The first trial (1)

"In this world... you will face many challenges... and the only way to not die... is to evolve."

'I knew it was coming.'

"This world... and it's inhabitant... can evolve. Every time... you do something amazing... or kill another being... you can get... evolution points."

The people looked even more confused now.

"Evolution... can be anything. Just... think about something... and you can get it... for a price... set by the gods. Now... think about what you want... to become or upgrade... about yourself."

'Evolution.'

Malik looked to make sure but he didn't have any point yet.

Everyone did the same thing and could all see their points in their head.

"Now that you have... all understood how... it works. Let's make you earn... your first few points." said the messenger with a grin on his face.

When the messenger finished his sentence, three dozen of beetles with blue shells, the size of an house cat, appeared. Their shell looked to be too hard to crack by hand but if you could turn them around, a normal human could probably kill it with his hands.

"Fight!"

At those words, the beetles started rushing toward the group of people who were still confused and disoriented.

A girl screamed.

Not everyone was ready to fight.

'Even if they don't fight seriously they're just blue shell beetles, no one should die.'

Malik walked forward and started to stab the beetles in between the crack of their shells which killed them instantly. Their green blood spilled everywhere around him and on him. The vest was now dyed in green. The beetles couldn't do much damage so he just put the shield on his back.

'Too easy.'

For an experienced fighter, blue shell beetles were the equivalent of an ant or an house spider. They didn't have much power and their defense was easily breached. An all around weak creature.

But, people still had problem getting rid of one.

The beetles that Malik didn't kill would go on his side and start attacking the weakest of the group.

Some got bruises and others got patches of skin tore off themselves.

Many screamed when the beetles started to attack them and munch on their skin.

Malik continued his killing spree, he now had killed seven of them.

'Evolution. 7 evolution points. They really are weak creatures to only give 1 evolution points. A normal human, who hasn't evolved, gives around 10.'

A big man, who looked to be from the military, started to attack the beetles. He didn't have any weapon but he knew how to deal with them. He would take one, flip it and squeeze it's inner body part with his hands.

It was a gruesome way to kill something but it worked.

He also earned an evolution points when he killed the beetle and started to kill every beetle in his sight.

A similar situation happened with a business woman who was more in the back. She would wait for the beetles to attack somebody else and then rip it off, put it on it's back and give it a powerful kick with her high heels.

"Disgusting! They ruined my tailor made shoes with their blood."

She was disgusted but when she got a taste of the evolution points, she also started going on a rampage.

When you got evolution points for the first time, every being wanted more. It was an instinct to become stronger and to survive.

The three of them cleared most of the beetles while the rest of the group killed only four.

Malik had killed 21 beetles, the man 5 and the woman 6.

The beetles' corpse were all over the ground, green blood coming out of them.

'Seems like my guess was right. There's two other useful people in this group.'

'I have 21 evolution points. Let's see how much a sword fighting technic costs.'

Malik thought of his own evolution and what he wanted to evolve to be.

He wanted to become good with the sword and to do that he needed to have a technic, even if it was a basic one.

A list of sword technic appeared before him.

-B3 Oblivion duelist's technic: 1000 points

-C9 Noble sword fighting technic: 550 points

-B10 Peaceful sword technic: 680 points

...

-E8 Elite sword technic: 35 points

-F1 Basic sword technic: 15 points

'Basic sword technic'

It was the first technic Malik learnt in his previous life. It was a good starting technic who could grow to become on the level of a C1 if practiced well but it couldn't grow more after. What's more, it stopped one to use any other weapon than the sword.

It was known as a cursed skill. It was a skill that could give you power for a small price but that also had a draw back who outweighed the power it gave.

'I won't do the same error in this life. I'll wait to have enough points to buy 'Elite sword technic'.'

'In the meantime I'll use my points to upgrade my raw power.'

Raw power was a term used to describe the basic stats someone could evolve and upgrade.

In order they were: strength, stamina, agility, dexterity and perception.

They all had a use and ,even if upgrading them wasn't costly, they would bring out huge power if evolved enough times.

Malik thought of the raw power he wanted to evolve and another list appeared.

-Strength: 1 point

-Stamina: 1 point

-Agility: 1 point

-Dexterity: 1 points

-Perception: 1 points

They all cost one point and alone couldn't do much but if you'd invest more points in them they'd become really useful. They were also needed for certain thing. For example, certain skills need a set amount of strength or agility.

And for the 'Elite sword technic' you needed to be at least as strong as a professional weight lifter and have the agility of an Olympic gymnast.

It sounds big when you learn about it for the first time, but your raw power increased really fast in this world.

'I will use 10 points in strength, 6 in agility and 5 in stamina.'

'Evolution completed.'