[Otters] were special creatures. Or, perhaps they were the most average being the world had ever seen. The Core wasn’t sure which was the truest in the objective spectrum, but it knew that it had personally never seen anything like them. Their fur was like nothing before, able to hold out water as the creatures swam faster than anything else. Their paws were strong and durable, able to fight through powerful currents. Their entire bodies were made to glide through the blue liquid as if it didn’t exist. There was no part not made of their aquatic lives, only their lungs limiting them from reaching their full potential underwater.

That wasn’t to say they were the worst organ in the body, however. Even with the need for air, the creatures could dive deeper and go more stretches than anything the Core had previously witnessed. If made to hold its breath, the [Otters] could do so without hardship for several minutes. The Core was more than a little surprised by that. In the parts of its mind previously sealed up, it had seen what oxygen deprivation did to a mortal body, what it did to the skin. One would turn blue, wrestling for even the slightest bit of air to go down one's throat. It was a terrible fate but not one which the small furry creatures would feel that quickly. They were made for the water, created by the water, their entire point of evolution surrounding the water. [Otters] were made for it and it showed.

That was what the Core based its thought-process off when thinking of what to focus on in the [Force Evolution]. What colours of Mana could a [Otter] need? Which parts would need to be enhanced and what needed to be looked at with lesser eyes? Their bodies had a specific balance of Mana inside them, most types residing perfectly. To simply age up the creature, following these patterns perfectly would do just that. Yet to make the change, the balance needed to be upturned. But what had to be increased? What did the Entity need to put more focus onto?

Water. That much was obvious enough. The creatures loved the water, seeking it out above anything else. Yet it also looked at the trees with quite the peculiar site, looking to nearly dig its teeth into the bark. The Core could see both being focused on yet knew that only one was more important than the other. Would it try and enhance the current main focus or try and switch it over to another? The rarity would certainly have a higher chance of increasing should it choose the trees, yet even that did seem like a bad idea. On those claws and teeth were higher amounts of [Green Mana]. Following the Queen’s advice, the Core wanted to stray away from that as much as possible, lest it would cause an extreme amount of pain for the creatures. Water, on the other side of the spectrum, did not seem to have such weakness. Its fur and general body ran by the Mana, the colouring inside being encircled with blue. While there was a more extreme density to it on the outside, the deeper parts showed off the Blue Mana was as well. It was clear what the choice would be.

Yet the Core didn’t want to do just water. It didn’t want to surround the [Otter] with a large batch of water and hope for it to be circled in. No… it wanted to go one step out, go over to the actual conversion of Mana to the water. In-between those two states was a point where a single push to either side would either reverse the process or complete it. In that state, the energy was neither mass nor pure energy. It was something else yet both states as well. While the Core couldn’t exactly explain it, there was a clear idea of what gain could come from it.

Also, since the experience would take several minutes at the best, the Entity did have some lacking desires to completely envelop the creature. Getting lungs filled with water due to an uncontrollable series of painful screams was not the way it wanted to fail the process. Therefore, the set-up was a little different. Through a quick batch of conversion, a small tub was filled with water, just big enough for the [Otter] to sit comfortably in, taking up all the body except for the head. Then above the neckline, the area around was completely and utterly filled with the half-state of the Energy and water. A few droplets even fell on the creature due to being moved around so much, causing the [Otter] to make quite a peculiar explanation of air. The Queen called it sneezing. The Core called it impractical moving around.

But while the sudden movements were possible to have distorted a few of the preparations, the Core was nevertheless ready to move onto the final steps. With the [Otter] placed where it needed to be, the Entity started up the process of gathering energy. The bloated feeling of not having enough space was painful yet it did its best to ignore the sensation. There were more important things to worry about, after all. So, with nothing more to do, [Force Evolution] was enacted.

A [Skill] has been improved!

You have understood [Force Evolution] more deeply

What happened with the creature after that was hard to tell. The currents of Mana constantly being pushed in and out in a wave-like fashion made any visual incomprehensible most of the time. Everything was blurred together, not in the right places, or sometimes even just pure colouring. The Core knew the latter part to be a general fact, however, the light levels around the scene increased as well. And the fact that the [Otter] had its eyes closed as well told the Entity all it needed to know.

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Of course, there was the thrashing around that needed to be taken into account. The creature was getting some form of sensation from the forced evolution skill, and it was showing that off just as well. It was only due to the narrowness of the hole it sat in that it hadn’t rolled around yet, though the edges did do some damage as well. The constant twisting around was not doing well for its upper body, the slamming against it causing some quite dire damage to the fur. If not for the constant screaming, the Core was worried that it had lost its mind.

