Chapter 22
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The Mini Sponge Evolution Stage only had four ranks, one less than the Micro Jellyfish Stage.
The first stage was the base, yellow form.
The second stage changed Astaroth's color to orange and gave him better fluency between his energy and movements. It also gave him a pair of intimidating horns.
The third stage once more altered his body color. From orange to a light shade of red, it also came with further improvement to energy and body movement fluency. Subsequently, this improved his movement speed and attack speed by marginal amounts. In this stage, Astaroth grew another pair of horns, and both pairs increased in length and width.
The final and best fourth stage was one that turned his body color to a deep shade of red. It also forced two more pairs of spiraling horns to grow from atop his head. Additionally, this minor breakthrough resulted in a direct enlargement of his fang-like teeth.
All in all, by the time that Astaroth started killing Lvl 9 Mini Sponges, he looked more like a devil than even a devil itself.
While looking as he came straight out of some twisted horror story, he mercilessly killed and devoured all his brethren…
After becoming the largest and most powerful Mini Sponge in the Sponge Pore, Astaroth achieved a size roughly a tenth that of the Baby Sponge's Pore.
Wishing to try something else this time around, he directly sucked on the energy of this Evolution Area, hoping to use this to speed up the last breakthrough.
[Ding! You have absorbed 100 (G10) Energy from a Baby Sponge's Pore!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 120 (G10) Energy from a Baby Sponge's Pore!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 280 (G10) Energy from a Baby Sponge's Pore!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 550 (G10) Energy from a Baby Sponge's Pore!]
[Ding! You have…]
[Ding! You have passed 100,000 (G10) Energy and reached a point of Energy Overflow! Would you like to go through with the evolution process?]
"Yes, that's fine."
BLING!
Astaroth erupted in a bright flash of Iridescence as he broke past the world that restricted him!
In mere nanoseconds, he had already become a tenth the size of the Baby Sponge…!
A sixth the size… a third… half the size!
At this point, the evolution process came to an abrupt conclusion, and the results were stupendous!
"???"
Out of nowhere, the Baby Sponge noticed something appear on its backside. But before it could even understand what was happening, Astaroth dug his fangs into the Baby Sponge and activated |True Energy Absorption|.
After waiting exactly two blinks, the Baby Sponge was no more… and Astaroth was now three times larger than he was!
"The world outside… The air is oddly refreshing."
After slurping up the last of the Baby Sponge's delicious blood, Astaroth observed his surroundings. The first thing he saw were sponges, all similar to the Mini Sponges, except they were larger and freakier looking.
Looking up from the varying-sized Sponges, Astaroth saw the massive legs of an unknown creature.
Although it was through an almost see-through filament of water, all it took was one look for Astaroth to realize that sh*t was about to get real crazy after he ultimately escaped this area…
"Some sort of insect…? A spider…? I don't know how I feel about soon becoming a spider…"
As he was staring at an unbelievably massive black leg above the world's barrier, he suddenly blinked and realized that the leg had vanished.
All that remained were the crystal clear blue skies of this miniature ecosystem…
"There is no need to get ahead of myself. I just need to focus on killing and devouring these Sponges, then I can see what exactly that giant leg belonged to."
A flash of determination passed through Astaroth's eyes as he vanished from his spot and got back to the grind. This time, his target would be the Sponges!
As he massacred a good part of the Baby Sponge population, Astaroth also decided to take a quick glance at his system interface and see all that had changed.
BLING!
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{[Infinite Energy System]}
[Host: Astaroth]
[Evolution Stage: Sponge (Baby)] - [15/1000 (G11)]
[Evolution Area: Spongescape]
[Energy Level: 1] - [15/1000 (G11)]
[Energy Storage: 8/100 (G11)]
{[Current Energy Abilities:]}
[Level 1 (Spore): (Energy Absorption), (Unlimited Energy Absorption), (Spore Slash), (Spore Propulsion)]
[Level 2 (Micro Jellyfish): (True Energy Absorption), (Jelly Lash), (Undulation Zoom), (Razor Whip), (Pulsation Lazer), (Multi-Pulsation Lazer), (Super Pulsation Lazer), (Jelly Slice), (Razor-Cross Slash), (Micro Learning]
[Level 3 (Mini Sponge): (Bounce Boost), (Pit Eruption), (Fragment Expulsor), (Horn Piercer), (Improved Energy to Body Fluency), (Horn Thruster), (Vastly Improved Energy to Body Fluency), (Mouth Shredder), (Complete Energy to Body Fluency), (Moderately Improved Flexibility and Elasticity)]
[Level 4 (Sponge) (Baby - Elder): (Hole Jet Booster), (Pressure Water Shooter), (Extreme Propulsion Booster)
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For regular Sponges, they ranged from the Baby Development Phase to the Infant Phase, Adolescent Phase, Young Adult Phase, Adult Phase, and then finally, the Elder Phase.
These were what replaced the ranking system for all the previous Evolution Stages. Still, the Lvls were exactly the same as with the Mini Sponges.
As for abilities, Astaroth managed to evolve with not only a single movement ability, but two movement abilities and an attack ability!
It was almost like he was building up his abilities in order to become an unparalleled speedster rivaling that of the red blur…
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