Evolution Online: My 10,000× Reward System Multiplies Everything

Kaelen was right.

The System Gourmet Cauldron issued to the Drakaris was incredibly flawed. It started at a low success rate for even the most basic formulas, but scaled as the user increased its levels, which Kaelen’s didn’t have. Also, it had a cooldown between each craft and a limited number of pills or potions you could craft at once.

The Heavenly Gourmet Cauldron didn’t have any of those.

That made his speculation that the idea of his father’s Supreme Tier Gourmet Cauldron that could possibly craft anything with a 99.9% success rate was a one-time item, and made it valuable to the extent of the Emperor turning against his best friend to get his hands on it after he decided to use such an item on his wife instead.

That brought up the second question: why his wife?

What could possibly make his father decide to use such an item to craft something for his mother out of everything he could use it for?

Was it for a gift?

That didn’t seem to be the case.

His father was an intentional man, but to the extent of using a powerful item he might never come across in his lifetime to please his woman? The only viable reason for his father to possibly choose his mother against the world was if it was a life-or-death situation.

Kaelen couldn’t remember his mother being ill or plagued in any way, but it was very much possible she hid it well from her eight-year-old son.

If that were to be the case, did his father disappear to gather the ingredients to craft the miracle pill for his mother, or... did he never make it?

Was his mother truly dead?

Was that the reason she left him at the outskirts of Stronghold 5 and disappeared to die off somewhere he wouldn’t see her and have to live with the pain?

The thought of it alone made Kaelen’s chest ache, but at that moment, the words of his mother from the temple resurfaced in his mind.

”If I follow the constellations, I’ll find us... you.” Kaelen softly repeated to himself.

His heart hardened at that moment. No matter what happened, he was going to find his mother, and he was going to save her.

He refused to believe she was truly dead.

She was a strong woman.

Kaelen turned and began heading back to his treasury.

”Hey, what about me?! I told you everything you needed to know.” Kenora suddenly yelled from the cell, making Kaelen halt in his footsteps.

She was indeed helpful, and though Kaelen didn’t plan on killing her—he would’ve done that long ago if he didn’t need her—but she still knew a lot of things about Evolution Online that Kaelen was yet to learn, so he simply couldn’t let her walk away freely.

That might be selfish of him, but Kaelen was selfish and could go to any lengths if it involved his family.

He didn’t say a word and kept moving. But before Kenora could yell at him again, the iron bars slowly swung open.

She stared at them for a moment, before she quickly rushed out to follow after Kaelen, only to realize he’d disappeared into the maze-like corridors, his receding footsteps sounding near and distant at the same time.

She then quickly tried to log out, only to see the option was still grayed out as the system marked her as being in danger and unable to leave until she was at a safe place.

”C’mon,” she cried out as she chose a path and disappeared into it.

Kaelen intentionally left her behind so she wouldn’t follow him to the Treasury.

She was no longer a prisoner, but was now an important guest he couldn’t let go of just yet.

If she proved to be helpful, only then could he keep to the end of the bargain and set her free. After all, she tried to kill him and was supposed to be as dead as her people.

That’s right.

There was no respawn for them.

By the time Kaelen returned to his Treasury, the mountain of loot had been reduced to nearly arranged piles according to their ranks, leaving a single item on the ground that both the shadow summons and the other piles seemed to avoid like the plague.

It was an old parchment that seemed to be buzzing with a strange sound. Kaelen slowly approached it, staring at the parchment for a moment, before he lowered himself to pick it up.

The moment his hands touched it, the buzzing sound suddenly became clearer and began sounding like strange demonic chanting. Kaelen had the urge to drop the parchment, but did the opposite and tightened his grip around it like he was trying to ascertain dominance.

This was his loot, and not the other way around.

This was clearly a Transcendant item. The prize for slaying the Supreme Elder Dragon and stopping a world invasion. Kaelen was brimming with excitement at what it might be.

His first thought upon seeing the parchment was that it was likely a Skill scroll. Something powerful enough to make worlds disappear without a trace, but the description that appeared in his vision said otherwise.

[Eternal Myriad Scripture: ???]

”...”

”What the hell?”

Was he too weak to even read the description, or was the Transcendant parchment just acting all high and mighty?

Did it think he wasn’t worthy of its scriptures?!

Kaelen scoffed coldly as he sat cross-legged in the center of the Treasury and spread the parchment before his eyes.

He stared at the characters written on it for a long moment, before his brows furrowed.

Not only were the characters on the parchment not written in any language possibly recorded on Earth, but it looked like it’d been written with blood.

This was truly some demonic artifact that repelled Kaelen, but he refused to let go of the parchment, neither would he devour it for mere evolution points.

He was going to read it.

The characters might be foreign, but the strange chanting in his head seemed to correlate with the words written. Kaelen placed the parchment on his lap and inhaled deeply, before he poured his focus into the voices in his head.

That was when he noticed the chanting wasn’t one, but two different mantras that seemed to repel each other and stir his pool of consciousness.

Only one of the mantras was written in the Eternal Myriad Scripture, and leaning into it gave Kaelen’s mind profound peace, while the other seemed to do the opposite.

To every normal person, the best decision was to follow the divine mantra guided on the parchment. But to Kaelen... he was curious if he could recite them both at the same time.

He slowly shut his eyes and focused on the two mantras, before he picked up a rhythm and keyed in, reciting the two repelling mantras as one.

”Qi-ke-duo mo-he jie-luo-he...”

The effect was instant. Kaelen felt intense pain strike his head like heated knives under the hammer of a blacksmith. Instead of stopping, Kaelen gritted his teeth and forced himself to continue.

He recited the mantra like it was the last thing he could do, using the memories of his mother to anchor his consciousness.

Slowly, he began to get the hang of it, and the pain began to become bearable. But what Kaelen didn’t realize was that his entire Shadow Summons had been thrown into a panic as they desperately tried to break the barrier of strange runic symbols that surrounded him, trying to save him from the disaster that had befallen him.

Because little did he know... he’d turned into a stone statue.