After demonstrating my–Obviously–Solid grasp of traditional Elvish, I settled down and decided to take a seat against a wall of my beautiful underground maze.

  I’ll have to thank that old fossil. He really saved me some time by trying to curse me there! From the very beginning, I had been curious about what ‘evolution’ truly meant for me. I had heard about the concept before, beasts, monsters and whatever else being able to, past a certain point, completely modify their entire being, and in some cases, even change species completely.

  But I was in a strange spot myself. I was a hybrid to begin with, and a strange one at that, being a mix between a living curse that specifically attached itself to steel and a type of ghost. Still, down the line, I was more like a being of steel… Even the upgrades I was getting pertained to my physical body rather than my true nature.

  So would evolution transform my body, or would it be the opposite of upgrades, and instead transform my true self? Any clue, Nara?

  I can’t say

  Previously, I would have been a bit grumpy about such an answer, but my new little sister had already pushed the limits when she had helped me find my way following my bout of blindness, and since then, I had gotten a better understanding of how things worked.

  Though she still had the habit of randomly dropping hints of something important and then acting like she hadn’t said anything at all.

  I just can’t help myself… But anyway! You should choose the upgrades before evolving, as they can impact the evolution itself

  The options are as follows:

  Blinding Halo - Your eyes can maintain a powerful glow that renders your head nearly impossible to see, making it hard for others to look directly at you

  Trickster's XP Tank - Your body forms a container that gradually fills with experience over time. At your behest, this experience can be released and sent to a person of your choice

  Faraday Box - Your body forms a sphere capable of slowly accumulating lightning within it

  Self-Use Limelight - Your body forms small lights that can be turned on at will, allowing you to stand out in the dark

  Chainsaw (R) - Your right hand is replaced by a chainsaw

  Chipper - The inside of your maw gains a chipper

  More Eyes - You now grow dot-like eyes all over your body. They do not shine purple and can't channel eye-related upgrades, but will expand your sight

  Steel Bender - Your joints can now twist and spin without interruption, allowing you to, for example, turn around by simply rotating your joints and body

  Larger Limb (Arm R) - Your right arm increases in size, gaining higher strength and durability

  Machine Blood - Your body forms a container that naturally fills itself with a type of flammable fuel that you can eject from your maw

  Infectious Maw - Your bite becomes especially effective at causing infected wounds

  Killer Rabbit - Your feet and legs gain increased power

  Physical Resilience (General) - Your body becomes more resistant to physical damage overall

  Physical Resilience (Blunt) - Your body becomes more resistant to blunt-type physical damage, in particular

  Physical Resilience (Torsion) - Your body becomes more resistant to torsion-type physical damage, in particular

  Physical Resilience (Slashing) - Your body becomes more resistant to slashing-type physical damage, in particular

  Physical Resilience (Crushing) - Your body becomes more resistant to crushing-type physical damage, in particular

  Flame Resistance (General II) - Your body becomes more resistant to burning, heat, and melting, et cetera… Overall, all types of damage that fire can inflict will be reduced

  …Eighteen, really? I thought I only had three choices. Are you telling me that those three choices all coincidentally had six different things for me to choose from?

  Actually, one of them offered ten choices, and the other two offered four. That is pretty uncommon

  Alright, this is going to require some reflection… There are a lot that seem quite interesting…. Let’s start from the top.

  I can’t help but notice that there have been a lot of upgrades that center around my eyes emitting light in different ways. There is ‘Forward Shine’, which I own, that is basically a lantern.

  There is ‘Purple Flash’, which is all about blinding, and now, there is this ‘Blinding Halo’, which seems to be a mix of the two. It isn’t a strong flash that lasts for a moment, but one that sticks around, which I imagine would pair very well with ‘Purple Flash’.

  I remember how it is to stare at something luminous for too long, so forcing anyone trying to fight me to not only endure getting a light shine into their retinas, but also follow it up with a constant glow… I can imagine that it would make it quite a pain to deal with me.

  But on its own, I suppose that the halo would also be useful, even if not as powerful a shine. If unexpected, it could still blind someone pretty well.

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  Next was one that I definitely wanted to take, being able to more accurately fake my death by using experience might not be useful on a day-to-day basis, but it could definitely be of tremendous help when it mattered.

  For example, if I got myself into another Benait situation, but the guy holding the sword wasn’t an idiot, then having this available would allow me to trick him and live to see another day.

  Mmh… Can the ‘Faraday Box’ allow me to discharge the lightning?

  It is purely a container and producer of lightning. You can probably take it and hit people with it to great effect, though

  I’ll assume that means it requires another separate upgrade to do that…

  The ‘Self-Use Limelight’ just seems like a nifty trick that I could use to scare the wits out of people… Nara, is a chainsaw like the buzzsaw from last time?

  Yes, but instead of being round, it is more shaped like a sword

  I have no idea where she was getting these things from, but I wasn’t planning on taking any upgrade that would deprive me of one of my arms. That just sounded like a good way to make my life harder in stupid places.

