Chapter 247: Evolution part 4
Mercury faced a world of steel and flooded it with quicksilver.
Fire blossomed around him, radiant heat washing over the world. An ethereal, half-real citadel burning into the world, turning the metal soft and malleable. Mercury manifested a rijn with each of his 4 zeyjn, creating hammers.
The world was steel, and it was forged.
Furious trees lashed out with swordlike iron branches to cut Mercury apart, only to be unmade into plates and nails.
Mercury stepped forward, and a half dozen furious, mindless monsters were turned into nothing but plates, hinges and nails of magical steel. When the creatures grew larger, from weasels into bears, rather than folding them into nails, he simply created bricks, condensing and wholesale flattening them.
Mercury walked across an ocean of shiny quicksilver, and wherever that circle of wondrous quiet touched the furious world, the world folded. It bent inwards, the anger beaten out of it in a few swift, invisible distortions, and cut apart into metal parts useful for building houses.
Steel trees were hammered down into plates. Leaves became nails. Claws turned into screws, and wings into hinges. A thousand wrathful abominations assaulted Mercury. Furious chimeric creatures of violent steel. They shimmered with the gleaming grey of metal, only to crumple in on themselves once they entered that sphere of heat and grief and calm, dissonant hammering.
All that sounded in that tiny ocean of liquid metal was the soft chiming of a hammer.
Hours drifted by with Mercury simply taking slow steps, hammering away at the world, and eventually, one of his minds grew weary. So, he left it to rest, smacking the realm with only three hammers. Those, still, were enough.
[
Then he was down to two. Finally, a single one.
This was worse. His speed slowed. But, rather than worry, he simply laid down, placing his head on his paws, closing his eyes, and waiting. Fury rained down on him, the world seeking to twist who he was, but it all met his
Maybe this place demanded his fury, but that wrath was a lie, and he simply declined.
And so, somehow, most of Mercury slept in the place of wrath. He didn't scurry, didn't hide away, didn't creep into some crevasse and hope he wasn't found. A part of him, a little more than a quarter, simply stayed active and protected himself.
Rest came at a price in a place like this, of course, so his other three minds found themselves pulled, tethered to some kind of angry sun. It pulled and tore at him, until, with a soft sigh, he let a part of himself be carried off to its "hunting grounds".
This one didn't have nightstalkers and draining fog. The realm of sleep wasn't a horrible labyrinth. It was, instead, very simple.
A colosseum.
Every single soul ever devoured by this realm, forced onto a battleground of red sand, stained thick with blood and teeth and shards of bone. Millions of dead warriors, forced to fight forever. To die, over and over and over and over and over again.
Mercury found himself in the middle of a bloody battleground that was impossibly vast, and yet ringed by a sneering audience, demanding more. More blood, more pain, more suffering, more anger. To cut someone down who threatened to kill oneself. To fight the odds. To grip the blades of swords and kill and main and hurt.
He took a deep breath, and let it all wash over him. He took the horrid anger this place wanted to instill in him, the way it made his mind try to pull itself apart, and he gently placed it on a river and let it go. Like a boat made from leaves, it travelled down the stream until it was out of sight.
Rain began to fall around Mercury in that second world.
Outside, he was wreathed in lazy, flowing, unstoppable quicksilver. In the dream, there was a patiently unyielding storm, hugging his shoulders as a cloak may. Drop after drop of wonderful rain fell, swallowing up the cries and the fury of the world. Wind blowed their hatred away.
Those who laid dying, suffering in pools of their own blood, were washed away too. A million raindrops pierced them without resistance, and their mind found a tranquil peace, for a little while, until this place put their rotten vestiges back together to suffer again.
And that was all he could do for now.
In that dream, too, Mercury walked. Wherever he stepped, the rain washed over the sand, and some of the blood was washed away. Sloughing off and carried away by the rain, leaving the sand a quartzy white. A rainstorm raged gently, and the world calmed.
Mercury walked, and walked, and walked.
And then, he sat down, too.
