I was - once again - back in the god damn abyss. Gosh, I REALLY hated this part of the evolution. I mean — is it necessary for me to be knocked the fuck out everytime I evolved into a next stage of a serpentine?
Surely, surely it could be a quick and cut out process just like the evolution from a regular Serpentine to Dark Snake was.
Then, finally, I regained consciousness, before springing back to life - after spending what felt like forever in the abyss.
'Man, I do NOT like evolving..'
Why not? It benefits you a lot.
Yeah, well, the time I spend in the abyss every time I evolve is not worth it.
Then, I heard the announcement of my evolution as a small menu window also popped up in front me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evolution Successful.
You have evolved into
'Inferior Darkness Serpentine'
- Attention -
Due to the evolution,
Some skills have become incompatible with your biology.
The incompatible skills will be disposed off.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sorry - say what now?
Incompatible skills will be lost? The fucking hell did that mean?-
Before I could overthink it, I felt as some power began to lose my body for a couple of moments. After a bit, another menu window popped up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incompatible Skills have been successfully
Disposed off and turned into
' Skill Orbs '
Skills that were lost:
[Thread Manipulation]
[Beasts Will]
[Harden]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Atleast it was non useful skills that I lost..
I genuinely don't remember the last time I used freaking [Thread Manipulation], however..
[Beasts Will] definitely came in handy a few times..
Anyways-
After confirming the loss of these skills, three small orbs of different colour - Blue, Grey and White respectively - appeared infront of me.
Guess these were the skill orbs it mentioned..
What exactly do they do though?
On a rough analysis that I've done on them in my time alive, 'Skill Orbs' are a special kind of item that allow one to gain the skill contained within after shattering the orb.
I see...
Then I should most definitely keep onto them in case they come in handy in the future.
After all that, I decided to take a look at my status window, just to see what had happened to my stats.
"Open Status."
•--------------------------------------------------------------------------------•
Name; Faofa Shin
Species; Inferior Darkness Serpentine
Level; 90
Rank; B
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Stats •
HP; 134,090 — ATK; 25,670
MAGEN {MAGICAL ENERGY}; 66,900
STAMINA; 29,890 — INTELLIGENCE; 777
OVERALL POWER; 89,230
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Titles •
<Reincarnated> ; <Ally of Abyss> ;
<Guardian of The South> ; <Dragon Slayer> ;
<Ally of Fire> ; <Bringer of Hope> ;
<Child of Darkness> ;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Common Skills • [Trickster]
Rare Skills •
[Fractured], [Magic Nullification Barrier],
[Magic Resistance], [Crimson Lightning],
[Heat Regulation], [Dark Destiny]
Epic Skills •
[Venom Control], [Overworld Detection],
[Holy Magic Nullification],
[Greater Physical Resistance], [Undetectable], [Abyss Magic]
Individual Skills •
[Devourer], [Shadow Manipulation],
[Serpents Wrath], [Vitriolic Befall],
[Darkness's Will]
Legendary Skills •
[Warlock], [Jester], [Essence Lord]
Arc Skills •
[Ifrit {Lord of Flames}], [Odale {Prince of Fire}],
[Ancient One {Harbinger of Knowledge}](3),
•--------------------------------------------------------------------------------•
And of course! The whole status window got yet another change to how it looks...
How great.
Although, this one looks much.. cleaner than the last change. Gotta say, I definitely prefer this one over the last one.
I have to say- Your stats grow quite fast compared to other monsters.
'Yeah, well, I used to hate it - but god damnit, I don't care anymore. I've just accepted my strength.'
('Bout fucking time.)
I see..
Well, I can certainly say that whatever may come to face us in the near future, probably won't even come close to comparing to you my Dear Master.
Ancient One, you're not a smooth talker.
Just stop trying.
Wha—
I wasn't trying—
A N Y W A Y S -
Moving onto more important business, I was still inside the Hidden Dungeon that I got transported into after Jio pushed me.
I may have gone through an evolution, but it didn't mean that I was out of the dungeon yet.
So, I quickly used [Jester] to switch back to my human appearance, throwing a quick look at how it may have changed in the process.
My patterns simply turned darker and my hair grew out a bit longer.
Huh, not a big change.
