Chapter 10: Evolution

Chapter 10: Evolution

Leif gasped in a lungful of air, a phantom sensation of biological processes restarting rippled through his body like the rumblings before an eruption. He coughed and fell to his knees, hands around his throat and head reeling.

Hands, knees, throat...

“What,” he spluttered, “what is this?”

“I think you already possess the appropriate knowledge to come to a quick and decisive understanding.” A chipper voice said. Leif groaned and turned in the direction of the response.

“You look terrible! Congratulations on surviving though, I wouldn’t have bet on you!” A faint red outline said. “I can’t believe the number your rebirth did on your soul shape. Yeesh, quite the unpleasant experience I’d imagine!”

Leif looked at the figure, looked with eyes. The realisation was so shocking it almost started another coughing fit.

“None of this is real, you’re not actually breathing air, it’s all in your head!” The red ghost said in an upbeat tone. “I, for one, am surprised you even manifested in such a form. You’re a tree, but here you are, looking like pottery that’s been dropped too many times. Man-shaped pottery!” He laughed.

“Why does it all hurt...?” Leif asked. The ghost slapped him on the shoulder, it didn’t help.

“Like I said, all in your fractured mind. Nothing to worry about, probably.”

“Probably?”

“Right! It's much better than: hopefully!” The ghost grinned. Its smile like lines scratched into a chalkboard.

“I-I died, didn’t I?” Leif mumbled, parts of the past came flowing back into him. Memories of life before... before...

“Yup! Got turned into a tree. Could be worse though, you could have been dead before one of the blighters got to you.”

“The thing that killed me, put something inside of me... It was a plant, but it had legs?”

“An evolved form of what you are physically. Much more than one evolution though. Your sire is only a few steps away from incarnating, pretty impressive for a walking tree!”

The crimson spirit leaned down, beaming. Leif had so many questions, he needed to know so much. “W-will I-”

“Remember this? Sorry but no. Well, you’ll remember the evolution bit, the choices you made and didn’t make. But not me, not my words.”

“Wha-”

“System observer, I slipped through a crack. That’s why we’re having this conversation.”

“A crack?”

“System error, look through your logs! Sort by older than ten years, yeah that's the one!”

Error! Inheritant class detected. Class restrictions negated!

The broken man sat there for several minutes, looking blankly at the system message. It was the oldest system message in the log. Why was there nothing before that? The overseer stepped back to a respectful distance, hands clutched before him.

“Can I go back? Can what that thing did to me be undone?”

“It cannot. Transfigurations, especially ones caused by soul parasitism, are irreversible. My condolences.”

Leif slumped, despondent. It all felt so meaningless, and even after learning all this... I’ll forget.

“I don’t want to forget, I want to be me.” He said, though more for himself than the slightly glowing spirit.

“Cheer up, there’s still something you can do. Nothing is ever truly hopeless.” The red outline said, squatting down to Leif’s eye level. “I’ve been cheering you on the whole time! You can do it!”

“How?”

The evolution screen snapped open as if springing from restraints. Grey screen highlighted by red and gold trimming.

Evolution for the [Juvenile Blight Tree] class is commencing!

Please review your current class before proceeding!

===

[Juvenile Blight Tree]

A predatory plant capable of rudimentary awareness and actions. Consumes vitality from the soil but also plant and animal life via simplistic but temporary agrokinesis fuelled attacks.

Tier: 1 (Monster)

Level: 10/10

Class Perk:

You draw mana from the nearby environment over time fuelling physical growth and granting experience.

Experience gain from all sources other than passive absorption is reduced by 50%.

Growths:

Free Points: +5

Might: C+

Alacrity: E

Intelligence: E

Willpower: E

Spirit: D+

Charisma: E

The crimson shadow shrugged noncommittally. “Survival isn’t necessarily evil.”

“Trees survive just fine without ‘staining the world red.' There’s nothing natural about any of this.”

“Well, you see. It sort of comes with the territory. Monsters are usually quite monstrous.”

===

[Blight Sanctuary Tree]

Hunters hunt so as to provide for others, food, safety, comfort from the terrors of the wilderness.

Despite your origins, many have found sanctuary within your branches and beneath your canopy. An instinctual drive to protect has been at the core of your being since you sprouted from the soil. Though the blight is still a part of your nature, you no longer walk the path of the darkwoods.

Become a fortress for those who rely on you, detect threats before they approach and better defeat those that do.

===

“I wish these were more detailed.” Leif said.

“Well, most level ten monsters can barely string more than a single thought together. The fact that these have descriptions at all is due to thoroughness.” Replied the overseer.

“You made these?”

“Can’t say.”

“I like this one the best so far at least.”

===

[Blood Blight Spriggan]

No longer bound to the rigid form of their birth. The spriggan steps out from under their own shade and into a new and dangerous path. Forsaking the expansive pool of vitality of their tree form they become far more agile and cunning.

You have displayed intellect and adaptability beyond your limits. Thoughts and ideas can only take a member of the blight so far while you remain in one place.

Unable to idly wait for power, you will reach for it with your own two hands.

===

“A spriggan is... person shaped, right?”

The ghost snapped its fingers, an image manifested from a wobbling heat haze. The creature Leif saw was human in stature, but twisted and off in enough ways that the two could never be mistaken.

Dull grey bark instead of skin, elongated limbs and a hunched back gave off a primal impression. Two glowing red eyes glared out from a head lacking any other distinctive features. It reminded Leif of something.

Glowing red eyes peered down into his own, the creature reaching down towards him. Piercing through battered armour to get at the flesh beneath. Leif flinched at the memory, the image of the spriggan vanished.

“I’ll be like the things that stalked the battlefield. Will I turn people into trees? Subject them to the same torture of not knowing what they are?”

“It is a single option of many.” The overseer said in a gentle tone.

Leif turned his attention back to the evolution prompts, there was a final option. He read over it, still fuming internally.

===

[Amber Blight Spriggan]

From inception you have struggled against the embedded instincts of the Darkwood. As a blight tree you fought to gain a sense of control no others of your kind could conceive of at such a young age. At every turn you took the harder path, you turned away easy meals and waged wars you should never have won.

And yet you prevailed. A noble spirit and unyielding will have guided you this far, and now the amber offers you a branch.

Symbols of authority and wealth, the amber sap within your body glistens like gold and pumps like blood. You will rise, radiance from the darkness, and hold the future with your hands.

===

And well, the choice was obvious. “This will help me remember? Become like I once was?” Leif asked, turning towards a smiling overseer.

“It might.”

“And you did this? Gave me this option?”

“I am an overseer. I can only observe, measure and record.”

“So that's a no?” Leif asked, slightly incredulous.

“If I could change things,” the scarlet shade said, “I would have done so long, long ago.”

He nodded. So far the overseer was upbeat and chipper, but he spoke with such emotional gravity Leif could almost feel himself sucked in. But he had his choice, so he selected it.

If Leif had expected to vanish from the evolution space in a flash of light, he would have said goodbye.

===

The overseer stood still as the temporary space made to house consciousnesses began to dissolve. The space, by design, was made to be as unassuming and forgettable as possible. No features or stimuli could be present that might influence choices made.

The system prickled against the ghosts form, sharp stabbing sensations meant more to discomfort than cause pain. He had pushed against his restraints too much by interacting with the mortal.

The overseer shuddered as the outlines that made up his body broke apart and converged into a single crimson mote. As he was, holding any form took significant effort. As the being drifted back into corporeal reality, he considered the events that had transpired. Each decision, each choice...

A stolen eternity.

He regretted so many things, but watching someone go through something so familiar... unsettling was putting it mildly.