The Traveler Initiative [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

I was sitting in the waiting room of a research lab that mostly concerned itself with mutations. Today was the day where I would finally meet the mutation expert after having pushed back our meeting due to my sleep issues. After already having met with Professor Solum and having learned so many new things about skills, I was looking forward to seeing what I could learn about mutations. After all, they were pretty important to a monster such as myself.

While I was excited for what was bound to be another "boring" meeting involving lots of talking, I couldn't help but notice that I was alone in the waiting room. Lately, I wasn't too keen on being all by myself since my thoughts usually started drifting towards unpleasant things. I quickly pulled up my status and navigated to the equipment screen. There, next to the deep sea gem, was the horn of the goblin general. I'd received it from the village quest I completed a few days ago aside from a sizeable amount of attribute points due to eating a whole bunch of goblins. And while it was currently mostly useless to me, it would probably be good to have in the future.

Horn of the Goblin General (Equippable)

Every once in a while, a goblin stumbles over an evolution line that the other members of his species rarely get to see. If they show an aptitude for leading their fellow goblins, the system may reward them with a "leader" evolution, which helps them rally other Goblins to their cause. While not especially dangerous, it is highly recommended to kill these specimens before they get to higher evolution tiers.

Should they be left alone and allowed to evolve, they will eventually become a Goblin General at the eighth tier, where they will officially become a big problem for any settlements nearby. During their life, they will have amassed an army that follows their general almost blindly, and, with their ability to command and buff their troops, they pose a real danger. It is recommended to kill them off before they evolve even further.

When Equipped:

- Buff your minion's attributes by 10%

- Expand your available minion slots by 20%

- Gain the spell: War Cry

War Cry (C)

Increase your minion's attributes by 10% and raise their morale for 5 minutes.

Cost: 80MP

I did not have any minions to which any of the effects could apply, but in the future I might. Well, I was able to make subordination contracts with voidlings, and, with any luck, they'd count as minions. While I could form an unlimited amount of contracts with regular voidlings, there was a limited amount of slots for noble voidlings, and having that limit increased would be amazing. Again, it all hinged on whether or not the system would consider them minions.

My mind wandered back to the fight with the army and my mental state during it. It was odd. I had become a mindless killing machine while I dealt with the army, right after having an emotional episode. I remembered the whole thing as if it happened to somebody else like I'd merely observed myself from far away. Now, I was no expert or anything, but I felt like that was not normal. I might be dealing with some psychological issues. A part of me wanted to get help, talk with a therapist or something, and figure out what the hell was going on with me.

The other part felt like I was probably fine and didn't need any help.

Still, every time I found myself alone, I couldn't help but go back to the fight with the army and how it felt to eradicate them. I was just about to replay the scene once more in my mind when the door opened and an Asphon stuck their head inside. After spotting me they entered fully.

"Professor Cortax is ready for you now."

I hopped off my chair and followed the Asphon through a few hallways, occasionally crossing paths with other people, eventually arriving at a closed door. I was instructed to enter and after thanking them, I did so. What greeted me was a scene straight out of a psycho-horror movie, banishing all thoughts of any mental issues I might or might not have in favor of pure shock.

I'd assumed that I would be stepping into an office of sorts, but instead, I entered the laboratory of a mad scientist. The room was dominated by large, pillar-shaped tanks. Each of them contained what I was hoping to be a dead monster, for if they were only sedated and something went wrong, this lab would probably be torn to shreds. Most of the monsters contained in the watery solution inside of the tanks I had never seen before, but there were a few that I recognized.

Not seeing the professor anywhere I decided to start moving, passing by haphazardly placed tanks, ever deeper into the surprisingly large room. My eyes curiously looked at the monsters I passed, the archive of asphon supplying me with their names. Writhing Shadow (T7), Jet Jaguar (T5), Goblin (T2), Toxic Hare (T3), Bullet Tuna (T6), Deceptive Pony (T5), and many other interesting specimens. But, when I passed by another section of tanks, I laid my eyes upon something crazy.

