Chapter 4 - Evolution

The other dwarves with them in the tunnel introduced themselves after a bit of hesitation, clearly not as comfortable with Peter as Durgon was. The dwarf that had been concerned about his presence was Thromar, the one that had muttered about Baelgor was Brundhelm, and the final one was Rurik.

After everyone was introduced, the dwarves turned their attention to the loot of the monster, of which there was quite a bit. Several plates of chitin lay on the ground, along with an orb and a small blade. Peter <> them to see what it all was.

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The exoskeleton and mandible didn’t matter to him very much, but he was interested to see if he could use the orb. He knew XP potions had to be tailored to your race, class, or profession, but since the cooldown wasn’t the same between absorbing orbs and XP potions, maybe that would be different too?

The dwarves were starting to put the exoskeleton pieces in a small bag, probably an item space since it held far more than what it looked like it should be able to hold. He floated forward and picked up the orb, examining it.

“If ye wan’ it, ye can ‘ave it,” Durgon said. “Ye ‘elped with the fight, ye get yer share.”

Peter bowed slightly and used his earth control to place it inside his form. Then he merged with the walls of the tunnel, unwilling to be stared at as he concentrated on absorbing the orb. He turned his attention inwards to the orb, trying to get a feel for it. It felt powerful, as if there was a lot of mana pent up inside. He carefully started his routine, focusing on penetrating the orb with some mana pathways to absorb its power. The outside of the orb was far sturdier than any of the earth elemental orbs he had encountered so far, and it was harder than he had expected to break in open. After a bit of work, however, he managed to get a pathway in.

That’s where it all fell apart. Unlike the mana of the earth elemental orbs, the mana of the ant miner didn’t get absorbed by his mana pathways. Instead, it attacked them. A raging pain filled Peter as the ant’s mana damaged his pathways. The area around the orb started turning to dust as Peter lost control over the earth there. Focusing through the pain, he managed to force the antagonistic mana up, and eventually out of his body. Once it was out, it exploded into the rock and earth around him, blowing a huge hole in the tunnel.

Thankfully, the dwarves had already moved down the tunnel a bit after packing up all the dropped items, but they came rushing back at the sound of the explosion.

“What in tha blazes is goin’ on ‘ere?” Durgon shouted as he ran back towards where Peter was. Peter’s body was now visible, in his regular form. He was kind of dazed from the explosion, and still recovering from the pain of having his mana pathways forcefully destroyed.

“Dinnae tell me ye tried to absorb tha orb?” Durgon asked.

Peter’s form sagged somewhat as his stupidity was exposed.

“I s’pose ye’ve don’ it with other Earth Elemental Orbs and it’s gon’ fine, eh? In case ye dinnae know, ye ‘ave to have some affinity to absorb outside mana.” Durgon said, admonishing him. “If ye were Enlightened, I wou’ say ye be stupid, but since yer not, I’ll jus’ say dinnae try it again.”

Peter slowly assumed a humanoid shape and nodded his head limply. It was stupid of him to try it, and he acknowledged his mistake. In the future he would gather more information before jumping wholeheartedly into testing. He sensed the large hole he had made in the tunnel, and then used <> to make it back into a tunnel shape once more.

Durgon widened his eyes at this display of <>. “Yer pre’’y good at movin’ that earth around. If ye wish to do more wit’ ‘elping us, we would gladly use yer talents. O’ course, ye wou’ nae go unpaid. If Orbs are what ye wan’, we can bring ye some Earth Elemental Orbs.”

Peter’s form straightened from its slightly limp posture as he thought about the proposition. Helping move earth around would be a great help for the miners, and between the experience of any monsters he came across and the Orbs promised, it would be a good way to get stronger faster. He nodded his head as he came to his decision.

“Great! Follow us then, we’ll put ye right ta work.” Durgon said as he smiled.

They headed back down the tunnel, coming to a branch within a couple minutes. They took the left facing tunnel and after a few more minutes came to the end of it, where a few bags and pickaxes rested, along with dark, empty lamps.

