Eiko managed to convince Iris to make Astra leave the room before Lux told her about their adventures in Elysium.
The baby Slime didn't want her rival to hear how powerful she had become and wanted it to be a surprise to him later. Iris agreed and asked Astra to head to the training grounds to prepare for his battle with Eiko, which the Unicorn thought was a big joke.
Even so, for Iris' sake, he left the room and allowed Eiko to monopolize Iris for a short period of time.
Astra was confident that he would easily win against the baby Slime who still didn't know her place in the hierarchy of beasts that protected Iris' safety.
The moment Astra left, Lux began to tell Iris about the details of the adventures they had in Elysium. The young beauty's eyes would widen in shock from time to time, and her mouth would open and close as the red-headed teenager told the tale of things that seemed impossible to have happened inside a Beginner's Zone.
Even so, Iris believed every word of it. She could tell at a glance that her stepbrother was not exaggerating his tale, and even went out of his way to downplay the story telling, so he wouldn't come out as someone who bragged about the feats he had accomplished in Elysium.
After hearing about his encounter with the Indus Death Worm and Keoza, the Argonaut-Ranked Crystal Dragon, Iris asked Lux to pause his story telling, so she could drink some water in order to calm herself.
Only after she had regained her calm did Iris allow Lux to continue his tale.
In the Intermediate Areas, Pseudo-Deimos and Deimos-Ranked Monsters were considered quite rare, and were deemed as the ultimate bosses that needed to be fought by an entire guild to ensure that there would be less casualties in battle.
A single party would not challenge Monsters of such rank because it would immediately turn into a party wipe. If they met such Monsters inside a Dungeon, it would still be fine because if they died since they would just lose some of their stat points.
However, if they encountered them in the wild, the first thing that a party should do is run away as fast as they could. It was simply impossible to beat creatures of that rank. If there were people stubborn enough to think that they could fight it using the power of friendship, they would end up as monster poop.
"Unbelievable," Iris commented after Lux finished his tale about the Grotto of the Forbidden Guardian. "A dungeon that degraded because its Dungeon Core was damaged. Although this is the first time that I've heard of a story like this, I'm still glad that you are still safe after that experience, Lux."
Iris decided to just call the red-headed teenager, Lux, when it was just the two of them. Although Lux was surprised at first, he didn't mind it too much and allowed the young beauty to call him whatever she wanted.
Iris then stared at Lux with a serious expression on her face, while holding Eiko in her hand. A few moments later, she nodded her head in admiration after sensing the faint power of Dragons inside Lux's body.
As a Beast Tamer, she was quite familiar with how the blood of beasts could be fused with ordinary people, giving them specific abilities that belonged to that Beast. Although this practice was very common, it still held significant danger to the person that consumed the Monster Blood.
In the worst case scenario, they would die due to incompatibility or the Monster Blood having a strong side-effect on those who tried to fuse with it.
"Lux, can you transform parts of your body?" Iris asked. "I have seen others do it, so I am curious if you can do it as well."
Lux nodded and transformed his hand into that of a dragon claw, which made Iris very curious. She even reached out to touch Lux's clawed hand, and pressed it in places to confirm if it had merged completely.
Her gaze was so serious that it reminded him of scientists who were focused on their craft. Out of curiosity, Iris almost licked Lux's hand just to taste what a transformed claw tasted like.
Fortunately, Lux undid the transformation in time, which prevented Iris from continuing to carry out her experiments.
After a few minutes of dissatisfaction, Lux continued his tale. When he mentioned fighting against the Mutated Thunder Wolf King, Iris' brows furrowed.
"When it died, did it leave behind a vial of mutated blood?" Iris asked.
Lux nodded. "Yes. it did."
Iris's expression became more serious after hearing Lux's answer.
"Do you remember when Nero came to Wildgarde Stronghold to look for me because our guilds were going to challenge a Dungeon together?"
"How could I forget?"
Iris nodded. "The Boss of the Dungeon we faced was a Mutated Thunder Wolf King. Fortunately, there were two hundred of us, so we were able to deal with it. After it was defeated, according to the rules of conquest, the one that made the greatest contribution would take the first pick at the Monster loot.
