Intelligent Design: A Monster Evolution LitRPG

The panel floated unmoving in the air as David carefully went over his options, unwilling to waste the Token he'd be reduced to the butt of a joke for. Despite the small number of options, there was a surprising amount of potential combinations, just like every other time he'd used a Fusion Token.

Secretive hasn't been getting much attention lately, but it works fine by itself. It's what helped Spooky notice all those gaps in the building in Redfield. Dread is amazing thus far, that Eye of Dread is super good, and free too. Hmm, I don't think adding Soporalytic to anything would be a direction I want to go in for the moment, if it's not broken don't fix it right? Damn, I’m itchy.

“Want another Moonsong, Claire?" David chattered as he hopped a bit closer to the water.

“Yes, please." Claire groaned, “A fat lot of good that extra armor did, that thing just chewed straight through it. It actually burned a little bit too, I think it was the spit."

David nodded and belted out a rapid melody that made the insects skip along the surface of the water and dart about in time with the notes, and he grinned a bit until he saw his reflection in the water. The grin turned into a frown as he realized he really did look like he was going to hustle someone for spare change, or maybe start ranting about the end times at a crowded intersection. Claire sighed contentedly as the notes faded away and David rolled his freakishly long tongue around outside his mouth distastefully.

“Blech. Wow, my mouth is dry, I really miss that fruit tree, y’know?" David sighed as the mud squished under his feet and wings when he leaned over to lap at the cool water.

Tiny bugs with shrimp-like tails darted away from him like a school of minnows before returning only a few moments later curiously. They hovered only a foot or two away from his snout, tiny black eyes fixed in a permanent stare as they slowly trickled closer a few inches at a time. He paused his drinking for a moment to stare back at them, and within seconds they had congregated in the shadow cast by his head as drops of water fell from the end of his snout back into the pond. They were almost cute, if it weren't for the way they savagely attacked each other seemingly at random, and David wondered why they bothered grouping at all.

Gotta wonder how everything is gonna look in a hundred years, can these little turds evolve too? Is there some poor fucker down there somewhere in the pond, fighting worms and weird plants? That'd be worse than what we're dealing with I think…okay, quit stalling.

The tiny creatures darted away into the reeds near Claire as David turned and fluttered back onto higher ground, clamoring onto a mossy rock in lieu of any good logs to perch on. He shot a glance at where Claire was still mostly submerged in the water, only her armored back and head protruding above the water. The hole in her armor had mostly scabbed over, and David swore he could still hear the gurgling sound the Corruptor had made right before trying to inject her with acid. Spooky snarled hideously in the back of his mind at the memory, and David couldn't help but agree with the sentiment as he called up his Status again.

Atavistic…I forgot about that one almost. Last time I didn't want to do it because it'd affect my whole body, but…I think that's about what I need at this point. You know, I bet that'd go well with Dread this time, they both say ‘your body' basically...maybe it strengthens the effects of both? The Bloodline is for sure going to affect a lot of me if it works like it did with Claire, so I could potentially get a lot more powerful in a couple of minutes tops. Fuck it, everything is getting Fused eventually right?

A ripple of anticipation rolled through him as he eyed the two Mutagens critically before taking a deep breath bracing himself. Claire cracked an eye open at the sound, perking up and lifting her head free of the reeds to stretch, curling her neck back and pointing her snout into the air before snorting loudly.

“You gonna use the Bloodline already?" She rumbled as David bounced in place anxiously.

"Nope, I'm full on Mutagens. Gotta Fuse something first. Thought about it a bit, and the best bet is something that's probably gonna hit almost all of me.” David chattered between bounces, "No idea what's gonna happen. Probably going to be unpleasant, and I'm slightly worried I might mildly explode again or something.”

"...well, good luck with that. The Bloodline thing was super weird, but it didn't hurt, if that makes you feel better.” Claire hissed sympathetically as she examined her leg beneath the water. She poked at it with her snout several times before nodding happily and gingerly putting some weight on it.

Here goes nothing. I want to Fuse the Dread and Atavistic Mutagens.

–Confirm Fusion of: Dread Mutagen C & Atavistic Mutagen D?–

–Fusion will result in: C Mutagen–

……Yes.