The dwarves got right to work, hitting the hard stone walls with their pickaxes as they searched for ores. With every piece they broke off, they examined it briefly before throwing it into one of the bags. Durgon explained to Peter how it worked.

“This ‘ere is iron ore, it’s the most common ore we find ‘round ‘ere. It goes in this bag. Regular stone goes in that one. Any other ores go in the final one. If ye be fast at movin’ earth, we can ‘andle sortin’ while ye dig.”

Peter nodded, and examined the ore closely. He knew he could just move earth around and rely on luck to find ore, which might actually work with his insane stat, but he wanted to be a bit more reliable than that. So he thought about how he might find ore faster. He settled on trying to use a bit of physics he had learned. Different materials conducted vibrations at different speeds, he knew. Now that he could sense air with his <>, he could presumably tell different substances apart with it. He released a small vibration into the iron ore he was holding, and tried to sense how exactly it felt different from regular stone. He thought he felt a subtle difference, so he released a wider vibration into the tunnel walls all around him. He felt some of the new sensation in a section just to the right of where Rurik was mining, so he used <> to bring out the ore he felt was there. The rock around it shattered or moved magically out of the way as a large piece of pure iron ore was deposited right on the ground next to the dwarf. Rurik jumped slightly at the clang of ore falling right next to his feet, then stared open-mouthed at the large lump of ore. Everyone else stopped what they were doing as well, as Durgon let out a large belly laugh.

“Hahahaaa!! I knew ye were goin’ ta be useful! Look at ye, findin’ ore on the first try. What amazing senses you must possess!”

If he could’ve, Peter would have been grinning from ear to ear at this point. Along with the ore dropping to the floor, he had heard another noise: the noise of a system notification.

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<> skill to find ores of various kinds in the earth. Scales with Perception and knowledge of ores.>>

The rest of the dwarves smiled at the sight of the large ore piece, then continued chipping away at the walls, exchanging small talk with each other.

Peter continued to use his <> to find pieces of iron ore, and even found one or two pieces of copper and tin in the next few hours. The tunnel continuously lengthened as the dwarves worked hard and fast to delve deeper into the earth. After a few hours of work, the dwarves put down their tools and leaned their backs against the walls. Durgon walked up to the shape of Peter and addressed him.

“Well, it be time for us to go. We live on tha surface, in a town ther’. I nae advise ye follow us, ye may be mistook for a common monster, and attacked. But if ye wait ‘ere for the night, we will be seein’ ye tomorrah.”

Peter nodded and gestured to the wall behind him, where he had written, “Thank you. Orbs?”

Durgon let out a small laugh, “Ye be welcome. As for yer Orbs, we’ll come carryin’ some wit’ us in the mornin’. I cannae say how many we can get for ye, but ye have helped us greatly today, so we will be tryin’ our best.”

Peter nodded again, and Durgon waved a little before joining with the rest of the dwarves and starting the journey back to the surface. Peter was now alone again, and he realized how much the company of the dwarves had meant to him in the past few hours. No one but Durgon had talked or interacted with him, but the idle chatter and sound of clanging made him feel welcome in their space. Now it was dark again, not that he noticed, and there was no noise or movement around him. Wondering what to do until they came back the next day, he plopped himself down on the floor for a bit. He relaxed for a couple minutes, before realizing that he hadn’t slept since he had become an Earth Elemental. In fact, he still didn’t feel tired at all. He assumed it was because he didn’t have a brain or muscles that needed rest. So to stop himself from being bored, he decided to be productive and continue finding ores in the earth.

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The dwarves had taken the bags, but Peter figured he could sort the ores into piles, and just leave them in place until the dwarves returned with the bags. So, he set off and began carving the tunnel further and further down. He turned and twisted when he saw large ore veins, and was collecting quite a bit of the stuff. To help him find ores and have a larger radius, he put another 10 Free Points into Perception. This made it his highest ability except his soul abilities, at 41, and it was even catching up to Charisma, which was at 50. He was now faster at identifying ores, and could find them farther away than he had before. He went back to working, and just mindlessly mined ores for a few more hours. As he was lost in the rhythm of mining, a sudden system notification brought him back to reality.

