Evolution

by A R Chen

  That was a weird response, but Steve understood. He was probably boring her with his constant training but he really had no choice—this was necessary. Steve couldn’t spare any time now to entertain her, so he decided that he would make it up to Bonnie after he evolved.

  Steve spent the next hour or so training up his energy levels, until another flashback overcame him.

  Chapter 12

  “See this place?” a voice said.

  Steve blinked. He looked around and did not see ‘this place’, or anything for that matter. He had no idea where he was; everything was dark. He felt like he was sitting in a chair, but he couldn’t see anything when he looked down. He felt something strapped to his face too. What was going on?

  “Uhh…No?” Steve tried.

  “Whoops. Sorry about that, I didn’t even turn it on. Let’s try this,” the voice said.

  Suddenly, there was light. It was dim, but slowly rose in intensity until he was able to make out the small lights scattered around the blackness of the screen he was looking at. There was a small circle around one of them.

  “Ok, it’s working, right?” the voice tried to confirm with him. It sounded unsure. Then it muttered, “VR technology…so bad.”

  “Yeah it works,” Steve affirmed with a nod. “This is cool.”

  The memories came flooding back. He was talking with his father. What was his name again? Steve was unsure. The memories were still incomplete.

  “…you can see, we’re here.” Steve came back to himself and heard his father talking. “We are in orbit of the solar system Xolnea, solar system X. The closest habitable planet that we could colonize is here, in solar system T.” As he spoke, the star systems he was referring to were circled with blue lines.

  Steve remembered now. As a young boy, his father explained many things to him about the universe. They were running out of resources on their planet; the humans hadn’t exactly treated their world well. So, humanity had looked to colonize another planet.

  “Steve? Are you listening?” His father apparently hadn’t stopped talking while Steve was reminiscing. He hadn’t been listening at all.

  “Yes,” Steve answered. He heard a soft smack which he recognized as a facepalm. That was a gesture from decades ago, when his father was still growing up. Steve knew all about that as he often heard his father talking with his old friends about their youth.

  “Okay, doesn’t matter. Pay attention, I’m going to share a family secret. It’s very important, OK?” his father said. “Your grandfather’s father discovered this. Remember grandpappy? My dad told me, and now I’m telling you.”

  “Okay.” Steve found that his voice was very high-pitched. Maybe there was something wrong with him.

  “When you go to the academy, you have to remember this,” his father went on. “Never forget it, and don’t share it, okay? Family secret, and all.”

  “Okay!” Steve was confused. What was so important that his father had to keep repeating himself?

  “See this thing right here?” His father circled it with red. “And this thing right here, and this thing…”

  This went on until there were several red circles around the dark space on the map.

  “We don’t know what these things are. Scientists right now call these things globs of anti-matter,” Steve’s father explained. “But my grandfather discovered something and mapped it throughout his lifetime, from when he was a boy to when he was an old man.

  “These spots move around sometimes, Steve.” His father paused. “I think that they’re dangerous. He never explained to me exactly why or how these things move…but, you have to promise me to never go near these things when you’re all grown up and space-exploring and stuff…okay?”

  “Okay, Dad,” Steve answered. He could care less about this memory. Not only was this memory useless to him in his current situation, he also noticed that his father wasn’t even explaining what he was talking about very thoroughly. Though, based on this memory, his dad did seem like a nice guy.

  “Swear on your family’s honor,” his dad pressed. He took Steve’s hand and held it, apparently unwilling to let it go.

  “I swear,” Steve promised.

  ***

  Steve came to with a single thought, What a weird, random memory.

  Then the pain struck his mind. What had happened to his family? What was his own surname?

  Damnit, I should have tried to say goodbye! Steve opined. Or…maybe I did? In that flashback, when he was showing me those spots—why did they feel so familiar?

  Steve racked his mind for a while, then gave up. Those memories were still locked up, Just like two of his evolutions. And the names of people he cared for.