Elemental Hydra (T13)

The Elemental Hydra is the result of a juvenile hydra that has been left to fester for too long. With their high constitution and special survival-focused abilities, hydras are almost impossible to kill even as a fresh spawn. Should one of them escape notice and continue to evolve while simultaneously going down an elemental path, eventually it will evolve to embody the elements itself. Able to wield fire, water, earth, wind, and many other elements depending on the specimen, they are a nightmare to deal with.

A massive tank dominated the center of the room. In fact, it seemed like the room had been built around it. The ceiling of the room had been removed and the tank occupied five floors, each floor acting as a platform to observe the massive hydra inside the tank. A few Asphons could be seen on the higher floors, casting analyzing magic, and writing down notes. I looked up at the six massive heads connected to an even more massive serpentine body in awe. For a split second, I felt a mighty need to pit my strength against such a powerful monster, before berating myself. Fighting a monster six tiers above myself would be stupid.

But then again… winning would probably give me some nice rewards!... Right?

I jumped when I felt something softly scraping against my back, ripping my eyes off the hydra and swiveling them to look at what had touched me. A huge Asphon crouched next to me, a comparatively tiny vial in his claws containing what was most definitely some of my mucus. Professor Cortax, presumably.

"I've dealt with poison of such high tier before, but never any that belonged to a voidling," he said while intently staring at the vial. "I'm most curious to see if there are any differences due to your race."

"I'd appreciate it if you asked before taking samples next time," I admonished him, backing away a bit since I was a tad creeped out.

"Apologies, you're just so… fascinating," Professor Cortax said while creepily scanning my body with his eyes. At least I assumed he did, since I couldn't see them. "But where are my manners, I am Professor Cortax, and I do believe you have an appointment with me today."

"I do," I watched as the vial of poisonous mucus disappeared into his inventory while he conveniently changed the topic. "I'm starting to second guess this decision right about now."

"Do not fret, there is nobody more suited to have a talk about mutations. I am the foremost expert, after all," Professor Cortax started walking and I reluctantly followed him, keeping one eye on the fascinating corpse of the hydra and the other firmly on the Professor. "Do you like my collection?"

"I think it's pretty creepy, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little bit interested," the sentiment mostly directed at the hydra.

"Ah, you've taken an interest in the elemental hydra, haven't you," the Professor said after checking what I was looking at. "I cannot blame you, it is a fascinating subject. It is not often that we get monsters above the tenth tier from the system and they are just delightful to study. We've been running tests on this one for a week now and I just can't wait to cut it open…"

I didn't reply to the Professor as he longingly gazed at the suspended hydra. If I didn't think there was something wrong with the guy before, it was all but confirmed now. The man was obsessed with monsters for some reason. Hopefully not in a sexual way, the jury was still out on that one, although I wouldn't be too surprised at this point. After a few seconds, we continued circling the massive tank until we came to a small office area. Four desks were crammed together in an attempt to take up as little space as possible, all of them littered with paper and some odd-looking contraptions. It was here that Cortax invited me to take a seat while he pulled out the chair from another desk and sat down as well.

It was an imposing scene, having a talk about mutations right next to a massive monster that could probably destroy the entire city by itself.

"So then, mutations," Professor Cortax opened. "What would you like to know?"

"Almost everything I know about mutations comes from experimentation," I started, deciding to ignore the strangeness of the Professor. He came recommended, so I'm sure he's at least going to tell me accurate information. "And admittedly, I don't know a lot about it aside from having to collect mutation points and then spending them to purchase mutation. Be it upgrades to already existing ones or adding a new mutation."

"I see, similar to every other traveler arriving on our layer, you're woefully lacking the knowledge others would consider common in nature," Professor Cortax started using some fancy words all of a sudden and I wasn't sure why. Was he trying to make a good impression? If so, my opinion was already pretty low, adding a few nice words wouldn't change that. "For example, while true for you, the system you are talking about is exclusive to monster-type travelers. Regular monsters do not get to earn and spend mutation points to tailor their mutations to their liking. To begin with, most of them do not possess the required intelligence to peruse such a system in the first place.

