Evolution

by A R Chen

  Steve was down to 65 total in his Workforce, but it was fine. Steve just needed to harvest the trees within four days. If it really went too slowly, he’d just request more help from Leffer, anyway. The most important part of this operation was to confirm the effects of absorbing Elemental Bark. He had access to enough energy; he just needed to unlock the best evolutions. Absolutely nothing would stop him from achieving his goals.

  As they walked, Steve didn’t stop questioning Ash. The kid had a whole new respect for him, now that he had shown some of his magical prowess. There was a fanatical shine in Ash’s eyes when he stared below Steve.

  “Tell me more about these Sky Islands,” Steve said. “How do they work? How did they get there?”

  “Well…to be honest, the Empire doesn’t tell its citizens much. The legends claim that there are Angels up there that control the Islands. Other godly beings, such as yourself, as well. I was hoping when you recover your memories, that you could tell me about the world.” Ash tried to be helpful, even as he failed to contain his growing excitement.

  So Celestial beings such as Angels might exist. Also, there was a Demon race that was seemingly powerful but not included in his evolution choices. Steve quickly ran through the list again. No mention of Demons, though they could be the question-mark evolutions. Steve once again wondered how to unlock them; there had to be something he was missing.

  “It’s fine. When I recover my memories, then I’ll be sure to tell you, if I know.” Steve was straightforward in this exchange. Ash had provided him with adequate information about the world already. “What is the most powerful race that you know of in this world?”

  Ash had to think about this one. “It’s too close to make a clear judgement between the Satan and the old Dragon race, but I’ll say it’s the Dragon race,” Ash decided. “Dragons haven’t been seen by us for hundreds of years, or so the Empire says. They were rumored to have been extremely large and terrifying at their peak, capable of almost all magic and practically indestructible. The only issue was, as I heard, their energy consumption was also extremely high. This led the race to extinction, or at least near extinction, as whenever they needed to consume food, they would also expend a lot of energy to acquire it.”

  It wasn’t the answer Steve was looking for. He already knew about Dragons and their power level. They were high up on his list, no matter what he did. Although, if Dragons weren’t the most powerful even back when he hadn’t learned spells, what was?

  Steve was still deep in thought when they arrived at the clearing.

  ***

  Remley, Ronnie, and Reagan were back at Lord Mottor’s residence. In the Empire, when someone controlled at least two large-sized villages, they gained the title of Lord. It had taken them the whole night to ride back on their horses, but this news couldn’t wait.

  The morning air was fresh and invigorating, but after their late-night ride they were completely beat. Hopefully it would be worth it, Lord Mottor would definitely want to hear this, and he was generous with the pay for things he wanted. Only time would tell how much they gained from this information.

  “Hey! We come bearing urgent news!” Remley shouted when they arrived at the residence. The village guards had quickly let them in earlier, seeing their insignia on their clothing. The dual markings meant that they were some level of magician.

  The residence guards called for the Lord and let them in, albeit a bit reluctantly. They also knew that the Lord had hired them himself. While it was great that the Lord could take control of two villages, the methods he was rumored to have used were terrible.

  “What is it?” Lord Mottor demanded of the three rogue magicians he’d hired, who were sitting opposite him on his comfortable chairs. They were supposed to be out, keeping an eye on his next conquest, Niti.

  It was going to be his greatest conquest yet, but he had to do it right. He couldn’t go in with his main forces; it would attract too much backlash. Their strength would be depleted by ‘random attacks’ from dangerous wildlife. Then, when they were desperate, he would offer his aid and take them under his wing. The plan was foolproof, so long as the rogue magicians did their jobs.

  “Sir. We’ve spotted a ball-of-light being in Niti Village. It seems like a magical race of some sort, though we can’t identify it. Could be from the Eastern lands, for all I know…” Remley trailed off as Lord Mottor frowned. Remley got ahold of himself and got back on track. “This sort of news isn’t unheard of, I know. Magical beings sometimes do travel to our part of the world. But what was remarkable, is that it had a stash of Crystals!”

