Madman’s Retirement

The boy was gone.

Ultimately, Grant chose to distance himself from the child, unsure what kind of relation he actually wanted with the child.

He wasn't devoid of the desire to be the child's guardian.

On the contrary, he felt his current guardian was insufficient.

He would be far better. Stronger, faster, better.

But this child did not have a good bond with his current family.

So why would the child want to connect with him? This mysterious relative with such a weird connection.

And after that speech of self sufficiency?

No, better to watch from a distance.

Grant had the system keep an eye on the child and focus on his own adventures.

Like Ursa Honey, who was on the edge of evolution.

After creating more and more food based biomes, the pockets had been filled to the brim, and the item, which had been put on to promote the bear's evolution, was blending with the bear's essence well.

All that was needed was its final baptism.

"This looks dangerous." The boy said worriedly, and Grant chuckled.

"Evolution is rarely safe." Grant responded to assure the child, and yet he did not look assured.

To be fair, Grant was cooking the bear in a giant pot for its final evolution.

Compared to its casual collecting of ingredients, the final baptism to push the bear onto its path of evolution was intense to say the least.

A least, for the average person.

The bear was "soaking" in a golden, delicious stew, one filled with various beasts of a food like form.

Gummy worms and licorice serpents, gusher toads and centiwafers, glazed ants and butterfries galore writhed in the concoction.

Grant was using something akin to a gu pot in terms of technique, hence why many of the food beasts within were ones that reflected the famous gu, in an effort to produce similar results.

The game was obviously rigged from the beginning, with the outcome of the refining clearly in the bears favor, but the purpose was to essentially increase the bears concentration of dessert type power, by allowing these sweet gu to refine one another to produce stronger, tastier results, which the bear would snatch, and use this concentrated mana and sugary delight to eventually evolve into the next stage.

The brew in which they were all boiling was ambrosia, stolen from the Olympians, usually out of desire, since ambrosia is really good at strengthening mortals.

Were they to know their godly nectar was being treated as an ingredient for a mere bear's evolution, they would undoubtedly throw a fit, though Grant would likely not care.

It was a chaotic scene, and would be extremely dreadful and not at all suitable for kids were it not for the fact that everything except the bear were desserts, so the "blood" coming out of these sugary beasts was more like syrup, which was perfectly suitable for kids to look at.

Ursa Honey was having a difficult time. The bear didn't really fight all that often, and when he did, he had gotten used to relying on teammates.

Working in a team is never a bad thing, but when one gets too reliant on a team, they will become a chain, in which if the single link breaks, then the whole chain breaks.

Tch tch. Looks like Ursa Honey will require more training.

Fanfare looked on curiously, and with a little greed.

"Father, once Ursa is finished, you don't mind if I eat what's left?" He asked hopefully.

"If you want, though I'd hardly recommend it." Grant responded, and seeing the dragonshroom's confused look, he explained.

"Once he's evolved, it's likely a lot of the imperfections of his body will be expunged, and result in a layer of waste in the brew."

Hearing this, Fanfare showed a mildly disappointing look, but Grant laughed.

"If you want sugar, I don't mind doing this again. Sugar gu can be quite dangerous, so I wouldn't mind cultivating a few,"

Hearing this, the dragonshrooms ears perked up a little.

Huh. He grew ears. Clearly for expression more than sensitivity. Neat.

Turning back to the evolution at hand, Grant watched as the honey bear fought harder and harder, as its habits devolved into a more savage form of fighting as it dug into the sugary beasts without mercy.

The bees were pouring out of the hive as well, swarming the creatures, and attacking with gusto.

What mattered more was the light of evolution on the bear, as it flashed on and off.

There may have been less ferocious ways of stimulating this evolution, but Grant had chosen this.

The encounter with Richard had reminded Grant that monsters do need to let loose once in a while, to be true to their nature, or they'll end up like Richard.

A beast without teeth. Even if Grant powers the bear through, all the way up to godhood, but the bear doesn't hone its ability to kill, then it would be worthless.

At that point, he may as well have not bothered to evolve them at all.

He wasn't going to stop this path he had pushed the bear onto, merely stimulate its evolution a bit more harshly, that's all.

Honey Ursa roared in pain and excitement.

Evolution was terrifying, and yet it was also exciting as well, as one felt themselves break through their limits, to become stronger than before.

An instinctive desire of all beings.

As the light started flickering rapidly, the ambrosia darkened as the waste was pushed out of his body.

Normal monsters do not in fact, expel waste as they evolve, but instead seemingly absorb them and make no attempts to expel them.

The bear was expelling waste because Grant was pulling on cultivation based ideas, and thus produced cultivation esque results, like expelling waste.

Some believe this was one difference between qi beasts and monsters, where one actively chooses to expel waste and purify one's body, while monsters merely focus on growing stronger.

