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68 - Fifth Evolution
🕑 Added 2023-04-06 23:32:21 +0000 UTCNext chapter might take a while to come out, since I need to do some planning before we descend to the next layer. Also, Patreon text editor still sucks.
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Welcome to the Evolution Menu, traveler.
Congratulations on earning yourself the right to evolve into a Tier 5 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.)
Eight mutation points will be available to you.
Twenty-Five attribute points.
Due to you completing both bonus objectives, the following will apply:
Find three traces of an ancient civilization:
- Passive Skill: Archive of Asphon (EX) will be granted.
Hold a Node for three days:
- Receive an additional ten attribute points and skill points, as well as five mutation points.
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I had settled in nicely in my new bunker. I’d taken care to disguise the entrance and had made both the tunnel and the one chamber big enough to accommodate a big increase in body size. Once I’d deemed myself ready, I pulled up my evolution menu and was slapped across the face by my first surprise.
Unexpectedly, another EX skill showed up. As per usual, the system was all cryptic and shit, making me wait until later before telling me what the skill actually did. The other bonus objective was a more “normal” reward. Just more of the same as what I’d gotten during the quest itself. I welcomed the rewards though since I couldn’t have enough skill and mutation points.
Time for the real meat and potatoes! I’m sure that, since I’ve become so amazingly strong, a few crazy evolution options would show up!
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Possible Tier 5 Evolutions:
Adolescent Voidling
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What?
I mentally poked around on the screen, trying to see if I could scroll up or down. Much to my horror, nothing happened. The singular option I had was staring back at me, laughing at how excited I’d been moments before. What the hell was this? I even got the special evolutionary energy from the hunter, so why was there only one option?
Could it be that… I’d locked myself into an evolution path by choosing the Nascent Voidling? Rats! Well, voidlings were an amazing type of monster, so I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining. It was just a bit disappointing.
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Adolescent Voidling
After around twenty years, a nascent voidling takes its first step toward being an adult. Over the years they have stored a great deal of void energy and finally use it to mutate and grow. They form a seed inside of themself, which they nurture until they turn into an adult.
Form a seed of the void in your soul.
Void mana conversion gland gets upgraded to T4.
20 mutation points
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That was… incredibly tame in terms of evolution bonuses. Compared to when I evolved into a nascent voidling, I was getting table scraps this time around. Now, twenty mutations were nothing to scoff at, and the upgraded gland was technically another four mutations on top of it all. True to its name, the adolescent stage was the awkward middle phase before turning into an adult.
It seemed like the most important thing at this stage was personal growth, which was reflected by the whopping thirty-three mutation points I was getting. With the ones I’d save up, I’d have a total of forty points to play around with. I could myself some heavy upgrades for sure.
I was curious about this whole seed of the void business, though. It seemed rather important and might have an influence over the options I’d receive upon evolving into an adult. Not seeing a point in delaying the inevitable any longer I confirmed my “choice”.
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Adolescent Voidling has been selected.
Attribute points will be distributed upon completing the evolution process.
Seed of the Void (?)
A crystallized piece of pure void energy that is connected to the soul. A voidling must nurture and care for it, keep it safe, and provide an optimal growth environment. Depending on how it was taken care of, once the adolescent becomes an adult, the voidling will take on different traits. This crystal is considered extremely valuable, and the intelligent races will pay royal sums to buy one.
Void Mana Conversion Gland (T4)
A special gland used for storing void mana. Slowly converts regular mana into void mana. Max VMP(Void Mana Points) is set at 60% of Max MP and is stored separately.
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The upgraded gland was pretty straightforward, providing a ten percent increase to my MaxVMP. The seed on the other hand seemed a lot more complicated. I would need to pay special attention to how I treated this thing that was about to grow inside of me. Hopefully, instructions were included. So far, the system always provided me with the necessary knowledge, so I wasn’t too worried.
Now then, the mutation menu demanded my attention, and oh boy, did I look forward to upgrading a whole bunch of stuff. With forty mutation points, I could just go wild. For starters, I upgraded both my poison and my spell-attuned brain by two tiers. Taking these two up to tier six cost me twenty-two mutation points, but the investment was well worth it. Not only would my poison be more lethal than ever, but my already stupidly fast spellcasting would become even faster.
I then spent seven points to upgrade my Mana Infusion Gland twice, taking my storage of infused mana from 300 to 650! Six more points were used to upgrade my Bigger Mouth and More Teeth mutations by one tier, which would let me eat at an even faster pace. Which left me with five more points. I eyed some of my other mutations that were still sitting at tier one, neglected ever since I bought them ages ago. Upgrading them would only slightly improve on things that my passives were already taking care of a lot better.
I remembered wanting the ability to swim and gave that some thought. I hadn’t tried yet, but I was fairly certain that I could use my wings to swim. I distinctly remember seeing some sort of squids that used a similar method of swimming. What I needed was a method of staying underwater for prolonged times. I quickly found a few options that were promising. I then decided on a pair of gills that I could open and close. They only cost me two points, similar to the tentacles I kept buying.
I had three mutation points left and wasn’t entirely certain what to do with them. I had upgraded everything I wanted and didn’t feel like I needed to add anything new. It felt better to concentrate on a few core mutations and push them as high as they could get, instead of adding and adding stuff and never upgrading them. So for now, I locked in my changes and saved the last few points for later.
Next, the system prompted me to allocate the thirty-five attribute points. It was tempting to throw them all into intelligence or wisdom, but these to attributes were so far ahead of the other attributes that I felt like showing the rest some love. I first took all attributes up to a nice and even number, pumped ten points into strength so it could catch up a bit, and finally pumped three each into strength, agility, and luck. The spread was looking pretty nice now, and I locked in my decision.
I realized that I was already at the end. I was used to these things taking longer, so I was surprised with how fast I was this time around. Well, the fact that I only had a single, relatively boring option sped things up a lot. Usually, I’d debate, compare, and consider each option carefully before making a decision.
Well, no time like the present! When the final prompt came up, I once again cheerfully 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
Comments
Orthoros
I know it's never really stated anywhere, but certain mutations can only be had once. F.e. something like tentacles can be bought again and again, since you can assign them different functions. But other things, such as the void mana conversion gland can only be had once. Becuse if you upgrade the gland enough, you'll eventually have 100% of your MaxMp as VMP, a 1/1 conversion essentially. Having more than one of these is therefore pointless, and the system does not allow it. Also, the mutation upgrade this time was an upgrade by one tier(T3 to T4), and it wasn't a free choice. If there comes a time where he can, lets say upgrade a mutation to Tier X, he could indeed buy a new mutation and then instantly upgrade it for essentially free, since evolution bonuses like that get applied after mutations have been chosen. Hope that answers the question :3
Quyan640
Could he purchase another void gland at tier 1 and used that for the evolution upgrade? It would definitely be worth it. Because anything from tier 1 vs whatever he has would put the evolution upgrade to more use.
