Well? Who is it going to be?

Toph was the first to move of the two; she took the horn in her claws, but instead of taking it for herself, she placed it in front of Jack, gave his fur a soft lick and peeped sweetly, then crawled back onto John’s shoulder, curling up and looking expectantly at Jack.

John patted Toph on her small head, giving her a small kiss on her scaled tail. “We will get one for you later on then too, Toph; it’s very sweet of you to give it up in favor of Jack.” The leopard mewed happily at Toph too; he opened his maw, creating a small twirl of snowflakes to dance around the pangolin who with a mirthful peep made some pebbles dance around with them, entertaining herself merrily on her master’s shoulder.

Jack looked at John, then right back to the horn, and then at John once more. The playful leopard then finally took the horn in his mouth and walked to the edge of the area; John following close behind.

“So, how will this work, do you have any idea?” John asked his first companion, seeing Jack put the horn down and then slowly pat the dirt with his paws, circling around the horn a bit, patting the ground once more, before finally, tightly wrapping himself around the horn and closing his eyes. Jack let out a mew, waving his tail at John, then closed his eyes. Slowly but steadily Jack curled up tighter around the horn until, eventually, John could no longer see it.

For a few moments nothing happened. Jack just laid there while John tickled Toph’s belly and let her walk up and down his arms, feeling like he had slightly neglected his pangolin the past days, so he was playing with her while still keeping an eye on Jack.

Minutes passed before finally a shroud of darkness fell over Jack, a soft strangled mew was heard and John, quick as he was, knelt down next to him, but just as quickly as the darkness had come, it was gone again. It seeped into Jack’s fur, roiling under his skin as it seemed to be alive. Jack let out an angry purr, his eyes still closed; the small patch of blackened fur covering his own scar from the nightmare seemed to shine with a dim radiance. Jack’s hissing grew louder, the energy started to gather near Jack’s head and paws, his tail coiled around him as he kept on growling louder and louder, until eventually, with a loud domineering roar, the energy condensed to form a dark, skull like pattern across his head. A small hydra nearby cowered behind the cow it was playing with. A porcupine curled up in fright extending its quills, and a very angry Marco let out a cry at whoever challenged his territory. John quickly waved his arms at the people that were wondering where that roar came from.

“Sorry, that was my pet, he is undergoing a change of some kind, sorry!” Arnold came rushing out of the shed soon enough, and hearing this he made a beeline for John.

“What’s happening? Why did Jack make that sound? Did he get hurt somehow? Please tell me nothing corrupted touched him!”

“No, nothing of the sort. I looted these items, pet evolution items, they drop from apex predators, like the nightmare. And well, they are supposed to evolve a pet with the corresponding attribute. Jack took the horn of the nightmare, which had no type requirement, but it seems like he had some trouble controlling the energy,” John quickly rattled the entire story down; just as he finished, the shimmering layer condensed and settled on Jack’s skull; a few moments later the shimmer around his paws died down too.

A pop up appeared in front of John as Jack stretched himself out, cocking his head at John with a playful look in his eyes. As John watched, Jack extended his claws and opened his mouth. Both the claws and Jack’s teeth had become a grayish tint, reminding him of the horn that now lay cracked on the ground. Jack mewed softly in apology to Marco who once more landed on Arnold’s shoulder.

Mutation successful
Jack has managed to subdue the powers of the horn and gained mana dampening fangs and claws. While they don’t negate mana outright, they make it a lot harder for it to hold it’s stability in forms such as spells. With time, Jack can learn to focus this power and use it in combat. For now, let's just say that low ranking defensive spells won’t stop the little floof.

Just as John was about to pat Jack, his mind threw up a small error. “Hey, Gaia, you called it pet evolution items before, but he’s still a leopard, this is a mutation! You, as the supreme being, should know the difference!”

Well, yeah, I think pet evolution item sounds cooler, what are you going to do about it, you insolent geek?

“N-nothing, sorry, Gaia,” he quickly mumbled, noticing that he should really stop picking fights with the supreme overlady.

With that out of the way, he quickly crouched and ran his hands over Jack’s fur, ruffling it as he rubbed his head. “You did well, Jack, oh my god, you did well. Any mage will have to watch out when he sees you now, buddy, lets see Ellen take us down now!” he laughed heartily, Jack and Toph both once again pouncing him as he laughed harder than he had in a long time, feeling a bit of the stress and grief of dying fall away.

When they were done laughing, Arnold was looking over the cracked horn that still lay on the ground; as he looked it over, it eventually cracked further, dissolving into powder that then drifted off in the wind.

“What exactly did you gain this time, and what kind of item was that? I never heard of such a thing in my life. And I have been mucking around in the Abyss for quite some time.”

“Pet mutation item, Gaia calls them pet evolution items. I told you where I got them right? Don’t these normally reside inside a monster’s body? I thought all my loot came from them, but now that I say that, I did get a book from the treant… That I ripped up, good fucking riddance.”

Arnold looked at John who was starting to mumble off on his own. “Hello, earth to John.”

“Right, sorry, was thinking. How about I give you the other item I looted? It’s for a plant attribute pet, I can’t use it anyway. Study it if you want. Be careful though, using it has a chance of creating a negative mutation. I don’t know what kind, but I bet it will not be pretty.” After saying this, John retrieved the Apple of Life from his inventory and handed it to Arnold; the older Hunter’s eyes scanned it, then kept it in his own storage device, slapping John on the back as he led John to the wooden shed nearby.

“Well, you seem to be done, let’s head inside and look at your last piece of loot, shall we?”

Inside the shed, Archibald was brushing the mane of the nightmare foal, the creature biting at his armoured fingers, but a bit kept it from actually doing any damage. When John and Arnold stepped in, Archibald waved at them. “John, good, this is the foal of that nightmare. She’s a beauty. Very soft, or so I heard,” Archibald said with a smile; a soft squeak could be heard. Solas appeared with his tiny staff, waving it threateningly at the foal as if to ward off bad spirits. He made some threatening squeaking sounds for a few moments more before giving a salute to John and Arnold after which he disappeared again.

“We placed her in containment as Miranda noticed some corruption in the nightmare. We are looking for a way to cleanse it as we speak, just to be on the safe side. I thought it might be best if you see it right away. If you can form a bond with it at the start, that saves us time later on.”

John smirked slightly as Jack and Toph sat down on a nearby hay bale, not wanting to get in the way of their master in the small shed. “I might have the right skill for that, one of the rewards from last night. A literal cleansing skill. Do you think I can use it through this barrier?”

“It should, magic can go in from the outside but can’t come out from the inside. Safety measure so that we can kill her, if we need to, not that we want to, of course.”

Archibald took a step back as John focused his eyes on the nightmare foal. He extended his hands at her, then cast Cleanse. Nearly all of his mana got drained for this one cast, when a pop up appeared to ask if he wanted to destroy the corruption he readily tapped yes.

The nightmare foal’s eyes no longer shined red, and the black unicorn actually stopped biting at Archibald’s fingers. Her eyes blinked; she stared around as if she was looking clear for the first time. When she saw John, she whinnied. John stepped through the barrier and placed his hand on her nose, patting the foal and letting her smell his scent.