"I sure as hell do need to be congratulated for surviving that…"
The boy muttered as he allowed his body to fall onto the ground that was covered in shattered wyvern scales and shredded flesh.
He looked up at the clouds that parted way for a ray of the afternoon sun to shine down on the world below.
Narrowing his eyes, he noticed faint traces of illusory chains fading into pieces of light, but when he blinked, he didn't see anything anymore.
If only he knew that was the law of casualty making a reluctant retreat.
|Adaptive Evolution has been triggered. |
|Calculating the amount of consumed 'Experience'. |
|Completed: 68% of the Host's stored Experience has been consumed by 'Enhanced Survival Mode'. |
"That's a lot."
|Isolating the Energy absorbed from Level 580 Existence: Demonic-fused Wyvern Craitid|
|Enormous amount of 'Experience' absorbed. |
|Adaptive Evolution is analysing Level 580 Existence: Demonic-fused Wyvern Craitid …. |
|Allocating portions of Isolated Energy to replenish Consumed 'Authorities'. |
|Recalculating absorbed 'experience'…. |
Evan cleared the notifications from his field of view and looked back at the sky before saying.
"Thank you."
[You're welcome.]
Hydran's voice rang out in his head, followed by spatial energy fluctuations that enveloped the surrounding area.
The bodies of Eliza, Kuro and Milena who were wrapped with energy floated over and landed not too far beside him.
He then heard the sound of hooves hitting the ground and turned his gaze, catching sight of the Pegasus-shaped Light Spirit who had initially informed him of Hydran's return, hence the reason why he could dare to challenge Craitid.
Evan didn't need to speak as the Legendary Level Spirit already took action, stomping his foot and activating Tier 4 Light Magic to heal them.
[Luminous Restoration.]
Their bodies were all wreathed in white light and their wounds began healing, with more emphasis being placed on Milena who had suffered a wound that would have killed her if it wasn't for Eliza's Breath of Life.
The ambient energies of the laws of life and light were infused into the magic circle, enabling the healing process to progress faster and expelling all the foreign auras that negated their natural regeneration process.
[That's the most I can do for you.
Your loss of blood, side effects of your skills and your lacking energy reserves can only be resolved with time.]
The Pegasus then turned towards Evan and studied him slightly before saying.
[If I were you, I would not use the Essence of Destruction for a while.
You're seriously tethering along the edge of what you can bear, even with your Irregular Status.
Any more and you'd be consumed by that power.]
After saying that, the Pegasus moved its gaze in the direction of the other adventurers and soldiers at the edge of what used to be the Giant Bear woods, before turning around and disappearing with a flash of light.
|Recalculating absorbed 'experience'…. |
|Isolated Energy has been stored to be used as 'Experience' for increasing Host's level at a later date|
The moment the Pegasus disappeared, those two notifications appeared in Evan's field of vision, preceding Hydran's voice that rang out once more.
[I'm not so sure letting you deal the final blow was a good idea anymore…]
"Huh? What do you mean?"
[Killing him let you absorb a tremendous amount of 'Experience' into your Vessel. But that 'Experience' cannot be used due to your special circumstances.
The end result is that your Vessel is being Overloaded.]
"My 'Vessel'?"
[Basically, the combination of your Astral, Spiritual and Material body.
Anyway, I suggest you reduce the number of things you kill to prevent your vessel from explo-?]
Hydran suddenly went silent mid-statement, causing cold sweat to pour down Evan's back.
"You weren't about to say 'explode' just now, were you? You were about to say 'Explore', or something else right?!"
The boy hurriedly sat up and pulled up the system interface, about to run a full scan on his body when Hydran spoke again.
[Weird…The extra 'Experience' you absorbed is being channelled somewhere else.
…
I see, the goddess gave you a wonderful gift disguised as 'Unique Skill'. Thank your stars you now possess the designation of 'Irregular'.
Otherwise, Causality would have long had its way with you.]
Leaving behind that incomprehensible statement, Hydran's voice faded and no matter how many times Evan called out, he didn't answer.
He tried calling Artemisia but the goddess was still offline just as she had been for the past few months.
Evan then pondered on Hydran's words, scanning through his status board and thinking of different possibilities.
'The only Unique Skill Artemisia gave me is Adaptive Evolution. Is he implying that Adaptive Evolution is more than just a unique skill, but Artemisia is only just masking its true nature?'
"What was he talking about?"
The other person who could hear Hydran's voice, Eliza, voiced out a question, but Evan only shook his head slightly, replying that he wasn't entirely sure.
Eliza felt that wasn't really the case but she didn't pursue it, instead opting to address the more important issue.
"How long had those guys been tailing us?"
Evan hadn't told anyone about their destination when they left the Great Western Empire, and Eliza only informed Laurene after they got to the hotel the night before.
Yet those Demonic Hand members appeared to have been waiting for them outside the cave.
Eliza wasn't stupid to think that the Demonic Hand had accidentally discovered them. Plus, after killing the grandmasters, she noticed the bracelets on their wrists that dulled the effects of her life force sensing.
That much was enough to further prove that the Demonic Hand had been planning this for a while, and those bracelets were specially designed to prevent her from sensing them, hence the reason she had never figured out they were being tailed.
But from Evan's words before the fight began, he was well aware of this.
"I only noticed a few of them some weeks back, but they were quite elusive so they escaped anytime they noticed I had caught onto them.
I informed Pride and Greed since you weren't in the country at the time and we were able to catch a few, but they killed themselves before I could get anything out of them.
They laid low for a while and probably employed other means to keep watch on us, ones I was unable to sense.
Besides, I told you about this last night too."
"Huh? When?!"
In response to Eliza's question, Evan reminded her about one of the events that happened during their tour of Lastham the night before.
"When we were running away from the Journalists and barely a minute after we ended up in the noisy red-light district. I told you 'We were being tailed by a demon'."
"Haaa???!! When was th-"
Eliza's memory was jogged by his words and she remembered at one point in time when they were navigating their way out of that district, Evan had stopped in front of one of the Clubs and turned around before saying something, but she didn't hear him clearly as she dragged him to escape one of the journalist trio that discovered them right after.
"How did you expect me to properly hear you over all that noise?! You spoke normally even though we were in such a noisy place. I thought you were talking about 'Tailed Salmon'!"
"The heck? Why would I suddenly start talking about 'Tailed Salmon' at that time? I assumed you heard me well since you didn't ask about what I said later on."
"Don't ask me!"
The situation quickly turned into an argument that lasted for a while, only being diffused when Kuro couldn't take it anymore.
[Master's in the wrong for not speaking up loudly enough, AND not mentioning the situation again later.
Eliza, you are also at fault for not asking about what he said when you guys got out of that district.
Both of you are in the wrong, but more of the fault lies on you, Master. And you too Lady Kayla because I'm sure you were aware but didn't really place any emphasis on this.]
[Why am I suddenly involved in this?!]
"Why are you taking her side?! I'm your contractor!"
Kayla and Evan's complaints were silenced by a single glare from the Cat spirit. He winced lightly in pain as he still hadn't recovered from the previous battle but he then took a deep breath before glaring down on them and saying.
[Both of you, are at fault.
Especially you, Evan.
I understand you have been informing us about your plans more often than not, but still do well to make us aware of certain factors that could threaten our lives.]
The cat spirit went on to scold Evan some more, before jumping back into Eliza's shadow to rest.
[Angry Kuro is scary…]
Kayla muttered that line as she emerged from her hiding spot behind Evan while fearfully gazing at Eliza's shadow where Kuro was.
[Ugh…what's all the noise…]
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