Chapter 349: Evolution!
Alex smiled as he examined the notifications, feeling extremely satisfied with his achievement. Although his experiments had been successful, they had also left him with several serious injuries, and his body was still recovering from the damage.
He had completely lost his eyesight and sense of taste after making several mistakes while experimenting with Lightning Mana inside his brain. Fortunately, Life Mana was gradually repairing the damaged tissues, so he wasn’t particularly worried about recovering.
Moreover, even though Alex couldn’t see anything in his surroundings, he could still examine the System’s notifications without any difficulty. Apparently, the System didn’t rely on his physical eyesight to display information.
‘Alright, now let’s see what Evolutions I’ve managed to unlock,’ Alex thought, eagerly opening the first notification.
[Advanced Battle Instinct Spell can now be evolved. Choose an Evolution: Superior Battle Instinct Spell, Accelerated Thinking Spell, Combat Prediction Spell, Parallel Thinking Spell, Pain Control Spell, Memory Enhancement Spell.]
Alex examined the six options, feeling rather pleased with the variety. Superior Battle Instinct Spell was the most straightforward evolution, improving every aspect of Advanced Battle Instinct Spell without specializing in anything.
Accelerated Thinking Spell, on the other hand, focused entirely on improving his thinking speed. It would allow him to perform calculations faster and potentially cast complicated Spells more quickly, although Alex wasn’t certain whether it would directly improve his mana manipulation ability.
Combat Prediction Spell was almost the opposite, focusing on strengthening the combat instincts provided by Advanced Battle Instinct Spell. It would presumably allow him to recognize dangerous situations and predict his opponents’ movements more effectively.
‘These three are pretty much what I expected,’ Alex thought before examining the remaining options.
Parallel Thinking Spell immediately caught his attention because it could potentially solve a problem he frequently encountered. Whenever Alex used several Spells simultaneously, he needed to divide his attention between their different mana manipulation methods.
Although he had become quite skilled at multitasking, a single mistake could disrupt his concentration and affect several Spells at once. If Parallel Thinking Spell allowed him to separate his thought processes, he might be able to maintain different Spells independently, considerably reducing the mental effort required to keep the calculations he did for the spells separate.
‘This one could be incredibly useful, especially once my Spells become more complicated,’ Alex considered, moving on to the next option.
Pain Control Spell was another interesting evolution, although its usefulness was more situational. Alex frequently suffered injuries during battles and magical experiments, and the resulting pain sometimes interfered with his concentration.
Being able to control that pain would certainly help, particularly when he needed to continue fighting despite suffering serious injuries. However, compared to the other options, it wasn’t something he urgently needed.
Finally, Memory Enhancement Spell would improve his ability to remember information, which was especially valuable for someone studying magic. As Spells advanced to higher Ranks, their mana manipulation methods became increasingly complicated, making it difficult to remember every detail.
Forgetting even a small portion of a formation could cause the entire Spell to fail. Having an enhanced memory would therefore become increasingly useful as Alex continued developing more powerful Spells.
‘All six are good options. I could probably find a use for any of them,’ Alex thought, deciding not to make his choice immediately.
Instead, he opened the evolution notification for Lightning Reflex Spell, curious to see what alternatives it offered.
[Lightning Reflex Spell can now be evolved. Choose an Evolution: Advanced Lightning Reflex Spell, Dodge Spell, Counterattack Reflex Spell, Reflex Acceleration Spell.]
‘Four options. Nice,’ Alex thought, beginning to examine them.
Advanced Lightning Reflex Spell was the basic evolution, providing an overall improvement to the original Spell’s capabilities. It would increase his reaction speed without drastically changing how the Spell functioned.
Dodge Spell was more specialized, likely allowing his body to react to danger by dodging automatically. Alex immediately remembered his first encounter with the Basilisk, when he hadn’t known about its petrification gaze.
Advanced Battle Instinct Spell had warned him about the danger, but his reaction had been slightly too slow. If he had possessed Dodge Spell back then, he might have avoided the petrification gaze during their very first encounter.
Counterattack Reflex Spell followed a similar principle, except that it focused on automatically counterattacking rather than avoiding attacks. Alex remembered his experience inside the Badger Dungeon, where he had first encountered the Disruption Pattern.
When the Badger’s attack unexpectedly cut through his mana, the surprise had briefly prevented him from reacting properly, nearly resulting in a fatal injury. A Spell capable of triggering an immediate counterattack might have helped him recover from that situation without wasting precious time.
However, the final option interested him considerably more. Reflex Acceleration Spell appeared to boost his reaction speed greatly for a short duration, rather than maintaining a smaller improvement continuously.
‘So it’s something like nitro in a car,’ Alex thought, finding the comparison rather appropriate.
Instead of permanently improving his reflexes by a moderate amount, he could temporarily push them far beyond their normal limits. Such an ability would be extremely useful when facing opponents whose movements were too fast for him to follow.
More importantly, Alex believed he could learn something valuable from the Spell’s mana manipulation method. If he understood how Reflex Acceleration pushed his nervous system into overdrive, he might be able to reverse-engineer the Spell and construct a weaker version that operated continuously.
‘And that weaker version would probably be something similar to Advanced Lightning Reflex Spell,’ Alex realized, becoming increasingly interested in the possibility.
In that case, choosing Reflex Acceleration could eventually allow him to obtain the benefits of two different evolutions through his own research. However, after considering the possibilities for a while, Alex ultimately decided against selecting any of the available options.
Although several evolutions were extremely attractive, he hadn’t spent so much time training these two Spells merely to evolve them separately. His original intention had been to combine their abilities, creating something powerful enough to improve his mana manipulation and help him understand the mysterious diagram.
‘Let’s see whether these two Spells can actually be combined,’ Alex thought, directing his attention toward the System.
[Checking compatibility between Advanced Battle Instinct Spell and Lightning Reflex Spell. Compatibility confirmed.]
[Advanced Battle Instinct Spell and Lightning Reflex Spell can be fused for an Evolution. Choose an Evolution…]