Now that all the options were shown, Theron sorted the evolutions inside his mind; first, he removed the Ghostwood Metal Ursine from the list. Its toughness and survivability allured him, obviously, but he reminded himself that this evolution cost 6 summon slots, shedding a significant chunk of his offensive prowess.
The brute bear and the silver-coat bear filled the same general purpose, with the first being balanced in its toughness and might, while the other focused more on speed and power. With the next fight being against the stone guardian, the silver basilisk, and the humongous ursine, he deemed power to be extremely important in taking them down. The ice bear option interested him, but he had no access to it.
Ultimately, Theron found the 2x might damage too important to miss, especially when the things he was about to encounter possessed almighty defenses and health. He could build it as tanky as he wanted, sure, but still, without sufficient damage, long, difficult fights would drag, eventually wearing all his aspects down if they faced a foe with high regenerative capabilities or against an insanely tanky beast. How many times did Berys’ savage slam earn their party a victory? Besides, with its additional regeneration and high health, Berys wasn’t a slouch in the toughness department either. In essence, this evolution covered what Berys used to handle, with some points in speed to cover its biggest weakness.
He closed his eyes and breathed as he confirmed his decision, purchasing the elite aspect core from the store in the meantime. His compendium burst open afterward, flipping and turning its pages as Berys dissipated.
[Evolution selected.]
[12 genetic slots available, please select-]
Theron ransacked his satchel for the crystals and the seed in his satchel, presenting it to the compendium. Take all of it, make my boy strong.
[Sapling’s crystal of evolution: +10 toughness, +1 toughness/level, +Ghost bark barbed skin. Gene slot remaining: 7/12.]
[Rank-2 Orange Opaline crystal. +3 toughness. Gene slot remaining: 4/12.]
[Rank-2 Might Opaline crystal. +3 might. Gene slot remaining: 1/12.]
[Total bonuses: +3 might, +13 toughness, gains a passive ability: Ghost bark barbed skin.]
[Confirm evolution?]
Yep.
A flash of light burst, originating from the compendium flipping afront his. The radiance bathed the checkpoint, lingering until the darkness overpowered it, sweeping the forest floor with its sable coldness as another message appeared in his sights, detailing what kind of monster he had made.
And a monster was made, indeed.
Aspect - Silver-coat brute metallic Ursine(Elite) | Health : 107/107 | Mana : 0/0
Level: 10 | Next: 3000 xp
Rank: 3 | Max Level: 20
Mana cost: 12 | slot cost: 6
Element: Normal | Affinity: Melee
Class: Bear/Troll | Type: Beast
-Attributes-
Free points: - (+5/level)
Might: 123 (+12/level)
Speed: 29 (+4/level)
Magic: 0
Toughness: 92 (+4/level)
Resistance: 48 (+1/level)
-Abilities-
Embolden Claws
Furious Slam
(Passive)
Ghost bark barbed skin, Troll’s blood
Innate Trait: Pure Metallic Skeleton
Blocks 15 damage passively.
Here it read; the culmination of Theron’s efforts and patience. He wouldn’t achieve such a monstrous being had he busted his evolution early. His excitement bubbled, filling his pulsing heart with elation as he hastily raised his arm in an attempt to summon this beast, but a message stopped him.
[You do not have enough summon slots available.]
Oh… right. It’s an elite for a reason.
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Theron turned his attention aside, staring at his other summons. What do I do? Two of them had to go. To fill up all his summon slots to his best potential, another evolution of a common aspect would be best; his choices being Lux, Borys, Trolgar, or Cuby. Two sets of similarly defined roles, Lux and Cuby provided elemental coverage and ranged superiority, while Borys and Trolgar gave front-line support. Theron purchased an evolution stone and opened the insanely long list of possible evolutions, so long Theron had to re-read the list multiple times just to ensure he remembered them all.
However, a different message stopped him in his tracks.
[Multiple max level rank-2 evolutions with a similar fusion path found.]
[You can perform combined evolutions. This type of evolution grants boosted stats and improves aspects’ abilities, if applicable.]
[Rank-1 evolved aspects cannot be fused together.]
[Once evolved this way, the two involved aspects cannot be summoned and used in further evolutions.]
Cool… Four options flashed; Four pre-determined evolutions combined from all four rank-2 aspects in his pool. Each type of combination inflated their best attributes the most, and boy, his decision wasn’t any easier with those in mind. Also, this new message told him that if he had two elite aspects of the same rank and the same level—and that was a huge if—he could perform a similar kind of evolution as well.
[Rank 3: Ivory night Were-ursine, grants bonus stats: +9 might, +8 speed, +5 toughness, +3 resistance. Growth/level: 6 might, 4 speed, 2 toughness, +3 free attribute/level. Changes class to Beast/Troll. Grants a new ability: Furious fist. Adds innate trait: Troll’s regeneration. Summon slot cost: 3. Requirements: 3x R-2 Silver-back Beast Troll materia, 2000 essences.]
[New base stats]
Might: 86
Speed: 51
Toughness: 40
Magic: 0
Resistance: 20
[Combined evolution bonus! +2 might/level, +2 speed/level.]
Not bad… Basically, as per what the thing mentioned, a combined form of Trolgar and Berys, with better stats and growth. Neat regenerative abilities… and it takes the best attribute number from each, so I won’t waste any points here.
Theron nodded while lowering his eyes, studying the other possible combination; Lux and Cuby.
