Endless Evolution as an Undead

Chapter 3: Power Up

For the first time in his life, Arthur saw the glowing word written next to his status.

“Evolution...?”

He muttered the strange word and looked dazedly at the notification hovering in the air. Wanting to get rid of the screen or figure out how to move through it somehow, he instinctively stretched out his hand and attempted to swipe with his bony finger.

But it didn’t go well.

“Damn it, how does this thing work?” he growled and jerkily moved his fingers like an elderly person using a smartphone for the first time in their life.

Flailing his fingers around in mid-air, he randomly tapped on something, completely missing the touch points, and finally, by some miracle, the system window enlarged.

He opened his status tab and made the updated information appear.

«[System Status Window]

Name: Arthur

Title: Death Conqueror (Increases Abyssal mana control by 20%)

Species: Skeleton Soldier

Rank: F-Rank

Level: 1

Stats:

Strength: 9

Agility: 4

Mana: 104

Stamina: 3

Defense: 5

Unassigned Stats: 10»

“Still shit no matter how many times I look at it.”

He exhaled hollowly and turned his gaze toward the bottom part of the window.

“But at least I have these ten unassigned stats. Without any doubt, I’ll invest all of them in Agility.”

He mentally gave the command.

«[Agility: 4 ➔ 14]»

Pale-blue ripples of mana flowed through his skeletal body as the points affected the stat.

“Okay, now let's see, what's this evolution thing all about?”

He scrolled down a little bit and checked his skill list.

«Skills:

Evolution (Growth Type): The user is able to evolve into a higher Undead race by absorbing Demonic mana and fulfilling the specific requirements for that evolution. Upon every evolution, the user gains 100 unassigned stats. The requirements for evolution increase with every tier.»

Arthur looked at the description of the skill, a mixture of horror and wicked pleasure spreading over his faceless skull.

“A growth type?!” he whispered and smiled with his jaws wide open. “It is totally broken already, and this is just the initial stage. If it scales even higher in the future... I can’t even imagine how overpowered it will become.”

An excited smile appeared on his face, and, testing his new body, he bent his legs and jumped off the stone ground.

Whoosh!

His movement through the air was much faster than it had been before. Lightly landing on his feet, he could immediately feel the difference. He was extremely quick now. At this speed, standard Skeleton Soldiers wouldn’t even be able to track his movement or deal with him.

“The situation has changed,” he said, and a sharp red light glowed in his eyes. “Now it is my turn to hunt.”

Having gained new strength in his step, Arthur started to move through the dark tunnels of the SSS-ranked dungeon. Carefully, he kept to the shadows and purposely targeted stray, single-level-one Skeleton Soldiers.

The moment the next Skeleton Soldier appeared from the darkness, holding a rusty blade like the skeleton from earlier and rushing forward at him, Arthur's body moved swiftly on its own. Before the soldier could land its strike, Arthur drove his fist into its jaw.

The skeleton staggered back but didn't drop, its teeth rattling in a snarl as it immediately launched a counter-strike.

Arthur threw himself to the side, gravel flying as the blade bit deep into the stone floor right where he had been.

He didn't waste a second, sweeping his leg low to kick the skeleton's knee. As it fell, he slammed his heel down onto its skull, crushing the bone in a single strike.

Immediately after, the demonic mana from the monster began swirling before slowly flowing into his core and getting absorbed by him.

Even though his body was obviously faster than before, it still wasn't easy to take down monsters, as his other stats were still trash, especially his stamina.

Every battle after that was a grueling fight for his fragile skeleton. His bones were still brittle, lacking any muscle to absorb impacts, and whenever he slipped past one guard, another skeleton clipped his side, sending a shockwave through his ribs.

He dodged heavy blade strikes with incredible agility, landing precise blows with his fists and elbows straight into the ribs of the monsters.

Clack. Slash. Crunch.

He destroyed each Skeleton Soldier he met, one after another, in the narrow tunnel, but at that speed, his body began to slow down.

By the seventh kill, reality hit Arthur like a wall. Although his speed had increased considerably, considering the fragile build of a Skeleton Soldier, fatigue was quickly building. His empty chest burned with exhaustion, and the close calls exacted a toll.

His already brittle bones were now developing a fresh network of cracks across his body, with some bones already chipping away.

Arthur stopped, leaned against the damp stone pillar to regain his breath, and checked the status window.

«[Level 1]»

«[Evolution: 11%]»

One more to go, he thought as his internal energy raced, his vision swirling with exhaustion. Just one more to get to the next level...

Shhhk.

An incredibly fast whistling sound was heard in the air.

Out of pure instinct as a warrior who had survived many life-threatening fights in the past, Arthur threw himself forward, performing a forward roll and landing on the rough ground on the other side of the chamber.

Clang!

A heavy blade sliced through the stone pillar right where his head had been located seconds ago.

“F*CK, that was close,” he said as he quickly hopped to his feet, with the shortsword raised defensively and his eyes focused on the monster standing before him.

It had a much denser and more menacing aura than any grunt Arthur had faced earlier, wielding a long and heavy chipped greatsword that radiated cold malice.

And over its skull, in red letters, was its level:

Level 5