This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

'Maybe I was thinking in the wrong direction, I was focused on improving the light attribute, because that was it's most valuable attribute. But this evolution made me realize that the initial potential of the Lumifin is too low for it to suddenly become a powerhouse at wielding the light-attribute. That's why this evolution isn't even able to control the greater amount of light energy it possesses.

Let's look at some other directions I can head to instead...'

It is unusual for first years, or even any college student period, to begin investigating new evolutionary forms. That kind of work is usually done in post-college internships under an established professor at one of the colleges, similar to the graduate studies done back on Earth.

However, there was a brief summary on the investigation of evolutionary forms that was mentioned, almost like a fun facts section, in one of Kain's textbooks.

From what Kain recalled of the text it defined evolution as the he process of revealing the hidden potential within every spiritual creature. Every creature harbors this potential, even if its next evolutionary form has yet to be discovered.

To identify a potential evolutionary path, it is the job of Evolutionary Planners to first examine what makes a creature unique and enhance that defining characteristic to its extreme.

Firstly, if a lower-grade spiritual creature has a latent high-level bloodline, an Evolutionary Planner should focus on methods to purify and amplify this bloodline. For example, a common evolutionary direction of Wyrms and Wyverns with some dragon blood is to continuously purify the bloodline through multiple evolutions until they can become a true dragon.

Similarly, if a creature possesses two powerful attributes, such as ice and time, the evolutionary strategy might involve concentrating on one attribute and elevating it to its maximum potential, even if it means sacrificing the other. Balancing multiple Evolutionary Base Materials from the same element can be challenging and often requires another stabilizing material.

Perfecting an evolution with mixed attributes will have even more stringent requirements on the balance of materials used and the strength of the stabilizer. Even for skilled Evolutionary Planners, it is rare to pursue investigating an evolution that perfectly balances both attributes.

This was the direction that Kain went in for Bea, and it was also the direction he had planned to go in for the Lumifin, although it doesn't seem to be working out.

Additionally, unique skills can also indicate potential evolutionary paths. Certain species may develop new skills as they approach their maximum potential, which often provides clues about their next evolutionary stage. These skills typically remain significant even after the evolution occurs. Occasionally, mastery of a skill is even a necessary precondition to achieve a successful evolution.

For example, the Cinderheart, which is bronze-quality spiritual creature resembles a large lump of black stone with a face. However, it possesses a seemingly useless harden skill. The effect of the harden skill doesn't instantaneously give a large boost to its defense. Instead, its repeated usage can result in a permanent increase in the Cinderheart's hardness.

Once the skill is perfectly mastered, meaning that the cinderheart is now as hard as a diamond, it can evolve into the gold-quality Diamondheart.

Kain suspects that the new skill that Queen obtained after breaking though to orange-grade was one such skill that hints at a potential new evolutionary form for the Vespirae Queen, one with life attributes. However, whether certain acheivements are needed in the skill to successfully evolve is unknown.

What would even indicate mastery for a skill that essentially involves making a really strong elixir out of royal jelly.

Finally, overlooked physical traits might reveal evolutionary directions. For example, the evolution of the ice-attribute bronze-quality Frostreave into the silver-quality Frostveil was well-known. However, Evolutionary Planners had been puzzled for centuries by mutant Frostreaves with white or black fur, who could not evolve into Frostveils.

Afterall, changes in fur colour are usually just cosmetic mutations that shouldn't actually have any impact on the potential of the creature. And aside from being able to evolve, the Frostveils with black and white fur were just as strong as their blue counterparts. In fact, they were often found to be even more talented.

It was eventually discovered that fur color was a key indicator of their potential evolution. Frostreaves with blue fur evolved into Frostveils with ease, using common ice-attribute plants found everywhere in the northern region.

However, those with black and white fur evolved into the gold-quality dark-attribute Gloomfrost and light-attribute Glacierflare, respectively.

It was a complete coincidence that such a discovery was made, because apart from fur colour, there was no indication that the Frostveil's next form could ever be from these two relatively rare attributes.

The example of the Frostveil is one of the few instances of physical features with no impact on ability actually being the key to finding a suitable direction for evolution.

Kain already knew that the Lumifin had no bloodline to purify, which ruled out the first method.

He had already tried the second method of enhancing the light attribute with little success, but he will also try to enhance the water attribute for good measure, although it will likely not be a particularly impressive evolution.

The Lumifin doesn't have any particularly unique skills, which would make investigating along the third method difficult.

That leaves Kain only with the fourth option—looking at its unique physical qualities for clues.

In addition to amplifying the water attribute, this seemed to be the most promising direction.

After all, although extremely weak, the Lumifin's uniquely beautiful appearance is one of its only strengths.

Therefore, Kain opened the Simulator once more, but instead of immediately selecting evolutionary materials he approached the projection of the Lumifin and began to analyze its appearance from all angles.

"System. Is it possible to see past evolutions in the Simulator again?" Kain also wanted to investigate the failed Gloomtail and Glimmerfin once more. Perhaps if he can find something unique about all 3 forms, it may indicate that the feature is of extra importance.