[Rank 3: Silver-scaled horned wolf, grants bonus stats: +2 might, +2 speed, +15 magic, +6 resistance. Growth/level: +2 speed, +7 magic, +2 toughness, +1 resistance, +3 free attribute/level. Changes class to Wolf/Lizard. Changes element to Ice. Modifies abilities: Chilling bite, Icicle pulse. Adds innate trait: Ice mantle. Summon slot cost: 3. Requirements: 3x R-2 White-scaled Basilisk, 2000 essences.]
[New base stats]
Might: 33
Speed: 34
Toughness: 24
Magic: 88
Resistance: 12
[Combined evolution bonus! +3 magic/level, +1 might/level.]
[Chilling bite[Melee]: Channels strength to the wolf’s fangs, dealing 1x magic damage. Chills monster when bit, slowing speed by 20% if their resistance is lesser than 40% of the wolf’s magic. Mana cost: 6 mana.]
[Icicle pulse[Magic]: Channels a lance of ice on the wolf’s horn, then launches it toward a target, dealing 1x[1.2x] magic damage. The affected target suffers an additional 10%[12%]x magic piercing ice damage. Manacost: 5.]
[Piercing damage: Ignores 30% toughness and resistance defensive bonus.]
[Ice mantle: Passively generates a thin shroud of ice encasing its body, shielding the basilisk from the next attack. Max damage block: 30%(max mana). Once shattered, it takes 20 seconds before another layer of ice is regenerated.]
He whistled. A full-on focus on ice magic and an additional ability to slow things down when any monsters dared to approach him. Piercing ice damage helped against hard shells and, well, rocks, no doubt. With Lux’s might and speed stat, this thing wouldn’t be a slouch in a close fight, either. Its ice mantle also helped in that regard, providing Lux with much-needed extra defenses. Overall, a unique option, definitely something Theron would consider.
[Rank 3: Silver-scaled Beast Troll, grants bonus stats: +7 might, +5 speed, +7 magic, +6 toughness. Growth/level: +4 might, +3 speed, +4 magic, +1 toughness, +3 free attribute/level. Changes class to Troll. Changes element to Normal. Modifies abilities: Chilling fist, Frost breath. Modifies innate trait: Frost troll’s blood. Summon slot cost: 3. Requirements: 3x R-2 White-scaled Basilisk, 2000 essences.]
[New base stats]
Might: 58
Speed: 35
Toughness: 39
Magic: 47
Resistance: 15
[Combined evolution bonus! +2 Might/level, +2 magic/level.]
[Chilling fist: Slams an area, dealing 0.6x[0.75x]might + 0.4x[0.5x]magic damage in a three-meter radius. Encases the troll’s fists with ice, dealing boosted 30% ice damage to enemies hit. The buff lasts 10 seconds. Cooldown: 20 seconds. Manacost: 6.]
[Frost breath: Unleashes a wave of frigid ice in a cone(range: 6 meters), dealing 1x[magic] ice damage. Manacost: 5, cooldown: 5 seconds.]
[Frost troll’s blood: Passively deals ice damage through normal attacks. Regenerates 10% of health per minute. Shrouds a 5-meter radius around the troll in cold, dealing 10%[magic] damage per 5 seconds. Reduces ice damage taken by 30%. Regeneration and ice aura stop when the troll is under a status ailment or is hurt by fire damage.]
Ah, another unique one. This evolution had advantages the ice element brought, but it didn’t come with its usual weaknesses. Trolls were already weak to fire to begin with. Its perpetual damaging aura resembled the elite basilisk and bear combo, just worse in severity and radius. Frost breath acted as a middle-ground option for a ranged attack, lacking in range, but its damage should still be painful.
So… Ice bear, Ice wolf, or Ice troll… Which is best?
For a melee option, Trolls would suit Theron well; its area-damaging effect, combined with its ability to fend off foes at a slight range, gave it leverage against medium-distance enemies. However, with Theron’s taunt, a powerful ranged aspect would be extremely useful; range horn pulses would deal with enemies outside of the taunt’s range, and it wouldn’t have to deal with melee combatants since Berys would be dealing with those instead. Party composition-wise, the ice wolf—or ice basilisk hybrid thing—covered his weaknesses and strengths well.
And well, after another long bout of thinking, he made his final decision.
###
A cold whiff of white-ish smog encapsulated Lux’s new figure while Theron scratched his head at the appearance of a humongous shadow towering over them both, cast from the moonlight directly atop them. As he predicted, higher ranks increased both their sizes; now Lux stood as high as he was—big enough for Theron to assume he could ride it—and Berys… Well, it had always been big.
These options ate up a ton of resources from Theron’s end. He purchased a rank-2 evolution stone and another elite aspect core, draining his savings by a significant margin. He lost a sum of 7000 essences, almost cutting his total by half. But hey, looking at his monstrous beings again, he couldn’t be happier with his purchase.
Berys, once brown with the occasional glimpse of metal underneath its dense fur, now turned into an almost purely white beast with a dark hide, the occasional scintillating reflections glinting where its fur parted, revealing a formation of spine protruding through its back. Its figure, once bear-like, had turned bipedal, which meant it lost access to its tail—a property gained from the troll’s combination with its skeletal structure. Its face formed a nasty scowl near the top, becoming more human-like than before, but it retained its bear characteristics enough for most to still consider it a bear.
Unlike Berys, lux kept most of its wolf-like features, but instead of being fully-furred as before, it lost all the fur coating its face and extremities, replaced by white, glowing scales instead. Its horn extended a few inches longer than before, and a closer look told of the power kept within.
Theron smiled. His newest evolution opened up avenues toward progress he couldn’t even scratch before.