Chapter 24: The Power of Evolution

Chris let out a low grunt as he lay on the ground, his vision spinning as he tried to understand what had just happened. Slowly, he pushed himself up with one hand, but the moment he straightened his body, a sharp pain ran through his chest and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Fuck."

He cursed under his breath, wiping the blood from his mouth as he struggled to stand. His entire body felt sore, and every movement reminded him just how powerful that impact had been.

Looking around, he quickly searched for Azreon.

The dragon was only a few meters away, lying in another crater where his body had crashed into the ground. Unlike Chris, however, Azreon already seemed to be recovering. The dragon slowly pushed himself up and shook his massive body, looking far less injured than Chris expected.

Chris narrowed his eyes as he watched him.

’It seems the Dragon Scales on Azreon are much stronger than mine.’

He had covered his entire body with Dragon Scales before the impact, yet he had still suffered serious injuries. Azreon, on the other hand, had been knocked unconscious but appeared to have recovered much faster.

Chris took a few moments to catch his breath, and as he stood there, he gradually felt the pain throughout his body becoming lighter.

’It seems that the Dragon Heart is not just recovering my mana, but my vitality too, though the vitality recovery is very low compared to the mana recovery.’

That was good to know.

If the passive effect could slowly restore his vitality, it meant that he wouldn’t always need to rely on potions after every serious battle. The recovery was nowhere near fast enough to help him during a fight, but given enough time, it could make a significant difference.

By then, Azreon had already gotten up and walked toward him.

The dragon lowered his enormous head and sniffed Chris carefully before suddenly licking his entire face.

Chris blinked as his face became covered in saliva. It seemed Azreon was checking whether he was still alive.

"I’m fine, buddy. Luckily, we survived..."

Before he could say anything else, Chris suddenly felt something.

His expression changed immediately.

He activated Dragon Vision, allowing the enhanced perception from his ability to spread through his senses. A moment later, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the distance.

There were several of them.

"Fuck, it must be demons. We stirred up a commotion. Let’s go quickly."

Chris immediately climbed onto Azreon’s back, and the dragon spread his enormous wings before launching himself into the sky.

Once they were high enough above the ground, Chris looked down toward the place where they had crashed.

Six demons had already arrived.

They were standing around the large crater where Chris and Azreon had landed only a few minutes earlier, carefully inspecting the damaged forest.

Chris breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

’If they had reached us before we escaped, this would’ve been dangerous.’

Six demons at roughly the same level as him were not something he could casually fight, especially when he couldn’t rely on a surprise attack. Even if he and Azreon could eventually defeat them, there was no reason to take such a risk while surrounded by an entire army of demons.

The six demons suddenly began speaking to each other in their strange language.

Chris listened carefully, but he couldn’t understand a single word.

After a short conversation, the demons split into two groups. Three remained around the crater while the other three turned around and started heading back toward the direction of the main gathering.

Chris’s expression immediately became serious.

"Not good. We can’t have them report about this. Follow them, buddy."

Azreon immediately changed direction, following the three demons from above while keeping enough distance that they wouldn’t notice him.

Chris couldn’t allow them to report what had happened.

Even though the demons hadn’t seen him or Azreon, something unusual had clearly happened in the forest, and Chris didn’t want the entire demon army becoming alert before he had a chance to increase his strength.

Once the three demons had moved far enough away from the others, Chris finally decided to attack.

"Now, Azreon!"

The dragon immediately folded his wings and dived toward the ground at incredible speed. Before the demons even realized they were being attacked, Azreon opened his mouth and released a powerful stream of flames toward them.

The demons were caught completely off guard.

Chris jumped from Azreon’s back at the same time, falling directly toward one of them with his sword pointed at its chest.

*THUD!*

His sword buried itself deep into the demon’s chest, killing it almost instantly.

Chris immediately pulled the sword free and twisted his body in midair, swinging toward the second demon’s neck with all his strength.

*Slash!*

The demon’s head flew into the air.

’One more.’

Chris turned toward the final demon, but unlike the others, this one had noticed him.

It quickly avoided his attack and opened its mouth, clearly preparing to call for help.

Before it could make a sound, Azreon dived from behind and bit down on the demon’s head.

*Riipp!*

The dragon tore its head from its shoulders and spat it onto the ground.

Chris released a quiet sigh.

For a moment, he had been worried that the demon would manage to call the others, but Azreon had reacted quickly enough.

"Good job, buddy. Let’s go. It’s time for a hunt."

Chris knew they couldn’t waste any more time.

He had to increase his level, and he had to do it quickly.

After seeing what the demons were doing with the crystals and the strange crack in space, he was almost certain that their goal was to somehow break open that crack and escape the dungeon.

He couldn’t allow that to happen.

The demon leader had already demonstrated an ability that allowed it to grow stronger by consuming even extremely weak beasts. If the demons managed to escape the dungeon and enter the Wilds, they would become an enormous threat.

And if the other demons possessed the same ability, Chris couldn’t even imagine how dangerous they could become after consuming enough beasts.

With that thought in mind, Chris and Azreon began their hunt.

They flew through the forest, staying as far away from the main demon gathering as possible while searching for smaller groups. Chris refused to attack any group larger than three unless absolutely necessary, but fortunately, most of the demons traveling through the forest were already separated into smaller groups.

