Chapter 312
First, he used the collected unique materials to upgrade the rarity level of each of the crawler’s four remaining attributes from Common to Uncommon.
Since all of its attributes were now Uncommon, the rarity level of the creature itself could be increased to the same rarity level. This would allow him to grant the crawler its first special ability.
Jake requested the command for the upgrade, and a text prompt appeared before him.
Upgrade Available: Ten-legged Crawler (Common) → Ten-legged Crawler (Uncommon)
Acquire the Upgrade: Y/N (Cost: 1,000 MP)
The Mana Core didn’t have much mana left—he made a mental note to refill it later on—but it could still afford to spare 1,000 MP. So Jake thought, “Yes.” The upgrade from Common to Uncommon happened instantly.
But as it turned out, he could grant the crawler a special ability only during its transformation to the next form. So he entered the creation mode and spent several minutes transforming the crawler once again.
To evolve the crawler to Rank III, he only needed to increase Strength and Constitution to at least 25%. However, since the crawler was now at Rank II and its attributes’ rarity levels had been upgraded to Uncommon, Jake could raise them beyond that threshold.
Also, he decided that while he was at it, it would be beneficial to increase the remaining attributes—Intelligence and Magick—to the same level as well.
The creature was now prepared to evolve to Rank III. Before starting the evolution process, he only needed to decide which special ability to give to the ten-legged crawler. He had three options to choose from.
His creatures were limited to one special ability per rarity level, so Jake took some time to consider his options before making a decision. All three available abilities—Adhesive Secretion, Mana-infused Jump, and Acid Spit—were useful, but he could only choose one.
He selected Adhesive Secretion because this ability was crucial for his land-bound creations. After that, he initiated the evolution process and left his lair to hunt for XP. Once he received a message that the ten-legged crawler had finished its evolution to the next stage, he made his way back to the lair.
Once he was back, he checked the creature’s updated stats.
Name: Ten-legged Crawler (Uncommon)
Rank: III
Size: Small
Strength: 33% (Uncommon)
Constitution: 34% (Uncommon)
Agility: 35% (Uncommon)
Intelligence: 32% (Uncommon)
Magick: 35% (Uncommon)
Special abilities: Adhesive Secretion
While it was a promising start, it wasn’t the full potential of what his spider could reach. To progress the crawler’s attributes past the 35% threshold, he needed to upgrade them to the next rarity level: from Uncommon to Superior. To accomplish this, he had to gather some more unique genetic materials.
After reviewing the requirements for the rarity upgrade, he discovered that he needed the same genetic materials as last time, but instead of three units of each, he now had to collect five. He left the crawler floating in the liquid-filled chamber and ventured out of his lair again.
It took him three more days to gather all the required unique genetic materials. This time, he focused primarily on locating the elite mutants but still managed to level up five more times, from 144 to 149. He allocated the earned SP to his attributes.
Body: 220 → 225
Mind: 178 → 188
Magick: 255 → 265
Once he had collected all the required unique genetic materials, he resumed working on the ten-legged crawler. He was eager to grant it at least one more special ability. To achieve this, he needed to raise its rarity level from Uncommon to Superior. This required increasing the rarity level of each of its attributes. One by one, he began this process, spending the collected unique materials.
Now that all the crawler’s attributes were of Superior rarity, he could upgrade the rarity of the creature itself to the same level.
Crawler (Uncommon) → Ten-legged Crawler (Superior)
Acquire the Upgrade: Y/N (Cost: 2,000 MP)
Jake did this and then checked the requirements for evolving the ten-legged crawler to Rank IV.
Strength: 40%
Constitution: 45%
Agility: 50%
Jake entered creation mode and got to work. With all the crawler’s attributes at Superior rarity, they could be increased up to the 50% mark. As always, to prevent any of the creature’s attributes from going down while increasing others, Jake maintained a balanced approach as he transformed the crawler into its next form.
Once he was finished, he shifted his attention to the list of available special abilities. With the ten-legged crawler now at Superior rarity, he could grant it an additional special ability. Having already given it Adhesive Secretion, he had two more options: Mana-instead Jump and Acid Spit.
Jake considered his choices carefully. He was eager to grant both abilities to the ten-legged crawler. Although he could only select one ability for now, he remembered that after upgrading the creature to the next rarity level, he would have the opportunity to give it the other ability.
However, after evolving the crawler one more time, he intended to shift his focus from the crawler back to developing his lair. Therefore, whatever ability he chose for the crawler now, the creature would be stuck with that ability for some time. This made the current choice quite important.
After thinking it over for a bit, he decided to grant the crawler the Acid Spit ability. However, he couldn’t initiate the evolution process right away, as evolving the ten-legged crawler from Rank III to Rank IV required the Creation Chamber to also be at Rank IV.
Fortunately, since the Mana Core was Rank IV, he could evolve his structures to the same rank. He had the Creation Chamber memorize the progress he had made on the crawler and set the structure to evolve to Rank IV.
He also knew that if he wanted to create more Rank IV ten-legged crawlers, he needed to evolve the Hive Nexus to the same rank. He had enough mana and biomass, so he instructed the Hive Nexus to evolve to Rank IV as well.
After that, he left his lair to hunt for XP. When the Creation Chamber finished evolving to Rank IV, he returned to his lair and initiated the evolution process for the ten-legged crawler. He then set out again, only to return later upon receiving a notification that the process had completed.
Since his spider could now launch globs of acid from its mouth just like him, he decided to add an additional word to its name. He then took a moment to check the stats of the newly evolved spider.
Name: Acid-spitting Ten-legged Crawler (Superior)
Rank: IV
Size: Small
Strength: 46% (Superior)
Constitution: 48% (Superior)
Agility: 50% (Superior)
Intelligence: 45% (Superior)
Magick: 47% (Superior)
Special abilities: Adhesive Secretion, Acid Spit
In his opinion, it looked very good now. Jake had a feeling that his crawler was quite powerful now. He remembered that the Rank I crawler had managed to single-handedly take down a walker. Its ancestor, which was Rank IV, had significantly increased attributes and a ranged special ability to boot, was undoubtedly much more dangerous than its predecessor.
It was time to unleash it into the outside world and assess its performance. If he was pleased with the results, he could consider beginning mass production of the acid-spitting ten-legged crawlers. However, he first needed to find a way to automate the process of collecting mana and biomass for his lair.
Jake shifted his attention back to the Creation Chamber and mentally instructed it to release the crawler. It was time to send it into the outside world.