Born in apocalypse

After reviewing the status of the tentacles monster, Dhruv found himself in a dilemma.

’What should I do with this thing...’ he pondered, gazing at the monster’s core present in his hand.

’I mean, the simple and straightforward answer would be that I or anyone can absorb the core, giving them a massive boost in their evolution.’ It was indeed a simple answer but he had another option in his mind.

’But the point is... would it be worth it... Uhhh! I mean, one can accumulate that much percentage any other way, but there is no guarantee that I would come across this type of monster’s core for the rest of the time...’ Dhruv thought, a confused expression forming on his lips.

So, although Dhruv simplified the idea by mentioning that absorbing other cores to accumulate the same percentage is the same thing, it is everything but straightforward.

The reason for this is that the evolution energy is directly linked to absorbing cores. The amount of evolution energy obtained during evolution depends on several factors.

The first and most basic is the tier of the monster. During the evolution, higher-tier monsters would almost have more evolution energy than the ones below them. For instance, a tier 2 monster would almost always provide more evolution energy than a tier 1 creature.

The reason it is almost because of 2nd and 3rd reason.

The second factor is how much the monster has exceeded its limit. For example, a tier 1 monster might only need 80-100 tier 1 cores to evolve, but that’s not its limit.

If the monster wishes, it could consume an extra 50-100 or even 100+ cores before the evolution making so it has more evolution energy than its competition.

The most obvious reason that the monsters don’t prefer the route of absorbing excessive cores is that it’s not easy to obtain cores... and the second reason is that the monster can’t really know how much boost are they going to get from absorbing another core.

These two things are such in an equilibrium that they keep each other in check.

Even when these two are not enough there is a risk associated with this route.

While some creatures can survive after absorbing an extra 50-100 cores or even more, others might face the risk of death from an overdose. This rule applies even within the same species of monsters.

Last but not least method of increasing the evolution energy which is also often seen in nature is absorbing unique cores—not really the unique rank but like unique monsters.

The increase in evolution energy from this method can’t be precisely calculated, but it is widely known that a unique core really does provide a significant boost compared to absorbing regular cores.

The reason Dhruv received twice the amount of evolution energy during his third evolution was because of the combination of the second and third factors.

After gazing at the core for a while, Dhruv recalled the first enchantment he had observed in its status—the enchantment of [Mana Source].

’Given the speed at which our crafters have been improving, there might come a time when they could create weapons or artifacts from this core. Wouldn’t that be more impressive than just absorbing the thing?’

With this thought in mind, he can’t help but remember the items he has in his possession. If his crafters could create something even a few levels below those items, he would consider it a win.

After finalizing a myriad of thoughts for a while, Dhruv reached a conclusion—an ultimate conclusion; it was nothing but a gamble. A gamble of time, to be precise.

He arrived at this conclusion by considering the possibility that his crafters might need a very long time to reach the point where they could use a tier Ⅳ item. By the time they reached that level, he might no longer need it.

And if that proved to be the case, then wouldn’t it be worth it to just absorb the core right now and get as much increase as possible?

With only these two scenarios he had gotten himself stuck in a rabbit hole of choices.

Sigh!

Sighing deeply, he finally reached a conclusion, ’If by the time I reach the required level, I don’t have 100% in my core, then I will absorb the core. But If I have it at 100% by the time I reach level 40, then I will give it to the crafters...’

Having made up his mind, Dhruv was finally able to place the core into his inventory with a smile on his face.

Getting free from the core he surveyed the scene in front of him. The smile on his face disappeared as he discovered another source that could aid in his evolution—the corpse of the monster.

The moment he contemplated fusing with the monster for its essence, the same dilemma surfaced. Instead of thinking for long, he applied the same logic and placed the entire body of the tentacle monster into his inventory.

Being a monster that had focused entirely on its mental aspect, the size of the monster wasn’t that big—more accurately, it wasn’t that big compared to other tier Ⅳ monsters.

When compared to an Asteris, it was still massive.

Judging the size of the monster accurately wasn’t easy either; after all, it was just a head with tens of tentacles attached to it. However, if one folded every tentacle, the monster had the volume of a small-sized car.

After scattering enough low-level monster meats out of his inventory, Dhruv successfully stowed the corpse of the Great Echomind Hunter inside his inventory with some space left to play.

When he finished dealing with the monster, Dhruv glanced and frowned at the poor boxes of meat scattered on the cold floor. For some apparent reason, he began to feel remorse for squandering them in such a manner.

’Hmmm! What should I do with them... I mean, I can fuse with some of them at the moment, but that would still leave most of it for waste...’ Dhruv thought, really not wanting to toss his precious hoard in the cold like this.

While contemplating how to dispose of the meats, his head suddenly tilted in a certain direction. With a smile on his face, he gazed at his second guardian and mumbled, "Sooo, Azarex, do you want to absorb some essence points."

As always, the undead lord was about to respond positively to the question...but this time it wasn’t instantaneous as the words stuck in his jaws as he also observed the meat lying on the floor.

Knowing very well that he could get a good chunk of essence from the meat, Azarex wasn’t really in the mood to eat or even fuse with something like that...

For him, the ideal meal was when he had killed someone with his own bloody hand. He liked his meals when they were still warm. The lingering mana of his spells was still around the body, and he could see the horror in their eyes as they realized that they were dying.

That was the time that he truly felt alive? Dead?... but this, this is something that was far from anything ideal.

Gazing toward his master, Azarex replied with a smile on his skull, "Of course, master, it would be a pleasure of mine to eat something that you have created."

Even though he didn’t like the food, there was no way he was going to deny any suggestion or order coming out of his master’s mouth.

Uttering these words, he moved forward and began to eat the food while his master started fusing with it. After a while, when they were finishing their jobs, there were still multiple boxes left on the floor.

"..." With a straight expression, he gazed at the boxes in front of him.

After pondering for a while, he realized that there really wasn’t any other choice but to discard them. He could put a few of them inside his inventory still, but he had reserved those spaces for more important things that he might find along the way.

"I guess there is no other way but to send you peacefully." Saying these words, Dhruv burned the rest of the meat so it wouldn’t be able to attract other monsters—Azarex was really skeptical about this claim.

"Sigh! I only got 17 points from all that consumption... what about you?" Disappointed by the number, Dhruv turned to ask his second guardian.

"I have earned about 50 essence points, Master," Azarex replied with a smile over his skull.

"Hmmm! So, we have gotten about the same amount of essence from the monster. How far have you gone in your stomach mutation, Azarex?" Dhruv asked knowing very well that he should have taken a stomach mutation as well.

"Hmmm! I am about to evolve it to tier Ⅲ," Azarex answered without a second thought.

"Ohhh! Tier Ⅲ. Nice for you..." With a little sadness, Dhruv dropped the topic and decided to move on.

Even though there wAasn’t any danger here he didn’t feel good about staying there anymore. With his guardian, he began to move toward the front part of the entire cave.

While he was still some distance away from the entrance, a sound reached his ear.

Cracckkk!

Boooom!

’Uhmmm! It is still going. Well, I haven’t slept for that long. Uhh! How long is this going to continue.’ Having this thought in his mind, he reached the front of the cave.

Noticing the hair around his body stood in response to cold Dhruv decided to cast some fire pillars to give himself some warmth. Casting the spell, he decided to end the day by looking at the beautiful thunderstrike.