  As for the ‘Chipper’, it is a mechanism that will turn what goes through it into small pieces, as if it were being cut by countless blades at the same time

  I see… That doesn’t sound too bad, I guess?

  The ‘More Eyes’ one sounds quite useful, even if it could be a bit disorientating to suddenly have more eyes and have some of them be in less than ideal positions, but it would certainly help me be more aware of my surroundings at all times… Though I would need to stop wearing clothes for it to work to its best level.

  Which is fine, I suppose, it’s not like there is anything to see, but I am not a barbarian…

  ‘Steel Bender’ would be a pure improvement… I don’t see the appeal in having one arm be larger than the rest… ‘Machine Blood’ is definitely quite tempting, but I would need something to ignite it… ‘Infectious Maw’ is similar to another upgrade I got before…

  ‘Killer Rabbit’ is another upgrade that won’t be worth much at first… And the rest is just resistance stuff…

  Mmh.

  In the end, I decided to choose ‘Machine Blood’, ‘Faraday Box’, and ‘Trickster’s XP Tank’.

  It isn’t a particularly easy pick like the previous times, since there are so many options, but I figure that this is the best I can come up with right now. I have some hope for the lightning box to be able to synergise with another upgrade in the future, as for the other, they just provide insurance and a new way to attack.

  Even if I can’t set the fuel alight, I would assume that getting doused in some foul liquid would be quite a surprise to most.

  Immediately after making my decisions, I experience a momentary flash of agony, which lasts the same time as usual, but is three times worse than normal… It doesn’t do much compared to the constant and horrid agony that consuming the curse dragged me through.

  Mmh, it is definitely more enjoyable that way… So, how do I evolve, exactly? Do I need to find something? Should I go to a special place?

  No need, you can just evolve right here. Only you, what upgrades you have chosen, and what you have consumed matter

  However, I would recommend that you pick a secure location where you will not be found easily. The process can take a while to complete, and you will be forced into a state of dormancy the entire time. You will be unable to wake up until the process has ended

  Alright then, I’ll dig and bury myself somewhere. Can I get a heads-up on what the evolution will be like?

  I can not give any heads-up on anything relating to evolution

  Guess it will be a surprise then–How long though?

  One week at a minimum, but considering the sheer number of things you have done, and the number of times you have improved your nature through consumption, it will surely last far longer than this

  But don’t worry, this should only be so long for the first evolution

  I don’t really mind if it takes a while, but I’ll have to dig myself a deep hole then. Someone might figure out where my tunnels are during that time span.

  And I have a hard time worrying, I’m too giddy about evolving into something even more superior than what I am now…

  ___

  Jorice went out to greet his guest of importance in person, and he certainly hadn’t expected to have to crank his neck up to look at her face.

  “Are you Leton’s friend?”

  “Are you the lord of this little town?”

  “Yes, and it’s a city!”

  The woman breathed out of her nose, and Jorice could have sworn she created flames by doing that.

  “I am not Leton’s friend, I am a bit more than that”

  She raised her left hand, revealing a silvery ring adorning the fourth finger of her hand.

  “He really is going all in, isn’t he?”

  Jorice muttered under his breath as he looked Gallilah up and down. Leton hadn’t specified anything besides the fact that she was a monsterfolk, but turns out that she was very clearly draconic. She had scales, her maw and teeth were those of a predator, her eyes were lizard-like, and in general, her entire head was monstrous.

  She even had claws. And Jorice had no idea how much it would have cost to have a ring adapted to such morphology made.

  Leton was close to his money, so clearly, he must really quite like this woman.

  “Anyway, where is your problem, little guy? Who do I need to beat to death? Where is the purple-eyed thing?”

  “I don’t know, I was hoping that you would help in figuring that out”

  Gallilah cracked her neck.

  “Take me to where you think your guards have disappeared”

  “Sure, but it’s been two weeks since someone disappeared, so the tracks might have gone cold. We tried to search for any hole since Leton said that the monster was likely hiding underground, but we found nothing, and I haven’t been able to get my hands on a single damned earth mage”

  Gallilah barely even listened to the city lord and just followed after him, eventually arriving at the only place where there had been someone to testify that a guard had been attacked.

  Otherwise, there was never any blood or signs of struggles to tell where anyone might have fallen prey. Jorice could only go along the patrol routes to show Gallilah, but that was pretty much it.

  The city lord turned to his guest, and she was just licking her eyeballs to moisturise them, seemingly thinking intently.

  “I think I have an idea”

  “You do?”

  “I can taste smell in the air”

  “And?”

  “And I think I’ve got a trail, I might be able to find where it goes”

  “What if you can’t?”

  “We’ll just blast a hole through the ground, I guess”

  Jorice thought it was a joke, but he sensed no humour coming from her.

  “Please don’t break my city…”