《Battleforged: Book 1 - THE BILLION CREDIT HEIST - An Earth Apocalypse LitRPG Adventure》Chapter 267 - Battlefield Baptism
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The heavy air tingled against the back of Eric’s throat as he savored the sweet sharp tang of wild mana roiling through the air. Yet the shivers Eric felt racing down his spine at the sound of not one but dozens of roars from the toothy maws of actual dinosaurs was not dread at the thought of being snapped up and devoured in the blink of an eye… but exhilaration.
To see firsthand the magnificent plumage, brilliant colors, and powerfully muscled frame of a spinosaurian horror, complete with a massive sail of back spines and snapping jaws more fearsome than any crocodile’s, as not just one but an entire heard of those 50 foot long predators turned in Eric’s direction and roared their challenge… It was a thrill like no other.
A challenge Eric was eager to answer.
“Fresh Meat!” Eric roared, now racing across the grasslands faster than he had ever dared before, leading the vanguard of his tightly packed formation of a hundred staggered rows as he blazed toward level 70 monsters that accepted his challenge and began racing towards Eric and his forces just as fast as their lumbering strides allowed.
In just seconds, furious cries turned to surprised shrieks, cackling howls, and bloodcurdling roars filling the air as hundreds of 25 foot long bronze-tipped spears were rammed into toughened spinosaurian flesh by a storm of charging revenants making impact at what Eric reckoned was now just over 150 mph, his Mithril mail indeed helping to weigh him down and balance him. But the shoulder-high grass and dry crumbly soil ramped up the challenge of sprinting to the point that even he was feeling the burn in his legs as he drew and struck the centralmost dinosaur with his blade in a single vicious cleave, the air alighting with a flash of superheated liquid flame compressed to a white-hot band of wind encased plasma, tearing through one of the massive spinosaurian ankles in the blink of an eye.
You have successfully dodged Spinosaurus bite!
You have critically struck your opponent!
Windfire strike cleaves off left ankle! Your foe is crippled!
But Eric had already shot past, the crippled monster’s howls instantly cut off as no less than fifty massive essence-reinforced and razor sharp spear heads plunged into its body, piercing not just a few inches but nearly the entire length of the twenty five foot shaft, as kinetic energy many times that of what any charging knight had ever brought to mortal opponents centuries ago utterly pincussioned the fallen Spinosaurus, his Interface ringing with messages as all 16,000 of his troops tore through the pack.
Countless shrieks and cries were cut off as shocked dinosaurs collapsed with near every square foot of their flesh, save for the skull itself, now bristling with wooden shafts spraying a collective geyser’s worth of blood as wave after wave of revenants plunged their weapons into their prey before leaping past in time for the following rows of his carefully organized revenants to do the same, Eric’s goal as focused as it was ruthless.
Each and every revenant under his command was to pierce those 50 foot long Spinosaurs with their 25 foot long shafts, sinking them as deep as possible and spring free in time for the rows behind them to strike, all of them blooding themselves before those massive brains could finish dying, locking in a kill for each soldier under his crimson banner, no matter how minuscule the individual potency absorbed might be. Because right now it wasn’t about leveling up, but locking in.
Revenant Army has successfully slain 35 Tier II Spinosaurs!
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You have successfully BLOODED your revenants, locking in an enhancement even you find difficult to squeeze from the annuls of history!
Congratulations! You have successfully claimed the Master Necromancer Perk: Undying Phalanx! The echoes of countless battles resonating through the classic era has culminated in the formation of your mighty force of elite Revenants, all of them fully kitted in bronze armaments once used only by Alexander’s most prized champions! Armed with sarissa longspears made of cornel wood and longer even than the originals at 25 feet, your 8 foot tall revenants have found new purpose serving as the core of the deadliest army ever to race across the plains of a newly reforged Terra! Sans only the small shields once strapped to the shoulders and neck of the original sarissophoroi, the leaf-bladed bronze swords at their waist and full kit of bronze armor assures that they will be fearsome opponents, even in the press of melee, should any foe manage to get past multiple rows of 25-foot-long spears! Further augmented with the ability to match your speed at all times, the only true peril Alexander’s armies ever faced, getting flanked from the rear or sides, is a weakness your revenants will never fear, so long as you forever lead their eternal charge!
Note! You have successfully converted all Shambling Revenants to Undying Phalanx.
You have successfully converted all Musketeers to Undying Phalanx.
