The Glorious Evolution

A Few Hours Later... In Jasmine’s Deserted Kingdom’s Camp.

Shia dismissed the latest research report before reaching its final page... her expression was grim.

She already knew what came next... another explanation for the failed attempt, followed by a request for more materials.

Across the camp’s central table, Nurah kept reading her own copy, while Jojo meditated beside Arthur, barely interested in opening hers.

Three successful Raids and more than two hundred thousand credits each had funded their research so far, and the results still gave them nothing they could use to evolve.

The contracted Certified Alchemists documented their work thoroughly.

The girls knew where their money went, which experiments failed, and what they intended to change... unfortunately, it did nothing to ease their frustration or show mercy on their bleeding wallets.

”At this point, I could recognize his requests without reading his name,” Shia complained.

Nurah agreed wholeheartedly.

She could accept exhausting training because she usually understood what it accomplished... but spending another pile of credits to eliminate an unusable combination tested her patience differently.

Arthur nodded in sympathy, though his own troubles lay with the materials rather than the formula research.

”Tell me about it,” he grumbled. ”I’ve barely found one ingredient for mine... and it cost me more than a hundred thousand credits!”

Possessing a formula spared him their research troubles, but switching to an Origin Seed meant the ingredients he needed were far rarer and more expensive... just like Levi’s.

Every promising listing seemed to end with poor quality, an unavailable seller, or a price that made him question whether someone had accidentally added another zero.

If even Levi struggled to find materials for Warden rank, there was no telling how much longer Arthur might need to collect all of them on his own.

Meanwhile, Jasmine offered no complaints in this department.

Her advancement followed a different path, requiring her to deepen her understanding of higher-graded Aspects to satisfy her Seed rather than commission a formula... though that hardly made it easier.

”My mother always told me Solarbound would be my first real hurdle.”

Nurah sighed and closed the expenditure record.

Now, she felt it clearly... finding a formula that perfectly suited their individual development proved much harder than she had anticipated.

Shia returned to the unfinished report, unwilling to dismiss it entirely despite her irritation... hoping for some inspiration to strike and help her alchemist reduce the expenses.

Jojo watched her reopen it and decided that they needed a different subject before the gathering became another argument about whether to settle for Remarkable Evolution.

Naturally, none of the girls wanted to ruin their potential through using it.

”Where’s Levi, anyway?” she asked.

He had told them to gather up, and Jojo hadn’t hesitated to interrupt her meditation in the Runehoof Kin’s mountains to come here, only to find him nowhere around.

Arthur and the girls shifted their attention toward Jasmine.

She had spent yesterday with him... if anyone knew what delayed their captain, it should be her.

Jasmine shrugged.

Before they could ask anything further, a dimensional gate opened nearby.

Levi emerged through it wearing a black hoodie with thin purple lines running along its sleeves and sides. His trousers followed the same colors, complementing the dark plum-purple scattered through his hair.

The green had disappeared entirely, catching everyone by surprise. Arthur’s eyes traveled over the new clothes before returning to Levi’s hair.

”Oh... you evolved?”

”Your hair changed color again? Did your Seeds come with a hair-dye subscription?”

Jojo’s glossy scalp twitched, a trace of envy crossing her face... she had shaved her head to prove her resolve to abandon vanity and follow the path of the monks in her books, but that didn’t mean she’d stopped liking the idea of having hair.

But as such thoughts coursed through her mind, she swiftly cut them off and started meditating again... not fond of having her resolve tested.

Shia congratulated him on reaching Warden while Nurah showed the least restraint in her approval.

”Black suits you much better,” she said, taking another look at him. ”Try to keep it for more than one evolution.”

She had always preferred him in black... and with the purple breaking through his curls, she found little to complain about.

-I hope the evolution wasn’t too painful.-

Jasmine signed, still recalling the hellish experience Levi had gone through during his Soul-Split evolution.

”Thank you all... the evolution wasn’t so bad, to be hone...”

Before he could finish his sentence, Nurah popped out of his shadow and swiftly reached out to his mouth.

Levi’s enhanced reflexes activated at once, and he pulled away before her slender fingers could catch his tongue... then he caught her hand and pulled her from his shadow and into his embrace, showing a wry smile.

Nurah was left stunned at once... not by the embrace, as she kinda enjoyed it, but by the fact that she wasn’t even given the chance to react before finding herself already caught.

The last time she ambushed him, at least she managed to swing a dagger at him... now? She felt like she was given zero chance to react or retaliate.

”You can just ask,” he said.

”Where is the fun in that?”

Nurah smiled playfully, though a twinge of dread stirred within her... after his latest evolution, the Levi standing before her felt far more dangerous than the one she’d last fought.

Levi let go of her, and she pointed at his mouth, her focus resting on his tongue and vampire-like teeth... the others shared the same weirded-out look as they gazed at his tongue’s forked tips and the intricate black inscriptions running along its pink surface.

”You grew a snake’s tongue?” Shia asked, stepping closer to inspect it.

Arthur and the others crowded around him, with his little brother already reaching out to tug it free, only to have his hand slapped away.

Knowing they wouldn’t leave him alone until he satisfied their curiosity, Levi let out a long sigh before extending his tongue.

”Whoa... that’s actually pretty damn cool!” Arthur leaned closer. ”Can you move it around?”

Levi curled the slender tip in response.

Arthur’s grin widened in astonishement, but the girls went strangely quiet.

Their hearts, however, were anything but quiet.

Levi caught the brief hitch in their heartbeats before their pulses quickened... a faint blush crept across their cheeks, and Shia cleared her throat as someone took half a step back.

’Minds in the gutter already?’

His brows twitched beneath his bandana.

He had a fairly good idea of where their thoughts had wandered, especially when none of them offered another question.

Fortunately for them, he was too much of a gentleman to point it out and tease them for it.

Levi promptly retracted his tongue before the conversation got any weirder.

”That’s enough fooling around; I am here for serious business,” Levi said, retrieving a case from his dimensional wallet. ”This tongue might be the reason you stop spending your Raid earnings on failed formulas.”

Shia reached for the case before he finished setting it down, finding three empty sample vials occupying the slots inside.

”What do you mean?” Nurah tilted her head in confusion.

Levi briefly explained his tongue’s capabilities, focusing on how it could help them research their Perfect Evolutionary formulas and spare them countless costly failures.

Their smiles faded as he spoke... they had spent months watching their savings disappear into research that barely moved forward, and he was casually offering to help overcome the very obstacles their alchemists kept reporting!

By the time he finished, nobody felt like teasing him anymore.

A few moments passed in silence as they waited for a limitation, some catch that would make his offer less outrageous.

Instead...

”Send me everything your alchemist worked on... and give me a few drops of blood each.” Levi smiled while extending the vials to the girls.

”Moving forward, I am your Alchemist.”