Ch 19
Zerg Mana – 647,875,345/1,000,000,000
Mana required for Evolution: ACQUIRED.
Evolve to Level 3?
I grinned in excitement. I turned to the Queens, taking in their excitement as well. I'm glad I'd given them free will, or they might have already spent a good chunk of my mana on drones and lairs already.
"Are we ready to evolve?" I asked.
A chorus of agreement is my answer.
Nodding, I said, "Here it goes then!"
Evolve to Level 3?
Yes.
The by now familiar sac formed over my person and filled with liquid. I didn't bother breathing it in, having learned to not need to breathe. A familiar jolt causes me to breathe it in anyway. Oh well. It's not all that bad, just a little odd.
Evolution Level 3
New Buildings:
Hive (Lair obsolete)
Nydus Network
Spire
Infestation Pit
New Units:
Infestors
Nydus Worms
Mutalisks
Guardians
Corruptors
Scourge
New Evolutions:
Centrifugal Hooks – Increases speed of Banelings
Glial Reconstitution – Increases speed and regeneration of Roaches
Grooved Spines – Increased Attack Range of Hydralisks
Burrow Move – Ability to move underground when burrowed, applies to all units
Overmind Lv 3
Health – 300/300
Mana – 2500/2500
Abilities:
Abilities:
Spawn Hive (200 Mana) – Grows a Zerg Lair at your current location (12 hours)
Burrow – (0 Mana) – Go underground; unable to move; can only be detected by sensors
Burrow Move – Ability to move underground when burrowed
Transfusion – (50 Mana) – Instantly transfer 125 health to biological unit or structure
Shapeshift – (0 Mana) – Take on the appearance of any target similar in size
Adamantium Armor – (Passive) – All physical type damage is blocked 100%
PSI Assault (1 Mana) – Casts a focused PSI attack at one enemy
PSI Storm (50 Mana) – Casts a localized storm of PSI energy
PSI Guantlet Lvl 2 (Passive) – Mana Above 0; Strength increased by factor of 20
PSI Armor Lvl 2 (Passive) – Mana Above 0; All attacks do 50% less damage
PSI Sensor (Passive) – Mana Above 0; Able to detect cloaked, burrowed, and hallucinated units
Teleport Lvl 1 – (0 Mana) – Able to teleport within range of vision; full horizontal/slight vertical
Mandatory Evolutions Complete
Access the Zerg Genetic Archive?
Yes.
Welcome to the Zerg Genetic Archive.
Input command
:Apply Burrow Move to buildings.
Unable to comply. Requirement Burrow and Cerebrate needed.
:Well… that's basically all I've got… ah what the heck, evolve teleport ability to allow full vertical movement.
Unable to comply. Cerebrate needed.
:It was worth a shot. Apply photosynthesis ability to Zerg units and buildings.
Command accepted.
:Woah really? I hadn't expected that. I guess it'll be an alternate source of food on the off chance we can't get to any creep I guess. Exit the ZGA.
Command Accepted.
Overmind Lv 3
Health – 300/300
Mana – 2500/2500
Abilities:
Spawn Hive (200 Mana) – Grows a Zerg Lair at your current location (12 hours)
Burrow – (0 Mana) – Go underground; unable to move; can only be detected by sensors
Burrow Move – Ability to move underground when burrowed
Transfusion – (50 Mana) – Instantly transfer 125 health to biological unit or structure
Shapeshift – (0 Mana) – Take on the appearance of any target similar in size
Adamantium Armor – (Passive) – All physical type damage is blocked 100%
PSI Assault (1 Mana) – Casts a focused PSI attack at one enemy
PSI Storm (50+ Mana) – Casts a localized storm of PSI energy
PSI Guantlet Lvl 2 (Passive) – Mana Above 0; Strength increased by factor of 20
PSI Armor Lvl 2 (Passive) – Mana Above 0; All attacks do 50% less damage
PSI Sensor (Passive) – Mana Above 0; Able to detect cloaked, burrowed, and hallucinated units
Teleport Lvl 1 – (0 Mana) – Able to teleport within range of vision; full horizontal/slight vertical
Photosynthesis (Passive) – Ability to obtain partial sustance from light sources
Zerg Mana – 795,750,690/1,000,000,000,000
Mana required for evolution: 500,000,000,000
Waking up once more, I could hardly believe some of the things that had been changed by this latest Evolution. The entire Swarm can now use underground move. I didn't expect that at all. I knew that some of my units would be able to move underground, and I'd had plans to apply that evolution to the Swarm, but it looks like I don't need to anymore. And that PSI guantlet! If there was a way to compress an entire mountain into a ball, I'd probably be able to lift it up or something! Well, not really, but being able to lift something akin to 5 tons is pretty amazing. I'd probably be able to dig just by hitting the ground as hard as I could now.
