Chapter 30 - Evolution

Confused, the Imp stared at the notifications while trying to somehow handle all of the pain that he was feeling in every part of his body. And while he was in a lot of pain, he still somehow felt like his senses were sharper in some ways. But maybe it was just in return for the Imp's ability to think straight that his nose was able to pick up a certain smell not too far from where they currently were.

The Imp wasn't sure how to stop this, he already lost all control over the heat, but it wasn't being pulled back out of every part of his body. It truly felt like he was being burnt alive.

The notification told the Imp that a 'Lesser Imp' couldn't handle what was happening, but maybe he could handle it if he wasn't a lesser Imp anymore.

There was something that the Imp could remember, one of the things that happened the day that he split off of the horde. The Imp in front of him had growth on his back, and some hairy monster came and brought that Imp away, speaking about 'Evo'. And then, at a later point, he heard Thomas, Avalin and James speaking about not letting the Imp level up, because they wanted him to stay a Lesser Imp. So, the Imp just had to level up as much as he could as soon as he could in order to have his body change so that he could become something beyond a Lesser Imp. Something that could handle this heat.

And for that, the Imp had to approach the source of whatever he could smell, and without hesitation jumped off of the carriage with his dagger in hand. He could hear Arc yell something from behind him, but the Imp didn't care too much at the moment, because right now, getting rid of this pain was more important to this Imp. Because if he didn't, he would die.

The Imp ran through the forest closer toward the source of the smell, before he saw it in the distance. A dark-furred beast standing on all four legs, with its back turned toward the Imp. As far as the young Demon could tell, there were a few more monsters nearby, but as long as he could kill this beast as quickly as he could, it wouldn't matter.

Quickly, the Imp rushed forward and grasped his dagger tightly in his right hand. It seemed like the beast somehow didn't notice him until the very last moment, but at that point, it was already too late. The Imp jumped onto the monster's back and at the very same time, he stabbed the dagger into the back of its neck.

[Critical Damage done to Shade Wolf]

[Shade Wolf -1154 Damage]

With a frown on his face, the Imp pulled the dagger out of the back of the monster's neck and pushed it directly into its head without hesitation, and then, the notification he wanted to see appeared in front of him.

[Lethal Damage done to Shade Wolf]

[Beginner Dagger Mastery Skill leveled up!]

[You leveled Up!]

[You leveled Up!]

...

[You leveled Up!]

[You have 9 unused Stat Points]

For a moment, the Imp could feel the pain disappearing, but it came back as soon as he was hoping that it was gone completely, and the Imp just continued running on forward toward the next closest monster that he could smell.

This time around, he wasn't as lucky as his first time. There were two monsters, and they were both standing in his direction. They had green skin and they were wearing some cloth over their lower body. The Imp didn't really recognize them, but he figured that this might become a little tough.

So, the Imp chose to take out the one that seemed stronger first, the one that was closer toward him. It somehow still seemed to take a little while for the two monsters to notice him, even if they were looking in his direction, so the Imp was able to jump out from the bushes and immediately stab the first of the two right in the face, or more specifically, right in the eye. The bad-smelling mud-colored blood that covered the Imp's cloak didn't put the Imp off for a few moments, simply because his sense of smell was a good bit better right now, but the Imp didn't care and looked at the notifications that appeared in response to him stabbing this monster.

[Lethal Damage Done to Goblin]

[You leveled Up!]

[You leveled Up!]

...

[You leveled Up!]

[You have 17 unused Stat Points]

And right when the Imp tried to look at the other Goblin, that one swung his club at the Imp's head and immediately caused him a fair amount of damage.

[-713 Health]

While dropping to the ground, the Imp glared at the Goblin in front of him. It seemed like this monster was supposed to be far stronger than him, but the Imp couldn't let it be like this either. He was losing health steadily, and to his 'luck', the pain that he was feeling all over his body was stronger than the pain he felt in his head right now.

The Imp was a bit dizzy when trying to stand up, but luckily, it seemed like he was able to dodge the next attack somehow and then stabbed the dagger right into the side of the Goblin's body.