  “How many?” Lord Mottor asked immediately, leaning forward in his seat. Crystals were serious business.

  “Two wagonloads,” Reagan replied immediately, knowing the importance of delivering good news to a superior. “We rushed back as soon as we could to report.”

  They had been forced to return in person due to Lord Mottor’s devious and cautious nature. In the event that they were captured or killed, he wanted no evidence that could lead back to him. A rune, symbol, or tool could all be used to communicate over long distances, but were also easily traced. If Lord Mottor were caught in the act, he would instantly be deprived of his position, and even staying alive would become extremely difficult.

  “Hmm…” Lord Mottor had to think about this. Two wagons full of Elemental Crystals. If they were all of the lowest quality, then it wouldn’t be worth attacking immediately. “What quality?”

  “I was only able to observe them through the Looking Mirror, but it looked like at least mid-grade Crystal. The color was there,” Ronnie offered helpfully.

  Lord Mottor’s eyes now gleamed. This opportunity was too good to pass up. Even if those were small wagons, mid-grade Crystals were exceptionally valuable. The Capital would pay extremely well, especially the rich mages and nobility.

  “We’ll have to speed up our plans. Drastically. I want an army marching towards Niti by tomorrow.” Lord Mottor had made up his mind. "Don't worry, men. I'll reward you with a couple villagers of your choosing for this information."

  It was time for war.

  ***

  Steve continued to check his countdown every fifteen minutes. He wanted to be ready for the next vision.

  4 Days 5 Hours 20 Minutes 23 Seconds

  They had been harvesting for a few hours now. The prisoners and the Squad of Scoundrels were working quite diligently. They already had a full wagonload of Elemental Bark.

  Might as well start training and absorbing now, Steve thought. Bonnie! Can you tell me about any changes to the list as I absorb?

  “Sure!” Bonnie replied ecstatically. Recently, Steve had been ignoring her and now was certain she had become bored. Then Steve began absorbing the Elemental Bark. He started on one with 50 energy, continuing until its blue hue turned gray. It was just a normal piece of lumber now.

  Bonnie, no changes? Steve wondered. There had to be something, right?

  “Treant evolution overtook Kobold,” Bonnie replied happily. “Also, there were minor changes to energy costs. The energy costs of the top ten evolutions, aside from Elf and Slime, went up.”

  Damn, that’s bad. I shouldn’t absorb any more. Steve’s thought process was simple: if he wanted to have a good evolution, he should only do things that benefited the top five evolutions in terms of cost. After all, Bonnie had said that any excess energy he had left went towards fueling his evolution, making him stronger. Although, if that were the case, it might be better to become a Treant, with all this Elemental Bark lying around. He was sure that if he absorbed enough…

  No, if he were unable to unlock the question-mark evolutions, he would still be better off becoming a Vampire. All he had to do was suck up energy from living beings, it seemed. It had to be impressively powerful, being ranked above even Dragon, currently. Although, I should probably find out what a Vampire is, first, Steve thought. That would be wise.

  He went over to Ash and talked with the boy for a little. S
teve explained that he had the word Vampire lurking around in his ‘memories’ and wanted to know more about them. Ash turned out to be a font of information on the subject, having grown up hearing stories of heroes, monsters, and other beings. Vampires were one type of these other beings, definitely not heroes, though not quite monsters.

  “They say that Vampires are descended from a Monster God fusing its energy with a Demonic God. Nobody knows for sure, honestly, but their creation was a disaster. At some point before the Empire existed, it’s said that there was a time where the only beings in power were Vampires. My Grandmother was an excellent and accurate storyteller, she told me that blood magic was extremely powerful. Some Vampires could destroy a blooded being with nothing but a look. The Legendary Vampire, George, was known and feared by many titles back then.”