I'm still surprised Photosynthesis actually worked. I'm also really glad that it didn't turn my skin green or anything, not that it would've really mattered. I could just use shapeshift to change it back. My biggest surprise though is my own mana store. What the heck am I going to do with 2500 mana? It's not like I have anything that'll even come close to draining that! I suppose it's nice though, just in case I start getting abilities later on that really sink into my mana stores.
My Queens in the meantime had gotten up and stretched, then arrayed themselves around me, waiting for orders it seems. Before I could though, I was interupted by the ZGA.
Ghast strain completed.
Blaze Strain completed.
Zombie pigman strain completed.
Evolution Type Unlocked: Magic
What the hell just happened? I focused on the Hives in the Nether and replayed what happened since we awoke. I watched as the Hive burst forth, only to be surrounded by a literal army of Ghasts, Blazes, and Zombie Pigmen hammering away at the sacs containing my drones and Hydralisks. Now I'm really glad that I had absorbed Adamantium into the Zerg, otherwise that would've been an unmitigated slaughter. Well… it still was, but the other way around once my Hydralisks woke up. A lot of the Ghasts and Blazes had fallen into the lava and incinerated, but the rest were enough for the drones to drag into the evolution chamber as per my orders, and there are still corpses being dragged into the evolution chamber right now too. Interestingly enough, the Zombie Pigman strain hadn't even been collecting, just like the other zombies and skeletons I'd tried with, but then those were dead. This time the Zombie Pigman had fallen in and been absorbed mere seconds after the sacs had burst from the evolution. I guess being alive made all the difference.
I sent out the order to just push the rest of the bodies into the lava for now, then activated the ZGA.
Welcome to the Zerg Genetic Archive.
Input Command.
:Bring up the stats on the Ghast, Blaze, and Zombie Pigman strains.
Command accepted.
Ghast
Health-20/20
Abilities:
Explosive Fireball – Shoots an explosive ball of fire at the target; fireball unaffected by gravity;consistancy of fireball allows for deflection by opposing opposite force
Fire immunity – 100% immune to heat, fire, lava, etc.
Flight – Ability to fly provided by manipulated sac similar to Overlord
Blaze
Health-40/40
Abilities:
Fire Charge – Shoots rapid balls of fire in three round bursts after each charge
Fire Immunity – 100% immune to heat, fire, lava, etc.
Water Weakness – 100% weakened/damaged by water, snow, rain, etc.
Self Combustion – Ability to wrap yourself in flames spontaneously
Flight – Flame propulsion provides lift (Ability: Flight: Flame propulsion unlocked)
Animated – an inanimate object given a limited form of life through animation. (Ability: Animation Unlocked)
Zombie Pigman
Health-40/40
Abilities:
Reanimated – A cadavar given limited life through necromantic reanimation. (Ability: Reanimation Unlocked)
Huh. I wonder…
:List abilities available under the evolution type: Magic.
Evolution Type: Magic
Subtype: Elemental
Category: Arcane
Category: Fire
Flight: Flame Propulsion – Ability to fly using the thrust of conjured flame
Explosive Fireball - Shoots an explosive ball of fire at the target; fireball unaffected by gravity; consistency of fireball allows for deflection by opposing opposite force
Fire Charge – Shoots rapid balls of fire in three round bursts after each charge
Fire Immunity - 100% immune to heat, fire, lava, etc.
Self Combustion – Ability to wrap yourself in flames spontaneously
Category: Water
Water Weakness: 100% weakened/damaged by water, snow, rain, etc.
Subtype: Necromancy
Category: Life
Animation – Ability to give inananimate objects a limited form of life subject to the will of the user
Reanimation – Ability to give limited for of life to deceased biologicals subject to the will of the user
Well holy freaking crap! That's crazy! I had thought about the idea of magic being something I could unlock as an evolutionary type, but I never expected it to actually happen! I reexamined the list of abilities listed under magic and noticed something odd.
:Why is the teleport and water weakness not listed under evolution type: Magic?
Enderman ability to teleport and water weakness is a physical type evolution.
:How the heck is the ability to teleport a physical ability?
