Re: Evolution Online-Novel

Chapter 709 A different path

Liam could feel the lizard guy's fighting spirit, his angry soul, surging inside that strong and robust body. He could even feel all of the emotions of the creature. They were heightened as he sensed them.

He gulped and tugged at it. The lizardman instantly froze. He turned to look at Liam in a daze, not understanding what was happening.

Liam unknowingly grinned and tugged at his soul some more. A power-hungry look appeared on his face as he watched the creature squirm and fall down inexplicable pain. The lizardman was completely helpless under his grasp.

He tugged at the already wounded soul even more, and this time, the creature gasped for breath, and his eyes bulged out of their sockets. He twitched on the ground for a couple of seconds before dropping down dead.

Liam's grin widened as he still held onto the soul he had personally harvested and slowly brought it over to the black bead, enjoying every minute of the pain and agony that were encased in the soul.

A living soul was completely different from a dead and decaying soul. He could feel the creature's resentment, anger, and curses. And for some reason, it was satisfying, giving him even more pleasure. It was an addictive drug that he craved more of.

Hurriedly, Liam raised his hand again to latch onto another living soul, and a sharp pain seared through his mind. He had hit his limit. But the pain snapped him out of his trance-like state.

Only Luna noticed that something was wrong. She immediately dropped the fight she was tangled up in and teleported next to him.

Kyuuuu? She pounced on him with her huge paws, knocking him to the ground. "Master? Wake up."

Liam let out a sigh as he came back to his former self. He couldn't fully understand what just happened. One second he was himself and the next second, he acted differently.

"Yes, I am fine." He absent-mindedly patted the fox. "Go back, I am fine." He then swiped away the notification that blinked in front of him.

Almost a whole 10 percent gain… He couldn't believe it. This was a huge step forward.

For the first time, Liam felt as if he was wrong all this time. He had been walking with his eyes closed. This legacy… maybe it was completely different than what he had imagined it to be.

He could still vividly feel the emotions and the weight of the living soul.

Liam snapped out of it and took his milky way water canister to recover his mental strength. Whatever that power or skill was, he was still not strong enough to meddle with it just yet. He only had a taste of it and he almost lost himself.

And from the looks of it, if he tried to force things when he was not ready, he could lose control of himself completely. It was better to improve his mental strength some more before attempting this again.

He shook his head and stood up, once again going back to absorb all the souls that he could into the black bead. He took a deep breath and tried to see if he was still able to…

The next second, his eyes widened.

Yes, when he focused hard enough, he could still see the souls inside the creatures that were still alive. This time, Liam stopped there and did not go further. The skill was incomplete. If he tried it a few times, maybe he could perfect it but it was too dangerous.

He couldn't afford to use this new power carelessly. At least not yet. He was not strong enough for that. Nonetheless, this would be his ace in the hole if he were ever in a truly life-threatening predicament.

The way the creature was utterly helpless had left a lasting imprint on his mind. He knew that if he wanted he could do it again, make someone else feel that way.

Liam shook his head and continued pulling all the dead souls into the bead. Soon, the numbers of the lizardmen started dwindling and they were no longer as threatening as they were before.

"Let's end this quickly." He shouted as the soul minions roared in response. Unlike the lizardmen, they did not need food or get tired. They relentlessly kept attacking, and finally, the last one died.

Liam as well absorbed even the last of the souls without wasting any, filling up two of the five beads. He looked around and saw the corpses slowly becoming light dust and dissipating.

The huge hall of the fort was now completely empty and the place returned to being once again calm and silent. The intense battle that had taken place only five minutes before seemed to have never taken place at all.

The only evidence was the four piles of loot that the little rabbit had meticulously piled up.

Kyu! Luna immediately jumped towards the rabbit and stared down at her smugly. A naughty smile then crept up her face as she ever so slightly moved her paw, kicking the rabbit away like a tennis ball.

"Alright. That's enough." Liam rubbed his temples in tiredness. He dismissed the little rabbit and also all the soul minions, leaving behind only the wyvern and Luna, and also the elves.

"Did you have any storage space with you?" He asked the elves as he started rummaging through his inventory space for the loot he recovered when he killed the elves.

The elven lackeys all shook their heads as they didn't have anything like that, but the noble family's son sure did. "I have a ring."

"This should be it, right?" Liam took out the ring and wore it. He wondered if he had to do anything to activate it. However, the next second, another inventory panel popped up in front of him.

"Oh, I guess what is yours is automatically mine?" He smiled at the whopping 2000 slots of inventory space. Not only was it better than his own inventory, but it was also capable of storing more items.

About ten pieces of equipment fit in a slot, and with it, he was easily able to store all the drops from the massacre.

Liam hurriedly shoved everything inside as he did not have the time right now to look through it. Though he was pretty sure that there was no treasure here, he still wanted to see what this prison was and, more importantly, what the 'Dragon King' was up to.

He walked over and looked at the big gaping hole in the wall which was haphazardly closed with a boulder. This was where the kid had run into.

If he went in here, perhaps he would be able to catch up to him really fast but he thought about it and decided against it.

Instead, he once again asked the wyvern to lead the way. He was already lagging behind that kid and would probably never beat him to it if he followed the same path.

The only option for him was to take the most direct shortest route.

And maybe if the kid was lost in the fort… just maybe they would be able to meet him before too long.