  Ash paused for a bit to catch his breath. He loved Vampire stories as a child and had even wanted to be like George when he grew up.

  “George was like a god. He united and reigned over all the Vampire clans as one and controlled this whole continent. They say, even if one wasn’t a Blooded creature, his power was so great that he could still take your life at a glance. There are uncountable legends written about him, though I can’t tell you exactly which ones are true.”

  Ash had gotten a little carried away, but suddenly remembered who he was talking to and his tone became a lot more serious.

  “He was called the King-Slayer, Conqueror of the Great Ocean Lovoth, and so much more. All the races had to bow down before him. Finally, when his power began to wane, they say that he was betrayed by his clan. They were power hungry and seized the opportunity to make an army of magic-immune Golems to attack him while he was resting. After that, there were no new tales of George, so it is believed that he died to the treacherous attack.”

  “What happened to the Vampire clan?” Steve asked. He was considering becoming one of them, after all.

  “They tried to hold onto their power, and they succeeded for a time. Eventually, with no true champion to guide them, internal struggles and greed seized the nobility, and before they realized it, they had fallen. Large marked golems, made by an unknown Archmage, pushed them back and into their capital. After a siege, the last Vampire there committed suicide. It’s unknown whether or not any Vampires remain in existence…but one thing is for certain—”

  Ash was slightly out of breath, having said all that in one go. He looked around the clearing, saw that the Workforces were still working, and finished his thought.

  “If aVampires are ever seen again, every single race on this continent will unite to destroy them completely.”

  And with that chilling pronouncement, Steve no longer had any interest in becoming a Vampire.

  ***

  After a while of waiting around watching the workers’ progress, Steve’s countdown hit:

  4 Days 3 Hours 0 Minutes 0 Seconds

  This time he was prepared when his vision swam, as he was launched into a flashback.

  ***

  Steve opened his eyes. This time, he had fixated his mind on the idea that he should examine his old body, so that was the first thing he did. Steve needed to make sure he got as much information as possible out of this vision. He seemed like a 20-year-old male and was wearing a black skin-tight suit.

  When he shifted his gaze upwards, he saw some sort of three-dimensional screen. Oh, it’s a hologram. Steve turned around, assessing the spacious room. He now felt strange without his omnidirectional vision. What is this place? Where am I? With that question, memories came flooding back to him, all at once.

  This is a lecture hall? Young adults go here to learn? Steve was astounded by the revelation.

  He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find it was Xander. His friend was mischievously grinning, like he had just seen something funny. Or was about to. “Hey, it’s going to happen any moment now,” Xander told Steve in a whisper. What was going to happen? The young adults filing into the room were all taking their seats. Standing in the middle of the room, near the hologram, was the professor, an older, stern-looking man.

  “What’s goin—” Before Steve could finish, the hologram flashed brilliantly, attracting everyone’s attention. Everyone in the room looked to see what was going on… And then it started.

  “Oh! Michael! Mmmmmhhhhh,” a loud female voice moaned. It came from the hologram, which now was a 3-D figure of a naked man and woman, crammed together in a small shower.

  More memories flooded back. Xander roared with laughter and as the memories settled into place, Steve joined in as well. He remembered it all.

  Earlier that day, they had hacked into the school’s computer system. They had thought it would be hilarious to replace the current lesson with some of Xander’s porn. And it was.

  The whole room was in an uproar. Some students were gawking at the hologram, some seemed embarrassed, but most were laughing. The professor took one look at the hologram and immediately dialed for help on his smartwatch. Where before he had just seemed stern, now he looked angry, furious even.

  Steve couldn’t stop laughing. This was the funniest stunt they had pulled all year. He started slapping Xander’s back as the two of them continued to watch Michael and that random female porn star copulate. By now, the girl somehow had a blindfold on. They were still in the fucking shower!

  They laughed until they had tears in their eyes and when he was finally able to catch his breath, Steve turned to his friend. “I didn’t know you were like that, Xander. What the fuck kind of porn is this?” he asked jokingly.

