Damon's eyes lit up the mont he saw the small round stone that appeared in his hand. Evolution Stone.
The miraculous item that can evolve one's race!
This was what he had co for. Not the gold, not the skill book, not the fa, though all of that would serve him well. The Evolution Stone was what made this quest line worth everything.
In his last life, it had taken months before players even confird its existence. And by the ti word got out, it was already hoarded by guilds and pay-to-win whales.
But now? Now, it was his.
Damon's fingers closed around the warm, humming stone. He could already feel his blood responding to it, thrumming with anticipation.
Bloodreign's voice oozed delight in his mind. "Ooooo. Good stuff. Go ahead and eat it."
Damon nodded. "This should stabilize my bloodline and hopefully also take care of my real-world issues." Though he was confident, he did not know for sure. He had already obtained the item, so now he could only try to see what happened next.
Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and consud the evolution stone.
The mont the stone hit his tongue, it lted like liquid fire. He could feel the fire getting evenly distributed in all parts of his body, slightly higher in his heart. At first, it felt warm and comfortable, but the very next second, it turned.
Damon's body seized.
It wasn't pain, not exactly. It was too much. Too much heat. Too much energy. Too much power, all trying to cram itself into his veins at once.
His heart thundered like a war drum, every pulse sending red-hot lightning through his limbs. His vision blurred, and then shattered into kaleidoscopic fragnts of blood and blinding light.
[Ding! Evolution Stone Consud]
[Race Evolution in Progress...]
Damon was already used to this pain. He gritted his teeth and bore through the pain as he awaited the completion of the evolution process.
In Earth Online, there were many grades of Evolution stones, and the one that dropped from the world boss should be a very high-grade. This single stone should definitely bump him up from a bloodling to a blood initiate to a blood acolyte. This should be enough to stabilize his body and his bloodline, at least partially.
...At least, that was what Damon thought.
[Ding! Congratulations! You have beco a Blood Initiate.]
[Hidden Achievent Unlocked for completing the first race evolution: New Quest: One Drop Closer to the Abyss]
[ 25 to all base stats. New racial skill unlocked.]
Damon collapsed to one knee, panting heavily. The fire inside him was gone, replaced by a thrumming silence. The evolution process was officially done.
His skin shimred faintly with a cool, tallic sheen, veins pulsing with crimson light before settling. His nails were darker. His fangs longer. His heartbeat sounded different, deeper.
[Ding! New Racial Skill Unlocked — Blood Lance]
Blood Lance: Condense your blood into a high-pressure spear of crimson force and hurl it at your enemy. Deals 250% magic damage and applies a stacking Bleed effect for 5 seconds. If cast while under 50% HP, the skill transforms into Crimson Overload, doubling its piercing range and applying Fear to enemies within a 5-ter radius.
It was a good skill, but Damon couldn't care less about it right now. Why was he still a blood initiate? He should have beco a blood acolyte by now!
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" He cursed as he hurriedly opened his status screen.
[Blood God]
Class: Primordial Awakening - Class Path Unavailable
Species: Bloodborn
Race: Blood Initiate (Variant)
Bloodline: Fragnted Ancestral Bloodline???
Status Effect: Bloodline Instability (30 days)
Soul Weapon: Bloodreign (Locked)
Level: 15
Faction: Dark
Experience: 2000/ 3500
Health: 1000
Mana: 1000
Vitality: 37
Stamina: 33
Strength: 31 ( 5)
Intelligence: 48
Agility: 36 ( 10)
Constitution: 27
Available Stat points: 5
General Skills: Primordial Senses (SSS rank, Active), Primordial Hunger (SSS rank, Passive), Blood Swipe (D rank, Active), Bloodline Extraction (SSS rank, Active), Minor Agility Boost (Max, F rank, Passive), Minor Strength Boost (F rank, Passive), Minor Poison Resistance (Max, F rank, Passive), Alchemy, Berserk Instinct (F rank, Pasive), Blood Lance (D rank, Active)
***
Damon stared at his upgraded status screen. So many things had changed, but most importantly, his death sentence had been pushed back by 20 days!
He now had an entire month to figure out how to stabilize his bloodline. This was a huge deal. Ten days was simply too little for him to make any real progress, but a whole month, this he could work with.
Bloodreign let out a satisfied purr in his mind. "That stone didn't take you all the way up the mountain, but it gave you a damned good climbing hook. You did well by getting that Evolution Stone."
Damon didn't answer, but the corner of his mouth twitched upward. This stone was a high-grade stone that was supposed to push him up by two ranks. Instead, he got only one rank.
The worst part was... he had a feeling he was going to need more and more of these evolution stones to get to the higher ranks. He needed to procure more evolution stones on the side.
If a top-tier boss only dropped one, then what did that say about the rest of his path? This wasn't going to be so level-up grind fest. No, this was going to be a bloody treasure hunt. A desperate chase for scraps of power scattered across a bloody and cruel world.
Bloodreign chuckled. "That look on your face... you're finally getting it. This world doesn't want you to evolve. It's going to fight you every step of the way. But that's what makes it worth it."
Damon shook his head helplessly. There was no point in getting overwheld. It was better to take it one step at a ti. He next pulled up the system screen and checked the ti. It was already ten in the night. His next big problem was waiting for him.
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