Evolution Island: Kill to Survive

Evolutionary Pathways

As Aaron held the stone in his grasp, his fingers trembled with excitement. It had been a real struggle to fight enemies in his Fledgling form, but now he finally had a way to unlock his true potential.

Holding the stone up, Aaron spoke out his wish. “Confirm Pyromancer evolution.”

This opened up another branched choice box. In order to evolve into an Adult Pyromancer, he was first required to make a vital selection. Three different evolutionary branches were displayed before him—Ability Wielder, Skill forger and Adaptive DNA. He could only choose one pathway to proceed with his evolution.

Aaron carefully went over the unique features of each pathway. In the beta version of Evolution Island there had never been any Evolutionary Pathways. This was a completely new concept. Normally, a player would automatically evolve and reach the next rank when using an Evolution Stone. This new game mechanic added a certain degree of choice to encourage players to experiment with different builds and gameplay styles. However, the Evolutionary Pathway selection was a permanent thing. Once the player selected a particular branch, he would not be able to switch to another branch, even in the next evolutionary stage.

After a lot of careful studying, Aaron clicked on the branch in the middle. As soon as he locked in his choice, the Evolution Stone burst into flames and enveloped him in bright white light. Aaron’s skin turned a light shade of red, his wavy black hair took on a crimson hue and the flames in his eyes grew brighter. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and cried out in agony. Every inch of his body throbbed as his character underwent a rapid transformation.

“God damn it!” Aaron clutched his forehead in his palm and dropped to his knees. A surge of energy rushed through his body, increasing all his stats.

 [*Evolution successful!*]

[New Rank: Adult Pyromancer!]

[Pathway unlocked: Skill Forger!]

[All skills have been successfully upgraded!]

Now that Aaron had achieved a higher rank, it increased the damage output of all his offensive skills. Apart from that, he also gained access to a new feature of the game. Since he had selected the Skill Forger pathway, he could now use his skill points to modify his already unlocked skills.

“This is awesome!” Aaron cried out, elated. The previous version of the game only increased a player’s stats upon evolution, but this patch introduced a very detailed Pathway system. He had a couple of skill points in his inventory. It was perfect for experimenting with two unlocked skills.

“I gotta say, Gilbert’s certainly improved the gameplay,” Zach said, staring into the skill modification tab on Aaron’s Z-band. “You always wanted to build a unique character. It looks like here’s your chance.”

“There are multiple ways to modify a single skill. I can’t believe how detailed this pathway system is.” Aaron could barely control his excitement. This was truly what a great RPG should be like. He could now choose to modify his skills according to his gameplay. There were over a thousand combinations possible with all the skills available at higher ranks.

Since this was a brand new feature, Aaron decided to start off by modifying a tier one skill.

“Modify Skill: Ember Kick! Modification Type: Add Effect!”

As soon as Aaron selected the modification, the skill’s description changed along with its display image.

[*Modification Successful!*]

[1.Spinning Ember Kick:  A powerful spinning attack which causes a knockback and stuns the opponent for 2 seconds. It deals heavy damage against lightly armoured targets. Consumes 20 EP each time it is used. ]

The first modification went just as expected. This gave Aaron the much needed confidence to try modifying a tier 3 skill. There was still one more Zone Guardian remaining, and it was only going to get tougher from the next island. Aaron knew he would need more damage to take out high level enemies beyond Solaris, so he chose to modify the Immolating Spear skill.

Having selected the skill, he zoomed in on the branched modification tree and picked one which allowed him to reduce the casting time and add another special effect.

[*Modification Successful!*]

[1.Enchanted Immolating Spear: Instantly conjures a blazing red spear from the underworld. The weapon can only be wielded by a Pyromancer. It penetrates all armor and pierces enemies in a line. The skill deals 6000 damage to all targets in a straight line. All enemies hit with this spear are immediately set on fire and take an additional 50 fire damage per second for 100 seconds. It consumes 500 EP to cast.]

With the modification, Aaron’s most deadly single-target skill turned into an AOE skill. Now he could take out multiple high-level enemies with one hit. Apart from that, the modified version also reduced the casting time to a few seconds, instead of 5 minutes. This was a welcome change, as he would no longer have to rely on someone else to distract the enemy and buy him time. Aaron was slowly fine-tuning his character to make it an even deadlier killing machine.

Having modified his skills and reviewing his upgraded stats, Aaron approached the Platinum Loot Chest. This was sure to contain a rare weapon or equipment.

“Open Platinum Loot Chest!”

When the lid was thrown open, both Aaron and Zach gasped in surprise. The chest did not contain any weapons or armour sets, but a bunch of rare magic scrolls.

“These are all summoning scrolls!” Zach exclaimed.