The next day came. The skies were bright, and everyone was getting up, and so was Aren. This had been the longest evolution that he had faced so far. He sat up from the bed with a groan, rubbing the back of his head.

The usual system message on a completed evolution came.

All his skills had leveled up. All his stats got an increase of four, except intelligence, which gained ten. His shadows had evolved as well, meaning a stronger army, and this time he gained one skill alone, as well as a 10,000 increase in his shadow energy.

Without much thought, he pulled up his stat screen.

[Name: Aren Raze]

[Class: Shadow General]

[Type: Shadow]

[Tier: SSS]

[Level: 30]

[Soul Fragments: 1000/20,000]

[Soul Energy: 50,000]

[Strength: 46]

[Speed: 48]

[Defense: 42]

[Constitution: 44]

[Intelligence: 53]

[40 free stat points]

(Author note, the skills are no longer listed under the stat screen because they are a lot now and slow down reading.)

His growth was massive, to say the least. He had reached a new level of strength.

"System, assign ten stats to each except intelligence."

Since intelligence was already high, he figured he would push the rest to match.

[Strength: 56]

[Speed: 58]

[Defense: 52]

[Constitution: 54]

[Intelligence: 53]

Aren looked at his stats and couldn't help but smile. He wasn't the same person that walked into the domain, he was a different man now.

He got up from the bed, and the moment his feet touched the ground, everything felt weird, like the ground was farther away. His clothes also felt unusually tight and short.

He looked at his sleeves, and he was certain they were much shorter.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Flo appeared out of nowhere and asked. Aren was almost three inches taller, and with him already being six foot, he was now six foot three.

His body was also more toned and slightly more muscular, which explained the tightness of his clothes.

"I think I grew more after this evolution," he said, still looking at himself.

"Yeah, you definitely grew, and also, your eyes have a more red color to them. Barely noticeable, but there," she said, then floated over to his head.

Aren didn't have any clothes that would fit well now, so he decided to switch into his dark armor for now. He would get new clothes whenever they reached the city.

Flo flew off his head and then faced him. "Now that you have everything out of the way, I have a lot to tell you about, and I think we can use it for some fun," she said, her eyes shining with excitement.

[....]

The journey was meant to start this morning, and everyone came out. The men readied all the mounts, and everyone was ready to go.

But two figures stood, eager and waiting to hear the commotion. They had spent their entire night planning how they would lie through this and get all suspicion off them.

They had even gone as far as fabricating the right story that would implicate someone else there.

But after minutes, nothing happened, and then they saw Aren walking out with the others. Their hearts froze, fear gripped them.

"That's impossible," the first muttered. He had watched the life leave Aren. He knew for certain that Aren died right there under his gaze.

"Oh shit, oh shit," the second cursed in a low voice, sweat already forming on his face. He looked at Aren like he had seen a ghost, and indeed that was the best way to put it.

"We are screwed, this can't be happening," he said.

"Calm down, we can't make any assumptions yet. We don't know what's happening," the first tried to be the voice of reason, but the second shot him a very cold look.

"Fuck off. If I could kill you, I would. You have ruined my life. Everything I worked for is in jeopardy because of you. If that kid tells on us and we come under investigation, we are screwed.

I don't know how he survived, but he did, and now we are fucked," he said in anger and shoved the first to the side before placing his helmet on his head and walking off.

Aoi, the captain, watched this and became curious, but she didn't put much mind to it for now.

Everyone got onto their mounts, and Aren rode with Aoi again. The townspeople said their goodbyes to them, and the journey started, the tigers rushing ahead fast.

While the journey progressed through a plain land that led to a forest, Aoi noticed the cat sitting on Aren.

"Is that a pet?" she asked.

"Something like that," Aren replied.

"You didn't have it yesterday."

"Oh? So you watch me closely?" Aren replied with a smug expression.

"For the most part, yes. It's part of my job now," she replied.

"Oh." Aren didn't expect her to reply that way, he was trying to tease her. "Well, she is a summon, so she wasn't out yesterday," he replied.

"Oh, I see," she replied and focused on riding.

Aren looked to the side. With shadow sense, he knew exactly where the two men were.

Flo had told him everything that had happened the last night and how he was killed. She ended up saving him with an illusion that made them believe they killed him. She could have ended it any other way, but she wanted to play with them a little, and Aren was up for it as well.

The journey to the WarGod City was estimated to take a day and a night, which meant they would have to camp out for a night, and that meant the perfect time for those two to do something else.

Aren wanted to break them and show them horror for daring to assassinate him, and when he was done, they'd either end their lives or have Aoi do it for them. Those were the only two options.

He looked at the first, who also looked at him. Aren smiled and then turned to look at the second, smiling as well. He sent both of them a message. He knew what they did.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.