–Fusing–

–Received: Ancestral Terror Mutagen: Your body deepens its primal bond, fortifying your strength and weakening the resolve of enemies that can perceive you. Your gaze may trap enemies in instinctive Terror.–

Oh, ‘Terror’. Lovely. Just when I thought it couldn't get any wor– Where's the bubbles? I was expecting, like, a buttload of, whaddafu–.

David's talons speared into the soft ground beneath him as his lips wrinkled up over his fangs and his ears shot out to the sides. Instead of the bubbling sensation slowly seeping into his system like it always did, it felt as though he'd been blasted with a carbonated firehose, the sudden intensity of it knocking the breath out of him. He wasn't sure if he went blind, or if he'd slammed his eyes shut as he tore at the ground beneath him while his body was wracked with a numbness that bordered on torturous. David almost missed Claire's alarmed roar in response to whatever was happening to him, and the nearly instantaneous regret of his decision was mingled with Spooky’s ecstatic delight.

A few minutes after David had begun to wonder if he'd somehow managed to kill himself, the sensation evaporated and he sagged into the grass. He was surprised to discover that Claire was physically standing over him with a look of concern as he finally cracked his eyes open to find himself in her shadow.

Claire snorted in alarm and took a single step back as he made eye contact.

“That bad?" David groaned as he began to pull himself to his feet. He paused slightly, noting that the deep dusky grey of his wings had darkened to a now solid black, the silvery crescent moon patterns standing out brilliantly in contrast.

“Dude." Claire began haltingly, “I think you might be cursed or something. What the hell is even that?"

“What is what…oh. ‘Ancestral Terror' apparently." David chittered unhappily, “That one sucked."

“Remember when I said you looked like…uh…” Claire seemed at a loss for words, "Like something cultists sacrificed people to appease?”

“Ugh - Yes. You also called me snarly looking." David agreed as he leered at himself, noting that his fur had grown back completely, and his coloration had entirely shifted to shades of black. His wings were slightly darker than his body, but not by much, and even his mane, talons, and claws had darkened to pitch black.

“Now you look like something that exclusively eats cultists for daring to disturb your slumber," Claire muttered ominously, clacking her jaws loudly as she shifted from foot to foot.

“I think those tabletop games rotted your brain, it can't be that bad." David snorted as he hopped down to the water to peer at his reflection. His eyes had barely focused before he hissed loudly in surprise, jerking back from his image.

His fur had darkened to an immaculate black, but he'd already guessed that would be a sweeping change. What he was not prepared for was the range of changes that had accompanied the shift in color, first but not least being the changes to the eyes that now glared back at him. They were solid black, the same shade as the color of his fur, and seemed to catch the light to produce a sinister dark red eyeshine even in broad daylight, though the effect was minimal. His fangs had shrunk slightly, but seemed sharper and more vicious somehow, drawing the eye naturally after he'd made eye contact with himself.

His mane bristled in response to his reflection, and the fur no longer rose uniformly, with the hair on his back, chest, and lower portions of his neck extending farther than that near his face. He thought it gave his face a slightly serpentine, wolfish, or vaguely catlike appearance. David wasn't exactly sure, but he knew it seemed to mimic a few of the more unsettling features found in the predatory side of the animal kingdom all at once, and did a very good job of it.

Damn, scared myself there. Check those peepers, holy shit. Isn't eyeshine supposed to be impossible during the day? This is way beyond ‘snarly’. I look like someone welded everything they were afraid would chase them up the stairs in the dark onto a bat.

“Your eyes are weird now." Claire blurted, “Like, my heart skipped a beat when you looked at me the first time. I think I'll get used to it, but damn David."

Spooky was throwing a raucous party in the back of his mind as David turned to look at her, and thankfully she didn't cringe or shrink away. She did, however, blink quite a lot and seemed to be avoiding looking him directly in the eyes. David sighed and shook his head before just shrugging and loping away from the water, pleasantly surprised to find that he felt both somehow lighter and more solid than before the Fusion.

