Re: Evolution Online

Meanwhile… back on earth…

Liam looked around him, standing rooted to the same spot as if he was in a trance. What just happened? 

The events that had transpired in the past few seconds or, rather, the past few minutes were all nothing but a blur to him. So many things had happened, and he had even almost lost his life, but he still did not know why.

All he knew was, somehow, he was here, still standing and alive.

Kyuu… Luna walked over to him tiredly and rested near his feet. Liam, too, couldn't stand any longer and collapsed on the ground.

The two of them silently stared at the destruction and devastation around them. There was just blood and blood everywhere. They couldn't see beyond that.

The whole place was just a bloody mess with puddles and puddles of rotting blood, the stench of death heavily lingering in the air around them.

There was only blood. Nothing else was visible. The vampires were all dead. The soul minions were no longer there.

Hmmm? Liam's face changed as he quickly checked to make sure that the soul minions were still there. Did something happen to them?

No. He could feel them. They were still there. Only after confirming this, he sighed in relief. 

Perhaps because his soul strength had drained so much during the fight, they had automatically been dismissed.

He summoned them back again and sent everyone to patrol the area. It looked like this whole place had really been cleared out. So everything was perhaps truly over?

Liam was so tired and beaten up that he wanted to collapse so badly. However, he couldn't let himself relax just yet. Was he really out of danger? He couldn't believe it. Maybe the enemy was still lurking around somewhere nearby?

One second he was hunting down these vampire lords who had popped out of nowhere, and the next second, there was an insanely powerful figure crushing him down and even almost succeeded in killing him.

But now, none of them were there. Only a calm remained. He really couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

Liam let out a deep breath and summoned the five vampire lord soul minions he had forged. Perhaps these five together might give him some idea of what exactly went down here.

Immediately, the five lords, one after the other, appeared in front of him. They were calm and obedient without any sense of individuality, well, except for Jonathan Hofstadter.

Liam tried to access their memories, but there was nothing there. Not even the recollection of who they were or what skills they used. 

They also did not enough anything about the blood effigy or the childlike voice or the other voice that had spoken. In short, they were completely and utterly useless puppets.

Liam sighed in tiredness and dismissed them. He stared into the distance and took a few deep breaths when he realized that he had missed something rather important.

These soul minions were not the only ones who knew about things and could potentially give him some information. 

There was also… Helikatos, and if he was correct, unlike these vampires, the spider beast man should not have any memory loss.

Liam hurriedly summoned the MVP of the hour.

The soul minion appeared disgruntled, but he obediently bowed to Liam. "Master?" 

"Quick. What can you tell me about these vampires?" 

Helikatos stared at Liam blankly for a moment and then shook his head slowly. "Vampires? I am only aware of the weakling who was guarding the treasure with me, Master. Is he the vampire you are talking about?"

Damn it. Again? Liam bitterly smiled. "I guess then you also have no idea about any of this." 

Every turn he was taking was somehow becoming a dead end. How the hell was he supposed to find out more about these vampires?

Wait… Liam realized that he had been too focused on the vampires that he altogether forgot about the treasure.

"You said you were guarding a treasure? What were you guarding?"

And to his surprise, this time, Helikatos started talking. 

"Master, I was guarding the seed. I don't know what this seed is and what will grow from the seed, but the water forming around the seed makes me stronger. It gave me the tough physical defense."

Even as he said that, Helikatos looked around himself, or rather his new soul form as if he was wondering just how much of his previous physical strength remained.

However, Liam did not care about this at the moment as he stared at the spider in shock. That was right. It was the seed. Everything had to do with the seed.

This reminded him of the words of the blood effigy, especially the questions that it had asked him in that childish tone. 

He had been far too drained and tired that he had completely forgotten about this whole thing, but now it all came back, flooding his mind.

Liam suddenly felt as if several pieces of the puzzle were clicking together.

The spider was talking about some sort of seed, and the blood effigy had asked him about the same seed, except that he called it something…

"World seed!" Liam mumbled in deep thought.

He also remembered the effects of the water. He took the water bottle out and looked at it for a couple of seconds before taking a big mouthful of it.

Immediately, a wave of warm, nourishing energy spread across his body, repairing all of his injuries and his bleeding and ruptured insides. 

He could physically feel the rapid healing as if he had just consumed a high-grade health potion. Some color also returned to his face, and he was able to think better.

"So the only thing special about this water is that it was surrounding the world seed?" Liam looked at the bottle in puzzlement.

Just how powerful was this thing if the mere water washing it was this potent?

However, it looked like even this liquid had its limitations. A couple of minutes after he had drank the elixir, his physical injuries were somewhat healed, but he was still mentally tired and exhausted. 

There was also another vague, dull pain in the depth of his body that Liam could only associate with his soul. 

He hadn't noticed this before when he used the [Soul Splice] skill, but now that he had knocked on death's door and returned back, he was able to feel it more clearly.

From these observations, this water itself was not as effective as the milky way pond water which healed everything from the inside out.

Even so, Liam did not dare to dismiss the importance of the 'world seed.' After all, a mysterious, powerful being or maybe two had almost killed him just for the sake of it.

Also, one had to take into account that it had merely been weeks since the apocalypse started, and perhaps this world seed formed, and even in these few weeks, the spider had been regularly consuming the liquid.

What he had was just the remaining water, and this in itself was so potent in aiding the recovery. Perhaps if left longer, the water will have better effects, or forget the water, whatever grew out of the seed would definitely have better effects.

Liam then took out the all-important seed from the spatial artifact and narrowed his eyes to study the object in detail. He tried using the skill [Inspect] on the seed, but it gave him nothing.

"This is a seed?" He rubbed it between his fingers, trying to get a feel for the texture, or maybe he hoped something else would happen.

Unfortunately, nothing did. The thing looked so ordinary, not even like a real seed. It looked as if some beast or creature had chewed it and spat it back out.

Was this really what the whole fight was all about? It was almost unbelievable.

Hmmm… He sighed. No matter how unlikely it looked, he couldn't ignore the truth.

Even at the time he first encountered the spider beast, he had found it very odd that the beast was already at Level 110. To his knowledge, such a high-level beast shouldn't have appeared now, at this point in the apocalypse!

And yet, here Helikatos was.

Moreover, the spider beast's stats, skills, abilities, and everything were extraordinary. He was even a named monster which at least gave him an Elite status. His rate of evolution was exponential.

All of this seemed extremely impossible, but if there was a catalyst driving this whole process, then suddenly, everything made sense.

And if this catalyst was merely the water surrounding it, the world seed was definitely a top-grade treasure. 

Otherwise, the unknown vampiric enemy wouldn't have been after it so desperately. He had orchestrated so many elaborate things and created so many 'vampire lords' just for the sake of the seed.

Just who the heck was this person? How did he know that something like this would exist? How did he even know where to find it?