CHAPTER 19: 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. 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 massive notifications 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. #