"True, there's a lot of monsters that possess a high intelligence score comparable to or even higher than some of the "intelligent races". But having a high attribute value isn't everything. To truly be able to form coherent thoughts, one needs to have a compatible brain. Unless they possess a proper brain to form complex thoughts, a monster would never be able to make proper decisions like that. Instead, almost every monster acts on instinct. Their animalistic nature doesn't allow them to pick and choose so, instead, the system makes the choices for them. Depending on their actions, their environments, their talents, and their inclinations, the system awards them with what it considers the appropriate skills and mutations.

"This, in part, is why our task is so difficult. Yes, monsters of the same type oftentimes possess similar or even the exact same set of mutations and skills, but even slight variations in their place of origin can change their build in its entirety. A den of goblins that had the misfortune of being found and attacked will have a vastly different build than a den that was never found, should they survive, of course. We build our database based on the common denominators, which is a nice thing to have but is unreliable at best. It should be used more as a guideline instead of hard facts. Especially with specimens such as the elemental hydra! They are an incredibly rare monster, and we might only get one or two of them over the span of a decade, meaning we know even less about them compared to something common like a goblin or a kobold."

I stared incredulously at the Professor as he continued explaining things going on tangent after tangent with no apparent intent to stop anytime soon. I hadn't even really asked a question yet, but here he was, burying me under a wall of text. Sure it was interesting and I was cherry-picking an interesting tidbit here and there to remember, but the tangents got more and more irrelevant as time went on until I eventually felt the need to stop the enthusiastic man.

"That's so interesting," I deadpanned when the Professor stopped to inhale, no doubt about to launch into another tirade of obscure details. "But could we maybe talk about something a tad more… relevant?"

"Oh!" Professor Cortax appeared like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "I went on a tirade again, didn't I? Apologies, I tend to get a bit enthusiastic when the topic concerns mutations."

"It's alright, I did manage to learn some interesting things listening to you," I relented a bit. "But while general and obscure knowledge is interesting, I would like to discuss my own mutation choices a bit more, as well as some mutations that I maybe don't know about and should get. I'd also like to hear about any hidden systems that are considered common knowledge if you know of anything. For example, when I talked about skills, I learned that there is an interaction between my poison mucus mutation and my poison spells."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"You know about that already?" Cortax asked, appearing genuinely sad that he wouldn't be able to tell me about it. "I'm afraid that's the only relevant hidden system we know about. That, and the threshold mutations at the tenth tier."

"Threshold mutations?" I asked, which caused Cortax to perk up and reply in a smug voice.

"Oho, so you haven't heard about that, haven't you?"

"I have not," I freely admitted, curious what this would be about.

"You know for both the intelligent races and monsters, reaching the tenth tier is a quite special occasion," Cortax leaned back in his chair and started to explain. "About sixty percent of the ones attempting to climb the tiers die before making it to the tenth. Unless you have some kind of crafting or trading class, ascending through the tiers requires you to constantly fight and win. Survival does not come easy when presented with a task like this, and many lose their lives on the path to greatness.

"There are certain tiers that are considered thresholds, such as the tenth. When making the jump to this prestigious tier, the system rewards you with extra choices. Choices that would be otherwise unavailable. For the intelligent races, this involves special classes and skills. For monsters, it includes special evolutions and mutations. Those mutations can be powerful, almost changing your race upon acquiring them. They might be crazy upgrades for mutations you already possess, or… they might be fusions of some of your mutations."

"Fusions? What would be the point of that?" I blurted out the first thought I had, not realizing at the moment what advantages this could have.

"Well, for starters, they are usually more powerful or efficient than the separate mutations," Cortax explains excitedly. "For a traveler like you, it also means that instead of paying mutation points for two mutations, you can upgrade both effects by paying once. And, most importantly, it allows you to circumvent the mutation limit."

"The mutation limit?"

"Let me ask you a question, have you ever encountered a situation where you couldn't buy a mutation you wanted?"

"Why yes, mostly void-related mutations, but they unlocked once I became an adult voidling."

"Then it makes sense that you wouldn't know," Professor Cortax nodded his head. "You see, there is a rule that makes it so you can only mutate each body part once. If you mutate your skin, you may not purchase another skin mutation. If you mutate your eyes, you cannot mutate your eyes with another effect. Of course, you could always mutate another pair of eyes and then go down a different mutation path for the new set. But once you've picked a mutation for a certain body part, you're locked in. You could change the mutation, but in a traveler's case, that would mean sacrificing the investment you've already made, which could end up being quite costly.

