"It's not," Professor Desmond held his forehead with one hand, an expression of indescribable shock on his face, "You're saying you know the new evolution route for the Oriental Peacock?"
"Knew it a long time ago?"
'Then why didn't you say it earlier!'
Asher calmly said: "Oh, I forgot."
Professor Desmond: "..."
What a perfect "forgot."
Professor Desmond clutched his chest, speechless for a long time.
Asher: "?"
"Professor Desmond, what's wrong? Heart attack?"
"No," Professor Desmond had a "Buddha-like" expression and said quietly, "I don't have heart disease, but I'm about to be scared into getting it because of you."
'What is this?'
'An occupational injury?'
"No," Professor Hubert said calmly.
Professor Desmond: "???"
"I didn't say anything just now!"
"I know your temper," Professor Hubert looked at Professor Desmond calmly, "Stop dreaming, anything can happen in a dream."
Professor Desmond: "Tch."
"Don't tch over there," Professor Hubert was completely unaffected by Professor Desmond's attitude, still calm.
"If you really want to ask what this is, then it's probably karma for your youthful arrogance."
Professor Desmond had a face full of question marks.
Huge question marks popped up over his head.
"Who told you to be a little punk when you were young."
"Your favorite thing to do was using your talent to put others down. Now your karma has come back," Professor Hubert looked at Asher, then glanced again at Professor Desmond.
There was a faint sense of disdain in his eyes directed at Professor Desmond.
Over the years, Professor Desmond had been disliked by many people, but never had he seen this kind of disdain from Professor Hubert: "!"
He was about to explode.
Seeing this, Professor Hubert's expression became even more full of disdain.
"What are you throwing a tantrum for?"
"Don't you have any awareness of your own age?"
"Little Professor Asher's tantrum is youthful arrogance."
"At your age, throwing a tantrum? What is it? Do you have an inner Peter Pan who refuses to grow up?"
Turns out, when someone who's usually not sharp-tongued starts throwing barbs, it hits hard.
Professor Desmond was verbally stabbed all over.
He didn't want to say anything for a while.
He gave up.
His mentality completely gave up.
Asher: "..."
'Ahem!'
'I mean, this whole development really has nothing to do with me, right?'
"How about we talk about the Oriental Peacock's new evolution route first?"
"That should be more important."
Hearing Asher's words, Professor Desmond and Professor Hubert both snapped out of their earlier banter and became serious.
"You're right."
"This is what really matters."
Forget about Cold Nation.
Forget about Eastern Nation.
Forget about youthful arrogance and old men drama.
None of that matters.
What really matters is the Oriental Peacock.
The new evolution route.
Getting ahead of Cold Nation.
It's like double happiness.
Double the joy.
Asher started writing down the evolution requirements for [Radiant Peacock] with swift strokes.
A long list of resources made Professor Desmond dizzy.
"This really is… now I understand why you forgot," Professor Desmond patted Asher's shoulder with a knowing expression.
He understood.
Understood very well.
This evolution route didn't have any particularly high technical requirements.
It was all about burning money.
If this had been back when Asher was still an unknown rookie pet beast professor, even if he applied, there's no way the Alliance would've approved spending that much money for Asher to burn.
"But now things are different," Professor Desmond thought back to Asher's situation back then.
He thought Asher had forgotten because he couldn't apply for the evolution route's research topic and had to painfully force himself to forget.
Only recalled it today because of a keyword trigger.
'Oh.'
'So that's how it is.'
"Your fame now speaks for itself."
"And we all believe in you."
"We'll go with what you've written! Not a single modification!"
"If this works out, all the credit is yours!"
"No one's allowed to take it from you!"
As he spoke, Professor Desmond got more and more excited.
Asher: "?"
'Uh!'
"Wait?", Asher made a time-out gesture.
"Professor Desmond, I think you've misunderstood something?", Asher said seriously, "I didn't apply for this evolution project back then because I hadn't decided to become a pet beast professor yet."
What pet beast professor?
Wouldn't it be cooler to be an awesome beastmaster?
Also—
"My first pet beast was a Oriental Peacock, so back then I seriously studied its evolution routes."
"I chose a different evolution route for my Oriental Peacock."
"I just forgot about this one."
Asher's sincere expression made people want to cough up blood.
The fired-up Professor Desmond felt like all his excitement was wasted.
