[Forced Evolution] was a skill that the Core had dreamt about having for quite a while now. The concept of taking a base creature and improving on it in real-time was something that it enjoyed immensely. What couldn’t be done at the current moment could be possible in the next with only a single wave of the Entity’s Mana. And while such was a gross simplification of the actual idea, the Core was sure that it would prove worthy soon enough.

First, however, the Core was in need to find a sample of a tree. Which was easy enough, seeing as it already knew where a bunch was located, that being right on the other side of the river. While there were a few besides the domain as well, none looked too thick or sturdy enough. No, the Entity desired those with the highest strength, those that could reach furthest into the skies, and, most importantly, those that could take the most damage before falling apart. It had no desire towards constant repairs inside its domain, after all.

Having to fix everything time and time again would utterly ruin any chance of things running independently, which was the only thing the Core truly wished for. Without it, there was no chance of it truly working outright, the size of the dungeon being limited by how much the Core could focus on at once. And, while such a limit wouldn’t be reached from one part needing manual repairs, a habit could be formed soon enough. By not taking any one-offs, such a thing was avoided entirely, as it should have been from the very start.

Oak Tree

Common plant found in the wild

An [Oak Tree], huh? The Core had no real clue if the naming scheme was important, but it certainly knew that it wouldn’t care for the foreseeable future. Instead, it returned into its domain, the knowledge of how to make a seedling gained. It seemed that the things built themselves from the ground up, starting with a small seed of sorts that would grow. It allowed the actual information on how to build in a very compact form. Without that, the Core was not entirely sure it could have recreated it without first enveloping the entire tree to figure out its secrets on a larger scale. With the data being as it was, however, only a small portion was required. And, if that wasn't the greatest thing ever seen, the Core wasn’t sure what was.

‘Did you get it?’ the Queen asked as she likely felt the Core come into the view once again. The Entity was still unsure what gave it away, its Mana meant to be semi-stable everywhere no matter what. Simply looking through a specific part disturbed nothing since it was still in the same state as it was before. Could it have been some sort of [Detection] skill or was the Queen just more perceptive than the Core? It supposed that a higher ranking of Mana-Sense could help even the field a bit more than it wanted it to.

‘I did indeed,’ the Core quickly confirmed. With a twist of its Mana, Energy swept down just in front of the Ant, creating a small seed that fell onto the grass. It was so much smaller than anything else the Core had seen up to that point, making the thought that it could grow up into a mighty tree quite peculiar. It understood that the lack of real organs made it hard for limits to be had, yet it was just… different from the other organic creatures previously dealt with. Though, the Core supposed it could also put it in the same box as the [Moss]. It could grow from a small point as well into one much larger. Only… it was more simple, always repeating a pattern. The [Oak Tree] could instead vary immensely, depending on what factors there were around it. ‘I chose an [Oak Tree] if you wanted to know.’

‘I had no real need to since the process should be the same for all the trees you could have possibly picked from around here,’ the Queen stated, not holding anything back at all. The Entity was not surprised too much though, as the Ant was rather distracted by looking at the seed instead. It seemed that the [Faming] skill that all [Giant-Ants] seemed to have had not missed her. ‘You don’t seem to have screwed up the initial creation so good on you for that. The ideal situation for this one would be about three centimetres under the dirt. It’s usually more but the quality here isn’t good enough to warrant that. And it's also not like we’ll be relying on it either.’

The Core, not exactly sure what parameters were being used to determine depth, simply did as it was asked, putting the seed just a few centimetres under the earth. It also removed the grass just above the seedling just to make sure there was no issue sprouting when the time came along, the smaller roots created by the grass having created a very small but sturdy barrier. It held the dirt together, sure, but it also hampered the growth of new plants ever so slightly. And that was not something which the Core enjoyed at that moment.

‘Done,’ the Core said when everything was finished. ‘What do I need to do next?’

‘Well, for that you need some idea about what we will be doing to help you get the skill,’ the Queen stated. ‘Do keep in mind that all of this is second-hand information since I wasn’t in that sector of operations. The front lines were better suited for my set of skills rather than staying inside for weeks on end trying to get a very specific type of variant that will allow another variant to appear more easily. It is all a game with certain parameters, luck, and different materials that need to be used to make everything work right.’

No rebuttals came from the Entity. It was perfectly fine with the idea of not getting the perfect, in-depth information, even if it was something that is so desperately needed. Having information at all was already a boon it had previously worried about not being able to work with.

