As time passed, the shape of the still-unconscious creature in the gold and white world changed under Cyril's aura influence…
The bone structure changed drastically, new bones appeared while the old ones changed shape… The organs moved as well and positioned themselves in the most efficient position, its facial structure altered as snow-white fangs appeared one after another and slowly grew longer.
At the same time, his ethereal body changed as well, the energy channels within its body reorganized themselves to sustain the new body… New ethereal organs appeared and the energy barrier that covered his body changed shape, becoming more and more similar to a dragon's scales.
Meanwhile, in the cave, Cyril's body was enveloped by a golden cocoon as it illuminated the whole cavern and the aura of a spiritual beast radiated from it.
The common beasts in the surroundings ran away without thinking twice while other spiritual beasts ignored him as they didn't care about what was going on with an unknown spiritual beast.
A few hours later, the light radiated by the golden cocoon dimmed and a few cracks appeared on its surface.
Soon, the cocoon shattered and turned into dust… As the dust slowly dissipated, the creature within it opened its eyes.
Cyril's eyes blinked a few times in confusion… He felt as if he just woke up after a very long sleep… However, he couldn't move.
His clouded mind slowly cleared as he remembered what happened and his senses returned.
After a few minutes, Cyril somehow managed to stand up and analyse his body… He felt weak… But he also felt revitalized, as if his blood flowed within his veins once again after a long time…
From the outside, Cyril's body seemed completely different from a few hours prior.
He became 2 meters (6,56 ft) tall and his structure looked more like that of a horse rather than a lizard… A scaled horse with a lizard's tail, a dragon-like head, and legs that terminated with sharp claws, that is.
However, from within, his bone structure looked like anything but that of a horse.
Aside from his physical changes, his ethereal body's changes were even more drastic.
An ethereal heart overlapped with his physical heart, a flow of energy entered and came out of it endlessly.
This new heart looked more like a box and didn't beat, but its functions for the ethereal body could be said to be as important as those of a normal heart for a physical body.
Also known as a magic energy flow controller, it's necessary to control the energy within a body more efficiently.
Cyril was already able to control it using his spirit but that was a very inefficient and forceful way of doing it.
As a common beast, Cyril could use his spirit to control the natural energy, refine it, store it somewhere and then use it when necessary for a temporary boost of power or assimilate it and gain small permanent improvements.
As a spiritual beast instead, Cyril will only need to let the refined magic energy enter within his ethereal heart and then give his commands directly to the heart.
Other organs appeared or changed as well… A cylinder-shaped refiner that will refine external energy, the scales overlapped with the physical ones that will protect Cyril's ethereal body from energy-based attacks, and the channel that will let the energy released in the stomach flow through the refiner.
As Cyril analyzed his new body, he also realized that in his body there was something fundamentally different from before, but he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.
After a few minutes, Cyril came out of his cave to eat something…
As soon as he met another creature, Cyril understood what changed from before.
From the moment he set his sight on the common beast in front of him, Cyril felt as if that common beast was a weaker creature… Not weaker for its combat power but with a weaker bloodline to be more accurate.
It was a difference of position in the lifeforms' hierarchy.
While the spider-like common beast shivered in fear, Cyril activated Zephyr.
[ Initiating self-scansion….
True Name: None
Race: Newly created incomplete race - Position in lifeforms' hierarchy: Common race - Each member of this race will become a spiritual beast upon reaching adulthood. - No racial trait detected.
Physical body state: Healthy, Mid-level mortal.
Spirit state: High activity detected… Impossible to analyze - Last record: Mid-level mortal.
Ethereal body state: Healthy, Mid-level mortal - Warning: The ethereal body is slowly changing to keep up with the fast-paced changes occurring within the spirit.
Warning: The host's position in the lifeforms' hierarchy is a little higher than the human race's. Each member of the host's race will have a low chance of becoming a superior spiritual beast.
During the last evolution, the host has purposely left a few parts not completely optimized so that it will be easier to achieve the desired result in the next evolution.
For this reason, the host's current race is an "incomplete race", it will be possible to complete it during the next evolution.
The current position in the lifeforms' hierarchy of the host's race has been lowered but it will become easier to reach a higher position after the next evolutions.]
Cyril was already expecting a similar result 'I should start thinking about how to recreate Zephyr's modules… Otherwise, it will be a waste of its potential.'
After Cyril found a more tasty-looking creature to eat, he set his sight on the next task… Finding where he currently is.
Even though a whole month passed, Cyril still doesn't know if this is the same world or not.
From what he saw until now, this place looks like his homeworld, however… The composition of the natural energy that he has analysed until now is different from what he remembers and is slowly changing over time.
For the sake of discovering where he is, he started walking toward the surface…
As he walked, he couldn't help but think about his homeworld… It was far from being a peaceful world, but it was his home nonetheless.
Even though near the cities the intelligent beings didn't kill each other at sight, in the wilderness, the law of the jungle reigned supreme.
Everyone can die… This is something that everyone daring enough to step into the wilderness knows.
It didn't matter if you were from the most insignificant race or the mightiest of all…
It didn't matter if you were the poorest citizen or the greatest emperor…
It didn't matter if you were talentless or the most outstanding genius…
Only the strong keep standing while the weak perish.
This was something that Cyril was ready to face.
Something he even hoped to face.
After all, the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown… But this wasn't the only reason.
Deep within his heart, Cyril was still hoping to be in the same world…
Even if he didn't have many friends nor did he spend much time with them… He hoped to see them once again in the future.
While Cyril's mind kept recalling his memories about his world, his friends, and his home… He kept walking.
Each step brought him closer to the truth… He could only steel his mind and march forward… toward his new beginning.
Finally, a few hours later, he saw the end… Sunlight.
The sunlight blinded him as soon as he stepped out of the cave.
Cyril slowly regained his sight as he felt the warmness of the sun and the freshness of the wind.
What welcomed him was a green and blue world.
The noises coming from the countless insects living within the thick vegetation assaulted his senses while a few birds flying high in the cloudless azure sky eyed him cautiously.
Cyril looked at everything in front of him cautiously as well but failed to see anything dangerous or relevant…
With no intelligent life forms in sight and no clue about his location, Cyril could only sigh and continue forward while waiting for the night.
He hoped to meet an intelligent life form or see the constellations to get his answers.
Like this, Cyril started exploring this unknown land...