The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 791  Butterfly In Distress

Karl reached down and picked up the chrysalis. It was heavily damaged, but hard and smooth as steel.

He still couldnʼt see it, but with it in his hand, he could feel the magic. Whatever was evolving must have cast invisibility on itself.

”What did you find?” Lotus asked.

”A crystal of some sort. I think it might be a cocoon. Itʼs definitely the distressed creature, though, and there are bite marks in the hard shell.” Karl explained.

The creature was still in agony, but Karl didnʼt know what to do.

Lotus had some ideas, though. First she cast a healing spell on it, then transferred it some mana.

That gave Karl an idea. He took out one of Remiʼs mana and stamina potions and dropped the crystal in it.

The crystal became visible and began to glow with power as it absorbed the potion at a rate that defied everything Karl knew about how volume and physics worked.

Then the whole potion bottle vanished, and Karl felt a new presence in his mind. A tiny, terrified presence.

[Did we get a new brother or a new sister?] Thor asked.

[I honestly have no idea. Itʼs not hatched yet.] Everyone watched the newly occupied mental space as it began to transform. An entire stone city with an ethereal beauty began to form in the space, and the crystal in a bottle was lifted off the ground with a small stone altar.

Moments later, the bottle shattered as the crystal began to melt and then reform itself into a new form.

A butterfly with transparent wings a metre wide, and an impossibly blue body shaped like a crystal.

The creature was curious about where it found itself, and why there were others in spaces like the one it was in, staring at it.

The green one seemed friendly, so the butterfly made it a flower and sent it through the barrier between the spaces.

[Oh, itʼs an illusion. A solid illusion. Beautiful, thank you.] Thor thanked the butterfly.

Karl examined the creatureʼs stats

{Glasswing Illusionary Butterfly}

{Evolved Stage} Newly hatched

{Rank} Overlord

{Evolved Stage} Newly hatched

{Rank} Overlord

{Innate Talent} Illusionary Domain

{Known Spells} [Invisibility] [Illusionary Domain] Creates a solid illusion near the caster, or in a separate space no larger than 20 metres in diameter per Rank of the caster. Damage to the illusion destabilizes the effect.

Lotus was staring impatiently at Karl, waiting for an explanation.

”It moved itself to my mental space. Or perhaps I did it subconsciously? Either way, itʼs there now. The System says that itʼs a Glasswing Illusionary Butterfly.” He explained.

Lotus stared at him for a moment. ”You... now have a butterfly?” ”An Overlord Rank one that can use illusions.” Karl agreed.

{Skill: Skill Master 4} activated

{Skill: Invisibility} has improved by one Rank.

Rae smirked as she saw that message.

[I think that me and this little butterfly are going to be good friends.]

Thor wasnʼt sure about that. [I think itʼs absolutely terrified of the outside world.]

It also didnʼt have any combat abilities. No attack spells, no venom, no limbs. It didnʼt even eat meat, it was eyeing Thorʼs plants with a growing sense of hunger.

Thor passed the butterfly a few long grass blades it had been staring at, and the Butterfly slowly began to nibble. Well, in a way. The plants seemed to just soak into the crystalline body, which had no visible mouth parts.

Lotus frowned. ”There is only one problem. Have you considered the lifespan of a Glasswing Illusionary Butterfly?”

”What do you mean?”

Lotus frowned. ”Well, theyʼre immensely powerful, but twelve hours after they evolve, they run out of energy and die. They breed as caterpillars.”

That was... inconvenient. Karl had no idea what happened if a beast in one of the spaces died of old age. But for now, the butterfly was happily eating and the fake city in its space was beautiful.

Karl couldnʼt see any reason that the butterfly should be dying so fast. It looked healthy and happy, eating in its space, soaking in the power of the space, and it was practically brimming with vitality. Nothing about it screamed ʼtwelve hours to liveʼ.

Karl got a mental image of the Black Elf Grass that the butterfly was eating, and wondered if that was just an expression of happiness or an explanation.

Was it possible that the only food it could digest as an adult was extinct? Thor had brought this back from a dungeon instance that was set in the distant past.

Not long after, the butterfly fell asleep on the long blade of grass, and the illusionary realm of its new home began to get a bit unreal.

There were two copies of Thor wandering around, an illusionary Remi was making potions while reading a book, and a Winged Void Badger flew the skies, which were now full of multicolour swirling smoke.

”Hey, this is private property!” Someone shouted from behind Karl, who was fully distracted by the events in the spaces.

Suddenly, the world in the space was all around them, and the terrified butterfly had created two Hawks and a Rae for defence.

”Little Butterfly, calm down, heʼs not going to hurt anyone. You can bring your illusion back inside your safe space.” Karl whispered.

The illusion quickly faded, and the butterfly fell asleep again, dreaming of its illusionary city.

”Sorry about that. Illusion Element pet got away from me. We will get off your beach right away.” Karl apologized.

Then he cast [Invisibility] over the group, leaving the homeowner to stare at nothing. That skill was going to be a lot of fun in the future. As it turned out, invisible targets could see each other, but nobody else could see them.

Karl led the group back into the city before the irate Demon who owned that portion of land could stop hyperventilating. For a few seconds there, he thought that he had been sent instantly to the afterlife as the world changed and monsters appeared.

By the time that he recovered, they were gone, and he realized that he hadnʼt gotten a good look at the group. If he knew who they were, he would go have words with them for scaring years off his life.

After he found backup.

They walked to the busier streets and Karl hastily released the spell before someone got run over by a pedestrian five times their size. The Dungeon could wait, they had things to do now.