For the next few hours Michael's contract slots filled steadily.
anwhile in Aurora, his original body sat inside his storage ring and worked through the mories of the two Legendary Stage beings.
The two tasks ran in parallel across his two bodies without conflict.
It was only when night had settled fully over both worlds that Michael allowed himself to stop.
[Contract Slots: 4463/4463]
Thanks to the abundance of monsters in the forest Michael had managed to fill almost all his contract slots in just a few hours. Even for a strong being like him it had been exhausting. It was only because ninety percent of the monsters were weak enough that a single cast of undead revival was sufficient that he had been able to accomplish it at all.
Fortunately the heavens rewarded the diligent. Starting from
tomorrow, every single day Michael would be receiving a total of four thousand evolution points.
"Though the evolution costs required for advancent are getting larger, this is still a significant daily inco," Michael muttered, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.
However it quickly darkened.
Two thousand of his older undead were at least three star Extraordinary grade creatures. To advance them to Rank 4 Michael would need to evolve each to one star Epic grade, which for monsters required close to ten thousand evolution points each.
For two thousand undead that ca to twenty million evolution points.
"Fuck."
Michael's curse echoed through the purple world of his storage ring, which was now considerably more crowded than it had been that morning.
He had just been telling himself that four thousand evolution points a day was a aningful inco. At that rate, reaching twenty million
would take five thousand days.
Roughly thirteen and a half years.
That was too slow. Far too slow.
Though Michael had known that progress would slow as he grew stronger, facing the actual numbers when ti was near was a different experience from the abstract expectation. He had only been a supernatural for barely a year. Expecting him to be satisfied with thirteen years of waiting was asking too much of his current temperant.
Of course it was only Michael who would be dissatisfied with such a speed. In the universe, many realms only had a handful to a few dozen Rank 4 supernaturals as peak power. If any of them were told their numbers would increase a hundredfold in thirteen years, they would happily wait a hundred.
"No. This won't work."
Michael's eyes had taken on a slightly red tint as the anxiety built. He wanted nothing more than to head out now and rob many strong dinsional cracks from the Federation.
"And this is only for two thousand undead. I have two thousand more of varying strength, so I'll need another twenty million on top. Rounded up conservatively, I'd need close to fifty million evolution points to be safe."
At four thousand per day, four thousand undead all advancing to Rank 4 would take at least twenty-seven years.
Michael would be forty-six by then.
He could not help wondering if he should be grateful his next advancent task was unlikely to be like the previous ones. If the limit break task was not a hundred year requirent, he would have been in serious trouble.
"Fortunately I'm heading to the academy tomorrow. I need to see if I can negotiate access, preferably exclusive access, to stronger dinsional cracks."
The academy would not do that for free. Unless he happened to be the Dean's long-lost illegitimate son, there would be a price attached. "I wonder if the locations of the demonic supernatural hideouts would be worth such a deal."
He had originally planned to share that information freely or at minimal cost. The reality of twenty-seven years had changed his priorities considerably. If the wait was three to five years he could grit his teeth and endure. Thirteen was beyond his tolerance. Twenty-seven was simply not a conversation he was willing to have with himself.
With those thoughts still circling, Michael withdrew from the storage ring and returned to the material world, sitting down on his bed in his
room.
Only a few minutes had passed when a knock ca at the door.
"Co in, Aunt Mia." He managed a smile despite everything running
through his head.
Aunt Mia pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Despite being an ordinary person she did not look particularly surprised that Michael had known it was her. Living alongside Jester
long enough had accustod her to certain things.
Her eyes found his face imdiately and the slight tension in her posture eased when she saw him smiling.
"You're still up," Michael said. "It's quite late."
"I was waiting for you to co ho," she said simply.
Michael's eyebrow rose slightly. "Why?"
Aunt Mia took a breath. Her hands, which she had been holding together in front of her, tightened slightly.
"Lily's look..." she began, then paused.
Michael felt a small knot of concern form. The changes in Lily after
the evolution had been significant. He had not thought much about how it would land with soone who had known Lily since birth. He was just about to explain when Aunt Mia continued.
"Could you do the sa for ?"
"Huh?"
Michael stared at her in surprise.
Aunt Mia read his expression imdiately and the color rising in her
face deepened considerably.
"If it's a problem, forget I said anything," she said quickly. "I just
thought-"
"It's not a problem," Michael said.
He ant it. He had already been planning to evolve Aunt Mia. What
he had not expected was for her to be the one to ask.
"Why do you want it?" he asked with genuine curiosity. Aunt Mia's expression moved through several phases before settling into sothing that was approximately dignified embarrassnt.
"I... w-well... Lily looked quite healthy now so... no, I an..." Michael watched her and arrived at the understanding without her needing to finish.
He pressed his lips together to keep the smile from becoming too
obvious.
In the end, no woman could fully resist the allure of beauty.
To think that the chance to evolve, sothing people in this world
would genuinely kill for, had quietly beco a beauty treatnt within their household.
Michael shook his head slightly, the smile winning out.
"Co with , Aunt Mia."
Soon the night passed sowhat peacefully, and morning ca on
the next day.
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