Chapter 107: Evolution Trees

It's been five months and I have finally completed the village's sewer system. It took a lot longer than I expected, simply because I was also focused on building my Bond skills’ evolution tree. I also told Chyzu, Esofy, Tana, and many other people that they should do the same, if only to level up their Bond more.

For my main attack, I went back to [Beauty Beam], a poorly thought-out skill but one with a lot of upgrade potential, and I upgraded it to [Beauty Laser], a proper laser attack that utilizes actual laser-like damage rather than the more conceptual damage type [Beauty Beam] used. I then upgraded [Beauty Laser] into [Beauty Prism] which takes advantage of the different types of beauty to create a cold attack, fire attack, and is even capable of healing like [Blessing of Wholeness]. It is a mix of conceptual and laser attacks.

The conceptual damage type is the main reason why [Beauty Beam] dealt less or more damage based on how 'beautiful' something is. It's fueled by the very concept of beauty and destroys what is not. This is also why beauty essence can heal, it's conceptual healing rather than regeneration.

My third evolution tree for [Beauty Beam] is [Beauty Pellet] which attacks with pellets of mana rather than a beam otherwise it's functionally the same as my laser version with only one main difference. The lasers are more powerful, being able to fit more mana into a continuous beam while the bullets are weaker but more fitting for explosion-type attacks, which led me to evolve it in that direction. Other than pellets I have [Beauty Bullet] which is the [Beauty Prism] version, then I have [Beauty Gatling] a machine gun type skill, and [Beauty Canon] which fires a large ball of beauty.

At this point, all of my [Bullet] version evolution only give me one level each to my Bond. Yes, the Gatling and Cannon are still innovative and kinda new but it's really just a large and rapid-fire version of previous skills, so it's not that rewarding.

All of these evolutions were able to take my Bond to level four hundred twenty-nine, fourteen levels.

The next skill I worked on was [Beauty Enhancement] which I turned into [Beauty Blessing]. Following the conceptual function, it’s more of a plastic surgery type of skill. It's very mana expensive but can do things like remove blemishes or grow or shorten hair and fingernails, but nothing too drastic. It can't reshape limbs, bone or muscle. Maybe there is a stronger evolution that I can unlock when I am higher level in my Bond.

Next, I upgraded [Beauty Empowerment] into [Intensify Beauty], which is just the Bond version of my [Empower Fairy]. It can work on all of my beauty spells including non-Bond spells. Then I branch [Beauty Empowerment] into [Beauty Explosion], taking inspiration from [Fairy Explosion]

I earn nine levels from these evolutions, bringing my Bond level to four hundred thirty-eight.

The third skill I worked on is [Imbue Beauty]. Although it became [Adorn Wings], it was a rather basic skill so it’s not hard to get back. I evolved it to [Bestow Wings], which lets me cast my wings on myself or others, and would be a better version if it wasn't slower and less agile. It's good for getting a lot of people from point A to point B, but not as good in combat. Still, the twins love flying with me and I don't plan on ever being face to face with a monster, so I decided to keep this skill on me instead of [Adorn Wings].

I also evolve [Imbue Beauty] into [Imbue Bond]. It lets me cast a Bond skill onto an object, which then can be used by anyone for a certain number of charges. Once all charges are used, I need to recast the skill. In other words, I can cast [Beauty Cannon] on Esofy's sword and she can use it four times. However, due to the nature of mana, It won't work with dark aligned weapons like Uloru's hammer.

I earn six levels for the two evolutions of [Imbue Beauty], which advances my Bond level to four hundred forty-four.

Unfortunately, half of my Bond skills are ones I don't want to risk evolving, so for now I'll have to hold off on them. I have managed to upgrade [Create Twin] into the slightly better version [Copy Self], which costs about as much as my Diadem's clones. It's cheaper than [Duplicate Self] – not the degree that I can spam it in combat, but at least it won’t cost seventy percent of mana to replace a single clone – but still tangible enough to hold things.

The last skill I work on is my old [Aura of Elegance]. It's one of the skills I honestly think had some good uses, and I am able to upgrade it to [Beauty Nova] for a burst effect centered on me. I also made a new branch of the evolution tree, [Beauty Sanctuary], a shield-type illusion skill which I further upgraded to [Serene Sanctuary] which also weakens any attacks that may break past my defenses. Branching off of [Beauty Sanctuary] again, I gained [Sanctuary of Wholeness] which, you guessed it, heals everything around me.