"And that's why fused mutations are so precious for monsters like you. Let's say there's a fusion that combines your mana-absorbent skin with your crystal symbiotes. One is a skin mutation, while the other is a mutation that allows another organism to live in your body. Now, the symbiotes are essentially the same as an added organ, but for the skin mutation? The fused mutation would become something else, freeing up your skin mutation "slot", while still keeping the effect of the old mutation."

"That's pretty amazing…" I said, casually ignoring that he had apparently thoroughly read my file. "But if that's true, what about my void body? Wouldn't that mutation get in the way of other mutations by occupying their slots?"

"Not really. Your void body mutation, which is incredibly interesting by the way, please let me run some tests on it, merely changes what your body parts are made out of. For example, most beings in the expanse are carbon-based life forms. Their entire bodies are made out of the stuff, including their skin, bones, meat, everything. If the system would consider that a mutation, then monsters wouldn't be able to mutate at all. Your void body simply changed your body from being carbon-based to being void-energy-based."

"I see… Should I try to get mutations that are likely to fuse then? Can you tell me if there's anything that would complement what I already have? How does the fusion process work?" I threw out a bunch of questions, wondering just how I would be able to choose once I got there.

"Unfortunately I am not privy to the information you need," Professor Cortax shook his head in defeat. "As I've told you earlier, these things happen automatically for monsters and only travelers get to consciously make these decisions. Sadly, whenever a traveler visits us, they are at the seventh tier. We've never met anybody who went through the experience of reaching the tenth tier, and detailed information about the travelers is not something the system is willing to give us."

"But what about you Asphons?" I asked, eyeing the small text above the Professor's head that outed him as a ninth-tier Asphon. "You're monsters, surely there has been somebody who has reached the tenth tier, right? Wouldn't the process be similar to what it would be like for a traveler?"

"That's… that's not something I should talk with you about…" Professor Cortax seemed to be caught off guard by my question and I could tell that I'd stepped into some really uncomfortable territory. "Maybe Lophan will tell you about it at some point…"

I looked at the deflated Professor with confusion. There was something about the Asphons that wasn't quite right since I met them. It was something that I never brought up since I chalked it up to coincidence, but even with the archive of asphon active, I had never seen a single Asphon above the ninth tier. I attributed it to just not meeting the truly strong individuals, or maybe they simply couldn't evolve higher by fighting the monsters on the seventh layer, but now it would appear that this was something of a sore spot for them. Just what the hell was going on?

Not being able to bear the suddenly uncomfortable and serious atmosphere I decided to change the topic, shelving the question for later. For Lophan specifically.

"So uhhh… what about recommendations? You got any for what I should invest in?"

"Recommendations? Right, right. Of course. Yes! I do have some recommendations for you!" Slowly emerging from the temporary funk the Professor found himself in, he dove into the chaotic mess of papers on a nearby desk. Papers flew everywhere, making an even bigger mess until Cortax emerged clutching a long list. "I looked through your file and came up with some things after lengthy consideration and some peer reviews!"

"I'd love to hear them, then," I replied, happy to see the life return to him.

"First off, your eyes!" Professor Cortax began. "They are still at the second tier! The eyes are very important for every living being and there are so many helpful mutations you could choose from! They are still only a basic version so you have a whole world of options to explore! Thermal vision, Night-vision, Infrared, long-range, mana detection, tremor sight, x-ray, future-sight, the possibilities are endless!"

"That's… a lot," I replied honestly, thinking back to the options I'd considered in the past. "Is there anything that would help me take a closer look at faraway things that I need to analyze quickly?"

"What an odd request, but yes! There is, of course, far sight, but that is too basic. I would recommend getting high-resolution eyes! In the earlier stages, it will simply let you perceive the world around you clearer, but at the higher tiers, they will allow you to focus on certain points, somewhat simulating the far sight mutation. With an accompanying brain, you could even make it seem like time slowed down, but since you already heavily invested in your brain, I wouldn't recommend changing it. You could always mutate a second brain for that express purpose!"