The pattern quickly became familiar.

Azreon would approach from the sky, and Chris would attack from an unexpected angle, allowing them to kill the demons before they had a chance to react or call for help.

They repeated the process again and again.

Chris was surprised by how many demons were scattered throughout the forest. He had originally assumed that the hundred or so demons gathered around the strange crack represented most of their forces, but there were clearly many more roaming the area in search of crystals and wild beasts.

For Chris, however, this was good news. More demons meant more experience.

After several hours of hunting, both he and Azreon had reached Level 39.

Chris wiped the blood from his sword using one of the demon’s bodies before firing several fireballs at the corpses. Flames quickly consumed them, turning the bodies into ash and making it much harder for anyone to discover what had happened.

He then turned toward Azreon.

"Good job, buddy. Just a bit more, and we’ll be able to fight that demon leader."

Even as he said those words, however, Chris remained worried.

Reaching a higher level would certainly make the fight against the leader much easier. He and Azreon might even be able to win, especially if they worked together.

But the problem wasn’t the leader. It was everything surrounding it.

There were still around a hundred demons gathered around the strange space crack, and even if most of them were weaker than the leader, fighting all of them at once would be impossible.

’We need a way to separate them.’

Chris opened the attribute panels for himself and Azreon and allocated all their newly gained points toward Agility.

They needed speed more than anything else right now. Chris had noticed that the advantage in speed was a huge help in fights, they had to be fast enough to control the battlefield and escape whenever necessary.

Once he finished distributing the points, Chris jumped onto Azreon’s back and continued the hunt.

As time passed, the number of demons they encountered in the forest began to decrease. Chris knew what that meant.

They had to hurry. If the remaining demons returned to the main gathering, Chris might never get another opportunity to reach Level 40 before confronting the leader.

They moved through the forest as quickly as possible, refusing to stop and rest even for a minute.

Another few hours passed.

After killing yet another group of demons, Chris suddenly felt a powerful surge of energy throughout his body.

The System appeared in front of his eyes.

[Level Increased.]

[Requirements for evolution met.]

[All attributes increased: x1.5.]

[Contracted beast’s level increased.]

[Requirements for evolution met.]

[All attributes increased: x1.5.]

Chris released a long sigh of relief. They had done it.

Both he and Azreon had finally reached Level 40.

He immediately looked toward the dragon.

As expected, Azreon was already surrounded by a massive cocoon of flames.

This time, however, the cocoon was far larger than before, and the heat radiating from it was intense enough that Chris could feel it from several meters away.

’This is definitely going to attract attention.’

Chris knew the flames would probably be visible from miles away, but he didn’t care.

In fact, it might be better if the demons came now. If they arrived one by one, he could simply hunt them and potentially increase his level even further before dealing with the leader.

The evolution took longer than Azreon’s previous evolution, but Chris wasn’t worried.

While waiting, he opened both attribute panels.

Before reaching Level 40, they each had roughly 800 total attribute points distributed across their attributes. After gaining another level and triggering the evolution multiplier, they had received roughly another 400 points worth of attributes.

Chris distributed the new points carefully, keeping them relatively even across the different attributes while making sure Agility remained higher than the others.

Speed was what they needed most right now.

The moment he finished allocating the points, Chris felt an incredible surge of strength spread throughout his entire body.

His muscles became stronger, his senses sharpened, and his entire body felt completely different.

’This is the biggest increase in strength I’ve felt from an evolution.’

The difference was enormous. The demons that had forced him to exert himself so much earlier would probably be much easier to deal with now.

Chris clenched his fist, feeling the tremendous power flowing through his body.

At that moment, the cocoon around Azreon finally began to shrink.

The flames surrounding the dragon slowly disappeared as they were absorbed into his body, revealing his new form.

Chris stared.

*ROAR!*

Azreon spread his enormous wings and released a powerful roar that shook the surrounding forest.

The dragon had grown to the size of a fully grown mammoth, while each of his massive wings was now roughly the size of a large truck.

Chris’s mouth opened in shock. He had expected Azreon to become larger after reaching Level 40, but this was far beyond what he had imagined.

A huge smile soon appeared on Chris’s face.

"Good, good. You are even more amazing than before."

He walked toward the dragon and raised one hand.

Azreon immediately understood what he wanted and lowered his enormous head until it was close enough for Chris to reach.

Chris placed his hand on Azreon’s head and began patting him, still marveling at just how large the dragon had become.

Azreon’s head alone was almost as large as Chris’s entire body.

"Let’s fly up now, buddy. The demons are approaching, and we need to surprise them."

Chris stepped back before jumping toward Azreon’s back.

Unfortunately, he had severely underestimated his new strength. Instead of landing on Azreon, he jumped straight over the dragon and landed on the other side.

Chris stood there for a moment in silence before awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

’This... I still underestimated my new strength.’

He jumped again, this time using only a small portion of his strength, and landed directly on Azreon’s back.

Azreon immediately spread his enormous wings.

With one powerful flap, a tremendous burst of wind exploded outward, violently shaking the surrounding trees and sending leaves flying through the air.

The dragon rose from the ground and quickly climbed higher into the sky, circling around the area and waiting for the incoming demons.

Chris looked ahead with a serious expression. They had finally reached Level 40.

Now, it was time to see just how much stronger they had become.