After a day of rest, Evan finally decided to use the Vial he had acquired from the Ten Thrones.
He was eager to use it and kill Lucas, as leaving him unchecked would only complicate matters further.
First, he decided to send the money leaving some he considered surplus for himself. He used the previous account details he had from before to transfer the funds.
He sent two million each, as his army of dead (still small though) was very proficient in earning money, leaving him with only one million CP for his own use.
He then started to head toward the CGA, reasoning that if he used the Vial elsewhere and something went wrong, he would be in a precarious situation.
If he lost consciousness and someone found him, his secrets or his life could be at risk.
To mitigate this, he chose to use the Vial inside a dungeon, as after defeating all the monsters there, he could use it without any concern.
After checking everything in his inventory, he headed outside, closing the door behind him.
He went downstairs and took a ride to the CGA, where the atmosphere remained unchanged.
Hunters were moving back and forth between the hunter market and the association building, with many officials managing them. He quickly headed toward the building and entered it.
Maybe his luck was particularly bad today, as the first person he encountered was none other than Lucas, who was accompanied by his two girls, Ilya and Tess.
However, there was something: a new person had joined their team, a boy at that.
He appeared quite unremarkable for his looks, but the only distinguishing feature was a sword almost as tall as he was, strapped to his back.
He must be the new crew member Lucas had recruited using his cheat.
He backed away slightly into the crowd to avoid being seen and even altered his status to evade notice.
Surely, this guy was using his Dragon Eye to scan other teams.
After waiting for some time, he finally left and approached the desk where the line was relatively short.
He reached the front of the desk on his first attempt and saw a female attendant.
He remembered that Lucas must have come here before.
"Hello, sir, how can I help you today?"
"Hello, I am a D-rank Necromancer, Lv.41, and I am here to find an available dungeon for hunting." He said while altering his status to look like that.
"Okay, sir, but where is your team? We did not allow hunters to hunt solo without permission."
"Oh, don't worry, I have the necessary permission."
He said as he took out his ID and showed it to her, which bore the Wolf mark.
She instantly recognized it and was shocked to see such low-grade individual possessing such a mark so easily.
"Oh, you have the qualifications to enter. Let me see if there are any dungeons suitable for you."
She went to her computer and began checking the dungeon list within that range.
After some time, she returned with a professional smile and said,
"Yes, sir, there is a dungeon 'The Ember Caverns.' Do you wish to raid it?"
"Yes, so is it ready to raid, or do I have to wait?"
"No, you can raid instantly, no need to wait," she said as she typed something on her computer and handed over his ID.
He started to move toward the dungeon area where the dungeon was located.
He searched around and found the dungeon that was mentioned to him.
The dungeon emitting a little heat energy from it.
He came closer it and was ready to dive in when an official came and stopped him.
"What are you doing, boy? Can't you see that the dungeon is in a high danger state mutation period? Are you trying to commit suicide?"
"Huh I don't know anything about that, but I got registered to raid it, so I was just going inside thinking that this was normal."
"Huh, what? But the association was told not to register anyone for this dungeon. Then why did they do it? Hold on, let me check the problem. He said as he went a little distance away to check, but he didn't see what was happening behind his back.
After checking, he was about to tell the guy to head back and take another dungeon when he saw no one standing behind him.
He was confused and shocked, in quick succession as he approached the gate and attempted to enter, but was deflected, indicating that someone was already inside.
"Hahh! This fool is going to jeopardize my job."
He immediately took out his phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, Manager, there is a problem here...."
Meanwhile, inside the dungeon, Evan appeared at the entrance of a cave emitting a tremendous amount of hot wind.
He quickly understood why it was called Ember Caverns, as the intense heat justified its name.
He swiftly equipped his items and began to proceed inside.
The dungeon was designed for use by Level 40 to 50 hunters, with three types of monsters available for hunting.
The first was the normal monster, Ember Lizard, while the second was the elite monster found in the deeper parts of the Cavern, called Blaze Sentinel, which are large and sturdy-looking lizards.
The third and final monster is the boss, known as Flame Serpent, the ruler of the Caverns, commanding all the lizards and Sentinels as their lord.
He ventured inside, as many hunters would not be able to withstand such heat, but Evan was different. His Elemental Manipulation ability provided him with elemental resistance as his proficiency in the element increased.
That is why he chose this dungeon, as fire would not harm him much.
He continued to move forward until he finally heard some noises approaching him.
He stopped and prepared to attack as he finally saw his targets.