After that, I proceeded to head over to the final tunnel, which I assumed to lead down to the final room of this dungeon - the Boss room.
And after a deep breath, I began my descent down into the final room.
...
Eventually, I reached the end of the tunnel, and just as I had assumed - it indeed was the final room. It was the largest one yet, it didn't have any tunnels leading any deeper and... It looked very, very different from all the other rooms.
While all other rooms looked more towards the style of 'Undead' and 'grim', this room was strangely... Covered in snow.
There was snow everywhere and it genuinely looked like I was outside, especially with the naked trees which were usually only during winter.
'Have to say, it's a bit chilly-'
I'll activate [Heat Regulation] immediately to help you keep a balanced temperature.
At first, I was gonna protest, however as soon as my skill activated, it felt so much better, than I decided to keep my mouth shut.
Besides.. I'm pretty sure snakes were cold blooded, meaning that they didn't do well in cold conditions..
Hm.
As I took a few more steps deeper into the room, my feet slightly sinking in the snow below them, the tunnel behind me shut close, before being followed by a loud yell or howl, that came from the otherside of the room.
The call sounded very familiar..
Like I had heard it somewhere before in my previous life.
When, I turned to face the source of the sound, I was met with a giant, slender figure slowly walk out from the shadows, with a skeletal head and giant antlers on it's head as well as pure red pupils that glowed.
Judging from its body look - skinny, almost skeletal, with slight fur and very slender and elongated, I came to the safe conclusion, that the thing infront of me, had a striking resemblance to a Cryptid known as 'Wendigo' from my old world.
Crouching down in a battle ready position, I quickly got a stat read on its status.
•--------------------------------------------------------------------------------•
Name; ?
Species; Lesser Incomplete-Wendigo
Level; 79
Rank; A
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Stats •
HP; 83,450 — ATK; 15,670
MAGEN {MAGICAL ENERGY}; 9,780
STAMINA; 20,010 — INTELLIGENCE; 230
OVERALL POWER; 45,660
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Titles •
<Cannibal> ; <Dungeon Boss> ; <Cursed> ;
<Sinner>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Common Skills • [Inspector]
Rare Skills •
[Lesser Physical Resistance],
[Holy Magic Resistance],
[Divine Magic Weakness], [Frost Magic]
Epic Skills •
[Greater Fire Weakness], [Ice Control],
[Cursed Rage]
Individual Skills •
[Wendigos Call], [Kin Control], [Frostful Slice]
Legendary Skills •
{Curse of the Wendigo King}
•--------------------------------------------------------------------------------•
Oh my..
This thing is actually kind of weak.. at least, compared to me. Overall, I'd say this thing will barely even be worth my effort...
However.. There was one thing that intrigued me greatly.
{Curse of the Wendigo King}.
I have never seen a skill like that - especially a legendary one.
On a first rough analysis, I think it's a safe bet to assume that skill is anything but a skill.
It most likely is a debuff or something, similar to your {Corruption of the Abyss} which I make sure to keep at bay.
I see..
Well, that makes no difference. It's the dungeon boss and I gotta kill it.
I quickly used my 'Venom Control' skill to form a scythe made of venom, before grabbing it and spinning it in a rather fancy way, which legitimately only served the purpose of trying to intimidate the creature, before taking a battle ready position, inviting it to attack.
The monster roared, before activating what looked like that Frost Magic skill and firing off a barrage of icicles towards me.
I clenched my face as well as tightened the grip on my scythe, before dashing at the monster, using the scythe to quickly smash through the incoming barrage of icicles.
As soon as I got close, I swung my sythe at the creature with full force, however it managed to use it's left arm to absorb the hit, as well as somehow luckily for it, not get cut by the scythe blade - which meant that my Bad Poison did not activate.
Scuffing at it's rather impressive block, I quickly pulled back before beginning to launch a barrage of swing attacks at the creature and surprisingly, it managed to keep up - blocking and launching attacks of it's own against me.
As the exchange of attacks began, it started to look a lot like those really epic fight scenes in some anime, where two characters would be going at it at full power, striking each other with as much force as possible in order to make the other person or individual crack.
Yeah, those kind of situations.
