Kaelen stared at the strange symbols for a moment, but for some reason, the trance-like state he felt the first time with Black Rose never happened, so he looked up at the two women who both had the same marks on their bodies.

Somehow, a race created in-game was now standing before him, and they both thought that since he was humanity’s greatest warrior, he should know something about their race or origin.

Did the Emperor know something about this?

Was Evolution Online truly just a game or a gate to alternate worlds?

Did this mean every single game world in Evolution Online was a real world?

Kaelen looked up at the starry night sky.

He had a thousand questions in mind, with no answers to start with.

"I know you have a lot of questions in mind. Just let us in for now," the white-haired woman said calmly, but Kaelen could tell she was anything but calm inside.

He stared at the women silently for a moment... before he chuckled softly. "No."

"W-What? You promised to let us in if we answered your question!" The dark purple-haired woman blurted in surprise, and her ally had an ugly expression on her face.

"I lied," Kaelen replied with a cold smile. "You don’t expect me to save you after you tried to kill me."

"Don’t you want to interrogate us more? Learn more about us and why we’re attacking you?" The white-haired woman said through gritted teeth.

"Do you think I’m stupid? The moment I let you two into safety, you’ll have no reason to tell me anything more, and who says you won’t try to kill me again?" Kaelen saw right through them.

"I’ll have to thank you for the little information, but I’ll hear the rest when next I cross paths with your kind."

"You bastard!" The purple-haired woman screamed. "You’re a monster!"

"That’s a new one. But I’d rather be a monster than be where you’re standing right now," Kaelen said with a cold grin as he sealed the window amidst the woman’s scream, cutting her words short.

The next moment, the stone ridge shook fiercely to its core like something powerful had collided into it, raining dust and debris.

Kaelen knew it was the nightmare shadow that had arrived, but didn’t budge from the spot. The stone ridge had been built just around the monoliths, making it stand in between the invisible barrier that repelled the nightmare beast away.

But even after waiting for a moment longer, the kill notifications never came through. So he sighed in exasperation and turned around to see two women a few metres ahead, crouched on the ground as the purple-haired woman spat out blobs of blood.

Kaelen calmly walked up to them. "Using a straining ability such as teleportation with depleted mana could permanently cripple your mana core, you know?" he said as he approached.

There was a small chance it could benefit the individual by forcefully expanding their mana reserve. But there was an even greater chance of rupturing it. And that was exactly what was happening with the purple-haired woman.

As for how Kaelen knew this: for a boy whose goal had been to awaken above everything else in the slums, he took it upon himself to acquire every little bit of knowledge he could get his hands on about awakening, hoping it would increase his own chances.

"Don’t come closer." The white-haired woman warned, but Kaelen noticed she didn’t bring out her weapon.

Kaelen didn’t halt for even a fraction of a second. "For someone who claims to be from a fictional race, you guys sure have so much in common with ’humans’."

"If you try to attack us, they’ll attack you first." The white-haired woman warned again.

Kaelen was certain she wasn’t lying. That was probably why her weapon was still stowed away. But he was still a bit skeptical.

"Who’s gonna attack me first?" Kaelen asked as he stopped before them to look around at the beasts now peacefully roaming about in the dilapidated temple. "Them?" He asked with a raised brow.

"No." The woman said as she pointed towards something deeper into the temple. "Them."

Kaelen paused for a moment, but the moment he saw what the woman was referring to, his heart skipped a beat... not in fear.

He immediately lost interest in the woman and walked deeper into the temple like he was being mind-controlled, as he climbed onto the pavilion where multiple human-like statues were erected.

It resembled a cultivation sect, with the disciples all kneeling with their foreheads pressed to the ground towards the three standing statues before them.

The kneeling disciples didn’t carry any weapons on them. But their masters did, carrying weapons that were pointed in different directions.

One was a bow, the second was a staff, and the third was a lance. But what caught Kaelen’s attention was the glow around each and every one of the weapons.

Something he’d come across before.

"These are..." Kaelen trailed off.

Two Divine-Tier and one... Primordial-Tier weapon?! Casually sitting at a random location, not in Evolution Online, but in real life.

It was the aura the weapons exuded that repelled the nightmare shadow away, and it was the same statues that the women claimed would attack him if he attacked them.

"I understand it now."

It wasn’t about him or the women. Just like all the beasts gathered there were considered predators in the wasteland. But they cohabited peacefully in this temple, which could only mean violence was prohibited and these beasts knew what happened if anyone were to break these rules.

The question now remained: was the temple built on the old Earth, with these primordial items sitting there like normal relics until the apocalypse hit and mana perception came into play?

Or were they placed here after the apocalypse, by someone... but who and why?

If it took these three powerful items to keep the nightmare shadows away, and there were several safe havens like this out there, did that mean each and every one of them possessed a Primordial Tier weapon?

If humanity could establish strongholds around these weapons, could they finally create territories the beasts couldn’t invade?

Kaelen was certain he wasn’t the first to make this discovery.

But like the women claimed, the statues came to life when someone broke the law and order of the temple. The same would probably happen if anyone tried to take the weapons, which was why the women weren’t wary of him stealing them and putting them all in danger.

Kaelen stared at the unmoving statues for a while, before he tilted his head to look at the temple gate and stone ridge being continuously charged into.

He couldn’t tell the exact evolution Tier of the nightmare shadow, but he could tell it was in two digits.

He had enough evolution points to evolve twice, before he was short of evolution points to evolve any further.

More reasons why he needed to kill that beast to make more evolution points...

He slowly turned back to the statues, his eyes locked onto the staff exuding an eerie dark aura.

...and more reasons why he needed that Primordial Tier weapon to do it.

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