You have successfully converted all Berserkers to Undying Phalanx.
You have successfully converted all Spearmen to Undying Phalanx.
Undying Phalanx level is 20 (base) + 27 (Master Necromancer) = Level 47!
Eric’s eyes widened and he hooted with triumph as he slowed down to a light jog, beyond delighted to find that he truly had locked in that dream of wonder and history becoming reality once more. A single enemy tribe defeated, dreams and the sweet sharp tang of wild mana coalescing into the miracle of 16,000 troops that countless ancient generals would have killed to call their own.
Troops now bound to Eric, for all time.
He flashed a fierce smile as he slowly approached the pack of 35 fallen spinosauruses that his revenants had placed in a pile before him after collecting what intact sarissa they could, the bodies truly looking like absolutely savaged hunks of bloody meat covered in shattered weapon shafts. And it didn’t matter in the least, Eric thought with a fierce smile, no matter the red lights blaring across his Interface map, sensing the deadly shadow pumas rapidly approaching… no doubt tasting the rich heady scent of spilled blood in the air. And if those deadly hunting cats thought they could get past Eric’s overlapping rows of sarissophoroi surrounding him and his kills in a hedgehog formation with their 25-foot-long quills pointing outward, then they were more than welcome to try.
He then closed his eyes, savoring the sweet hot tang of death and a milling mass of extremely powerful spirits swirling in the spice-laden air all around him, absolutely filled with wild spiritual energy and mana alike.
Because no matter how alien or wild this environment, he had made his kills, kept his covenant, and death itself would bend to his will.
“Surge, centuria! Imperator imperat tibi!”
Words of fearsome intent.
A command that would defy death itself.
Even as Eric snarled and spat blood, heart pounding against a strain beyond comprehension, as spirits far more potent and vital than any he had dared master before howled and fought against his dire intent, and death itself made it clear that, either way, a bill would come due.
Yet Eric would yield neither his power, class, nor life, merely cut open his wrist and allow his own sweet hot blood to intertwine with the crimson pool drenching the ground as his mana bled from his pours and he whispered the words once more.
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“Surge, centuria! Imperator imperat tibi!”
Eric glared with eyes bright with death’s promise as the hot agony of an endless run under summer’s sun cooking him alive became the sweet release of a victory lap, before diving into the cool chilly depths of the family pool as first one, then a second, then all thirty five spinosauruses began shivering with alien life as countless hundreds of devastating puncture wounds sealed up before his eyes as the creatures lurched back to their feet, slamming clawed talons toward their chest area and shrieking in unified concert.
“Ave Imperator Abedimus!”
Eric hooted with exultation and heartfelt relief, flashing a fearsome grin.
All too well aware of just how close he had come to death.
Warning! No necromancer can safely raise undead beyond his combined Necromancer (plus adventuring class if applicable) level without the use of runes, sigils, and spell bindings!
You have attempted the direct revivification of thirty Level 68 Enhanced Spinosauruses!
This is beyond your combined level of 64!
Necromancer skill check successfully made!
Congratulations! You have successfully used Undead Legion to revive multiple corpses beyond your combined level!
Undead legion works at 1% standard efficacy!
You can raise a maximum of 32 Level 68 Enhanced Spinosauruses!
You have successfully assimilated 32 Enhanced Spinosauruses into your army!
Flesh Sculptor is now Rank 23!
Blood Mastery is now Rank 28!
Rituals of Summoning and Binding is now Rank 31!
Spirit Mastery is now Rank 30!
Spirit Mastery has achieved ELITE Tier Status!
You have chosen Tier II Path of Dominion (Without even considering any of your other options) as your Elite tier skill enhancement!
Soul Reserves, Arcane Potential, and Willpower have each gone up 9 points, symbolizing your continued mastery over the dead, and yourself!
Master Necromancer has advanced to Level 28!
You have one additional Perk Point to spend!
Eric slumped to the ground, ignoring the massive insects buzzing madly around him in the four foot high grass, as not one blinked red in his interface. He decided to make full use of his perk, here and now, knowing exactly what he wanted to get.
He quickly scrolled over options to boost Speed, Power, and Durability by a percentage equal to his Necromancer Perks times 5, as sweet and potent as such enhancements would be, his Master Class now shining brighter than ever. So too, he gazed almost longingly at a perk that would finally allow him to use his now brilliant obsidian Soul Orb absolutely brimming with necromantic power with his Blood magics and finally Soul Link the 500 pound kit of mithril mail and masterwork helm that gave him near perfect protection from anything save blows to the lower leg or thrusts to his eyes or mouth, yet didn’t inhibit his senses in the least.
