[Welcome to the Lowland realm]

[Your species has been chosen to fight for sovereignty of all realms. Fight and Conquer in this Grand game of Crowns!]

{Realm Announcement: All crowns have been given tier 9 level 9 housing, a special summoning token, and a 3 day novice protection]

{note: a minority of crowns will awaken a talent}

...

'What' I thought looking around, 'where am I.' The surroundings around me were nothing like where I was supposed to be. I had been just getting ready for the day, my clothes being put on when a light consumed my vision bringing me to where ever I was right now.

It was then that I noticed the notification that was in my vision and contrary to what I thought, no panic was brought to me. Instead a strange excitement lit up my chest. I don't know why but it excited me to no end. To know that I could fight for the control of all of these realms. To conquer, to grow more powerful, to rule. They all excited me.

{You have awoken your talent, please open your status to confirm}

It was then that a notification broke my thoughts. However soon more excitement came to me as I realized that I was one of the lucky few that could awaken a talent. Even if it was a weak one I would dominate this realm.

Calming myself down I command in my head 'Status'

Instantly a screen popped up in my vision showing me a minimal view of my stats.

[Name: Darwin]

[Territory tier: 9]

[Territory level: 1]

[Skills: None]

[Talent: Evolution*]

[Evolution: a tier 1 talent allowing the holder of this talent to simulate evolution in a smaller time frame.]

Looking at my talent a sardonic smile appeared on my lips as I thought out loud.

"Evolution, how ironic" 

However that thought was soon passed to the wayside as I thought of the uses of my talent. It was a tier 1 talent. Seeing as how the territory tier starts at 9 a tier 1 talent must be at the peak of what a talent could be.

Although right now I did not have anything to evolve it would still be useful. 

'Wait' I thought to myself, 'I still have the special summoning token, I could use that to summon somethin then evolve it' 

My plan was coming together, now it all depended on what I was to summon.

Taking out the token I crush it in my hands according to the instructions on how to use it. It was only a second later when the broken token scattered into a kaleidoscope of lights before coalescing into a figure.

{Congratulations! you have summoned an Infant Alicanto}

Appearing in front of me, the Alicanto was as tall as I despite its infant status, however the most striking thing about it was the glowing wings of copper green and the large tail feathers the size of its body waving in the wind.

The intimidating figure the Alicanto brought to my mind was instantly crushed as a keening sound echoed from its mouth as it hopped towards me, its head snuggling into my body as if asking to be pet.

I raised my hand and slowly pet the Alicanto, the bird making a strange pleased sound as I pet its head.

It was while I was looking at the Alicanto that I remembered that I could pull up a status scrren for it.

...

[Species: Alicanto]

[Tier: 8]

[Level: 1]

[The Alicanto is a nocturnal bird with wings that glow at night. The glow is dependent on the type of ore it feeds on. Because it feeds on ore it can not fly however depending on when its last meal was it might weigh down enough to temporarily fly and gain greater agility at the cost of decreased defensive hide. Due to the Alicanto's eating habits they have a supernatural sense for ore deposits. While looking for ore a legendary Alicanto was followed by a greedy saint to which the Alicanto created a pitch black darkness and led the legendary class saint off a cliff]

"I'll name you Ali it might be a little unoriginal but it is the best I can give you my little Ali"

In response to her naming Ali gave a happy trill and hopped around me her trilling noises growing on me a bit. As Ali trilled and danced happily around me I reached up to try and pet her head.

I got a little distracted playing with Ali but the thought of evolving her was always in the back of my mind.

Eventually I focused back on the situation at hand, looking at Ali I tried to activate my talent. It was almost instinctual. I knew that all I needed to do was command in my head 

'Evolve' I thought and what showed in my vision was a series of paths for Ali to evolve into.

[Choose a path of evolution:

Ore - the Alikando has spent its time in an ore rich environment allowing it to better digest ores. Alikando has evolved to process ores and integrate their toughness with greater efficiency

Power - the Alikando has spent its time being preyed on by larger creatures. The Alikando has given up all its toughness for speed and power. The Alikando evolved to refine the ores it has eaten into sharp talons and fangs]

…

Looking at the options given to me I could see the advantages in both. The ore route of evolution would be better for protection but the downside is the amount of resources required to have a decent amount of protection not to mention how many rare ores Ali would need to eat to gain toughness comparable to other mythical creatures.

On the other hand the power route would require minimal resources as Ali would have gone through periods of starvation with predators to compete for its resources allowing it to do much more with limited resources. I would also be able to capitalize on this early period by having a combat focused pet to conquer other civilizations while they are still developing. However the downside of this was how frail Ali would be.

After a moment of thinking I chose to go the power route, the increased defense might be good but what I wanted right now was pure power, to dominate everything while everyone was new.

Done deciding I clicked the power route and instantly Ali dissapeared from my vision in a flash of green light. However I noticed that in the corner of my vision I could see Ali in some sort of environment, predators all around her as she fought for survival. 

I could see the various wounds that Ali had received fighting the predators recede then more would come and she would heal again. It seemed like in the evolutionary plane that AIi had been sent to, time passed differently.

It was moments after I realized this that the window in the corner of my vision disappeared, corresponding with the flash of green light in front of me. The green light quickly coalesced into a giant bird. 

A moment of silence, then the now battle hardened bird pounced on me, however I didn't feel the pain that I had expected, instead I felt the soft fur smothering me.

[Species: Alicanto]

[Name: Ali]

[Tier: 6]

[Level: 5]

[The Alicanto is a nocturnal bird with wings that glow at night. The glow is dependent on the type of ore it feeds on. Because it feeds on ore it can not fly however depending on when its last meal was it might weigh down enough to temporarily fly and gain greater agility at the cost of decreased defensive hide however this Alicanto has undergone evolution it has discarded its defensive abilities to focus entirely on offense instead of using the ore it ate to increase its defense and offence equally it instead sharpened its talons with white copper allowing it to pierce magical defenses. Due to the Alicanto's eating habits they have a supernatural sense for ore deposits. Legend has it that while looking for ore a mythic Alicanto was followed by a greedy saint to which the Alicanto created a pitch black darkness and led the miner saint off a cliff leading to the death of the legendary class saint]