After explaining the three evolution paths, Lu Qingyi waited for Shi Yu to choose. This time, he couldn't have them all, since a Green Silkworm could only evolve into one creature.
"Ice Crystal Swallowtail, Ghost Beauty Butterfly, Goddess of Light Butterfly..."
Honestly, Shi Yu thought they were all good. After all, they were Commander Level creatures. Their upper limit for growth was much higher than that of Transcendent Level creatures. If he could contract a Commander Level creature and afford to raise it, becoming a professional Beast Tamer would be practically set in stone.
Any other trainee Beast Tamer in his position would probably have been excitedly making a choice by now.
Yet after listening, Shi Yu didn't immediately make a delighted choice. It wasn't that he had trouble choosing; he had picked up on a crucial piece of information.
For a Green Silkworm to evolve into a Commander Level creature, aside from a few essential evolution materials, its Worm Silk proficiency only needed to be at the Expert Level? He had thought it needed to be at the Perfect Level at a minimum.
Pursuing Perfect Level proficiency in Worm Silk was too difficult?
Then what if he pursued Supreme Level proficiency?
When the time came, could it draw out 200% of the pet's potential...?
"Has a Green Silkworm ever mastered Supreme Level Worm Silk before evolving?" Shi Yu asked.
"It's not impossible," Lu Qingyi said.
"If you could find a Secret Realm or ruin space suitable for a Green Silkworm's growth and spend a huge amount to nurture it, you might be able to raise its Worm Silk proficiency to that level in its lifetime."
"Alternatively, you could wait until you reach the Legendary Level and then come back to nurture a Green Silkworm. Leaving aside whether that method would be worth the cost, this Green Silkworm won't live long enough to see it happen."
"Those are roughly the two methods. There has been a successful case in the country: that Green Silkworm has already evolved into an Ice Phoenix Moth of the Monarch Level species. What, are you tempted?"
Shi Yu smiled. "Just asking."
"Don't be too greedy," Lu Qingyi said. "If you plan to evolve it, a higher Worm Silk level isn't necessarily better for a Green Silkworm."
"The higher the Worm Silk level, the greater its potential will be after a successful evolution. But the evolution process will also be more difficult, and there's a risk it will fail to break out of its cocoon. That's why there's no need to deliberately pursue Perfect Level proficiency."
"Unless you can guarantee that the evolution materials you use will give the Green Silkworm a 100% chance of awakening a powerful new species skill during evolution, and that the skill will have a 100% chance of breaking open the cocoon."
"But something like that... even the very best evolution planners can't guarantee it."
Shi Yu more or less understood.
A Green Silkworm's Worm Silk level, the level of the cocoon it formed, the difficulty of breaking out, and its potential after evolution were positively correlated.
To successfully break out of its cocoon, it needed to awaken a powerful new species skill inside and use that ability to break free.
As for how to awaken a new species skill during evolution, it needed to be given suitable evolution materials before it formed its cocoon.
If the evolution materials provided were wrong, it would fail to awaken a skill, and thus fail to break out of its cocoon and evolve.
After thinking it over carefully, Shi Yu had an idea.
If that was how a Green Silkworm's evolution worked, perhaps he didn't have to follow a known evolution path.
Shi Yu looked at the Green Silkworm in the birdcage. So, what would happen if he used the Skill Index to teach it a skill before it formed its cocoon?
That way, he wouldn't have to follow a traditional evolution path. It could use a skill it had before evolving to break out of the cocoon. As long as the skill level was high enough, there would be no risk of failure.
At the same time, he could raise Worm Silk to its maximum level without worrying about the consequences, allowing the highest-level cocoon to nourish the Green Silkworm inside.
This seemed feasible!
Shi Yu had thought a Commander Level creature was pretty good, but now he suddenly wanted to see if he could nurture an entirely new evolved form himself.
He could break away from conventional evolution methods and use an unscientific one!
