Evolution (1) (Revised) – A New World Arc (3)

We must do everything we can. This world is strange. We are just city kids who aren't used to a life like this. It's only been three days since we came here. The beds we sleep in are so different from the ones in our world. Our initial attitude had proven to be more of a farce, a brave face to put on. But we have no choice but to get used to this. I may have found a way for us to make our survival easier, or at least Hana's. I never cared about living, but I do care about Hana; she seems hellbent on living despite everything wrong. Well, the King had to kick us out. Goddess Ifrit is on the point of resurrection, and we can't hang out there. But I am content with what the King did. I expected him to be more of an asshole from how he behaved at first. This world is strange, for sure. I still have questions about Goddess Ifrit and why she hates monsters, but our questions will be answered soon.

Today is a whole new day; we have to fight to evolve. I want to do it today so that Hana and I can reach levels 20 and 15 and grow. It's tough to find monsters around this house, so we decided to go to another area that would facilitate our levelling up. But before we do all that, we need a plan and a good cover story. We must not target high-level monsters. Even if we can do that, people will be suspicious of us. I don't know if there are any guilds here, but considering how the world is here, there are guilds only in the city.

"So, what are we going to do today, Hikaru?" Hana looked up at the sky. While thinking about all of this, we decided to go into the clearing and sit down, looking at the clouds.

"Well, we will need to fight monsters; maybe we will evolve, but maybe not. We don't know how Ex works well in this world or if there are any conditions for Evolution. Plus, if we kill monsters, it will be a waste to let the items they drop go to waste; I bet the town of Welcia that the King mentioned is nearby our cabin if I remember correctly. Still, we need a way to disguise ourselves. I don't think people will appreciate us as monsters being there."- My gaze dashed between the clouds, thinking about ways to disguise our skin colour and horn. My skin remained white, but you could see a small layer or something black and, at the same time, transparent over it, and my horns weren't hidden. Hana could hide them in her hair. She tried it, and it worked; they weren't visible, but they made her hair look weird, almost like she was concealing something.

!Exp is gained based on the level of the monster you defeat and its rarity. There are unique monster variants that require more effort to kill them. Some races of sentient monsters may gain experience faster or slower. At your current level, I recommend only killing low-level monsters; other monsters might be more dangerous. If you are faced with a beast like that, you should try fighting it together!- After a few seconds, Sia spoke in a monotone tone.

"Well, thanks for the explanation, but for the disguise?" I need one skill to figure out what it does: King of Deceit and Lies Lucifer. I need some help with its effects.

Lords of Deceit and Lies Lucifer is a skill that allows you to change your appearance entirely. However, it has some limits. You can't hide the amount of magic you emanate, but I will restrict it as much as possible. To clarify, magic emanation is the phenomenon in which magic sips from monsters' bodies when they try to disguise themselves as humans. This goes for both sentient and non-sentient monsters!

"Well, Hana, I think I have the disguise part solved. Remember that skill that I didn't know its effects? Sia told me we could use it to disguise ourselves with it. It's better than nothing. It's not like we have that many skills anyway"- I rose from the ground and looked around the forest to see if we were being watched.

"That will come in handy. Let's try it!"- I helped Hana get up.

*Use skill: Lord of Deceit and Lies Lucifer*- The 2 of us were enveloped in a bright blue light for a few seconds.

After the blue light subsided, we looked at each other; we had a completely different form; our bodies were different and looked nothing like us. No one, not even our colleagues, could recognize us looking like this.

"Sia, what should be our next move?" It's wiser to question Sia during the first few months of our existence; I see this as the only way for Hana to survive in this world longer.

!Go to Welcia and register with the Guild. It's a few km walk away from here. You two should be ok like this. I will try to suppress your magic as much as possible.!

"Got it"- Hana looked and waved her hand in front of my face. I was talking to Sia and forgot I was staring at her.

"Sorry, I was talking to Sia. We should go to Welcia city and register with the Guild there first. We can obtain information on where monsters are located this way.

"Sure. Let's go"

Hana and I started walking to Welcia City. The road there could have been better, at least for our first time. Even with Sia's guidance, we got lost a few times and needed to know the way back to the main road. We were primarily scared of wild monsters that were stronger than us. Monsters here are over level 20; we are barely level 20.

After 3 hours of struggling to understand Sia's directions, we arrived in Welcia City. The city looked good, with a few houses here and there at the entrance, but nothing special. The Guild is close to the entrance, so we entered there. We didn't care much about the other houses or shops that were there.

We opened the doors to the Guild, and a few people were there, but no one paid attention to us.

"Those 2, the magic emanating from them is so weak"- I can hear someone whisper, I don't care.

