Chapter 77: Evolution

"Failed again."

Watching the magic dissipate from Little Red's claws, Kukku sighed.

"Unstable mental energy output? Insufficient mana? Incomplete model? Elemental rejection? Or all of the above?"

Kukku nodded; the answer was likely all of the above.

Compared to Kukku, who lacked even a shred of innate talent, Li En was already far too fortunate.

The prerequisite for a spellcaster is constructing the prototype of a spell, the "spell model"; mental energy is the blade that carves this model and the supplier providing the material, the foundation of everything.

Yet Kukku the kobold warlock's mental energy was not even comparable to an ordinary person's, let alone the "geniuses" in the Mage Tower.

Not only was its mana output insufficient, but the output flow was also unstable.

The mana model shaped by its mental energy was even more fragile; lacking complete mathematical and geometric education, its spatial imagination was inadequate.

The hardest part was that it simply had no ability to imagine the "spatial model of a spell"; how could one shape something it could not understand?

Master a cantrip after a few hundred tries? Kukku didn't even know how many thousands or tens of thousands of times it had practiced, yet still only failure remained.

"It worked, it worked!"

After countless failures and reviews, after long periods of making up for deficiencies and accumulating knowledge, it finally achieved a success that felt purely accidental.

Yet that moment, the joy springing from the depths of its heart, remained unforgettable for Kukku, who would one day become a top-tier spellcaster.

Insufficient mana, insufficient mental energy, insufficient knowledge, insufficient spatial imagination... Acknowledge the deficiencies, then constantly make up for them, repeatedly try and err.

"Teacher, teacher! I learned it, I learned it!"

What Kukku found even more unforgettable was the teacher's mixture of helplessness and amusement upon seeing this apprentice take over a year just to master a cantrip.

But the next moment, the teacher stroked his beard and revealed a smile from the depths of his heart.

"Well done, well done." He even patted Kukku on the head.

"I knew you could do it all along..." He smiled with great pride and satisfaction.

Time flew by, and Kukku's studies in the world of mages did not go smoothly.

If it was not smooth from the start, it became even less smooth afterwards.

You can indeed use diligence to make up for insufficient learning progress, but geniuses can too; time will only constantly widen the gap between you.

You can proceed slowly and ignore those around you, but the resources, money, and opportunities required to learn magic are all limited.

If you have it, I do not; if you fall behind, these opportunities for progress and resources will drift far away from you.

Constantly being left behind, you must also endure increasing psychological pressure—assuming you are not first regarded as worthless trash wasting resources and simply kicked out.

You can indeed stay up late studying complex spell models, but for spells of the third circle and above, the required calculation volume and modeling computing power have multiplied by hundreds or thousands of times; when you parse the blueprint of the spell model into an incomprehensible heavenly script, you can often only sigh helplessly after long overtime.

The third circle is a checkpoint, a bottleneck that most mage apprentices can never break through in their lives—but for a warlock, it might just be an instinctual bloodline awakening or an inspirational breakthrough during sleep.

Kukku had already vaguely determined that, given its talent, the third-circle realm of mages was likely unreachable in this lifetime.

"Heaven never seals off all exits... Strange, when there are dead ends everywhere, how do I still feel there is hope?"

By this time, Kukku had been expelled, living as a warlock who studied while working, yet still had not given up learning magic.

At this stage, he was actually entering middle age, and his mind had nearly matured.

A life of adventure broadened his horizons; he remained full of interest in magic, but no longer focused solely on the "academy-standard magic" within the Mage Tower.

"Alchemy! Alchemy! It is change, it is transformation! It is the possibility of making up for deficiencies!"

For a considerable period, alchemy acquired from dwarves and elves was not even regarded as a normal branch of magic; often only low-level spellcasters would learn it.

Then they became logistics and equipment suppliers for adventurers, carrying a huge pile of bottles and jars through the streets and alleys, even having to sell hair-loss potions and breeding drugs, all without being treated as members of the mage community.

The specialized discipline of potionology, born from alchemy, had not yet matured in Kukku's era, nor was racial evolution systematic.

"Sorcery! Interesting! Learnable! Dark arts too!"

During his adventures, he discovered that those wild monster tribes, including goblins, ogres, treants, and others, all had their own spellcasting systems.

Many of these were not limited to bloodline warlocks, but incorporated shamanistic sorcery involving rituals and incantations, curses, and demonic arts.

These spells could actually be classified under the domain of magic; they were often fragmented and unsystematic, but they did not demand high comprehension or mental energy from the spellcaster; what they required were often strange things, varying by race.

"Learnable! Easy to learn!"

At this moment, the kobold's appearance actually helped Kukku; as an "evil creature," he could easily blend into these "evil creature tribes."

