Endless Evolution As A Skeleton In A Game-Like World

Stephanie tasted blood in her mouth.

She had heard about skeletons, they were creatures ranked even lower than kobolds. And from the tag he was wearing on his neck, he had to be a newbie at best...

How then was he so strong? A regular newbie would not have been able to do so much damage with one hit.

She gritted her teeth and glared at him. "You bastard!"

It was a cheap shot, a lucky strike and nothing else. It seemed she had to teach the newbie a lesson.

Claws sprang out of Stephanie’s hand, and she slashed them right at his neck bones.

"When you wake up at your respawn point, you’ll know not to cross your seniors!"

The claw was extremely fast. In the space of a heartbeat, it was already at his neck. But instead of slicing through his bones, her claws slammed into something solid.

Stephanie’s eyes widened as she saw a semi-transparent, golden shield blocking her claws.

She tried to apply more strength, but the shield would not budge.

"What the hell is this?! Who the fuck are—"

The second blow sent Stephanie staggering back and crashing into her chair. The chair snapped and she fell flat on the floor.

Ark stared down at her, and somehow his fiery blue eyes felt colder than the Arctic.

"How many times would I repeat myself?" He slid the one-credit coin forward. "Give me change."

Stephanie could feel a tooth loosening in her mouth. How dare he, how dare an ordinary skeleton—!

Her paws glowed with fire and she pounced right from her spot into the air, charging down at his face.

"I’ll kill you!"

The fire intensified, and she struck down, creating fiery patterns in the air, each slash rushing down towards him.

Ark heard Eva scream out his name with concern, but he didn’t turn around to look. He stared at the coming fire without moving an inch, and to Stephanie’s horror, he vanished, the fire rushing past him, as though he wasn’t there.

Stephanie landed on the floor and spun around immediately, only to see Ark right behind her.

Snap!

Her head was rocked back by a punch, and more blood spewed out of her nose. She stumbled back a few feet, and then Ark whispered, "disrupt."

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness slammed into her. Forming coherent thoughts was difficult, and even maintaining her balance was a pain.

Her vision blurred, and she swayed from side to side, unable to stand erect.

’W-what is happening to me?’ Stephanie panicked internally, as tears threatened to slip out of her eyes. ’What d-did he do to me?’

She could not see much, but when she saw a blur of blue light approaching her, Stephanie felt something dark crawl up her spine.

Fear.

"I’m s-sowrry!" Her words slurred as she got to her knees. "Pleash, I won’nn do it again!"

"I didn’t ask for an apology, did I?" Ark came to a stop in front of her. "I asked for change..."

People like Stephanie were the reason there was still friction between the players and the natives. They were the reason a huge number of native deaths were recorded each year.

If she could treat Eva like this in public, in the presence of every single adventurer here...

If the adventurers could do nothing but watch because they wanted to mind their business...

Then what was going on outside the safety of the city? What was going on outside the area where the guild’s authority could reach?

Ark watched as the woman groveled for mercy, but he could not find it in his heart to feel any compassion for her... he never even had a heart to begin with.

She was trash. Trash needed to be disposed of.

[Race Synchronization has gone up to 30%!]

[Player will experience a greater connection with his race, dampened emotions, less emotional sensitivity, greater pain tolerance, as well as a host of other race-related effects.]

He raised his hand, and the hero’s sword appeared, pulsing softly with red light.

Then Ark paused. ’Hmm? Why do I sound like Cain?’

He let out a breath, and then the pressure he did not know had built up in the room settled, finally allowing the adventurers to breathe properly.

Ark shook his head and squatted next to the woman. She kept her head down, refusing to meet his gaze out of fear.

"The problem with people like you..." Ark said in a low tone. "Is that you think power is everything. You think that just because you are strong, you can do as you please..."

Ark placed a finger underneath her chin and tilted her head up to meet his gaze.

"Tell me. How does it feel to be on the other end of the spectrum? Not a very pleasant experience now, is it?"

The woman nodded slowly.

"Good. I think today’s lesson is complete."

Ark stood up and began walking away. But the woman ran up to him and grabbed the bottle as well as twenty-five thousand credits.

She hurried up to him and tugged on his garments. "Sir... your potion... and your change."

Ark stared at her for a short while... and then he felt a little bad seeing her in this state. His human side was once again crawling up to the surface.

"I no longer have need of it." He replied simply.

Thalia could easily heal Eva’s ears, there was no need to commit more than one crime today.

The woman bowed and watched as he walked back towards Eva’s table.

Thalia did not know how to react to what she had just seen, and honestly, neither did anyone else. The only person who did not seem surprised was Olivia.

Actually, the harpy had a wide smile on her face. "Tch." She clicked her tongue. "Why did he let her off so easily? He better not be sexist..."

’That was letting her off easy?’ Thalia thought. Sure, there were many players who were known to even kill others on the count of an offense.

But there was no way this could be considered letting her off easy.

"Has he always been like this?" Thalia asked as she watched him approach.

Olivia picked her ears with her wings and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Even when we fought, he didn’t seem... angry."

"Oh, that." Olivia yawned. "If I remember right, Ark has always hated bullying. Funny thing is he doesn’t care as much if he’s the one getting insulted... but the moment a weaker person is bullied in front of him, it’s like he’s a whole other person."

Olivia laughed when she remembered a fond memory. "He once beat Cain halfway to death back in our academy days, hehe. Even Darius couldn’t pull him off."

"That is why Cain hates him up till this day."

"Cain?" Thalia felt she had heard that name sometime in the past. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"Oh, he is the heir to the Order Guild."

Thalia’s face paled.

"Ah, so he beat the heir to the Order into a pulp..."

Olivia nodded.

"I see..."

Once Ark got back to the counter, he took in a deep, unnecessary breath, before breathing out slowly.

He could not smile, but the shift in mood was obvious in his voice.

"So Eva, about the wyvern quest—"

"Thank you!" Eva suddenly said with her head bowed. None of the other players had ever so much as spoken up when natives got bullied by players.

They did not want to offend their own people because a mere native was suffering...

Ark was the first one she had ever seen stand up for a native.

"Thank you for helping me out, Ark. I will be forever indebted to you."

"I wasn’t helping you." Ark sighed, so you do not owe me anything. "I have picked you to be my guild representative, I can’t let my guild rep get walked all over, you know? That will be a bad look for us."

Eva’s eyes widened slowly. "You mean... you want me to have such an important job??"

Being a guild representative meant that all the guilds dealing with the adventurer’s guild would go through her, and naturally she would earn a fortune from it!

Even smaller guilds were profitable, and after seeing Ark’s strength today, even if his guild was a start-up, it was only a matter of time before he became something much more!

Her cheeks tingled red as she bowed repeatedly. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Shhhh—!" Ark hissed. "You’re making everyone stare!"

Eva finally stopped, but there was a wide smile on her face, and a deep blush on her cheeks as she stared at him.

But the smile vanished a second later when a composed voice came from upstairs.

"Who dares interfere with my business?"

A woman walked down the stairs in confident strides, her eyes surveying the room.

She had long red hair that swayed around her as though alive, black eyes that had seen through countless disasters, and short pointy ears.

Her eyes landed on Stephanie, noticing her bloody face, just before they moved to Ark and Eva.

In a heartbeat, she vanished and appeared right in front of Ark, their faces inches apart.

It was not speed. It was teleportation, an extremely high-grade spell, even among the elite.

She sniffed the air, once, twice... and then her face hardened, those obsidian orbs boring into his.

"What did you do?"

She was a Fey-folk. Lady Véronique Freude de Seraph. The Vice guild master of the adventurer’s guild...

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