He had only evolved silver totems before this, never attempting it on a primitive totem, which was why he had absolutely no idea what the situation was. Now, it’s finally as clear as day what was going on.
Primitive totems are living organisms, which means their bodies naturally accumulate a certain amount of energy. Not only that, an increase of energy happens whenever food is consumed. This was the reason why evolution through potential points only needed one step – activation.
When it came to silver totems[1], it was completely different. They do not need to consume food, which also means that they are unable to accumulate energy. Everything is provided by the totem user. Which is also why evolution then takes two steps – accumulation and activation.
1. Author mistakenly wrote primitive totem