The massive bronze doors to the Laboratory opened without a sound, as if the building was welcoming its master ho.
Inside, Kain stepped into a vast circular foyer—eerily silent, yet not empty. The air humd with energy, each breath filled with the cool, sterile scent of filtered mana.
The ceiling arched impossibly high above, made of a tal of glass that wasn't glass—sothing translucent and semi-luminous that allowed the sky to be viewed from within.
The floor was smooth white stone, reminiscent of marble but warr to the touch, and had seemingly natural thin silver lines in the 'marble' that upon closer inspection appeared to form figures resembling sigils and geotric arrays beneath his feet.
The foyer itself was minimalist compared to the grand exterior, but it was cohesive in the architectural style. Instead of feeling cold and clinical, it felt sacred, like the threshold to sothing ancient and divine.
Three hallways branched from the foyer, each equally ornate—arched fras, flickering mana lanterns hanging at intervals, and walls that seed to pulse faintly with life.
Unfortunately, Kain had no idea where any of them led.
"...System?" he asked dryly, folding his arms. "Little help here?"
A beat passed, and when Kain almost thought the System was just ignoring him, a ding sounded.
Above each hallway, bright blue holographic letters blinked into view—utterly modern and completely out of place, like a giant LED sign inside a grand temple. Completely shattering the aesthetics of the space.
Kain stared.
The hallway to his left read:
[Storage Hall]
The hallway to the center read:
[Laboratory]
And the final hallway, to the right read:
[The Cradle (Currently locked)]
Kain's eyes lingered on the third option. The Cradle? That was new.
The Storage Hall Kain could easily assu was where all of the objects he'd been storing in the Laboratory were kept.
The Laboratory was quite obviously…the Laboratory. And all of the experintal equipnt, including the Simulator, would be there.
But 'the Cradle'…Kain had no idea what that was. Perhaps it was a new function that would have beco available if the System upgrade had proceeded as normal?
Unfortunately, it was currently locked, otherwise, Kain would have been tempted to venture into it.
But not today.
Kain walked forward, stepping into the hallway labelled Laboratory, his mind already shifting into work mode.
He had a mission.
Bea needed a new evolutionary form.
The walls beca sleeker the deeper he walked, panels of soft, pulsing white and guntal gray woven into the more traditional architecture of the building. Every step forward was like crossing from a palace into a starship—and yet, the transition never felt jarring.
Then, the hallway opened up.
Kain entered the Laboratory proper.
It was not quite like the sterile white cube of before.
The new lab was a seamless blend of the cold efficiency he rembered and the transcendent architecture of the rest of the building.
The dod ceiling soared overhead, its surface a mural of geotric figures that looked like a fusion between star maps and genetic sequences.
Instead of sterile tal counters and machines, the tables were now a rich dark wood that gave off energy, while the machines maintained their original appearances but had slight adjustnts to add an antique feeling. Crystal terminals hovered just above the tables or near the machines, ready to display data or launch simulations. Glowing glass tubes—both vertical and horizontal—lined the walls, containing various specins, mostly microbes, he'd collected over ti and kept in the System-provided incubator.
A low chi sounded as Kain walked across the lab, triggering an automated system.
[Welco back, Master.]
[Laboratory functions are fully restored]
Kain looked to the right to see a familiar, yet unfamiliar, figure—VERA, his Versatile Experintal Research Assistant —floating toward him.
Her core silhouette was still reminiscent of the sleek, egg-shaped design from before—rounded body, smooth glossy surface, arms that hovered slightly apart from her form—but she had changed.
Where once VERA had been stark white and minimal, her new form shimred with a pearlescent silver that shifted gently with the ambient light, like moonlight catching the surface of still water. Thin, circuit-like lines traced across her tal shell in intricate patterns, softly glowing with pale gold.
Her originally plain circle eyes, now glowed and shifted between various colours and were a lot more expressive, capable of squinting, smiling, rolling, and more.
"VERA," Kain greeted, tilting his head. "New look?"
[I have adapted to better align with the Laboratory's current aesthetic,] she replied in her usual calm, polished tone. Then, her tone shifted slightly—less robotic, more conversational. [I took the liberty of integrating local artistic motifs with my chassis design. User feedback suggested the prior version was described as 'sterile.']
"That was one ti," Kain muttered. "I also said you looked like a cartoon I knew. Why do you only hear the negative? I didn't think you'd take it that personally."
[I do not possess the capacity for offense,] VERA responded primly. [But I do possess mory logs.]
Kain sighed and gestured to the room. "Looks like everything's up and running again."
[Affirmative. Evolutionary simulators, trait editors, and other equipnt—all primary and secondary functions are online. I have also updated all experintal logs, including flagged anomalies you placed on standby during the System outage.]
VERA floated beside him, projecting a small screen in front of them. On it appeared Bea's current form: the Apex Mindshard Amoeba.
[It is sensed that Master's current spiritual contract, nicknad 'Bea,' has reached its current genetic ceiling and is no longer able to progress," VERA stated. "Am I correct in assuming bypassing its genetic limitations is the current goal of this laboratory visit?]
"Yeah," Kain said, eyes narrowing. "Start by pulling up all evolutionary base materials I currently have or have ever had access to and that, according to your calculations, would fit Bea."
[Initializing paraters. This may take several minutes,] VERA said, and the projection of Bea on the screen next to the Simulator expanded, forming a three-dinsional model of Bea in the air, slowly rotating. Tendrils of light spun outward from the artificial projection of Bea like a web, each line representing a possible path. Most ended in grey dead ends. So pulsed green—viable. And many more glowed red—dangerous.
With each passing second the majority of these 'paths' were being analyzed and removed by Vera until a small number of green lines connected to Bea remained.
"Excellent. Let's see what Bea's next form will be…"
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