Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 40  Beginning Monster

To turn hundreds or even thousands of genes into neutral ones required not only the Transmutator that every Phantom possessed, but also time. Adam had created his first neutral gene in less than a minute, but when the workload was much larger, the process would take much longer.

"How are you feeling?" Silvana asked, sitting in front of her monitors at home. She turned around, looking at Adam, who was lying on the floor, but his gaze was focused and deep. "It's okay..." Adam muttered, but his consciousness was not here but in front of the Evolution Tree.

It had already been hours since Adam had woken up and he immediately set about transforming the genes.

Adam could have spent some of the neutral genes on cognizing the monsters in his Vault, but he decided to leave that task for later. His main goal right now was to unlock his Lock and find the Beginning Monster.

"Maybe we should take a break? I've prepared some interesting sodas with tropical flavors. You haven't tried those yet." Silvana suggested.

Adam shook his head.

"Nah, I got up early this morning since I want to finish before lunch. I'll know where my Beginning Monster is right away, correct?" Adam asked as his Transmutator turned dozens of gene rats into neutral ones. They were all headed to the Vault, on a separate page. "Sure. I'll start making dinner then. You still have about an hour left, don't you?" Silvana asked, heading towards the kitchen.

Adam nodded.

"It's almost done. There are about 200 genes left. I didn't even realize it could be so draining and take so long..." Adam muttered in a low voice. Adam was up before dawn, so even though it was only 8:45 he was almost done, he had been doing this for almost five hours.

When the aroma from the kitchen wafted to Adam, he finally finished with a deep sigh. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"All done?" Silvana asked without taking her eyes off the cooking. "Yeah... This is incredible..." Adam uttered as he opened his Vault. The book opened and a thousand gray spheres flew out, exactly the same. They surrounded Adam like tiny planets around their star, slowly rotating.

From the moment Adam collected the thousand genes, he began to feel strange vibrations coming from somewhere far away. Now they were even stronger and the chains around his Lock trembled.

Adam had not yet channeled a single neutral gene into the vortex, but the vortex was already in motion, in anticipation of the inevitable.

'Well... It's about time we got started, isn't it?' Adam muttered inwardly.

Then, he nodded and with a slight smile on his face waved his hand.

All the neutral genes headed towards the vortex in a single stream, quickly disappearing into it.

[ 10/1,000 neutral genes.]

[ 150/1,000 neutral genes. ]

[ 670/1,000 neutral genes. ]

[ 838/1,000 neutral genes.]

[ 999/1,000 neutral genes. ]

The last neutral gene entered the vortex and began to transform into something else. The vortex became much larger, covering 1/5 of the entire Lock, and in the center of the vortex appeared a round white crystal like a magic ball that allowed him to see the future. Adam slowly walked up the Evolution Tree to his Lock, whose chains were shaking violently. It seemed that they could break at any moment, but it took a powerful impulse to make it possible.

It was impossible to see anything in the crystal, since there was only fog inside, blocking the field of vision.

Adam touched the crystal as if mesmerized. For some reason, it was his only wish then, because he wanted to know where his Beginning Monster was.

Whoooooooooooooooooooosh.

At the same moment, a gray stream of stars burst out of the crystal with many white lights that quickly surrounded Adam like a stellar nebula. Around him, Adam saw dozens of different images, both something useless - starry sky or rusty debris, and fragments of monsters and images of territories.

A tall silhouette, with two arms and legs slowly paced among the tall rusty pillars towering over the ruined ground. The sun was replaced by the moon, as were the constellations to a blue sky with clouds floating serenely.

Thunder, rain, and strong winds were the constant companions of this long series of fragments as if they had escaped from someone's memory or had been created to bring together a fateful meeting.

Then, the crystal turned pale, and the star stream dissipated, leaving Adam alone.

Adam blinked, finding himself in the real world and slowly rising from the ground, holding his head with his fingertips. "I take it you've already seen everything, right?" Silvana asked with a serious expression.

Adam nodded.

"Yeah... but honestly I thought it would happen a little differently. I've seen fragments, and I can feel the pulse coming from far away, but I don't know the exact location."

