We ignored almost all potential battles during our journey. We rushed past monsters as they chased after us. It was nearing the time I had to log out, so we had to speedrun this. I felt bad for Siegfried, but I didn’t have time to fight a bunch of monsters. Though I did wish we could have tried fighting the shadowlike monster that we spotted along the way.
“Is that black shadow one of those low-level Shadow Men?”
“Yeah, it is. They say they’re related to that cutscene that was released.”
After the recent reveal of that cutscene featuring the demon and his subordinate having a confidential talk in a basement, people started reporting quests involving shadowlike enemies popping up all over the place. The enemy I fought in the Squire’s Forest, the Shadow Man, was also probably part of that.
These Shadow Men were also appearing outside of quests, as regular mob monsters on the playing field. People speculated that defeating a certain number of these Shadow Men might progress some sort of event, so there were increasing reports of their spawn locations.
However, even though they were small fry, that didn’t mean they could be killed instantly. They were just weaker than the boss types. They were apparently still more difficult than the ordinary monsters on the playing field.
“Oh well,” I sighed. “I guess we’ll just let it be for now.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it, given our time limit.”
“Yeah, true. Considering we also have that yokai battle to do, we really are short on time.”
That all being said, I could tell Carro was getting tired, so we decided to take a break at a safety zone that was on the way.
“Come on, I’ll help you down.”
“Triii!”
Siegfried lifted Olea and lowered them to the ground. I’d already given him permission to touch my monsters directly.
Olea seemed to trust Siegfried completely already, based on how friendly they were acting towards him. They grinned when he picked them up.
“Aaah. Even though we’re in a game, it feels great to be in nature.”
“Trii-triii!”
“Here, Silver. Have a carrot.”
“Neigh!”
Siegfried was feeding his beloved horse a carrot. Silver looked like he was on cloud nine as he munched on it. Even though Silver had been carrying two riders, he didn’t look tired at all. Maybe his stamina had increased after evolving.
As I watched him, I thought of something. Couldn’t I evolve Carro by using the Galloping Emblem on them? The pony was a horse-type monster like Silver, and Moon Ponies inhabited the very Squire’s Forest where Galloping Emblems were obtained. It wouldn’t be so strange to think that Moon Ponies and Galloping Emblems have good synergy.
Then there was the Foam Emblem. If Galloping Emblems evolved horses, what could Foam Emblems evolve? I knew that they could evolve frogs, but there was a good chance they’d be effective on other monsters too. Maybe it could evolve Perca or Reflet, given their connection to water. Yeah, it was worth a shot. But first, I would try using a Galloping Emblem on Carro!
“Is something on your mind, Yuto?”
“Yeah, this!”
I took the emblem out of my inventory and held it up dramatically.
“Oh wow, are you going to use it like I did?”
“Yeah! I’m gonna make Carro evolve! We’re almost at our destination, but the path is going to get more rugged from here on. If I can give Carro a power up, we’ll be able to run away from enemies more easily.”
“I wonder what Carro will evolve into? Maybe the same type of horse as Silver?”
Siegfried looked at Carro hopefully. There certainly wasn’t a nonzero chance they Carro would evolve into a Noble Horse. They were both horses, after all.
As I tried to get my wildly beating heart to settle down, I used the Galloping Emblem.
“All right, Carro! It’s time for you to get a power up!”
“Neeeigh!”
The black pony absorbed the Galloping Emblem into its body and then emitted a bright light. I checked their stats right away and saw that they got a boost to their abilities as well as learning the skill Galloping. Nice, so far everything is exactly like what happened to Silver!
“Now, as for your evolution— Huh?”
“What is it?” Siegfried asked.
No way, this can’t be. I checked Carro’s stats over and over, but...
“...There’s no option for them to evolve.”
“R-Really?”
“Yeah...”
Oh, come on! We both looked silently at each other. Carro had obtained the Galloping skill, and they got a stats boost. But they didn’t do the thing I was looking forward to the most, and that was evolve!
“I-It must be because Moon Ponies are so strong to start with!” Siegfried suggested. “Th-They probably don’t need to evolve!”
“Y-Yeah, you’re right.”
Despite Siegfried’s attempt to console me, his words were like an arrow to the heart.
“Neigh...”
“Ah, Carro! You didn’t do anything wrong!”
Carro looked sad, seeing my disappointment, apparently thinking that my dejection was their fault.
“Neigh?”
After I hurriedly explained otherwise, Carro looked up at me with a face that said, “Really?”
“L-Look, I’m not upset at all! I was just expecting a different outcome! In fact, I’m happy you got stronger!”
“Neigh-neigh!”
“Yeah! You’ll still let me ride you, right?”
I felt bad placing my own expectations on Carro and then feeling let down when they didn’t come true. I had to pull myself together.
“Hmm.”
But now I was unsure of what to do with the Foam Emblem. I was planning on using it on Reflet or Perca, but now that I knew there was a chance they wouldn’t evolve... But if I refused to use it because it was too valuable, I might never use it. I wouldn’t know it worked unless I actually used it.
“Right. I have nothing to lose.”
Even if they didn’t evolve, they would still get stronger. In that case, what was the harm in using it?