He learned curses and potions from hags, bloody and bloodthirsty shamanistic sorcery from ogre wizards, poisons and secrets of the Devil's world (the Lower Planes) from his fellow goblins, corrupt arts and murder arts from dark elves, draconic magic from dragons and dragonborn, and dark arts and blasphemous tongues from devils... Heaven knows how much he learned, and his outstanding "linguistic talent" gradually made him an alternative master of magic.

And in this process, he also made many friends and gained many disciples.

His favorite activity was exchanging the mysteries of magic with local tribes and jointly discussing and developing new spells with local spellcasters... He had long determined that not all magic requires extremely high calculation ability and talent.

Sometimes, changing one's approach allows shortcomings on one path to become advantages on another.

Just as he later told Li En, the magic of each race is actually the crystallization of that race's civilization and knowledge, their most suitable transcendent spells.

After learning enough, he even combined sorcery, demonic arts, and dragon-bloodline spells to develop his own spells.

In that era, there were already several spells named after Kukku.

The "Kukku's Fire Rain" series of spells still continues to circulate in the spellcasting world under a different name.

And at that time, although he who independently developed spells was far from a Grand Mage in the eyes of ordinary mages, most Grand Mages strove their whole lives without having a spell named after them (one of the highest honors among spellcasters).

When he returned to the (Beast) Man world, although he was still not a Grand Mage, he was actually far superior to ordinary Grand Mages.

But this did not mean he could parse those overly complex spell models and incantations...

"There is a way! Perhaps! Ogres! Hydra!"

He had an idea; perhaps it would require some sacrifice and experimentation.

Among ogres, there was a rare multiple mutation; among the generally low-intelligence ogres, multi-headed ogres were natural warlocks and shamans, capable of what most spellcasters could not understand as "multiple casting" or "simultaneous casting."

Two heads, two consciousnesses? At the same time, Kukku also recalled multi-headed creatures in the world, especially the hydra, which possessed dragon blood and even had the potential to venture into different elemental domains.

If there were an extra "head" to help calculate and parse spells for him...

"Experiment! Experiment!"

Hard to say whether this idea came from fragments of memory from a past life (the auxiliary computer) or was truly inspired by a multi-caster seen by chance.

Lord Lord Kuku was not a cruel black wizard; he conducted experiments on small animals and little mice, fusing shamanic magic, natural spells, and alchemy together.

But most died cleanly within a few days due to "immune conflict."

So, after thinking it over, he adopted a bolder idea.

He hired a priest to help "treat wounds" on the small animals. He cut out their brains, and after cultivating (healing and mending) them, re-implanted them into the animals' bodies, creating in effect multi-brained lifeforms.

Thus, after countless failures, he created some "multi-headed lifeforms" that were not actually multi-headed.

But at that moment, his research was interrupted.

Another batch of paladins arrived. From their perspective, a wizard hiding in a remote backwater, creating a host of strange and bizarre mutant creatures, clearly had sinister intentions.

And when they followed the villagers' guidance and saw a pile of multi-headed chickens, dog-faced monkeys, and other deformed monsters, they hesitated no longer.

"This evil! Worth a fight!"

So, Lord Lord Kuku met with great misfortune.

He repelled the knights, and a squad of knights arrived.

He repelled the squad, and a knightly order arrived.

"I, Lord Lord Kuku I! Paid for them! All bought! Ask the villagers!!"

This was, perhaps, the most tragic declaration of defeat and flight.

But no matter how many failures, no matter how many twists and turns, as long as one persists, there will eventually be a breakthrough.

Perhaps many do not know that kobolds, as dragon-blooded, are long-lived creatures; although eighty percent of them do not survive past ten years old, their natural lifespan is actually over 120 years.

Kobolds with awakened dragon veins live at least twice as long. Finally, Lord Lord Kuku obtained the knowledge and results he desired.

So, one day at last, he took a knife to his own brain; that blinding white blade opened up the brain.

"Aaaaaah!"

This time, Li En was startled awake from the dream.

And just as he woke, seeing Lord Lord Kuku waving a small knife about, he hurriedly stepped back.

"What are you doing! Kuskra can't be eaten! Can't I just have a little fun?"

Li En then noticed that Lord Lord Kuku was merely holding a table knife, gesturing at a cake.

Li En quickly took a few deep breaths before slowly recovering from the nightmare.

"The... the thing you mentioned earlier, was that multi-brain surgery?" Li En recalled Lord Lord Kuku's earlier mention of "a little sacrifice, a little cost, a little resolve."

This was a little?! Was this merely a little resolve?

"No! Crude! Outdated! What Lord Lord Kuku aims for is evolution! Species evolution!" Lord Lord Kuku merely shook his head; what kind of time was this to still use such outdated techniques?

"Dragon-blood evolution! Multi-headed dragon evolution!"

(End of this chapter)