  They looked at each other and dissolved into hysterics again.

  Chapter 10

  Steve was still chuckling to himself when he regained consciousness, but slowly came down from his laughter high.

  He remembered Xander very clearly now. The guy was seriously hilarious, absolutely dependable and loyal. Xander was his man if he wanted to do anything fun. He remembered a few good times. Now Steve wondered who he missed and wanted to know about more; it would be a tough call between the girl and Xander.

  Also, he got a good amount of information about his previous world in this last flashback. He had been overwhelmed with memory for the latter half of it, but in the first half, he had remembered to learn all he could.

  Apparently, Steve was a human from a technologically advanced planet. They hadn’t yet ventured out to create colonies in space, but it was the new, emerging frontier. All the cadets would learn in lecture halls—like the one he’d been in—in the mornings, then receive hands-on training in the afternoon. Most of the cadets there had similar dreams to him—to set up their own space colony and be the founding leaders on a new planet.

  Steve picked up on a noise nearby and quickly turned his attention to the workers. They were working slower now; it seemed like they were running low on energy. It seemed mistakes were also being made, the sound of a prisoner’s dropped axe was what had caught Steve’s metaphorical ears. Maybe they needed to break for food; however, that wasn’t Steve’s call to make. Well, ultimately it was, but he had assigned people specifically for situations like these. There was no way that Steve was going to concern himself with everything that these workers needed over the next few days. Nope. That sort of thing was Loop and Leeroy’s responsibility.

  Thinking of Loop and Leeroy, he turned his focus toward them. Loop was glancing from the ground below Steve to the workers and back, deep in contemplation. Leeroy, on the other hand, was still guiding his workers. The Squad of Scoundrels probably ate better than the prisoners, as they were better off physically. They could work for longer without fear of their body deteriorating. Loop seemed to have finally come to a decision and walked toward Steve.

  “God Steve! We have finished loading three wagons though it is now just past lunchtime. I think we should break to eat back in the village. We could see if the Left or Right could spare some time to watch these workmen. You don’t have to waste your time watching over us.” Loop had finally spotted th
e issue and immediately offered a solution. He was learning fast; Steve had wanted to do this anyway.

  “Sure. Good job,” Steve replied affably. His time with Xander hadn’t faded from his mind and seemed to be buoying his mood.

  “Pack it up, everybody! We’re going back to the village for lunch!” Steve announced. They had harvested enough lumber today anyway. He’d leave the rest to the Elder; it was terribly boring work and it seemed that it wasn’t useful to his evolution, anyway. Unless he wanted to become a Treant, of course.

  The group’s trip back to the village was uneventful. Steve successfully passed on his duties of babysitting the workmen and waited for Ash to eat his lunch. The two of them talked some more, while Ash was eating. He learned that Ash’s Naming ceremony would be in two days and also found out a little bit about their village culture.

  Everyone had pointed hats that they wore specifically to meetings to easily identify themselves as part of whichever family. Families were made clear by their shared first letter. The language they used was different from Steve’s language, but somehow, he could still understand it. It was like the translation software from his old world but ingrained in his mind. Bonnie, on the other hand, was like an AI program that was maybe a little faulty.

  So, the house of J had Joffrey, Jenkins, and the rest of the family. The same rule applied for the house of A, which had Azra, Ash, Amon, and the rest. Loop, Leeroy, and Leffer were all part of the same family, basically three generations of L-family men. Women married into a family, as their society was largely a patriarchal one.

  It was a little bit different for Naming ceremonies, however. Ash would get a title that he would attach to his name, sort of like a surname in Steve’s old world. The title would be based on the Name-giver, the person conducting the ceremony.

  Usually, it was customary to base it on an element that the person had high affinity for. Ash’s last name wouldn’t be random; it would be Blaze, Aqua, or something related to the elements. Most likely pertaining to water since that’s what he excelled at.