Chapter 295 Everyone's Levelup
Fang went forward with an excited expression, her tail wagging back and forth.
Unlike Igni, but not as smooth as Ember, Fang absorbed the energy within the 9th-stage essence crystals easily. The energy started circulating wildly inside her body, so I quickly moved to calm their flow down, controlling it through skin contact with her back.
"L-Leader... I need more energy!"
When the energy was about to calm down completely, she suddenly raised her voice and asked.
"But the energy you have is more than enough to evolve, right?"
Rather, it should already be over her saturation point. Adding more would only be detrimental to her stability, and it may even hamper her evolution.
"..."
Fang didn't reply, only staring at Ember and Igni, who both got an extreme power-up. Thinking logically, if Fang evolved as is, then she definitely wouldn't reach the two's energy level. In short, she would be left behind in the dust. I guess that idea didn't sit well with her, so she wanted to push herself to raise her power by even a little.
'Well, I guess I can spare a 6th-stage crystal...'
In my estimation, that's the absolute limit that her body can withstand without any long-lasting effects. I took out and passed one 6th-stage essence crystal to her, letting her absorb the energy inside it and circulate it around her body.
"Be careful!"
I warned as I quickly worked on fixing the trajectories of the rampaging energy. It was back-breaking work, though, as it was just as hard as running at full speed while holding a glass that was filled to the brim and not letting any of its contents spill out.
About five minutes later, all the energy, including the excess, was able to circulate around her body like it was normal. Just as I thought it was going to overflow, her body suddenly released a bright light.
The light faded as fast as it appeared, revealing Fang once more. However, her appearance hasn't really changed much.
At most, her hair felt like it became a deeper black and silkier, and her aura became more vague. If I wasn't staring at her and she was standing under a shadow, then even I would probably lose sight of her. Is this some sort of natural stealth passive skill? Well, I guess that was as expected, as she was now the Countess of Shadowless Death.
'Wait, that's not all...'
Her energy level was higher than it should've been! Did her body adjust to the extra energy she had during evolution? As I was wondering about that, the feedback started as my body released white light for an instant. As expected, not much energy was returned to me, meaning most of the excess energy was repurposed by Fang to fuel her evolution!
"With this, both Fang and Ember are safely able to achieve 6th-stage."
I nodded my head in approval, asking Fang to move beside Ember and Igni and to start stabilizing her increased energy levels.
"Next would be..."
I turned to the girls and decided to just go with the decreasing order.
"Minerva!"
The other 5th-stage, Minerva, was next. Her expression was stiff as she took a step forward, coming before me. I quickly analyzed her energy and found something weird.
"You... you're already near saturation?"
With her state, I guess a single 4th-stage essence crystal would be enough. However, the lowest level I had was 6th-stage essence crystals, so I passed her that instead. Minerva held the crystal and, with experience, started absorbing the energy inside it.
It's a little over her capacity, but nothing that I can't help her with. Using the same technique that I used with Igni and the others, I started correcting the energy inside her.
"Hmmm~!"
However, her energy was already near full capacity. Rather than pain, she looked more ticklish as I helped guide the energy from the essence crystal around.
Although she was about to evolve already, stabilizing the new energy took her about ten minutes to complete. After that, her body suddenly released a bright light, stronger than when the others did earlier.
A second, two, five. Time passed before the light faded. As soon as it did, not only me but everyone stared at Minerva's new figure. She, who was literally harpy-like before, suddenly became more humanoid. Her arms and wings, previously combined into one, were now separated cleanly.
Even she herself was surprised by the change. The only unfortunate thing was that she didn't receive the usual boost the other girls did. Her mounds were still modest, despite her evolving.
"Let's see... Countess of Ghostly Touch?"
I wasn't aware of it before, since I didn't pay much attention, but Ghostly Touch? I wonder what it could mean. Either way, now that she has completed her evolution, I am waiting for the feedback. However, I get the feeling that as more and more of them evolve, the delay before the feedback comes is getting longer.
About three seconds later, my body released a flash of light as skill information, and all the excess energy flowed back to me. Some of Minerva's skills were mastered from the boost in stats after evolution, which was then passed to me. Due to that, it took me a minute or so before I could return to my senses.
As soon as I did, I asked Minerva to move to where Ember and the others were and to start stabilizing her energy as soon as possible.