Yet above all else, he needed a perk that would allow him to advance his glorious forbidden class as effectively here as it did in the white tier killing fields he had mastered so thoroughly, just weeks before.
And after some desperate searching, a part of him almost certain that his Interface was enhancing the formation of perks correlated with his experiences and needs, regardless of whether it followed any truly historical necromantic paradigm… he found exactly what he desired.
Of course it would claim a precious Masterclass Perk point for what he would eventually be able to achieve anyway, given enough advancement and time. But that hypothetical future would do him absolutely no good if he didn’t live to see it. And a single Perk Point burned was a worthy sacrifice for rapid growth and the potential earning of title boons and opportunities that otherwise might otherwise be lost to him forever.
You have chosen the Master Tier Necromantic Perk: Enhanced Legion!
The call of your commander’s voice now pierces the veil more deeply than ever before! Your Necromancer Class now counts as double its actual level when it comes to calculating the maximum potency of troops that will be forced to heed your call!
You can now effortlessly compel fallen soldiers of up to Level (36+(2*28)) = 92! To head your call and join your Undying Army!
You have critically struck Massive Mosquito!
Eric flashed a triumphant smile as he lurched back to his feet, though he was chilled at the size of the mosquito he had squashed with his hand, the little fucker’s stinger having slid effortlessly past his mithril mail shirt and gambeson underneath to drink deep of his blood.
“Well not anymore, little fucker,” he muttered to himself, before gazing at his assembled troops, 16,000 Sarissophoroi Revenants that comprised his Undying Phalanx, and 32 massive dinosaurs glaring at everyone with their baleful glowing green eyes.
“Good to have you with us! You’ll guard our flanks, the only major weak point Macedonian phalanxes really had. But not with dinosaurs on our side!” He grinned manically as his massive alligator-like monstrosities, if alligators were 50 feet long, walked upright on two legs, and had massive sail like crests along their backs, all dipped their necks and lumbered to their stations.
Heart pounding with the sheer exhilaration of beating death at its own game once more, Eric laughed at the barking roars of an ever greater pride of hunting cats that had clearly smelled the half-elf hybrid that dared to intrude into their territory. From what the frightened rangers he had chatted and, yes, flirted with had implied, the fearsome horrors of orange tier territories found elven meat particularly delectable. Certainly sweeter than orc flesh, or so the rumor went.
So Eric felt no guilt at all when he gave the order to charge, as a bristling wall of pike half a mile long and five men deep began racing across the plains once more. Eric was now loping at a comparatively sane speed of a mere hundred miles per hour with rough terrain and chest-high grass both proving a surprisingly effective deterrent. Nonetheless, even at just 4 times a knight’s speed, the massive hunting cats didn’t have a chance.
Not even the one springing up from behind him just a few feet away.
Quickness check made!
You have successfully dodged feline ambush.
And suddenly time seemed to slow to a crawl as Eric sensed death in the corner of his eye, his loping stride turning to a desperate twist as he jerked out of range of deadly sharp claws even as his mithril blade cleaved through the air, slicing as it cut, ripping into the vulnerable underside of the cat in a cleaving series of overlapping slashes instantly freezing the cat as multiple organs were ripped open in the blink of an eye, the poor creature collapsing in a heap, wide shocked eyes gazing Eric’s way in absolute confusion as the rustling grass all around it turned crimson with its lifeblood, the doomed cat slipping into oblivion less than three heartbeats later, so devastating had Eric’s rebuttal been.
Iado skillcheck made!
You have eviscerated your opponent!
Fast-Draw is now Rank 16!
Swordsmanship is now Rank 26!
Just one of the countless feline hunters eviscerated by hundreds of spears with the force of a 16-wheeler smashing into cars full of caged cats. And about as devastating.
Yet Eric, admiring those beasts as he did all cats, wasn’t about to keep a good feline down.
Not when they could rise once more, and serve him for eternity.
“Surge, centuria! Imperator imperat tibi!”
Eric braced himself for what might well be the spiritual battle of his life… only to find all 3 dozen cat corpses effortlessly coming to life once more.
