Chapter 350

350 – Aro’s Evolution

Flying low, I manage to escape the basilisk’s meal candidates. They’re ultimately just beasts in a state of agitation. All I need to do is put some distance between myself and them, for them to stop chasing me and I can leave them to slaughter each other. It seems the basilisk wanted to get me involved in that huge brawl, but fortunately, due to the difference in our magic power, it didn’t inflict a severe status condition in me.

Looking back, I see the monsters crying out strangely as they fight in the distance. The adam is firing off [Gravidons] indiscriminately while crushing the monsters around it one after the other through kicks. Adams are attack-and-speed specialised striker types. It doesn’t have any opening that a lower rank monster can take advantage of…. No, it got turned to stone by the lower rank basilisk somehow.

Now that we have some distance, I want to land right away. The nightmare was somehow able to bring along the bucket with its thread, but regrettably a lot of the contents were shaken out in the process.

The basilisk that my partner wanted to eat is also in tatters, with its skin peeling off and the flesh gouged out. It was dragged along the ground, so it might have been inevitable, but looks pretty gruesome. It looks like the result of a grisly execution. By the way, I might have been underestimating its [Poison Sash], as plumes of smoke are rising from the ground where its magenta blood scattered.

…It’s really not something you should eat. Hey partner, do you seriously want to eat it? I feel like I’m always in your debt and I want to thank you, so if you really want to, it’s fine? It probably won’t be enough to break our stomach. But I can’t recommend it very highly. If you don’t mind waiting a little bit longer, I’m confident I can prepare something a lot nicer.

After landing on the ground, I put the treant down and then place my chin on the ground and stick out my tongue for Aro to roll out. On top of being covered with my saliva, she’s now also got dirt sticking to her. Oof… Sorry.

She slowly getting to her feet, then nods towards me as though to say not to worry about it. She nods, but doesn’t say it out loud. Th-that’s right! More importantly, evolution, evolution! She should now finally be in range to evolve.

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Name: Aro

Species: Revaana Lowlich

Condition: Cursed

Lv: 65/65 (MAX)

HP: 382/382

MP: 368/405

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It’s here! Aro’s fourth evolution! She’s despondently wipes the mud from her body, but upon guessing from my face that she’s reached the maximum level, her expression brightens and she flaps her arms excitedly.

I’ll check the nightmare and treant’s statuses too. Their levels might have increased a lot too.

I shift my focus to the nightmare as it squirms its way out of my partner’s mouth.

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Species: Nightmare

Condition: Normal

Lv: 14/70

HP: 122/174

MP: 84/163

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A-as expected of the nightmare… It put its life on the line to help me. The early levels are always quick to raise, but this is still quite the achievement. Hey, at this rate, it might soon be able to avoid getting eaten by my partner while she’s half-asleep.

Apparently unpleased by my praise, it looks away sharply and spits out a thread to my partner’s neck and climbs up. She says nothing about the nightmare climbing her while covered in her saliva, but grimaces a bit. Those feelings, I understand them. I secretly have the same view.

Now then, treant-san… Is approachingly me expectantly. Hah, there’s no need to hurry so much. I’ll look at you, don’t worry.

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Species: Magical Tree

Condition: Cursed

Lv: 1/60

HP: 161/161

MP: 110/110

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I quickly look away. Hey partner! So that Aro can evolve, shoot her with a [Soul AppendmentFake Life]. The treant stares at me expressionlessly through its eye holes, but I avoid eye contact. Seemingly out of consideration for me, Aro moves away from it towards me.

“Gaah!”

With my partner’s cry, a black light evelops Aro. The light eventually clears, and Aro is revealed. She’s standing stock still, her eyes closed.

She’s…evolved, right? The mud that was clinging to her has fallen off. But there’s no big change in her appearance… I think she’s a bit taller, and her face has a bit more colour. All this time she’s looked around ten years old, but now she looks as though she’s grown three years older.

【[Revaana Lich]: B+ rank monster】

【Freely wielding earth to clad its body, the highest of the revaana family of undead.】

【An undead with a strong attachment to the living that has finally succeeded in producing the ideal flesh from earth.】

【Its beauty can even captivate adventurers that set out to subjugate it.】

B-B+ rank!? She’s just a little below me at A rank. She’s finally managed to catch up to this extent… She’s built purely to break through with magic attacks, so if I were to seriously anger her, even I wouldn’t be able to get away without taking heavy damage… I-I’ll try and stop carrying her around in my mouth as much as possible.

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Name: Aro

Species: Revaana Lich

Condition: Cursed

Lv: 1/85

HP: 164/164

MP: 179/179

Attack: 121

Defence: 101

Magic: 260

Speed: 88

Rank: B+

Characteristic Skills:

[Grisha Language: Lv4] [Undead: Lv-] [Dark Attribute: Lv-] [Flesh Transformation: Lv7] [Privilege of the Deceased: Lv-] [Ruler of Earth: Lv-] [Evil Demon Eye: Lv4] [Undead Maker: Lv-]

Resistance Skills:

[Status Condition Nullification: Lv-] [Physical Resistance: Lv4] [Magic Resistance: Lv5]

Normal Skills:

[Gale: Lv7] [Curse: Lv4] [Life Drain: Lv5] [Clay: Lv7] [Autoregeneration: Lv5] [Clay Doll: Lv6] [Mana Drain: Lv6] [Rope of Regret: Lv4] [Fog of the Dead: Lv4] [Charm: Lv1] [Wide Drain: Lv1] [Dark Sphere: Lv1]

Title Skills:

[Servant of the Evil Dragon: Lv-] [Hollow Sorcerer: Lv7] [Undecaying Body: Lv-] [Final Evolution: Lv-] [Undead Queen: Lv-]

Th-the level of her demon eye skill has gone up!? I haven’t seen her use it yet, but I wonder if it’ll be effective now…

As for her new skills… For the characteristic skills, it’s just [Undead Maker]? It sounds a bit disturbing… It does what I imagine, right? For the normal skills, there’s [Charm], [Wide Drain], and [Dark Sphere]… Ch-charm… [Wide Drain] must be a wide area drain.

It doesn’t specify, but… Does it absorb both HP and MP? For the new title skills, she has [Final Evolution] and [Undead Queen]…. So this is as far as she evolves? The nightmare also stopped at C+ rank, so I guess that might just be how it is. The only one left without [Final Evolution] is treant-san. No way, could the era of treant-san as the strongest be on its way?

Now then, the treant, the nightmare and Aro have all managed to evolve… So they’re C+, C+ and B+? It looks like it’ll take me a bit longer to evolve… After doing a bit more levelling, it might be worth heading back for the temple below the giant tree.

That place must have some sort of connection to me. Now that I know there’s some relation between this world and my previous world, I can’t think of it as irrelevant to me. The things that are important to me here have increased too much, and moreover, even though I have my wisdom from my previous life, I’ve got no episodic memories of it. But regardless, I still want to know.