There were a lot of things Mercury was bad at. He couldn't hit very hard, really. Well, in reality, he could hit hard enough, but he couldn't explode entire mountains or anything outrageous like that. He couldn't split the seas, or move at the speed of light.
But what he was very, very good at… was being untouchable.
In the very middle of a hostile world, in the center of its hunting ground where his mind was being run ragged with fury and bloodshed, and the outside, where he was being drowned in an ocean of steel, Mercury sat. Then he closed his eyes.
[
As amusing as it was to prove himself to this place, Mercury didn't want to do just that. There was, after all, a species evolution ready for him to trigger.
And it was a big one, too. He had gained a total of 100 levels now. Most Skills evolved at level ten, too, so surely there was something special about level 100. His last evolution had been unique, already, so he was excited to see what this one held.
With part of his mind hammering the metal world into shape, and another part cleansing the infinite colosseum, Mercury focussed, quietly, and spoke to Appy. "I'd like to trigger my species evolution."
[Congratulations! You have reached level 40, making you eligible for evolution. Your total levels reached are now 100. Your summary of experience, of joy, of desire, is considerable. The system recognizes you.]
[Mercury Rainfall Starlight. Summarizing. The individual has made friends, lost friends, killed, survived, fought and starved and thrived. The individual has learnt ancient forms of magic, has grasped the nature of things and related to them, has grown as a person, has acquired dozens of Skills through their own efforts and evolved them. They have unlocked, selected, and achieved thriving success with a new species and added it to the database for further eligible evolutions. You have usurped hills to entire realms, fragments of worlds. You have torn and you have mended the fabric of reality and the weave that holds it all together.]
[You have laughed. You have cried. You have found suffering and joy. You have desired.]
[You have lived.]
[Due to your lived experience, you have reached a total level of 100. This major milestone doubles the effect of all attributes.]
Holy shit.
[The individual has reached level 40. You are now eligible for evolution. All options are unique. Please choose one of the following:
Fyron:
One with flames, this creature no longer requires a physical form. Woven from threads of liquid fire, its body is malleable and near impossible to damage. You may reshape yourself from an ember or a pile of ash, and you grow a spark of flame within yourself, a budding star.
Ocyon:
Within this species, there is a lake. It is the deep and unending river of one's consciousness, unstoppable, unholdable. All disturbances may float on it and carry on, or be swallowed by the depths of the water. The world bends to your will, waves weaving webs of wily thought. Never ceasing, an existence that simply washes over anything trying to impede its everlasting march.
Wryon:
It knows. That is at the heart of the wryon - it knows. There are secrets, and you will find them. There are truths, and, truthfully, they are yours already. When you ask, threads come undone, ideas unveil themselves, and enlightenment follows in your wake. You may ask, and with your question, there will, inevitably, be an answer.]
Mercury took a long breath. Those were who he was. In a very real way, these three choices were the culmination of what the system thought he was worthy of. But…
He smiled. All of these held little hints for him to follow through on. Very slowly, he breathed in, then out.
"Hey, System? I'd like to make a
Instantly, the world fell a little more quiet. After all, this was the culmination of who he was as a person. And yet, he was going to see about getting more?
"I would like to wager that I'll find a fourth option," he said, calmly.
For a short moment, silence.
"If I find it, I would like to ask for an additional upgrade for it. If not, you can strike the wryon off the current list."
[Accepted.]
The weight of the wager settled on his shoulders. Mercury breathed and accepted it. And, despite it all, he smiled. Because, for his next magic trick, he was going to exploit a few details about his current build.
There were two centerpieces to this little trick of his. One was
See, the fact that the system accepted the wager meant that there were more options. There were a few reasons for them not to be displayed, and a few he could discover, but Mercury never was a quitter. He wouldn't settle for options that had been deemed unsynergistic to him, ro even too weak.
He was going for something stronger than the other ones listed.
First, the simple
"Go get them, Appy."
[Of course, dum-dum.]
