The First Legendary Beast Master

Karl let the beasts argue about the merits of Holy versus Unholy beasts, while Hawk tested out the new skill.

His natural form was now a thirty-metre-long Phoenix covered in black flames. But the skill turned him into a Demon Crow, only a little larger than his original Windspeed Hawk form, with a two-metre wingspan.

That would be incredibly useful inside of dungeons, or even just out in public.

It also gave him so much more room in his Ghostfire Tree to perch.

Overall, 9/10 from him on this skill.

It was just a shame it was a crow and not a Hawk.

"Should we head out and wait for the Dana Mage to finish her work?" Karl asked the team.

Rae was carefully inspecting the dungeon, and Cara was clearing the space of anything that resembled loot. But after Hawk had drained all the latent energy for his advancement, there wasn't much worth taking.

[Good to go, boss.] Cara agreed, then returned to her space.

The others followed, and Karl exited the dungeon, where a few dozen Mythic adventurers were waiting for the results of the day.

"Well, I can't claim that I was the one to find it, but I might have been the first to complete it. This dungeon has a challenge mode. Single person, or pairs. The dungeon is exactly the same as it was before, but the reward drops every ten minutes.

I got a bunch of random Totem Ranked items and materials, heavily biased toward the Unholy Element, and one Skill Book, which I have already used." Karl informed them.

The nearest of the Myths nodded. "That's pretty good. Not easy, but getting a skill book as a reward is better than any piece of gear. Just the amount of money you can make by leasing the book to the Blue Dragons is totally worth it."

There was a chorus of agreement from the crowd, and finally, someone asked what skill he got.

The important part that everyone had forgotten about.

"It's an Epic Grade transformation skill, into an Unholy Element Beast. It appears to be random and assigned the first time that you use it because it's not specified within the spell description." Karl offered.

A few of the warriors grumbled in discontent. That did them precisely zero good. An Epic Grade physique was great. But having to fight as a beast? What were they, Druids? That wasn't the sort of skill that they wanted at all.

So, the value would be limited, but it was still an Epic Grade skill.

"I wonder if the other pair is doing alright?" One of the spectators pondered.

"They're a few minutes behind, but they'll be out soon. I can see that at the very least my Guild Member is fine." Karl replied.

"But if you go in alone, you should be able to challenge the whole dungeon, right?" Someone in the back row asked.

"That's right. Who wants to give it a shot?" Karl asked.

Deve stepped up to the front row with a smile on his face, and Karl chuckled.

"You got Golems, right? Or an equivalent of them?" He asked.

Deve nodded. "That's right. I got Spirit Guardians, similar to the ones that Nilla has. With the three of us, it might be tough, but I've got some new gear, and being a druid, I have a lot of self-healing."

Karl patted him on the shoulder and transferred [Unholy Beast Transformation] to the Druid, who winked at him, then paid the gate guards to enter the dungeon.

"See you all in a few minutes." He announced, then walked through the gate.

"That druid is insane." Someone muttered.

"He's a tough sumbitch, though. If there are more people who can solo a dungeon boss, he's probably one of them." A burly warrior countered.

In the Dungeon, Deve immediately activated his new transformation to see what he would turn into.

{Unholy Beast Transformation} Underworld Primal Tiger

The tiger form was two metres tall at the shoulder, but close to six metres long. The raw power in his enhanced body was truly impressive, and Deve rumbled happily as he called for his Spirit Guardians.

{Rewards degrade every 10 minutes}

{Begin}

Just after Deve entered, Dana came back out, looking exhausted. The White Dragon was muttering to himself, but looking vaguely pleased.

"Are we the first out?" He asked.

The warrior closest to him shook his head, then gestured to Karl, who was tossing chunks of meat into the air for Hawk to catch.

Dana stared at the scene for a second. It was utterly wrong, but somehow right.

"Wait, that's Hawk. When did he get small?" She asked.

"New skill. You'll see his upgraded true form later." Karl explained.

"Good work, buddy. I knew that you'd find your way around the bottleneck sooner or later." She congratulated the happy bird.

Hawk landed on her shoulder and danced back and forth for a moment, then took off again.

It had seemed like a good idea, but Dana's shoulder wasn't as big as Karl's.

"What's with the bird? Is it like a Ranger pet on steroids?" One of the warriors asked.

"Actually, its a Dark Flame Phoenix, transformed so he doesn't get in trouble in public." Karl replied with a sly smirk.

"You're joking, right?"

Karl shook his head as Hawk swooped further into the sky and transformed, letting his body erupt into unholy flames, and dense black miasma trail behind him.

He flew in a loop to make a giant heart in the sky, and then transformed back into the Demon Crow, so he could snag another bite of meat from Karl.

Dana whistled in appreciation. "Hawk really went all out with this transformation. But not pure fire? I'm surprised."

Karl shrugged. "He was a Ghostfire Thunderbird before, so it wasn't pure fire either. But it was the nature of the Fallen Seraphim dungeon during his advancement that helped him find this form.

Advancing inside a dungeon is really the best choice for some beasts."