After the fight, we took out the cores and crystals from the corpses lying around in the ground after which we threw them in a pile and then burned them all together.
The village had a strong stench of blood and gore along with other things. But since I am always covered in blood and gore, it didn't bother me at all.
Some of my team members had problems with the stench but a glare from me smashed their complains.
I had no doubt that they would not want to join my team ever again but I didn't really care.
They were good people but in the end, the only ones I had the liberty to care about were my big bro and my little sis. And a few others but everyone else were just a means to an end.
I wondered when I started to think like that.
'It seems like I've seen too much death.' I thought and chuckled inwardly.
Besides, ever since Neha bought the Mind Dominance skill, she was not able to use skills that used mana and thus she removed 'Advanced Vision' skill as well.
Now even though she's not blind at night because of her high Perception which increases her senses substantially, it's still not wise for her to travel at night.
If she was the only one in my team who did not have 'Advanced Vision' skill, then I would have continued our scouting mission during night time as well.
But Kesav and Asha did not have that skill as well so we had to stop here for the night.
There were few buildings in the village which were still standing. Me and Neha took one building. Asha and Kesav took one building. Tribhuwan and Raka took their own building.
"Asha and Kesav huh! I didn't knew they had a thing for each other." Neha said as Asha led Kesav inside the building.
I shrugged in response.
"It was a tiring day. Let's get some sleep." She said and pulled me inside.
'Was it really a tiring day for them?' I wondered since I took care of the strongest enemies throughout the whole day.
But then again. I had higher stamina, strength and speed than them so it should not be a surprise that things that seemed easy for me were tiring for them.
'Something to keep in mind for the next time.' I thought and took out my sword as I went to the hall.
It was a big house and Neha had already taken one of the more comfortable rooms. I could hear her snoring from outside. It seemed like she really was tired after the whole day.
I entered the hall and found that it was clattered with various furnitures and there were a few blood stains on a few of them.
I ignored them as such things were common at this point in time and then kicked all the furnitures aside.
After I pushed aside the furniture, I had enough room to practice my sword.
I tried to remember the swing which almost cut through the mutant boar's foreleg.
I was not satisfied with that swing.
If I was better at using my sword then I knew that I would have been able to cut it's leg at once.
I knew that I was good.
But I needed to be better.
Plus, I had a lot of energy left in me so I started practicing my sword.
Two hours went by in which I only swung my sword and tried to remove the mistakes in my style and make my technique better.
At the end of the second hour, when I started to feel a bit tired, Lily's voice rang in my mind.
'Ashok.' She said.
'What is it Lily? I'm practicing right now.' I said in an annoyed tone.
'This is important.' She said "But if you don't want to listen, then…"
'Very well. Go ahead. Is it about the cores and crystals I told you to sell.'
'Yes. Most of them have been sold. And I estimate that the rest won't take much time to sell either.'
'Is that all?' I asked.
'No. I wanted to tell you that I've bought enough 2nd tier crystals for you to increase all of your stats to 8.0' she said and I froze mid swing.
Increasing all my stats to 8.0 only meant one thing.
Next evolution.
I felt myself shake with excitement at the prospect and grinned from ear to ear.
'Give me the necessary crystals.' I said.
'You sure you want to do it right now. You do know that you'll be venerable during the time of your evolution right? I suggest you tell your sister about this before starting the process.'
I looked at the door behind which Neha was snoring loudly and smiled indulgently.
'She must have been very tired to have fallen asleep so quickly. I would rather not wake her up if possible. And besides, it's not like the process takes a long time.' I said.
'As you wish.' She said and a white light started flowing out of the black watch.
I brought both my hands forward and the white light condensed in my hand after which it took shape of pills and crystals which were necessary for my evolution.
I took out a water bottle from the spatial ring and ate all the crystals and pills at once and drank the water to wash it down.
A warm feeling emanated from the bottom of my stomach and spread throughout my whole body and I could feel it minutely changing in my body.
After the warm feeling went away, I kept the bottle inside the spatial ring and laid down on the ground.
As soon as I laid down, a message appeared in front of my eyes.
'All conditions for evolution has been met. Do you want to start the evolution process now.'
-Yes
-No
'Yes'
As soon as I choose Yes, my whole body went rigid and a black fog started to come out of my black black.
'Long time no see.' I said as the black fog started covering my entire body.
I watched with a bit of fear as it finally crawled up to my face and then the entire world went black.
I waited for the pain to come. Then I waited a bit more. And then some more.
But the pain never came.
I felt my eyelids grow heavy in the darkness after which I finally lost my consciousness.
—————
When I opened my eyes I found myself inside a white room with small white tiles on the floor.
I stood up and realized that there were no walls or even pillars in the room.
There was no end to the room and I could only watch with confusion as the tiles went on to the horizon with no end in sight.
'Where am I?' I asked and was surprised when my thought ran out loudly in the whole room.
'You are in a Realistic Battle Simulator.' I heard a voice behind me. I turned around and met face to face with a small white glowing ball which pulsed with light and hovered in front of my face.
'Who are you?' I asked.
'My name is Elia. And I'll be the your judge in this Battle Simulator.'