A group of six Ember Lizards was moving toward him with furious looks.
He got ready just as they were within his range, and before they could react, the ground below them began to shake as six spikes made of earth pierced through their bodies like butter cut by a hot knife.
They tried to struggle, but it was futile.
They took their last breaths, leaving their bodies as souls stuck at the spikes.
It was a small application Evan practiced in his Earth manipulation ability, which he had honed in the past few days.
[You've slain 6× EmberLizard (Lv.42-44), you've gained 2,060 (Less EXP for higher level gap).] [13,533/15,000]
[
He placed the lizards into his inventory and continued to head further inside.
After many hours of walking, fighting, and finding various paths, he finally reached his destination.
The core area where the boss resided. He took so much time to reach here because he searched around all the area to kill every monster in here.
The heat emanating from the area was almost unbearable, even for him who had become quite strong.
He checked his status, noting he was already above Lv.54 after numerous battles. His EXP was now close to leveling up to Lv.55, needing only a few thousand points. [13,626/17,000]
Behind him was his trusted army of bones which he dismissed to look at the situation first.
Throughout his journey, he had been finding and killing all the monster splitters in the area, as it was necessary to complete his objective.
The only thing he had not done yet was using plunder on all of them, as he intended to use it in bulk, finding it more effective than using it individually.
Without further thought, he proceeded inside and saw the boss lying on the floor, surrounded by pits of lava indicating that the caverns were part of volcano.
The core area was the primary source of heat, from which the boss monster drew strength and grew in potential too. His scales were glowing in red color due to the continuous absorption of heat.
The serpent opened its eyes after sensing someone and looked at Evan standing before him.
It became enraged, assuming that if a human was present, its guards and followers must have fallen by his hands.
Its head lifted into the air as a massive heat aura erupted from its body, mingling with the volcanic heat. The effect was so intense that even Evan struggled to withstand it and had to use his Earth element to guard himself.
He formed a wall in front of him to stop the aura of heat radiating towards him. Before he could do anything, the serpent collided with the earth wall, destroying it in seconds.
Evan quickly used his Shadow Leap skill to escape.
He appeared ten meters away from the serpent, which found him and lunged at him again. Evan was ready and instantly used the Earth element to attack, but the serpent agility allowed it to dodge all the spikes.
Realizing that fighting this way would futile, Evan devised a new strategy. He quickly summoned fifteen skeletons using his Undead Summon skills.
He then rapidly used his other skills before the serpent could reach him.
"{NecroticSurge} {WeakCurse} {WitheringGrasp} {MightyRoar} {ShadowBolt}." He used these abilities to enhance his undead powers and weaken the serpent. While shooting a bolt which he dodged with a single scratch on his face which didn't inflict the effect.
Instantly, the aura radiating from the undead, while the serpent's speed, power, and defense were significantly reduced for a few minutes.
With the serpent weakened, the undead took the chance to attack it head-on.
Evan didn't just watch; he repeatedly used his bow, infusing arrow tips with the Lightning element to inflict damage and debuff.
His Necrotic aura was reducing the damage and stamina of the serpent while healing his summons slightly, which was sufficient.
As the serpent found himself outnumbered,
He instantly backed away a little, but the Skeletons didn't give him any time to retreat. Under pressure, he used his skill without even half need of it.
Instantly, a burst of flame erupted from him, throwing all the skeleton against wall of the cave.
The wheel of fire didn't stop, healing even the wounds inflicted by the skeletons rapidly in the flames.
Evan got confused as such a level of recovery was impossible with external help. He looked around and found all the heat from the volcano heading toward the boss.
He instantly recognized the issue and used his earth element to cover all the holes in the ground.
The holes were closed immediately, stopping the heat energy from the volcano and reducing the boss's healing.
He then used his fire element to blow away the flame layer covering the boss, who was puzzled by the sudden stop in healing.
As he realized his skill had stopped, he saw the summons coming toward him.
He quickly used his tail to swipe the skeletons away, but their power wasn't insignificant. Their master had +3 Strength and agility, so they had 80% of his power. skeletons quickly caught his tail.
While the other continued to attack him,
Evan decided to the attack, reusing his debuff skills.
He quickly disappeared from his place using his shadow leap skill, reappearing above the struggling serpent. The serpent looked up to see the human standing meters away from him suddenly above him.
Evan came down rapidly, using his skill to make a combo attack."{Meteor Dash×Seismic Rupture}" He fell like a comet to burst his opponent.
