This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

The young lady that entered the room had golden hair and green eyes and was undeniably beautiful.

Kain wasn't surprised that she would have admirers infatuated enough to come to her front door. However, her appearance still greatly paled in comparison to Serena's. It wasn't even as good as the pink-haired senior that Kain had met during the beast-tide.

Without any preamble, Kain reached for the dark orange figure she was holding.

However, she moved it away from his reach.

"Proper manners would dictate that you introduce yourself when you meet a new person." The girl said. Her face had noticeably darkened after Kain had reached for the salamander.

However, rather than due to the lack of manner as she said, it was more so because she was offended by the lack of attention that Kain had paid to her. She was used to members of the opposite sex staring entrancingly at her unable to focus on the task at hand. However, this annoying guy looked at her no differently than you would the average rock by the roadside.

Kain felt his patience wearing thin as he watched the girl's haughty demeanour. He had wanted to quickly get to the task at hand, especially since he'd been made to wait here for over an hour.

'Remember you need her to sign off on the completion of the mission.'

"My apologies," he said through gritted teeth, his tone respectful despite his irritation. "I'm Kain, a first-year Evolutionary Planner at Dark Moon College. I'm here to assist with the Glimmering Salamander's evolution issue."

The young lady's expression remained guarded, her hair cascading down her shoulders like a golden curtain. She shifted the dark orange bundle in her arms, revealing the Glimmering Salamander more clearly.

The creature was clearly in a terrible state due to the failed evolutions. In contrast to the burnt orange colour it currently possessed, Glimmering Salamanders were usually a brilliant shimmering gold colour that could be spotted from miles away.

The girl's eyes narrowed slightly as she studied Kain. "I'm Alaina Ashenclaw," she said coolly. "This is Yara, the Glimmering Salamander. She has failed to evolve twice already, and we've had experts in the field try to resolve the issue without success.

I'm not sure what you can do to help." Her voice clearly reflecting her doubts about his abilities, but her tone of voice also revealed her frustration with the repeated failures and her worry for the salamander

"I understand your doubts due to my young age. But, I'm here to ensure Yara's successful evolution. I can assure you that I have my own methods as an evolutionary planner that may have not been tried by the previous individuals you sought out."

Without waiting for a response, Kain turned his attention to the Glimmering Salamander. He approached the table where Yara lay and began to examine the creature with focused intent. Despite his irritation at being left to wait for over an hour and then repeatedly doubted, he knew that showing any additional emotion could undermine his professionalism.

Alaina watched him, her expression a mix of curiosity and residual irritation. Kain could almost hear the wheels turning in her mind as she grappled with the fact that someone as young as him was taking charge of a task that had stumped more experienced experts.

"I hope you understand the gravity of this situation," Alaina said, her tone softening slightly but still tinged with an edge of defensiveness. "Yara's failed evolutions have put her at serious risk. We need results, not just theories."

Kain nodded, determined to prove his competence. "I get it. I'm here to find a solution, and that's what I intend to do. If you could provide me with any additional details or previous assessments related to Yara's failed evolutions, it would be helpful."

Alaina hesitated, and there was a long pause where Kain wasn't sure if she'd abide by his request. Fortunately, she soon stood up and walked over to a nearby desk. She retrieved a stack of documents and handed them to Kain. "These contain the reports and observations from the previous attempts. Review them carefully. If you find anything useful, let me know."

Kain took the documents with a curt nod. "Thank you. I'll start right away."

Thankfully, she did not remain after handing Kain the documents and left the room followed by her butler.

Now alone with the Glimmering Salamander, Kain entered the Laboratory. In front of the Simulator, he looked at the new addition for Glimmering Salamander. However, the simulated salamander had the standard golden scales for their species, so it wasn't an accurate reflection of the Glimmering Salamander right in front of him.

However, Kain did note that there was an exclamation mark that contrary to usual had been greyed out.

"System. Vera. Can either one of you explain why the exclamation mark is greyed out here?"

His assistant didn't respond to his question, likely because it doesn't know. As a newborn artificial intelligence, it was still learning about the world around it.

*The model of each spiritual creature in the system is the default average member of its species. However, if the Host has come into contact with a mutant of that species, the Host can instead substitute the default model for the mutant model. Would the host like to do the substitution?*

"Yes!" Kain was really pleased with this new feature. And this also provided him with the information that the likely reason for the failed evolution was that it was an unidentified mutant.

Suddenly the Glimmering Salamander on the screen changed to have scales and eyes of a slightly lighter gold colour.

If Kain hadn't immediately seen the normal salamander, the difference in colour would have been so slight that he wouldn't have even noticed the difference.

After the substitution was made, the greyed-out exclamation mark became the familiar red colour.

Kain clicked on the red exclamation mark in anticipation and received the pop-up notification that the skill Light Shroud needed to be learned in order to successfully evolve and that this condition had already been applied to the simulated version of the salamander.

However, most likely the resulting evolutionary form will require the use of new light-attribute materials or may require both fire and light-attribute materials. Unfortunately, the Simulator does not help Kain with narrowing down what items would and would not be suitable.

'Sigh…One step at a time I guess. Focus on it learning the necessary skill and then we can figure out its evolutionary materials.'

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