“Wood resistance,” I said, looking at the new stat readout. “That means that the Dragonling is now partially resistant to plant-based monsters?”

Kyrine didn’t speak, but I felt her agreement come along our connection to me, and I knew that I was right. I wondered what other kinds of plant-based monsters I could gain. Were there perhaps creatures in the woods nearby, other semi-sentient plants which had harvestable cores? Or would we have to trade for cores to get some monsters from some more exotic places?

It was a question I had never previously given much thought to. Plant-based monsters were not particularly popular with hunters, having fairly low value harvestable goods and fairly high risk. It was rare for cores from plant-based monsters to ever come through the shop, though it did happen on occasion.

I was about to ask Astrid the answer to that question when I saw another notification about the Dragonling pop up.

“What’s this?” I muttered, accepting the notification.

“The evolutions for the Dragonling are available!” I said in surprise.

“That means you can upgrade and level up your monsters by having them fight each other? Awesome!” said Astrid, coming forward to look over my shoulder at the command center readout.

“Looks like it. That’s great, it means that we don’t have to wait for adventurers before we get high-level creatures for the dungeon.”

“Which one will you choose?”

“It looks like only one is open to me: Flora Whelp. The Stalwart Whelp requires 10% Wood Immunity, 10% Fire Immunity, and 10% Water Immunity, but the Dragonling only has the required Wood Immunity. The Stinging Whelp requires an Aggressive Disposition, and I don’t even really know what that means, but the Dragonling doesn’t have it. The Flora Whelp only requires 10% Wood Immunity, so I figure I’ll go with that one.”

Astrid shrugged. “You don’t want to wait until the other options open up for you?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied. “Kyrine,” I said to the dungeon core, “if I choose one of these evolutions, is it fixed? I mean, can I come back and choose a different evolutionary path for the Dragonlings?”

She thought for a moment, before replying. “It’s an interesting question, certainly, one I have not considered before. I think the answer is yes, you can, but it’s not recommended, particularly as you progress further along the evolutionary path you have chosen.”

“Why is that?” I asked.