Zack effortlessly decapitated a passing lizard. The tiny lizard died with a single swipe of his claws. His new size paired with Mimic Mundane Flora, the lizard never saw the attack coming. The lizard was smaller the size of one of his foreclaws. Its biomass was worthless to Zack now that he'd reached adulthood.
Four days have passed since Zack had hunted that snake and the hare family. He had molted twice within that time and reached adulthood. It was essentially constant hunting during those four days with nothing else. The only interesting thing that happened was that he found a chicken. The type of chicken that was typically raised as livestock. It was one of his easiest kills as it had little survival instincts, but livestock implied a settlement. Zack's previous interactions didn't go that well. Getting shot at didn't exactly make for a great first interaction with a group of people.
So, Zack looked at the brighter side. He had grown to the staggering size of 99 cm, almost a full meter. If Zack had to estimate, he was as large as a medium or small dog. Bugs were disliked in general, so his size didn't help. Zack guessed he wasn't going to win any beauty contests any time soon.
Zack's eyes scanned his status screen and clicked his mandibles. Today was the last day before his imminent self-destruction. However, that wasn't what was troubling him. He had enough Biomass to evolve, so self-destruction was no longer a concern. Zack hadn't bothered increasing his Biomass past 100, it was too much work. If he had more time on his claws then Zack wouldn't have minded grinding for more Biomass. But, the main issue was the Prayers to use the evolution booster. Zack had collected more than 200 Prayers and yet it still wasn't enough.
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Name: Zack Huntt
Species: Devils Flower Mantis (Idolomantis diabolica)
Age: 2 Months, 11 Days old
Lifespan: 3~ Year
Lifecycle: Adulthood
Size: 0.99 m / 99 cm
Prayers Collected: 249 Prayers
Biomass Collected: 100 Biomass
Abilities: Flowery Aroma, Mimic Mundane Flora, Enchanting Luminance
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Zack had spent the majority of the week constantly killing any creatures that crossed his path. Zack had to swap to multiple different places as the small critters became harder to find the more he killed. Zack slightly regretted spending so much time hunting down that hare family, but he could only continue on.
Zack prayed to the lizard to add another Prayer to his growing collection. Zack tried his best to pry the amount needed to activate the evolution booster from the system. No matter what he did it had kept silent. Attempts to demand, threaten, command, bargain, plead, beg, or grovel managed to get the information out of the system. All Zack received was that he had yet to meet the requirements to activate it. His Prayers had even reached an exaggerated number of 250.
Zack was starting to think his system was broken. With dull eyes, Zack prodded the system to see if he had enough Prayers.
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Ding! Evolution Requirements Met!
Prerequisite: Achieve Adulthood!
Prerequisite: Collect 100 Biomass!
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Ding! Evolution Booster Requirement Met!
Prerequisite: Fulfill Evolution Requirements!
Prerequisite: Collect 250 Prayers!
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Zack stilled for a second before erupting with joy. He finally met the requirements! Zack immediately retreated back to a base to evolve. Zack would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about his own self-destruction. If the evolution booster required more than 250, Zack would've just taken the loss. Living was better than losing out on missed opportunities. But now it didn't matter since he could evolve and use an evolution booster.
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Ding! Two Evolution Options Available!
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Alchemic Herb Mantis (Blue Planet):
An established mantis species that has adapted the newly introduced Mana into their environment. Previously known as the Devils Flower Mantis, this species has further refined its natural mimicry to extend to alchemical herbs. This mantis has a bright and colorful undercoat helpful for mimicry. Budding apprentice alchemists often mistake these mantises for the real plant.
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Mage Scourge Mantis (Origin Realm):
A mantis species adapted to environments containing a high concentration of Mana. The species Mage Scourge Mantis has an insatiable hunger for Mana. If left unsatiated, the mantis is often known to enter a frenzied mental state. At the cost of being unable to use most forms of complicated and advanced magic, the Mage Scourge Mantis attains a physique highly resistant to anything Mana. This mantis has a blackened exoskeleton similar to that of charred wood. It is a mage's nightmare to encounter this mantis alone.