‘As that previous sentence might hint you to realizing, a large part of [Forced Evolutions] is luck. While we can push the creatures into certain directions, there is always the chance of evolutions that are neither desired nor useful. Some will be utterly useless, some will weaken the creature, and a few will make their levels rise to such astronomical levels that you gain a new god of war. It all depends on your luck and preparation,’ the Queen said, using examples that the Core was rather keen on achieving. A [God of War] seemed quite the good title to have, even if it was an overestimation meant to sell the point that the Queen was trying to make. ‘Evolutions, as you might remember, are constantly in the process of happening. They come from outside Mana hitting the Mana of an organic creature and assimilating into one. This change is very minor since it happens on the scale of mere particles. And it is not always guaranteed either, making it very long-drawn. Years, decades and much more can pass before anything gets witnessed. Occurrences like levelling up or being closer to places of higher Mana-Density can quicken the natural process but it is always slow. This is where [Forced Evolution] comes into play.

[Forced Evolution] takes all the time needed to make a change in the race of any kind and forces it into the span of mere minutes. It can sometimes vary, turning into seconds or hours, but a few minutes is the standard time for most evolutions made. This does come at risks and all other things you might worry about when forcing a creature to go past its current self and change by an incredible magnitude in a small amount of time. Depending on the form of Evolution, it can cause pain, nausea, and a general overload of sensations. This is why some who perform this practice put the creatures to sleep before attempting anything. Those who are professionals, however, don’t do anything like that though due to the chances that it will change the end results. Since we will be working on trees, however, there is no need to worry about this.

What we do need to be worried about is how the Evolutions take place. Normally, you can predict what form of evolution takes place depending on the environment that the creature is in and where they get their Mana from. If one of my children were to undergo an evolution in, say, the cave system, they would likely get an Evolution that increased their [Affinity] with stone. If they were in the water, it would do the same with that. In the air, it would be with gasses, and I think you can see where I am going with this.

However, with [Forced Evolution], you can’t look at the environment that the creatures live in an average it up to make some sort of prediction. Instead, you have to look at the environment they reside in at the time of the skill being used and look at that as the average. Because of this, any changes that seem extremely minor to both of us may change the results to an extreme degree. A gust of wind, a slight shake of the earth, anything at all will and can change the final outcome.’

‘So we can’t decide what we get in the end?’ the Core finally asked, having one question it wasn’t sure would be answered later on.

‘We do, to some degree, still decide on what we get,’ the Queen corrected. ‘I was only making the example seem a bit worse than it was to drive home the point for you. What I mean is that there will always be some small variable that we can’t see, something that makes the randomness increase by a smaller margin. While we could blast a creature undergoing a [Forced Evolution] with [Dark Mana], yet the time of day could have some minor effect that changes a monster to one with an [Holy] Attribute. You can never know until you try it. While we can control the majority of factors and create a general side of what evolutions may happen, predicting it fully is out of our current hands. While I do believe there are specially created environments for things like these, even those are not truly perfect. It would require quite a master of the craft to get such certainty and I am not sure many of those have survived through the years.’

And that was another goal to have for the Core. Become a master at predictions. It had already noted down a similar goal a while ago yet it was good to have some objectives that could be fulfilled at the same time. Not having much else background work to make, though, it continued to listen on.

‘Anyway. For now, we will be attempting the most basic versions of Evolutions. Instead of adding new types of Mana or specific kinds of Materials, we will instead put an entity into its natural environment and allow it to evolve on its own,’ the Queen continued. ‘This can have two outcomes. Either it does not evolve at all, instead rapidly ageing up to its mature form and ending at that point. Or it can instead change into another type of sapling, not undergoing sizable growth instead. Either is about fifty-fifty so we are going to be trying to achieve bot results before anything else.’

‘How am I meant to make it undergo the process anyway?’ the Core asked. ‘I don’t have the skill right now so how am I meant to make it-’

‘I would have explained that in the next moments if you kept your mouth shut,’ the Queen cut in, clearly not wanting to hear the question since she likely already knew what was going to be asked. ‘Yes, you do not know this skill and this can cause inferior results. Yet, since I know the basic requirements for how it works, I do believe that we can use a standard attainment method.

When attempting to gain a skill, the most efficient method is to use a [Skill-Crystal]. Since neither of us have the resources or connections for such a thing, we will instead be using brute force to get the skill. Since I am knowledgeable about what the skill takes to work, you will be doing your best to emulate these methods. If we are lucky, the [System] will look upon that work and see it for what it is.’

The Core understood it perfectly enough that time, having done something similar itself back in the day. It was what it used for nearly every attainment of skills, only this one being slightly more in-depth. It didn’t know any more than the general idea, after all. But this? This was turning out to be more advanced than most things the Core had tried before. And it wasn’t hating that at all.

‘What do you want me to do?’