Chapter 35: Anima, Power, And Evolution.

Her voice was calm as she said, "Take your situation as an example. As long as your agility, strength, or toughness reaches 30 anima and your total anima is 60 points out of the maximum of 90 points, you’ll be set to evolve."

"The next step is to get the titan worm of someone higher up the evolution chain to eat. Then you’ll be able to evolve. Therefore, if you can kill me, you can evolve."

Then she turned to them and asked, "So will you kill me?"

Alexander’s face went wooden as he began meditating, so she saw no reaction. But the other two turned pale and stepped away from her in fear.

"Answer me!" she demanded, raising her voice at them.

Robert and Barnabas immediately shook their heads and said, " No, Big Boss."

Only Alexander said, "If I must, yes, I’ll kill you to evolve."

He felt that was the right answer because Tessa told him that becoming an Apostle meant being willing to do anything and pay any price. He had taken that lesson to heart and wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if he had to.

Besides his willingness to do anything for power, if she was telling the truth, someone must have died for her to become a Big Boss. Whether she killed that person or they died for other reasons was yet to be determined. Either way, he didn’t balk at his answer after doing the same thing.

Unfortunately, their answers weren’t good enough, because she glared at the three of them with clear disappointment and dissatisfaction.

When they thought she would explode in anger, she burst out laughing. As she laughed, she said, "I was joking. You don’t need to kill and take the worm of any Rank 2 Titan."

Robert and Barnabas immediately sighed in relief. They felt like they had just survived a brush with death.

Then Tessa said, "You only need to kill and take the worm of a Rank 2 Flesh Titan."

Looking at their confused expression, she smirked and said, "You can’t use just about any Rank 2 worm to evolve. It has to be the worm belonging to a Rank 2 in your evolutionary path."

"So a Silver Titan like me," she said, patting her modest but firm breast, "will need to eat a Rank 3 Silver Titan."

"And Rank 1 Flesh Titans like you need to kill and eat a Rank 2 Flesh Titan. If you fuse with the worm of another evolutionary path, your body will collapse, and you will die."

She pointed to the back of her head as she said, "The true form of the glutton worm is now in my skull. So when you find a Rank 2 Flesh Titan, you crack open their skull, rip out the brain with the spinal cord. Then you swallow it whole."

If not for the fact that they had eaten much worse, the two of them would have gagged and vomited. Only Alexander still had his straight, unperturbed face.

Either way, Tessa enjoyed seeing their reactions. She chuckled and said, "Noobs. It never gets old."

When she was done enjoying herself at their expense, she became serious again and said, "When I first heard about this, I didn’t do much better than you lot."

"But I also had a question. I wanted to know why we couldn’t evolve on our own."

"I also wanted to know where the first Rank 2 came from. After all, it is the first and couldn’t have eaten a Rank 2 to evolve."

"If you’re not thinking about that, then you need to get your priorities straight," she said, taking the opportunity to instruct them.

"I didn’t learn the answer until many years later. Apparently, it has something to do with the source of the worms."

"We’re using the worms illegally, so we can’t evolve without permission from the source of the worms or by eating another worm who managed to evolve."

"Did you know that we stole the eggs for the worms?" she suddenly asked them.

The three of them shook their head, prompting her to say, "Well, we did. So there is no way the entity who hatched the eggs would permit us to use it freely. Not unless we submit to it in body and mind."

"Anyway, that’s not the most difficult obstacle standing in the way of your evolution. You still have to deal with your gluttony worm after it has evolved."

She paused to let her words sink in, watching as fear and dread slowly crept into their eyes. The sight immediately elicited another bout of chuckling.

Shaking her head as she chuckled, she said, "You naive fools. Did you think it was over just like that?"

"Did you think you would pass the restraint test and live happily ever after with your gluttony worm? If you did, I’m here to tell you that you’re mistaken."

With a solemn voice, she said, "The war with the gluttony worm never ends. When it evolves, you will have to contend with it for control of your body and the survival of your mind all over again."

"Right now, your mind is powerful enough to keep the worm at bay. But when it evolves, it will become stronger and try to eat your mind once again."

"Take it from me, you stand no chance of resisting the worm once it evolves," she said, her voice and demeanor as serious as a heart attack.

"The problem is that your Psychic Attributes aren’t growing along with you. Only your Physical Attributes are growing as you eat."

"For now, you’re safe because the Psychic Attributes of your worm are also stagnant. But the status quo will surely change when the worm evolves."

Shaking her head, Tessa said, "You already know how weak normal humans are compared to extraordinary beings like us. The maximum anima for each of their Attributes is ten. You may have outclassed them in Physical Attributes, but your mind is still that of a weak human."

----------

A/N: Please, don’t forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets. Thank you for your support.