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‘Wow, I really can get a profession!’ Peter thought. ‘If I remember correctly, you can always change your profession to another after you get it. Unlike classes, where certain criteria have to be met. So if I’m looking at helping out these dwarves for a while, it would be beneficial to get a profession. Just the stat boost alone will be worth it, not to mention any skills it comes with.’ With that in mind, he pressed <>, and got another notification.

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He took a closer look at the profession, to see what stats it gave.

||Profession: Miner

Abilities/Level:

Strength: 5

Endurance: 3

Constitution: 2

Total: 10 ||

||Skills:

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‘5 strength per level isn’t bad, and since I’m level 7 that’s a total of 35 strength, more than doubling the original 28 into 63. Just 2 away from half what I had as an archer. These skills look pretty neat, too, if a little useless.’

<> on an ore, and get some information about it.>>

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‘It’s not worth it to go and refine everything I’ve already mined, since crafters can probably refine it better than me anyway. I will use it in the future, though, just to be a little helpful.’

With the new profession under his belt, he continued on mining for a few more hours until he felt the vibrations of footsteps coming down the tunnel once more. Listening intently, he heard the dwarves chanting some tune as they made their way merrily towards him. He started back towards them, and was a few twists and turns away when he felt the tune stop.

He heard the all-too familiar “By the great bearded face of Baelgor,” and realized they must have found where he had begun to dig that night. The ground here was scattered and strewn with stones in piles, ores of various different kinds stacked up by each other. Turning around the final corner, he saw the dwarves admiring the ores and tunnel. Peter, not knowing how to get their attention, just walked up to them in his humanoid shape.

“Elemental Peter!” Durgon shouted, “Happy ta see ye. It looks like yer made some good progress durin’ tha night. How far does this go?

Peter wrote “300” on the wall and pointed to it.

“300 meters? Tha’ be mighty impressive of ye. As payment, we brought back some Orbs, as promised. I hope yer satisfied.” Durgon gestured to Thromar, who turned a bag upside down, as 10 Earth Elemental Orbs fell out. “Since I think ye be plannin’ to absorb them’s, dinnae worry about us and take yer time. We’ll just be puttin’ these ores into the right bags.”

Peter wrote “Thank you” on the wall, then gathered the Orbs to himself and merged with the tunnel wall to absorb. It was way easier to break open the Orbs than it had been, and Peter attributed this to his growing stats. He broke Orb after Orb and absorbed their power.

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The level ups were going fine, but then Peter got a strange notification that jolted him out of his absorption of the 9th Orb. ‘Requirements not met? For what, a level up? That’s odd. Wait, Evolution? What’s going on here?’ Peter was confused as he read and reread the notification. ‘Select Evolution? What does that even mean?’ As soon as he thought that, another panel appeared in his mind.

||Please Select Evolution Path:

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‘I’ve never heard of monsters evolving before.’ Peter though. He was sure if someone had witnessed it in Eternal Realms that it would have been all over the internet. ‘Then again, didn’t monsters above a certain level always have different names? Like… skeleton above level 10 would be a Greater Skeleton, and maybe have some sort of tag describing its class, like Greater Skeleton Fighter. Maybe that happens because at level 10 the monsters go through an evolution stage.’ Peter was slowly coming to understand the evolution presented to him. However, he had yet to choose his path, so he eventually turned his attention back to the panel.

‘Greater Earth Elemental sounds cool, but it’s probably just the basic upgrade path of an Earth Elemental. Stone Elemental must be a common variant, and it’s tougher than a Greater Earth Elemental. But Ore Elemental… I’ve never heard of that one before. It might be a rare or variant evolution, or maybe it's common and I’ve just never seen it before. Either way, it’s closer to what I’m doing right now, and sounds really cool as well.’ So, he chose the Ore Elemental Option.