  Gods damn. Somebody locked my memories with Ancient-class magic. Steve recalled what Bonnie had said before. When I get to the Capital, surely I can find someone who will know about that. Even better, they may know a way back.

  Steve sifted through his memories for a while longer, until he was interrupted by someone. Ash was back. Steve watched as Ash looked around for his sister but couldn’t find her; she had left earlier to get some breakfast.

  Apparently, it had taken a while to get everyone together, fed, and headed off to harvest the Elemental Bark again. Leadership had changed for the workforce, but they were making good progress, but still had a lot to do.

  Steve had decided he would only use the lumber in the worst-case scenario; if even after using all the Crystals he still didn’t have enough to evolve into one of the top few evolutions, then he would use the lumber.

  Steve wondered about the evolution rankings as well; they seemed to be based only on what was powerful in relation to his current self. He was especially curious about his newly unlocked evolution.

  Deity… Steve mused. A whopping 150,000 energy cost, but it’s currently only the second-strongest. I have good reason to believe that it always was. There’s a 33% chance that it always was the second-strongest, right? No, that’s not right…Oh well.

  Rather than getting too wrapped up in calculating probability, Steve moved on. Being hunted by all ‘Celestials’ definitely didn’t sound good. It was probably a major drawback.

  Although the pros and cons of this evolution were a moot point, there was no way that he was turning into a Deity. He’d have to absorb all of Niti Village to gain that much energy, and that was assuming the cost didn’t go up further as a result of the attempt. In Steve’s mind, the best course of action was to train up his energy levels some more, then wait for another chance at unlocking a new evolution.

  Bonnie should help me again, like she did with unlocking Deity, Steve thought dubiously. Hopefully.

  ***

  After training the rest of the morning, they had lunch then set out, away from town. This time, there was a party of four, with Azra and Fom having joined them. The Elder had agreed and even encouraged it, surprisingly.

  Fom was driving the wagon, which was now only half full of Crystals. Steve had used the other half up at a prodigious rate, in his nightly training. Nobody really minded, though. Too much wealth for a village could also be a bad thing, as illustrated by the attack last night. Plus, they were god Steve’s property to begin with. Nobody questioned this ‘fact’ anymore, besides Steve himself.

  Their destination was the lake Ash had mentioned before. Steve had wanted to go there yesterday, but there wasn’t enough time. Then there was the attack which had almost made him forget about his plans to go today. Those raiders had been weak, but the Elder had warned that there would be stronger enemies arriving soon. That hadn’t really changed Steve’s plans, as he figured upgrading his energy was the best way to defend the village and himself. He did plan on helping them fight their rival clan, anyway.

  The four of them rolled along in relative silence, besides the clopping of horse hooves and the rumble of the wagon wheels on the uneven path. Steve, because he was contemplating his memories and practicing his Blink. Azra remained silent because she didn’t enjoy s
ocializing. Ash, because he was too polite to start up a conversation. And Fom, because he wasn’t sure what to make of his position within the group, other than being the driver.

  Steve really wanted to learn something new now. There just hadn’t been a good opportunity, yet. Honestly, the spells out there were too numerous to make an entirely informed decision. Bonnie basically gave him access to every spell in the world. That was great, except that the more he looked into it, the harder it became to decide what to strive for.

  There was the obvious advantage of becoming more powerful with each new spell, but what would happen if he learned too many? Steve assumed that each spell he learned would affect his evolution paths since he had already seen it happen. Maybe it would dilute the power of his future paths if he explored too many areas? He also didn't have the time or energy to master all the spells. In fact, Steve doubted that he could ever master more than five complex spells.

  Some of these spells were so powerful, he doubted that he would be allowed to keep them after the evolution. There was a Black Hole Vortex Sphere spell, for instance, which was world-breaking, in his opinion. The description stated that it generated a permanent black hole that sucked in all matter and light nearby. Learning that spell sounded like a great way to accidentally end his life, and maybe take the planet with him.

