Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

Chapter 21

It had been three days since that battle. Three days since the secret alpha testers were all gone.

I lost to the beta players, back then. My consciousness was on the verge of being extinguished, but at the very last moment, I managed to escape the clutches of the System and evolved.

I lived.

I didn't know how I was able to evolve. Perhaps the blue magic stone from No. 01 had something to do with it.

At first, I thought that meant he could have evolved, too, but he didn't. Maybe the 'no further evolutions implemented' mentioned in the text I identified didn't mean that there was a software lock to prevent evolution. Maybe the developers simply wasn't yet able to recreate those higher-ranking monsters.

Maybe the corporation still hadn't completed analyzing the powerful monsters in this world.

Then why was I the only one who could evolve? The clues lay inside No. 01's knowledge. It didn't tell me everything, but it was enough to make a guess.

It must be because I was a Demon.

Within the blue magic stone was a part of No. 01's knowledge and memories. Perhaps he didn't want his insanity to take these important things away from him, so he had engraved them all inside this stone.

According to his knowledge, there still existed some unidentified monster species. The developers could have just removed the choices altogether, but they wanted diversity. So they decided to let the player's consciousness determine their evolutions.

In the end, it seemed like this was the reason why all the other alpha testers who picked these unidentified monsters had had their minds broken upon the first evolution. The form they took was too grotesque, too horrifying to bear.

That was too close... Perhaps in a way, my choice of an amorphous monster was the correct one.

In other words, I think I had just managed to, by my own will, unconsciously determined the self I wanted to evolve into.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.[Magic Points: 750/750] 92↑[Total Combat Power: 825/825] 326↑[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation>] [Racial Skill: Fear][Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Adept)] [Expert Packer]

As a result, I was able to evolve and survive. Now I had a whole slew of new things to comment on.

First off, 'Mistral'? "Oh no, it's the white mist," people kept saying, then I would deny them in my thoughts "No I'm not, I'm made out of gases, not mist," and now look at what happened. I can't believe their words actually affected me this much...

Then my class. I was still at "Lesser"? And "Low-Rank"? Where were all the good adjectives? Who even decided these rankings...? Anyway, it seemed like I still had a long journey ahead.

I gained more magic, and this time my combat power went up correctly. What a relief... If my combat power stayed still forever no matter what I did, I'd be super nervous going into fights with multiple enemies.

Despite killing tons of beta players that time, my magic didn't grow all that much. No surprise there. When I died, I was still under the shackles of the System, so half of my magic was taken.

And now, I had no further revives. Oh boy...

The unique skill [Cyber-Manipulation] used to be No. 01's ability. It was how I escaped the System's monitoring.