Re: Evolution Online-Novel

After the first set of the orc elites crumbled and fell dead, Liam received a bunch of system notifications.

<Ding. You have gained 100 experience points>

<Ding. You have gained 100 experience points>

<Ding. You have gained 100 experience points>

…

…

…

"I guess the experience points distribution is as brutal as ever." He chuckled wryly on seeing the abysmal numbers. The experience points he needed to level up were still the same as what was needed back in the tutorial game, so to see any progress was going to take a while.

This was nothing new, and Liam brushed it aside. He came to the more important part, which was making more soul minions. "These orc elites would make fine soldiers." He clicked his tongue.

He then immediately tried to grasp the souls of the orc elites who had fallen down in front of him. But to his surprise, something was different. Rather something was missing.

Liam frowned and tried a few more times again. However, the end result was still the same. Unmistakably, all the beings in front of him lacked any sort of soul!

Or perhaps the soul was bound to something in a manner that prevented him from sensing it at all. 

No matter what the reason was, it was clear that he wouldn't be able to make any of these orc elites into his minions.

Liam could only watch as the corpses started to disappear one after the other, and soon the passageway was empty. "Tsk Tsk, that's disappointing but fine. Let's just go in." He clicked his tongue and shrugged.

The orc elites would have made really good soldiers, but he did not have any complaints. At least now, he was able to start pushing his level again, and even though his army wasn't growing in size, it was steadily growing in quality and strength.

The group walked inside when Liam abruptly stopped in his tracks. While trying to forge the orc souls, he had almost missed something else important! 

He turned around and collected the small shiny object on the ground that had rolled to the edge of the wall.

It was a mana core!

One of the orc elites had actually dropped a mana core!

"Hmmm…" Liam pocketed the mana core in contemplation and then turned around to look properly. 

And just like he had guessed, there were two more similar spherical objects lying inconspicuously on the ground. 

Since these were low-grade mana cores, they did not possess that much of a shine, so it was relatively easy to overlook them.

"Ha! I almost missed three mana cores!" 

Liam laughed as he picked all three mana cores and pocketed them. Apart from the staggering improvement in strength and constitution of the dungeon mobs, this had to be the second important change to the dungeon! 

These dungeons were notorious in his previous life for their terrible drop rate, but now three mana cores had dropped just from this single mob. This was quite a good bounty!

Liam grinned, and Luna as well flashed an equally big smile. The group then excitedly pushed on forward.

After the first group of orc elites fell, Liam ordered the wyverns to keep charging ahead. Not long after, they were met with another mob. This time as well, there were about fifteen orcs in total, and they were all elites of the same caliber.

The fight once again started in full swing. The orcs growled loudly, but the wyverns opened their mouths to match them with equally terrifying roars. The silent cavern became filled with all sorts of screeching sounds as attacks flooded the space a second time.

Along with the wyverns, Liam also summoned Crawford, Dimitri, the six-winged lion, and the striped white tiger, as he wanted these elite soul minions to continue growing as well. With this, the two teams were somewhat evenly numbered, so the fight this time was even faster.

"So only Crawford and the wyverns are able to take on these elites easily. The rest are still struggling." Liam observed from the side. Luna nodded as if she was seriously listening to him.

A couple of minutes later, the second fight was also over. Confirming his earlier theory, yet again there were four mana cores on the ground.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." Liam picked them up and pocketed them. The group then continued making their way through the dungeon floor, cutting down dozens of orc elites at a time.

Soon almost an hour passed by, and they had put down almost a hundred or so orcs, but still, there was no sign of the boss's room. 

"This place is huge. Woot!" Liam whistled as he picked up another two mana cores. "With this, we gained a total of 33 mana cores, three items, and one weapon. This dungeon is really very generous, don't you think so, Luna?"

Kyuuuuu! The fox bobbed her head cutely.

The group pushed ahead, wandering around the dungeon for some more time. Just like that, another hour also passed by, but there were only more orc elites. There was no end in sight for the dungeon.

"Hmmm…" Liam frowned. If not for the mana cores and the items dropping every now and then, and the constant flow of the experience points, he would have directly assumed that they were in some sort of never-ending illusion.

But they were still progressing and collecting loot which was very real, so he could only conclude that… 

"This is one big ass dungeon. Maybe we should speed up the process." Liam turned to look at the little fox, who was lazily yawning. 

She seemed as if she was really beginning to appreciate the free experience points that were raining down on her without her having to lift a finger.

"Madam, I am talking about you. Would your highness be willing to fight a little?" Liam chuckled.

KyuuuuU! Luna rubbed her snout as if she was wronged, but she quickly nodded her head. 

Liam then broke the group into three teams. He also summoned a few other elves and barbarians who were over Level 50 to pad the numbers.

The traditional method would be to progress in the dungeon one mob after another, but Liam did not plan on adhering strictly to those rules. 

These elite orcs were still not enough to challenge him. They needed to crank up the pace so that they could finally face a worthy opponent. 

Now that they had pretty much confirmed that there were no more hidden surprises on this floor of the dungeon, he decided to run through the rest of the dungeon as fast as they physically could.

***

Mass Release Chapter 2~

Please thank Frenchii for sponsoring this mass release!