As he started to walk towards the exit of the pub, Eve following behind him, a low voice could be heard in his head. "Wait."
He turned around, to see Emily making her way over, and noted with surprise that she looked remarkable sober. He looked at the table, and saw that her mug was still half full. He waited near the entrance of the pub, and when she caught up, they walked out together, their bonded beasts following behind them.
"For someone who was urging me to drink alcohol, you didn't touch much of yours."
Emily glared at Jamie. "Says the one who made me cough in my drink."
Jamie smirked. "Even if you were the slowest drinker in the cosmos, you should have drunk more then that by then, unless you didn't want to drink in the first place. Like me."
Emily blushed. "That drink was strong. I didn't want to lose control."
Jamie chuckled. "And to think, you agreed with John for us to go there. Worried about some of the people there, hmmm?"
Emily glared at Jamie, and he started laughing at her reaction. She deflated, eventually answering.
"I agreed to the meeting because I don't know when we can see him again. We're leaving for Ragas tomorrow."
Silence rang between them as they continued making their way to the apartment complex, walking on the near deserted pavement illuminated by the silver glow of the black lamps. Eventually, Emily broke the silence.
"Since you didn't want to go, why did you agree in the end?"
"Because you had a point. While I hated most of that, it was just one night. Who knows what we or he will encounter in here."
"So you did enjoy some of that."
"Of course. The highlight was watching you cough into your drink."
Emily glared at Jamie. "Since you ruined my drink, you owe me another."
Jamie grinned at her. "Sure. But it's still worth it."
As Jamie finished speaking, the duo turning a corner, seeing the large, silver, glistening three storey building in front of them, sticking out in the darkness. They walked in silence towards the building, and entered the elevator, heading to the second floor. They exited the elevator, and looked at each other. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Emily smiled."Yea. See you tomorrow."
They turned, heading in opposite directions. Jamie reached his room at the end of the floor, fumbling to unlock the door. After he and Eve entered, he switched on the lights, and closed and locked the door. As he turned back around, he saw Blackwing, who had previously been napping near the bed, ran up to him, lightly flapping his wings, letting out a low growl. Jamie leaned down and rubbed Blackwing around the neck for a minute, then tossed the keys on the bed, and walked to his travel bag while Eve walked up to Blackwing, sniffing him, before giving him a lick on the face.
Jamie took off his black shoes and socks, grabbed a change of clothes, and a blue container containing his toothbrush and toothpaste from the travel bag, wanting to brush his teeth to get rid of the stench of alcohol and take a cold shower before changing into something more comfortable.
>>>>
After Jamie exited the bathroom, wearing a loose plain green shirt, and black shorts, he grabbed a bottle of water lying around the spacious apartment, gulping it down, then putting the bottle on the night stand next to the bed. He then lay on the bed, stretching and letting out a loud sigh of relief.
"Thank god that's over."
As he lay on the bed relaxing, his eyes closed, Eve's voice rang in his mind.
"Jamie, why did everyone react to Ivan's beast like that?"
Without opening his eyes, Jamie responded out loud.
"Because Quad Element Lifeorms usually have far more skills then what another creature would have at the same stage with less element affinities, they can usually absorb a bigger energy stream compared to another creature the same stage with less elemental affinities, and have an increased energy pull speed compared to a being with less elemental affinities. In addition, because they have their bodies nourished by more element types, they usually have stronger bodies."
"The downside is that they need to gather more then one energy type, and keep a balance of their different energy types in their bodies. But on Hanet, that isn't exactly a downside. The planet is saturated with energy of different types. In addition, their energy pool becomes murky, because there are different energies in there. Mixing different energies to use different skills can have mixed reactions, so training and diligence is needed to learn what can happen if a certain combination is used, and to speedily extract the energies they want smoothly to use the skills in battle. Mostly, the pros outweigh the con."
"....I see. Am I a Quad Element Beast?"
"At least. You evolved using four elemental stones."
"So how come my energy pool isn't murky? And I can only use one energy type."
"WHAT?!"
Jamie sat bolt upright. He looked at Eve in disbelief.
"B-But you can use different elemental skills. So how..."
"I don't know. Originally, my energy pool was split in half between gold and black energy. Afterwards, when I evolved, it became a transparent, white colour.. I don't need to do anything special to use the different skills, I just use the energy as normal."
"What the hell.....Let me check."
Jamie reached for his laptop, before stopping, laughing at himself. "Were not on Hanet. I can't check the Battlenet."
Jamie sat there, thinking about it for awhile, before coming up with an absurd theory. "Maybe....the energies combined when you evolved, allowing you to become a different type?"
"....Maybe."
Jamie sighed, getting up from the bed, setting the alarm on his phone, an turning off the lights. "I'll think about it tomorrow. I'll ask Ivan, maybe he will know about what has happened."
>>>>
The next day, Jamie got out of bed, stretching and groaning, rubbing his head. Feeling a pounding in his skull, he grabbed the half finished bottle of water on the nightstand, finishing it off. The noise he made disturbed Blackwing and Eve, and they stood up drowsily, yawning and stretching. He went through the room, moving slowly, putting everything in his two bags, then took a brief shower, then headed down to the eatery in the building, with Eve and Blackwing following behind him.
When they arrived at the glistening white room, filled with black and white tables and chairs, he spotted Ivan sitting at an isolated table alone, eating some Hash Browns. Jamie grabbed a meal, showing his ID as he did, and went to sit down at Ivan's table, across from him, waving as he approached Ivan's line of sight. Ivan smiled.
"Morning Jamie. I thought that you would stay in bed longer."
"Morning. Err, I have a question to ask."
Ivan chuckled. "What is it?"
"Well, it's about Quad Element Beast's."
Ivan shook his head. "There not easy to find, near impossible in fact, and it's hard to convince one to willingly bond with you."
Jamie shook his head. "It's not that. It's about Eve. Originally, she was at stage 1, and had two different energy pools, gold and black. However, she evolved afterwards using four different basic energy stones from air, earth, fire, and water. Now, she has one energy type..."
Ivan's eyes widened, and he held up his hands. "Stop. We will discuss this somewhere private after we eat."
>>>>
Jamie sat in one of the chairs at the desk in Ivan's room, turned to face the window where Ivan stood, with Blackwing and Eve sitting on the ground on either side of him.The room looked identical to Jamie's, with a queen size bed, leaned up against the wall to the left next to a small white nightstand, and a white wardrobe to the right. In the middle of the room, was a small window that was closed. Ivan frowned, looked around, then turned to Jamie.
"Okay, so Eve evolved, and she went from going to two types to one?"
"Yes."
"Interesting."
Ivan rubbed his head, frowning in thought for a minute. "I don't know of any cases like that. Do you know the type or at least, the color of energy."
"I don't know the type, but the color of the energy is a clear, transparent white colour.."
"hmmm....do you know what effect it brings in the world? Lightning, Ice or something else?"
"So far, she can stimulate the effects Order, Chaos, Earth, Wind. Since she evolved using the fire, wind, water, and earth basic evolution stones, I suspect when her stage increases she could gain fire and water skills."
Ivan's eyes started twitching. "That's quite the unique situation you have there. I can tell you, that no other case has been reported like this before we left Hanet. Did you register any new skills in the body scanner after she evolved?"
"Yes."
"And did it pick up any odd energy readings from Eve?"
"I don't think so? The registration process ran smoothly, the way it did before she evolved."
.