I was reminded of the voidlings and their apparent love for ocular mutations. Some of them, like Tim, must have not only a ton of eyes but also a ton of different brains to support and decode all the different types of eyes. Maybe they had lots of tiny brains, or maybe all of their brains fused into a mega brain of sorts. I wasn't certain if I'd ever go for a second brain, but the suggestion for the eyes sounded nice. It was important that I could peek at the spell matrixes of others in the future, even if there was some distance between us. Being able to "slow down" time to take a closer look would help immensely as well…

"Then what about defensive options? I often feel like I'm a bit too squishy, even if I do have some skills and a shield spell."

"For that, I would recommend further investing in your crystal symbiotes!" Professor Cortax got even more excited once he started talking about the tiny organisms living on my skin. "I must say, that was an inspired choice. Most people ignore the little buggers since they are either uncomfortable with having tiny beings living in their skin, or they're not happy with the lackluster abilities they start out with. BUT! If you continue to invest in them, I will guarantee that they will pay dividends! Stronger defense, faster mana regeneration, camouflage options! They can do it all, all you have to do is take your pick! Not to mention some of the fusions I've seen!"

"Sounds great!" I gave the man a thumbs-up, getting infected by his enthusiasm. "Now this is not necessarily vital, but I kind of miss being able to taste my food. Got any suggestions there?"

"Judging by your file, it would seem like you eat a lot of monsters, and you're eating them raw. I can tell you they taste terrible and getting taste buds in your mouth would be a horrible decision. Never fret, though, the solution is simple! Just mutate an additional, smaller mouth to use when you would like to enjoy some finer dining!"

"Why didn't I think of that?" I said baffled. I would need to get on that ASAP! "What about the fact that I keep dragging my incredibly poisonous mucus everywhere? I'd like to avoid accidentally becoming a mass murderer just by walking through a city."

"Now that one is a bit harder," Professor Cortax sat back down, becoming a tad more serious. "You've mutated your mucus quite highly and you have a synergy going on with your own poison spells. Changing it would be a terrible loss. The immediate stop-gap solution would be to get you off the ground somehow. Maybe get something that allows you to float, like some jellyfish monsters do, for example. Of course, that would massively hamper your speed, but in a city that shouldn't be too big of a problem. The same could be achieved with an anti-gravity spell or a simply flying spell, though. Or maybe use your tentacles to walk around?"

"I've actually been doing that last one recently," I stepped in before his ideas got too wild. "I've been told I look like nightmare fuel and that I'd make the children cry if I do it, though."

"I could see that having a certain… unfortunate aesthetic," Cortax chuckled. "But who cares? It solves your problem, and it does it for free. Whether you want to pay your precious points for a different solution is up to you."

"That's true, I guess," I replied. Should I really care about what Orbos had been spouting every time he saw me walk around on my tentacles? Mutation points were pretty hard to come by, after all. Maybe I'd get lucky with a fusion down the line. "Any other recommendations?"

"For starters, you should probably upgrade your ears at least once more," Cortax read off his paper. "At the next tier, they should gain the ability to close automatically when faced with a harmful noise, which would go a long way to protect you against auditory attacks. You're also missing a mutation for your nerves, which could help you a great deal. I'd have suggested getting a mutation for your mana pathways, but since your entire body consists of void energy this has become kind of a moot point. It's not entirely the same, but it's similar enough to having a body made out of pure mana."

"This is starting to sound really expensive…" I worried about the amount of mutation points I'd have to scrounge up for all of this. Maybe I should bench my brain and my mucus for a while?

"I'm no expert on how the system treats you travelers," Cortax put the list down on the desk next to him. "But generally, the more danger you're in, the tougher the challenge is that you pass, the better the rewards. If you really want to get good rewards, maybe you should seek out greater challenges when they present themselves."

I immediately thought back on all the crazy things I'd done, especially on the first three layers. I did get some of my strongest skills and evolutions during that time, simply because I continuously did the impossible, almost dying several times in the process. For some reason, I've stopped going after the really dangerous stuff on the fourth layer. Well, it was mostly due to my traumatic encounter with the massive voidling and the subsequent robbery. I'd become a lot stronger since then, so maybe I should actually look towards a bigger challenge.

