The next day, Ringo gathered Eva, Lena, and Hila. He directly fused the Mutation Source gene with each of them. Unlike himself and the Demogorgon, giving them the complete version would be much more complicated and would alter their race, turning them into amorphous beings.
Ringo didn't want that, so he just focused on the gene responsible for transforming damage into energy and healing. It would be far beyond what he could do, but they could at least get close to what Han Xiao could do.
When they heard what Ringo wanted to do, they all agreed, especially Eva, who was very excited to try and fight like Ringo fought with Ames.
Ringo shook his head, this woman had serious problems.
But in any case, he didn't hold back, taking hours for each one, it's much more complicated to transform that gene into a "skill".
The result, however, spoke for itself.
Eva cut her arm directly, the next instant, the cut closed quickly, of course, "quickly" is relative, it took two seconds to close, and the blood that had been lost was gone, although more was created through her energy.
Emma was already working to expand the current Mutation Source, and Ringo imagined that in the future he could transform the xenomorphs into true space nightmares.
With the exception of C-31, it's unlikely any other creature could match Ringo's level of regeneration.
After that, Ringo sent Eva and Hila directly to Trihexa. With a clone of Ringo there, they shouldn't be in much danger. Furthermore, with Hila needing war to grow, Black Spider was ready to work on several war missions during that period.
As soon as Rick saw Hila and Eva, he jumped immediately, but the next moment, Ringo didn't even need to do anything, Hila gave him a look that froze his soul, it was like looking death itself in the face.
Eva was more direct, one punch and Rick was sent flying.
She spat on the ground and called him weak as she walked past Rick's battered figure.
Rick constantly doubted his charm during this period, Vanessa, Elesis, now these two... Rick reconsidered his promiscuous life for a moment, wondering if he had lost his touch.
//-//
Ringo was busy during this time, he and his clones entered a quiet period. He kept training with Ames, alternating between being beaten and training his Chi, In addition to training with the Demogorgon Esper. Black Spider, on the other hand, worked with the Triple Six. The temple flowed quickly.
He reached level 160 much earlier than expected and started another round of evolution.
This time he chose a creature called the Nightmare Parasite.
The specific powers of this race, outside of the Nightmare standards, are only 2, the first being the most basic, Parasitism.
It was similar to what he could do before, but much deeper, he merged perfectly with someone's soul. It was no longer just hiding, but essentially merging to the point of emulating the wavelength of the soul on a profound level.
Detecting this parasitism, once complete, was difficult even for a Psychic or Grade S Mage.
The second skill is used after parasitism, Soul Rewritten.
It was different from his previous process, which required a more direct approach, he essentially changed the target from the inside out without the target even realizing the change. He could alter memories, values, mindset...
These skills didn't add much to him, but they made him much more accurate and deadly.
Once he evolved into a Nightmare Parasite, he made the Nightmare clone accelerate his work on the Dark Star, slowly possessing central figures and changing their mindset from within.
Even if Ringo were to hide inside someone next to the Dark Star leader, he knew the man wouldn't find anything.
Even the leader of Dark Star became a target of Ringo, though not yet. Although the parasitism process was nearly perfect once completed, parasitism itself could attract attention, he still needed to wait for an opportunity.
Even so, Ringo's progress didn't stop because of that, after advancing, he continued his rigorous training with Ames, day after day, week after week, month after month.
He advanced again, surpassing level 180.
This time his evolution was different, he went straight to the peak of Grade A. He could feel his energy overflowing, incredibly close to Grade S. Just one more step and he would get there.
It also marked the end of his evolution down the path of the Nightmare.
He had chosen a race at the pinnacle of nightmare beings, the Ancient Nightmare Monarch.
The pinnacle of this race means breaking the genetic limit, but Ringo had already broken it before, instead, he received two more abilities from this advancement.
Nightmare Ruler and Nightmare Rift.
The Nightmare Ruler granted him direct control over the nightmare dimension, not at a deep level, for that he would need to leave his mark on the dimension's core, but enough to draw the dimension's energy directly to him, making him an infinite energy battery. Furthermore, he can control all lower-level nightmare beings.
The lower the intelligence and standard of living, the more readily these creatures would obey him.
The Nightmare Rift, on the other hand, can directly open a rift to the nightmare dimension, causing part of the nightmare dimension to descend upon a large area. This corrupts everything within into nightmares, matter is directly transformed into nightmare energy, and living beings are transformed into nightmare beings. The strongest who manage to resist fall into a state of dormancy and intense sleep, making them weaker against psychic energy, especially nightmare energy.
Corruption isn't very strong, a Super is much harder to convert than ordinary beings, a Grade B can resist for a while, it has almost no effect on Grade A, and it's practically useless on Grade S.
But by using both abilities together, Ringo can directly summon an army of nightmare creatures to fight for him on 'favorable ground'.
Just one more upgrade and Ringo was sure he would reach Grade S.
It took time, but he was getting closer and closer to being able to walk freely through this universe.