Alien Evolution System

Chapter 143 - Elite Rebirth

The Collector waited for an hour until the three goblin elites would fully emerge from their cocoons. All through this time, the rest of the goblin swarm were nearly quiet, looking at the most powerful among them receiving even more power, their very flesh being altered.

They looked with sheer reverence, and to a degree, the Collector perceived this as instinctual. There was something about the changing of flesh, of its modification into something higher, more evolved, that the goblins inherently respected and valued.

Likely, the Collector surmised, it was because of their origins.

Descended from the titan known as Gob. Neither of the twin elites knew the titan personally for by the time they walked this planet, Gob had been killed for five hundred years already. However, they knew much of what the entity should have been like according to religious practices and stored knowledge.

Gob was a 'god' of flesh. A pillar of towering flesh with a crown of a dozen faces. It interacted with the world through a countless host of tendrils, and it seemed to strike against its enemies with powerful physical blows, shapeshifting of the flesh into various forms and capabilities, and the modification of enemy flesh to cause accelerated expiration.

Extremely interesting.

It would seem that this entity 'Gob' was in possession of, or at the very least approximated the primordial ooze that the Collector returned to when it entered its evolutionary cocoon. Gob could freely change its form and that of others, hence why it was known as a god of flesh among the goblins.

A specimen of note worth.

In the age of the twin elites, they possessed remnant pieces of Gob's preserved flesh, utilizing it to empower certain warriors or, in their final moments, seal themselves off. However, it was unlikely that any preserved flesh remained or, if it did, it was securely guarded under tinkering hands.

Once the Collector began to face the tinkerers directly, ravaging their cities and ships and strongholds, it would seek out the flesh of 'Gob', for it deemed that such a specimen was highly compatible with its own form.

For now, the Collector watched as the trio of mana cocoons began to crack, the ground shaking as they oscillated. The shadowy figures of the elites within began to shudder and move.

"Still wish I could have been like them," said Thokk from the Collector's side. "They grow stronger. They were already stronger than me, and now, I feel weak. I am going to follow you, Sovnar, to the beyond above the Rift, but how can I help you when I am like this?"

"Learn and adapt," said the Collector. "There is no point wasting mental energies on what has happened. There is only to calculate and prepare for that which will happen."

"I understand," said Thokk.

"Do not sulk, Thokk," said the goblin elder. "You alone among our tribe could ascend into elitehood. You were a child of prodigy. None like you had ever been born to the tribe in over half a century. Should the Sovnar not have brought his reign upon us, there is no doubt you would have grown marvelously and led our tribe to incredible heights."

"No," said Thokk. "I understand better now. How this world works. If the Sovnar had not come, I would have grown strong, maybe even turned into how I am now, but then what? I would lead our tribe as the strongest, but what could we have done?

We would raid the human camps. Two or three of them. Then the humans would come and kill us all. That is it. We would not do anything more."

Thokk looked to the Collector. "But with the Sovnar, now we can do so much more. The whole world is ours to challenge. The gods ours to fight and beat. But I must become strong enough to be worthy of a great goal like that."

Thokk made a tight fist and held it to his chest in determination. "And I will."

"Your words are growing more eloquent by the moment," said the elder. "You are learning. Learning quick. Frighteningly so."

The Collector clicked its mandibles, drawing attention to the cocoons breaking now, but also to agree with the elder. The carrier unit 'Thokk' possessed not just immense biological capacity to evolve, but also neural processing that evolved at a rapid rate, allowing him to learn and understand at a degree several times quicker than any of his brethren.

Still primitive and slow compared to the Collector, but there was no point comparing a native born specimen here with the Collector.

The dungeon rumbled as the three cocoons shattered in sync with each other. Shards of solidified mana crystals that glowed blue, red, and green scattered across the stony floor, dissolving quickly into pure light now that their purpose had been fulfilled.

Three reborn elites emerged, their gazes facing downward and their breathing shallow as they adjusted to their new bodies.

The Collector clicked its mandibles. The evolution had exceeded its expectations.