The only issue was that there was no such thing to be found on the seventh layer, and it was impossible to skip down to the eighth.

"I will keep my eyes open for an opportunity, then."

"Good enough," Cortax nodded. "Well, at the end of the day, it's important that you get the things you want, but if I was to give out some general advice, it would be to not get too many mutations. It's better to have a few important mutations at a high tier instead of having tons of them at a low tier. Make sure you have at least one mutation for each body part but focus on two or three, and don't go overboard with mutating a ton of extra limbs. Well, you've been doing a pretty good job so far, I'd say."

"Wow, thanks," the compliment came a bit unexpected, but I appreciated it. At least I knew now that I didn't mess everything up.

"Now, how about you let me run some tests on you?"

I shuddered at the menacing posture the Professor took. I contemplated it for a moment but eventually decided that I could help contribute to science at least a little bit. And who knows, maybe I'd find out some cool things about how my body worked. I reluctantly agreed to a few tests, in exchange for being able to keep the list he had made and the promise that I could come back if I had more questions. Professor Cortax agreed to my demands all too easily before guiding me to another part of the lab. Barely suppressing a happy giggle the entire time.

What's the worst that could happen?

Skills: Obliterating Poison Mucus Armor Lv.3 (C), Compress Lv.3 (C), Hunter Radar Lv.1 (C), Powerful Leap Lv.4 (B), Rush Lv.2 (B), Maximum Fortification Lv.7 (B), Meditation Lv.9 (C), Subordination Contract Lv.1 (A), Void Pressure Lv.1 (S), MP Drain Lv.7 (B)

Magic: Obliterating Poison Shot Lv.10 (E), Obliterating Poison Ballista Lv.1 (C), Obliterating Poison Mist Lv. 10 (D), Obliterating Poison Needle Lv. 10 (D), Obliterating Poison Bomb Lv.10 (C), Obliterating Poison Assassination Lv.10 (C), Obliterating Poison Aura Lv.8 (C), Obliterating Poison Explosion Lv.1 (B), Obliterating Poison Caltrops Lv.1 (B), Giant Spike Lv.2 (SS), Void Javelin Lv.10 (B), Void Cloak Lv.10 (C), Void Jump Lv.10 (B), Void Teleport Lv.1 (C), Void Laser Lv.2 (A), Void Rend Lv.1 (S), Magical Bolt (?), Guardian Summon (C)(0/100), Shield Lv.10 (C), Elemental Shield Lv.1 (B), Grass Walk Lv.10(C), Ghost Walk Lv.2 (B), Restoration Lv.10 (C), Heal Lv.1 (B)

Passive Skills: Bottomless Inventory (S), Stealth (B), Turret (B), Giant Hunter (S), Gluttony (SSS), Increased Evolution Potential (A), Toxin and Poison Immunity (B), Increased Passive Void Mana Regeneration (A), Crystalized Poison (C), Fast Learner: Poison (A), Poison Master (A), Wisdom King (B), Polonic Chance (A), Void Guidance (S), Void Synchronisation (A), Apex Hunter (C), Magical Singularity (EX), Archive of Asphon (EX), Infuser (B), Lightning Resistance (C), Lava Diver (B), Mind Protection (B), Royal Void Aura (S), Royal Court (SS), Hidden Radar (B), Spell Flow Recognition (S)

Mutations: Obliterating Poison Mucus (T9), Mana Gland (T2), Mana Concentration Gland (T1), Mana Absorbent Skin (T2), Spell Attuned Brain (T9), Monster Eyes (T2), Stable Void Connection (T4), Void Mana Conversion Gland (T4), Movement Tentacles (T2), Hand Tentacles (T2), Wing Tentacles (T2), Bigger Mouth (T3), More Teeth (T3), Sealable Ears (T3), Mana Infusion Gland (T4), Gills (T2), Crystal Symbiote (T3), Void Body (T9), Void Core (T9), Void Feelers (T5), Void Crown (?)

Skill Trees: Poison Magic, Magical Truth (2/2)

Languages: English, Void Language, Spell Runes