Endless Evolution: Last Star

They continued to chat about general topics until Adam fell silent. He drank his cocktail through the straw with a deep look, as if he was upset about something.

Katrin with a slight sigh rolled her eyes and asked:

"Is something wrong? What are you thinking about? Maybe I can help you." Katrin waved an urge.

Adam shook his head.

"Well, this is going to sound pretty stupid, but I was thinking that maybe I should change my Initial Gene too? I mean, your new Initial Gene is going to be a lot stronger than the last one, isn\'t it?"

Katrin looked at him for a while before saying:

"No. Even if you were to take Thunder Demon\'s gene as your new Initial Gene, nothing would change globally for you. On the contrary, you would most likely become weaker." Katrin explained.

Adam tilted his head in confusion. He didn\'t understand how this was possible. Silver Weaver was a rare, perhaps unique monster, but Adam realized that the difference in strength between Silver Weaver and Thunder Demon was insurmountable.

"Look, all of us at the end of the preparatory academy killed our first monster to become a Phantom. Sure, none of those monsters can compare to Thunder Demon, Scarlet Pyromancer, or any Purple Threat Level monsters, but that doesn\'t affect anything." Katrin said.

She knew that wasn\'t enough, so she continued:

"Initial Gene is the basis of any Phantom\'s power, but it doesn\'t limit your power. I mean, any monster given enough time, resources, and luck can evolve and so can we. For example, take me." Katrin said, placing her palm on her chest.

Then, she opened her NEP revealing a hologram of a monster resembling a walking tree. The monster had many amber eyes inside a hollow core, creepy long branches with sharp ends, and tough bark.

"It\'s a Black Grim Ent, White Threat Level, Red Book, it\'s the first monster I killed with the help of Phantoms and the military." Katrin explained.

Adam nodded, starting to get a little nervous. He hoped Katrin wouldn\'t ask him to show him what his first monster was.

"Obviously Black Grim Ent is just nothing compared to Scarlet Pyromancer, that\'s obvious, but after I became a Phantom, I didn\'t stand still. I\'ve been evolving. My abilities are much more powerful than Black Grim Ent, after all, this Initial Gene evolved along with me." Katrin said proudly.

Adam nodded as his eyes went wide.

"I see... When we evolve, like becoming a K1-Phantom or understanding our abilities better, it\'s like we raise the level and strength of the monster that is the core of our Evolution Tree." Adam suggested, trying to figure it out.

Katrin smirked as she narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, you got that right. Roughly speaking, if somehow my Initial Gene could transform back into a Black Grim Ent, that monster, would be equal to the Top-10 of the Purple Threat Level."

Adam nodded.

"Sure, because that\'s the level of your power. I see, so Initial Gene is kind of like a template and a set of abilities. However, how strong the abilities are, how much power the Phantom has, and how strong it is doesn\'t depend on the Initial Gene, or rather not only on it."

Katrin nodded:

"Yeah. Even if a K0-Phantom were to somehow miraculously absorb Thunder Demon\'s gene, that Phantom wouldn\'t become as strong as you or some powerful K1-Phantom. That Phantom would get electrical abilities or something, but not great power."

Katrin continued:

"Basically, if I was happy with my abilities, I wouldn\'t change my Initial Gene. With the new Initial Gene, I\'m just changing my abilities to different ones."

"I see..." Adam muttered, then his gaze filled with puzzlement, "Wait, if your strength won\'t change from the monster\'s Initial Gene strength, then why hunt Essence Scarlet Pyromancer specifically?"

Katrin rolled her eyes again, she was already tired of explaining something so trivial to Adam.

"Because then I\'ll be at a disadvantage and lose a lot of strength! I\'ll be weaker if I make some Top-200 monster gene my Initial Gene!" Katrin exclaimed.

Adam tilted his head. Just now Katrin had said that strength didn\'t depend on Initial Gene, but now she was contradicting herself. Adam didn\'t understand anything.

"Look, imagine your Evolution Tree is a huge battery. In that case, Initial Gene is the power source and since Evolution Tree and Initial Gene grow when Phantom gets stronger, the amount of energy and the capacity of the battery match each other perfectly.

Roughly speaking, my Evolution Tree has a level 10 capacity and my Initial Gene has a level 10 amount of energy because I am at level 10. However, if I take the Initial Gene of some weak monster that has a level 2 Initial Gene, I will become weaker because my Evolution Tree will not have enough energy. Thus my power from level 10 will drop to level 6!"

Naturally, Katrin was giving these numbers and designations as an easy example comparable to some computer game.

Adam nodded.

"I see... If you take on an Initial Gene monster weaker than you, you\'ll have to spend time or even resources to get stronger again. To grow your Initial Gene back to its former strength. But... then isn\'t it worth taking a level 20 Initial Gene to get stronger?"

Katrin shook her head.

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"In our example, Initial Gene can be any level, but not higher than Evolution Tree. There\'s no point in energy if Evolution Tree can\'t absorb it and give you strength. That\'s why a K0-Phantom who absorbed Thunder Demon\'s gene won\'t be able to become as strong because his Evolution Tree will limit the level of the Initial Gene, just suppress it and the Phantom will have to evolve further."

Katrin took a deep breath after a long explanation and looked at Adam.

"Don\'t forget. There are no easy paths in this world. There will always be some kind of trouble along the way."

Adam nodded.

He finally understood everything.

Katrin wanted new abilities, so she chose a monster with attacking abilities. Then, it was strong enough to suppress Dark Tyrant\'s aura, which put it above a Top-10 monster.

Thus, she chose Scarlet Pyromancer, because this monster was suitable in terms of ability and strength, it wasn\'t too weak or too strong.

"And, Adam, even if you made Thunder Demon\'s gene your Initial Gene, even though your strength would remain at the previous level since your Evolution Tree would be able to squeeze all the power out of that Initial Gene, temporarily you would be weaker." Katrin said in a low voice.

Adam scratched his cheek in a puzzled manner.

"New abilities will take some getting used to and practicing. Even if the sword is as sharp as the last one and can do the same damage, you\'ll be worse at fighting at first because it\'s new and unfamiliar. It\'s as simple as that." Katrin waved her hand.

Adam sighed, his head was already starting to hurt from so much information.

"Alright, explain something else to me. Why me, why not some K2-Phantom?"

Katrin smirked as she snorted with an arrogant face.

"Because their genes are too strong. Even with the conditions I explained to you before, it won\'t be enough for me to take the Initial Gene, because my genes won\'t be able to get dominance that way."

Adam nodded. He remembered when Damien had brought him to Golden Mission to fight rats to easily get a lot of genes.

\'Yeah, back then Damien said his genes would just wipe out the rats\' genes because he\'s too strong. We\'re both K1-Phantoms, so if we do it right, Katrin\'s genes can take over Scarlet Pyromancer\'s genes.\' Adam pondered.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Then, several messages arrived on his NEP - from Silvana.

"Shit! I totally forgot! Katrin, make an appointment for later, okay? Text Silvana about it too!" Adam said before running off in a hurry.

Katrin shook her head with a heavy sigh, but a satisfied smirk appeared on her face. She was worried that Adam might have refused, but now her plan had come into action.

"Good, just a little longer and I\'ll be really strong. Hehehe." Katrin chuckled evilly, anticipating her new strength.

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Hey, it\'s the author. I know the last few chapters have been a heck of a lot of information, but there\'s a lot here that I have to talk about before Midnight Crystal.