!I masked your magic. You appear at a lower level than you are!- Check out

"How are you 2? Have you come to register with the Guild here in Welcia City?"- The receptionist looked at us strangely. He was a middle-aged man who looked battle-hardened. In most skis I have seen, most receptionists are female instead of male, but this isn't an ordinary isekai.

"Yes, we want to register with the Guild and take some requests to hunt monsters. I am level 19, and she is level 14." I whispered to him. I didn't want the other people to hear what we were saying. The man looked at us again, but his gaze was more relaxed.

"Well, you can only take G and F rank quests then. Only after 30 quests will you be promoted. All the quests need to be of your rank or one rank higher; those one rank higher count as two of the lower rank." He guided us to a room and told us to put our hands on a crystal globe. We both listened and put our hands there.

My skill is enough to deceive even this crystal ball. Our race is human on both cards. I don't know if demons or other sentient monsters can join this Guild, but we are both ready to take on some quests.

"Well, here are some quests. You will receive exp points from completing the quests, defeating the monsters, or gathering the plants." He gave us five quests that are of F rank. One of them is primarily for gathering medicinal herbs, which should be easy to do with Sia, and the others are for fighting monsters like wolves, giant sheep and fruit monsters. I didn't know such monsters existed in a fantasy world.

!Those are low-tier monsters; even if they are high-level, they won't compare to other monsters you can encounter. It's recommended that you kill a lot of high-level monsters that are of lower tier!

"Got it"

"We will take all five." Hana reached out and grabbed all the papers with quest instructions on them.

"Well, glad to see that you kids are up to earning some money. Not many young people like yourselves want to become adventurers these days"- While we need money, we still have good gear and don't need to buy more. We might buy things for our house but nothing more or less. We could visit the shop or find people who can teach me new skills that I need to learn; if we want to defend ourselves out here, we should be able to use more skills than we already have.

"Well, we will be back once we finish off the monsters, or likely when we finish all the requests."- We left the Guild and decided to go and fight the monsters in the nearby forest. We didn't find them immediately, so we now request medicinal herbs.

We walked until we arrived in a part of a forest with dense vegetation; the deeper you go, the more bushes and plants you find. We were pretty deep into the forest. There were a lot of plants; some of them we used as a seasoning, some were poisonous for humans but tasted good, and some were straight-up toxic to both monsters and humans.

"Sia, What do these herbs look like? I only see something that looks like poison Ivy."

!Despite the look that is a medicinal plant in this world. Poison Ivy is a monstrous plant that looks similar to this one. The only difference is that the plant is alive and will try to kill you!

"Good to know."

"Hana, we should gather as many plants that look like poison Ivy as possible." We started to pick most of the medicinal herbs there. There were many more herbs than just the 1 Sia mentioned, so we also gathered those. Even when we are monsters, our backs still hurt from bending over and collecting all of those plants.

!Being low-level makes this happen; if you don't have the appropriate skills, you will experience back pain. A regeneration skill can come in handy!

"Ok, we have more than enough!" Hana slowly reached her hand into my bag. I didn't mention this, but the Guild gave us a bag to put the plants in before leaving. I should have mentioned this.

"Well, the only thing remaining is to kill those monsters from the requests. Maybe we will reach our next evolutionary stage this way"- I got the list of monster-exterminating requests from my pocket. I looked over them again, and they looked easy enough.

Reaching your evolution level is more complicated than you think. You bottleneck on this level and need exponentially more exp to get to the next level that will grant you Evolution!

"We should go and fight these monsters together. I am pretty confident we will make good progress in Evolution if we complete these requests as soon as possible," Hana nodded.

"Well, Hikaru, we should be careful. We are still low and might be easy to target or injure. I am not talking about monsters; I am talking about human threats like bandits.

"Let's hope we don't meet them, at least for now. It will be a disaster if we do."

We wandered around the forest—not aimlessly, but it looked like it. We were searching in the area where the monsters were spotted. The area is enormous, and all five of our quests are there. On the paper, they say that all of the monsters are gathered up. They say that some intelligent monster or entity is controlling them. But how will this be possible?

!The most plausible case is that there is a leader monster among that bunch of monsters. Monsters have leaders that are ordered in this way, which is more common, Beta which is less common but can still be found, and Gamma, which is the rarest variation a leader monster can take; Alpha are usually of a lower level than Beta and Gamma leaders are from level 150 and up. At your current level, even an Alpha leader is dangerous. The recommended course of action will be avoidance!

"Hana, there may be leader monsters. Leader monsters are more intelligent and can control other monsters, even those of different species. We must be careful when we find the monsters"- Hana nodded and crouched down.

"Hikaru, I feel something nearby." I crouched down and looked to my right, but there was nothing. To my left, there was nothing. I peered through the bushes, and to my surprise, there was a clearing where there were around 60 monsters, a lot in number, but along with them were three leader monsters.

