Every test they performed only made the healers more confused.

All of Lian’s organs and body parts were working normally without any problem or damage.

There were not even any healed fractures to be seen.

The mana pathways throughout his body were also stable and his soul showed no clear damage.

The third healer stared at the screen in front of him for several minutes after checking the results.

"Is there a problem?" Lian asked while sitting on the bed.

"No, and that’s exactly the problem, not only are you not injured, some of your body stats are even higher than the normal level." the healer answered with a strange expression.

The effect of the Extra Life had probably restored his body to a completely perfect condition.

After the healers also confirmed that he was completely healthy, they told him that he could leave whenever he wanted.

But before leaving, Lian slept for almost twelve hours, not because of physical tiredness, after all, his body did not have that kind of tiredness anymore.

The main reason was that after a long time, his mind finally had no immediate threat to follow.

He had been trapped inside his own body for several days.

His identity had been slowly eaten away.

He had died.

He had come back to life.

He had fought against a catastrophe inside a spiritual space.

And in the end, he had swallowed that same catastrophe inside something he still did not even know what it was.

The Heart of the Ruined Realm.

And through all of this, the last thing he had heard before returning to life was the indirect confession of his own brother that he had come to kill him.

Even his mind needed to shut down for a few hours.

The next morning, while he was getting ready to leave, two people entered his room.

Both were wearing dark formal clothes and each of them had the silver symbol of the World Awakened Federation on their chest.

One was a man around forty years old with short gray hair and the other was a younger woman holding a floating tablet.

The man stepped forward a few steps.

"Lian Vorhelm?"

"Yes, that’s me." Lian answered calmly.

"There are some questions you need to answer."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Don’t worry, we only have a few basic questions."

"Ask."

Both of them sat on the chairs around the bed, before asking detailed questions, they asked him to give a general summary of his experiences inside the Special Area.

Lian thought for a moment and after deciding what he wanted to say, he gave them a general summary without going into details.

His journey through the Giant Forest, Glassthorn and finally Emberroot and the important experiences they had there.

It was clear that the first and second ones were not important to them and their attention was actually on the third forest.

"When was your first encounter with the Cindari?"

"Do you confirm the existence of an organized native civilization?"

"How many cities did you see, approximately?"

"What exactly was the Forgotten Tree?"

All the questions being asked were clearly based on information they had gotten from the other Awakened who had already woken up.

And they had probably heard Lian’s name several times in their statements and decided to come and question him directly, and their questions confirmed this.

He answered as much as necessary, most of the answers were things that Rindo, Cassian and the other members of their group already knew and there was no reason to hide them.

When the questions reached the final days, the female officer raised her eyes from the tablet.

"What was your role in the end of the Quest?"

"It’s complicated." Lian answered simply.

The two officers looked at each other for a moment.

The woman opened her mouth, but the man slightly raised his hand.

"About the final events...the base officials prefer to speak with you personally."

The young Vorhelm understood a lot from that sentence, they did not have the right to ask the next questions, they probably did not even have the access level needed to know the full details about Black Silence.

"The person who returned with you is clearly a native of the Ruined Realm, and there are a few other things, parts of the reports have been sent directly to the command level."

"If you can give us some time within the next two days, the base officials have some more detailed questions, we will tell you the exact time."

"No problem." Lian answered, he had not forgotten Aren.

He planned to go and check on his condition today and make sure they were not hurting him, even though he was a native of the Ruined Realm, he had helped them a lot.

But that man had also suffered many injuries and was currently under treatment, and his interrogation would not begin until the treatment process was finished.

So there was no reason to worry.

"Thank you for your cooperation." both officers thanked him and then both of them left the room.

After they left, the first thing he did was look at his own clothes.

The blood-covered clothes were lying on the chair, dry and torn, the chest area was almost completely unusable.

"I don’t think this can be used anymore." Lian muttered.

He opened his storage space.

Fortunately, he had brought several extra sets of clothes with him before entering the Special Area.

At that time, he had only prepared for a long journey.

He did not know that the extra clothes would be useful after dying and coming back to life.

He took out dark pants, a simple black shirt and a pair of comfortable shoes and a few minutes later, he stood in front of the mirror.

Everything looked perfect and complete and then he also left the medical center.

He had more important things to deal with, for example, his first evolution.

As soon as he left the medical building, he stopped for a few seconds.

Base #9 had changed, just from its size it was clear that it had become several times larger than what he had seen the last time, many buildings that had not existed before had been built.

Official branch buildings of the Federation and organizations and institutions related to Awakened, and many guilds had also opened office branches here.

Lian slowly walked through the street and the first thing he noticed was that the population had also increased.

Awakened could be seen almost everywhere, groups returning from hunting and groups checking their equipment.

Mercenaries who were discussing contract prices beside the mission offices and young people who were excitedly comparing their new weapons.

He stopped in front of the huge floating screen in the main square of the base.

The map of the explored part of the Ruined Realm was displayed on it.