[Goblin -231 Damage]

And then, the Imp pulled the dagger back out and stabbed the Imp again, right when it was moving away due to the damage it just received.

[Goblin -177 Damage]

This time around, the attack was a bit more shallow than before, but it still did a lot of damage even then, and before the Imp could even really think about it, he already stabbed the Goblin again, but this time right in its chest.

[Critical Damage Done to Goblin]

[Goblin -612 Damage]

And then, the Imp pulled the Dagger out once more while the Goblin was trying its hardest to attack back, even causing some damage back to the Imp, but soon enough the Imp stabbed the dagger directly into the Goblin's throat.

[Lethal Damage Done to Goblin]

[You leveled Up!]

[You leveled Up!]

[You leveled Up!]

[You have 20 unused Stat Points]

[You have reached Level 100]

[Possible Evolutions]

-[Imp (Crimson, Azure, or Fern Variants)]

-[Lesser Imp(Shadow, Unholy, or Sleepless Variants)]

[As a Card Owner, you have access to a Unique Evolution. Do you want to commence Evolution into a Unique Subspecies of Imp?]

Slightly overwhelmed, the Imp tried to look through all of those notifications. The pain was still there, but now there was also this urge to choose something from what was in front of him. The word 'Unique' stuck out to the Imp, however. He heard it a lot today, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to think of it.

The children had Unique skills, and they seemed to be 'Broken' because of it. The Imp didn't want to end up broken, but right now, he was most drawn to it despite his doubts. Right now, he just had to get to it already, and so, the Imp said the word that popped into his mind at that time.

"Yes..." He muttered, and immediately, all of the notifications in front of him disappeared, replaced by single different one.

[Commencing Evolution. Evolution will be over in 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, 59 Seconds]

[You are unable to open your status during evolution]

[Mana overload stopped]

Slowly, the Imp noticed that the pain all over his body was disappearing. He was still aching, but the Imp didn't care about that for now. The Imp just had to return to the Carriage to the children, and then he would let his evolution happen.

Step after step, the young monster walked through the forest toward where he remembered the carriage to be, and soon found the wooden box as it stood in front of him. The Imp approached the carriage, and immediately when he did, Arc looked at him surprised at the wound on the top of his head.

"Mister Imp, what happened?" He asked with a bit of worry and hurried over toward him, although he did somewhat hesitate after noticing the horrid smell that the Imp was giving off due to the Goblin-Blood, but in the end, he still helped the Imp out a bit.

The young monster itself was feeling tired right now, just incredibly exhausted. But he wanted to stay up to make sure nothing happened to these children. He wasn't sure why, but ever since he came back from that lake and was completely healed of all his wounds, the Imp was more open to being with these children. The Imp knew that he probably would have just killed them before that, but somehow, he just wanted to be around them.

There was this other thing that appeared when he had come back, at the very bottom of the large notification, the 'Blessing of the Lonely Naiad'. The Imp looked at it a bit more closely once and made another notification appear, but he didn't really understand all that the notification was saying, because there were words in it that he never heard before.

However, now at least one of the sentences made a little more sense, 'Your longing for a group to call your own is amplified'. The Imp still wasn't sure what this meant, but at the very least, he was sure that he wanted to protect these children, at least for now. They were weak, they didn't treat him with despise, and from what the Imp was told, they needed him.

It was probably due to his relatively delirious state caused by his injuries and fatigue, but to him at that moment, it didn't matter much who or what they were, but if he was able to get stronger than he was now, he would use any and all of his power to make sure these children wouldn't end up breaking even more.

He would treat them as his own, as if they were his brothers or sisters. The Imp didn't have much sympathy toward the Horde for a while now, basically ever since he left and was taken by Avalin, Thomas and James, so maybe these children were just supposed to be his new horde, but the Imp was undoubtably sure that his thoughts were genuine.

And so, while the young monster dropped down onto the ground, these were the last thoughts that crossed his mind at the time.