His friend, an agent of the system, used those cracks in the very idea of reason to turn onto itself, like a snake eating its own tail. System turned against system, a Skill meant to discover
And, of course, if Appy was the one hiding the truth in the first place, that meant she should have no trouble finding it. That train of thought, in turn, activated
And once after another, the maze relented. Mercury darted through its paths, searching for the greatest secret he could find, for the details that he was never meant to achieve. For the
One by one, the data points were collected, and a picture of the web arranged itself in his mind. The ideas behind the species, the things that tied them together… and Mercury felt himself brush up against the third veil again.
His nose began bleeding, and he felt his heart cramping up, but he still kept searching. Appy tore through the maze that she was born in, as she should be able to. That was the
The Skills twisted in on their purpose to unveil and unwrap the working to him that were meant to be hidden. A personalized, infinitely adaptable assistant to allow people to reach their desires - and that primary function was now being used and exploited to reach deeper.
A million moments passed in no time at all. It took only seconds for the adventure to make Mercury's heart stop, but that wasn't enough to kill him. His stamina expanded, meeting his cells, and he whispered a plea to the
Any detail that would have killed him just for knowing it was swallowed up by
Winding paths were conquered, defenses avoided, hidden from. The third veil taunted Mercury at the edge of his mind, but instead, he leaned on
Then came the penalty.
[For the duration of this bet,
Instantly, the system's protections against exploitation set in. It was meant to be fair, after all, and without Mercury's
His
And, in truth, it wasn't fully disabled.
The system, after all, wasn't what gave Mercury his powers. He, himself, was.
And that's the
[Additional evolution unlocked.]
The system notification announcing it was perfectly calm as everything snapped back into place, like a taut rubber band.
[The individual is encouraged not to put their survival at risk for better evolution options. The individual is additionally encouraged to simply continue living and reach another evolution threshold. There are no limits imposed upon them.]
Mercury smiled, just a little.
[The system is attempting to act with the individual's best interests at heart.]
"Of course," Mercury confirmed. "Could I please see my additional option?"
[Applying upgrade to secret evolution.]
[Upgrade applied.]
[Lumyron:
One and all, where the light falls, this creature sees. Meaning is meaningless, the hidden is unveiled, and existence is just an inversion of
Due to your outrageous bet, the capabilities of your previous evolution options have been partially woven into the Lumyron. Your elemental abilities are heightened significantly. Your mental abilities are increased significantly. Your affinity for knowledge, secrets, and truths are increased precipitously.]
With a gentle motion, Mercury selected the choice that was at the very end of the maze, the very limit of what he could acquire at this moment, and then improved beyond. It was, very simply put, powerful.
"I would like to select the lumyron, please," Mercury said.
[Acknowledged.]
[The individual is now evolving.]
Despite the fact that his previous actions, by all rights, should have upset the system, the sheet of light descended as gently as ever.
A familiar blanket of white wrapped around his eyes, blocking out the bloody colosseum he was in. The tense feeling of wrath pulling at his mind vanished. He found himself in the same not-space that the system usually put him in.
Except, this time, it felt almost… fragile.
Mercury had become more "real", as the system liked to call it. And, as that had happened, he'd grown his own world, and the outside had slowly turned more and more fragile. If he sank into ihn'ar, the gaps would become so apparent he almost couldn't avoid looking into the void.
Of course, he could also stabilize that himself, but it was still different from the usual feeling. Rather than staying chained to the ground by gravity, it was like… having to let it affect him.Make a conscious choice to stay anchored.
It wasn't difficult, but there were fewer chains. Fewer… safeguards, really.
He took a deep not-breath and waited for the change to set in. In that way, too, this evolution was different. He felt the light thicken before it began to seep into his skin. A blanket of radiance that altered what he was. Glimmering motes that pulled and stretched his metallic skin, made his bones larger as his skeleton adjusted itself to stand taller.
Inch by inch, he changed. Luminescent and
What a bizarre process it was, seeing his evolution take place. There were a hundred minor changes, too, to his bone density, his skin, his fur and how it interacted. His eyes, especially, were changed. Even more than they already were.
