Chapter 50: Hunting Monsters (1)
A jade-green body emerged from the darkness as Ethan slowly climbed out of the entrance of the underground nest.
For a brief moment, he stood there. His gaze swept across the vast forest before him.
Tall trees covered the land in every direction, their branches intertwining high above his head and blocking much of the crimson sky.
Ethan turned back; the entrance to the colony was almost impossible to notice from the outside.
’Since I can’t evolve many of my subordinates with the amount of stats I currently possess...’ His eyes sparkled with a newfound resolve. ’I’ll have to increase my own strength first.’
After the incident with the zombie blood ant soldier, Ethan had learned several things. His authority was useful, but extremely limited in its current state.
He couldn’t recklessly evolve every subordinate in his colony. Not only would their potential be ruined, but each inheritance also consumed a portion of his own attributes.
If he continued doing that without becoming stronger first, he would only weaken himself. And that was simply unacceptable.
’There’s no point sitting around.’ Ethan clenched his fists. ’I need to raise my level.’
His gaze shifted toward the depths of the forest; the place was still unfamiliar to him.
There could be countless dangers hidden beneath those trees, but Ethan wasn’t particularly worried.
Jake had already given him enough information about the current world. The strongest monsters didn’t simply roam around freely. Most of them were constantly being held back by the most powerful human awakeners.
The first-generation awakeners.
Even after decades of losing contact with them, their existence alone was enough to prevent many of the strongest monsters from freely appearing near human settlements.
And if a powerful monster had truly been living nearby, Ethan would have noticed. More importantly, the blood ant colony would have noticed.
’If there was a monster stronger than me nearby, it would’ve already sensed the presence of the colony.’
The blood ants were spread throughout the surrounding forest. They weren’t particularly strong individually, but there were simply too many of them.
A powerful monster couldn’t remain completely unaware of such a massive presence.
At least, that was what Ethan believed.
’There shouldn’t be anything here that can threaten me.’
With that thought in his mind, Ethan began walking forward. The deeper forest was different from the areas he had explored before.
Five small hills surrounded one another, forming a strange natural formation that isolated the land in the center. Their slopes were covered with thick vegetation, while their peaks disappeared into the crimson light above.
Ethan’s colony had been established near the boundary of this region. Because of that, the first hill was barely visible from the entrance of the nest.
Until now, he had never bothered exploring it on his own.
"I’ve already instructed Eris about everything." Ethan continued walking as he muttered under his breath. "There’s nothing else I need to do for now."
"So I should focus on killing monsters."
The thought sounded simple, but there was a small problem.
Monsters were surprisingly difficult to find. At least, monsters strong enough to provide meaningful experience weren’t roaming around everywhere.
The forest was vast, and even after walking for quite some time, Ethan couldn’t sense any powerful presence.
Instead, He found a lot of animals.
Small birds flying between the branches, rabbits hiding beneath bushes, and rats scurrying through the dirt. There were even several larger animals roaming around the forest.
They weren’t monsters, but Ethan didn’t mind. After all, He possessed another method of strengthening himself.
Flesh Assimilation, an SSS-rank skill.
Even if these creatures couldn’t provide experience, their biological matter could still contribute toward his evolution.
’For now, it’s better than doing nothing.’ Ethan’s figure suddenly disappeared.
Then, a few seconds later...
Snap!
A rabbit’s body fell onto the ground from a distance. Uncaring of its condition, Ethan calmly picked it up.
The moment his fingers touched its corpse, a familiar sensation entered his body. Dark energy spread through his palm as the flesh of the rabbit gradually began to disappear and was absorbed directly into Ethan’s body.
A faint pulse traveled through the dark markings on his chest before dying out almost instantly.
Ethan lowered his gaze and let out a turbid breath. ’No experience.’
As expected, normal animals couldn’t provide him with experience. But the process wasn’t completely useless.
He could feel something very faint being added to his body. Trusting his instincts, Ethan gradually progressed into the forest.
Another bird, then a rabbit, a rat, and then several others. None of them provided experience, but Ethan didn’t stop.
༺━━━━━━༺༻━━━━━━༻
Nearly an hour later, Ethan finally reached the lower slope of the first hill and slowly began climbing. The incline wasn’t particularly steep, but the thick vegetation made movement slightly more difficult.
But he wasn’t bothered in the slightest. His physical strength was already far beyond that of an ordinary human. Even climbing the hill barefoot was effortless.
As he continued upward, he noticed something strange. One of the birds he had killed earlier had possessed an unusual bone structure.
