Chapter 20 - Undergoing Tier-2 Evolution
I looted the 3 dead Mad Hounds before heading towards my tree hideout.
I obtained 20 Looted Stats from the 3 dead Mad Hounds.
They had common grade skills such as <Bite>, <Auditory Sense>, <Olfactory Sense> but all of them were low levelled ones.
I didn\'t choose them as I had the same Skills and they were even high levelled ones.
There was one Skill that I didn\'t see before in any monster I encountered, and it was Lv.3<Madness> (Common).
According to the Skill description, it just causes the user to become mad to a point where they would attack any living being without even considering the opponent\'s strength, and the pain received will be reduced.
The immediate thought I had was, "It would be stupid even to choose such a Skill."
The primary reason for that was those 3 Mad Hounds. If they didn\'t have the <Madness> Skill, they would have run away instead of attacking me when I was several times more powerful than them.
If I have such a skill, I would have attacked any monster irrespective of their Tier, and when I met a Tier-3 or Tier-4, that would be my end if I fight them head-on.
Not having the ability to distinguish the chances of winning in a fight was the first step to losing it.
I had to fight with the Grey Wolves because then; I didn\'t have much of a choice since my Stamina reached less than one one-quarter of my overall Stamina.
Back then, the speed at which I moved was slow. I had to use <Hydraulic Leap> not to get caught by the Grey wolves, and as they kept following me, I had to fight them before my Stamina went depleted. If I had enough stamina, I would have tried to escape.
So, I didn\'t choose <Madness>. With that, the notification that shows me the options to select disappeared when I didn\'t even pick a skill, but I still obtained 10% of their Stats.
Then, I learned that if I didn\'t want to loot any Skill, I could only loot its stats.
It\'s good to know that since I might even encounter a situation where I had to choose a Skill from my target, and the one I choose would even cause a negative effect in a similar way to the Skill, <Madness>.
The 20* Looted Stats got added uniformly to all the 5 main Attributes in my <LOOTED STATUS> and 4* Stats added in each of the Attributes and with that, all the 5 main Attributes in <LOOTED STATUS> reached 62* Stats.
In an instant, my body adjusted to the improved stats with the help of <Harmony>, and after a few seconds, I reached my tree hideout.
By then, I ate the whole <High Vitality fruit> that was the size of an apple. There was a change in my <STATUS> as the Vitality Attribute got a permanent increase of 10 Stats.
[Vitality: 35 ➝ 45]
Even with the increased Vitality Attribute, I didn\'t feel any change. I was still in my <INVERSE> mode, where my Vitality Attribute in <LOOTED STATUS> has 62* Stats.
And as there were only 9 minutes left, I entered the tree hideout and closed the entrance with some bushes.
Then, I accepted to proceed for Tier-2 Evolution and another notification popped up.
[The Overall Stats of a standard Lv.10 Tier-1 life form is 100, without including Luck Attribute.]
[The estimated time of Tier-2 Evolution for a standard Lv.10 Tier-1 life form is 12 hours]
[But with your Overall Stats being at 310*, it equals the Overall stats of a standard Lv.25 Tier-2 life form. So, the duration of your Tier-2 Evolution process is reduced by 99%, and it was estimated to be completed in 7 minutes, 12 seconds.]
[Warning! Evolution is a painful process]
[Tier-2 Evolution starts in 3...2...1...]
Once the three-second countdown finished, a Shiny Crystal Orb formed around me, and I started to hover within it.
My surroundings changed to that of a Pitch Black Space that was filled with innumerable stars of various colours.
[Time left for completion of Tier-2 Evolution: 00:07:12 (hr:min:sec)]
As the timer for Tier-2 Evolution started, the stars within the pitch-black space began to fuse with my body, and I felt major internal changes within my body.
All my internal organs improved in quality, and the pain was intense, even with the 50% physical pain reduction.
But still, it cannot be compared to the tremendous amount of pain that I experienced while entering <INVERSE> mode.
As the pain continued, the pores of my skin oozed out impurities in the form of a dark substance, and all the inadvertent scars that I got through the course of my life, began to fade away from my skin.
During the evolution process, I opened my status to observe the changes, and there was no change in the <LOOTED STATUS> tab, but the 5 main Attributes in the <STATUS> tab increased every few seconds.
When I was halfway through the Tier-2 Evolution process, a notification resounded within my mind, and it was similar to the gigantic announcement notification that appeared in the sky a few minutes back.
Even though I couldn\'t see the notification that appeared in the sky, the information within it got transmitted to my mind.
[# Trial World Announcement #]
[# \'Drogor\', the Alpha Chosen of the Planet \'Mogret,\' underwent Tier-2 Evolution and reached Tier-2 within the first day of the Milky Way Galaxy Trial Program. #]
[# Congratulate Drogor for being the 2nd Alpha Chosen among the Alpha Chosen from 1,000,000 Life Planets that the System selected for the Milky Way Galaxy\'s Trial Program. #]
In just a few minutes, another Alpha Chosen reached Tier-2.
When I thought about the estimated time that was required for a standard Lv.10 Tier-1 person to complete the Tier-2 Evolution process, it made me realize that both of the Alpha Chosen, Regaz and Drogor should have started their Tier-2 Evolution 12 hours ago for them to reach Tier-2 now.
Since I was in <INVERSE> mode, the System mistook my overall stats in <LOOTED STATUS> with the overall stats in <STATUS>, and because of that, there was a substantial decrease in the time taken for my Tier-2 Evolution process.
If not for that, it would have taken 12 hours like any other Alpha Chosen to complete Tier-2 Evolution.
I turned my attention to the continuous changes that kept on occurring in my body.
My muscles which became bulkier from Strength Attribute that increased in <INVERSE> mode began to shrink and my body size scaled-down and after a minute, the size of my muscles returned to when I first got teleported to the Trial Zone.
The only difference was the appearance of the muscles, as they were shredded to a point where my body only had 5% body fat.
After that, the minuscule irregularities in my skin started to fade away, and after another minute, my skin turned flawless, and there was not even a single mole (birthmark) remaining on my body.
Just like that, my Tier-2 Evolution ended as the Shiny Crystal Orb dissolved and I landed on the ground from the levitating position and looked at the time in the transparent notification.
[Alpha Program, Day-1, 23:58:37 ]
With still a minute before the end of Day-1, I heard a familiar sound resounded within my mind.
Then, I stepped outside of the Tree hideout and looked at the new gigantic notification in the sky.
[# Trial World Announcement #]
[# \'Jay\', the Alpha Chosen of the Planet \'Earth,\' underwent Tier-2 Evolution and reached Tier-2 within the first day of the Milky Way Galaxy Trial Program. #]
[# Congratulate Jay for being the 3rd Alpha Chosen among the Alpha Chosen from 1,000,000 Life Planets that the System selected for the Milky Way Galaxy\'s Trial Program. #]
[# Due to the appearance of the top three Tier-2 Alpha Chosen, a new function <Trial World Alpha Leaderboard> was unlocked for all the Alpha Chosen in the Milky Way Trial Program. #]