With a slight grin on his face, Rudy nodded his head. Being a Goliath sounded pretty awesome!

"I think..." Krog started, "That may explain how the kid ended up here as well. You said you don"t know your parents and grew up in an orphanage, right?" 

"Yeah, that"s right... Why?" The young man asked, confused about what Krog may want to speak about. And then, Krog stood up and took off his thick jacket, revealing his muscular arms, "These"re tattoos that Goliaths give newborn kids. My mum didn"t allow that then, so my pops just gave "em to me when I became an adult. That"s normal with half-Goliaths, though. But full goliaths have these sorts of patterns tattooed onto their whole body. It"s like... their baptism. Brings them closer to the G.o.ds of war, but further away from the G.o.ds of magic. Goliaths despise magic, for the most part. A whole bunch of dumba.s.s brutes, really. Most of"em, you"re brighter than most people I know, kid." Krog explained, and then put his jacket back on because his arms were getting cold, while the others listened to what he was trying to say.

"Anyway, for those that put deep value on that kinda stuff, luckily my pops didn"t care too much, a child not having those tattoos is practically cursed, and a bad omen for the tribe. Eiro said that two of you had their skills sealed away, but they couldn"t do that with you, right? Cause they couldn"t tattoo yer skin? If that"s the case, then..." And with that, everyone understood what Krog was trying to say.

Rudy simply stared back at Krog with a blank expression, "That means that my parents just... threw me away? Because they were scared..?"

"Maybe. Kid, listen. You should be happy that it happened. You"ve got amazing siblings and a dad that would probably destroy a whole country for you if he had to. You"re bright, kind, skilled... That stuff doesn"t fit in with Goliaths." Krog explained, "Even if ya weren"t... well, given away, you wouldn"t know who your parents are. Family doesn"t f.u.c.kin" matter in a tribe of Goliaths. They"re literal brutes, actin" like cavemen. Wanting to settle down with one person ain"t a thing. They kill even their brothers if they"re p.i.s.sed off, take any women they want against their will, and literally just live for the hunt. My pops was pushed away cause he fell in love with my mum. It was hard for "im at first, but after my pops left the tribe, he became a city guard. He started wanting to protect people. That ain"t somethin" normal goliaths would ever think about. I"ve heard they throw their kids toward monsters as bait sometimes."

All of a sudden being anything but proud of being a Goliath, Rudy turned his head over toward Eiro with a wry smile, and the demon figured he should say something to calm him down, "Rudy, I"m an Imp. A species of the literally dumbest, weakest demons there are. Now, I"m father to the one being on earth meant to destroy me with a single touch, and in a couple of months will fight in a tournament to become the Hero"s companion. What you are doesn"t matter. What matters is who you are. And even if you have impulses to slaughter and kill someday... you literally can"t hurt a fly, I think you"ll be fine." Eiro said rea.s.suredly, looking at Rudy with a light smile on his face, before crossing his arms with a grumble, "There is something pretty bothersome about the fact that you"re a Goliath, though."

Surprised, Rudy looked at Eiro nervously, before the Demon simply stared at him, standing up straight so that Eiro would end up being slightly taller than Rudy, who was roughly the same height as Eiro at this point, "That you"re going to be way taller than me not too long from now." With a slight grumble, Eiro looked somewhat "down" at Rudy, who just started to laugh, "Hah, right... Well, I"ll patiently wait for the time where I"m looking down at you."

With a light smirk, Eiro started to laugh a bit as well, "I probably shouldn"t complain about height too much. After all, I have another advantage that none of you have, which is going to make it possible for me to reach heights numerous times higher than any of you can think of." The demon said smugly, and Arc looked at him excitedly.

"Ooh, are you aiming for an evolution where you can become a giant?!" Arc asked, but Eiro simply shook his head, "Of course not." And with that, Eiro slowly pulled his cloak off his body and spread out his wings, getting rid of the shadow magic he was infusing into them.