Another rabbit had a slightly larger body than it should have. Even the rat he’d encountered had unusually sharp teeth.
’Interesting.’ Ethan crouched beside one of the corpses as he carefully examined it.
It wasn’t a monster, since he couldn’t sense the Nox signature strong enough to classify it as one.
Yet, it was different from ordinary animals.
’So humans aren’t the only ones affected by Nox.’ The thought immediately reminded him of Jake’s explanation.
Nox had flooded the world and drastically changed the environment. It had caused monsters to appear and even changed the planet itself. There was no reason animals would be completely unaffected.
’Perhaps prolonged exposure to Nox can cause them to mutate.’ He narrowed his eyes, as he found this thought to be relatively viable.
’And if they meet the right conditions...’
They could become monsters.
That explanation made sense.
After all, the world had already become something completely different from the Earth Ethan remembered.
He didn’t think much about it anymore. Instead, Ethan placed his right hand against the corpse. At once, a strange current of energy surged from his palm, wrapping around the corpse before assimilating it directly into biological matter.
The animal’s body slowly disappeared as flesh assimilation activated.
This activation was different than his previous one. Ever since his evolution, Ethan had been wondering about what other ways he could utilize his skills.
The previous dark activation was nothing more than him implementing a more silent way, taking his Miasma as the example.
The black patterns on Ethan’s chest pulsed, though, very faintly.
Ba-thump.
Ethan noticed it, but the change was so subtle that he nearly dismissed it.
Nearly.
’Again.’ He looked at another mutated animal and extended his hand.
Another faint pulse followed and disappeared just as quickly.
Ethan decided to continue hunting, and hours passed in the blink of an eye.
The sun gradually descended across the horizon as the crimson light above the forest slowly became darker.
Ethan had already killed dozens of animals—birds, rabbits, rats, small rodents, etc.
Several strange creatures that he couldn’t even identify had died at his hands.
But none of them had crossed the threshold into becoming monsters.
By the time he reached the upper part of the first hill, nearly a hundred animal corpses had been absorbed into his body.
Then, He stopped, His gaze shifting toward the system interface.
A familiar cerulean screen appeared.
---
———————————————————
[#/System Notification/#]
———————————————————
[Biological matter has been assimilated.]
[Evolution Progress has been updated!]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Evolution Progress]
└ ■ 0.1%
---
Ethan stared at the number with an unusually plain expression. "0.1..."
"So that’s how it works."
Ethan wasn’t surprised; in fact, he had already expected something similar.
Every time his body evolved, the requirements for his next evolution would increase.
Since his body was becoming stronger, it was only natural that the amount of biological matter necessary for another transformation would also increase.
’It’s not much.’ Ethan glanced at the surrounding forest. ’But it’s still progress.’
Even if each animal only contributed a tiny amount, there were countless creatures throughout the world.
As long as he continued hunting...
Eventually, the number would rise.
Of course, hunting normal animals wasn’t the most efficient method.
What he really needed were monsters, since their bodies contained far more energy. Their flesh would undoubtedly accelerate his evolution by a leap!
’I’ll have to find some eventually.’ His eyes drifted away from the system window.
Then, He was about to continue searching when the crimson sky began darkening.
The last traces of light slowly disappeared beyond the horizon as the night approached.
Ethan raised his head, his eyes darting in all directions.
The forest became strangely quiet as the birds had stopped chirping. Small animals that had been moving through the bushes earlier had disappeared without a trace. Even the wind seemed to have weakened.
Ethan clenched his jaw tightly, his mind growing heavier with an innate sense of unease.
’It’s getting quiet.’ He frowned deeply.
His senses spread throughout the surrounding area, and yet he found nothing.
No strong presence, no movement, no obvious threat.
But suddenly, a sound reached his ears.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!"
A soul-shaking screech suddenly thundered through the forest. The sound came from somewhere beyond the first hill.
Ethan’s entire body instinctively stiffened. His eyes widened slightly.
The sound wasn’t simply loud; it carried an overwhelming pressure that seemed to shake his very soul.
Birds hidden in the trees suddenly burst into the air, flocking together as they left the area at once.
Even the ground beneath Ethan’s feet seemed to vibrate faintly.
For the first time since entering the forest, Ethan felt something he hadn’t felt before.
Surprise.
His gaze slowly shifted toward the inside of the five hills; the sound had come from there.
Ethan’s eyes became serious. "That..."
Another faint tremor passed through the earth.
"...a monster?"