Alien Evolution System

The Collector sat by the pond, its legs crossed, and its bulky form slouched over. Its hands were gathered together as if it were cupping something. The female was in the same position, sitting right beside it. Her eyes were closed and she was still, the only movement about her being the wind every so often catching her snowy locks of hair.

"This posture is ridiculous," commented the Collector. "I cannot understand how this is necessary for obtaining knowledge."

The female did not open her eyes but responded, "Oh, ye of little faith, trust me a bit. The first thing you need to do is perceive mana to use it. As I stated, mana possesses no form, so how do you perceive that which is nothing? To perceive nothingness, you must first have nothing in your mind."

She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, her c.h.e.s.t rising up and down in a controlled, rhythmic manner. "I profess I do not quite know how your body works, but the basics are the same. Your mind must enter a state of emptiness. Attempt to clear it of, well, everything."

"I trust this comes easy to your primitive species," remarked the Collector.

The female smiled ever so slightly. "My, so you do have a sense of humor."

"No, merely an observation."

"Well, I can't say I would disagree. Most of us rarely think beyond our own selfish skins." The female's smile dissipated, her expression twisting faintly as if she had tasted something unpleasant. "But regardless, back to the lesson. Once you feel that you have achieved this mental state of nothingness, you should feel something. This is called a Void State, when only nothingness occupies your mind such that you may witness the very essence of nothing: mana. Also, do note that everybody perceives mana differently, but it should always be something pleasant. Some may perceive it as a cool touch on their skin, others a melodic hum, further others even a lovely smell."

"And this posture?" said the Collector. "What purpose does it serve?"

"This is a meditative pose," explained the female. "Should help with achieving inner nothingness. Very ther.a.p.eutic too, when you're stressed. Developed by the East, actually. Their study on the Void State is unparalleled, I must say, incorporating it even in their martial arts."

"Your talking distracts me," said the Collector.

"My apologies," said the female as she grew silent and still, presumably entering this Void State.

The Collector digested what the female had said and began about formulating an efficient method to reach this Void State. It manipulated its synaptic activity such that it retained consciousness but drowned out everything else, all sensory input and background thoughts.

Heat. The Collector felt heat. Tiny pinpricks of warmth. Very faint like hovering an appendage over dampened coals, and yet still perceivable.

The Collector resumed normal synaptic activity, allowing its neurotransmitters to function to their full extent.

"I felt it. I felt heat."

The female opened her eyes wide. "My, that's quite extraordinary. Managing to cut off everything but nothing in one's mind is easier said than done. Some may even meditate for years without ever fully reaching such a state. You're quite talented."

"It is because you primitives lack full control over your own bodies. My form is perfect, and I have authority over its each and every cell. The neural processes your kind spends years training to dampen, I can achieve within an instant."

"Very interesting. Forgive my intrusion, but I do have quite the case of researcher's curiosity. A deadly disease, I must say. You must tell me how your form functions someday, I truly am curious."

"No illness affects you, human," said the Collector. "And I will not willingly disclose the gifts with which the Collective has engineered me with."

"It's a figure of speech, you crag," said the female playfully.

"I do not see the purpose of classifying me as a rock formation," said the Collector.

"That's also a figure of speech. Actually, nevermind," said the female. "Let's get back to the lesson."

"Finally, you are becoming more concise. And this is no lesson. You are in no position of authority over me. You are merely transferring knowledge to me."

"You have quite the sense of pride, you know," said the female with a smile. "And no surprise to that. That heat you felt was most definitely mana, and that you perceived it in some relation to fire means that your magic is inherently combative. Aggressive. Suited to the chaos of the fight. Pride is closely associated with those traits too."

"That is no mistake. Every cell of my being was engineered to be a warrior for the Collective."

"The more I hear of your origins, the more I am curious. But I will hold my curiosity down for now. For now, can you give me more details? How intense was this heat? Was it painful?"

"No. The sensation was faint. Almost imperceptible."

"Hmm. Odd." The female broke her meditative pose and sat in a more comfortable position, pulling her knees together and hugging them. "Give me a second to think."

"Make it quick," said the Collector.

A minute passed with the female nodding to herself every so often as she kept analyzing the Collector, looking it up and down.

"Okay, I think I have some idea of what's going on," said the female. "You mentioned before that you can consume creatures and obtain their forms. This form you have right now, what creature is it?"

"It is an amalgamation. I spliced and combined the genetic material of a spider, centipede, and hobgoblin," said the Collector.

"Incredible. You can do that?"

"Was this merely an attempt to gain insight into my consumption process, human? I can understand a primitive being awed by a superior specimen, but your questioning wastes time."

The female shook her head. "No. Well, partly, yes, I was curious, but I only asked what I needed to know. I understand now. The creatures you took the form of have no mana cores. Every living creature can perceive mana, but those with mana cores are much more s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e to it and capable of storing greater amounts."

"Explain to me in terms of utility, human," said the Collector.

"Meaning that though you can sense mana and probably mold it into magic, you are limited to but the most basic of spells. Nothing close to what you need to defeat beings of great magical strength. But that woman you devoured, she was a sorceress, and fledgling one though she was, did have a core. Perhaps you can assume her form?"

"I refuse to lower myself even further to the form of a tinkering species helpless without their tools. This hobgoblin at least relied mostly on its own strength. And I would have sensed if I could have developed anything new from that female's genetic material, and yet there was nothing but weakness in her flesh."

"Because mana cores, like mana, can't be sensed physically." The female stood up, patting away grass and leaves from her robes. "Okay, if you don't want to take a human form, then a monster should do. We will hunt for magical creatures."

The Collector stood as well. "You said prior that such creatures were too dangerous for me. Are you attempting to lure me to my death?"

"The ones you would need to consume in order to kill me or another higher spirit, yes, but creatures with basic mana cores are not all too rare nor are they particularly powerful. And here I thought I had earned your trust."

"It is known that you tinkering species utilize your intelligence to deceive. That is why there is such great conflict among yourselves."

"Point taken, but you already know that I could have simply left you while you can't kill me and tell everything and everyone about you. Call down a mass-scale hunt with adventurers left and right and sorcerers at their back. I didn't, because I have quite the interest in you," said the female. She rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms. She began walking deeper into the forest. "So give me a little bit of trust and let's get on with this hunt."

The Collector disliked being in this position. A hostage position, essentially, where it had to acquiesce to this human's whims, but the female, though tending to ramble, proved useful so far and was correct in that she could have made the Collector's life significantly more difficult. That she did not was something it could not understand, but it attributed such an anomaly to the deficiencies of tinkering species' minds.

As it stood, there were worse situations the Collector could have been in. Situations where it had no knowledge at all. It may have encountered an aggressive human specimen with lethal magic in the human settlement that it would have been entirely unprepared for had it not met this peculiar female. For now, it would follow the female, obtain her knowledge, and then attempt to dispose of her when the time became right.