Playing out all the incredible possibilities with the Evolution Booster, Terrence couldn’t help but smile wildly.

’This is way too much!’

He curled up on his bed, frantically pumping his fist and smashing his mattress with his free hand to express his intense, overflowing joy.

’I can actually make my Shadow Hound reach its next evolution or rank right away! But this also turns the Beast Sanctuary into something like a Pocket Sanctuary, since I don’t have to constantly hoard my beast cores inside it anymore!’

Making another enthusiastic pumping motion, he grinned as he played out another glorious scenario in his head where his Shadow Hound evolved into an even more ferocious, terrifying beast.

The strict four-skill limit might be completely broken open, or it might even unlock the mysterious Transfigure Skill that was still locked—a feature he had no idea about yet.

’I’m definitely going to have a hard time sleeping tonight...’

Terrence even caught himself wanting to force the Sky Dragon to grow fast. Since it was still in its toddler stage, he could probably unlock higher-tier skills if he poured beast cores into the Evolution Booster.

However, he still didn’t fully understand how to operate the item, though that didn’t matter much for now. He had a modest stash of beast cores stored away inside the Beast Sanctuary.

’Is it actually possible to extract stored beast cores directly from the Beast Sanctuary?’ he asked himself, pushing his body up to sit upright and lean his back against the wall.

He closed his eyes and concentrated deeply, acting as if he were manually controlling something from deep within his soul.

’Please give me my beast cores back.’

He waited in breathless silence for a few seconds as quiet covered the room. When he peeked his eyes open, he saw several glowing gemstones—the exact ones he remembered storing away inside the Beast Sanctuary—materialize right in front of him.

However, as he inspected them, he paused in confusion.

’What on earth is this?’ His face instantly fell, filled with deep disappointment.

The previous high-tier A and B-Rank beast cores he clearly remembered storing had all been demoted into basic C-Rank beast cores.

’How is this even possible?’ He picked up three of the C-Rank beast cores, holding them up to the dim light. ’And there are only three left?!’

He should have felt happy that he managed to retrieve anything at all, but he guessed this harsh degradation was the direct penalty for attempting to extract raw materials from the Beast Sanctuary that weren’t actual beasts.

’The sanctuary must have already started digesting the cores’ energy. That explains why the total number doesn’t add up either.’

He let out a heavy sigh, still feeling a sting of disappointment from what he had just learned.

’But who am I to complain? At least I can use these three remaining cores to test out the Evolution Booster right now.’

Terrence focused his mind on the secondary translucent window, opening up his main System Inventory.

There were now two distinct icons floating inside the inventory slots, with the newly acquired icon indicating the Evolution Booster.

The icon displayed a sleek necklace featuring a golden pendant adorned with a distinct symbol of three sharp arrows pointing upward.

’Those arrows must represent the evolution boost symbol.’

He also noticed that the shape of the pendant wasn’t a standard circle; rather, it was uniquely grooved with an asymmetric, futuristic pattern.

Without wasting any more time overanalyzing the visual design, he selected the option to materialize the Evolution Booster into the real world.

Right on command, the physical item manifested directly into his open hands, sparkling golden energy particles gently pushing against the skin of his palms.

Within a short second, the physical Evolution Booster rested securely in his grip.

His eyes widened as he felt his fingers trembling with uncontrollable excitement. He quickly summoned his Shadow Hound, which materialized instantly onto the mattress beside him, sending a soft shockwave through the bed springs that bounced Terrence slightly.

The Shadow Hound released dark, smoky particles upon its summoning, but the dark mist immediately dissipated into the air.

"Here, wear this," Terrence instructed softly.

He stretched open the necklace, and the Shadow Hound diligently obeyed, lowering its head without a single hesitation.

The moment the Evolution Booster was fitted around the Shadow Hound’s neck, the physical necklace slowly faded into invisibility, causing Terrence to panic for a brief moment.

’Wait... don’t tell me it’s a single-use consumable item?! There was absolutely nothing mentioned in the description about it disappearing after one use!’

"Buddy, can you re-materialize the necklace?" Terrence asked, his voice filled with nervous tension.

Pondering his command with a short tilt of its head, the Shadow Hound sat on all fours, thought for a brief second, and closed its eyes.

The very next second felt as though time had slowed down, as the physical Evolution Booster materialized right back around its neck, letting Terrence let out a massive sigh of relief.

’Good... thank goodness.’

Next, Terrence picked up the three demoted C-Rank beast cores and placed them directly in front of the golden pendant.

’So, this item can only be assigned to and used by one beast at a time?’ Terrence realized, noting the mechanic in his mind.

The three beast cores slowly began fading into fine, glowing dust as a subtle sucking force emanated directly from the center of the pendant.

The Shadow Hound simply sat there, watching curiously as its owner conducted the strange ritual.

’This item is so ridiculously overpowered... but who cares! I have the System!’

Terrence couldn’t help but make excited internal comments as the beast cores were completely absorbed and digested by the pendant.

The Evolution Booster glowed with a brilliant golden light along the three arrow symbols. A second later, the symbols blinked multiple times in rapid succession before fading back into their original, blank slate grey color.

"Do you feel any different?" Terrence asked directly, staring intently at his beast, but the Shadow Hound simply shook its head in confusion.

"Right... logically, there should be a system notification if the evolution attempt was a success. But I guess three C-Ranks weren’t enough—"

Before he could finish his conclusion, a glowing notification prompt abruptly appeared in his line of sight, materializing a third golden translucent window directly over his beast.

[Mutated Iron Shadow Hound]

[Rank: S-Rank]

[Next Mutation or Rank Progress: 12%]

[Evolution Booster Triggered! Growth Progress: 12% > 13%]

’Eh?!’

Terrence stared at the screen, utterly stunned.

’In the Beast Sanctuary, it took five C-Rank beast cores just to gain one percent of progress! But the Evolution Booster converted just three demoted cores into a full one percent increase?! This is how the Evolution Booster works?! This is going to save me massive amounts of resources, not just time!’

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