!Suggestion retreat or prepare a sneak attack. Hikaru, you can extend your shadow tendrils to the Leader monsters. I will ensure they are in a position where they will hit all vital parts of the monsters. They will be significantly injured, and you can take them down quickly. The number of monsters in the clearing can be overwhelming. I suggest taking the weaker monsters with ranged attacks first!

"I will do something about the leader monsters. You try to use ranged attacks with your fire magic to keep them at bay. Aim for the weaker monsters first and take them out when they come for us. 60 Monsters are a lot to deal with, but most are weak"- Hana nodded. The air is getting chilly; I didn't notice it, but it looks like night or rain is coming soon.

Getting used to controlling my shadow tendrils is more complex than I thought. Moving them seems weird. They slither along the ground like snakes, don't make a sound, but still look a little creepy.

"Whenever you are ready, Hikaru." I looked around to see if there were any more monsters. The clearing was extensive, and a few could still be hidden.

I nodded my head toward Hana and started the attack. The Shadow Tendrils went through the bodies of the leader monsters, one wolf, one fruit monster, and one golem.

The fruit monster immediately died, exploding when my shadow tendrils pierced its body. The golem was in a similar spot; my shadow tendrils pierced a stone in its chest, and that stone exploded shortly after. The wolf was another story. While I managed to injure it, it began charging at us. Hana was already moving her arms up and down, throwing fireballs at the incoming monsters.

"Here they come!" A few monsters approached the wolf, defending him. I got my shadow tendril to move toward them. In a mere second, my shadow tendrils moved toward the monsters, attacking their weak points.

*Use skill: Shadow Hand*- More monsters got in front of the wolf. I summoned the shadow hand and began punching at the beast with all my strength. The shadow hand works differently. It's an extension in the form of a hand that can go further than my actual hand

The monsters were still coming out my way; I was doing all I could to hold them off with my shadow hand. Still, most of the monsters were flocking toward Hana for some reason. I didn't want to use my shadow tendrils, and I might injure Hana if I didn't use them properly.

"Well, 20 of these monsters are now dead; 40 more to go," Hana said, stepping back and stumbling. I need to do something before the monsters overwhelm her.

*Use skill: Shadow Tendril*- I used my shadow tendrils to kill some monsters attacking Hana. This gave her enough time to grab her katana. I forgot that she brought her katana; it's only common sense.

"Thanks for the support." She slashed at the monsters, her blade going back and forth in a precise, almost perfect rhythm. Her eyes followed every move of the monsters before her, and her body movements were flawless. Unlike me, Hana practised Kendo in our old world for four or almost five years. She was on top of her team.

I only focused on the tiny monsters but forgot about the leader monster. A sharp pain coursed through my body as sharp teeth dug into my flesh; the leader wolf was biting into my right arm; well, a joke on him; I am left-handed. I dug my shadow tendrils into its body again. The wolf whimpered in pain, and I punched the world with my shadow hand. Hana could hold her own; she is more skilled than me in fighting, and I don't have that experience.

The monsters on Hana's side are taken care of. I was trying to hold the leader monster away, but I couldn't do much damage. Hana slashed at the wolf and finished it.

"Thank you, Hana"- We looked at each other, exhausted from this, our breaths heavy. My body can still move. I am in pain, but I need to keep pushing on.

I extended my shadow tendrils all over the monsters' bodies. The Guild wanted proof, so I cut off some parts, like ears and a foot of whatever was left. Hana began to gather a few parts herself.

"Well, we have enough proof for the Guild. We should return soon." I looked around the forest to see if any monsters remained, but none were. I discovered that we have an inventory system. A big screen suddenly opened, and it looked like a standard grid inventory system from a game I played. Looking at the values, there is no weight limit to how much I can carry; only the grid is the limit.

Most of the things we have here are 1x1 grid size, and some materials are more prominent, like 2x2 or 4x4. Our inventories are extensive. Hana's is more significant than mine, but we had a place to store our monster loot.

I feel dizzy and light-headed.

"Hana, let's move out as far as we can."

We moved out of that area; we could only stay there for a short time. Hana was feeling dizzy and light-headed, too. Our movements were getting slower and slower; our run turned into a walk. Our steps started to become slower and slower. We managed to get into a safe area of the forest. Most humans use it. By then, we sat under a tree; we couldn't keep walking; our bodies didn't allow us to go anymore.

! Evolution commencing!- Wait, this voice. Sia? Is it finally happening?

!Yes!- This is the last thing I could hear from Sia before everything went black

We woke up in the middle of the night hours after. I tried standing up. First, my legs were hurting like hell, almost like I had a bad case of muscle fatigue from an intensive workout; my hands were sore, and every time I bent a finger, it hurt.

