Chapter 603: Seventh Evolution (1)

Agreeing to go forth with her seventh evolution, Scaly once again found herself blinded by the long list that soon enough filled her vision once again. Countless evolutions that far surpassed the previous number of evolutions she had ended up with following previous evolutions.

Understandable given how much stronger she had become and how her number of skills had only increased since previously.

Still... The first evolution that ended up drawing her attention wasn’t the one at the very top of this immense list of evolutions, but instead one located around the middle the stood out like a sore thumb amongst the mostly dragon-related evolutions.

✧ Evolutions Available ✧

[Lizard Dragon Slime]

[Requirements: Any magic level 9 or above, Magic above 5000, Previously been a lizard and dragon, Killed at least one slime.]

[Description: The dread lizard dragon slime, a dreadful existence amongst slimes, as it is a slime in the shape of massive lizard. Carrying a distinct dragon bloodline that allows the usage of dragon exclusive magic.

Like most slimes, the lizard dragon slime is considered immortal if the core stays intact, but different from most slimes, the lizard dragon slime possesses far greater mobility that renders most tactics used against slimes useless. Considered to have gone extinct since the ancient era where dragons were more abundant.]

Just reading through the description of this evolution made Scaly freeze on the spot not knowing what to say as she just found herself staring at this one specific evolution for a few seconds.

Although she had long since anticipated this annoying evolution list to throw another lizard evolution at her like it had done previously. This time around it hadn’t even allowed her the dignity of a powerful lizard evolution but had instead thrown some kind of strange slime evolution at her.

Even worse, the evolution itself was even highlighted in a strange golden glow as if to draw her attention like this was the strongest evolution present.

Of course, this was far from the reality, as below this evolution was a storm dragon evolution that was far stronger than this slime evolution, while above was the even stronger typhoon dragon evolution.

Both of which drew her immediate attention after she tore her attention away from the strange slime evolution because of how powerful they were.

Not that she decided to go through with any of the two evolutions, as one of her primary requirements for this evolution was to find one that would allow her to shrink herself in size or was at the very least a bit smaller than her current evolution.

After all, she had personally experienced just how incontinent it was for her to become bigger without any ability to shrink down to a normal dwarf size or at least human or beastkin size. Understanding from her experience journeying through two different dungeons so far that some dungeon floors seemed to have been designed with that kind of size in mind. Meaning if she wanted to explore dungeons in the future without running into problems, it would be best if she could at least shrink herself down to that size again.

And so... Countless evolutions that only served to make her even larger than she already was were quickly eliminated.

Of them, a few worth mentioning that garnered her interest were...

[Colossal Nightmare Dragon]

[Requirements: Dream Magic lvl 5 or above, Magic 5000 or above, Vitality 4000 or above, previous evolution being a dream dragon.]

[Description: Known as the weaver of endless nightmares, the colossal nightmare dragon is the evolution of the nightmare dragon, capable of influencing any being that enters its domain. Submerging them in a never-ending nightmare that only ends when they perish.

Known for its rarity and elusiveness even within the dreamscape and its ability to influence beings within the material plane from the dreamscape itself. Considered a threat above the SS Rank in the eyes of the Adventurer Guild because of the difficulty involved in dealing with a colossal nightmare dragon native to the dreamscape.]

[Juvenile World Devouring Serpent]

[Requirements: Any magic level 9 or above, Magic above 7500, Mana Consumption lvl 3 or above, Mana Circulation lvl 3 or above.]

[Evolution Lock: Locks future evolutions to the world devouring serpent branch.]

[Description: The juvenile evolution of the dread world devouring serpent. Despite its name, the juvenile world devouring serpent is an enormous monster that stretches more than two kilometers and grows up to twenty kilometers long at the end of its juvenile stage, with some talented amongst them growing even longer and larger.

Considered one of the deadliest monsters in the eyes of the Adventurer Guild and the appearance of one will result in an immediate extermination order from the guild. Mobilizing every force within the guild to kill it before it has a chance to grow up.]

[Primordial Lizard Queen]

[Requirements: Previous primordial lizard evolution, female]

[Description: An ancient variant evolution of the primordial lizard linage. Capable of commanding vast armies of lizards that can be borne through unique primordial lizard magic unique to the primordial lizard queen.

Far deadlier than the monster ant queens, but hardly a concern in the eyes of the few ancient scholars within the Adventurer Guild because of how these unique lizards long since went extinct during the ancient era.]

Okay amongst these evolutions, the last one was a bit out there, as she would never end up going through an evolution where she would have to followed in the footsteps of those ants and birth an army of her own, but the remaining two were truly desirable evolutions if they didn’t come with such obvious flaws.

The first, the colossal nightmare dragon evolution was powerful, but, as the name suggested, it was large to the point where even entering a dungeon in the first place would be impossible and her only real way to survive would be for her to remain within the dreamscape for the foreseeable future until she managed to get to her eighth evolution, something she had no idea how long it was going to take. Especially so with her potential hunting grounds being limited to the dreamscape.

After all, leaving the dreamscape as a colossal nightmare dragon was certain to get her noticed almost immediately, with the attitude of the Adventurer Guild clearly not being too friendly towards a dragon like that... And she doubted her identity as an approved monster would help her much in that kind of situation.

But speaking of her approved monster status not working, the juvenile world devouring serpent evolution wouldn’t just get her targeted by the Adventurer Guild but would outright make them mobilize utilizing all their strength to kill her.

Although she had no idea what it would look like for the Adventurer Guild that essentially spanned the entire world to utilize all its strength to kill her, she had feeling she wouldn’t be able ensure her safety even if she remained inside the dreamscape.

Not to mention, the sheer size of the juvenile world devouring serpent made it impossible for her to hide herself even if she wanted to do so.

Let alone the material plane, even inside the dreamscape, it would be impossible for her to hide with such a large body.

Even if the strength of this evolution might be the strongest of all the evolutions currently available to her, as it was positioned at the very top of the evolution list, she didn’t dare pick this evolution even if it would make her stronger.

Outside of the simple fact that it was doubtful she would survive for long after picking this evolution, there was also the evolution lock that she saw appear for the first time under this powerful evolution.

Picking it wouldn’t just mean she would become a massive target to be exterminated in the eyes of the Adventurer Guild but also meant she would never be able to evolve back into a dragon again in the future even if she wished to do so.

If anything, this might be the biggest reason why she rejected this otherwise powerful evolution, as it would mean giving up on her current path to becoming the most powerful dragon out there, something that was difficult for her to give up on considering how she had spent all her time so far towards becoming a stronger dragon. ℴℴ𝘮

The only kind of evolutionary lock she would be happy to agree with would be one that would lock her into being a dragon, but... The only kinds of dragon-related evolutionary locks she could find weren’t specific to the entire dragon race so to speak, but instead a small branch of the dragon race.

One example being a water stream dragon evolution that would lock her into only being able to evolve into different kinds of water dragons in the future, something that might be interesting, but the water stream dragon evolution itself wasn’t really powerful enough to warrant her giving up her ability to still freely choose between countless different dragon evolutions.