When Lothur fell unconscious to the ground, there were already spectators on the outskirts of that area, people who had seen the chase from earlier unfold.
More than 40 people were already in that area, silently watching the situation, shocked at Lothur's abilities and the tragic end that awaited him.
"That truly is a great shame..." A bearded mercenary standing on a tree branch commented to his companion. "He managed to defeat most of these people, but he will still die in the end."
"Yes, it is a shame that a prodigy like him must die after such a battle... But people will not forget his struggle here." The old gentleman next to that bearded individual commented, already imagining the stories people would tell about Lothur very soon.
Several people had seen how Lothur had defeated several Spiritual Warriors on his own, even without using any soul techniques, as his opponents could.
The battle there frankly was to go down in local history. Such a thing deserves to be retold by the generations to come to show the youths just how impressive some prodigies could be.
Lothur would die, true, but such was life. If he were not to die, he would become an expert in the empire, but like him, many fell every day.
That would be an inspiration and a warning to the next generations!
'Is he really going to fall in this place? How can that be? Get up!' A young Lothur fan, who was returning from her resource harvest nearby, thought to herself as she looked at his wounded body.
"He fought like a worthy man." A female warrior dressed in leather armor, soiled with blood, said as she observed Lothur's opponents around him. "It seems he was still hiding his powers at the Province Conference."
"But it's a disgrace. Now he will die." A person near that warrior commented, seeing how the still-conscious individuals looked at Lothur.
"Bastard!"
"He's finally fallen!" Two of the three remnants commented in exhausted tones, shocked at how far Lothur had managed to get after running away and fighting so many of them.
The level 12 man, the leader of the Vogel family group, whom Lothur had first encountered, was among these three and said. "He was a monster, but now he will die in my hands."
He then strolled toward Lothur, dodging the unconscious bodies of his temporary allies to get close to his opponent.
The other two there were weaker than this person, so they abdicated the honor of taking the life of such an enemy that half or more of the province's powers wished for his death.
Meanwhile, as they prepared to watch the end of Lothur, the system was working, as always.
[Super Regeneration activated.]
[Consuming all EVF points...]
In that instant, Lothur's skin glowed in a golden light as his wounds and bruises healed rapidly.
At the same time, his body began to tremble amidst countless black dots beginning to be expelled from his skin.
The young man from the Vogel family stopped in his tracks as he saw Lothur's body trembling, sensing something wrong but also shocked.
'Is he still conscious?' He wondered, not being able to believe that someone could take being beaten as badly as Lothur and still have as much willpower.
'Your will to live is incredible. But you're already working overtime.' He clenched his fists around a sword, preparing to cut off Lothur's head.
Meanwhile, inside Lothur's head, the Skull Soul Bone was 'melting' over parts of the bones in his head.
The Skull Soul Bone he had was not the kind that had replaced every bone in that part of Lothur. No, it had replaced only a fraction of it. Because of this, there were still bones to be replaced.
Because of what was going on in young Ritter's body, a process of Soul Bone evolution began in his head, causing such a thing to rise in level and occupy new spaces.
In the midst of this, due to the terrifying pain of evolving a Soul Bone, even unconscious, Lothur began to groan in pain.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The people in the surrounding area were startled by his sudden scream, some even taking steps backward as they felt terrible feelings in their beings.
Simultaneously, Lothur's two enemies, who were still conscious, looked at that body and worried.
"Maybe we'd better finish him off at once." One of them commented as he picked up his weapon, a bit traumatized given what Lothur had managed to do in this place.
Lothur should be badly injured, barely able to move. But because of the fear this person already felt from such an opponent, he would rather be safe than sorry and kill the enemy as quickly as possible.
"That's right. We can't allow him to use that demonic regeneration skill of his!" The woman who had suggested the previous fight mode, still standing, said this in concern as she remembered Lothur's accomplishments at the Province Conference.
Unfortunately, before she could attack Lothur with her remaining allies, she noticed what was happening to him and shouted.
"Shit!"
"He's advancing levels!"
The two young men paid attention to the black spots leaving Lothur's body and parts of his skin glowing in a strange gold.
"How can that be? Shouldn't he already be at the peak of the 1st stage? How can he have a marrow cleansing now?"
Marrow cleansing usually only happens to 1st stage cultivators or after using unique resources to temper the body.
Hence, since they thought Lothur could not go through that process currently, one of these individuals could not help but be surprised at the possible advancement of this enemy.
But this could not be considered an ordinary advance. Besides the fact that Lothur already had a Soul Bone, which could also be purified, he was a body cultivator who would always go through this procedure when advancing levels!
After the beating he took from the group of Spiritual Warriors, the system activated his Physique, generating a benefit that caused him to rise to more than one level in a matter of moments!
In this situation, he slowly began to scream less, letting the people there know that he was either losing consciousness or getting used to the current sensations.
Lothur's enemies did not want to play with this situation and finally attacked his body, with one of them using a sword to cut the enemy's neck.
Swooish!
At that instant, Lothur opened his eyes and saw several messages from the system. But before he had a chance to pay attention to these, his eyes turned blood red.
Simultaneously, red patterns appeared around his eyes, while the blood on his face seemed to dry up to make room for such tattoos.
A pentagram appeared on his forehead and began to circulate, along with the emission of a negative aura to the surroundings, something sinister, charged by a dark, suffocating element.
"Prepare to die, you vermins!" Lothur shouted while still on the ground, feeling the blade of a sword near the back of his head as he saw his new status.
...