Percy raised an eyebrow upon reading yet another new type of notification. His Status had never informed him of his or his familiars’ advancements before. Then again, this was the first time this had happened since obtaining Obatala’s Approval.
Shrugging, he brushed the message aside, watching the former goddess’s evolution with bated breath. Archibald had also taken a break from training to stand beside him, clearly not wanting to miss this. The old Violet may have been around for centuries, but he’d definitely never experienced the kinds of things that Percy showed him on a regular basis.
Munching on a pile of minced bugs, the Starry Princess’s body swelled and squirmed at an alarming rate, each violent convulsion cracking her exoskeleton. It didn’t take long for her to break out of her carapace, her frame continuing to grow for a few seconds before her skin hardened again into a second shell.
She wasn’t done yet, however, having only reached about half the size of a typical Yellow beast. Diving back into the morbid pile of her deceased nephews and nieces, she resumed her gluttonous feast, soon accumulating enough fuel to moult for the second time.
Only when she broke through her exoskeleton again did her body finally calm down, having reached a size comparable to a human’s. Examining the familiar carefully, Percy felt that she was slightly larger than a Starry Soldier, though he didn’t know if she had her royal lineage to thank for that, or any of her other mutations.
‘How are you feeling?’ he asked through the cord.
‘Ecstatic,’ Nephthys exclaimed, some genuine excitement spilling into Percy’s soul. ‘It’s been a very long time since my last advancement, but this was on a whole other level. I never imagined that a beast’s evolution would be so… intense. The sense of euphoria it gave me can’t even be compared to a regular promotion.’
Percy’s lips curled up into a knowing smile, fully aware of what she meant. Perhaps, the two of them were the only sapients – or former sapients, at any rate – in the universe who did.
Other than her size, Nephthys didn’t look that different from before, clearly not having developed any new mutations. However, the grey colour had spread to the outer area of her mandibles, around her compound eyes, and even the part of her abdomen closest to the stinger.
Much like what had happened to Micky, the Soul Predator mutation would likely expand with each evolution, eventually reaching every corner of her body. That said, Percy doubted that it would be done before Blue or even Violet.
For now, her exterior appeared slightly glossier, the black regions looking even deeper, while the colourful dots and the golden watermarks had grown brighter. The stark contrast made her exoskeleton resemble the night sky even more. If Nephthys had looked like a cheap imitation before, she was now closer to the real deal.
Through Soul Vision, Percy noticed that her wisps had merged almost completely. The silver ripples that had originated from the goddess’s soul were still there, but they were now little more than thin markings seemingly etched on the surface of her much darker soul, serving as mere conduits of her Divine Spark mutation.
“Do you need help passing her the Decree?” Archibald asked, caution evident in his tone.
It was a little silly for him to worry about Percy granting a new core to a mere Yellow creature after having watched him do that to half a million Blue wasps without issue, but Percy didn’t blame his grandfather for wanting to make sure. Nephthys was too important to risk harming her.
“It’s fine,” Percy replied with a chuckle. “I don’t even need to injure her for this. My familiars don’t reject my clones, and I have a ton of experience possessing Micky. I’ll be done in a few seconds.”
After confirming with the Princess that she was also ready, Percy repeated the same actions that he had practiced hundreds of thousands of times over the past few months, severing a chunk of his soul and wrapping it around her body.
Truth be told, he was a little anxious, but for a different reason than Archibald. He was less afraid about harming Nephthys and more worried that they might merge, turning her into another aspect before he’d even dealt with his fusion with Micky.
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Not wanting his clone to remain inside her body a second longer than necessary, he gestured for the Starry Drones and Workers to bury her in a small hill of green mushrooms, watching the fungi shrivel and lose their lustre at a scary rate as torrents of life mana rushed into her abdomen.
At the same time, he pulled up her Status, focusing on the last section.
___
Decrees:
- [Moirais’ Decree (Incomplete)] – Grants the seed of a second mana core. Requires potent life mana to germinate.
___
‘Okay, the mind mana requirement seems to be gone,’ he thought, exhaling in relief.
