Chapter 195: Chroma
"Establishing connection in 3, 2, 1—
Connection established."
The staff operated the teleportation passage as it began to broaden before my eyes.
At last, D.X. was now connected to the heart of the Great Forest of Azuna.
Everyone waited as the teleportation passage began to operate at full power.
At first, due to a new connection being formed, the passage was a little unstable, but within a few seconds, it quickly stabilised, opening the way for transfer.
The moment the passage stabilised, a figure walked through.
His blood-red hair had the same dominance as usual, with a long scar running across his face.
"Ah! Did the academy finally give you leave?"
Arthur uttered the words the moment he saw me.
"They had to."
Our conversation didn’t last long, as soldiers marched out from the passage carrying huge boxes with them.
"The raw mana stones."
Arthur spoke with a hint of pride in his voice.
I could even feel the light of hope emitting from his eyes, which now looked closer to those of a kid than a man in his forties.
As my gaze turned to the boxes, one of the soldiers lowered his box and opened the lid so that I could see the contents within.
The moment the lid opened, a bright light escaped from the box.
No, it wasn’t that the stones themselves emitted light, but the moment the light in the surroundings fell on their transparent surfaces, the stones reflected it to the maximum extent possible.
It was similar to—looking at smaller versions of the sun.
Just as I was about to bend down to inspect the mana stones closely, a high-pitched screech made me turn my attention to the passage once again, as a creature standing at a height of around 6 feet walked out of the teleportation passage, looking in my direction.
It had four strong legs to support its enormous weight, and as my gaze shifted to its upper body—Five serpentine heads on top greeted me at the same time.
Well... the exact words would be that they looked back at me, their eyes never leaving mine.
A Hydra.
That was what the creature before me could be called in the simplest words I could think of.
I had continuously supplied my mana essence to the egg for six months, and the result being—
A Hydra had hatched from the egg.
When it was born, the creature was small, but now...
It had grown on to become a monster in its own right.
Well... it had always been a monster.
As the Hydra walked in my direction, all noise in the room died down, as none dared to speak a word.
Though Chroma was only at Platinum 3, the presence it released into the surroundings was unlike that of any other beast at the same rank.
As for Chroma—it was the name that I had designated for the Hydra.
As it had five colourful heads, I was going to name it Colour, but on second thought, the name—Chroma—suited the beast better.
I could feel Chroma’s happiness in my mind as it approached closer to me.
Its four heads quickly lowered themselves to rub against my cheek, which I found... not so pleasant.
But now that the beast had bonded with me, I couldn’t treat it badly.
I had to show some respect to the beast, lest it decided to rebel against me.
As for the heads, they were of five different colours—red, green, white, yellow, and black.
Each head had its own independent will, so I had decided to name them as per their colours.
Red and Green were on the left side of the Hydra, while White and Yellow were positioned on the right side of the creature.
As for the last head—Black—it was in the middle and was also the leader of all heads, with the most dominant will among them.
It was the four other heads that greeted me with such... care, but Black... it just stared at me from above, without even trying to communicate with me in any way.
It wasn’t that the head was disloyal to me—it simply couldn’t be. After all, the Hydra was bonded to me after consuming my mana essence.
The creature saw me as a part of itself, or in simple words—I was the Hydra’s parent.
So Black... it just had a personality that was rigid and didn’t act in the way the other heads did.
The easier comparison would be... the four other heads were like little children compared to Black, who always behaved like the adult with wisdom.
"Congratulations on evolving."
Arthur’s voice brought me out of my thoughts as I shifted my gaze from Chroma to him.
"The moment you evolved, Chroma advanced tiers in its rank."
Arthur informed me, though I could easily sense the increase in the creature’s power.
As Chroma was a creature with unknown yet strong origins, its body was naturally more suitable for evolving to higher ranks.
And after being bonded with me, the beast kept receiving boosts in its power every time I advanced in my own cultivation.
In simple words, Chroma was always two ranks ahead of me.
When I was a Silver 3, Chroma had been at Platinum 1.
Now that I had evolved to become a Gold 1... Chroma’s rank had increased to Platinum 3.
Though it didn’t immediately increase by a whole rank after my core evolved, the reason wasn’t complex.
At higher ranks, the gap between two tiers was massive.
That was the only reason the creature’s rank grew by only two tiers, but that was in itself an achievement that very few monsters in the world could replicate.
Within a single year, Chroma had become a Platinum 3... and I seriously doubted whether there was another monster like this beast.
As for Chroma’s abilities... they were still evolving, and the full extent of its power was still unknown.
Alfred had predicted that only after becoming an Immortal would the Hydra be able to display a hint of its true power.
Right now, its body was too weak to display its true might.
I shifted my focus from Chroma as I bent down to pick up a mana stone in my hand.
Its texture was smooth, yet the stone was too hard to break easily.