Hana was in the same spot as I was. I helped her to get up. The pain in our bodies was evident.

!Your bodies are adapting to your new Evolution; the more you evolve, the less this will happen.!

"I get it. Sia, I want to see our stats."

!Showing status now!

*Status: Reincarnated

Race: Orc

Evolution: Greater Orc

Next Evolution: Arch-Orc

Evolution Line(Can be viewed due to having the skill Lord of Wisdom Sia): Greater Orc(15)-Arch Orc(30)-Orc Lord(45)-Ogre(90)-Greater Ogre(120)-Arch Ogre(160)-Ogre Lord(200)-Kijin(220)-Greater Kijin(240)-Oni(300)-Greater Oni(340)-Oni Lord(380)- Divine Oni/Cursed Oni/Yin-Yang Oni(Demon Lord Evolution via the Demon Lord Seed while reaching the last evolution step. Divine or cursed Oni evolution depends on which skill they obtain; if they receive Holy Light, they will evolve into a Divine Oni; if they obtain Cursed Flames skill, they will evolve into a Cursed Oni; if they have both skills, they will evolve into a Ying-Yang Oni)

Evolution Requirements: Reach Level 30

Skills: Flame Burst, Spatial Movement, Godspeed, Great Wiseman, Lord of Beauty Aphrodite, Lord of Compassion Afriel

Items: Flame grenades.

Class: Mage

Level: 16

Hp: 3500

Attack: 50

Defense: 120

Agility: 70

Mana: 4000

Intelligence: 250*

Looks like Hana got some new Skills, and some of them evolved

Let's see my stats right now

*Status: Reincarnated

Race: Shadow-Ice Demon

Evolution: Demon

Next Evolution: Greater Demon

Evolution Line(Can be viewed due to having the skill Lord of Wisdom Sia): Demon(20)-Greater Demon(40)-Arch Demon(60)-Demon Peer(80)-Devil(100)-Arch Devil(150)-Devil Peer(200)-Devil Lord(Demon Lord Evolution via the Demon Lord Seed while reaching the last evolution step)

Evolution Requirements: Reach Level 40

Skills: Shadow Hands, Shadow Tendril x4, Ice Magic Mastery, Lord Of Wisdom Sia, Lord of Deceit and Lies Lucifer, Predation, Analyst, Space Storage

Items: Ice Sword, Shadow Sword

Class: Shadow Mage

Level: 22

Hp: 4500

Attack: 150

Defence: 80

Agility: 200

Mana: 10000

Intelligence: Lord of Wisdom Sia

Disguise: Lord of Deceit and Lies Lucifer*

We did evolve, and everything is reflected in the stats. I don't know if this will be enough, but I can only dream.

!As for now, it is enough for you 2 to be safe around humans; royal guards will not pose a problem now. Your battle skills also naturally increased.

I looked around us; there were no monsters or humans. Hana put her right hand on my shoulder and pulled twice.

"Let's go back to the guild and submit the quests"- I nodded, and we went to the Guild.

When we evolved, we fainted near the Guild, almost on the outskirts of Welcia. The part was hidden, and no one was around at the time.

Arriving at the Guild, we were surprised that it was open.

The receptionist looked at us.

"It sure took you a while"- We opened our inventories and dumped all the materials that we had in there.

"Here you go, all five quests." We gave the quest papers back to the receptionist. I don't know if they were needed anymore, but you never know.

"Well, I never expected this much. Here you go. 5 gold coins for everything you brought me, alongside the quest rewards. You brought more than needed, and the excess is very high quality, so it's worth paying you two this much." The man crouched down, and a minute later, he rose with a bag in his hand. He gently placed the bag on the counter and pointed at it. I guess that's our payment.

Five gold coins—that's a lot for us. This is a good start. Tomorrow, we will come to this village to buy some things for the house, such as food seasonings. Our plants at home are starting to get bland, and the taste isn't the best; they are mainly substituted for salt and pepper.

We headed home from there. It took us a while to arrive, but we were faster this time.

You are correct. Evolution has increased your overall walking speed and endurance; you walk three times faster than a human, equal to a human running at a medium speed!

"Well, good to know. It's a shame I am the only one that can hear you." I also want Hana to hear Sia.

! By possessing any telepathy-related skill, I can create a telepathic network between you. You can get information from me at any time!

"Well, we have a thing to work toward.

"Hikaru, what shall we cook? We only have meat." Hana looked at the stove and the house. She took a few pieces of meat out of her inventory. I hope these taste trash with seasonings. We only have a few of these herbs, but I got tired of their taste.

We cooked steak made from monster meat and used some of the flowers we found as seasoning.

We then got to bed and waited for the day to come.