For the Record

Most of the decisions I’ve faced in this life, or, unlife? Undeath? Whatever. They’ve been fairly straightforward. Eat the human, or be hungry? Break the barrier, or be trapped? Feed the cat, or… well, or Nyx will keep bothering me until I do. Yeah, that’s probably how it’d go.

(You’re hells-damned right,) my Assistant confirms.

Yes. Anyway, on to decisions, and making important ones! I can’t wait to see what Class options I-

(Do your Evolution first.)

Ok. Why?

(Some Classes are locked to Evolutions. If you do your Evo first, you could unlock better fitting Classes, and if you pick a Class incompatible with a new Evo you could at best have the Skills limited or disabled, or at worst could have the Class revoked entirely,) she warns.

Yeah, that’s seems pretty important then. I’m just gonnaaaa

[New Evolutions are available! List options? Yes/No]

Yes.

[Manaphage (Greater)]

[Requirements:]

[Be a Manaphage.]

[Achieve Level 10.]

Seems pretty basic and unexciting… can you see what any of these do?

(Yeah, that one just has Stat buffs.)

Moving on!

[Geist (Lesser)]

[Requirements:]

[Be Undead or Undead-Adjacent.]

[Achieve Level 10.]

[Have a Skill that directly affects the mind.]

(That one’s a little better… the Stat changes aren’t much, but looks like that’d give you a handful of Skills at least.)

Hmmm. I’m gonna say ‘maybe’ to that one for now then. Next!

[Black Shadow]

[Requirements:]

[Be Undead or Undead-Adjacent.]

[Achieve Level 10.]

[Have a Skill that directly affects the mind.]

[Slay at least 150 beings.]

[Slay at least one Ascendant.]

Is this one at least spicier? The requirements sure seem to be.

(Well, spicy is a word for it… if I’m reading this right though, you’d lose the ability to manifest a body.)

Ha. Hahaha. NEXT!

[Shadow Elemental (Infant)]

[Requirements:]

[Be Undead or Undead Adjacent.]

[Achieve Level 10.]

[Slay and Consume at least 200 beings.]

[Slay and Consume at least one Ascendant.]

[Slay and Consume at least 100 of your own brethren.]

[Be a victim of betrayal by those you trusted most.]

[Be touched by the Domain of Darkness.]

We’re both silent for a moment, until Nyx whispers, (oh.)

Oh as in strong?

(This must be a locked Evo.)

Meaning?

(Special requirements. Those are… specific.)

So. Strong, then?

(Yes, but your Radiant weakness would get a lot worse… You’ll probably get Shadow Magic from it though.)

And then I’ll have to actually learn it, right?

(Right.)

I sigh internally.

Is it at least stronger in general than the other ones so far?

(Much stronger. Considering it’s an Infant too, there’ll be stronger Evos based on it in the future.)

Well there’s one more… here’s goes nothing.

[Dust Elemental (Infant)]

[Achieve Level 10.]

[Have a Skill that inflicts the ravages of time.]

[Be a victim of betrayal by those you trusted most.]

[Survive the vivisection of your soul and birth of a new self.]

[Commit yourself to a fate of corruption, destruction, and loss.]

[Be touched by at least one Domain.]

[Bear both a hidden Blessing and a hidden Curse.]

That’s… that’s even better, isn’t it?

…

Nyx?

(Ah, sorry. It’s just. That one is…)

Is it strong?

(Yes, but… you know what, I don’t know. You can’t see it, but that one’s a red Evo to begin with. Meaning, it’s taboo. Against the laws enforced by the pantheons. But, your Identify result already comes back red… what is double red?)

Let’s find out!

Before she can interrupt me, I select Dust Elemental and confirm my selection.

***

I wake four hours later to a pounding headache – certainly not helped by Nyx howling over and over in my proverbial ear to ‘turn it off, turn it off right now, do you want to die.’ I have no idea what’s she’s referring to, let’s just take a look at-

[Evolution to: Dust Elemental (Infant) Successful!]

[Partial Phase has become Planar Detachment!]

[Temporal Corrosion has become The Ravages of Time!]

[Wail of Torment has become Aura of the Unwound!]

Ah, was that it? I turn off the last one, an aura Skill.

(By the gods, you idiot, what were you thinking!?)

Nothing, I was too busy being unconscious.

(You can preemptively disable auras before you start an advancement!)

Oh.

(Yeah, oh. Get ready to apologize. And maybe use a mop.)

She was right too, my henchpets did indeed spend some time cleaning on my behalf. I meanwhile busied myself acclimatizing to Boz’s shadow, since I can hide in those now. I was particularly fortunate that Mimir made some excuse about triggering a trap on an artifact he’d been inspecting, so I haven’t risked exposure. In the meantime, I had Nyx give me some info on my freshly evolved Skills.

Planar Detachment basically means I’m beyond immaterial while I’m phasing, but the phasing itself takes a little longer.

The Ravages of Time no longer only affects metals but all materials, which is pretty broken.

The really broken one, however, is that new aura.

[A small portion of the suffering experienced by the caster will be inflicted on all entities deemed hostile within range, with a possibility of inflicting the Status Effect: Terror as well.]

And well, Terror is basically like Wail of Torment’s Fear, but much stronger. Harder to resist. Apparently, it has a long range for an infant Skill, considering it covered half of our room’s floor and part of the other floors as well. On the bright side, at least Mimir’s expectations for covering for me is just another barrage of questions answered. That should be easy enough.

That said… while I’ve gotten quite a bit stronger already, I’m only halfway done!

Time to check out those Class options!