Endless Evolution As A Skeleton In A Game-Like World

[Harvest successful! You have successfully received B-Rank skill, Armament!]

[Armament]

Physically enhances all physical attributes for a set duration. Empowers weapons or body parts with ’splitting aura,’ multiplying its sharpness and durability severalfold.

Ark smiled internally as he read through the skill tab. Although her impressive duration would have been better, this was his first ever enhancement skill, so it was very much welcome.

"Do you think she’s..." Olivia stared down at a bleeding body that had been scorched from the inside out. The woman’s eyes were closed, and her heart had stopped beating.

"... Alive?"

Ark closed the screen and stared at Thalia while stroking his sharp chin.

"Of course she is, I made sure to restrain myself! Who do you think I am?"

’Shit, shit, shit! Don’t do this to me, Thalia, wake up!’ Ark panicked internally.

Her heart didn’t seem to be beating, and she had stopped breathing as well. Did he go too far with the lightning?!

How foolish would he be to lose such a valuable person just because he was unable to control himself?

After waiting for a few seconds, nothing had changed...

"Maybe we have to give her CPR?" Ark was growing more anxious by the second.

"CPR??" Olivia’s face blushed pink. "Doesn’t that mean you’re going to..."

"Going to what?"

Olivia cleared her throat. "K-kiss her..."

"..."

Ark gave her a blank stare. "I never knew you had such a dirty mind."

"W-what! Dirty mind? Me??" Olivia’s eyes went wide. "You’re the one with the dirty mind trying to kiss an unconscious girl!"

Ark shook his head and turned to face her. "Aren’t you forgetting something?"

"What?"

Ark pointed at his lips... or rather, his teeth. "How am I supposed to handle CPR in this form, hmm?"

Olivia’s face turned a deeper shade of red. "You should have just said that in the beginning! You’re baiting me, aren’t you—"

"Haaaa—!"

Thalia’s eyes shot open as she sprang up to a sitting position, her body covered in cold sweat.

The hole in her chest finally began healing, but Ark pulled out two healing potions from his inventory and squatted down to hand her one.

Even though she could heal, the potion would help hasten the process.

But just as she saw his face, Thalia visibly trembled and tried to run, but Ark held her shoulder, pinning her in place.

"Please, no more~" Thalia cried, her eyes moist with tears.

"I think... I think I’ll really die this time." Her hands flailed weakly in the air as her eyes sought out help.

"Don’t worry, I’m not going to shock you again..." Ark said in his most reassuring tone.

But Thalia was either not listening, or she just didn’t believe him, because she turned to Olivia next. "Please... Help. Me. He’s going to have his way with me."

"Hey, let’s mind the way we word things..." Ark sighed. "It seems you have enough energy for jokes."

Thalia stopped her vain struggle, her tail rattling as she turned her attention to him.

"So now that you have captured me just like you said you would." Her tone turned a little more serious.

"What are you going to do with me?" At the end, despite her feigned confidence, Ark could sense some sadness and uncertainty within it.

Technically, all he had told her was that he would fix her faulty mentality. He never told her exactly what he intended to do...

Anyone could misinterpret those words. Was he taking her to jail? Was he going to register her in an asylum?

Considering what he had seen today, and her sultry jokes, maybe he should take the second into consideration?

Anyways... Right now, those thoughts were likely going through her mind.

"I’m going to make you a part of my guild, of course." He replied in a plain tone.

"Again with that nonsense." Thalia smiled sadly. "Do you think someone like me can be a part of a guild?"

She shook her head. "I may seem normal now, but that is because I am well fed, and because you have utterly exhausted me~"

’Hey, wording!!’

"When I get hungry..." Her voice trailed off, but she did not need to say any more. Ark already understood what she meant.

No matter how much she tried to resist her hunger for flesh, since she had gotten a 100% synchronization rate so quickly, she would always lose control of her mind and body.

Thalia had tried to stop herself countless times, only to wake up the next morning covered in blood and surrounded by either human or animal parts.

It was like an addict trying to abruptly stop their addiction, only several times worse. Thalia’s will was not her own.

After struggling for months, she eventually gave into her nature.

"Even now..." She closed her eyes, and her tail spasmed. "I am barely controlling myself from eating that one." She glanced at Olivia, and her slit pupils grew thinner.

Olivia took a cautious step back.

"Well." She smiled lifelessly. "If the guild is only the two of us, I guess it won’t really be that bad, hehe."

Ark took personal offense to that statement. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Well..." Thalia had an innocent expression on her face as her eyes roamed his naked body. "You’re not very appetizing."

Ark summoned his burned cloak to shield himself. "I’ll have you know that a certain player often stares at me like I’m a five-star meal."

"I don’t think that is something to brag about..." Olivia said from the side.

Ark sighed. "Anyways... what you said earlier about not being able to control yourself, I have a fix for that."

He raised his hand and a golden artifact appeared, taking form within his bony fingers. It was the Eye of Eternity, the S-Rank artifact he had gotten from a mystery box.

He squatted and then moved the artifact towards her. "If you wish, I can reverse your Synchronization rate right back to zero."

Thalia immediately sat up straight, her eyes widening. She stared at the artifact as though it was gold, an array of emotions flickering in her eyes.

"Are you serious?"

It was just like Ark had thought. Although Thalia claimed to have accepted who she was, it was only a facade.

It was the only way she could justify everything she had done in her mind, the only way to prevent her consciousness from torturing her.

Ark nodded. "Only if you agree to it..."

A smile appeared on her face and she raised her hands towards it, only to pause midway and draw her hand back slowly.

Ark could see the pained expression on her face as she did this, every moment likely felt like torture to her. But that didn’t stop her from folding her hands and resting them on her body.

"What is the point? Fixing my Synchronization rate... it is not going to change who I am, it is not going to erase the things I have done."

Ark nodded. "But it will give you a new starting point."

"I should just die." She shook her head, a wry smile on her face as she hugged her shoulders, tears forming in her eyes. "Like the people I have killed..."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"This is the problem with you self-righteous types."

Ark’s voice came out as a sharp hiss, his mood instantly switching. Thalia’s violet eyes met his flaming blue orbs. All of a sudden Ark seemed... different.

He was normally composed no matter the situation, but now all that composure seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"What difference would dying make? Why are you so eager to disappear? Do you think dying will make those you killed come back? They are dead and gone!"

Thalia flinched, her eyes clouded with emotion.

"There is nothing noble about death, Thalia. Nothing at all. Do you know what I consider noble?"

Ark got to his feet, feeling rage bubble within him.

"Showing up every day despite the burdens you bear."

"Challenging the towers, raiding dungeons because you know that for every tower, for each dungeon... you have prevented the loss of hundreds of lives."

"That is what I consider noble! Only cowards die, cowards run away under the guise of atoning for their sins, they run away thinking they are doing a service to the world!"

"They run away from everything they have, they run away from everyone they love..."

Ark’s tone turned dark.

"But the truth is... they are afraid."

Just like him.

Ark had been a coward. He had not been run over by a truck, poisoned by jealous friends, or died of some incurable illness.

He had chosen to end it all.

A thousand-foot drop, a period during which time seemed to slow... a period where his memories judged him for his actions. And an impact that would forever be engraved in his mind.

Deep inside him, Ark feared that he was still a coward, a failure.

That was the cause of his obsessive drive to become number one in a world like Eden, it was simply to prove to himself that he was no longer that man.

That he was no longer the coward that had given it all up.

"Thalia..." Ark’s voice broke as he spoke. "Staying alive is several times more noble than death!"

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