"As you wish, Will."
Hearing her drop the "sir" from her usual address to me, I nodded my head in satisfaction.
After her, it was now Hekate's turn.
Hekate was more of a buffer/debuffer type, so I guess I can expect some more skills from her evolution. Her expression was now less timid and had turned bolder, but some slight reservation could still be seen in her actions. I guess that's still some improvement, so it should be good.
"Please, Maestro."
Hekate pleaded, bowing her head lightly. I petted her head once more, accepting her resolve, before analyzing her body's energy.
"..."
Her energy... was low. Honestly. However, for some reason, her maximum was almost on par with Ember. Is she a battery type too, having more energy in reserve?
Anyway, since she was currently less than half of her maximum, I passed her three 9th-stage essence crystals to absorb.
As with Minerval, Hekate absorbed the crystal without any pause, letting it pour into her like flowing water. The energy quickly mixed with her innate energy and quickly changed into her own. The rate of change was unprecedented! It was almost instant, even!
"You have a knack for changing energy properties, huh?"
Or was it that she was used to "snatching" other's energy? She did have the [Energy Drain] skill, so maybe? She apparently didn't hear my words, though, as she was focused on transforming all the energy she received into her own.
It didn't even take a minute before all the energy she absorbed was turned into her colors. Right after it finished, her body started releasing a bright flash of light, marking the start of her evolution. I watched closely, making sure that nothing went wrong, but the light faded almost immediately.
"..."
Did nothing change in her appearance? That's rare... No, wait. She changed! Her body, similar to Minerva's, turned more humanoid than before. Since her wings were covering her body like a mantle, it wasn't that visible, though.
The fur around her neck looked fluffier too, like the little tufts of dandelions dancing and flying in the air. As I observed the changes in her appearance, I also appraised her once out of reflex.
Her rank did increase, meaning she had successfully evolved. Now, she was a Countess of Evolving Battles, which, similar to Minerva's, has a pretty vague meaning.
Hekate looked at her body with a little frown, her brows furrowed, but I still had more girls in line for evolution.
"Hekate, move to where Ember and the rest are and start stabilizing your energy."
I passed the same command as usual before turning to the other girls. Right now, the next strongest would be... Yorm and Judy are in the 4th-stage. Fina at the border between 3rd and 4th, and lastly, Fatima at the 1st stage.
"... Let's do you all at the same time, then."
I suggested while passing one 6th-stage essence crystal to each of them. The four of them looked at me with confusion but then nodded their heads simultaneously.
"Then I'll trust you to back us up if something happens."
Fina said, smiling nervously.
"This is my first time experiencing evolution. I wonder how it'll go."
Fatima, on the other hand, looked more curious than scared. She had been a god-tamer before, after all. Her heart is definitely tougher than any of us in here.
I was wondering what Yorm and Judy would do, but they just gulped down the essence crystal as is. Well, I guess that's still possible since they're still far from reaching humanoid form. I wonder why eating the essence crystal does not work anymore for humanoids.
One after another, they started releasing the light of evolution. Of course, since it was just a low stage, it didn't impact them too much... But Yorm and Judy's appearances changed greatly.
Judy suddenly turned into something like an Arachne, a woman's upper half, and a spider's lower half. Her woman half was about as big as a normal adult, and her assets were about as big as Fang's. It wasn't too big, but not that small either.
But more than that, her spider half was big! I guess she's even bigger than a normal car now. When I passed an appraisal to her, she was now a Viscountess of Fatal Traps and Trickery, indicating her successful evolution.
Yorm, on the other hand, turned into something similar to Judy. She had the upper body of a human connected with the lower half of a snake. It was long, though, about five meters. Similar to Judy, she had pretty humble assets. As proof of her successful evolution, her title changed to Viscountess of Endless Devouring.
"..."
Both of them were naked but as if it were the world's rule, their long hair of contrasting black and white each covered the important parts, hiding them from view. It was a little vexing, but now's not the time for that anyway.
Fina also finished her evolution, but nothing changed. Well, other than becoming a Baroness of Love and Temptation. It was her first step into the 4th-stage.
Fatima was even more subtle, as literally nothing changed from her other than changing from a Mechanical Lifeform to a Sharpshooting Semi-Android.
With this, everyone had completed one set of evolutions.
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