hotmtlnovel Chapter 540 - 540: A New Form
Chapter 540 - 540: A New Form
The massive bronze doors to the Laboratory opened without a sound, as if the building was welcoming its master home.
Inside, Kain stepped into a vast circular foyer—eerily silent, yet not empty. The air hummed with energy, each breath filled with the cool, sterile scent of filtered mana.
The ceiling arched impossibly high above, made of a metal of glass that wasn't glass—something translucent and semi-luminous that allowed the sky to be viewed from within.
The floor was smooth white stone, reminiscent of marble but warmer to the touch, and had seemingly natural thin silver lines in the 'marble' that upon closer inspection appeared to form figures resembling sigils and geometric 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 something ancient and divine.
Three hallways branched from the foyer, each equally ornate—arched frames, flickering mana lanterns hanging at intervals, and walls that seemed 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 assume 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 experimental equipment, 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 become 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 became sleeker the deeper he walked, panels of soft, pulsing white and gunmetal 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 remembered and the transcendent architecture of the rest of the building.
The domed ceiling soared overhead, its surface a mural of geometric figures that looked like a fusion between star maps and genetic sequences.
Instead of sterile metal 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 adjustments 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 specimens, mostly microbes, he'd collected over time and kept in the System-provided incubator.
A low chime sounded as Kain walked across the lab, triggering an automated system.
[Welcome back, Master.]
[Laboratory functions are fully restored]
Kain looked to the right to see a familiar, yet unfamiliar, figure—VERA, his Versatile Experimental Re
"Excellent. Let's see what Bea's next form will be…"