Ability: Teleport is a physical type evolution due to the Enderman's physical manipulation of the Ender Pearl, an item imbedded within the Enderman. The enderman then evolved to manipulate the Ender Pearl directly from within their own bodies. Whether the evolution to manipulate the Ender Pearl was a natural or forced process is unknown.
:So when I teleport, my body is physically manipulating an Ender Pearl imbedded within my body in order to do so, and the physical evolution aspect of it is just my body physically adapting to the use of the Ender Pearl?
Correct.
:What allows the Ender Pearl to enable the ability to teleport?
Unknown. Further study required by cerebrate or cerebrate geneticist.
:Or a Cerebrate artificer…
Unknown command
So it's more likely that the Ender Pearl itself is magical, but teleporting with it is a physical act? That's an extremely fine line the ZGA is treading with that definition there. The thing I have to wonder though is how can the Zerg incorporate magical abilities into physical evolutions? Even incorporating psionics into physical evolutions is a bit sketchy, but at least that has more to do with the brain than anything. What does magic have to do with?
:How is it possible for magic and psionics to be manipulated by the Zerg?
Psionics and magic are energies stimulated by different parts of the mind. Evolving certain parts of the brain allows for usage of psionic and magical abilities.
Wow that actually made a lot of sense… purely mental arts huh? I'm surprised my brain isn't as large as a Protoss' is at this point.
:What is the cost to evolve the swarm to become fire immune, shoot fire charges and explosive fireballs, and have Flight: Flame propulsion?
500,000 mana.
Hm, good to know. I know that not long ago, I'd asked a similar question of the ZGA about how much each type of evolution costs and it answered 500,000 for each type of evolution, so I'm glad to know that hasn't changed with the level up of the swarm. It's one thing if I have to pay a million mana to have a physical and magical evolution. It'd be another if the price had increased to a billion with the level up.
Still though, with such evolutions available, I think we'll be spending the next 24 hours evolving again. Turning to my Queens, I said, "Let's get to work spreading the creep out. Meanwhile, I'm going to spend some mana purchasing the new buildings available to us. Afterwards, we're going to evolve again to incorporate our new magical abilities."
The Queens nodded that they understood and immediately set to work. Soon I had 1,222,693 Hives in the making. I would have had more, but the Hive costs 600 mana instead of the 500 of the Lair or the 400 of the Hatchery. I suppose it makes sense considering the Hives are far larger and tougher than even the Lairs. Also, to my delight, my Hives look more like their Starcraft 1 appearance, so the tops of the four tusks look like they end in dragon skulls, which is unbelievably cool looking, especially when combined with the color scheme my Zerg have. It's also very appropriate that the spines the dragon tusks fire come from the 'mouth' of the dragon skull, though by the end of the evolution, hopefully they'll more appropriately breathe fire along with the spines.
Still though, I'm now down to 1,000,240. Hopefully, that'll be enough to cover the new buildings on top of the evolution. Building three drones and checking their build command lists, I grinned. The three new buildings together would only cost me 900 mana total, with the Infestation Pit costing 200 mana, and the other two costing 350 each. With that information, I quickly ordered my Spire, Nydus Network, and Infestation Pit. The two more expensive ones will take two hours to finish, with the Infestation Pit finishing in one, but by the time the evolution is finished, that won't matter.
That finished, and the new Hives on the way, I turned to my Queens, then after confirmation that the Swarm is ready, I activated the ZGA.
Welcome to the Zerg Genetic Archive.
Input Command.
:Evolve the Swarm. Add the ability to shoot explosive fireballs and fire charges to Hives, Queens, and myself. Add fire immunity and self combustion to the entire Swarm. Add Flight: Flame Propulsion to all units of the Zerg. Add animation and reanimation to myself and my Queens.
Command Processing…
Warning! A number of these abilities require mana to use! All individual Zerg receiving these abilities will acquire their own regenerating mana stores separated from the Overmind and Swarm mana stores.
Continue?
Yes.
-END CHAPTER-
Overmind mana – 2500/2500
Zerg Mana – 499,340/1,000,000,000,000
Zerg Supply – 1298/6,845,130 (6,113,465 pending)
Units:
1 Overmind
1079 Overlords
101 Drones
11 Speedlings
6 Queens
100 Hydralisks
Structures:
1,369,026 Hives (1,222,693 pending)
1 Spawning Pool
2 Evolution Chambers
1 Hydralisk Den
1 Roach Warren
1 Baneling Nest