Branching off [Beauty Sanctuary] yet again I got [Sanctuary of Passion] and [Sanctuary of Stillness], which are mildly offensive auras that can heat up or cool down my surroundings respectively.

For these evolution trees, I managed fourteen levels, bringing my Bond to level four hundred fifty-eight. In addition to all of that work, my efforts at becoming more in-tune with my Bond paid off with twenty-two more levels over these five months, taking my new Bond level total to four hundred eighty.

Just twenty levels away.

I've been holding off on my Class levels for so long, and soon I'll finally be able to work on it again. It’s only taken fourteen years of my life to get this far... maybe I should ask Kayafe for some Class advice sometime.

I am almost fourteen years old now, just a month away. I am quickly running out of time to find a cure to cursed skills, but I have so many things to do and not enough time to do it in, even with all of my clones.

Also, with my Bond almost reaching five hundred, I should also work on my general skills to get the last few levels so I can get a second Class. Once I do that I can probably drop [Tailoring], I don't need it anymore with my [Mana Manipulation]. I'll just mana weave and mana forge everything. If I do need a little more help in weaving I have [Acting] to help. And since Acting works off what I know, it should bring me back to where I was, especially if I use the breakthrough of ‘acting a skill’. For now, I need to keep [Tailoring] for its high levels.

With the plumbing in place, our village is now more popular than ever before, and we are seeing a large influx of people moving in. People tell their friends and family about the innovation our village has and, since they are already in the nearby villages, they move in. It's not expected to stay this way, however. Things will return to normal, many people will seek their fortunes in the underpopulated villages and resettle the central and inner villages again.

Several other villages have been restored now, although the price of lumber is still very high. Thirty villages have been restored in total and, slowly, trade is being re-established. Things like bamboo seeds, cotton, clay, metals, stone, and other goods our village doesn't produce are making their way back to our markets.

"With the completion of the sewers I'd like to ask you to start working on the airship again," Guklaro asks.

I had set the Mana Arc liquid mana production back to dark mana, and we now have a good stockpile of the mana that we can work with again. I also have to alter the airship slightly to make it ready for enchantments: when I built it originally I just smashed everything together, which makes it bad for enchanting. The airship alterations will likely take two or three months, unless it ends up taking longer like the sewer project did. That would be… annoying.

"Alright, we have enough mana for the flooring at least, but this airship will require at least two more sessions of gathering mana to complete it," I tell her.

Because this airship will be enchanted to be larger on the inside we have to make it accordingly. This means that the floors will be made closer to each other, possibly so close together that someone can't normally fit between them. This is great for having many floors, but will require a lot more mana and time to make it. On top of that, the amount of mana required to maintain the enchantment may be beyond what we can manage, and once the enchantment runs out of mana it's bad news for anything left inside it.

We do have that slime core that produces mana, which will definitely help but it's not going to solve the issue on its own. If we want the airship to be self-powering then we need more monster parts that can produce mana, and there just so happens to be a Heroic-tier monster that may have something that can help us.

"Are you sure you want it enchanted?" I ask. "The mana upkeep will be... a lot. Possibly too much."

"We will figure something out, even if it takes us fifty years to get it off the ground," Guklaro replies.

With that, I walk that clone over to the docks where the airship is and start getting it ready for enchantments. I send another clone to prepare dark mana by transforming it into space mana. My third clone, I send to play with the twins while with my real body I visit the combat academy.

"Alysara! Good to see you here," Chyzu says, noticing me and stopping her lecture. "Thank you for telling us about the Bond skills being able to switch back and forth, it's helped us grow our Bond so much that it's been a primary focus here for a while now."

"For the longest time we thought you lose all progress on a Bond skill if you drop it, it kinda shows how stuck we are in our ways that no one thought to test it," Esofy says.

I notice Tana avoiding eye contact shyly. He's probably the one who's grown the most in his Bond, having grown his evolution tree more than even I have with mine. He really is a genius when it comes to combat.

"I probably wouldn't have questioned it if I had asked you about it, it's normal to trust those that are more experienced than you," I reassure her.