"Don't worry, this is exactly how it's supposed to be. However, you won't have to go blindly on impulse, because I'll help you find this place. Tell me everything you see, about any rock and even the position of the stars in the sky. I can probably pinpoint the location to within a hundred meters." Silvana said confidently.

Adam smiled as his gaze traveled towards the kitchen table.

"Sure... but lunch first!"

"As you wish." Silvana nodded, pulling off her apron. ...

Right after lunch, Adam told Silvana everything in great detail, first about the territory leaving the monster for later. In the end, all he saw was a silhouette.

Silvana used all this information and in less than an hour was able to find the exact location. She clicked on the mouse, and the monitor showed many pictures taken from towers and fighters. "This is Rusty Ruins, when you were fighting the rats you were balling on the border with this area, however, from that point, you couldn't see anything but sand and bits of metal." Silvana explained, pointing to the photo.

Adam's eyes went wide. Unlike the Scorching Desert where there were only desert dunes and cliffs to the east, the Rusty Ruins seemed to be a more complex and dangerous place.

In the outer part of the Rusty Ruins, there were only scraps of metal, both massive pieces and tiny gears or nails covering the cold concrete.

The deeper into the center of the area the more dense the ruins themselves became, up to huge shattered buildings composed entirely of iron and metal.

Adam's Initial Monster was located in the north of the Rusty Ruins, besides the center, it was the most dangerous region.

There was the Iron Alley - the center of the north, which was a cascade of massive buildings. In the middle was a long path with hundreds of rusty pillars with sharp peaks. It was these pillars that Adam had seen in the star fragments.

"I see... This area is harder than Scorching Desert, right?" Adam asked, looking at the pictures. Silvana nodded.

"Yes. Rusty Ruins has more missions, more monsters, and a higher average difficulty. However, that doesn't matter now. Tell me more about the monster." "Well... I only saw a silhouette." Adam scratched the back of his head.

"It doesn't matter. I need to figure out what this monster roughly resembles." Silvana replied sharply.

Adam shrugged his shoulders. Many monsters were similar to each other, so there was a good chance that Adam could practice in the virtual zone.

"There's not much to tell. Probably no more than three or even two meters tall, two legs and arms, five fingers, no wings or tails or anything like that. I didn't see the head, it was hidden behind the columns." Adam nonchalantly replied.

However, as soon as he looked at Silvana his eyes went wide. Never before had he seen Silvana in such a state.

She got goosebumps, her gaze went blank, and her fingertips trembled, she couldn't say a word.

"Adam... Are you sure about this...? More specifically, can you say that your Initial Monster possessed a human physique?"

Adam nodded. If it wasn't for the eerie aura coming from the monster, and the overly long arms with fingers, he might have thought it was human.

Silvana let out a heavy sigh, headed for the medicine cabinet, and immediately popped a handful of pills, taking long breaths.

Adam waited for answers. In fact, he was too shocked by this behavior of Silvana's and he knew that it didn't mean anything good to him.

"I'm sorry... I just needed to calm down. Say, Adam, do you know of a game called Abyss Souls?" Silvana asked, turning to him. "No... I didn't have any money for games, you know." Adam shook his head.

"Sure... Anyway, the point is that in this game, you have to fight monsters, regulars, and bosses to get through. All newcomers think that the most dangerous bosses are huge and scary giants, but... Experienced players know that the strongest bosses, for many impassable, are very similar to humans."

Adam gave her a puzzled look.

"I say this since the game was designed to fit the format of our world. Prime Type is not the only Type of monsters. The one that became your Beginning Monster is the Anthrapomorph Type or not scientifically - the Crown Type." Silvana said seriously with a deep gaze.

"And...? How strong is Crown Type?" Adam asked, expecting the obvious answer.

"Very strong... If you asked me the odds, I'd say 50/50." Adam gulped as his heart began to race.

The battle for power was proving to be more difficult than he had thought it would be.

Hi, in the past two chapters I wrote Initial Monster instead of Beginning Monster. I've already corrected it. Just to not confuse you guys.