Thragg lit up in flames crackling with electricity, lighting up the dungeon cave. His body more muscled than before, enhanced by additional biomass.

A bright yellow stripe ran down the top of his forehead, following the curvature of his spine and leading down into a thick white tail of pure, muscled flesh lined with four sets of light yellow, almost crystalline fins that could fan out and spread electrical charge.

Gills lined the sides of Thragg's neck, fluttering as he took in breaths. A shiny sheen covered his body from the special oils of the Flametongue Salamander that could sustain flames while negating any harmful heat from reaching underneath the lipid layer to the specimen.

The frill-like red tendrils of the salamander which could generate sparks and flame gathered around Thragg's back in the form of a flaming cape in much the same way it had been with the Collector.

More crystalline fines lined his forearms and back, crackling with bolts of electrical charge that coursed through the aura of flame he emitted.

Goromir retained his physical dimensions. Sightly over two meters tall with a lean, agile build. However, thin carapace covered his body now, clinging in a form-fitting, flexible weave of snowy white.

The carapace formed a retractable helmet around Goromir's head, granting him the appearance of an armored tinkerer, and the Collector hypothesized this was because Goromir's own preferences had influenced the evolution.

Long, sickle-like claws protruded from Goromir's hands and feet, and thin wisps of wind flickered around them. His deep blue eyes now possessed slit, feline pupils. Above those eyes were two pairs of pure black insectoid ocular systems.

Twin antennae twitched from his carapace helmet, no doubt linked to his nervous system when the helmet was on.

Thin hairs lined the seams of his carapace, granting him the wind-sensitive and air current harnessing capabilities of the Windcutter Wildcat.

A series of six spines protruded from his back, bobbing in and out between seams in the carapace as they adjusted to a new body. Those spines could be retracted and freely extended at a moment's notice, and they were spiraled in structure, perfect for drilling through rock.

Goromir's body shook intensely, vibrating at unnaturally high speeds, and the Collector noted this was his muscles adjusting to the Lurker's capability to oscillate its muscles at exceptionally high speeds meant specifically for parting and burrowing into dirt.

Kandak was much like his brother, choosing to take upon an armored form, but he embodied the concept of an armored unit far better than his twin.

His already prodigious size had bulked up even more with the Stormbear's musculature and the Bugbrute's sheer size, making him stand even taller than the collector at three and a half meters.

Kandak was incredibly wide and stout, and his dense muscles were also padded under an insulating, shock-absorbing layer of fat.

The Assassin Bugbrute's spiked carapace covered Kandak's body in a thick suit of plate, and unlike the form fitting weave of carapace around his brother, Kandak's carapace protruded outwards, creating maximal protective power in exchange for some flexibility of movement.

A helmet of carapace gathered around Kandak's head also, and in his case, his helmet was lined on either side with an enormous set of crushing pincer mandibles. Twin antennae protruded from the helm's top, twitching, sensitive for any changes in the air.

Three pairs of eyes. One blue, the rest black and insectoid.

Between the seams of Kandak's armor were thick tufts of white fur that flickered around him, forming into wavy clumps that channeled electricity. Underneath the elite's carapace plating was in addition the Stormbear's durable fur layer and below that, dense muscles and fat.

An enemy would have to pierce through all three layers of defense to harm Kandak.

Kandak's hands possessed claws now, but notably, one of his arms was thicker than the others, the carapace at the forearm forming into a bulb that unsheathed the stinger of the Assassin Bugbrute. 

Additionally, the Collector perceived that with both Kandak and Goromir, they could withdraw their carapace armor to bare flesh and fur bodies, likely to preserve the integrity of their original forms better as they had more attachment to them than the Collector which had no real positive inclinations to any one form.

Though the Collector did have certain minute preferences. Such as its mandibles. Yet, none so strong that it would shape its metamorphosis, potentially hampering efficiency, to retain a form it preferred.

Regardless, the Collector was pleased with this evolutionary outcome. The three elites had taken to foreign genetic samples remarkably well, even exceeding the Collector's calculations by 22%.