Unlike digesting ordinary monsters, where Lohan had to hope for a chance to absorb a trait from the digested monster, which might happen with luck in a single digestion, or, if he was unlucky, he might get nothing even after digesting 50 monsters.
Mana Stones, while extremely rare to obtain, since Elite monsters were extremely rare to find, this extreme rarity also translated into a 100% chance of achieving an Evolution from digesting them!
After sending Pip and Elle away, who had wanted to help out, with Pip running to the tree’s entrance and standing by there, and Elle starting to paint the flowers and the tree’s bark to make the place look more alive, only Lohan and Lisa remained in the base’s main hall.
Looking at the Mana Stone in Lohan’s hand, Lisa smiled and sat down next to him, watching the process with curiosity.
Whenever Lohan consumed a Mana Stone, he gained some interesting and useful skill that helped her tremendously in combat, so even though she didn’t receive the evolution herself, Lisa was also very excited about this process for Lohan, curious about what they would receive next.
Considering that he was now at Level 11, Lohan finally overcame his fear of Memory Resonance and decided to evolve this Evolution.
The cost to upgrade this Evolution was very low, with the only limiting factor so far being Lohan himself, who was afraid of getting lost in the memories of the monsters he digested.
Spending a total of 1.15 Biomass, which before the evolution was equivalent to 1,150 Biomass, Lohan finally found the courage to evolve it.
[Memory Resonance Lv 5 → Lv 15]
[When absorbing another creature’s brain, Memory Fragments and the creature’s Instincts can be absorbed.]
[After 10 minor evolutions, Memory Resonance is undergoing a qualitative evolution...]
[New trait obtained, Memory Absorption!]
[Traits: Memory Absorption - Upon entering a target’s memory, the user can choose a memory to permanently absorb for themselves.]
Reading that description, Lohan was a little confused, unsure of what this could be useful for.
But deciding not to waste too much time on it, he then took the Earthworm Mana Stone and digested it.
As soon as the Level 11 Mana Stone plunged into Lohan’s gelatin, the reaction was instantaneous and violent.
Unlike the magma-like burning of the previous stones, this one, despite being a Level 11 Mana Stone, was much gentler and more pleasant to digest. Through his [Superior Magic Core], Lohan felt the earthworm’s energy trying to "bury" his consciousness, but his control over it was now much easier.
The world around Lohan, the Boss’s room, the glow of the amber, and even Lisa’s worried face, simply ceased to exist.
He was hurled into absolute emptiness. For a second, panic took hold: ’Am I blind? Has my 360-degree vision failed?’
But soon, rationality took control.
Lohan realized he wasn’t blind; he was simply experiencing the biology of a creature that had never needed eyes.
Instead of understanding the world through sight, colors, smell, or hearing, the earthworm relied exclusively on touch to sense the things around it.
Lohan was now the Giant Earthworm.
The initial sensation was claustrophobic.
He felt the weight of tons of earth compressing every inch of his membrane. However, what would once have been agonizing for a human became natural to him in seconds. After all, like a Slime, he too was a creature that relied more on instinctive perception than on eyeballs.
He began to "see" through vibrations.
Every grain of sand, every root, and every rock underground emitted a frequency that he could interpret. Through the Worm’s perception, the ground became a three-dimensional map.
Lohan delved deeper into the creature’s past.
The worm lived in a state of perpetual hunger and silence.
It moved through the geological layers brutally. Lohan felt the creature’s Mana flow to its "extremities," or what the worm considered its segmented head.
The technique was fascinating! The worm didn’t dig using brute force; it emitted a high-frequency Mana vibration that destabilized the molecular bonds of the minerals ahead of it, making solid rock as soft as fresh mud.
Suddenly, in his memory, a pulse pierced the darkness of the underground.
It was a glow. Not a glow one could see, but a glow the worm felt deep in its core, coming from above, from the surface.
It was a Mana signature so pure and intense that it made the worm’s "blood" boil with greed.
Lohan recognized that frequency instantly: it was the residual energy of the Dungeon Core mixed with the starlight of the [Astral Chest] that Lisa had hidden.
’So that was it...’ Lohan thought within the resonance. ’Our base wasn’t invaded by chance. The chest is acting like a beacon attracting monsters... will more monsters come in the future?!’
In the memory, the worm began to burrow upward, driven by a blind instinct for consumption. Lohan focused all his attention on the way the creature coordinated the rings of its body with the pulses of Mana to glide through the earth.
Though strange, this process was oddly satisfying, despite being very complex.
At that moment, a system notification popped up in the corner of his conscious mind:
[Warning: "Memory Absorption" trait detected.]
[The user may select a technical memory to permanently absorb.]
At this point, Lohan hesitated for an instant.
Based on the information he had received from the Skill, he had practically two options so far.
Either he would choose the memories of the worm’s digging process, which Lohan had already deduced would be the Evolution he would receive for digesting this Mana Stone,
By choosing that, he would completely skip the process of learning and mastering that Evolution, achieving the same level of mastery that the worm had possessed in life.
That would be incredible for him, but on the other hand, there was another memory that greatly interested him, one without which using the digging ability would be nearly impossible for him in his current state.
Realizing this, Lohan didn’t hesitate any longer and made his decision.