between friends. Sandrine immediately accepted, without even reading the contents of the deal.
By the way, this reminded her that she hadn't opened the two metal chests from the double road today.
Thinking back to it, Sandrine suddenly felt sick again. She had successfully taken her mind off of it with the evolution and job change, but now that she saw the metal chests in her inventory, Sandrine felt her legs go numb and her hands shake. It looked like her first murder wasn't so easily forgotten.