Lin Ke's basement lab became a high-stakes operating theater. The warm, humid Jamaican night outside, with its gentle chorus of insects, was a different universe. Down here, in the cool, sterile air, there was only the low hum of equipment and the steady, heavy pounding of his own heart. For a full hour, he wasn't a tamer; he was a surgeon, meticulously preparing for a procedure that would rewrite the very nature of his closest companion.
"Alright, little guy," he said softly, placing the Rock Vole into the climate-controlled containment pod. The small creature looked up at him, its cracked shell a testament to the battles that had led them here. Lin Ke pressed his hand against the cool glass. "This is going to feel even weirder than last time. A lot weirder. But I'm right here. Just trust me. Hold on. We're about to unlock what's really inside you."
The Rock Vole met his gaze, its eyes a beacon of absolute trust, and gave a small, determined nod.
Lin Ke sealed the pod and turned to his workbench. The alchemy began. He pulverized the shimmering High-Purity Geode into a fine, crystalline powder, dissolving it into the ten vials of culture medium until the solution became a silvery, nutrient-rich slurry.
Then came the point of no return. He took the Earthheart Crystal, its amber light pulsing like a gentle, sleeping heartbeat, and lowered it into the mixture.
The reaction was instantaneous and violent. The silvery liquid began to boil without heat as the crystal dissolved, unleashing its ancient, foundational power. The entire mixture ignited in an intense, blinding amber light that scoured the lab with its brilliance, so bright he had to squint.
With a hand as steady as a surgeon's, he drew the luminous, super-charged catalyst into a syringe and injected it into the pod's primary delivery system. The glowing liquid flowed through the tubes and into the Rock Vole's body.
And all hell broke loose.
His partner cried out, a sharp squeal of pure, unadulterated agony as its small body was flooded with an insane amount of transformative energy. A swirling, chaotic cocoon of earthy light completely enveloped its form. On the monitor, its life signs went haywire. Through the Editor, Lin Ke saw his pet's very cellular structure begin to tear itself apart under the strain, a rapidly climbing red bar screaming toward a 45% probability of a catastrophic genetic sequence collapse.
No. No, you don't. The evolution was becoming unstable, the A-Rank potential was literally shredding its small, E-Rank body.
"I won't let you fail!" Lin Ke gritted his teeth, slamming his hands against the cool glass of the containment pod. He closed his eyes, focusing his entire will, his own mental energy a torrent of calm and order that he pushed through their Soul Pact. He wasn't just observing; he was intervening. "STABILIZE! FOCUS THE ENERGY! YOU CAN CONTROL IT! I'M RIGHT HERE WITH YOU!"
He could feel his pet's pain and panic through their bond, a screaming chaos that threatened to overwhelm them both. He pushed back with a wave of unwavering, absolute belief. On the monitor, the wildly fluctuating energy readings began to steady. The red bar showing the risk of collapse dropped… 30%... 20%... 10%...
The cocoon of light pulsed one last, final time, shining with the brilliance of a miniature sun going nova. Cracks of pure, golden light spiderwebbed across its surface. Then, with a sound like shattering stone, it exploded outward in a wave of warm, harmless, beautiful energy.
Lin Ke shielded his eyes. When the light faded, he looked back into the pod, his breath catching in his throat.
The small, palm-sized Rock Vole was gone.
In its place stood something… else. A new creature, half a meter tall, powerfully built on thick, sturdy legs. Its body was a beautiful mosaic of deep, obsidian-like plating, through which veins of glowing amber light pulsed in a slow, steady rhythm. Intricate, geometric patterns, like ancient runes, were etched naturally across the armored plates on its back and shoulders. It looked as if it had been born from the very core of the planet.
It opened its eyes, and they shone not with simple instinct, but with a new, deep, and profound intelligence. It looked at Lin Ke, and in that look, there was a universe of shared struggle, of gratitude, and of a bond reforged in primordial fire.
A new, stable profile bloomed in Lin Ke's vision. He perceived its new, solid C+ rank energy signature, the vast, shining road of its A-Rank potential, and an intuitive understanding of its new genetic subroutines. New Individual Name: Terran Titan Vole. New Skills: Earth Spike. Titan's Will.
Lin Ke stared at his reborn partner, the tension in his own body releasing in a single, shuddering wave. A wide, manic, exhausted, and utterly triumphant grin spread across his face.
The titan had awakened.