Asher: 'Ahem!'
'Anyway.'
'It's better to clear up misunderstandings early.'
He really didn't need this kind of misunderstanding.
———
Having an accurate evolution plan from Asher was one thing.
But finding a Oriental Peacock that could actually evolve into [Radiant Peacock] was a different matter altogether.
Yes.
Just like the [Three-Legged Golden Crow] evolution path, not all Oriental Peacocks could evolve into [Radiant Peacock].
Fortunately.
The National Research Institute lived up to the name "National."
In two days, they gathered eleven mutated Oriental Peacocks from all over the country.
Asher checked through them one by one.
To his surprise, seven of them actually had the evolution route for [Radiant Peacock].
One of them even looked very similar to the Little Raven he had first met.
Unfortunately, that one didn't have the [Three-Legged Golden Crow] route either, only [Radiant Peacock].
Seeing this, Asher rubbed his chin.
"So am I like some chosen protagonist or what?"
'I ran into such a low-probability event?'
'I have to be the main character.'
"Chirp—"
Little Raven, having no idea what Asher was thinking, noticed from the spirit sea beast-taming space that Asher was staring at a little creature that looked very much like its past self.
Little Raven immediately puffed up in anger.
'No way!'
'No substitutes allowed!'
'Especially not eating substitutes in front of me!'
Little Raven, furious, flew out of the beast-taming space with a huff.
First it used its aura to scare all the Oriental Peacocks at the scene into trembling.
Then Little Raven flew straight toward the true culprit.
What?
Go mess with the other Oriental Peacocks?
Only dumb birds would do that
The smart Little Raven went straight for Asher's face with a wing slap.
Asher's eyes, nose, and mouth were instantly buried in fluffy feathers.
"Calm down, calm down," Asher quickly reached out to Little Raven.
"Don't be mad, I was just looking, I didn't do anything!"
Little Raven: (￢_￢)
Little Raven gave him a look.
'Guess whether the bird believes you?'
Asher helplessly patted Little Raven.
"What kind of person do you think I am?"
"Do I look like that kind of guy?"
Little Raven made whiny bird sounds.
Actually, it was easy to appease once Asher coaxed it a bit.
Asher cuddled up with Little Raven.
Not far away, Cold Nation's pet beast professor was watching Asher… no, watching Little Raven being petted, with burning eyes.
"This is the perfect evolution form of the Oriental Peacock we've been searching for."
"Please tell us how you did it!"
Nance suddenly charged toward Asher.
Trying to grab Little Raven's… claw.
Little Raven: *disgusted*
The moment Nance dashed over, Little Raven flapped its wings and flew into the air.
Looking down coldly at the approaching Nance.
Nance: *full body stiff*
From a distance, you could only see the strength and might in Little Raven.
But up close, that power even affected them as humans.
The moment Little Raven's golden-red eyes locked onto him, Nance felt like he stopped breathing.
It was an indescribable fear that couldn't be put into words.
The previously excited Nance felt like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on him from head to toe.
His mind was clearer than ever.
And he realized, this evolved Oriental Peacock was not someone to mess with.
"Huh?", Asher was also surprised.
"You could tell with just one look that Little Raven is a Oriental Peacock?"
This was Asher's first time seeing that.
Little Raven had mutated so much it barely resembled a Oriental Peacock.
After evolving, it looked even less like one.
Only someone very familiar with the physiological traits of this beast species might be able to guess its type from a few similarities.
But Asher was sure, Nance had recognized it at a glance.
'Could it be some special talent or ability?'
'Then the jellyfish can't be shown.'
Asher thought silently.
He didn't deliberately hide it.
But he didn't want others, especially someone from a country that didn't get along with Soren, to know.
That he had contracted a Box Poison Jellyfish.
If that got out, it would cause a huge stir.
Asher: )
Not planning to let that happen.
"What, you didn't know?", Professor Desmond suddenly popped up from who knows where.
With a smug face, he leaned in beside Asher.
Looking at the Little Raven circling above Asher's head, he had a "wanna touch" expression.
He clearly wanted to pet Little Raven too.
Asher: "Didn't know what?"
To keep Professor Desmond from getting smacked, Asher quickly changed the subject.
Professor Desmond looked at Little Raven with a bit of regret, then said, "Oriental Peacock is Cold Nation's national bird."
Asher: "?"
Asher: "!"
