Chapter 194: The End Of Evolution is a… Slime?
Chapter 194: The End Of Evolution is a… Slime?
Having finally found a reliable punching bag, Steven wasn’t about to let it go so easily.
Without waiting for his opponent to attack first, Steven leaped off the floating ice beneath his feet, clenching his fist tightly before slamming it fiercely into the monster’s body.
The surrounding space seemed to distort under the force of his punch.
The monster, unable to react at all, was sent flying backward, crashing into a distant wall.
Its nearly full health bar instantly dropped to the bottom.
If Steven hadn’t deliberately held back, this single punch might have been enough to blow it apart completely.
"Since it hasn’t evolved its adaptability yet, I can’t go too hard on it. Gotta train it properly."
Landing steadily on the water, Steven stood atop the floating ice, watching the monster embedded in the cave wall with a slight shake of his head, looking somewhat disappointed.
Fortunately, since it was a boss-level enemy, it wasn’t completely finished just yet.
Because he didn’t go in for a finishing blow, the health bar floating in his field of vision slowly began to regenerate.
The monster, struggling, pried itself out of the stone wall.
Tough scales grew over the wounds on its body, shining with a metallic luster—just by looking at them, one could tell they were incredibly durable.
As the creature gasped heavily, the new scales quickly spread across its entire body, covering it in a sleek and formidable armor.
Steven simply stood there with his arms crossed, watching as it underwent its transformation right in front of him.
He had no intention of interfering and simply observed as the monster’s health bar returned to full.
Then, with an enraged roar, the Echo of We Many charged at Steven once more.
And then—it was sent flying again, embedding itself into the wall once more.
"Not enough armor. Try again. You really think this little bit of defense can withstand my punch? Based on what?"
Half-narrowing his eyes, Steven casually blew on his fist, offering his sharp critique.
It had gone through all that effort to stack such impressive armor, and yet—this was it? That was underestimating him far too much. It still shattered with a single punch. The monster needed to work harder on its evolution.
"Come on, put in some effort. Don’t make me look down on you."
Once again, Steven crossed his arms and waited patiently for the creature to evolve.
While its shell had been a bit flashy and impractical, it had still managed to reduce some of the impact from his punch.
If it kept working on it, maybe one day it could actually withstand a full hit.
The monster clearly wasn’t going to just sit there and accept defeat. From its perspective, Steven was deliberately giving it time—time to adapt to the damage. And that was exactly what it needed most.
This time, the evolution and adaptation process was much faster than Steven had expected.
The first time, it had taken a full ten minutes to develop its armor. But now, it climbed out of the crater in just five minutes.
On the surface, it didn’t look much different, but at the very least, its wounds had completely healed.
Then, once again, it launched an attack on Steven.
However, the result was obvious. After another brief exchange, the monster was once again sent flying.
This time, though, it didn’t embed itself into the wall. Instead, it managed to adjust its posture mid-air and charged at Steven once more.
Seeing the viscous, slime-like substance leaking from the wounds on its body, Steven quickly understood why it had only lost half its health this time.
It had softened its internal organs and tissues to better absorb the impact.
Not a bad solution—just not good enough.
Shaking his head, Steven sent it flying again with another punch.
At this rate, how long would it take for it to evolve enough to withstand a full-force punch?
Couldn’t it work a little harder? Show some of that bio-weapon evolution potential!
And so, the cycle continued—Steven would knock it down, then wait for it to recover and adapt to his attacks.
Over and over again, he repeated this process, until the night gave way to daylight.
By then, the monster had turned into something… strange.
To be precise, it had turned into a lump of something strange.
Gone were the tentacles and claws. In its effort to adapt to Steven’s punches, its entire body had become spherical. Its once-tough scales had softened, and its body had transformed into a structureless, gelatinous mass—almost as if it were made entirely of slime.
At first glance, it was nothing more than a pure black… slime.
"...Are you kidding me? The end of your evolution is this thing?"
Steven’s mouth twitched as he stared at the increasingly abstract-looking boss.
