Re: Evolution Online

After that short and abrupt farewell, Liam decided to make one more stop on the way before returning to the magic shop. He wanted to check out the area that had once been Gu family guild's main residence.

This was something that had almost slipped his mind and he was only reminded of it recently after seeing the sleezebag uncle's face.

"Luna, some more to the left." He guided the white fox. 

The first time he was here, he was working in the compound like a slave. The second time he was here, he had come by train and Luna was still trapped in the game world. 

However, everything was different now. The Gu family was completely erased and Luna as well was with him in the apocalyptic world.

"There. That's the spot." Liam patted the fox and pointed to several acres of land in the distance. This was once a dry and barren area, only covered by some small weeds without much else growing.

But now the same place was almost unrecognizable. The entire area was covered with lush greenery, trees and plants grown without any restraint.

Luna had to slice apart some rather tough branches and vines, just to land on the ground.

"Hmmmm?" Liam's gaze lingered around the place, wondering what was so special about it. 

In his last life, the Gu family had monopolized this whole region and even kept strict security allowing only certain people in and out of the main compound.

Slaves like him could only work in the outer border. Severe punishment was meted out to anyone who did not follow the rules.

Liam looked at the area for a few more minutes trying to figure out its secret but it was not very useful. Just from a superficial glance, there was really nothing special about the place.

Especially, with the dense vegetation grown rampant, even he couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

"Alright. I guess it is time to take this to the next level." He let out a sigh and called forth his army. Immediately a sea of soul minions appeared, flooding the densely crowded area.

"Clean this up completely. Wyverns, stand back. Dimitri and Crawford, lead the group. Make sure that there is nothing valuable among the trees and plants."

Liam gave clear instructions to the group and then hopped back on to Luna as the two of them lifted back up into the sky, floating around above the land and not interfering in the clean up.

Among all the soul minions, the dark elf Dimitri and the tower master Crawford were the most knowledgeable when it came to herbs and such.

The wyverns were also probably talented in sniffing out treasures but Liam hadn't seen a proof of this yet so he decided to be sceptical. 

After all, all the lore he had heard about draconian creatures back in the game might or might not be true. Knowing the manipulative nature of the divine temple, Liam wouldn't put anything past them.

Once he issued the orders, Liam then had nothing to do as he simply laid on top of Luna and waited for his minions to tear down the whole area apart inch by inch.

"Doesn't this bring back fond memories, Luna?" Liam chuckled. Back inside the game world, he had personally done this sort of thorough search and ransack in order to locate the necromancer's hideout.

Everything had started from there.

And now they had come so far.

However, the true test was still the apocalypse. Whatever happened in the game world would only become irrelevant if he couldn't stand the trials of this new world.

Liam's mind wandered to the vampires and Jonathan's strange skills once more as he silently pondered about this while his minions did the hard labor.

Time ticked by and a few minutes later, both Dimitri and Crawford came forward to report to Liam. Unexpectedly, they were holding in their hands a few hexagonal shaped gems?

Hmm? Liam immediately jumped down from the fox to examine these new items.

"Inspect." He took one of the red gems in his hand and looked at it. 

Surprisingly, these things only looked like gemstones, with cleanly cut edges and a sparkle and shine like a diamond, but they were very different to feel. They almost felt like a…

<Ding. Red Stone Cherry - a fruit that can be consumed; This fruit is typically found in areas with high mineral content>

Liam's eyes widened on reading the description. "This thing is a fruit?" 

Since the [Inspect] skill deemed this to be a consumable, he tried eating one of the red-colored fruit. He took the one in his hand and placed it into his mouth. 

Crunch! Liam cringed as he was fully prepared for his teeth to take a good hit but surprisingly the stone like fruit was very tender and juicy on the inside, with a sweet taste filling his mouth from the bite.

He then tossed the whole thing into his mouth, not to waste any juices and chewed and swallowed it. The next second, a notification popped out.

<Ding. You have gained +5 Strength>

Heh. Liam grinned as he swiped the notification away. What an unexpected windfall!

He eyed the rest of the fruits the two soul minions were holding greedily when all of a sudden, he noticed that a certain fox's beady little eyes were also glued onto the fruit pile. She even licked her lips as she eyed the sparkly stone fruits.

"NO! LUNA!"

Liam immediately took action as he placed all the fruits into his storage space.

Kyu! The fox could only look at him pitifully. She seemed very hurt that he did not trust her and even took such drastic actions.

Liam, however, firmly shook his head. "Don't act so innocent. I know you, you little glutton!"

He then started retrieving the fruits from his storage space one after the other, eating the sparkly things right in front of the fox mercilessly.

<Ding. You have gained +5 Strength>

<Ding. You have gained +5 Strength>

<Ding. You have gained +5 Strength>

<Ding. You have gained +5 Strength>

Liam licked his finger after finishing the fifth fruit, and next went for the sixth helping. However, after this one, he did not receive any notification. He ate one more and did not get any then as well.

"I guess that's about it." 

Seeing that he was done, he turned towards the adorable pouting fox and flashed her a kind, warm smile. He then handed her five red fruits as if he was the most generous person in the world.

The dark elf Dimitri who watched this scene, rolled his eyes at his master. 

Who would even fall for this act? He turned to look at Crawford, but the guy was different from him. All of his soul was not there, so he was basically an emotionless robot.

Sighing, he turned back and continued observing his master and his little master. To his surprise, the next scene shocked him to the core.

Luna saw Liam's action, and the innocent fox revealed the most adorable smile as she happily accepted the fruits! What the heck? 

Even a baby was not this gullible! Just what sort of brainwashing did this guy do to the fox??? Dimitri was speechless.

Actually, he was very aware of how crafty, cunning and intelligent the fox was. Her only flaw was that she was utterly blind when it came to this one person!

"Tell me when you do not gain stats anymore." Liam patted the fox as he started feeding her the fruit one after the other. Unlike him, Luna actually ate all ten remaining fruits, licking clean the entire pile. She even looked up at him with twinkling eyes, expecting some more.

"You are not done yet?" Liam wryly chuckled.

Kyuuu! 

"I am still gaining strength, master." Luna licked her mouth, smearing red juices all over her snow white fur.

"Well, sorry. That's all we have." Liam shook his head helplessly.

Kyuuu!

"Luna is happy, master." She came in for a few more pats.

Afraid to break up this ridiculous heartwarming scene, Dimitri slightly coughed. "There is more." The soul minion mumbled.

"Right, there are the green ones and the blue ones." Liam nodded. There were three kinds of fruits in total, and he had a dozen or so of all of them, with the red ones now completely gone.

Liam took out a green fruit and inspected it.

<Ding. Green Stone Cherry - a fruit that can be consumed; This fruit is typically found in areas with high mineral content>

A similar description popped out. Since his [Inspect] skill was still at the base level, this was already quite good, so he did not mind.

"As long as it is consumable." Liam tossed a green fruit into his mouth. Immediately, a notification popped out.

<Ding. You have gained +5 Agility>

"Ho Ho. Nice." He grinned and was about to put the next fruit into his mouth when the dark elf soul minion once again spoke up.

"Master, I am not talking about these fruits. There are a lot more where these came from!" He said, correcting Liam's earlier misunderstanding.