“Hmm so a level up system is put in place after evolving?” Lemrod mumble the words over and over again while pacing up and down the predetermined route.

The carcass of the feline beast was covered by the sun that’s now starting to show its presence to the world once more. Having read the information presented from the bright blue box and learning how to make it disappear with a wave of a hand, he ponders about this newly acquired information. “It might be just skills that evolves further and level is non-existent.

You get strong in this advancing your control on your set skill.” he thought. Having come to an idea his eyes flash brightly and he grinned. “Let me test this theory then” he said to no one in particular.

Lemrod flexed his finger and willed the dark matter surrounding him, the dark matter wasn't as thick as yesterday, it wasn't as dense and this puzzled him greatly. He scrunched up his face in confusion. He also noticed that his control over the dark matter dropped quite severely and he can't help but grimaced at the sudden development.

Was he losing his powers? He questioned silently. Dread filling his mind. Stopping his experiment for the moment, he focus all his power on finding out the answers to his questions. He mulled it over and over again until he thought about a possible cause of the change in control.

He looked up at the sky and saw the big fireball shined brightly, giving plants the much needed raw energy to survive. Then he proceed to survey his surrounding and saw small patches of shadows cast by the trees. “It might be because it’s not night time.

So my power has lessened and the control of my dark matter is clearly affected by this.” In fact the boost of power that I felt has been lowered to about half.

Seeing the patches of dark matter cast by the trees and the plants. He willed the shadows to go join the dark matter circulating inside him. Slowly it leaves the safety of the tree and float up in the air, swishing and swashing, behaving like a liquid although with a thought it can solidify. It went inside him and he can feel himself getting stronger.

Delighted by this discovery he couldn't help but smile although his mood has been considerably down after he discovered a weakness to his ability. Although things were not favourable to him during the day but when night time comes. That’s becomes a completely different story.

Looking at his surroundings Lemrod knew he couldn't stay here for long, using his now vast superior eyesight compared to when he was human he spotted the abandoned city.

“Its really like a city in a apocalyptic world huh?” he laughed quietly to himself. He found his current situation amusing because never in his wildest dreams thought that he would could experience this feeling of power and freedom.

Sure Lemrod did not really hate his previous lifestyle living with his parents in the city and doing the same old routine every day, his parents leaving to their respective workplace and him going to school to help him get a job for the future and mock about with his friends. It’s not like they were rich but they were definitely well off unlike other families.

But.

Lemrod paused dazed while taking in the surrounding area again, although it looked destroyed and barren, strangely there was beauty hidden if you overlooked the toppled buildings and dead bodies scattered and monsters roaming the plain. The world never looked more savage as if Mother Nature finally unveiled her mask revealing her true nature and destroying the hundred years of temporary peace felt by the majority of the top of food chain, making the world once more a dangerous place to live without power.

Lemrod finally understood the words ‘survival of the fittest’ and he savoured every single syllable of the word making him tremble with pure bliss at the thought of not being bound by society.

He was unrestrained and laws can’t hurt him. Sticks and stones may break his bones but who says they’ll get a chance to he smiled dangerously.

Time skip

Months of travelling by foot at night and using the dark matter to hide his presence so no single beast could sense his presence as he faithfully headed north to the city of Norwell the place where the king resides. He rested at day time and hunted small prey, critters that were not yet affected by the white lights. He drank from the canteen which was filled with water that he found while passing through an abandoned village.

The smell of decaying flesh did not bother him and he simply manipulate dark matter into a mask that purifies the air around him. Lemrod discovered that he could use dark matter and control it to cover his body like an armour and with his mind he can imagine a structure of an armour or a weapon and it stays in that form unless he wills to go back to its original liquid state.

Strangely enough after playing with his ability while walking to satiate his boredom the mysterious blue pop up box appear again informing him of his gains.

“Dark matter manipulation level up to 3”

“Because of your ingenious ways of manipulating the dark matter, you can now receive random enchantments to weapons or armour you create using the dark matter”

This was how the dark matter mask that he wore was able to purify air that he breathes in as it converts the stench in the air to clean and breathable air.

Although the enchantment would disappear if he dissolve the current state of the mask and if he makes another mask it would surely have another enchantment so he kept the current mask thinking the enchantment is clearly useful and with a bit of effort concealed inside his little pocket dimension as Lemrod liked to call it.

Although it can't store physical material object, it can definitely store his dark matter. After all he needs somewhere to store his dark matter to use in day light combat because unlike night time the whole area wasn't covered by darkness putting him at disadvantage.

A pair of soldiers distracted him from his current thoughts, guarding the entrance which is a huge gate about 25 ft. high and looking at the walls surprise Lemrod even more as he can see that new bricks were added on top of the old ones.

“They must have wanted to increase the overall height of the wall” Lemrod mused quietly. Still walking forward to the gigantic gate that stood before him, its appearance was awe inspiring and Lemrod can’t help but gasped in awe at its sheer size.

Still he wondered how they were able to increase the height of the wall to about 20ft so quickly, the overall size of the wall was now 50ft in total. I mean it’s no use against evolve lifeforms that can fly but the thickness of the wall and its shear height would definitely stop the evolve creature from barging in without a proper invitation.

"This beasties definitely needs to learn some manners" he muttered to himself.

A lot of resources, money and definitely workers were involve in accomplishing this amazing feat.

Grinning that he finally has the much needed company. He only had himself to talk to and he almost thought he was going to insane with the loneliness that he felt.

He approach the guards carefully wanting access to the current stronghold.