"Yeah, I suppose so.” Esofy thinks for a few moments after answering, then shakes her head and continues, with slightly more excitement in her voice. “Since you are here, we plan to go back to the dungeon next week. We won't be challenging the Treant or the heroics but we still have second Classes that are ready for evolution and we want to level them up."

I nod. Esofy and Chyzu have been training their second Class’ skills for a while now. They would have probably gone into the dungeon already if it wasn't for them working on their evolution trees. This is a good chance for me to power-level my Bond to five hundred.

Now is probably a good time for me to ask Kayafe about what I need to do to obtain the best Class evolution I can. I leave the combat academy and fly over to the Temple. I spoke with her a few times over the last five months, my wings making the trip into an easy five-minute fight at my top speed. We often spoke about magic and magic frameworks, mana, our skills and I even told her how to get her final five breakthroughs in [Sense Mana].

"Hello again, Alysara."

"Hello, Kayafe. I need some advice. What are the best common ways to obtain better Class evolutions? What should I focus on most?"

"Hmm, that is a difficult question. The first is to try and max out your Class skills, even if you must hold off on some breakthroughs. Keep in mind that your next evolution will be fifty levels later, so you have some wiggle room to hold off. Just be wary, since you gain a Class level for every breakthrough and every five levels in a skill." Kayafe says.

"I see, so when I reach level five hundred in my Bond I should go straight to training my skills."

"Yes, it's better to have a capped skill level than to have more breakthroughs but not be capped. Obviously, it's best to have both. Next, for people with Bond Classes their Bond level is just as, if not more, important. It's another thing that sets Bond Classes back, you not only have to train your Bond and Bond skills but also your Class skills, so they often have to spend more time training."

"I get it, I get it, you think Bond Classes are sub-optimal," I say defensively.

"Of course, why have a Class to augment your Bond when you can have your Bond round out your build. For example, I use my Bond for mostly defensive purposes so I don't need to cast defensive spells manually."

Considering that a dragon can burn even the fabric of reality, and that the Bond isn't sourced in magic, I feel like Kayafe's bias may be hurting her in the long run. But then again, I have [Manipulate Mana] without a Class, so I don't need a caster Class unless I want it to be a lot stronger.

"The next thing you want is monster kills," Kayafe continues. "Mostly, you want a number of high tier and high level kills. As I've said before, dungeons are a great resource for these achievements. Your Class is Adept and you already have a Heroic kill, which is really impressive, so with five hundred levels in your Bond you will certainly have something very good."

"Factoring in my Heirloom tier, it should offset my negatives at least. Actually, why do Heirloom progenitors have such a large negative anyway? Did your companion ever find out?" I ask.

"We think it's because of the tiers themselves. The higher the tier you have, the harder it is to obtain greater tiers, and since Heirloom is so rare we think it counts as much as a Major or even Heroic-tier in addition to the tiers you already have. This is also why second Classes are just as hard to get higher tiers, you already have a Race tier and Class tier and it all adds up." Kayafe explains.

"The last thing you should know about are trials." Kayafe continues, after a short silence. "These are deliberately made and are often very difficult to accomplish. It can be anything, but the most common trials are tournaments, which are often worthy of at least a Major-tier achievement. Some trials are made for legendary achievements and are all but impossible or extremely deadly. Most organizations and governments make a few trials to train talented people and gain power."

"That sounds a lot like the Analysha, one has to make a likeness of Myrou or be exiled if you fail," I say. Dad has been wanting to do the Analysha for a long time now but clearly isn't ready for it yet. I am trying to explain mana to her, but it's going to take a lot more time before she understands mana physics.

"Yes, that is a trail I made, although I called it something else, The Tribute to the Gods. Specifically, you must make a likeness of Myrou, Venaro, and Varath, who embody the three main focuses of civilization: culture, science, and war. You must have a rich culture, good understanding of how the world works, and the ability to defend yourself to have a successful civilization. It should be a legendary trial as one pretty much needs an enhanced skill and the consequence for failing is high. If you manage to enhance [Mana Manipulation] it should be very doable for you."

Which means if I want to attempt the trial I will need the other likenesses to study... and those are somewhere in the dungeon.