Cats he wouldn’t dream of making salute him. But when he suggested that they might find tasty game guarding the flanks just beyond where his Spinosauruses roamed, being far lower to the ground and more nimble, they didn’t object, quickly loping to their positions as Eric began to pick up the pace once more, taking the lead of his shallow V formation two thousand men wide on each flank that was now four revenants deep, eagerly chasing after each and every one of the literal hundreds of furiously blinking red dots on the territory map.
A howling Eric lost himself to darkest revels, his mithril blade singing the sweetest of crimson dirges against massive crocodilian horrors, nightmare-sized serpents, fearsome hunting cats, and half a dozen other types of predators, assuring that he got in at least a few telling blows on the lead boss of any pack before blowing right past, the monstrous horrors in question and all its subjects then impaled by hundreds if not thousands of spears propelled by the force of what were now 48th level revenants weighing in at a shopping 600 pounds a piece and racing at four times the speed of a charging knight.
And as day faded to dusk, brilliant starry darkness, and dawn again, Eric continued to revel in his wholesale slaughter of an entire territory as close to a thousand high level foes was wittled down to less their half their number, then a mere fourth. Then, before first light, less than a hundred remained.
Though it seemed his enemies had, in fact, been saving the best for last.
As Eric found out much to his chagrin when a handful of surprisingly fast Velociraptor hybrids actually managed to rip through fifty of his revenants and tear out his left eye before a roaring Eric and countless hundreds of furiously thrusting spears finally put the last of those vicious beasts down, the System generating horrors faster, tougher, and larger than even the original Velis, Eric coming far closer to peril than he wanted to admit as his steady trickle of experience from his own personal kills, highly penalized as it was for fighting in proximity with an entire phalanx of allies, finally pushed him over the level threshold. Near a full day and night of killing, risking his life multiple times, even now howling with pain as Unified Restoration ticked up to rank 5 and his ruptured eyeball blinked back open, whole once more, after the most agonizing minute of his life.
Just in time to slam 5 points into Quickness and 4 Points into Perception, as he howled with the sweet power of Level 37 in his Master Adventurer Class caressing his soul. Because despite the glorious magical training session he had shared with his sister, it was speed, and sensing threats in time to react fast enough to kill before being killed, that mattered most in the killing fields of war.
And that boost to both Quickness and Perception might be just the ticket he needed to survive the battle to come, as he beheld a massive ape-like behemoth standing a good thirty feet high with a fearsome looking club in its hands, beating its challenge as it jabbed its club Eric’s way.
And save for a single Delve, it was the final red blinking light in this Territory.
Offering a challenge his cultivation class all but demanded he accept.
A challenge he had no intention of refusing, as he unsheathed his blade and dared to approach, the pair of them surrounded a hundred yards on all sides by a pincushion of spears thanks to his 16,000 or so revenants, minus a hundred that had actually been destroyed by an entire territory’s worth of horrors.
On the plus side, he was now up hundreds of feline, spinosaurid, and ancient tusker-like horrors. Sentinels he would use to guard his phalanx in future charges, now racing around the entire periphery, their howls, squeals, and roars echoing endlessly across the plains so suited to Eric’s cavalry-like charges, as if announcing to the entire world the duel about to take place, just seconds from now.
Eric took a sweet breath of air laden with the rich spice of wild potency. Sparkling flashes of power rich with notes of spiritual energy and arcane potency both. A heady concoction as invigorating as Champagne and a lover’s kiss.
Yet the gentle prairie breeze was rich as well with the sharp earthy notes of blood and death that Eric’s wholesale slaughter had added to the piquant bouquet of flavors washing over the army entire, and the gigantic ape-like sentinel swinging its massive club that Eric poured every last ounce of his focus upon… After butchering nearly a thousand powerful residents of this territory he would claim as his own. No matter that most of the potency and kills had gone to feed his gloriously potent sarissophoroi. For his revenants now truly were both a fusion of orcish memories and the recollected battles of the first legions of pikemen ever to stride across the face of Europe, thousands of years ago.
It was all Eric could do to hold back his manic grin, his blood bubbling with the exhilaration of mana, power, and imminent death crackling in the air as the fearsome ape’s fiery hot gaze met his own.
An ape who’s profile demanded Eric lift his gaze to focus upon the massive tusked horror’s face, a good eight yards above his own. Over thirty feet of roaring death, whipping about a massive club Eric knew could easily cave in the head of even the spinosaurids, for there was no other explanation for this creature’s continued survival in a territory as wild and vicious as this one.
Eric’s heart lurched in his chest when the massive club exploded into the ground.
