Chapter 136: Simple Process

Nessa and her Millipede stared blankly at Zach for several long, drawn-out moments, doing nothing but blinking. But while the Millipede slowly turned to the 'food' on the ground, Nessa continued staring at Zach.

"What are you doing…?" Zach took a step back and covered himself with his hands due to Nessa's uncomfortable stare.

"That's what I should be asking you. I can only guess based on your order just now. But are you saying that my Millipede only needs to eat to evolve? Are you also saying that you've known that for some time already and just never thought to share it with me?"

Nessa took a step closer to Zach, and her wide eyes seemed to want to peer inside Zach's brain.

"First of all, it's just a hypothesis. Secondly, you never asked. If you had just asked something like, 'Oh, great and heavenly, Zacharia, do you happen to know what might make my familiar evolve?' then I would have said, 'Yes, fledgling summoner, so hand over the money.' You only have yourself to blame."

"Nope. I am blaming you. I am not at fault for asking a question I didn't know you had the answer to. And what do you mean hypothesis? Does she need to eat or not?" Searᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Ugh, fine, it's my fault, it's always my fault."

"Yes, yes, it is."

Zach's attempt at garnering pity didn't work. So, he gave up and moved on from figuring out who was to blame.

"During my studies, I have realized that the most common denominator in familiar evolution is the properties rather than the breed or race of familiar, for example, Violina's Ice Spirit. Things related to spirits may work. Treasures with the same property of ice will almost definitely work. Don't tell her that, though. I can give you more examples, but I'm sure you get it."

Nessa looked at Zach for a moment before turning to her Millipede, who was earnestly obeying Zach's order, even if it wasn't all that hungry.

"So, in my case, 'Snakelong' is the property or whatever of my familiar while Millipede is the species?"

"Exactly."

"What does 'Snakelong' even mean?"

"In my mind, it's 'long snake.'"

Nessa turned to look at Zach with a frown of disbelief.

"There's no way it's that simple." She shook her head, refusing to believe it.

"Why not?" Zach shrugged.

"What do you mean, 'Why not?' If it were that easy, everyone would be evolving their familiars!" Nessa was outraged. How was Zach doing so well when his thinking was so simple?

"Would they?" Explore stories on m,v l'-NovelFire.net

"What?" Nessa was stumped.

"Let's say that I'm right in this case. One of the things your familiar needs to do to evolve is eat a lot. How often have you made it eat until it couldn't walk anymore? Never, right?"

"..."

"Because, why would you? After a certain point, even your familiar doesn't want to eat anymore. But evolving is all about reaching the next step, breaking your existential limits, and accumulating enough energy to do all that. Or at least, that's what I think."

"..." Nessa frowned silently. She couldn't refute Zach.

"Back on topic, let's look at 'long' as a descriptor and 'snake' as the property. That means your familiar will follow the growth pattern of a snake. Maybe. How do snakes grow? They eat and eat until they shed their skins."

"But my familiar…—"

"Doesn't have any skin, no. But it has a carapace, an exoskeleton. But insects do this cool thing, which is basically the same as snakes, called molting. They shed their exoskeleton instead of their skin."

Nessa's frown deepened.

"But does its name matter if it's the same for snakes and insects? Why does 'Snakelong' affect the process of evolution if an ordinary insect would go through basically the same growth process?"

"First of all, millipedes aren't insects. Secondly, it's the diet. And thirdly, control, I believe. Snakes grow by eating. Insects live by eating. Their growth is a natural part and side effect.

Do you understand the difference?"

Nessa nodded slowly, still with a frown.

"An insect doesn't overeat, and even if it does, it doesn't get bigger. Snakes do."

"That's basically it." Zach nodded. "Of course, ordinary snakes have limits. But…" Zach pointed at the Snakelong Millipede.

"Monsters don't have the same kind of limits if we look at those giant ones we encountered during the field trip. And, what if a familiar, that's similar to a monster, has inherited some of a snake's properties, such as its size and length?"

Nessa sighed and massaged her forehead to get rid of the wrinkles.

"Fine. You've got me somewhat convinced. Now what? Do I just keep my familiar's belly full?"

"I guess." Zach shrugged.

Nessa clenched her fist and held back the urge to smack him since she could see the barrier around him. If she tried, she would only hurt herself. Stupid bastard.

"I mean, I would assume so. But I think quality is just as important as quantity. Now that I think about it, variety also matters, probably," Zach continued since he could tell Nessa wasn't satisfied with his previous answer.

"..." Nessa just silently looked at her Millipede, happily curled up in a bulging spiral after clearing every monster corpse in the surrounding area. It wasn't something she could have ordered it to do if she was alone since the familiar wouldn't be moving for a while, much less attacking or defending against monsters.

She also wouldn't have even come up with the idea, even if she didn't want to waste resources that were too much for the Millipede to carry.

"Before I forget, your Snakelong Millipede is technically pretty low-ranked. That's why it sounds so easy to make it evolve. The lower the rank, the easier."

Nessa didn't know why, but her urge to express her gratitude suddenly dwindled after Zach's comment. So, she stayed silent, even if she promised herself to do her best when trying to get Zach his Labyrinth Ticket.

Then, she looked at her familiar. Only time would tell if Zach was on to something, or if he was just pretending.