It made sense, after all, he needed to see the truth of things before he even asked. He felt his skins resonate with the formless solidity of his shape, the way it made things easier for
And then came stranger and stranger changes yet. Ones related to the very ideas embedded in his body, tiny tweaks to his mana veins that made them strangely resemble runic arrays or mana formations. He felt himself change in a million ways, ones he could finally, for the first time, notice, but yet not quite understand.
But that was fine. He breathed.
A tiny
Oh, right, he was fuelled by his will now.
And then, bit by bit, the motes of light withdrew, and Mercury found himself back in that bloody colosseum. Except, this time, the wrath wasn't tearing at his mind. This time, he felt the sand warp around him, drawn into the thin tendrils of his tornado.
His fur had intensified in colour. It was still the same silvery-white with purple stripes, but each bit of it had gained some of that depth his eyes used to have, where it was easy to almost get lost to him. It made his silhouette both indistinct, and yet sharp, making it hard to look away, but also hard to see properly.
Mercury could see all around himself, too. His eyes were no longer needed for something as simple as sight. Instead, they were piercing. Stabbing through obstacles as if they weren't there at all, unravelling the truths of the world as easily as breathing.
In front of Mercury, the colosseum began coming apart by itself, struggling to hold onto him. A flood of warriors poured towards him, driven by furious bloodlust, only to have scarlet droplets mix with a thick sheet of rain that ate away at their very existence.
All of it happened in Mercury's line of sight, since everything was in his line of sight. Every secret he stepped near to, every person whose aura he witnessed, everything. While his fur was ephemeral and warping, his eyes were even more so. They had become deeper than even the darkest abyss, infinitely consuming and hungry. Each gaze pulled at the world with hunger, with a starving kind of ravenousness that was simply irresistible.
Mercury breathed.
The hunger disappeared into the void of his
He looked at his notifications.
[
[Your existence has become more closely realized.]
[Your ability to understand has increased.]
[Your mind has become more powerful.]
[Acquired the Skill
[Acquired the Skill
He smiled. Three Skills. More than any evolution ever before. And their names were rather incredible, too. He sent a small inquiry through
[
It was an even stronger evolution of his survivalist kit. A true guarantee that, as long as he had a mind to think, he would not die. Simple as that.
[
The next Skill was one that, effectively, turned him into a sapiovore. He could eat knowledge - not that he consumed it, entirely, really. He just subsisted off of gaining things for himself. What decided how "nutritious" a piece of information was, he wondered?
And, of course, the second part of the Skill. The fact that it would add intent to all questions asked, and if he didn't allow someone to remain quiet, he could pull the
Additionally, he already noticed the "no limitations" part. After all, the Skill had instantly worked on the system itself, pulling the information on his new Skills.
And finally…
[
This one, despite the work of
And yet, there is sat, right within his heart, within his core, within the deepest recess of his self where that last bastion of inviolable will laid. A pull that was thin but irresistible. A push that would not stop, ever. A gentle, entirely unstoppable force.
He took a deep breath.
The Skills were strong. They added to his build and expanded its scope. Mercury felt strong. Ready.
Finally, he called up his Status.
=
Status:
Mercury Rainfall Starlight
Level: 1
Species: Lumyron
Titles:
Alias: Beast, Mittens, dum-dum, Yr'enzel, Biso
===
Hp: 2200/2440
Mp: 3500/3614
Sp: 1500/1534
===
Strength: 130 (+5) -> 140
Vitality: 224 -> 254
Dexterity: 154 (+30) -> 164
Agility: 171 (+30) -> 191
Intelligence: 192 (+40) -> 222
Wisdom: 175 (+2) -> 205
Willpower: 418 -> 468
Luck: 175 -> 195
===
Ability points: 201
World points: 6345
Skill points: 3200
===
Gold: 24 265
Beast familiars: 1/2
=
200 Stats. 100 Ability points. 1500 Skill Points.
Combined with the doubling of their effects, Mercury really felt the change. He was much stronger now. Harder to kill, and with a few new tricks in his box.
He took a deep breath, and the
Slowly, he opened his eyes, his real eyes, and stepped forward.
Maybe it was time for Wrath to quake in fear.