Asher was shocked.
"Wait…", Asher made a time-out gesture, looking confused and flustered: "If I'm not mistaken, Oriental Peacock should refer to Soren, right?" [T/N: Don't ask why, it is some transliteration meaning]
At least that's what Asher had always thought.
'Oriental Peacock.'
'Soren's bird.'
'Makes perfect sense.'
'But now you're telling me Cold Nation's national bird is the Oriental Peacock?'
'You seriously don't think there's anything wrong with that?'
"Hmm… I mean, is it possible," Professor Desmond stroked his chin and looked at Asher, "Cold Nation doesn't call this Oriental Peacock…"
"Then what do they call it," Asher had a face full of sarcasm, "West Bird?"
"And treating a beast as a national bird, doesn't that seem kind of off?", Asher said uncertainly.
This world does have both ordinary and beasts.
Generally speaking, things like national flowers and national birds are all ordinary plants and animals.
Beasts, after all, carry wildness.
Not suitable as symbols representing a country.
"Most countries don't treat beasts as national flowers or birds, but what can't be avoided is that some small countries do this."
"Especially some countries where technology and scientific research levels are more developed, they prefer to operate this way."
"As for how this custom came to be, and what kind of ideology is behind it... hey, if you're interested, you can read two extracurricular books, they explain it pretty clearly."
Asher: "..."
"Alright," Asher nodded, accepting Professor Desmond's suggestion.
Just treat it as an extracurricular supplement.
Asher actually didn't mind much.
"Back to the point," Seeing Asher actually accept his suggestion so easily, Professor Desmond became even more energized.
"In Cold Nation, the Oriental Peacock is called Zlara, meaning Goddess of Dawn."
"A proper noun."
Looking at Asher who had pulled out his phone to look up the word, Professor Desmond's mouth twitched.
"You can take it as a word specially created for this beast. If you search 'Goddess of Dawn' directly, maybe you'd find it even faster."
Asher nodded.
Pretentious.
Sure enough.
The photo corresponding to the entry was the Oriental Peacock.
But it didn't mention that Oriental Peacock was an alias.
Ask why? Because Cold Nation people just love it too much.
"They believe the Oriental Peacock's body contains powerful light-type energy. Your Oriental Peacock evolved into a fire-type, right?"
"That even kinda lines up a bit."
'Huh?'
As he spoke, Professor Desmond suddenly frowned, sensing something off.
"Wait."
"The Oriental Peacock as a beast shouldn't have fire-type properties, right?", Professor Desmond looked at Asher.
Asher calmly: "I'm not sure either."
"Probably related to the Oriental Peacock's mutation."
All truth.
Just using a bit of poetic ambiguity.
Professor Desmond thought for a moment, then nodded.
"That's true."
"Even though we've coexisted with beasts for over a thousand years, our understanding of them is still insufficient."
"Beasts still have many unknown mysteries."
Then Professor Desmond leaned in close to Asher and asked in a low voice, "Can your Oriental Peacock's evolution path be shared?"
"Or can it be popularized?"
"I'm sure, for this evolution path, Cold Nation would be willing to pay big money for it!"
Professor Desmond's eyes sparkled with excitement.
Just short of telling Asher, here's your chance to fleece the rich.
Don't miss it if you're passing by.
Asher: "..."
"I don't think that's doable," Asher said a bit regretfully, yet also with true sincerity.
"And even if it really could be popularized, I wouldn't really recommend...", telling Cold Nation.
'Supporting the enemy is not something we should do.'
'The evolution path of the Three-Legged Golden Crow is really powerful.'
"The most important part is, it has to learn multiple fire-type skills," Seeing Professor Desmond's disappointed expression, Asher shared a bit more.
Professor Desmond: "..."
Professor Desmond looked at Asher with an expression of disbelief.
He cupped his fists toward Asher.
Then turned and left.
'Absolutely ridiculous!'
'Farewell!'
'Goodbye!'
A Oriental Peacock that isn't even related to the fire element, just learning one fire-type skill might cost the beastmaster their life.
Learn multiple fire-type skills?
And judging by Asher's expression, it's not just learning, but mastering, becoming proficient, and fully grasping.
Why don't you just ask the Oriental Peacock to ascend to heaven.
Oh.
Oriental Peacock already knows how to fly, right.
Then why don't you ask it to dive underwater too!
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