In the end, I choose to accept it.
It was valuable, this much was clear, especially since the elves had captured it to sell. I'm not quite sure why it followed me all the way out here, but the thing here is special, and it feels an affinity with me.
One that is not one sided.
Sneaking off to a corner elsewhere and making sure that there is no one watching, I take on my turtle form, before dropping it on my shell.
It wastes no time, clambering onto the tree on my back, and then burrowing in quickly, down to the connection between the shell and the tree, before shutting down suddenly and entering a coma-like state.
Seeing that it made no attempt to move, I turned back into the elven form before pausing.
...
Wait a minute. When I'm in human form, where does the ant go?
I tap down the back of my neck, pausing at the back of my spine, as if instinctively knowing.
[...]
No...
[Well, what did you expect? Your shell isn't an external thing, but your spine in your elven form. Where else could it be?]
But in the middle of my spine?!
[Your choice man. I can assure you it's a special thing for sure, otherwise I wouldn't have been told to reveal this to you]
That special?
[Very. You don't have clearance yet, no have you hit upon the right opportunity to find out the truth, but I tell you this; it's a rather big surprise blessing for sure.]
Were you not aware it wasn't here?
He shrugged. [The system is omnipotent, but I am not. It usually won't tell me about any opportunities. I was surprised myself.]
Your system is very choosy with its limits.
[Yeah, yeah it is.]
Still, seems rather dangerous...
[Don't you have ore, who has control over the metal portions of your body? If you're in danger, he can easily dispatch the danger himself.]
That's true, his authority, while lower than mine, is still more than enough to control the metal aspects of my body. If I'm targeted, he can still intervene.
I gave up discussing the system with my guide any more, choosing to head home, with this assurance in mind.
After all, I had evolutions waiting for me.
----------------------------------------
Arriving back at the carriage, I informed them of my intention to evolve by tomorrow.
Hearing this, Lenore and Servante nodded and sat around the carriage. Though there was no need to get too protective given that they were in the city currently, it didn't hurt to stand guard for a little while.
The skarpans were still there, with their leader Redgar recovering from the prior event, so they were still around.
And now, it was time to check my evolution options.
[Fourtreess Turtle]
[centarmi tortoise]
[iron kappa]
[ambersteel forest turtle]
Four isn't that bad but...
Hmm, there is a weird array of options here.
Let's start with the weird one that isn't quite a turtle.
[Irongrass kappa]
[A creature known for their pranks, theft, and consumption of children and women. Have a bad reputation in the east.
Kappas are bipedal turtle like spirits that have a strong control over water, and are great at bipedal combat, particularly judo.
Irongrass kappas are an unusual species, abandoning many of the negative aspects of the kappa, with a tradeoff of the lessening of its strengths.
Heavier-set creatures, irongrass kappas are more tortoise like in appearance than normal kappas, with the dome now containing a pool of diluted amirita, a liquid metal with healing properties, greatly favoured by the hindu pantheon, with the most pure forms said to bring immortality. Unlike normal kappas, this liquid metal can be controlled at will though if completely emptied from the forehead, will cause the user to go weak.
Though still bipedal, it is heavily armoured, making it less accustomed to judoing, and more heavy weapon combat, losing dexterity to be more durable
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It's power as a plant life being has diminished, in comparison to the metal, but still has the ability to control plant life, with an inheritance that teaches it how to best weave itself produced irongrass in gear]
Hmm, there is some real benefit there, but those benefits certainly come with losses.
A diminished control over plant life is the most blatant practical drawback, but the real worrying thing is that reputation.
I don't know if I'll ever encounter an eastern person, but if I do, meeting them in such a form with such a reputation could be a pretty bad thing, and that's assuming legends of the kappa never reach our lands, not a gamble I'd want to take. Reputation seems innocuous, but anyone who has common sense can understand the danger of reputation.
Not only that, but this evolution clearly represents a diminishment of my grass powers, and a shift to metal type powers. If I do this it might mean from now on my grass powers take a backseat.
This amrita sounds quite useful. But it also represents a pure shift to a metallic form which in turn diminishes my origin as a plant type being.
Hmm...
Let's put this aside for now and focus on the first option.
[Fourtrees turtle]
[The one becomes many, 4 into 1, 1 into 4
The fourtrees turtle holds 4 trees on its back, each representing a season. The four trees are both separate, yet woven together into one cycle.
In each lays the power of each season, for the users use, from abundance to desolation, from growth to decay.
The four trees have formed a steelwood fortress which acts as a subspace, with people who enter shrinking to fit within the turtle. Things can be stored at ease and crops that are grown in here will grow faster and in abundance, with the breath of life boosting the user's growth.
Death within this territory will also bring benefits]
Weird. That's the biggest thing about this one. It's clearly an evolution that has little with my current status leading me to wonder what outside factors have brought this option in.