As it had half a dozen times before, sending out massive plumes of soil, vegetation and great big clods of earth. A gesture no doubt intended to intimidate any would be threats, to force who knew how many challengers to back down.
And just a second later the giant lurched his massive club that must weigh several hundred pounds right back up, waving it wildly in the air, as he had half a dozen times before.
Find Weakness Skillcheck: Success!
Eric felt his rictus of a grin stretched all the wider, a tiny portion of his mind screaming that what he was priming himself for was madness, a sure recipe for death, and he owed neither this creature, nor any particular path his life, when over 16,000 of his closest friends could take care of this in less than a minute.
Panicked thoughts unworthy of one who would dare to take on the whole damned world, he castigated himself as a fresh surge of terror he chose to call exhilaration left him trembling (shaking with excitement!) as the ground exploded yet again, the roaring ape now smashing the ground with such force that the spray of dirt served as perfect cover as he darted forward, RUNNING as fast as he ever had… SPRINTING for the short squat legs bearing so much weight, left one shifting forward as it had so many times before, taking on the extra weight as the now-alarmed ape, seeing its prey moving so fast, tried to shift and pivot...
As the air erupted in a white hot flash, a bar of liquid flame encased in a vise of Wind-Qi flared for a single endless moment. A moment that times seemed to stretch and slow as Eric, right under a monster who could stomp him to a bloody pulp! CLEAVED through the massive trunk of an ankle before him, fifty pounds of obsidian-sharp mithril with the most exquisite of serrated edges slicing right through thick hide, ropy muscle, and sinewy tendon before jarring to a halt as it bit into the bone of a creature who’s level was at least twice his own.
The air reverberated with a monster’s desperate howl as a suddenly panicked Eric RIPPED his blade out with every iota of strength he had, paying no heed to the happy ding on his interface as the air turned bright red with a crimson spray, and death was a heartbeat from collapsing, but knowing he could not retreat. Dare not retreat.
Not now, when his foe’s multi-ton weight instinctively shifted to the uninjured leg, a heartbeat before the beast could fall to the ground and do all it could to smack and slap and crush the unforgivable invader who dared claim its territory.
Not when Eric could DART behind his foe’s left heel, suddenly presented with a target that reminded him so much of his training pel.
A pel he had graced with so many furiously fast cross-cuts from his first training saber.
Only now, his blunted practice blade had been replaced by fifty pounds of impossibly sharp mithril, white hot with his channeled Qi.
And the massive thick trunk before him was torn completely open as he whipped his fiery mithril blade in a low to high sweeping cut, before snapping his waist and whipping his blade back through already tormented flesh now spurting a geyser of arterial blood.
Only this time, Eric made sure to jerk as he slid his blade through yielding flesh, so that when it bit deep into bone, he could immediately wrench it free.
Though not quite in time to avoid imminent peril as his Tier 2 Danger Sense screamed in alarm with the approach of imminent death. The massive multi-tonned beast, in too much shock and crippling pain to launch a coordinated attack was still collapsing with a stunned howl, Eric having taken full advantage of his inhuman stats to draw and slice in the blink of an eye, moving so many times faster than a normal human could that even this monster’s strength couldn’t hope to compensate. Not completely.
But Eric had still wasted precious time he could have used to sprint away for all he was worth.
Time he strove to desperately make up for, as he pivoted and sprung back.
Before soft crumbly soil and a wall of grass betrayed him, slowing his desperate sprint as it had dozens of times already that day, though never before at such hideous cost.
And he had come so close to completely dodging the massive club the howling ape hurled his way in a furious final act of defiance.
But not quite.
Not as a monstrous weight pounded into his spine with such force he was sent spinning through the air before crashing to the ground with a wheeze, fighting just to breathe as his back was filled with liquid flame, his ears ringing with he hideous howls of the monstrous ape behind him.
An ape that no doubt wanted him dead at all costs.
You have been peripherally struck by Petrified Club!
Fatal Wound Reduced to Severe Wound!
You have saved versus paralysis!
You have saved versus organ rupture!
Multiple organs bruised.
Unified Restoration skillcheck made!
Eric choked back a desperate scream as the agony, far from numbing out into a throb, or the stunned relief of oblivion, instead turned to a white-hot poker searing through flesh, bone, and muscles, as his Unified Restoration amplified his natural regeneration to agonizing degrees, a whimpering Eric suppressing a heart-wrenching lurch of terror as a certain howling abomination screeched and roared for his death.
