Blazeborn Stalker indeed went for Pyroshade Boar, wanting to eat it.
The Pyroshade Boar ran, leading it to the optimal location.
Just as Blazeborn Stalker turned into a blazing ghost with its claw enlarging to attack the Boar, Boxer King Primate arrived like a rocket from a tree's branch, crossing forty meters and smashing his Meteor Punch into the Blazeborn Stalker's head.
Boom!
Max, with his soul synergy activated, also arrived and directly drop-kicked it, making it dizzy.
Blazeborn Stalker screeched but surrounded from three sides, there was no chance of it escaping, and Max also told Maxon to grab its arms in a lock while using Earth Armor skill, one of the evolved skills after it reached Silver rank.
Blazeborn Stalker's flame had no effect on the Silver-rank Boxer King Primate with Earth Armor activated, so it could only give up.
"Come on, become my Pet," Max grinned as he stretched out his hand. "We'll have lots of fun."
…
In the end, Blazeborn Stalker became Max's third pet.
John wanted to hunt instead of just flying here, so the trio moved through the Scorched Grove with John extracting cores from every Monster he encountered.
"Blazeboy will be able to rank up soon. I wonder if he will evolve." Max blinked and turned to Yuna and John to his left. "You guys know any way to evolve him? I have no idea, but if It evolves on top of ranking up, I'm pretty sure I'll be selected by a ruling sect, hehe."
"I don't know how to evolve Blazeborn Stalker," Yuna shook her head. "But if you can get into a ruling sect, you will be able to find an evolution method for it for sure."
Meanwhile, John knew how to evolve Blazeborn Stalker, but he had to decide something first.
'Yeah, that'd be the best. The information I get from the Evolution Pathways skill seems like it shows the resources required for evolution that are actually not hard to access in a sense. Like they exist, and I know most of them from the books.'
There was one evolution path that was effortless for Blazeborn Stalker because its resources were actually easy to find in this Paladon Forest.
Gloomblaze Wanderer, an evolution of Blazeborn Stalker with an additional Darkness attribute, had the power of black flames, which were more powerful than regular flames.
Moreover, this evolution would remove its weakness to fire, though it would become weaker against light after that.
"I know a way, but it could be risky," John said. "I remembered reading the evolution requirement of Blazeborn Stalker into Gloomblaze Wanderer, but I forgot where. However, the resources required were…a Smolder Fruit and ashes of Coalpetal Vine after burning it thoroughly, and…"
John acted as if he was struggling to remember, while Max's eyes lit up.
"Brother John, please remember it! I'll be eternally grateful!"
"Calm down," John wryly smiled. "I only remembered because I saw Coalpetal Vine there."
John pointed at the mystical black, glistening vine at a tree's base.
Yuna looked at it and nodded. "That's a Coalpetal Vine, alright. Surprisingly, you discovered it in this dark."
John couldn't tell her that after reaching Silver-rank, if any resource with spirit power was within his sight, he would automatically get its information through Inspect.
"Ah, I remember now!" John acted surprised as he snapped his finger. "It's Black Wisp Grapes. I think they are found here somewhere, right?"
"Yeah, they are found in the Black Mist Woods area." Yuna nodded.
"For real?! So everything I need is here?" Max's jaw dropped, his eyes thrilled. "Let's fucking go!"
"I'll collect the vine first, hehe."
"Well, since we are here, we might as well help you find a Smolder Fruit here," Yuna said. "I want to see Blazeborn Stalker evolve."
"I'm not too sure about it though," John said with a wry smile. "If the evolution fails, It will not rank up and will lose half of its Genetic Potential. Max will have to recover it and train it to full Genetic Potential."
"No harm in trying, I say," Yuna said with a smile. "Many students here will do random experiments on their Monsters to evolve them, and there will be a few lucky ones and a few unfortunate ones who will also completely kill their Pets because sometimes, failing evolution can also result in death."
"However, that only applies when the ingested resources are very volatile in terms of attributes," Yuna blinked as she looked at Alfred walking beside John. "Like the stunt you pulled by feeding your Ravenous Hound those fruits of opposing and volatile attributes. If it had failed, it could've resulted in death."
"Well, I had complete knowledge about it from a trusted source," John smiled. "That's why I asked for more fruits. I just don't know the value of those fruits."
"Alright, I got the vine! Onward to find the fruit now."
"My Doku will fight more battles since we are helping you. I need to increase his Genetic Potential," Yuna snorted.
"No problem."
"Do you even know how Smolder Fruit grows?"
"Eh? No idea."
"I know," John chuckled. "They grow inside rocks. We have to find particular fire-attributed rocks and break them to see if there's one inside."
"Yep." Yuna nodded. "Let's hope we are lucky enough to find one."
…
But it didn't take long for the group to find the fruit because two hours later, they actually found one.
John's stock of Xhal Drops also reached 1223.
As there was no need to stay in Scorched Grove anymore, John and Yuna rode on their eagles while Max rode on Starry for a bit until they arrived at the western side of the forest, their destination.
John and Yuna needed to enter the Moonveil Fen area, while Max's destination was the neighboring area above it—the Black Mist Woods area.
Moonveil Fen was also a large area like Silver Hill Spring.
The area wasn't all fen. The fen was just in the middle, while the surroundings had a variety of monsters and nature.
Yuna wanted to find a variant of Luminis Fairy there, while John also wanted to find a rare Monster as the chance of them appearing in Moonveil Fen was higher since it led to the deeper area of the forest that wasn't accessible to the students.
The barrier blocked them from exiting, and if they left through the ground, the wristband would detect that they went outside the barrier and alert the staff.
'Let's hope I can find a good monster here,' John thought as he finally arrived and landed in the Moonveil Fen.