For a few seconds, he only looked at the colored lines.

Nine months ago, the human area was much smaller and was around one hundred kilometers and could barely reach one thousand.

Now the map had expanded to a huge distance in several directions.

A number in the corner of the screen caught his attention.

[Stabilized radius from Base #9: 8,907 kilometers.]

Lian raised an eyebrow.

More than eight thousand kilometers and almost nine thousand kilometers.

Below it, there was more information.

[Permanent observation points: 97]

[Active intermediate forts: 31]

[Registered hunting areas: 309]

[Confirmed high-risk areas: 21]

[Stabilized trade routes: 17]

He stared at the map for a moment, the progress was much greater than he had expected.

In nine months, humans had taken territory through large-scale expansion, built roads, created intermediate bases and classified hunting areas.

Even a complete economy around the Ruined Realm was starting to form.

"Nine months really isn’t a short time." he quietly said to himself, and there was another point that he noticed when his eyes fell on the recruitment requests for groups.

And to make sure, he looked at all the other screens that could provide information about this subject.

The subject was the average level of Awakened around his age.

His eyes narrowed slightly, nine months ago many young Awakened had just reached level ten.

Level ten was still considered an important boundary and now?

Level twenty-something seemed almost normal for serious young groups and most groups wanted members with at least level 20.

While the last time he had left this place and entered that rift, most young groups at best wanted members around level 10.

Many people around his age had already completed their first evolution.

And this made him feel another reality, he was behind.

Of course, not in the sense that he had become weaker, but time outside had moved forward without him and many people of his generation had reached level twenty-something and started their evolution paths.

While Lian was still level twenty and behind his first evolution, of course, none of them had been forced to swallow an entire catastrophe to evolve.

This was not a small difference.

"What about Kain?" the face of his best friend appeared in his mind.

The last time he had seen Kain, everything had been completely different and he had probably completed his first evolution by now too.

Maybe he had gained several new skills, maybe he was even one of the most famous young Awakened in Base #3 now.

And with his talent, it was not even unlikely that he was close to his second evolution, and if this was true, the distance between them had become very large.

"I don’t know if he went to get my armor for me or not, considering how expensive it probably was, probably not."

Another thought suddenly came to his mind.

The armor.

Before entering the Special Area, he had ordered the creation of an Ancient Rank armor.

At that time, they had said that making it would take some time, but this time was only supposed to be one month and nine months was definitely more than enough for the armor to be completed.

If the creator had not sold it or given it to someone else, which he naturally would not do, it should be completely ready.

Then he slightly shook his head, he had many things to do, he even had a large number of monster corpses to sell.

But all of these things had to wait until at least tomorrow, he had something more important to do today.

About half an hour later, he reached the more luxurious area of the base.

And there he saw a building he knew very well, the same inn where he had rented a room for the night nine months ago, before entering the Special Area.

But even that had changed and the previous building had been expanded and two new floors had been added to it.

The entrance had become larger and the outside area was now a parking area for vehicles made for Awakened and several high-level guards were standing beside the entrance.

Lian entered.

The inside also looked more crowded and more expensive, ordinary travelers were almost nowhere to be seen and most customers were members of large unions, professional Awakened or people whose equipment showed that they made a lot of money from hunting.

He walked toward the counter.

"Welcome, how can I help you?" the employee asked politely.

"I want a good room, the best one if possible." Lian answered.

"For how many nights?"

"For now, two nights."

The woman showed him the price and he saw the number and slightly raised an eyebrow, the price was almost twice what it had been nine months ago.

"The city has become expensive."

The employee laughed.

"Everything has become more expensive, but the hunters’ income has also increased." and then she answered jokingly.

Lian paid the cost and the room key was given to him in the form of a small token.

"Fifth floor, room 512."

He nodded and not long after, he reached his room and closed the door.

The room really looked luxurious and comfortable, he closed the window and then without hesitation slowly sat on the large bed.

Outside, evening was slowly settling over Base #9.

But his attention was no longer on the city, all his attention was on the evolution and on thinking about how he could move forward and what was waiting for him after swallowing Black Silence.

"It’s time."

The blue system panel appeared in front of him.

[Name: Lian Vorhelm]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Monster]

[Level: 20]

[First Evolution is available]

[Quest rewards are available]

His eyes stayed on the last line for a moment, the Quest rewards should be the same rewards that had been given for destroying Black Silence and the Titan.

But he put it aside for now, he could look at them later too.

The next panel opened.

[First Evolution Quest]

[Condition: Swallow one of the five Calamities.]

[Status: Completed.]

[Swallowed Calamity: Black Silence.]

[First Evolution is available.]

Lian stared at the message, finally, after all that trouble, he was truly ready.

[Stored levels: 3]

[Reward levels will be applied after completing the evolution.]

[Would you like to begin the First Evolution?]

[Yes / No]

Without hesitation, he chose the "Yes" option.

[Confirmed.]

[First Evolution is beginning.]

And the light swallowed the entire room.

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