“Might as well just get this over with all at once, huh?" David growled. He stopped instantly, blinking in time with Claire at the new noise he'd made before growling again, changing the pitch and timbre slightly as he played with the noise for a moment before coughing.

“Weird, you sound bigger than you actually are when you do that." Claire hissed as she settled down onto her haunches and studied him closely, "I'm gonna guess by ‘get it over with’ you mean the Bloodline?”

"Yeah, you use it the same way as a Token? Just focus on using it?” David nodded as he heroically resisted the urge to growl again for no reason other than to play with a new toy.

"Yeah. It's uh…slightly weird though. You'll see. It won't let you back out, so hold onto your butt." Claire rumbled uncertainly, “I'll keep an eye out I guess, you were kinda going bonkers there for a second when that new Mutagen was kicking in. Everything got quiet in a weird way.”

David perked his ears up and noticed that everything was indeed a bit too quiet, but his instincts returned nothing but elation at their new appearance and certainty all would be well. He rolled his eyes a bit at the flippant response from Spooky but focused intently as Claire watched on with interest.

I want to…uh…use Corruptor Bloodline?

–Confirm absorption of Bloodline: Corruptor–

–Bloodlines will occupy 1 Mutagen slot–

Yeah, yeah.

–Bloodline: Corruptor integration beginning–

–Estimated time until total absorption: 2:59–

David blinked curiously at the timer as it began to count down before the scene around him greyed out, and he was struck by a wave of nausea that passed quickly as everything smeared together and resolved into a completely different image. He found he was incapable of any movement, barely even feeling his breathing as he was reduced to a simple observer of the events transpiring in front of him.

The sunset wetlands and Claire were both gone, replaced by a shadowy old-growth forest at dusk, the tiny patches of sky visible through the branches above a deep purple. A creature he'd never seen the like of was wandering along a game trail a few dozen yards away, ambling along on four sturdy legs and chewing its cud stupidly. David briefly panicked before time slowed to a crawl, and a huge shadow descended on the creature from above. Its form was nothing but a silhouette in the fading light, but two gleaming fangs sunk visibly into the wandering beast's neck, its body shifting into transparency as its flesh was pierced. He watched the scene unfold impossibly slowly as the venom was injected expertly into a large vein in the neck, the liquid glowing a sinister red in his eyes. He observed with interest as the glowing red light spread throughout the creature's body, its heart beginning to pump rapidly, and the venom quickly reached the organ before it began to stutter and fail.

What the fuck is going on?

As the beast fell to the ground twitching only a half dozen feet from where it had been attacked, the scene was gone, morphing into the darkness to be replaced by another. A vast sea of dunes stretched away in every direction, and the night was pitch-black and starless as a large lizard galloped heedlessly across the sand, cresting the dune opposite to David’s position as it hurled itself down the slope in terror. Its mouth gaped open as it sucked in rapid breaths of air before whirling and darting to the right along the dune, using the ridge to break the line of sight of whatever was pursuing it. Its ploy counted for nothing, however, as a tiny silhouette descended from the sky almost unnoticed as time once again slowed to a crawl, zipping past the creature's head before it spat a dart of similarly glowing red liquid that intercepted the creature's open mouth like an arrow into a bullseye. Within seconds the lizard had begun to roll down the dune, blood and foam pouring out of its mouth and eyes as the scene shifted again.

David slowly began to realize as the scene shifted again and again, that every creature he watched die, every darkened silhouette in the night, every hunt and ambush all had one thing in common. Not a single one of them was a fight to the death, and not a single scene depicted anything other than a masterstroke of chemical weaponry. Not a single drop of venom, not a single waft of pollen or dust, not a single bite or jab out of place. Every attack landing in exactly the optimal place to spread its toxin, poison, venom, or contagion, and David finally began to understand.

The silhouette was never fully in view, always slightly different, sometimes larger or smaller, but always precise and silent. Always striking from above, from behind, out of blind spots or concealment, and when David finally understood after a thousand deaths, it came into focus. Perched hungrily atop a corpse that shook with the last faint tremors of life it snapped its head around to stare him directly in the eyes.

And David looked back at himself and grinned.

The vision shattered like glass, and an explosion of rainbow light devoured everything.