Chapter 194: Pauper

Light suddenly poured out of the Beast Taming Compendium, while Luxy was still staring at Jaxir with an expression stuck somewhere between horror and disbelief.

Jaxir glanced down.

The Drowned Willow Sapling’s evolution timer had reached its final seconds, and the three materials around it collapsed into streams of green and blue mana that sank into its wooden body.

The little Treant grew a bit bigger. Its bark darkened, its hanging leaves thickened, and a faint film of water started moving through the grooves in its trunk.

Once the timer hit zero, the light faded and the Treant was left standing in its contract page with a much denser presence than before.

Jaxir focused on it and immediately felt the difference through their connection. The weak little pulse of mana from earlier had become a lot more stable, and it carried far more information back to him.

Evolutionary Appraisal reacted without him even asking, unfolding the updated screen.

Name: Drowned Willow Sapling

Level: 0

Founding Race: Drowned Willow Witch

[A lineage of Mage willows possessing a powerful affinity for water. Mature members naturally draw upon surrounding water and compatible natural mana to sustain their bodies, reinforce their roots, and fuel their Abilities.]

Growth Potential:

Common: 100%

Elite: 100%

Mage: 1%

Archmage: 0.000001%

Growth Requirement:

[0/2,500 MP]

[Reach Level 15]

Jaxir’s eyes moved between the percentages as the change sank in.

The Elite evolution hadn’t just locked in the standard he’d pushed the Treant into. Its natural chance of reaching Mage had also gone up, from 0.1% to a full 1%.

The Archmage chance hadn’t budged, though. It sat exactly where it had been, absurdly small as ever.

The growth requirement had changed, too.

The Treant now needed 2,500 MP to reach Level 15 instead of 1,000. That fit neatly with Jaxir’s suspicion that evolving it before raising its Level was the smarter route.

A stronger foundation needed more mana to develop each Level afterward. In other words, every one of those Levels would probably carry more weight than it would have at Common.

If that held true through Mage, the final cost might climb again. Jaxir didn’t see much reason to complain about that, though.

He focused on Mage instead. The status screen shifted when he pushed deeper, only for the next evolution path to blur into several unreadable lines.

Jaxir frowned and activated Evolutionary Appraisal properly, bringing what he’d learned from his first successful attempt into the circle. Even so, the result fell apart before he could figure out what the Treant needed.

He let the formation go and immediately started again.

The second attempt lasted longer.

Jaxir managed to stabilize the water side of the Treant’s bloodline and separate it from the natural mana feeding the willow side. That gave him two clear requirements before everything else turned unreadable.

That alone told him his earlier theory had been right. So, on the third attempt, he adjusted the formation before those pathways had a chance to collapse.

The last pieces settled into place.

[Available Mage Evolution]

[Drowned Willow Heartwood x1]

[Deepwater Spirit Pearl x1]

[Mage-Grade Water Essence x1]

Jaxir grinned and turned the screen toward Luxy.

The old woman was still standing behind her counter in a daze. Every so often, her attention drifted toward him before snapping away again, as though she kept remembering the Sovereign conversation every few seconds.

"How much?"

Luxy looked at the list without changing her expression.

"270,000 silver."

Jaxir blinked. "That’s it?"

Luxy’s eyes slid over to him with so much exhaustion that Jaxir almost laughed again.

270,000 silver wasn’t cheap by any reasonable standard. However, he had expected a guaranteed Mage evolution to cost enough to make him seriously rethink it. Instead, the Beast Taming Compendium had handed him an exact route from a Level 0 Common creature to a Mage-standard one, for an amount he could actually afford.

"This book is ridiculous."

Jaxir accepted the purchase before Luxy could recover enough to argue with him.

This payment took a much bigger bite out of his remaining wealth than the 900,000 copper purchase had. For the first time since winning the Fullfruit challenge, his funds were starting to look uncomfortable again.

He still had enough to get by. But, a few more purchases this size would send him right back to the days when every expensive item made him stare at his balance first. But, considering what he was getting in return, he could live with that.

The three Mage evolution materials came through Luxy’s exchange one after another.

Jaxir sent them straight into the Beast Taming Compendium.

The Drowned Willow Heartwood settled beneath the Treant’s roots, the Deepwater Spirit Pearl floated above its crown, and the Water Essence spread out between them.

Evolutionary Appraisal connected the three materials along the path Jaxir had uncovered. Then, the Compendium answered by closing the contract page beneath a wash of blue-green light.

A new timer appeared across its surface.

[Evolution Time: 00:10:00]

"Not bad."

Jaxir glanced at the Black Gem Alpha’s page. Its evolution had started with a full hour, and that was after the Legendary Compendium had cut it down from 12.

Compared to that, 10 minutes felt almost instant. Especially when the result should be a Mage-standard creature that, less than an hour ago, had been a seed sitting uselessly in his Inventory.

The bigger MP requirement interested him more.

The growth cost had climbed from 1,000 to 2,500 when the Treant reached Elite. If that was the case, Mage would probably raise it again, which would confirm that every Level got more expensive as the creature’s foundation improved.

That also meant his instinct to push evolution first had most likely been right. Feeding thousands of MP into a Common body, only to rebuild that body afterward, sounded backward.

He wanted the strongest foundation possible before he started pouring mana into Levels.

Whether a Level 0 Mage Treant would actually be useful in a fight was another question.

The percentages made more sense now, too. They probably represented the creature’s natural odds of evolving through ordinary growth and training, not a hard limit on what it could become.

Evolutionary Appraisal let Jaxir cheat those odds by finding the materials that could force the next step. However, that only worked if he understood the formation well enough to uncover them and connect them correctly.

Wealth couldn’t replace comprehension. At the same time, comprehension didn’t help much if the materials cost more than he could afford.

Everything fed into everything else.

Jaxir looked at the blurred Archmage path one last time and didn’t bother activating the formation again.

He couldn’t read it yet. Even if he somehow forced an answer out of the circle, the jump from 270,000 silver for Mage to whatever an Archmage evolution demanded would probably wipe out several times what was left of his money. He definitely couldn’t afford it. There was no point chasing something he had neither the understanding nor the wealth to finish.

He closed the Beast Taming Compendium and let both contracts keep evolving inside it.

The Construct Compendium was still working on his turret, and the Reality Compendium was far too mana-hungry to play around with casually. On top of that, the day after tomorrow’s deadline with his uncle hadn’t gone anywhere while he messed around with a Legendary Legacy.

Jaxir had learned enough for now. That left one other thing he’d been meaning to look into while he had Luxy in front of him.

He looked up at the old merchant.

"What do you know about the Gasini?"