Or was the constant wailing a sign that things weren’t well? The Core supposed that it was at least a sign of life. Now, if the screaming stopped? That would be bad. Luckily, it didn’t at any point, continuing and one without ever hitting any tones differently, though it did turn into snarls at a few points. There were a few thoughts about sending to be more composed, but the Core thought it best to not do anything that could cause an imbalance in energies. It wanted an evolution that surrounded the aspect of water and it would be damned if it didn’t get one.

Signs of progress were showing off at the two-minute mark. The fur, delightful as always to look at, started to puff up slightly, the individual hairs raising themselves. They were changing, becoming wavier in appearance. Yet… that allowed the water to reach the skin! How could the Core ever fathom that a good idea… was there no end to what could be changed? It did suppose that evolution wasn’t always positive but why remove the shielding from the cold? The animal needed to be shivering within mere seconds.

Not that it did, however. It was starting to lessen the number of screams it was putting out. They were still there of course, yet they were more muted as if the pain had decreased at some level. The Core supposed that could have been the fur’s fault, the process of their change causing it.

The [Blue Mana] was starting to show up more after that point. The direct access to the skin made the liquid pool inside the body, running around the veins, forcing their way through the Mana-Nodes. Every part was coated blue at some level, the [Otter] becoming more and more like the liquid instead of just being around it. The power being forced into the creature was… quite something.

Though that did come at a cost. The muscles certainly didn’t seem too happy about the intrusions, and the consequences for this discontent was clear. One by one, the strings that held the muscles together faded away into the liquid, not able to survive in the new environment. Some remained yet the Core could see how much had been lost. It would mean more than just a minor decrease in physical abilities if there even was such a thing. The Core was starting to believe the creature could just die before it finished the transformation, the insides being torn up everywhere. The digestive system was almost entirely gone, only a few of the essentials still left to do the work. The lungs… had been filled up, forced to alter filters to only accept water. They weren’t as the Queen described gills to be yet they weren’t that different either. They accepted water as if it was pure air.

When the eyes started to put out blue smoke, however, the Entity began to suspect that benefits were had as well. The presence of the [Otter] had decreased in the physical sense, yes, but the Mana around it had most definitely increased. And that wasn’t just meant in the fashion of the Core forcing it to run through the creature’s body. There was so much more to it. The Mana Capacity was growing, the pressure the Mana-Nodes were being put under caused an extreme widening. The Otter was becoming more entrenched in the liquid and it was learning from it.

The five-minute mark had been reached when things finally started to settle down, the Core able to see the creature in full clarity. Water had long since encompassed the entire creature's body, enveloping it like a translucent cocoon. At all sides, at least ten centimetres of liquid-filled the space before the [Otter] itself. And that included the ground as well, the creature not close to having its feet down on it. That fact had not been obvious while it had sat underground yet the rising from the puddle has shown off all that needed to be known.

In terms of size, the [Otter] was smaller. It had lost a fourth of its actual size, the bones, muscle, and body, in general, all being down-scaled. Proportionally, the head had increased slightly, however, the thing also seemed to be more used. The creature was certainly looking around with a newfound curiosity of all things. Or… was that because of it having never seen the world in the same way before. Taking a deeper sight into the [Otter]’s eyes, the Core found a rather interesting fact.

While the outer appearance was the same as before, the connections to the eyes were entirely gone. The creature was, without a doubt, as blind as possible. It couldn’t see anything at all. So… why was it still looking around? Well, there was one thing the creature and the Core had in common now. Both entities were blind but could still survey the surroundings rather easily. And that was all because they used Mana to guide their way. They couldn’t see light but they could see the energies put out by everything around them. Perhaps not in the same way but it was close enough that the Core could see the differences. Those constant wafts of blue smoke surrounding the creature’s eyeballs were more interesting than ever.

‘I take it that everything went well?’ the Queen questioned from the side, likely taking a look at the new addition as well. ‘I hadn’t expected an [Mage] archetype so soon, but I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when it came to this. Times like these show off that change is happening quicker than it ever did before.’

‘What do you mean with the archetype? This is not an Enlightened,’ the Core questioned. Mages were a class usually given to humanoids, so why was the ant speaking as if the [Otter] had become one? It was very weird to hear.

‘I think it would be best if you analyse the creature to see for yourself. If anything, I think I could guess the new changes without even being told.’

… The Core understood perfectly well that she knew something it didn't, yet it obliged without comment. Using a burst of [Appraisal], a skill which attracted the creature's attention before it even finished being activated, the Core was met with a screen that showed off quite the interesting fact.

It had a class.