  All things considered, Steve decided against learning another spell at the moment. If the countdown reached two days and nothing new happened, he would learn a new spell. Probably.

  This is so hard. I wish I had something to guide me! Steve mentally grumbled. He then pointedly directed his thoughts right at Bonnie. Oh wait, I do!

  He waited a while, but there was only silence in his mind. Steve was so done with this. Bonnie was absolutely useless now. Even when he asked questions, half the time she didn’t answer at all, or told him that she couldn’t answer. And when she did answer, it was in that annoyingly cheery voice.

  Steve metaphorically sighed. Training indefinitely wasn’t good for his mind, which was most of his being now, as he didn’t have a corporeal body anymore. It had already been an hour of traveling and training in silence. Doing so under the gaze of a group of others was unbearable, especially after remembering Xander and their friendship in that earlier flashback. It was time to fix this problem by starting up a conversation.

  “Anyone know any good stories?” Steve asked, copying Xander’s usual tone. “Any volunteers?”

  At this point, Azra tried to speak up as she was anxious to prove her worth.

  “I—” Azra began.

  “No? How about you, Fom? Tell us about yourself,” Steve said, enthusiastically cutting Azra off.

  Fom looked amused. He looked young, maybe five years older than Ash. Though the age gap made him more mature and quicker-witted.

  “Well…I grew up in a town called—” Fom started.

  “Gods damn it, man, I said tell us about yourself, not tell us about your life story,” Steve cut in again, very Xander-like. He was laughing inside, unbeknownst to the shocked, young humans. It felt good to have fun like this; the past two days had been far too stressful.

  They were mortified. What had they done to deserve this? Azra looked upset, while Fom looked surprised. Ash was even more surprised, as he had known Steve a bit better than the rest.

  “God Steve…are you feeling alright?” Ash managed to speak up after a minute of silence.

  “I’m good, I’m good, man,” Steve replied.

  "Do you still want to hear about me?" Fom hesitantly spoke up again.

  "Nah."

  ***

  They reached the lake after a while. It was large, about two miles long and almost a thousand feet wide.

  “As you can see, it’s a good water source,” Ash began telling Steve all he knew about the lake. “The reason we haven’t developed farmland over here is only partly because of the distance. Starting a second village here wouldn’t be hard with our resources.

  “It’s just that…the lake is infested with hostile fish. It’s also an extremely deep mana well. The hostile fish breed within and become unstoppable. We tried to kill them before, but lost some of our warriors and a mage. After that, we gave up, it just wasn’t worth it.” Ash got straight to the point. “We don’t know how deep the lake may be, nor do we know exactly how much mana is infused within it. Niti Village tried to tap into it once, but it backfired. Now the lake is usually avoided and is known as Deadly Fish Lake.”

  He glanced at Steve for a reaction, then immediately looked away. Too bright.

  “Can you do anything about this, god Steve?” Ash asked directly. “Starting a second village here would bring prosperity to Niti. There was a reason I mentioned the lake to you yesterday. We would be grateful if you could clear the waters of mana-infested fish.”

  Steve felt that it would be interesting to check it out and explore the area. Instead of responding, Steve held a Blink spell in his mind as he slowly ventured out into the lake.

  Steve hovered out above the lake, just a few feet from the shore. Although the water was mostly clear with just a slight blue tint, he couldn’t see more than a few feet into it with his omnidirectional vision. This was surprising. It was almost like the water had a magical veil, about ten feet below the surface, interfering with his sight.

  He tried getting closer. Steve still had the Blink spell prepared, in case of an attack from mana-infused fish. As he neared the surface, he could see a few feet further into the water, which seemed like a good sign, but that was about it.

  Nothing happened for a few minutes, as the group stared at their god hovering above the dangerous waters. The two children were worried for him, while Fom watched impassively. He had never seen, nor even heard of the horrors of this lake.