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It seemed the system didn't bother mentioning the Evolution Enhancement since he had no surplus of Biomass. Zack focused on his options. Once more two options were available, it was still better than one. The more Zack read the descriptors, the more stunned he became. Zack didn't know where to begin, so he started with the biggest discovery. Mana!
Mana, the powerful resource found in fiction said to be the basis of magic. His evolutions seemed to tap into that powerful resource. Did this mean people on this planet could use magic? Zack wasn't sure, so far they only used guns. Maybe those who can are on the rarer side.
Another thing to note was the tag at the end of each option no longer showed the scientific name of the species. Zack didn't understand why this was the case, but it wasn't like those extra details were missed. The new tags might be possible locations. Zack has neither heard of the Origin Realm nor of the Blue Planet. So, Zack shuffled them to the back of his mind.
Back to his evolution options. The Alchemic Herb Mantis looked to be a branched evolution of the Devils Flower Mantis. The second option, the Mage Scourge Mantis would take his development down a completely different path. The remarks mentioned a whole deluge of information as well.
Zack slowed down and tried his best to objectively evaluate each of the options. The Alchemic Herb Mantis was obviously the most safe option of the two. It worked with what he was familiar with, mimicry, and enhanced it. Together with the colorful undercoat, Zack shouldn't have any issues using Enchanting Luminance. The only lackluster downside was that one of the abilities gained from evolving would be mimicry-related. Specialization wasn't a bad thing, but Zack had to say his abilities were definitely lacking an offensive aspect.
Hopefully, the Mage Scourge Mantis could change that. However as Zack read the descriptor, the more he disliked this option. It was possible for the Mage Scourge Mantis to enter a frenzied mental state when left unsatiated. This was a key problem with this option. Did it mean Mana, food, or a combination of both? Additionally, the Mage Scourge Mantis had adapted to environments high in Mana. Zack hadn't the faintest clues about whether these forests were high in Mana. But if Zack had to guess, he would say not.
This was important because environmental factors greatly influenced a creature's way of life. Fishes that live in the deep waters don't go to the shallow surface waters for a reason, water pressure. They expand like a blown balloon due to the pressure decreasing. If this evolution had that kind of negative effect, Zack didn't want to touch this option at all. This might be false of course, it was possible for the evolution to not suffer from an unsuitable environment. But there was another issue with this evolution option. It was just unneeded.
The main benefit of the Mage Scourge Mantis was their high Mana resistance, but Zack hasn't even seen a single mage as of yet. The descriptor made no mentions of any increased physical increases other than the Mana resistance. So, it was likely there was none or not worth mentioning. Zack couldn't see the benefit of this evolution in his current circumstances. Even with the great benefit of Mana resistance, the downside of entering a frenzied state was too much of a risk.
In the end, it was a matter of taking the gamble or playing it safe. Zack didn't dare gamble with his life. Gambles that Zack could do something about were completely different from gambles in which he had no control over the end results. Zack had no control over the evolution process, it was likely a permanent choice that he could change whenever he wanted. So, Zack decided to play it safe once more and chose the Alchemic Herb Mantis.
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Ding! Alchemic Herb Mantis (Blue Planet) Selected!
Activate Evolution Booster?
Commence Evolution?
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Zack reluctantly selected yes for both. Zack had to admit the options he was given weren't the best. Zack wished for more options, and he had some ideas on how that might be done. However, that would be for the next evolution as he couldn't put off the evolution for later. The choice was easy, it was either evolve or die. Zack fell unconscious with aspirations to achieve better evolution options in the future.
At that moment, a mantis roughly a meter in size suddenly shrank and condensed into a pearl. The pearl wasn't close to being small at roughly 20 cm in size. The unique colorless pearl wasn't to be found though as it was hidden underneath layers of plant matter that somewhat resembled a base. The pearl sat undisturbed that evening.