I exchanged blows with the monster for a bit, before being practically forced to leap back, as the creature attempted to get in a sneaky use of a spell using its Frost Magic skill.
Seeing me leap back, it seemingly cancelled the spell, which also made me wonder whether it was actually aware of my actions and not just a mindless beast.
'It certainly isn't on the same level of intelligence as Odale was.. but it doesn't seem stupid either.'
I thought, before quickly standing straight up, swinging the scythe to my side.
The creature looked at me with its red glowing eyes practically fuming with anger.
I probably pissed it off with how long I have lasted.
And honestly, I don't blame it - Judging from it's title <Cannibal> I could only guess that other people had been here or at least, have faced this thing before, however lost to it.
Actually, now that I think about it, why does it have the title of <Cannibal>?
It may be because the creature isn't exactly a Wendigo Dear Master.
As you probably saw, it's species is an 'Incomplete-Wendigo' which refers to it not being a full one.
So basically this thing isn't even the real deal?
Then that would mean that it was another species before becoming this, correct?
Indeed.
My current suspicion is that the legendary skill it possesses may be the cause of its current state.
That is starting to make sense..
If this thing was just another species TRANSFORMED into a Wendigo, then it would make sense why it's labeled as 'Incomplete' and why it has the <Cannibal> title.
However, it also means the effect can be reversed, right?
I am unfortunately forced to inform you Master, that it cannot.
This skill seems to be linked not to this creature specifically, but to another creature who is out of range.
The only thing we can do, is kill it.
I see..
Then I've got no other choice I suppose.
I'll just give it a quick and painless end.
I then looked at the creature with great amount of determination in my eyes, before using my 'Trickster' skill to create 3 copies of me and sending them at the creature.
The Wendigo roared at me, before activating a powerful Ice spell which created a blizzard like barrier around it, as well as seemingly caused the temperature to drop expediently.
The Monster seems to have activated its Ice Control skill and created a blizzard barrier to protect itself.
This is also causing a massive drop in temperature.
'I can tell that much..!'
I replied, leaping high into the air, before using [Abyss Magic] to create platforms mid air for me to leap from while I made my way towards the creature.
The monster made easy and quick work of my copies, before turning to face me and roaring loudly again, activating another skill.
It has activated it's skill [Wendigos Call].
This has greatly increased its stats.
Well then - looks like I have no choice but to use more of my skills.
I landed onto an abyss platform, before creating a wall of shadows to block an incoming barrage of icicles.
After that, I quickly activated my Trickster skill, before sending the copy I had made to distract the monster, which worked like a charm, as it completely averted its attention from me to my copy, before beginning its barrage of attacks onto my copy.
In the meanwhile, I activated my [Undetectable] skill, before throwing the scythe over the blizzard barrier and above the Wendigo.
I then quickly turned back into my snake form, before leaping off the abyss platform, and landing onto the ground.
Then, I began to quickly slither through the snow, using Heat Regulation and Dark Destiny to keep the massive temperature drop and annoying blizzard from affecting me.
The Wendigo continued to pursue my copy with its attacks, before finally managing to catch it and impale it with multiple massive ice spears that shot from the ground.
However, it made one critical mistake in the same moment - it dropped its guard.
I immediately took the opportunity to leap up into the air where my scythe was, switching to my human form, deactivating my 'Undetectable' skill and grabbing the Venom Scythe.
As soon as the creature detected me and looked up, I grinned widely before using 'Shadow Manipulation' to restrain it in place and dashing at it from above, getting in a clean cut down at it - splitting the creature in half, just like the gargoyle in the previous room.
At the same time, the sheer impact of my slash was enough to completely get rid of the blizzard it had created, as well as blew away most of the snow around me and the monster.
The Wendigo stood there trembling for a couple of seconds, before glowing a crimson red colour and falling to the ground.
I smiled widely, exhaling before spinning my scythe and placing it onto my right shoulder.
"Checkmate."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus..
Hello! (Didn't see you there).
Yeah, this chapter turned out to be the LONGEST chapter up until now.
I just got carried away with writing the fight and did not want to split it into two chapters, since that felt like an asshole move.
Anyways, hopefully you had an enjoyable read!
See y'all in the Next Chapter:
66. -
"Reunion with Jio."