"Julius!" Dukiel cried out and hurried to catch Julius. He was a little late and just ended up picking up his upper body after he had already fallen to the ground.
"Don't worry. He's fine. His body is just very exhausted. After sleeping for a bit, he'll be right as rain." The principal helped Dukiel put Julius on a couch while he explained to Zach and Dukiel.
"It was just some underworld energy that had escaped from the Mannequin into his body during the absorption process. It might happen again. It might not. For now, he's probably more than alright since his familiar has evolved."
Zach and Dukiel's eyebrows shot up as they looked at the Mannequin and Julius.
"When you say evolved…?" Zach had a suspicion, but he still wanted to confirm what the principal's words meant.
The principal nodded.
"It's exactly what you think. I can't be sure of the details, of course. But Julius' familiar has reached a new rank. I'm guessing C since going up two ranks in one go is practically unheard of. But if what you guys told me about it absorbing underworld energy is an indication of its new abilities, I would say this is just the beginning." The principal looked at the Mannequin with shiny eyes as he spoke.
Zach and Dukiel looked at each other. They would tell Julius everything the principal told them later. But before that…
"'Does that mean our familiars can also evolve?'" Zach and Dukiel asked at the same time.
"Of course." The principal nodded as if he had expected the question.
"But it's not that easy. Finding the right conditions for evolution is mostly guesswork, and it's always different, even for similar familiars. It also gets progressively harder for each rank. So, for you two…" The principal looked at Zach and Dukiel and their familiars, the battlemaid angel and the Sentinel.
The principal stayed silent long enough for Zach and Dukiel to start becoming seriously worried.
"...I would recommend you be patient, especially you Zach. You probably won't have an easy time, either, Dukiel, since I've never heard of a Sentinel or golem-like familiar evolving above A-rank. But I also urge neither of you to ever give up. I'm sure that if someone can do it, it's you two. Well, the other two students with A-rank familiars also look promising, so you might have some competition." The principal's gaze wandered for a moment when he mentioned Anerias and Violina, but he looked at Zach and Dukiel again with a bright smile.
Zach and Dukiel nodded, their excitement curbed but not put out. Just the idea of evolving their familiars was exciting.
It probably wouldn't have been as exciting before the field trip. But during it, the difference between ranks had been made abundantly clear. Even when he or his familiar didn't take it seriously, Zach and Yanael were still on top of the class without a shadow of a doubt.
Yanael was the strongest, smartest, fastest, and most loyal familiar in the class. There was a clear gap between her and the A-rank familiars. It was also clear that it was due to rank since the three A-rank familiars were similar in terms of usefulness and strength.
Even Dukiel's Sentinel, which was rumored to be among the strongest A-rank familiars, didn't bridge the gap between A and S-rank.
The differences between the successive lower ranks weren't as great, but they were still there.
Another difference that Zach wasn't sure many of the other students had noticed was the growth rate. Zach hadn't leveled up beyond level four, and neither had anyone else. But that wasn't what he had noticed.
Yanael was stronger than before the field trip. She had seemingly grown stronger in the middle of combat just by earning fighting experience.
Dukiel's Sentinel had gotten better at controlling its lasers and switching between its different weapons and modes. Anerias' Hound was better at igniting its claws. It also seemed more muscular and stronger than before the field trip.
Zach couldn't pinpoint any differences in Violina's Ice Spirit's appearance since it still looked like a floating block of ice. He also hadn't had much contact with it before the field trip. But during the field trip, Zach had noticed how much more it could freeze and encase its targets in ice.
At the start of the field trip, Violina had been limited to asking it to freeze the ground and make the monsters slip. Gradually, the Ice Spirit started making the ice travel up the monsters' legs or appendages and coat them in thin ice, slowing them down and dulling their senses.
At the end of the field trip, she could even flash-freeze the weakest monsters. Unfortunately, stronger monsters, especially the tiger, could resist the Ice Spirits attacks.
Zach had a feeling that this was the true reason the familiars were separated in different ranks. It was how quickly and how far they could become stronger. It was also what excited Zach.
What if Yanael evolved? What came after S-rank? How strong would she be?
The only thing that Zach was worried about was if Yanael would be the same afterward. But the Mannequin didn't act any different from before its evolution, so Zach wasn't that worried. It was just that he didn't understand the mechanism behind familiars evolving.
But then again, he didn't understand the mechanism behind summoning familiars in the first place.
The principal gently clapped his hands and brought Zach and Dukiel back down to the ground and out of their daydreams.
"I think we got a little sidetracked. I asked you here to talk about the Underworld, after all."
Zach immediately waved away any dreams of what a higher-ranking Yanael might look like and focused on the principal. Dukiel did the same. After what had happened to Julius, they needed to learn more about it.
"I think I got most of the important details from your story, right, Zach?"
"Where was I?"
"The mountain essence."
"Right. After that, me and the familiars started looking around the Giupusta Locale. Thanks to Mannequin, we found Julius and Dukiel pretty quickly. The tasker was in front of Julius' cell, trying to break it open by force. I don't know if he was trying to make good on the Great Ugor's threat or what. But it couldn't get into the cell.
"Oh, the Mannequin knocked the tasker out by hugging him. I don't know if that's important."
"It's interesting but not important. It was probably due to the underworld energy in its body flowing into the tasker. While it's like poison to us, it's like nectar to them, especially if it's concentrated enough to try and blend with a mountain essence. Continue."
Zach nodded.
"After picking up Julius, we picked up Dukiel in the next cell over I think. He was close, anyway. After that, we started making our way around the Locale—"
"Wait, what happened to the tasker?"
"...I had my familiar kill it. I also had her stomp on the Great Ugor's totem."
The principal was silent and looked at Zach with a scrutinizing gaze. Dukiel was also silent as he looked at Zach with wide eyes.
Kami was the only one who smiled at Zach's confession.