A new skill learned before evolution + Supreme Level Worm Silk + evolution materials chosen to give it whatever attribute he wanted = ???
Shi Yu suddenly understood a little why those researchers liked studying new Green Silkworm evolutions. Revealing the prize was really thrilling.
He nodded. "Then I'll choose the Goddess of Light Butterfly."
Even if it didn't necessarily evolve into that, he couldn't go wrong choosing the rarest one for now.
He wanted to use it as a reference for how the evolution materials for other paths were combined.
"Of course you chose the highest-level one..." Lu Qingyi said. "But as I warned you, the three are listed from easiest to hardest to evolve into, so make sure you're fully prepared before letting the Green Silkworm attempt evolution."
"Wasting precious evolution materials is a small matter. If it fails to break out, your Green Silkworm could be trapped inside the cocoon until it dies."
"Okay."
The evolution method might have been something Lu Qingyi had kept in her private collection or acquired herself. She wrote it down for Shi Yu on the spot, with thorough notes on the quantities and grades of the materials.
The value of an evolution method that could nurture the Green Silkworm, the disgrace of the pet world, into a creature of a High Commander Level species went without saying. It could easily establish a Beast Tamer lineage, yet Lu Qingyi had told Shi Yu the method so casually.
That made Shi Yu even more convinced that the Eleven Bureau she spoke of might really be formidable. Perhaps a Legendary Beast Tamer bodyguard could actually be arranged in the future!
[Name]: Green Silkworm [Evolution path]: Goddess of Light Butterfly [Skill requirement]: Worm Silk skill at Expert Level proficiency or above [Evolution materials]: One unripe Heart of Light (one to three years), ten ripe Sun Flower petals, three Firefly Light Cores, fifty grams of Luminous Fungus, a large amount of Sunlight Rock powder, a large amount of mature Light-Containing Grass [Evolution method]: After the Green Silkworm reaches growth level nine, use Light-Containing Grass soaked for one hour in a 9:1 mixture of Sunlight Rock powder and spring water as its main food until it reaches growth level ten. After the Green Silkworm reaches growth level ten, have it eat one unripe Heart of Light, ten ripe Sun Flower petals, three Firefly Light Cores, and fifty grams of Luminous Fungus within one day. Once it has eaten everything, it can use Worm Silk to form a cocoon. The evolution process takes around thirty days. If all goes well, the Green Silkworm will awaken the skill Rainbow Light inside the cocoon, allowing it to break out and evolve into a Goddess of Light Butterfly.
"These materials..."
Heart of Light was the name of a special fruit, Sun Flower was a high-grade spiritual plant, a Fluorescent Core was the energy crystal of a Fluorescent Worm, Luminous Fungus was a eukaryotic organism found on Multicolored Light Mushrooms, Sunlight Rock was a rare mineral, and Light-Containing Grass was also a rare spiritual plant...
Just from their names, Shi Yu could already imagine how expensive this pile of materials would be, and his head began to ache. Would his ten million be enough to buy them all???
Iron Bamboo was already so expensive, despite being the cheapest of the lowest-grade, level-one resources. Not one of these materials was below level three...
Chongchong, let's research an even better evolution path ourselves after all. High Commander Level is too low!
If we aren't confident when the time comes, we can choose this as a backup!
After handing Shi Yu the Green Silkworm's evolution method, Lu Qingyi left with her Wind Demon Lion, leaving only Shi Yu, the Iron-Eating Beast, and the Green Silkworm in the courtyard again.
Shi Yu watched Lu Qingyi leave and sighed. He didn't know whether choosing to join the Eleven Bureau was good or bad...
Though he said he resisted returning to his old line of work, Lu Qingyi was right: if he truly resisted it from the bottom of his heart, he wouldn't have resonated with that statue.
"Forget it, no point thinking too much. Anyway, I'll have money tomorrow, so I can splurge a little today!"
Shi Yu put away the evolution plan and decided to buy a phone first. He had been wanting one for a long time, and now he could finally bring himself to spend the money.