[Stone Skin] skill has reached MAX LEVEL. Evolution available.

  Auron blinked through the haze of red.

  “...What?”

  The system pinged again.

  Evolving [Stone Skin] → [??????????????????]...

  And then his body began to shift.

  Stone—no longer.

  Something deeper, maybe ancient and probably terrifying.

  ***

  Following that, a soul-rending pain echoed through him. Not physical this time it was his soul that screamed.

  As if it had been cracked open, and something unnatural that should not exist was forced into it.

  His breath came out ragged.

  He looked at the beast, the Bronze-ranked Armored Quadruped, still refusing to die. Its eyes held that same unsettling glint of intelligence. As if it was considering something.

  Something Auron was damn sure he wouldn’t like.

  But it still lay there, unable to move at least for now.

  He redirected his thoughts, forcing his attention inward.

  And what he found… left him amazed and terrified.

  ***

  This change was different.

  It wasn’t just his skin growing tougher like it did the time iron-skin evolved into stone-skin.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  This time it was something more.

  It was his body itself being reforged.

  Muscles, bones, blood, cells, literally everything was being reconstructed from the base of his being.

  His cells disintegrated, then reintegrated, each time more refined, tougher, denser, almost metallic in resilience.

  He was changing and he could feel it, into something less... human.

  The process was brutal, to say the least.

  But Auron didn’t scream, at least not like last time.

  His pain tolerance had long since soared past natural limits.

  And then, something else stirred within him.

  A bone-deep pulse exuding pressure, that signalled a new presence.

  A faint heartbeat, not from his heart but from behind it or beneath it, somewhere in his chest, it was forming.

  “And then he felt it—where the presence pulsed.”

  From the center of his chest.

  As this dawned on him, the heart at the centre of his chest pulsed again.

  But this heart didn't pulse blood, It pulsed pressure. Ancient, elemental and gravitational. Like the Earth’s heartbeat had found a home in him.”

  Auron fell on his knees trying to grasp the weight of his change as his eyes widened .

  “What the hell…” he muttered. His voice cracked, with a weird cocktail of awe and dread.”

  “Ooooh, fucking crap… What the hell is happening to me?”

  Confusion bled into awe.

  Because in the next breath, the second heart throbbed again.

  And something surged into his mind.

  Not pain but understanding, a brand of truth pressed against his subconscious.

  Then—

  Everything clicked.

  Auron’s breath stilled.

  And a slow, wide grin tugged at the corner of his lips.

  For he understood.

  Understood that he'd gained a

  fucking broken skill... wait.... affinity.

  His vision then slowly snapped into clarity.

  The world around him dulled,

  colors dulled but outlines sharpened.

  He could see.

  Wait, he could see the pressure in the stones?

  And somehow feel the breath of the earth like a living thing?

  And at this moment a realization struck him as weird concepts flooded his mind, as if he was... one with the earth

  But differently, he was no longer just stone he felt as if he were the shape of tectonic will and even more weirdly....gravity’s heir.

  And to confirm it, he looked at the shard of jagged rock he had used to deal damage to the bronze-ranked Armoured Quadruped.

  Holding out his hand, he looked at it and the next moment, something wondrous happened.

  The shard rose, because he willed it.

  Levitated, slowly but steadily.

  And with gentle precision, it landed on his palm.

  He stared at it, not with shock, but with recognition.

  Like seeing a limb he’d forgotten was his.

  Like calling a name that had always belonged to him.

  Like remembering he had a brain that hadn’t been braining.”

  ***

  Then the system notification resounded in the depths of his mind.

  Displaying his new evolved... affinity?

  Skill Evolution Complete.

  [Stone Skin] → [Earth Affinity]

  Affinity Progression: 0.0%

  < You are no longer a bearer of stone. You are a vessel of Earth. A conduit of weight, pressure, soil, metal, and will. Earth answers not to command. It answers to purpose. >

  Damn! Wasn't this just fucking cool.

  Whatever it was affinity or skill, he knew one thing for certain, he was going to beat the crap out of this Bronze rank armoured quadruped .

  "Hehe...time for payback... "

  "Round fou..."

  “But before he could finish his cocky remark…”

  , a scene unfolded before him that wiped the smirk out of his face .

  The bronze-ranked armoured quadruped glowed with faint hues of red over it's armoured plates, it's muscles bulging, as it's previous crimson eyes that once burned with a flicker of intelligence, were filled with madness.

  The beast had gone berserk.

  Normally this would have been good for any other beast tamer, cause once beasts turned berserk, there would be no coming back, short bursts of strength in exchange for burning of their beast cores.

  It was planning to take him down and even more preposterous, burning it's beast core for that.

  "No, you fucking don’t, you bastard. That’s my fucking beast core…”

  He had to kill the beast and fast, before all of his efforts became wasted.

  "Let's see what this affinity can do."