VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne

Chapter 314: Next Step of Evolution

"Okay, this one is yours, this one is for you and this one... No wait, this one... No... Yeah, yeah this one is yours. Sorry. My handwriting is so terrible even I can’t read it." Trivian laughed half heartedly as he handed the bowls to their intended recipient.

Each one had a label stuck on it, with a name poorly scrawled in black marker. Each potion had been diluted, so that each person got exactly the right amount of mana for their bodies to form a source.

It was a process that Ren handled, since he had a better mana sense than Trivian, and was necessary especially when it came to the more developed members of the party.

For those with more mana, it would have been incredibly dangerous to consume the same amount as those with less were getting.

It was very much like filling a balloon. Whether you introduced the air slow or fast, didn’t really matter. But everything had a limit, and if you went over that limit well then... Pop.

In this case ’Pop’ was a case of mana poisoning and a source that would collapse in on itself, as they couldn’t properly take the excess energy and form it into a proper functional source.

Valerie had never experienced these issues purely thanks to her source. The Source Devouring Constitution did more than just let her eat random Source Remnants. It allowed her to do so Safely.

That meant her body rid itself of anything dangerous that might present itself from the process. From the natural toxic components of a Source Remnant, to the excess mana. In Valerie’s case, it pushed it into her spells or glyphs, or simply out of her body.

The same could technically be done here, with these people, but it would have to be done manually, which would divert concentration away from the important formation of their source. So whilst it was possible, it was simply impractical.

"To the new us." Trivian declared, raising his bowl like he was making a toast. The others raised their bowls to meet, with only a small hint of doubt in their eyes as they side eyed him, before they all pressed their lips against the bowl’s rim and downed the hot liquid contained within.

They gulped it down, feeling it warm their throats and stomachs, as it settled within them. They lowered their bowls, handing them to Valerie as she stood by the side and waited. And waited... and waited.

"Hmm... I don’t feel any different." Trivian muttered with a hint of disappointment, turning to Ren. Ren glared at him emotionlessly, pushing a tarp covered chair to the side with his foot as Trivian strolled over to him.

"Are you sure you got the recipe right? Because I did everything exactly as you as-" Trivian cut himself off as his legs gave out beneath him. He collapsed to the ground, his head swiping through the air that the chair had previously occupied as he fell to all fours.

The others quickly followed, groaning in pain and discomfort as they clutched at their stomachs and fell to the floor. Power brimmed from their bodies as mana flowed off of them in wild aura’s, each one tuned to their particular magic type.

Lucy’s was lashing out violently and was filled with bloodlust. Jason’s was like a soft, warm light that oozed out of every pour. Elise’s was barely noticeable, but made her appearance shimmer and warp as if she was in a mirage, while Trivian spelled like lilac and gooseberries.

Valerie quickly hurried forwards, helping position each of them into a proper meditative position before starting to guide them through the process of forming their source once again. Whilst all of them had already done it at least once, in Dawd, there was no harm in helping them now.

Slowly but surely, their aura’s began to retreat inwards, as they sucked in all the mana desperate to flee and make them go ’pop’ and forced it between their lungs to form a source. A pair of figures manifested in the room, startling Valerie but not Ren.

He simply glared at them, as if he had been expecting them and loathed their presence.

The figures were not here physically. They were like ghosts or shadows, simply existing behind two of their members, like vague silhouettes of their form. One of the forms, Valerie recognised.

Behind Elise, stood the vague illusion of a robed woman. Her form cut off half way down her body, while she rested one hand on Elise’s shoulder. But whilst the woman’s face was shrouded by the hood of her robes, Valerie could still make out the mischievous smile seemingly permanently etched onto her lips.

The ghostly illusion of the Goddess Sylvi seemingly noticed Valerie’s gaze. She raised her eyes from her student, and although Valerie could not see her eyes, she could feel the weight of Sylvi’s gaze on her. Her head immediately began to throb at the feeling of those eyes on her, causing Sylvi to laugh softly, and return her gaze back to her student.

The other figure, whilst their form was incomprehensible, was easier to understand with this knowledge. This figure, which hovered behind Jason and focused exclusively on him, had to be the God of Beasts.

It was the first time Valerie was seeing them, and even now she was barely getting such a privilege, as they were just a mere spectre of themselves that barely offered any detail beyond a shape. But even that shape was impossible to decipher.

She simply couldn’t figure out what kind of beast she was looking at. Every time she blinked, it was different. But every time she looked, she was absolutely sure that it had to be a Fox, and that it couldn’t be or had never been anything else.

Even when it was a Wolf. Or a Cat. or a Dragon.

This figure did not look at her. It did not raise its eyes from Jason, as it looked at him with curiosity and a dangerous level of attention, before both Gods began to fade from existence as the people within the room finalised their sources.

However, the formation of their sources was merely the beginning, as they did not have a second to open their eyes before the pain erupted through their bodies.

Strained and muffled screams echoed throughout their new home, as almost all of their members began to spasm in agony and torturous pain, as their DNA was invaded by the foreign essence and they were pushed towards a new step of evolution.

None of them entirely human. Not anymore.