Chapter 28: Preparations For Evolution
---
———————————————————
[#/System Notification/#]
———————————————————
[Item Consumed.]
└ ■ F-Rank Skill Awakening Coupon ×1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Searching...]
Analyzing all F-Rank skills closest to fulfilling their awakening requirements...
[...]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Congratulations!]
An F-Rank skill has successfully awakened.
└ ■ Pain Resistance (F)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Pain Resistance (F)]
A passive skill that reduces the user’s perception of physical pain, allowing them to maintain composure and combat efficiency even while suffering injuries.
This skill does not reduce damage taken. It only suppresses the sensation of pain.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Awakening Complete.]
---
As Ethan read through the description, he recalled the scene of the invasion of the ant colony. Back then, he was constantly using his body as bait, letting the ants bite him on purpose to infect them.
As a zombie, his senses had already been suppressed—including pain. However, he could still feel it as long as it surpassed a certain threshold.
Getting his flesh ripped apart as soon as it was restored was a painful experience. But in that process, he suddenly felt a sense of relief wash over him.
’Since that moment, the pain that I felt had indeed decreased, although just by a bit,’ Ethan thought, rubbing his chin.
At that moment, he dismissed it as just his mind adjusting to the pain.
"Now it really seems like the skill had started to bud in that exact moment. Of course, it’s just a guess, but it makes total sense." Pushing himself off the ground, he sat up and turned to his side—resting his back against a wall.
’Hmm, fine. Open the copper-rank reward selection box then.’ He called out in his mind.
Immediately, a new system window appeared before his eyes.
---
———————————————————
[#/System Notification/#]
———————————————————
[Copper-Rank Selection Box Activated.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Opening Selection Box...]
[...]
[Please select one reward.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Option 1 — Copper-Rank Mystery Box
A Mystery Box containing one random Copper-Rank item compatible with the user.
Upon use, the item will be rewarded permanently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Option 2 — Evolution Stabilizer
A rare consumable designed to stabilize the evolution process.
Greatly reduces disturbances, instability, and vulnerability during the user’s next evolution.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Option 3 — Blood Essence Crystal
A highly refined crystal condensed from concentrated biological essence.
Maybe directly assimilated to obtain a large amount of biological energy and evolution progress.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Option 4 — Undead Mutation Catalyst
A mysterious catalyst capable of stimulating the dormant potential of an undead subordinate.
Grants one selected undead a chance to undergo a beneficial mutation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Option 5 — Registry Expansion Module
A special system module used to unlock an additional function within the Undead Registry.
The unlocked function will be permanently integrated into the system.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Remaining Selections:]
└ ■ 1
---
"Wait, mystery box?" As he read through the options, the very first choice had stolen his mind.
His eyes shone with great interest, fixed upon the title: "copper-rank mystery box."
"Isn’t this the kind of thing that’s supposed to give overpowered treasures?" He joked, switching his gaze between the option and his side.
Clearly, he had already selected his choice.
Without waiting any longer, Ethan decided to confirm it and claim his rewards.
"System, give me the..." He paused as if summoning his courage to blurt out the next words.
"Give me the evolution stabilizer!"
*Ding!*
---
[Reward Selected.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Congratulations!]
You have obtained:
└ ■ Evolution Stabilizer ×1
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Item Information]
A rare consumable created to stabilize the evolution process.
When activated before evolution, the stabilizer suppresses excess biological fluctuations, greatly reducing external disturbances and the user’s vulnerability throughout the evolution.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Notice]
The Evolution Stabilizer is not consumed until the evolution process begins.
---
Then, immediately after, Ethan proceeded to look at the system window mockingly.
"My luck has been horrible so far; do you really think I’ll put my trust in something like a mystery box?" He said, recalling his short yet dangerous journey.
"The great thing is, I can now go through my evolution without any worries."
Till now, Ethan had been contemplating the matter of his evolution. His biggest concern was regarding his own state during the evolution.
If his evolution were similar to Eris’s, he’d not only be left vulnerable briefly, but he’d also be creating a big commotion.
And while he may have gotten through the first part with the help of his zombies, he wasn’t confident in the latter.
"According to Eris, the area beyond the boundaries of this forest is an unknown territory. If I’m lucky, it may be unoccupied. But if I’m not, it may be territory to a monster stronger than that serpent."
"Either way, this item really is a lifesaver." Getting up, he walked over towards Eris.
"Eris, how long will it take to complete the nest?"
"With the amount of ants at work, I’m positive we’ll be able to complete it in two days, my king," Eris replied respectfully, bowing her head slightly.
"I see. Well then, I shall go through my evolution in two days." He said, subtly informing her of his next plans.
Hearing this, Eris rejoiced. Her face lit up with happiness as she joined her hands near her face.
As someone who had been a queen to an army before, she knew that the capabilities of the subjects depended heavily on the strength of their leader.
If the leader were strong, the subjects could perform their tasks with much efficiency.
"That’s great news, my lord. Congratulations!" She bowed deeply.
"On that note," she continued, raising her head with an eerie smile. "Now it’d take three days instead of two, my king."
"Eh, why?" Ethan asked, dumbfounded.
"Please forgive me for my behavior, but I’d like to keep it a secret for now." She said sternly, her voice wavering with nervousness.
Seeing her resolute response, Ethan couldn’t help but wonder, ’What’s she trying to do?’
’Well, her loyalty is the highest out of any other zombies, so I doubt she’ll do anything to harm me. But...anyways, let’s see for now.’ Letting out a sharp sigh, he reluctantly agreed.
"Sure."