"Nero didn't even hesitate to take the Monster's Beast Core. Since he specializes in Lightning Abilities, the outcome was acceptable. I don't know if he succeeded in learning a skill after absorbing the Monster Core, but one thing is for sure, he is strong, Lux, very strong. Be sure to be extra careful if you meet him in the tournament."
Lux gave her a brief nod to acknowledge Nero's abilities. "I understand. I promise to be careful. So, since you knew of the vial, did your group receive it as well?"
"We did. The Mutated Monster Blood was given to the Prince of Exalos Kingdom, as his compensation for his support in the battle."
"How about you? What did you get?"
Iris gave Lux a mischievous smile, which caught the latter's interest.
"For some reason, the Mutated Thunder Wolf King dropped an egg," Iris answered. "As the main Beast Tamer in the group, it was given to me by unanimous vote."
Lux chuckled. "I'm sure that no one will challenge you over a monster egg. So, did you hatch the egg already?"
"Yes," Iris replied. "I gifted the baby monster to Alicia because she has long wanted to raise a baby Monster, but never found the time to hunt in Elysium."
"Um, do you mind if I ask what kind of monster came out of the egg? It isn't a Mutated Thunder Wolf King, right?"
"No. What came out of it was a Mythical Class Golden-Winged Griffin. Alicia loves the little guy so much that he named him Alex."
Lux almost burst out laughing because, not expecting that Alicia would be so bold as to call a Golden-Wing Griffin, Alex, which was obviously a shortened version of Iris' father's name, Alexander.
"But, as expected of you, Iris," Lux said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "A Mythical Beast from the get go. You sure are lucky when it comes to hatching eggs."
"Ma!" Eiko, who was sitting on Iris' lap and being petted by her Mama, nodded her head in agreement.
Iris smiled sweetly as she lightly squeezed Eiko's cheeks, making the baby Slime giggle. "To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I thought I was going to hatch a Legendary Class Monster, but this time, I only got a Mythical one. I am losing my touch."
Lux stared at his step-sister for a few seconds before rubbing his face with both hands. The only one who could casually say she was losing her touch by hatching a Mythical Grade Monster was none other than the young beauty with light-blue hair in front of him.
If other Monster Tamers or Monster Breeders were to hear her complaints, all of them would definitely suffer from high blood pressure or aneurysm for her audacity.
'My sister is in another league when it comes to her standards in hatching monsters,' Lux thought as he shook his head helplessly. Finally, a thought came across his mind as he asked Iris the question he forgot to ask long ago.
"Iris, what is Eiko's Monster Grade?" Lux inquired.
Iris blinked once then twice as she looked at Lux with surprise.
"Didn't I tell you about her Monster Grade when she was born?" Iris asked.
Lux shook his head. "No. Is she perhaps Mythical Grade just like that Golden-Winged Griffin?"
Iris smiled as she lightly rubbed Eiko's chubby cheeks, making the baby Slime giggle for the second time.
"I also thought that she was a Mythical Monster," Iris replied. "But, after thinking for a long time, I came to a conclusion. Eiko is not a Mythical Monster. She is a Legendary Monster, whose untapped potential is endless. Even now, I'm still researching what kind of Monster she is."
Lux stared at the baby Slime that was giggling from Iris' constant squeezing, and wondered what kind of evolution Eiko would take once she reached a higher rank.
Now that Iris had confirmed that Eiko Monster Grade was of the Legendary Rank, he was sure that whatever the baby Slime would become in the future, she would definitely leave a mark in history as one of the strongest Slimes that was ever born in the world of Elysium.
Eiko didn't understand anything about Monster Grades or anything of the sort. She was just happy that her Mama was spoiling her before she'd go to fight that annoying Unicorn that was waiting for her in Mama's private Training Grounds.
She had long wanted to have a revenge match with Astra. Since she had been expecting this, she practiced a lot in Elysium. Eiko was confident that no matter how strong the Unicorn was, she would emerge victorious and show her arrogant rival that she was no longer the weak Monster that Astra had bullied in the past.
