Chapter 110: Strange Weapons

Kaelen had lost track of how long he’d been cultivating Evolution Spores, but he was brought back to reality when his stomach began rumbling.

"Why’s my stomach rumbling? Shouldn’t the Evolution Spores be nourishing my body?" Kaelen mused to himself as he rubbed his stomach.

But come to think of it, since Kaelen entered Evolution Online for the first time until that moment, he wasn’t sure he’d eaten any real food in those past months.

It had been over half a year already. Yet, it all felt like it began yesterday.

Kaelen wasn’t sure if he should be happy or sad about it, because on the bright side, he went from being a broke, wretched kid to being so wealthy he didn’t have a need for money anymore, and so powerful he could single-handedly destroy an entire stronghold.

On the dark side, every passing minute felt like a countdown to the next cataclysm that’d wipe humanity off the face of the Earth.

At the center of it all was Evolution Online.

And for some reason, Kaelen felt the madness didn’t start when Evolution Online was first launched to the public.

It didn’t start ten years ago when his father and the first set of beta testers entered the game.

Everything seemed to start over a millennium ago. With humanity’s predecessor... who conquered Akkad and made it their planet, then went ahead to erase every trace of it from every record.

Kaelen was dealing with mysterious figures over a thousand years old, who’d been siphoning Evolution Points from humanity and who knew how many other planets.

All these were mere speculations, but Kaelen was willing to bet everything that he was on the right track.

10,000,000 Evolution Points per second? That was nothing compared to how much these figures had amassed over centuries.

10,000,000 was an insignificant amount in the eyes of these people, and the more Kaelen thought about it, the smaller he felt trying to challenge them. But he knew within himself that this was just the beginning.

Six months ago, if someone had told him he’d be this strong, Kaelen might’ve felt insulted. But somehow, he’d made it this far. And by the time he stood before these figures, Kaelen would be the one looking down on them.

That was a promise.

He was going to get stronger... even if it was the last thing he did.

’Kenora, I’m sorry, but I won’t be letting you go anytime soon.’

The Drakaris warrior was his only avenue to getting information that might take him years to figure out on his own. But Kaelen never planned on leeching off her and disposing of her when she no longer had anything to offer him.

He was going to compensate her with Evolution Points for the days she spent idle in his castle and would give her the opportunity to choose between returning to her home planet or staying with him as an informant in case a question Kaelen had never considered suddenly popped up.

If she agreed, he’d give her her freedom and compensate her, as long as she didn’t desert him.

As Kaelen was lost in his thoughts brought about by hunger, his eyes suddenly fell on the label of one of the boxes stacked in the truck’s bed, and his eyes gleamed.

They were rations and supplies the mercenaries had packed for the journey, but Kaelen could remember seeing similar boxes in the beds of other trucks.

"Isn’t this too much for a trip to Stronghold 4?" Kaelen mumbled to himself. "And I think the weight slows down the truck as well. As the guide, I think it’s my job to reduce the rations. That was probably why I was kept here."

Kaelen almost burst out laughing as he grabbed and tore open the first carton and took out the canned food.

He didn’t hesitate to start stuffing his mouth.

"Not bad... Not good either," he commented amidst chewing.

Kaelen didn’t spare the bottled water either and helped himself. After all, he wasn’t eating for the pleasure of it, but to reduce the weight on the truck.

After hours of driving through the wasteland, the trucks slowed to a stop, and everyone jumped out of the trucks.

"Let’s take a break to replenish our energy," the Commander instructed, but everyone had their eyes scanning the surrounding bushes.

Not only was it weirdly peaceful, but they also hadn’t encountered any beast attacks so far, which was strange and unlike the past few times they had attempted to cross the forest.

By now, they should’ve lost at least one truck.

The smooth ride didn’t make them feel at ease. Rather, it made them even more anxious than when they usually encountered a beast wave, and they’d barely heard the Commander’s words when a scream suddenly echoed from their midst, and everyone instantly drew their weapons to face the danger.

Even the blonde woman had jumped out of the vehicle to assess the situation when they saw the man who had screamed staring into the truck bed with wide eyes.

"Who the hell gave you permission to touch our rations?!"

It was the same man who had forced Kaelen into the back.

"C’mon, man. I was hungry, so I decided to help myself," Kaelen said as his pinky worked at his ear nonchalantly.

"Do you realize that’s three days’ worth of rations?!"

"Yeah. And we still have more than enough to make it to Stronghold 4. As a mercenary, you should realize packing too much of these things slows down the truck, so you should be thanking me for doing y’all a favor. How else do you think we made it this far so quickly?" Kaelen said with a lazy yawn. "It’s break time, right? I think I’m going to keep my own share of rations for later."

Before Kaelen could finish speaking, the man was already red with rage and immediately drew his sword to attack Kaelen.

"Reiner, stand down," the Commander immediately ordered. He wasn’t pleased with the situation himself and had a scowl on his face. But killing the guide now would only do more bad than good.

The man didn’t falter for a second, even with the Commander’s order, and jumped onto the truck and swung his sword at Kaelen’s face.

Everyone’s eyes immediately widened in surprise, including Kaelen, who never thought the man would go as far as to try to kill him for eating as little as possible.

But before he could react, a hand suddenly grabbed his collar from behind and pulled him out of the truck bed.

At that moment, time seemed to slow down around Kaelen, and his eyes snapped toward the person who’d grabbed him, only to see that it was the blonde.

He deliberated whether he should counterattack, but after seeing the woman’s eyes fixed on Reiner and not him, he realized she wasn’t attacking him but pulling him out of the way.

So Kaelen let everything play out as it was, and time seemed to resume as he was thrown onto the floor. Reiner’s blade dug deep into the truck’s side, cleanly slicing down to its back wheel like a knife cutting through butter.

Kaelen immediately frowned as his eyes focused on the sword. He wasn’t certain no skill or ability had just been used in that attack. If Reiner had, Kaelen should’ve seen the mana distortion around it.

But the moment his eyes fell on the blade of Reiner’s sword, Kaelen’s eyes widened in surprise because familiar runic symbols were inscribed along the blade.

And when he ran his eyes across the surrounding mercenaries, they all had similar weapons.

Swords that could have only been created in one place...