And Eric could sense its crippled body thrashing through the grass.
Grass, that besides hindering him, now acted as perfect camouflage.
And Eric knew he was the biggest fool in the world when what was now nearly 17,000 dead disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Slipping in to his silver serpent’s ring now blessed with no less than 28 intertwined coils.
Because despite his agony, despite the death he courted, if this land was truly to bear his mark of claimance… he had to finish this fight alone. And even if he knew his eminently flexible Adventurer class would forgive any and every tactic, though he would only earn potency commensurate to his his direct involvement… Death’s path was one he now feared he had been a fool to take.
For all that it promised unlimited power, a path to endless advancement he could hope to find nowhere else in this knowledge-starved world… there was a cost.
He could only forge himself in the crucible of battle.
And should any tactical retreat turned to a desperate route with any duel he had defined in his own mind, if nowhere else, as one to advance his cultivation… he would have earned Eve’s contempt and have broken his cultivation base forevermore.
An epiphany that struck him only in that moment as he shivered and trembled in the grass, waiting desperately for a cracked spinal column to finish resealing itself, ribs to twist and grind and fuse themselves back into place, and bruised organs to heal at white-hot speeds… and do it all while savaging his lips to the point they spurted blood, choking down his own screams.
Because stealth and camouflage were as much a part of the predator’s arsenal as strength and speed, and only a fool denied himself desperately needed healing…
So long as they stayed in the wings of battle, ready to swoop down… NOW!
Lurching back to his feet with a choked hiss and swallow, ignoring as best he could the white-hot shocks and jolts to his spine as he loped forward with 500 pounds of mithril on his frame, Infravision spotting so clearly what the grass hid so well from his still howling foe.
A foe who’s cries were as much whimpers of pain as howls of agony, and Eric found his heart twisting in pity for the keening brute, rocking on it’s back as it sought only to staunch the arterial flow of blood from not one but a pair of arterial wounds that only its insane Vitality and absurdly high level had allowed it to endure for this long.
Eric’s fear and fury, even the pain still searing through his spine transformed to heartwrenching sympathy.
Because for all that he knew this beast was a man killer, for all that both the System and his Interface and the laws of this savage land made it clear that any incursion of tiny elves or humans just a tiny fraction of its size would be met with swift and savage reprisals, for all that its death would serve as the key to unlocking a sanctuary for untold thousands, when Eric felt the final cracks in his spine fuse up completely, fiery pain turning to a tingle then nothing… when Eric embraced the sweet rush of superhuman speed he had focused so much of his potential in specializing in, he strove for the quickest and cleanest of critical strikes.
Holding off on drawing the mithril blade vibrating so furiously in its sheath until his entire body trembled with a fiersome surge of spiritual energy.
So much so that the wailing beast’s whimpers softened, massive nose sniffing the air.
Then it was over, in the blink of an eye.
DOOMSLICE!
You have critically struck your foe with Windfire Strike 8 times!
Windfire Strike has obliterated the base of your opponent’s spine!
Windfire Qi has flooded your opponent’s braincase!
Your opponent has perished!
Even as Eric’s temporary Soul Reserves crashed a full 50 points and his Qi Pool an additional 90, his eyes widened in sudden revelation as the power and potency of the massive ape became his own.
Congratulations! You have bested an opponent over twice your adventurer level in Single Combat!
Swordsmanship is now Rank 27!
Stealth is now Rank 15!
Unified Perception is now Rank 22!
Find Weakness is now at Rank 24!
Windfire Strike is now Rank 8!
Master Adventurer is now Level 38! You have earned 9 level-up points!
Congratulations! You have dared to forge yourself in the crucible of battle against a more powerful opponent that you have never encountered before!
You have advanced 1 cultivation rank as Death’s Disciple!
You are now a Level 23 Cultivator, walking a path few would dare! Strength, Quickness, Vitality, and Spiritual Energy have all gone up 3 points!
Breakthrough made! You now appreciate more viscerally than ever the promise and peril of the path you dare!
There is no limit to how far you can progress walking Evolution’s Path!
But to flee any engagement you have marked for this path is to die a little death from which there is no recovery. Note! Stealth, tactical maneuvering, and staying out of your enemy’s clutches long enough to recover and reengage are elements of tactics and survival, and are accepted tolls of survival.
But you will know in your heart when terror or despair compels your footsteps. And that will be your final moment along Eve’s path!
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