Born in apocalypse

In the heart of a dense, untamed jungle, a hushed reverence filled the air. Shafts of golden sunlight filtered through the towering trees, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor.

A group of a hundred people was praising a group of five hunters who had just defeated the monstrous boss of the village.

"Well done, guys," one of the men shouted.

The others nodded in agreement, their eyes reflecting the determination that had brought them here. The jungle’s whispering leaves seemed to echo their commitment.

A wave of praise coursed through the crowd once again as everyone began to praise the group one by one.

"Sylas, why were you cursing? Anyway, you looked cute," one of the men from the crowd commented as he looked at the beauty holding the shield and a bloody mace in her hand.

"Ohhh! Shut up.." Sylas, the tank of the group shouted as a tint of redness appeared on her face.

While everyone was busy chatting, the old man, Ewen, was looking at his notifications with an intense gaze.

’So, I finally reached level 20, took me long enough,’ he thought as a chuckle escaped his lips.

Ewen couldn’t help but remember all the sacrifices he had to make in order to reach this level. He looked at the sky, remembering someone, as his vision became somewhat blurry.

The old man quickly rubbed his eyes and opened his status. The moment he opened his status, the option for evolution prompted in front of him.

[Do you want to evolve your class?]

[Yes/No]

’Should I evolve right away or should I evolve after reaching the village?’ the old man thought as he looked at the screen.

’What am I thinking? I should obviously evolve. There are still three villages left to attack," the old man thought as he gazed intensely at the "Yes" button.

He was about to hit the ’Yes’ button when he saw that Dhruv was walking towards him. He stopped his fingers, turned toward the lord, and bowed.

"You did amazing, old man," Dhruv said as he healed the old man with his healing spell.

There wasn’t that much damage to the old man, yet Dhruv was cautious and had done this for each of the members.

"Thank you, My lord." The old man thanked Dhruv for his word at the last minute.

Dhruv noticed that something was different with the old man and asked, "Did something happen? You look more energetic."

"Ohhh! That I’m just happy that I finally reached the level cap and could evolve, my lord. Talking about evolution, which class should I take?" The old man said as he opened his status to show to Dhruv.

Dhruv paused as he looked at the status screen, then blurted out, "So, you’ve reached the level cap and can evolve at any moment."

"Yes, my lord," the old man replied with the enthusiasm of a child.

"So, my lord, when did you reach tier 3? What are your stats? Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be asking these things." the old man continued asking these things but Dhruv was thinking about a different matter.

Should I tell the old man about the Mark? Will he accept it, or will he reject the idea? I mean, there is no reason for him to reject the proposal, right? What am I talking about? Of course, there is a reason for him to reject it. I mean, who wants to lose their humanity and become monsters... But then again, he would be much stronger... Dhruv began to contemplate whether he should tell the old man about the Mark or not.

While he was deep in thought, he suddenly jolted awake due to the old man’s voice.

"Did I bore you so much that you began to sleep while standing?" the old man joked as he noticed Dhruv’s behavior.

"No... no, it’s quite the opposite. I’m thinking about your evolution," Dhruv said while chuckling.

’There’s no point in prolonging this,’ Dhruv thought as he looked at the old man and opened his mouth.

"Say, old man, I have a way to make you stronger. Would you be willing to accept that?" Dhruv said.

Dhruv wasn’t confident that, after turning into a monster, anyone would be stronger than their human counterpart without any reason.

No, he had a few reasons to believe in this... The first reason was that after becoming a monster, they weren’t just changing mentally to achieve their class result, No.. after becoming monsters, they changed themselves entirely physically and mentally to perfectly fit into that class.

For example, if they became a mage, they would automatically become slightly more proficient in that field after becoming a monster, after all, there is a mana core attached to their body.

If they were to become a tank, they could directly shape their whole body in a way that would help them absorb damage more effectively, and this feature wasn’t available during their human form.

The single greatest advantage a monster has over a human is that they can mutate. Just eat the monster you hunted, mutate, get stronger, and then kill some more monsters to mutate again, repeating this cycle infinitely.

"Of course, my lord, if I could become even stronger then this, then why wouldn’t I choose?" the old man said with a smile on his face.

’Here it comes,’ with this thought in his mind, Dhruv looked the old man in the eyes and said,

"The truth is, I’m a monster..."

"Huhhh!" The old man blurted out.

The moment Dhruv said those words, he could see confusion in the old man’s eyes. He quickly corrected himself and continued.

"I mean, I was a human, but after getting entangled in some incident due to my ability, I changed from human to monster. To tell the truth, I’m not even sure you can call me a monster because I can mostly do what I was able to do before becoming what am i today," Dhruv explained.

He purposely added the last sentence so the old man wouldn’t freak out. After that, he explained about the mark and how the old man would evolve into an Asteri species.

"Is that true?" The old man asked, remnants of shock still plastered all over his face.

"Of course, it’s true. Why would I lie to you? So, do you accept the mark?" Dhruv asked.

The old man didn’t directly reply and asked another question, "Are the ones who lived on the island before us accepted the mark?"

"Yes, they have the mark. But after obtaining the mark, nobody had evolved, so they are still human in a sense," Dhruv told the truth to the old man.

"Can you grant this Mark to anyone without their permission?" the old man asked another question.

Dhruv was about to say yes to make the old man feel special, thinking that his lord had thought of asking for his permission even when he could directly put the mark on him.

But for some reason, a different sentence got out of his mouth,

"No, I can’t put the Mark on someone without their permission," Dhruv said with a smile on his face.

"This is the last question, my lord. After accepting the mark and evolving, will I transform into these types of monsters?" the old man asked his final question.

"No, unless you want to, as you would get a skill that would let you transform into a monster form," Dhruv said.

"Okay! I have decided. I will accept the Mark," the old man said with a beaming smile.

"Ohhh! Okay," Dhruv was so surprised that he couldn’t say more than this.

"Okay, get ready," Dhruv said as he picked up the old man’s hands. Touching his hand, he thought of adding this person to his species.

The moment he thought of this, a notification appeared in front of the old man.

[Do you want to join the species: Asteri.]

[Yes/No]

[Note: If you join this species, you can’t change your species to human anymore.]

Along with a confirmation notification, there was also a warning one. The old man ignored the last box and clicked on the "Yes" option.

The moment he pressed the "Yes" button, a load of knowledge began to seep into his brain. There wasn’t much information about this new species, so the knowledge flow stopped after a few seconds.

The knowledge consisted of information about evolution, the suitable environment in which they should evolve, information about mutation, and most importantly, information about Asteri.

The old man looked at Dhruv and said with a smile, "How should I address you, as my lord, or as Lord Progenitor?"

Listening to these words, all of Dhruv’s tension dissipated as he looked at the old man and said, "Address me how you like."

While saying this, he transferred all his coins to the old man and advised him to invest all of them into his magic power before evolution.

After telling this to the old man, Dhruv began to find Alaric. He quickly found that Alaric was collecting the corpses of the monsters.

Calling Alaric, he said, "Go outside and tell Azarex that Ewen is about to evolve."

"Okay, master" Alaric replied.

Saying this, Alaric appeared beside Ewen and grabbed him by the collar.

In the next second, they both appeared in front of a portal.