He still wasn’t sure whether it would return if he were to retrieve the clone before the new core was complete – he’d never bothered to check – but it didn’t really matter, because he had no intention of doing this half-assedly.
Soon, the inert mushrooms crumbled into fine dust, Percy’s clone rushing back to his body before the notification even got a chance to flash in front of his eyes.
[Congratulations! Your familiar has acquired a new mana core: Orange – ???!]
‘Hmmm… even after two upgrades, it doesn’t look like my Status can figure out the affinities without any data,’ he realized, finally identifying a shortcoming in the evolved Decree.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a big issue. It only took Nephthys about a day to clear the first few channels, though Percy’s expression slowly darkened as he grew surer and surer about their mana type.
“Acid… damn.”
Archibald patted his shoulder consolingly, prompting him to shake his head in response.
“It’s fine. I shouldn’t be complaining about a composite affinity,” Percy said in the end.
He’d just have to find somebody else to help him split up with Micky. As for the missed opportunity in having the goddess regain the affinity that she was most proficient in – well… there was nothing they could do about that.
At least, she was probably going to get more mutations this way.
Percy didn’t think that she would ever turn into an elemental like Micky, but if her water affinity gave her something like his old Thin Blood mutation, it would help with her stamina issues, further increasing her royal jelly output.
“What are you going to do with the extra uses of the treasure?” his grandfather asked, switching to a different topic.
“Right…” Percy muttered upon being reminded of that.
Having already granted the affinity to Orin, he’d only need to consume two of the four remaining uses for Nesha and Elaine. He didn’t know whether to cry or laugh about it. Had he known that his familiar wouldn’t need it, he might have done things differently.
He could have picked a treasure with fewer uses for the girls from an earlier round of the tournament and another full set of ritual ingredients from the finals. Then again, Orin would have drawn the short end of the stick in that case.
Alas, Percy couldn’t have known.
“I don’t have anyone specific in mind,” he answered his grandfather’s question with a shrug. “I suppose I can give one to Gawain. I still owe him for escorting me to my affinity test. As for the other, I’m happy to listen to you.”
Archibald nodded. “We’ll give it to one of our Blues. Let’s discuss this after we get home.”
Leaving it at that, Percy walked out of Nephthys’s chamber to resume his duties of passing the Moirais’ Decree to the Blue wasps. It would still be a few days until he was done, though his elemental body didn’t have to wait. Meeting up with his grandfather, he returned to the surface.
Percy intended to use his time as efficiently as possible in the next few months. His human body would send out clones to the Vault as soon as he was done with the bugs. After that, he also wanted to play around with the royal jelly for a while. The Starry Queen and her daughter had already grown proficient enough with Hibernation to noticeably boost their output, so sparing some shouldn’t be an issue – especially as they continued to make progress with their spells and new cores.
Depending on how much of the rare resource they could afford to give him, and how easy it would be to incorporate into the elixirs, Percy might be able to double his own cleansing speed again!
In the meantime, Micky would work on Internal Magiscript while escorting Archibald home, while the latter would continue developing his boosting art under his supervision. Once the situation with House Avalon was settled and Micky gave Elaine and the others their new affinities, he was going to sneak back in Twilight City to meet up with Nesha.
Finally, he would return to the Guild. Both bodies could then split their time between pushing for their artificial advancements and helping the alchemists increase their output.
Just like that, House Avalon was about to thrive, Remior was already technically a greater spring thanks to the cyan paste and was on course to improving even further, and Percy himself was sprinting toward two separate – but fully stackable – types of promotions!
‘I wonder what will come first... the natural advancements, or the artificial ones?’
A surge of excitement rose in his chest. No matter what, one thing was for certain. If everything went according to plan, all four of his cores would reach Blue in mere decades!
It was worth remembering that Red-borns weren’t supposed to reach even Green. Even if they weren’t limited by their lifespan, advancing to Blue with regular elixirs would take five thousand years!
‘Okay, let’s not get ahead of myself…’
All of these milestones would require a lot of time and effort. He also had a hunch that the situation with Machaon and the noble Houses would blow up before he was done. Still, once he overcame these challenges, the combination of his Blue cores and Extreme spell should grant him strength on par with a demigod’s!
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