However, after getting a clue about the issue, Kain had to figure out a way to convince Alaina about his explanation.
Kain exited the Laboratory and returned to the waiting room. He saw the stack of papers next to the listless salamander and started to rifle through the papers.
The first pages were an observation report, likely written by one of the previous evolutionary planners that they’d hired.
“The Glimmering Salamander was subjected to the standard evolutionary process aimed at evolving it into a gold-quality Infernal Salamander,” Kain read aloud.
“The evolution procedure commenced with the standard preparatory phase, including mental conditioning to ensure a calm psychological state for the salamander before the catalytic elixir was ingested. A yellow-grade spiritual orb the necessary fire-attribute materials were either held or left within close proximity of the salamander.”
“As normal, the light of evolution began to emanate from the Glimmering Salamander. However, approximately midway through the process, anomalous reactions were observed.”
“The salamander’s scales, which normally shimmered with a rich gold hue, began to exhibit erratic fluctuations in colour, transitioning sporadically between deep orange and an unsettlingly pale gold. The expected stabilization into the fiery orange of the Infernal Salamander did not occur.”
“Instead, a violent surge of raw energy erupted from the salamander, creating a dissonant clash between the fire-attribute materials and the salamander’s inherent energy that would normally readily absorb the escaping energies from the fire-attribute materials.”
“After the light of evolution had completely faded, the weakened salamander emerged from the turmoil in a weakened state, its vitality severely depleted, and with a noticeably darker shade of scales. Further analysis is required to determine the precise cause of the aberrant reaction during the evolutionary process…”
Kain finished reading through the report and could see faint hints within the report that may have pointed to an undiscovered recessive light-attribute. However, it may have only been obvious to Kain who already knew what to look for.
Kain turned to the next sheet. It has the insights from multiple evolutionary planners who collaborated and eventually settled on a reason for why they felt that the previous evolutionary attempt failed.
According to them, the failure was completely the fault of the previous planner who obviously did not accurately calculate the fire-attribute energy within the two materials used or use a stabilizing material. The fire attribute energy was then too strong for the young salamander to handle, which caused a failed evolution.
Kain could understand how they reached such a conclusion. But really the evolutionary formula that the first planner had used, while not perfect and tailor-made to every Glimmering Salamander, was a well-established protocol.
And considering that this evolution was typically fool-proof even without fine-tuning the amount and energy levels of the different ingredients, it was understandable that he hadn’t put in the extra effort.
‘Poor guy is being blamed and completely labelled as incompetent…I wonder how this group justified their own failure after the deed was done.’
“For the second attempt, adjustments were made to rectify the issues arising due to the previous planner’s incompetence. Specifically, the quantity of fire-attribute energy within the evolutionary materials was reduced, and a stabilizing agent was introduced to mitigate the risk of excessive energy surges. The second evolution ceremony commenced under the revised conditions.”
“However, while the evolution had initially appeared to progress more stably and the light of evolution persisted for a longer period of time, there was still a re-occurrence of unstable energy discharges.
“The Salamander once again emerged from the light in a debilitated state, its condition even worse after the second failed attempt. Our group of Planner’s has collectively determined that perhaps this salamander is an anomaly with low potential, destined to never reach a higher order of life.”
‘Trash! This group of idiots just couldn’t figure out the root cause and decided to blame the Glimmering Salamander itself. No wonder they were forced to try a long-shot attempt at recruiting help through the university.
Many of the evolutionary planners they contacted may have read this report and not even wanted to try.’ Kain also understood why Alaina showed a slight hesitation in handing over the reports.
Kain then flipped to the last pages which were general details about Yara the Glimmering Salamander’s life.
Apparently, Alaina was a senior high-school student who would be undergoing the awakening ceremony at the end of this year. Therefore, she was not technically contracted with Yara. Like many noble children, she had a young spiritual creature with high potential raised with her from young in order to cultivate a stronger bond and give her a head start over her peers.
Yara was currently red-grade and likely will hold off on breaking through to the next level, so as long as Alaina awakens an affinity suitable to bind her she will have a spiritual creature one grade higher than most of the other newly awakened students. And because of their close bond established from childhood, there was little to no risk of Yara unilaterally breaking the contract.
‘Argh… it’s so unfair. Down with the rich!’
This Glimmering Salamander is actually the child of her parents’ contracts, who were each bound to one half of a mated pair of diamond-quality Blazing Ember Wyrms—the evolutionary form following the Infernal Salamander that had some of its extremely remnant dragon’s blood activated.
Usually, mutations could happen in 3 ways: completely by chance, which is the rarest occurrence; due to strange occurrences while the spiritual creature’s parent was conceiving, such as eating a rare spiritual plant or entering a strange relic; or occasionally when cross-species pairings manage to result in a conception and the other parent’s attribute or other characteristics was retained by the offspring.
However, considering that cross-species conceptions were extremely difficult, especially when the parents aren’t even of the same attribute, the last option was also extremely unlikely.
The likelihood of a whole new attribute being attained due to a chance mutation was also completely unheard of. Usually, such mutations only result in cosmetic changes or an amplification (or reduction) of the qualities that species already possess such as a stronger-than-normal shell or a hotter-than-average flame.
Therefore, Kain was going to operate from the theory of the mother having eaten something or gone somewhere unusual while forming the egg.
With that plan in mind, Kain delicately picked up the fragile Glimmering Salamander and exited the room. Fortunately, a lady, who Kain presumed to be a housekeeping staff, was waiting for him outside of the door, and he was instead able to request the presence of the young lady of the house instead of having to search for her in this enormous place himself.
Kain returned to his seat with Yara and thought about just how he was going to present his findings to her so that she’d believe him.