I didn’t move for quite some time after the travelers left, trying to process everything that happened over the course of the last thirty minutes or so. It was hard to get a proper estimate on the time that passed since the void invasion started since it felt like it had gone on forever, but half an hour was my best guess. It was only a short time, but the damage caused to the sixth layer was extensive. That last spell of the voidling especially had leveled a huge chunk of the land. Several volcanoes had just disappeared.

Well, disappeared might be the wrong word. The volcanoes were still here, just in bits and pieces. The rubble was everywhere and the lava that had been contained within them was flowing through the cracks, slowly cooling down and forming a new landscape. Lava was still bubbling upwards where the volcanoes once stood, spreading out like a blanket. It was uncharacteristically silent right now.

While it was always silent for me due to my hearing issues, I still noted the absence of the tremors that I associated with fighting monsters. Not only were there no tremors, there were no flashes of light in the distance indicating skill or spell usage. As far as the eye could see, there was not a single monster left in the wake of the voidlings.

And all because of me.

I wasn’t exactly feeling bad for the monsters that got caught up in my problem, or the nature that was destroyed, but it was still a profound feeling. All of this destruction, and all of it because of a seed that was barely larger than a human's fist. It was at this point that I remembered that Tim had given me a second drink. I pulled the concoction out of my inventory and immediately downed the thing. He had said that it would keep me from sleeping for about a year, so I had time until then to get my seed to as high a tier as possible.

The goal was of course the tenth tier, but if I didn’t manage to get there in time, I’d much rather evolve than repeat what happened today. I’d probably get a lot stronger in a year due to gluttony, but I doubted that I’d manage to survive another onslaught like this. Well, maybe, but I didn’t want to chance it. Depending on how far along my seed would be at that time, I might need to survive multiple void invasions, and that sounded like peak “hell no” material.

After sitting around for a while and thinking about my current situation and future plans, I finally directed my attention to the blinking system message waiting for me.

You have successfully completed the emergency quest!

Rewards:

500’000 XP

Your passive skill “Stealth” will be upgraded to B tier.

You may choose one void-related mutation.

At first glance, the rewards were not that amazing. Considering that emergency quest rewards were calculated on actions taken during the quest reflected how all I did was run away this time around. The XP was welcome, of course, giving me two more levels. The stealth upgrade piqued my interest, as it was one of the first passives I’d ever gotten. Funnily enough, I’d also received it from an emergency quest. The upgrade to B tier didn’t add any fancy new things to the passive but promised that I would be able to hide even more effectively from now on. In combination with void cloak, I might even be able to fool most voidlings… not that I’d go around testing that theory.

The one really cool thing I got was the ability to choose a void-related mutation. I’d long since learned that free mutations were worth a lot, and the fact that it would be a void mutation was even more amazing. The system had refused to give me access to these kinds of mutations unless they came as an evolution bonus. My current theory was that they’d be made available once I evolved into an adult, but now I had the opportunity to pick a mutation before then.

The system didn’t specify a tier limit on said mutation, so I essentially had a blank cheque, and I planned to get the most out of it. Of course, the system usually meant I could only pick base mutations like this, but didn’t stop me from picking mutations that started with a high tier. For example, my most recent mutation, the crystal symbiote, started at tier three. I could still mutate it to higher tiers, but there was no such thing as a tier two crystal symbiote. Surely there would be void mutations that started at a high tier as well.

I took a look around to see if there was any danger nearby, but the place was still absolutely trashed and not a single soul moved around. I was tempted to simply pick my mutation right now and be done with it. I was most likely safe here, after all. A niggling feeling in my brain told me to find some proper shelter anyway. There was no need to take unnecessary risks after all. I’d hate to have survived this entire ordeal just to end up as a snack for a passing monster while I slept through the mutation.

I froze at the thought of sleeping but quickly remembered that system-induced sleep didn’t trigger my dreams of the void skill. Due to the massive amounts of rubble everywhere, it didn’t take too long to find a little cave. Well, it wasn’t exactly a cave and more of a hollow surrounded by large boulders. I didn’t need to be afraid of the lava snaking in and around the rubble, since I was immune. Still felt weird to know this. Of all the crazy magical things, for some reason, lava immunity was the thing that made me think I was becoming kind of a weird creature.

No matter, once I got my mutation, I would become a whole lot weirder. If it helped me become strong and survive, being weird would be the last of my concerns.

Having settled into my makeshift hideout I opened up my reward screen, the list of void-related mutations showing up shortly afterwards. As with many of the systems lists, this one was quite extensive. I used the sort function to sort the list by ascending tier and started looking through the list. Of course, I’d eventually pick one of the higher-tiered ones, but now that I had the opportunity to access the list earlier than I was supposed to, I might as well do some scouting.

