orthoros
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82 - Sixth Evolution
🕑 Added 2023-06-10 16:22:45 +0000 UTCAlright, here's the deal. It is no secret that I despise the formatting options on Patreon, since they are very barebones. I usually do the best I can with what I got to work with, but evolution chapters are better enjoyed with proper formatting, especially this one, since the colors are somewhat important. So here's a link to the google doc where it's been properly formatted. I recommend you read it over there, but if for some reason you don't want to or can't, here's the chapter anyway. Also, it should go without saying, but please do not share the link with anybody, since it would be a pretty big spoiler.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10sqrm61foTE1OKZaOnJMBWnawVtFeQAglxYNQlmQobI/edit?usp=sharing
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Welcome to the Evolution Menu, traveler.
Congratulations on earning yourself the right to evolve into a Tier 6 monster!
You will have the following options available to you:
Choosing a new species from the available options. (Depending on current species, stats, and actions taken during leveling up, more options become available.)
Ten mutation points will be available to you.
Thirty attribute points.
Due to you completing both bonus objectives, the following will apply:
Defeat the island guardians of three different islands:
You may choose one of the skills from each of the guardians you have defeated.
Retrieve a deep sea gem from an underwater temple:
Upgrade the Deep Sea Gem you received by +1.
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I read over the first screen of the now-familiar evolution menu. There weren’t any big surprises this time around, although getting to choose three skills from the defeated guardians was pretty appealing. I would have to take a closer look at the list of options before I made my call on how good that reward actually was. Seeing that my Deep Sea Gem was already due for an upgrade made me happy as well. It was also interesting to know that items could be upgraded.
Not wanting to waste too much time on this screen I switched over to the evolution options, although I had the sinking feeling that I’d only get a single option again.
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Possible Tier 5 Evolutions:
Adult Voidling
[green]Lucky Addition!
True Seed Voidling (S)[/green]
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I almost jumped when the system played a little animation to showcase the fact that I’d gotten a second option. It would appear that my recently acquired skill from the Rainbow Moth quest was already paying dividends. The option was displayed in an eye-catching green color, and there was the occasional sparkle to highlight it even more. It almost felt like the system was trying to tell me to pick that evolution. This was also the second time I’d seen an evolution with an “(S)” next to it.
The last time I’d seen that, I’d been able to evolve into a voidling, which was a crazy good option. Hopefully, this one would be just as good.
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Adult Voidling
After spending about fifty years as an adolescent while nurturing and defending their seed of the void, it is finally time for a voidling to reach adulthood. The accumulated energy from the seed is released and aids the voidling in the transformation to an adult. Depending on the quality of the seed at the time of evolution, the voidling becomes stronger.
Tier two seed detected, main energy sources: Neutral and Void Mana.
All neutral and void-type spells will gain +2 levels.
Gain access to void mutations.
Passive skill: Pure Voidling (A)
20 mutation points
Adult form will be saved.
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True Seed Voidling (S)
From all the voidlings that manage to survive their adolescent stage, about one in a billion turns out to be a bit more special than the others. For some unknown reason, these voidlings are able to exceed the highest tier a seed can reach. Usually, a seed of the void cannot go past the fifth tier, which is already rare to reach. A True Seed Voidling can get their seed all the way to the tenth tier. Most of them do not succeed, though, since they usually get hunted down for their incredibly valuable seed.
Mutate the seed of the void to a true seed of the void.
Upgrade the seed to the fifth tier.
Temporary passive ability: Seed Analyzer (?)
Passive skill: Infuser (B)
Active Skill: MP Drain (B)
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I looked at the two options, and it quickly became clear that I hadn’t put enough time into “nurturing” my seed. From what the descriptions of the evolutions revealed, I had only managed to get my seed to the second tier… out of five. The bonus from choosing the adult voidling was almost laughably low due to this. What I found interesting was that this evolution would finally give me access to void mutations. I was also curious about what was meant by "Adult form will be saved". Aside from those two things,, the choice was underwhelming at best. Thankfully, my luck had come through to save my stupid ass.