As his kick landed on the serpent's scales, it easily broke through them as the skin was also ruptured by the skill combo.
The area around the kick was also reduced to meat paste by the seismic skill effect...
The synchronization of both skills doubled their effect.
The serpent cried out in pain as its body was almost divided in half by the attack.
But Evan did not stop there to ensure his victory; quickly used his skill to change his weapon and called upon his Storm Rend to execute his final move.
"{Power Slash}" Evan used his skill, and a slash formed by the skill from inside out toward the head of the serpent, ripping apart its body with a perfect cut.
The serpent was unable to resist and gave away its last breath.
Leaving behind its body for Evan to use.
Evan, having used many skills in such a short amount of time, fell to the ground as he emerged from the serpent's body.
He looked around and found that the heat radiating was closed off making the cave more suitable to use his Vial.
He first decided to plunder all of the monster bodies, and then he decided to use his Vial.
He pulled out all of the bodies, which consisted of 46 Ember Lizards, 13 Blazing Sentinels, and finally the Boss of the dungeon, Flame Serpent.
"Plunder," he said, as the unknown talent energy materialized and began to hover above all bodies, notifications starting to appear.
[ [Stats Absorbed]
+37 STR | +46 AGL | +27 STA | +44 INT | +30 VIT | +29 END
[Bloodline]
- Lesser Wyvern {13%}
- Low Drake {6%}
- Low Flame Dragon {1.6%}
[Skills Acquired]
- Blaze Heal × 1
- Heat Rampage (Passive Skill) × 1
- Camouflage × 13
[Skill Integration & Upgrades]
Existing skill detected. Converting excess skills into higher main source data…
Camouflage (Lv.4^) (More efficient in fading into surroundings, increasing stealth.)
[System Notice]
[Unsuitable Skills Disintegrated]
165 Skill Fragments generated (15^).
<7.44% → 36.12%>
While this was happening to Evan, his entire body became chaotic, and his temperature rose beyond limits as the fire essence energy took root in his body but when the energy was diverted to his ability, he felt relieved as the heat started to fade, but the true pain came afterward.
His knowledge, which had been absorbed to enhance comprehension, caused him extreme pain, as if his head were splitting
"Where did that bas*ard candidate find such things to benefit one thing from another? His luck must be exceptional to have such resources. And by the way, remove the bloodline, I don't need it," Evan said, feeling his control and manifestation level were not low as before, after the increase, which made the pain he endured worthwhile as all bloodlines were ejected.
Evan first checked the system information of upgrade and the new skills he had acquired.
[You've slain Flame Seprent (Lv.50). You've gained 15,000 (×3 Boss Monster, No extra Bonus gained).] [28,626/17,500]
[You've Leveled up to Lv.55] [11,626/17,500]
[You've gained 10 Unassigned Points.]
[ __
Skill: Blaze Heal (Lv. 1)
Type: Active | Tier: 0
Mana Cost: 30 MP | Cooldown: 12 seconds
Proficiency: 0%
Description: A unique regenerative skill adapted from monsters, harnessing the essence of flames to mend wounds. By channeling fire as a source of life rather than destruction, the user's body burns away injuries, using controlled combustion to accelerate recovery. The hotter the flames, the faster the regeneration.
Effects:
Flame Regeneration: Restores 20% of the user's missing HP over 5 seconds.
Burn Purification: Burns away minor toxins and infections during healing.
Heat Adaptation: Briefly increases fire resistance by 10% for 10 seconds.
__
Skill: Heat Rampage (Lv. 1)
Type: Passive | Tier: 0
Proficiency: 0%
Description: A monstrous adaptation that fuels the user's strength and resilience in fiery environments. The hotter the surroundings, the greater the boost, allowing the user to thrive in intense heat and turn the battlefield to their advantage.
Effects:
Blazing Strength: Increases physical and magic attack by 10% in hot or fire-infused areas.
Infernal Resilience: Enhances defense by 10% when surrounded by flames or high temperatures.
Fireborn Endurance reduces fire damage taken by 5% at all times.
__
Skill: Camouflage (Lv. 4)
Type: Active | Tier: 0
Mana Cost: 25 MP per second | Cooldown: 5 seconds
Proficiency: 0%
Description: A survival-based skill that allows the user to blend seamlessly into their surroundings, making them harder to detect. While not true invisibility, this technique bends light and minimizes presence, making it invaluable for stealth, ambushes, or escaping danger.
Effects:
Environmental Concealment: Reduces visibility and detection by 40% while standing still and 25% when moving.