As expected, there were a whole bunch of organs that helped with the storage, effectiveness, regeneration, and concentration of void mana. I wasn’t entirely certain why different types of organs with the same functionality existed, but maybe they’d become different once they reached higher tiers. A whole extensive list of organs that would mix together mana types existed as well. I learned about the existence of a whole bunch of mana types from this list, such as the basic elements like fire, water, light, and dark. But also more specific ones like holy, curse, acid, and electricity.

For now, this knowledge was a mere curiosity, though. The only way I knew to get different mana types was through evolution, and simply picking one of the mixing organs wouldn’t give me access to the other type. I might have to look into ways to get poison mana at some point, though. The list went on with a whole slew of body changes, such as special void-attuned tentacles, special brains to control large amounts of them, special eyes which were apparently a favorite of voidlings, brain mutations to help process all the information from said eyes, and even mutations that simply made you larger.

On and on the list went, giving ample opportunity to make yourself more attuned to the void, add limbs until there was no more space to attach them, or gain special abilities relating to the void. Then, the list suddenly ended at the tier eight options. I wondered whether that was actually the highest starting tier of a mutation or if the system simply didn’t give me access to more. Only a handful of mutations started at this tier which didn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, almost everything else already started at a lower tier.

All of the mutations that started at the eighth tier were amazing in their own right, but the one that stood out the most to me was a mutation called “Void Body”. This mutation would replace most of what made up my body with a substance that was intrinsically connected with the void. Instead of whatever kind of flesh made up my body, a new kind of void substance would instead make up my body.

Void Body (T8)

Your very existence becomes tied to the void. Everything that makes up your body will be replaced with solidified void mana, heightening your attunement to the void.

The description of the mutation was deceptively simple and the effects annoyingly vague, but the fact that this mutation started at tier eight was proof that it was strong. Furthermore, I’d already seen something similar to this when I evolved. I couldn’t recall the exact details, but I think if I’d taken that evolution my body would have changed to be completely made up of mana. At the time I hadn’t taken the evolution because there was something else available that was more interesting to me, as well as the fact that having a body made up of mana felt creepy to me.

Now… I felt a bit different. Not only would I still have a physical body, but everything void related would get a boost. Since I was a voidling on the path of becoming a void mage, taking this could only yield more benefits as time went on. I felt like I’d already decided in my heart, but I longingly gazed at the “void core” mutation which would further purify my void mana and boost all spells I cast with it by a ton. On the surface, both mutations were very similar, but one focused purely on spellcasting, while the other would boost everything.

Not wanting to get hung up on my decision, I selected the void body, selecting “yes” when asked to be put to sleep. I really didn’t want to experience every atom in my body being changed to something else, thank you very much.

I awoke sometime later, not feeling changed at all. A close inspection of my body revealed that some things had changed anyway. For starters, I was still mostly black, although I now had difficulty seeing where my body actually was. A weird statement to be sure, but I had become so black that making out any details became almost impossible. I was essentially a black blob that seemed incredibly out of place. My red and green spots were still there, slowly moving around, but they were now joined by the faint shimmer of stars in the distance. It almost looked like my body had become a window into the void.

Kind of cool, actually.

A quick check of my status revealed that there had been no change to my MaxVMP, but I’d been expecting this to an extent. What did change was the amount of mixed mana I had. The mana infusion gland was apparently affected by my new mutation, which increased the amount of infused mana it could produce and store. The other affected mutations mostly dealt with the regeneration of my VMP so I should expect an increase in speed there as well. And, of course, the seed of the void had also been affected.

By using my seed analyzer passive, I saw that the seed was now slowly infusing itself with mana. It wasn’t a crazy amount, but it was charging without me having to actively do anything. This would drastically cut the time it took me to get my seed to the tenth tier! My spells would surely be more powerful as well, not to mention that every void-related stuff I’d get in the future would automatically be enhanced. A fantastic mutation!

Happy with my current state of affairs, I emerged from my hideout to find the layer still mostly destroyed. I could spot a few monsters lurking around in the rubble, which meant that business was slowly returning to the usual. I wondered whether the destroyed volcanoes would slowly transform into craters with eximovere trees, or if the volcanoes would be rebuilt after a while. I knew there was some kind of repair function since I’d seen it repair the ceiling in the third layer, but had no idea under what rules it operated on.

It didn’t really matter in the end. For now, I had a lot of time to kill while my seed slowly got upgraded. Aside from that, I still needed to find the obsidian palace to complete my bonus objective. I wasn’t in a rush, though, and should take my time to meticulously explore every part of this layer until I found it. And, while I’m at it, I might as well stuff myself full of monsters to increase my attributes as much as possible.

I had earned myself a bit of a vacation, it would seem.