While the True Seed Voidling didn’t seem like an amazing upgrade, it would set me up for a crazy tier-seven evolution down the line. Provided I could manage to get that damn seed to tier ten by that time. The evolution would even help me with that by upgrading my seed all the way to the fifth tier, as well as giving me more options to “nurture” the seed. Or at least that’s what I assumed the purpose of the skills that came with it were for. As always, the system refused to hand out the details of the skills until after I’d decided on an evolution.
I’d thought that the amounts of mana I’d pumped into the seed were mindboggling, but considering that a member of my race spent fifty years before turning into an adult, what I’d done was barely considered pocket change. It was actually surprising that I even managed to get it to the second tier. The way I evolved as a traveler was unnatural. Too fast compared to how things go down in nature. Which would have really shafted me at this point. Since the voidling evolution line seemingly had me locked into a specific path, I would have had no other choice but to take this sub-par evolution.
Thankfully, I was saved by the bell. Praise be the Rainbow Moth!
There wasn’t too much to think about. The choice was obvious and I chose to evolve into a True Seed Voidling.
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True Seed Voidling has been selected.
Attribute points will be distributed upon completing the evolution process.
Seed Analyzer (Temporary Passive) (?)
After nurturing your seed to the fifth tier, you have become intimately familiar with it. You gain the ability to analyze the condition of your own seed. (This is a temporary skill. You will lose access to it upon evolution.)
Infuser (Passive) (B)
This skill lets you infuse mana into things with greater efficiency. When you infuse something with mana, it will charge 20% faster, and each MP infused will count as 1.2 MP.
MP Drain (B)
This skill lets you drain the MP from your enemies and add it to your own. You need to be in contact with the target creature for the skill to work. Drains 30 MP every second. Cooldown: Once you stop draining, 1 hour until you can use the skill again.
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Just as I’d thought, this evolution gave me the tools I needed to more efficiently nurture my seed. Not only did I get a passive that would make the process faster, I also got another avenue of restoring MP, and the ability to check my seed in detail. I was a bit miffed by the fact that I needed to be in contact with the target for the MP drain, but I’m sure I could find a way to use the ability. I was pretty sticky, after all. Thirty MP per second was decent, and if I managed to stick myself to an enemy, I could drain their entire MP pool empty.
I’d have to pay attention that I didn’t initiate the next evolution before I upgraded my seed to the tenth tier. I was given this amazing chance, and I didn’t want to waste it, even if that meant I would spend a lot more time on the next layer while I pumped the seed full of MP.
Next up were mutations. Well, the number of mutation points I had this time around was a pittance compared to the last evolution I went through. There were ten points from the general evolution bonus, and I had eight mutation points saved up. Eighteen points to work with, not exactly a lot, considering how expensive some of the upgrades were getting. Upgrading both my poison, as well as my spell-attuned brain felt like a no-brainer, but doing so would run me fourteen mutation points, leaving only four.
This didn’t even leave me with enough points to buy another upgrade to my mana infusion gland! I couldn’t think of anything new to add, quite happy with the current state of my being. So instead I looked toward some of my older mutations. Eventually, I decided to upgrade my monster eyes and my mana-absorbent skin to the second tier.
I had these two since the first layer and always neglected to upgrade them since they either weren’t as important as I thought they’d be when I bought them or were functioning well enough. Getting better eyesight would be nice, although I didn’t know how that would express itself. And the faster mana regeneration from the skin would be nice to have since I’d need a lot of it to nurture my seed.
Speaking of which, when the system prompted me to assign my attribute points, I pumped the entirety of it into wisdom. I needed as much MP as I could get my grubby hands on, and since my passive doubled every point I put in there anyway, I’d get a ton of it this way. I threw the four points from my last level-ups in there as well, for good measure.
The system then presented me with three lists, showing the skills of the defeated island guardians. I was allowed to pick one skill from each of the lists, which was pretty generous. I first looked at the skill list of the Oni Guardian. Almost all of its skills were related to melee combat, including skills that could only be used in conjunction with weapons. None of the skills were of any use to me, but I eventually settled on one of its movement skills called “Rush”.
The list of the second guardian was more promising. It had been a Rock and Stone Elemental and would surely have some nifty skills for me. This thing had mostly focused on defensive abilities, only a scant few allowing it to attack. I was looking for more defensive options anyway, so this was a welcome choice. There was one skill in particular that caught my attention.