He moved them forward as a fast speed and caused a gust of wind to spread out on the ground while Eiro was pushed up. With a smug expression, Eiro tried his best to stay afloat at the same spot while staring down at the others, "This is what I mean."

Immediately, Arc jumped up and looked up at Eiro with an amazed grin, "Holy s.h.i.+- That"s so awesome!"

"I know, I know, isn"t it?" With a broad smile, Eiro dropped back down onto the ground and pulled his wings back together, before pulling them together behind his back again.

With a slight glance directed at Rudy, who was just smiling back at Eiro with a grateful expression, since he seemed to need some time to think about this all instead of having the fact that he was a Goliath be the center of attention all night.­ He seemed glad that Eiro pulled the attention away a bit.

"Actually, isn"t it kind of uncomfortable to do that with your wings? Like, press them into your cloak to fit your shape?" Jess asked with a slightly concerned frown, but Eiro immediately shook his head, "Not really. It feels more like I"m wearing something skin-tight, if that makes sense. It"s not that uncomfortable, although it did feel good to stretch my wings out a bit right now." The Demon explained, and just pressed the shadow magic-stone against the center of his back with the help of his tail and stinger again. He once more infused them with shadow magic and then stretched them out fully.

The shadowy black mist just waved around against the air. It looked pretty neat actually, especially in contrast to the perfectly white snow behind Eiro. And then... something else happened.

[Apt.i.tude with the Shadow Element increased]

[Beginner Shadow Magic Skill Learned]

[Elemental Imp"s Racial Ability unlocked – Superior Elemental Affinity]

"...Hm?" Eiro muttered confusedly, "How in the... The last time I checked, my shadow affinity was not even close to letting me..."

The demon made the shadow magic stone disappear in his treasury before cutting through the notifications with his finger, and in the same motion pushed his hand out toward the shadow underneath his feet that was created due to the light of the flames Rudy was using to cook.

"Eiro, what"s wrong?" Jess asked, but without answering her, Eiro simply made use of his new skill. It was like Eiro"s shadow was increasing in size, slowly spreading out over the areas where logically, no shadow should be cast right now, until the ground was completely covered in Eiro"s shadow.

"I just learned the Shadow Magic skill. Without even working toward actively awakening it." Eiro explained, and Jess ripped her eyes open in confusion, "Then that means that... that it was awakened just because your affinity was high enough?" 

"That"s exactly what that means, yes." Eiro replied, and Jess simply glared at him, "So, how many are that now? Six magic elements that you have at such a high affinity?"

"Mhm."

"I said it before, and I"ll say it again. But I hate you."

"I know." Eiro replied, "Just that this time, it"s a natural result of what I am. It seems to be because of my racial ability... It"s called "Superior Elemental Affinity", so it probably boosts how quickly my affinities grow somehow."

"The fact that your affinities can grow is completely ridiculous in the first place! Eiro, can you not like... share that extreme luck with me?" Jess asked with a disappointed groan, and James stared at her with a light frown himself, "Says the girl with affinities for the four major elements and capabilities of awakening a ridiculous amount of advanced and special elements, right next to the guy that can literally feel and sense magic but is cursed with the fact that he can"t cast it."

"Oh... erm... sorry..?" Jess asked with an apologetic wry smile, and James leaned back with a smirk, "All good, don"t worry. But well, she"s right. That"s completely ridiculous. The good thing is that you don"t need to worry about using up your shadow magic stones anymore. You can just infuse your wings and horns with that stuff without them."

Eiro slowly raised his head and stopped using magic on the shadows around him. It was fun playing around with this, but he first had to figure out what all this meant, what this ability actually did, and how he was able to make use of it. It would be fine if it was just some sort of pa.s.sive boost like it seemed to be, but there might be some active aspect to it as well, just that Eiro may not be able to figure it out just yet.

Either way, the others were right. This was an extremely strong ability that would help him incredible amounts in the future, there was no doubt about that in the slightest. But that just made Eiro wonder even more... What was the second racial ability that he got after evolving this time around?