Could it be... the ant queen? Fourtreess at first glance has no connection, but the fourtreess is clearly a play on the word fortress.What else could it really be?
But if that is the case, then it has to be quite the special thing. Though I doubt it's the sole reason.
Looking at my new hammer given by the kobold smith, there was a fragment that came from a greater being.
It may have come from that.
Or perhaps it was one with some other reasoning that I was unaware of.
There are benefits. There is a mysterious power in this form, one associated with the seasons. Even if I don't know what it is, once I've understood the abilities, even if it's only decay, the benefits are not small.
The crop growth is equally interesting, offering a way to speed up my own leveling, and the subspace sounds quite special as well.
Though I do have an inventory, it is one that cannot contain people, only the dead. But a subspace that people can fit in would make me a walking base without needing an increase in space.
In contrast to the irongrass kappa, this one clearly leans on the natural aspect, pushing the metallic type back instead, though the fact that it is a fortress is clearly Ore-derived.
Interesting.
[centarmi tortoise]
[A tree that grows weapons grows on your back.
The culmination of metal and life, the ironsteel tree evolves into a tree of intent, one that grows weapons according to the intent placed into the tree, with different intents creating different weapons, not limited to your intent alone.
Every weapon born of the tree is within the users control, able to be manipulated from a distance.
The weapons can reattach to the tree to continue to grow, but only 100 weapons can be grown at a time.
The 100 ironwood weapons can be gathered together to create the armi forest killing formation, where the weapons temporarily blossoming into trees of intent which can whip the foes, as well as generate more ironsteel weapons under your control.
...Wow.
If the Fourtreess was vague, then this explanation was clear as day. Instead of a walking fortress, I'd become a walking armorey instead, or even an army in some capacity.
The killing formation is definitely a temptation. Formations can be used to kill an entire level above your own. My next evolution will push me to at least B, if not A. To be able to kill to the A level and above is a huge temptation.
It's also a more balanced option compared to the prior ones, balancing my metal and plant type aspects, rather than the more extreme aspects of the previous two.
And the fact that my intent is not the only one that can be used to make weapons is curious. Does that mean I can use the intent of my friends to create weapons? My enemies even?
I'd say there's no downsides, but I'd say the downside lays in how it specializes purely in weapons. Which isn't bad, but pursues the path of my past life, which may not necessarily be the best choice. After all, I'm a turtle now, not a human, even f I carry my memories over.
Alright, and number 4...
[Ambersteel forest turtle]
[The ironwood takes on a qualitative change, becoming a steelpine tree. The steelpine leaks a unique form of amber that covers the turtle, and once it solidifies becomes ambersteel, a metal-like substance harder than the steelpine itself.
The amber can also be used to encase the dead you have killed and refine them into amber soldiers, who retain 90 percent of their strength in life, and can be stored with ease inside the shell of the ambersteel turtle.
Bodies you have not killed can be resurrected, but their power is far more limited at 50 percent, and less depending on their current condition.
100 ambersteel soldiers of your choice can also be refined into an amber mountain seal, capable of magnifying or shrinking within a certain range, depending on the power of the soldiers.
That is terrifying. Like the prior one, it is clearly a mix of metal and plant, but it's abilities take a far different path, instead leaning into a new branch, unseen before.
The ability to turn the dead into practically an undead army, as long as I'm capable of killing it? I'm not even sure if a necromancer could do that! After all, even necromancy has its own strains on the user, limiting the number of high level undead they can control. Though it seems this evolution comes with the limit that those whom I haven't killed will be limited by their current status and below 50 percent. It's still an amazing ability though.
It seems pretty much focused on the amber soldiers, and ambersteel as a whole, with the steelpine being more of a side benefit, but it can't be ignored.
Steelpines are as suggested by this description, basically a higher level of ironwood, which are exceptionally rare. It's theorized by scholars to be born similar t how iron becomes steel, yet it has been almost impossible to replicate, with even elves unable to do so, purey relying on their ability to communicate with the elements to locate and relocate them.
I've never heard of ambersteel, but perhaps this is a side effect of steelpine being so rare that so little is known.
Doing this would give me access to a brand new weapon in the form of a mountain seal as well.
Mountain seals happen to be the favourite weapons of high level turtles, so that's one thing going for this form.
Hmm, all of them feel pretty special, with none of them particularly losing to the other easily. Even the ironkappa, though that reputation thing is unsettling. Hoping that if I do choose that one then I look too different to be compared to other kappas.
[Makes you feel better, heard there is a group of beast tamers who have domesticated kappas into a more tame race. Though they're rather clandestined]
Wonderful, either a freek, or a domesticated beast.
Anyway, they all seem to have potential, so I guess the question I ought to ask myself is...
..Which one to choose?