As the waste was expelled, the bear glowed a golden glow, as its brown fur took on a golden tint, as if its fur had been spun of honey.

The pouch had also undergone realm breaking changes, as the pouch became extremely simplified, becoming a basic pouch.

Yet analyzing it with his appraisal spell, he could see that it had undergone qualitative changes.

The major one? The ability to mix ingredients. Rather than merely containing the ingredients, it could also now mix any of the ingredients contained within the pouch to produce new blends of spices and herbs, or candy.

Like fudge and wavers to create chocolate covered wafers, or fruits and batter to produce cake

On the more battle oriented side, it allowed one to excel in support, combining ingredients with different affect to produce quick, optimal effects, without requiring an oven a that moment.

Respectively, one could target the negative effects, and combine multiple types of ingredients to produce the most dangerous thing, akin to poison.

A sour and spicy candy that acts like soda and candy, causing a dangerous, tongue burning and sense destroying candy would be one such example.

Or even simpler, a mix of lemon juice and hell pepper to create a horrid secretion to spill on the enemies eyes.

A simple little chef's hat adorned the bear's head, and the small hive had changed, becoming a small bakery on the bears back.

Indeed, a characteristic of the honey bears, in that depending on the path they take, the hive will change shape. He'd been curious if it't end up an oven hive, a jar, or in this case, a miniature bakery.

The paws had grown opposable thumbs, to help better cook meals.

It was a rather simplistic evolution, but one rank with strength, as he could tell the bear had become what was in adventurer's eyes a B rank monster.

He wondered how jealous other monsters would be if they knew how easily the bear had climbed the ranks.

Though it did cost a lot of ambrosia...

Grant made sure to put it down in his to do list to investigate whether the gods of this pantheon had ambrosia, and if so, to go steal some for his own use.

Someone was following him.

Grant noticed it almost immediately as he walked out of the bar that day, as he felt a pair of eyes start scrutinizing him.

The person observing him had no malicious intent, not that he could tell, otherwise he'd have already captured and tortured the man.

Regardless, this was still rather curious.

Oh who, oh who would want to watch him?

Grant could think of multiple people who would have such a vested interest, and yet he could not figure out who.

He decided to have a little fun with his mysterious follower. One should properly enjoy the gifts sent to them correct?

Blue Jay of the Pheme Nyx guild believed himself to be a well known agent, at the very least competent.

Though few knew him outside of the guld, inside of it, he was popular, even having received the name woodpecker.

Because he always managed to to accurately hit the target. At least, that's what he told himself.

He'd heard less flattering reasons, like the fact that he was dumb like a woodpecker, constantly banging his head against a wall, metaphorically.

He didn't believe that. Sure, he was a little persistent, but that's how one gets the job done.

His current mission was quite the weird one for sure. It was an order by the emperor himself, to investigate a mysterious man who dressed as a raven sage. Not much was known about him so far, but the report by a previously famous adventurer indicated the man could be considered a danger on the level of the god's who lurked within the empire.

Of course, the woodpecker was doubtful of the intel, but given that the guildmaster was reported to be a demigod of strong origin, his word was not to be taken lightly, so he was sent in to do the investigative work.

The adventurer known as Grant had a schedule that could be seen as mundane, if not odd.

The man hung out at the guild, which could hardly be considered weird, at least not among the plethora of strong and particular beasts that plagued these lands.

He was still a weird man regardless.

The man never took any of the gear off, preferring to remain "in character"

Indeed, it was something seen in some famous heroes, who were known for playing characters in a form of role playing.

That didn't mean he was a hero of course, merely that it had become something now noted by the Pheme Nyx guild as a trait that often indicated that such people would react unpredictably if their face was torn off and their role exposed in a sense.

The man seemingly sensed something, but couldn't find him.

It made sense. The blue jay was using an artifact of the divine level, given to him by the head of the agency, that even Gods could not see through if used.

The artifact was known as the omphalos stone. By temporarily consuming it, one could disappear from the sights of all others

Apparently its ability had been inverted by the head of the guild, which merely left him in greater awe of such a leader.

Still, the fact that he knew someone was watching him was impressive, and dangerous too.

Something else to go into the notes.

"What ya writin in there?" Came a curious voice and the blue jay casually responded.

"Oh you know, just observing some-" He paused as his head slowly turned and his eyes met the eyes of his target.

"Hello there." He said casually, and the stunned agent couldn't respond properly, and Grant sighed.

"It's "GENERAL KENOBI" he said in an exaggerated manner before grabbing the notebook.

"Let's check your homework today shall we? I hope this wasn't last minute. Teacher hates last minute efforts. " The masked man said, clearly in a good mood.

Poor woodpecker was thinking he had swung his head a few times too many, as his mind shook with confusion.

How?

How had he bypassed the omphalos stone!?