Chapter 27: Fuse and Evolve
Boom!
After realizing the truth, Gladiia didn’t hesitate for a second. She turned and swam towards where Garde was.
She admitted she hated Garde because he was a land dweller, he deceived Laurentina, and he injured her.
But when Garde took on the task of luring the Seaborn, he became their companion, her comrade!
If a comrade died because of her mistake, she would never forgive herself!
Next was Laurentina.
They had wasted half a day in the deep sea. If it wasn’t for repeatedly convincing themselves that they could only free Garde by finding the Seaborn’s main brain, they would have given up.
She had turned back.
Now, the main brain was nowhere to be found. Laurentina only wanted to return to Garde as soon as possible.
Lastly, there was Skadi.
She swam leisurely, not because she wasn’t trying her best, but because she was really slow.
Suddenly, Skadi turned her head and looked into the deep sea.
She seemed to have heard something.
It was as if someone was calling her in her ear, calling out a name.
“Ishar-mla!”
Boom!
On the land.
Garde’s body was thrown several dozen meters like a sandbag.
He gasped, using his fists to smash the Seaborn attacking him, then reaching out, a hint of golden light flashing in his crimson eyes.
Hum!
The large scythe in the distance trembled, as if guided by something, ignoring the Seaborn surrounding it, flying up suddenly. After tearing apart countless Sea Terror, it split the Seaborn in front of Garde in half before landing back in Garde’s hands.
The power of ascension!
The dawn sunlight peeled away the veil of night, shining down on Garde.
After a night of intense battle, Garde couldn’t help but feel like crying when he saw how little his experience bar had progressed.
He couldn’t help but wonder how many enemies he had to kill in the scorching winds to go from level one to level two and accumulate so much experience.
After one night, Garde had killed at least eight thousand Seaborn.
But the experience bar remained stubbornly unmoved.
The only consolation for Garde was that he felt the presence of the power of ascension in battle, in game terms, he had turned from pure fighter to fighter who can use his skill.
Although now, the cost of using the power of ascension was high for him.
After summoning his scythe, Garde’s gaze dimmed, and the anger in his eyes gradually consumed all his rationality.
The Seaborn attacking him had increased from thirteen at the beginning to fifty.
Initially, he only needed to kill thirteen Seaborn to gain a momentary respite.
Now he had to take down fifty, while also guarding against the birth of a new Seaborn.
Garde felt like giving up, allowing the anger to consume him completely so he could slaughter all the Seaborn.
Moreover, during the battle with the Seaborn, Garde always felt like something was watching him.
It made him very uncomfortable.
“…Fifty-third, fifty-fourth!”
As he fought to the end, the fifty Seaborn turned into fifty-four. After killing them, Garde simply lay on the ground, letting the ordinary Sea Terror attack him.
Physical exhaustion was secondary; the most important thing was the mental pressure.
But what puzzled Garde was that this time the Sea Terror didn’t immediately attack him after he killed all the Seaborn.
One seemingly weak Sea Terror walked up to a dead Seaborn.
Garde raised his hand, intending to kill it.
At that moment, threatening hisses sounded in Garde’s ears, and all the Sea Terror arched their backs, looking at him.
As if as long as he dared to make the slightest presumptuous move, all the Sea Terror would spare no effort to attack him.
In the past, Garde would have ignored all this.
But now, Garde couldn’t be bothered. It was better if they didn’t attack him; he could get some rest. Compared to the crocodile people, the small Sea Terror looked like newborn puppies.
But…
As it devoured a Seaborn, its body quickly grew by a size.
After devouring two Seaborn, it was almost the same size as those large Sea Terror.
After devouring five Seaborn, it evolved into a Seaborn slightly smaller than Garde.
Garde realized something was wrong.
Because ordinary Sea Terror stopped eating after evolving into Seaborn, as if possessing simple intelligence was their evolutionary endpoint.
But the Seaborn in front of him didn’t stop eating.
As Garde gripped his axe, the small Seaborn emitted a note.
“…Hungry.”
This was Agor’s language. Garde’s heart pounded, realizing that this Seaborn’s level was probably far beyond any Seaborn he had seen before.
Should he kill it while it hadn’t evolved yet?
As if guessing Garde’s thoughts, the small Seaborn looked at him and said in broken Agor language, “Hunter, you, me, talk.”
It wants to communicate with me?
Why?
Garde stopped his actions.
In fact, he didn’t have a choice. He was nearing his limit. Whether this Seaborn could evolve or not, he couldn’t face over fifty Seaborn anymore.
He decided to unleash his anger.
By then, whether there were fifty or five hundred Seaborn, it made no difference to him.
“Alright, I’ll wait for you.”
The crocodile person sat up, watching as the small Seaborn consumed all the surrounding corpses.
Garde noticed that despite consuming so many corpses, the small Seaborn’s body hadn’t changed at all, as if all the mass had been compressed together.
However, its eyes slowly became more lively, more clear.
As if it had gained human intelligence!
“Hunter, I want, to trade with you.”
Garde noticed that the evolutionary direction of this Seaborn was not random. It looked somewhat like a puppy, yet also resembled a lizard. Upon closer inspection, he could even see his features.
Could it be that this Seaborn’s appearance was modeled after him?
The Seaborn’s speech was still not very fluent, but Garde could understand at least.
“What trade?”
“My, child, hates land, lacks water, dry, give to you.”
“So, you’re willing to voluntarily leave the land?”
The small Seaborn imitated Garde, standing on its hind legs with its hands crossed over its chest, nodding.
“What’s the price?”
Garde asked.
“I want.”
The small Seaborn hugged itself, lowered its head, and looked at Garde’s crotch.
Then it raised its head, its gaze clear.
“I want, to mate with you.”
Garde: ???