บท 42: Evolution

Aand we are out of Bredon. What? Did you think I would actually get caught up with the Church or something? I at least know some moderation.

Catherine's aunt wasn't all that she was made out to be, and had actually been living in the slums.

Her inn had gone under about a year ago, and ever since then she's been living the hard life. I gave her a few gold coins to help her out. Giving any more would actually just endanger her.

After that, we really didn't have anything else left to do. The Church can do whatever it wants in Bredon, I don't really care that much.

After living in the inn for three days, we set off again, this time towards Hull. The road there goes through a forest, so I hope we'll see some goblins or orcs. Those are the real classic monsters in a fantasy world.

In any case, we haven't really levelled up or trained too much. Arthur and Gilgamesh have been helping Catherine and me out with certain things, but I haven't named any archers yet that can help Arin. Maybe Atalanta would be a good idea.

The naming takes a heavy toll on my body and my mana reserves, so I can only perform them whenever I have Mana Merge active.

Mana Merge has become LV5 as a result. I can use it 5 times a day, for a total of 5 hours; which mean one hour each time, for five times.

The bad thing is that once Mana Merge is activated, it can't be deactivated. Therefore, I have to go through an entire hour even if I just want to use it for one minute.

I usually wait until it's night-time to use all five hours continuously, when efficiency is the highest.

I've recreated Excalibur for Arthur, and a spear for Gilgamesh. I don't really know what type of weapon Gilgamesh uses, but he said he can use anything.

Thanks to that, my God Smith has also become LV5. I can start to manipulate a small amount of metal without using my hammer. I've mainly been doing it to practice making rings for when I propose to Catherine and Arin.

Yes, I'm going to propose. I feel like I need something which can tie us all together, just in case something happens to me.

Oops, I just set up another flag.

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Our journey through the forest was fraught with the attacks of wolves, bandits, goblins, orcs, trolls and ogres. I've taken a few of the trolls as zombies, and done something interesting with the rest of them and the ogres.

I can actually transplant certain traits of monsters, as long as they are very prominent throughout their body. In the troll's case, their blood and regenerative abilities are superb and can be transplanted quite easily.

Since that's the case, I've applied it on Gilgamesh and Arthur, as well as 50 of my highest level and most skilled King's Guards.

As for the ogres, their hides and skins are extremely tough. I am using them to make leather to cover certain bony extremities, and make it seem like real skin from afar.

The orcs have mostly become our food. Since they are literally walking pigs, they taste just like pork. The only real turn off is that I've seen the way they look, and I'm also the person who has killed and gutted them.

The goblins… are completely useless. Their body is too small for anything significant, and their breeding speed is about the only thing that is good about them. However, undead cannot breed so they have no use in my army.

The wolves have become ghoul wolves, and will be added to my cavalry later on.

Actually, I think I'm fancying a wolf mount myself right now. Their fur has remained soft, and the way they run is very natural. It's almost as if they aren't undead at all.

After all of that happened, I actually managed to evolve my Necromancy. I'm guessing it's just because I raised a lot of undead. Would the same thing happen if I were to wage war against humanity and use all their bodies as zombies?

It evolved into Underworld. Underworld basically allowed me to control the flesh of anything that was dead. The important thing was the word 'dead'. It meant that it had to be alive at one point. I couldn't change a rock because it was never alive.

Then came the insanely overpowered skill. When Underworld appeared synergized with Bone Control to create a third composite skill called Body Control.

What Body Control did was allow me to exchange any part of a body for another part. For example, I could turn muscles into fat, skin into hair, eyes into teeth, tongues into toenails, and so on.

This skill actually has a lot of applications. I can create stupidly powerful creatures like Pegasus Centaurs by attaching wings to the current Centaurs, or griffin or humanoid dragons or something.

The second way to use the skill is actually to combine it with the transplant function of Necromancy. With orcs, the skill can be used to turn the organs, skin and bones into edible pork.

With trolls, it can be used to turn every single part of it into blood, and therefore be able to transplant regenerative effects many more times.

As for the zombies that I would like to keep whole, there's always the option of adding things from other animals. For example, wolves could have the hide from ogres and the regeneration of trolls while also having the bulky frame of orcs.

In general, this skill can create the perfect beast by combining the most useful traits of a myriad of beasts together.

This can also be done to skeletons, zombies or ghouls! Imagine a skeleton with the swiftness of a wolf, the strength of a bear, or the hardness of a dragon's scales! Or maybe a sword with the sharpness of a dragon's fang!

A cavalry unit with the invisibility of a chameleon, an infantry unit with the defence of a turtle!

In summary, Body Control boosts whatever trait I want from a dead body, Necromancy transplants it, while Bone Control enhances the frame and skeleton of the target to withstand the extra pressure.

It's too bad this process of skills can't create another skill. But if I had to name it, then I'd call it Evolution.