Chapter 125: Insane Gains
The moment that creature died, Evan felt his body struck by an intense surge of vitality, a sensation on par with, if not stronger than, the one he’d felt when he received his new Bloodline.
"This... is this Void Energy?" he muttered, feeling the purity of that strange energy flowing through him.
At first, he assumed it was refined mana.
But the more he felt it, the more similarities he noticed with Void Energy, making him question that assumption.
Void energy was chaotic if left unmanaged. This, on the other hand, was calmer, strangely more concentrated, almost like it was something entirely different.
He wanted to ask Bruce if he knew anything about it, but his buddy was still offline, something that was beginning to frustrate him more and more.
That said, he noticed something else.
’A Forsaken?’ he thought, registering the odd name the system had assigned to these things.
He had no idea what kind of creature they actually were, so the name didn’t tell him much. But there was something else strange about them, the amount of ESS they dropped.
’Holy... 50,000 ESS? That’s basically what an advanced-stage C-rank would give me if I used life energy during the kill,’ he thought, running the numbers in his head.
And he was right. Normally C-ranks gave anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 ESS without using life energy, double that if he did use it.
He’d just gotten 50,000 from a single early-stage C-rank, more than even a C-rank with life energy applied would’ve given him.
He wondered if it had something to do with that strange energy he’d absorbed.
While he was lost in thought, Seraphine’s voice cut through beside him.
"If I were you... I’d start running." Her words immediately pulled him back to reality.
Evan didn’t understand what she meant, but just as he started to figure it out, he caught a strange fluctuation of energy rising from below him. He looked down and saw it: a cluster of those creatures, trembling, their faces, though barely readable, seeming to twist into something like joy.
Their nearly-sentient eyes were glowing a deeper shade of blue, and their bodies appeared to be thickening slightly. Even the presence they gave off, usually a faint, barely noticeable thing, felt stronger now, which only confused him further.
One of them in particular radiated an overwhelming sense of death, immediately putting him on edge.
It didn’t take him long to realize what was happening.
"They’re absorbing the mana particles...?" he murmured. But right then, he noticed another change, and his eyes went wide with dread.
Shit.
The area where the explosion had occurred, now packed with several Forsaken, had started to vibrate. The space around it was distorting slowly, like a glitch in reality, the same thing that had happened earlier when Seraphine pulled her little stunt with the snowflake.
It didn’t take him long to understand what was happening. Without a second thought, he spun on his heel and bolted.
’Damn it, why didn’t I think of this sooner,’
’if it only takes a tiny bit of mana to set off that weird snow, then that explosion must have triggered the entire patch of it in the area,’
The realization hit him instantly.
He couldn’t help but mentally curse himself for overlooking something so obvious.
Unfortunately, there was no time to dwell on it, because not even a second after he started running, he felt a massive vibration ripple through the surrounding area, and then—
BOOOOM!
By then, Evan had already put nearly a hundred meters between himself and the explosion. Still, the shockwave caught up to him, slamming into him and sending him flying another several dozen meters before he crashed into a tree.
He managed to soften the impact, but it still left a dull ache running up his back.
"Damn it... this cursed place is going to get me killed," he muttered in frustration as he pushed himself back to his feet.
"It sure will, if you keep underestimating it," Seraphine’s voice rang out beside him.
He turned to find her perched on a nearby branch, legs swinging, watching him with that same amused expression.
"Would it kill you to lend a hand?" he said, irritated, thinking that this woman hadn’t actually done anything except get him into this mess in the first place.
"I’d love to. Unfortunately, I can’t," she said, offering no further explanation.
He wanted to push for more, but his attention was yanked away when he felt a massive surge of energy pour into his body.
[Ding! You have slain a D-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken!]
[You have earned +20,000 ESS]
[Ding! You have slain a C-Rank (Mid-Stage) Forsaken!]
[You have earned +100,000 Inspiration Capsules]
[Ding! You have slain a C-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken!]
[You have earned +200,000 ESS]
...
[Ding! You have slain a B-Rank (Mid-Stage) Forsaken!]
[You have earned +5,000,000 ESS]
Evan: "..."
All his frustration about the situation evaporated on the spot as he stared at those numbers.
He pinched himself, half-convinced this was a dream, but reality stubbornly refused to budge.
’Did I just jump an entire stage?’ he thought, already feeling his body brimming with energy. He’d been early-stage D-rank before, close to mid-stage, but now he could clearly feel that he had already reached the Advanced Stage.
And he wasn’t far from reaching the Peak of the current rank anymore.
All from a single chain reaction.
He wanted to celebrate, thinking that maybe this place wasn’t so bad after all.
Unfortunately...
His happiness lasted all of half a second.
Because the very next moment, this place decided to kick him in the balls yet again.
A sharp pain shot through his chest, his eyes snapping wide with agony as he felt something starting to grow inside him.
[Ding! Your body is being infected by an external energy!]
[Analysis in progress...]
[Ding! You have been struck by the Law of Space!]
[Your body is attempting to resist...]
[Failed.]