Suddenly he felt a great change in his body. The earth that had made up his form for so long began to become lifeless, dust and dirt falling from his form as his perception of his being became smaller and smaller. Suddenly, he felt a wrenching in his core as his perception jumped into a pile of iron ores that the dwarves had begun putting into a bag. The ores quickly fused together, forming into the shape Peter normally took, as he felt his mana pathways completely fuse with the iron ore. He took a moment to reorient himself after the sudden shift, then looked up.

The dwarf handling this pile, Brundhelm, had backed up a bit in confusion when the ores had started to fuse in front of her. She picked up her pickaxe and was looking wary as Peter’s form took shape out of the ores.

“Is tha’ ye, Elemental Peter?” She asked, still holding her pickaxe in front of her as if prepared to strike.

Peter nodded before realizing his shape had just bobbed up and down randomly, and then wrote, “It’s me” on the wall of the tunnel next to him.

Brundhelm relaxed the grip on her pickaxe and let it down slowly to rest on the floor. “Dinnae be scaring me like tha’, I coul’a bashed yer head in.”

“Sorry,” wrote Peter. “It wasn’t on purpose.”

“Nae on purpose? Wha’ happened to ye?” Brundhelm frowned, and a perplexed look came over her face before brightening slightly. “Oh, me be guessing ye’ve evolved, eh?” She stared briefly at Peter, scanning his new body. “Ore elemental, a good choice. Especially if ye want ta continue workin’ tha mines.”

Peter was startled that Brundhelm had known what he had gone through. He had never heard of the evolution before, but it seemed like common knowledge to Brundhelm. Maybe he was just out of the loop? He wanted to ask more questions, but with his limited ability to write it would take too much time and effort. So, he just wrote a “thanks” on the wall and started floating away. It was perhaps a bit brief, but he really didn’t know what else to say, or how to end the conversation.

Behind him, Brundhelm shrugged and continued to place the rest of the ores into her bag. Peter floated down the hallway and eventually merged back into the wall of the tunnel. It felt a bit weird, as instead of merging fully with the earth around him in the tunnel, it seemed like it was more like swimming. Wherever he moved, the ore that made up his body displaced the rock and stone around it, making him feel like he was moving through a thick sludge. He didn’t mind that much, but it did take a little extra effort to move in the stone. Now, however, Peter had time to check his system messages.

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Excited to see his new abilities and stats, he opened his full status screen.

||Name: Peter Level: 10 (+1)

Race: Ore Elemental

Class: N/A

Profession: Miner

HP: 520/520 MP: 520/520 STM: 438/720

Wisdom: 52 (+7)

Perception: 45 (+2)

Willpower: 380 (+20)

Charisma: 70 (+10)

Luck: 380 (+20)

Dexterity: 25 (+2)

Agility: 32 (+3)

Strength: 92 (+11)

Endurance: 72 (+9)

Constitution: 72 (+9)

Free Stats: 40 (+10)||

||Skills:

Race Skill: <>, <>, <>, <>, <>, <>

Class Skills: N/A

Profession Skills: <>

Learned Skills: <> ||

‘My stat gain went up almost across the board, the only exception being Willpower and Luck. Meanwhile, my enlarge/reduce skill now only works with ore, and <> upgraded to <> and also became a race skill. That upgrade probably means I’ll be able to get rid of most of the impurities in an ore, allowing it to almost become fully metal.’ Curious, he decided to try the skill on himself, and he felt a ton of dirt and dust and stone leave his body, merging with the stone around him, and leaving him with a slightly metallic looking form of ore. ‘More impurities than I had expected, so I guess I am still an Ore Elemental and not a Metal Elemental or something. Still brittle, but better than plain earth.’ With that, he closed his status screen and finally sensed around him. The dwarves had packed up all the ore he had discovered that night and were now happily chipping away at the place he had left off when he came.

‘Well, I guess it’s time to get back to the grind.’