Endless Evolution as an Undead

Chapter 8: Evolution 3

The battle didn’t last long enough to be called a fight; it was an execution.

Since the Tank had already been cut in two, Arthur’s only remaining opponent—the Mage—was attempting to coordinate an all-out flank attack. Moving with the precision of a synchronized warrior, she was casting spells and slashing with her Short blade. However, against Arthur’s freshly upgraded body of pure obsidian and ridiculous amount of stats, such an attempt was utterly meaningless.

Arthur wasn’t even trying to dodge any attacks. He just kept moving through those clumsy attempts without breaking stride.

Reaching the Mage in just a split second, he saw that she was preparing to chant something with her staff in hand. A flicker of dark steel flashed in front of her eyes.

Slash.

Two of her hands ended up on the stone ground, still holding tightly to the glowing staff, and a scream of sheer pain escaped her lips. Even before she managed to draw breath for another cry of fear, Arthur slashed again with his greatsword, decapitating the woman.

The body dropped to the ground with the echoes of her last, choked gasp.

The dungeon was silent. Arthur slowly turned his head, and his glowing red eye sockets shifted to the stone wall where he had thrown his crystal dagger.

The wall was empty.

The Priestess was gone, leaving behind only a trace of dark crimson blood marking her frantic escape.

“Fucking pathetic human,” Arthur spat out under his breath.

But he didn't run after the woman. Instead, lowering his heavy, mana-infused greatsword, he started dragging it behind himself, carving a trail with the blade of the weapon as he followed the woman’s blood trail.

Further into the claustrophobic and twisting tunnels, the priestess was running like a scared animal.

Her right shoulder, which had been struck by the crystal dagger, was covered in a warm and sticky tide of her own blood. Her lungs burned, her legs felt like they were made of lead, and her vision blurred with dark spots.

“I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die—!”

Crying those words out loud, her voice breaking down into hysterical sobs, she staggered in the darkness, her sandals sliding on the wet stones. Even though she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore, she could feel the weight of that monster’s obsidian bones slowly coming closer to her.

Up ahead, a dark and jagged hole opened up in the wall—an obvious natural cave that seemed like a good place to hide.

Without giving it any thought, she veered off the path and ducked into the black opening, curling up into a tight ball and pressing her hands to her mouth to stop the sound of her hyperventilation.

“Hah... hah... I’m safe. He... he won’t find me here…”

However, a deep and vibrating rumbling filled the silence of the cave.

A guttural growl that seemed to resonate right inside her chest.

She stopped. Her eyes struggled to see anything in that pitch-black void.

“What’s that...?” she whispered, her voice trembling.

A sharp screech of nails sliding against the stone of the cave could be heard somewhere deep inside the cave.

Shaking her head as fear ran through her body, she stood up on her shaky and bleeding knees.

“What is—”

SNARL—SNAP.

Something huge and massive lunged from the darkness. The razor-sharp teeth dug into her right leg and ripped away an entire chunk of flesh with a wet crunching noise.

A shriek of absolute pain tore out from her throat.

Panicking, she tried to concentrate and cast the spell [Light], making the pale orb illuminate the chamber.

And froze in shock.

She wasn’t in the hiding spot. She was in the middle of the den.

At least ten huge Shadow Wolves were surrounding her, their glowing crimson eyes fixed on her shaking body. One of them was devouring the bloody chunk of her leg, while another was snarling in anger, trying to rip away some of the fresh meat.

“Ah... ahh... fuck!” she sobbed, tears streaming down her pale face as she realized what was happening.

The biggest wolf of the pack lowered its head, showing its blood-drenched fangs, and leaped straight at her face.

Back in the tunnel, Arthur calmly dragged his greatsword along the stone floor, the metallic scraping echoing through the corridor until he reached the dark entrance to the cave.

Unlike fragile and vulnerable humans, monsters could use true dark vision, meaning that Arthur saw the interior of the cave as if it were a sunny day.

Stepping inside the chamber, he saw the chaotic crowd of Shadow Wolves tearing into a mangled carcass, fighting for chunks of flesh. They were so busy eating that they didn’t notice the obsidian-framed skeleton quietly stepping into their lair.

Arthur stopped and tilted his skull, looking at that disgusting sight.

“I genuinely don’t know if she was lucky or just plain unfortunate at this point,” Arthur dryly remarked.

Raising his heavy greatsword, he channeled an immense spiral of blue abyssal mana through the iron edge of his weapon until it started to vibrate at lethal frequencies.

With a single, blinding horizontal slash of devastating force, Arthur unleashed a crescent wave of mana that cut through every single Shadow Wolf in one unified stroke—cleaving through bones, muscles, and stone before they even noticed that they were in the presence of a predator.

The chamber exploded in a cascade of blue light as the system flooded Arthur’s vision with rapid notifications:

«[System Notification]

You have killed a Shadow Wolf. XP acquired.

You have killed a Shadow Wolf. XP acquired.

You have killed a Shadow Wolf. XP acquired.

You have killed a human. XP acquired.

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

Current Level: Level 1

(Note: Upon completing an evolution, the user’s level resets back to the base tier, retaining scaled growth.)»

Arthur watched the cascade of text disappear, an ironic smirk appearing on his jawless face.

“Seems like even humans give me XP now,” Arthur chuckled hollowly. “Guess there’s no doubt left about it. I really am a monster.”

A heavy, resounding chime echoed inside his mind, and a golden system banner dropped over his interface:

«[System Alert]

Floor Cleared: User has successfully surpassed the parameters of this floor.

Directive: Proceed downward to the next designated floor.»

Dismissing the notification with a wave of his hand, Arthur called up the updated version of his profile to check his new growth:

«[System Status Window]

Name: Arthur

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

Species: Skeleton Warrior

Rank: E-Rank

Level: 1 (781 / 4560 XP to level up)

Stats:

Strength: 55

Agility: 50

Mana: 254

Stamina: 45

Defense: 36

Unassigned Stats: 45 (Note: Unassigned points increased to 15 per level-up)

Skills:

Evolution (Unique - Growth Type)

Survival Instinct (Rare)

Sword Mastery (Common - Level 8)

Dash (Common - Level 9)»

Without hesitation, Arthur took his 45 unassigned points and invested them in his core survivability stats to compensate for his overwhelming offensive capabilities:

«[Agility: 50 ➔ 75]

[Defense: 36 ➔ 56]»

Flexing his obsidian fingers, he could feel the denser plating around his joints.

“Okay,” Arthur said, shifting his empty red eye sockets toward the darker descent further into the dungeon. “Time to go to the next floor.”