One of its skills was called “Maximum Fortification”. A skill that would not only double my defense for a few minutes, but I could also designate a special area on, or in, my body that would be fortified. I assumed that the elemental used this skill to protect its nucleus, and since I currently had something similar to protect, I chose this one.
Lastly, I could choose a skill from the Fake Water Dragon. As expected, a lot of its skills were focused around aquatic combat, allowing it to swim faster and have greater maneuverability. There were also a few spells, such as the lightning spell that almost cost me everything. I almost picked it out of spite, especially since there was a stun component to the spell that would be incredibly useful, but then I saw that it also had a passive lightning resistance skill. Thinking about it, I was more than loaded in terms of offense and didn’t need yet another spell.
I chose the lightning resistance skill.
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Rush (C)
Increase your movement speed by 50% for 2 minutes.
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Maximum Fortification (B)
Doubles your defense for 5 minutes. (This can stack with other defensive skills)
Can designate a body part or an internal organ to be protected. This will cancel the increase in defense in favor of protecting the designated part.
Cooldown: 20 minutes
Lightning Resistance (Passive) (C)
Only take 50% damage from lightning-based attacks and become harder to stun due to lightning.
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Happy with my selections, it was time for the final boss of evolving. Due to not having too many mutations this time around, I was fairly confident that I could actually stay awake during the whole evolution process this time around. The prompt came, and as was tradition, I selected “No”!
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All necessary selections have been made. The evolution into new species will now commence.
Evolution is an incredibly painful process since complete reconstruction is necessary. You may choose to be put to sleep.
Y/N
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Name Gary
Traveler Tier 1
Type Monster(P2W)
Species True Seed Voidling (T6)
Level 1
Max HP 1'450
Max MP 42'953
Max VMP 28'349
Strength 96
Agility 91
Intelligence 266
Wisdom (C) 366
Constitution 100
Luck 115
Attribute Points 0
Skill Points 9
Data Points 41'223
Mutations 0
Skills: Destructive Poison Mucus Armor Lv.7 (D), Compress Lv.7 (D), Hunter Radar Lv.3 (D), Powerful Leap Lv.5 (C), Rush Lv.1 (C), Maximum Fortification Lv.1 (C)
Magic: Obliterating Poison Shot Lv.10 (E), Obliterating Poison Spear Lv.10 (D), Obliterating Poison Mist Lv. 10 (D), Obliterating Poison Needle Lv. 10 (D), Obliterating Poison Bomb Lv.5 (C), Obliterating Poison Assassination Lv.7 (C), Obliterating Poison Aura Lv.2 (C), Giant Spike Lv.2 (SS), Void Javelin Lv.9 (B), Void Cloak Lv.10 (C), Void Jump Lv.4 (B), Magical Bolt (?), Guardian Summon (C)(0/100)
Passive Skills: Bottomless Inventory (S), Stealth (C), Turret (B), Giant Hunter (S), Gluttony (SSS), Toxin and Poison Immunity (B), Increased Passive Void Mana Regeneration (A), Crystalized Poison (C), Fast Learner: Poison (A), Poison Master (A), Dreams of the void (A), Wisdom King (B), Polonic Chance (A), Void Guidance (S), Void Synchronisation (A), Apex Hunter (C), Magical Singularity (EX), Archive of Asphon (EX), Infuser (B), Lightning Resistance (C)
Mutations: Obliterating Poison Mucus (T7), Mana Gland (T2), Mana Concentration Gland (T1), Mana Absorbent Skin (T2), Spell Attuned Brain (T7), Monster Eyes (T2), Stable Void Connection (T4), Void Mana Conversion Gland (T4), Movement Tentacles (T2), Hand Tentacles (T2), Wing Tentacles (T2), Bigger Mouth (T3), More Teeth (T3), Mana Infusion Gland (T4), Gills (T2) True seed of the Void (?),
Skill Trees: Poison Magic, Magical Truth (2/2)
Languages: English, Void Language, Spell Runes
Comments
Orthoros
It did not
Quyan640
The Oni didn’t have a physical resistance skill?