He had spent all this time waiting for its evolution, and this was the final result?
And to make matters worse, it wasn’t even bothering to charge at him anymore. Instead, it had started rolling toward him, slowly and lazily, as if it had completely given up.
"So you’re just surrendering now, huh?"
Steven wasn’t about to accept that.
Expressionless, he clenched his fist. There was no point in waiting any longer—this thing had clearly reached the limit of its evolution. It was time to see if it could handle his full strength.
Taking a deep breath, Steven watched the slow-rolling meatball approach. This time, he didn’t throw a powerful punch like before. Instead, he casually extended his arm and delivered a simple, straightforward jab.
And yet, the moment his fist connected, the air itself trembled with a deep, booming shockwave.
A ripple spread across the surface of the monster’s gelatinous body, quickly expanding until it covered its entire form.
Its fully restored health bar instantly plummeted to zero.
Even after an entire night of adaptation, it still couldn’t endure Steven’s punch.
The simplest truth remained unchanged—if there was enough of a power gap, no amount of evolution or adaptation could make up for it.
The massive blob trembled violently.
For a moment, Steven thought it might surprise him with a second phase.
But then, its empty health bar shattered completely.
Its body rapidly shrank, as if it were being drained of all its moisture.
Putrid-smelling fluid leaked from its ruptured skin, spilling into the sea before vanishing entirely.
The once three-story-tall monster had now been reduced to nothing more than a tiny crystal, barely the size of a fingertip.
[End of Evolution]: The core left behind by The Sparkborne that evolved to its absolute limit, containing its despair over its own fate. Using it grants a significant boost to physical resistance.
Steven sighed as he picked up the only loot that dropped.
He hadn’t expected this thing to be so stingy, only leaving behind this kind of item.
What happened to raising a final boss and making it drop a fortune in gold?
What was he supposed to do with physical resistance? Was it supposed to be more powerful than resistance potions?
Besides, he had a strong feeling that if he consumed this thing, he’d probably end up looking like that monster—turning into a damn slime.
And he definitely wasn’t into that.
He had an interest in temporary transformations into non-human forms, but only if they weren’t permanent. Changing his entire species? No thanks.
"This is completely useless."
Shaking his head in disappointment, Steven stashed away the crystal.
It definitely had its uses and value, just… not for him.
To him, it was nothing more than a worthless trinket.
Honestly, he would’ve preferred some straight-up World Acknowledgement Points instead.
That said, this trip hadn’t been a total loss.
The data he had collected from the lab alone would definitely be worth something—whether to Rhodes Island, represented by Kal'tsit, or to Iberia.
They would both be more than willing to pay a good price for it.
Besides, even though he only had to use his full strength for a single punch at the end, this fight had at least been a decent workout for him.
It had been a while since he last stretched his muscles.
Rolling his still slightly warm shoulders, Steven smiled and prepared to leave the way he came.
With how much noise he had made during the battle, the people above had probably already fled.
The Inquisition should also be arriving soon to clean up the mess.
More importantly, his main goal had already been achieved.
By tearing apart this boss with his own hands, the Church of the Deep would undoubtedly think twice before making any further moves against him.
If they still dared to come after him, they’d have to seriously reconsider whether angering him was worth the cost.
Steven figured that the rational-looking old Bishop wouldn’t fail to grasp that point. With any luck, this would make his life a lot easier moving forward.
Just as he was about to leave—ready to go tease the little bird for a bit before heading back to Rhodes Island for a well-deserved break—a faint, light-blue glow flickered from where the monster had disappeared, immediately catching his attention.
The liquid, resembling an Nethersea Brand, flickered briefly before rapidly retreating into the depths of the ocean.
It was fast, and it moved with stealth—but that meant nothing against Steven’s Minimap Mod.
There was no way it could escape his detection.
"Well, well~~ Is that a surprise I see?”
Raising an eyebrow, Steven immediately took off his Frost Walker Boots and downed two potions.
So what if it was underwater?
Was that supposed to stop him?
Did they really think he wouldn’t chase them down?
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