Eve placed her front right paw in the middle of the four balls of different colors. Once Eve's paw touched, the four circular basic evolution stones started glowing. A burst of blinding colored light flashed from the stones simultaneously, forcing Jaime to close his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, a large ball of glowing light could be seen where Eve was standing before. Each quarter of the ball composed of a different color, of grey, red, blue and brown. After observing the ball for one minute and noticing no visible changes to the situation, Jamie picked up the esky, tray and knife, and moved them back another meter, then placing them on the ground, and sitting down next to the esky, facing the ball of light.
"Blackwing, come here."
As Blackwing moved to Jamie, he grabbed the red container on the esky and placed it on the ground. When Blackwing arrived, Jamie sent another mental message to Blackwing.
"I'm going to open the container. Tell me which stone you have a reaction to. Don't touch them."
As Jaime started opening the container, Blackwing started moving forwards. By reflex, Jamie shut the container, while blocking Blackwing with his other hand, hastily sending a mental message.
"STOP!"
Blackwing let out a growl, but stopped moving. Jaime took out a deep breath, then sent a mental image of Blackwing staying still while he opened the container, followed by another mental image of Jaime taking the container away if Blackwing moved towards the container once it was open. Blackwing growled loudly at Jamie. Jamie glared at Blackwing.
"You won't get the stone you want if you don't behave."
Blackwing growled, staring at Jaime. After a moment had passed, seeing Jamie not backing down, Blackwing whimpered, before taking a step back, and lowering his head slightly. Jamie continued to glare at Blackwing while opening the container slowly. Seeing Blackwing behave, Jamie retracted his glare, before asking Blackwing out loud "Which color stone?"
Blackwing raised his gaze to focus on the black stone in the box. Jamie touched the black chaos evolution stones, before saying "Just the black one?"
Blackwing nodded.
Jamie started to grin, excited at the thought of having both his bonded beasts evolve. He started gripping one of the chaos evolution stones, about to pick it up. At that moment, the ball composed of four different colors around Eve started to flash. Jamie sighed, before saying to Blackwing "Wait for Eve to finish evolving first."
With that, Jamie shut the container, ignoring Blackwing's growl, placing the container on his lap and closing his eyes. Five minutes later, Jaime felt something peculiar coming from his soul. Focusing inwards, Jamie 'saw' the small version of himself flashing. A particularly bright flash of light burst out, and afterwards, the small version of himself stopped flashing. Jamie looked inwards, to observe the changes. What he observed had him mentally frowning.
Jamie's Astral Body had two index fingers, and a small part of the left middle finger had grown out. This should have left Jamie overjoyed, but he wasn't. The left thumb, and the area around it, looked swollen, bloated. With a sigh, Jamie focused outwards, and opened his eyes.
Upon opening his eyes, he saw Eve standing, looking at him. She had grown massively, now reaching half his height, and she now had two long tails with pointed tips. Her fur had remained black, except for around the paws and parts on the tails. There was a golden ring around the middle of both tails, and the tips of the tail were also golden. The golden fur on her body was slightly glowing.
After Jamie had opened his eyes and looked at her, Eve lifted her head up proudly, mentally sending "I look awesome, don't I."
Jamie smiled. "Congratulations on your evolution. Have you got any new abil....."
Blackwing cut Jamie off at that moment, mentally saying to him "Stone."
Jamie started opening the container by reflex, before stopping. He paused in thought, gradually starting to frown. Eve noticed this and started walking towards him, mentally sending "What's wrong?"
Jamie sighed. "two things. First, your evolution has pushed you to stage 3, hasn't it?"
"Yep. Isn't that a good thing?"
"My Astral Body size is stage 2."
"So wh....oh."
"Yes. If you increase your stage again, I die."
Eve stopped in place before him. A couple of seconds had passed before she asked "What was the second issue?"
"Blackwing has had a craving towards the black chaos basic evolution stone."
"Great. Evolve it, get your Astral Body size to increase. Problem solved."
Jamie shook his head. "No. Evolution almost always brings physical changes, and I'm not talking about a size increase. Stuff like the colour change of your fur, and the increase in tails. In the video Michael showed me, the dragon looked exactly like Blackwing, just bigger. That's the only difference between the two."
"So?"
"So if I evolve him, how could I be sure that my Astral Body size would increase if I evolve it? More likely, evolving him would kill me."
Blackwing tugged on Jamie's pants, interrupting his mental conversation with Eve. Jamie sighed, having a headache thinking about how to try to explain this. After a moment, he settled on showing an image of Eve's evolution, focusing on the very noticeable differences afterwards. He then showed the image of his souls current state, then showed an image of Blackwing touching the stone, followed by an image of himself standing still, with an explosion taking place afterwards, and Jamie gone afterwards.
Blackwing flinched, and shrunk back. A second passed before Blackwing sent "Can. Fix. Problem?"
Jamie sent an image of his Astral Body. He then sent an image of it bigger, then showed an image of Blackwing touching the black stone followed by an image of himself standing there smiling.
Blackwing nodded, looking at Jamie, sending "I. Wait."
Jamie forced a smile, then rubbed Blackwing's neck, before saying out loud "Thank you."
After a while, Jamie got up and stretched, before separating the two trays on the ground and pulling a bag of meat out of the esky. Afterwards he smiled and said "Okay, who wants to eat?"
Immediately Blackwing and Eve perked up, standing straight. Jamie smiled and fed the beasts two bags each of meat, leaving the bags in the esky. While they ate, he just sat there, thinking about his problem. "Eve's evolution has improved my soul links, giving me two spare. The easiest, most effective way is to find two beasts stage one, close to increasing their stage that usually increase the soul size of the bond anchor. Problem is, I want something strong that can fight as well as boosting my soul size."
Jamie grabbed his phone out of his pocket, then checked his email. When filling out the online application for the Battlepet Master Trainee ID, there was a line on the form telling him to expect a return email. Once he was granted the ID, he would be granted access to the the Battlenet, which should allow him to find more info on beasts that increase soul size. He wanted to find or buy one that was both strong and would solve his problem.
Upon opening his email, he saw a new message. Opening it up, he saw:
To Mr Jamie William Smith
On behalf of the government of Andnor, we congratulate you on becoming a Battlepet Master Trainee. To complete the registration we need you to come in to a branch of the government to complete the registration. Click this _LINK_ to find out information on the time slots available at the different branches of the government of Andnor.
Please note, each session will take 30 minutes of your time, and you MUST bring an ID, or be accompanied by someone with an ID who can vouch for you.
Best Regards
Mary Shooter
Head of the branch office of Brouis
Tapping on the link, Jamie registered himself for the session on Thursday, thinking to himself "Weird. Why is there only two sessions each week? And it's for all the branches too."
After finishing registering, he left the website and closed his email app. Looking up, he saw Eve and Blackwing finished eating. He put his phone inside his pocket, slid the trays side on into the esky then put the knife inside. He then picked up the esky and red container, then started walking back to the house, his bonded beasts in following. As they walked back to the house, Eve transmitted to Jamie "Have you found a solution to the problem?"
"Yes. I'll get the Battlepet Master Trainee ID and get an account for the Battlenet, then search for suitable beasts to help increase my Astral Body. I want a good stage 1 beast on the verge of increasing it's stage. Your evolution increased my soul links to four."
"It takes time to get a beast to be affectionate enough towards you, to be willing to initiate a contract with you. You won't be able to bond something before you enter the portal"
Jamie rolled his eyes "I know. I DO work at a Battlepet Store. I'll bond it when I get back. Who knows, I might be lucky and find a good beast inside the portal that meets my requirements..."