  Steve then shot a Shock spell into the water. Bubbles floated up to the surface where the electricity had penetrated for a second, but there was no other reaction. Having heard about the dangers of this mana lake from Ash, he was taking no chances and completely focused on being ready to escape. After a few moments though, Steve relaxed his hold on Blink.

  The moment he did that, a large fish-man sprang out of the water, straight at him. Its jaws splayed wide enough to swallow Steve’s entire light body. It had been waiting for him the whole time.

  ***

  Steve immediately Blinked. The fish-man arced through the air and landed on the ground behind where he had been. It flopped a few times, then picked itself up and walked back into the lake.

  The creature that had popped up out of the lake had bright-yellow eyes which had flashed a dim green when it looked at Steve, before returning to the water. Steve felt a pull coming from the fish-man when the eyes glowed, but he couldn’t quite explain it. It seemed strong, having a sleek, powerful body. Judging solely by the aqua-green physique, it was stronger than most of the Niti Villagers.

  Steve had felt he was being watched from the moment he floated out over the lake. It was just a sort of intuition that he developed. Perhaps it had something to do with his skill, Greater Mind? He really wasn’t sure.

  He had relaxed his concentration to test his theory. It seemed that the reason he hadn’t been immediately attacked, was the strong magical energy he radiated when holding the Blink spell. The moment the fish-man sensed that it was gone, it had attacked.

  “Deadly Fish Lake,” Steve remarked as he regrouped with his escorts. “Lives up to its name alright. Sadly for them, I have just the thing for this.”

  His escorts were amazed. Even though he had Blinked in front of them many times already, they couldn’t help but admire it. They were all magicians and as such, had sensed him release the magical energy he was holding. Even so, in an instant, he executed the spell and escaped the danger.

  “What will you do?” Azra asked. She now saw that Steve was on an even higher level than she’d thought. Not only did he hold a high-level Spatial spell for so long, he had played the dangerous fish for a fool. This was the kind of high-level magical comb
at she hoped to learn some day.

  “Well, you’ll just have to watch!” Steve was enthusiastic; this was an ideal reason to learn a new spell. “By the way, can you guys do Earth magic?”

  Steve figured that he couldn’t cast his new magic and his Shock spell at the same time. It would take too much concentration and energy just to hold up the spell.

  “Large Anti-Gravity spell,” Steve read aloud from the list. “Allows one to exert anti-gravity on large-sized bodies.” Steve had chosen to spend some of his energy to learn this. Bonnie obliged him this one request, even though she had seemed sulky the entire day. Steve didn’t know what her issue was now, but he didn’t want to spend too much time thinking about it. That kind of thing wasn’t his strong suit, anyhow.

  Steve was confident that this spell was going to work wonders. They had worked on the preparations for his plan for the rest of the afternoon. When the sun was just about to set, the young mages had recovered enough mana from their training session and were ready to go.

  “Ready, everyone?” Steve asked. The group murmured their assent; they had been waiting on Steve. Ash was in the front with Azra behind him and Fom was standing behind Azra, acting as support.

  They stood on the edge of the lake as Steve began to cast his new spell. The energy that was released from his body began forming green symbols above a part of the lake. It drew a box at the ends of those symbols, only a few hundred cubic feet in total volume. After the box was formed, it began to spread out to the furthest corners of the lake. Once the target zone was defined, they witnessed the odd sight as a few thousand gallons of light-blue water floated into the air every second.

  Steve watched his energy slowly but steadily drain downwards. He had brought enough Crystals to fuel him, but he would need to consume a large deep-blue Crystal, for both water affinity and energy purposes. Maybe with increased affinity, the energy cost for lifting many millions of gallons of water would go down.

  The spell was already in place now, and the water was streaming ever more quickly into the sky. Steve let his concentration on the spell go; the symbols above the water would maintain it now, so long as he provided the energy. Though Steve didn’t know exactly how the symbols worked to do this, his knowledge of the spell allowed him to understand that they did.