Silent Steps: Lower noise generated from movement by 30%.
Predator's Patience increases the first attack's critical hit chance by 10% if striking from stealth.
__
"Hmm, the skills are not bad for a boss like him who got defeat in less than ten minutes but still thanks for the skills," Evan commented as he viewed the skills description but little did he knew that the boss was in mutated state and even above that, the stat he and his skeletons hold are more than enough to defeat three of them in same time if used correctly.
"Then, let's start the real fun," he said as he moved toward the center of the core room, sat on the ground, and took out a certain vial containing a substance too black to see inside.
The vial was extremely cold, and an aura that even gave Evan chills flooded the entire dungeon in seconds.
Even the outside of the dungeon wasn't spared as a deadly aura, un-comprehensible to anyone, began to spread.
The whole city was enveloped in seconds as all the higher-ups, Guild-masters, and even the executives of high guilds came to find the Necromancer felt the approaching chill of death.
The branch manager and vice manager also experienced the same sensation.
No one was able to withstand that aura; mortals and even Tier 4 beings felt the same aura of death, causing many to faint because of it.
Even the monsters outside the city were fleeing, but some seemed to have caught a scent of something, which will be explained in later chapters.
Evan, who was sitting with the source of this energy, opened the lid of the vial, releasing an eerie energy began to fill the core area. The skeletons he had left to defend against any remaining monsters were suddenly empowered, their strength increasing to match his stats merely from energy aura.
Evan was certain it would hurt more if he drank it, but there was no back now.
Just as he was about to drink it, a notification appeared before him, heightening his suspicions.
[The system has detected that the host is using the gift. Please distribute your unassigned stats to maximize the effect of the gift.]
"Okay!" he, following the system advice to secure even a tiny of a life-saving chance
"Core Stats"
◆ HP: 4,200(Regen: 21.00/min)
◆ MP:4,410(Regen: 22.05/min)
◆ Strength (STR):20(+4 Red)(26^)
◆ Agility (AGL):27(+4 Red)(20^)
◆ Vitality (VIT):20 (+4 Red) (84^)
◆ Intelligence (INT):41(+4 Red) (73^)
◆ Endurance (END): 20 (+4 Red) (61^)
◆ Stamina (STA):20(+4 Red) (86^)
◆ Unassigned Stats:350 → 00
◆ Attack Power:1016.4 (Physical, {STR+AGL} *1.2) | 661.5 (Elemental, INT*1.5)
◆ Defense:840 + 160 ({END+STA} *1)
__
He quickly assigned the stats in an unusual manner to +4 Red stat. Initially, he thought that increasing his vitality might help him survive the situation. After careful consideration, he assigned the stats accordingly.
No notification appeared afterward.
He then picked up the vial again and observed his summon, which now looked exceedingly bizarre. The bone density and power they emitted were high.
He took a deep breath and in one gulp, swallowed the entire contents of the vial, sending it down to his stomach in seconds.
At first, he didn't feel anything, not even the taste, thinking it might be tasteless. However, he soon realized that the reason he couldn't taste anything was that his tongue and mouth became numb within seconds, losing all sensation.
His stomach began to feel cold as time passed. His entire body started to go dormant, but he didn't fall asleep. He initially thought it might be ice-related element physique but later considered that it could be an undead-related physique.
To balance the temperature, he used his fire element to create blazing rings for heat, but nothing worked.
He even had his summon crack the earth around the core area where the lava was, but still, nothing worked.
His entire body went numb, and he felt powerless. Suddenly something inside him began to break, releasing a burst of unknown energy. His summons, which stood beside him, were destroyed within seconds upon contact.
He felt his body again, thinking it might be as good as before.
But the real change began after that. His pores, which had been normal until now, started to release a black substance mixed with blood, similar to what he had drunk earlier.
He started to feel pain all over his body as like needles were being poked from inside out.
It began to cover his entire body. Before he could do anything, he was completely enveloped in the black, tar-like substance and plunged into complete darkness.
His body was now encased in a cocoon-like sphere at the core's center.
Anyone attempting to approach him would face death, as the unstable and deadly power forming around him could kill anyone.
No one in the dungeon knew how much time had passed, as the dungeon portal did not appear for some unknown reason, possibly delayed by the energy present in the room.
Many notifications popped up for Evan, but none reached his view as he was lost in some unknown dimension of his own.
A single notification appeared in his mind.
[Congratulations, host, you've gained the Physique, ##### #######.]
- What did he gain, wish to know then be prepared for next chapter.