Novel Full Chapter 934: Evolution?
Chapter 934: Evolution?
Thousands of years ago, a true dragon had descended upon a human variant world and indulged itself.
The dragon slaughtered every adult male it encountered without exception and took every viable female for itself.
Some of the offspring those females birthed survived, enduring the incompatible blood warring inside them from birth. The survival rate was not high. The process was not gentle. But those who made it through matured into something that was neither fully human nor anything close to dragon, occupying a space between the two that had never existed before. When they were old enough, they were able to reproduce among themselves.
That was how the Drakeblood race was born.
Their strength was undeniable. Each Drakeblood carried diluted dragon blood within them, granting terrifying physical capability, abnormal vitality, accelerated recovery, and resistances that made them difficult opponents at virtually every stage of growth. The closer their blood ran to the original, the more pronounced these traits became.
Unfortunately, as generations passed and the bloodline spread further, that concentration naturally thinned. To preserve their power and purify it for later generations, the Drakeblood became one of the many races in the universe that practiced internal breeding between related bloodlines. Cousins. Siblings in some cases. The goal was always the same. Keep the dragon blood concentrated to keep the race strong.
In the wider universe this was not generally frowned upon. Dragons themselves were creatures that did not recognize bloodlines or kinship when it came to reproduction. That the race born from one would adopt similar practices struck most as fitting rather than troubling.
However all of this was far removed from Michael’s current concerns. Whether it was a true dragon or not, the current Michael was not even qualified to meet the minor leaders of the Drakeblood race. And due to their violent tendencies, he could not allow the race to find out he had turned one of their kin into an undead, or they would hunt him down without hesitation.
This was common among top races when it came to their kin.
There was an unspoken rule that ran through the universe at every level. The treatment of one’s people reflected directly on the strength and standing of the race itself. A weak race could do little when its members were mistreated, enslaved, or killed by outsiders. A strong race could do a great deal, and the stronger they were, the less they needed a formal reason to act.
One could still bypass the worst consequences if the victim was an ordinary resident of their home realm with no particular standing. Someone no one would miss or rally behind. The calculus changed entirely the moment the person held any degree of importance within their race. And it changed catastrophically if someone bold enough, or foolish enough, decided to use a significant number of a top race’s citizens for something that crossed the line.
There was a record in the academy library significant enough to have been written down and preserved. It involved the elves.
An entire realm had been wiped out.
The reason was straightforward. A good number of elves had been hunted and traded around like commodities. Race trade itself was not rare in the universe. It existed, it had always existed, and many looked the other way as long as it remained quiet and the victims had no one powerful standing behind them. But the moment the elves found out what had been happening to their kin in that realm, the outcome had been total. There was no warning or negotiation. Complete erasure.
The lesson was simple enough. If one was caught doing something like that and the victims happened to belong to a race with real power behind it, the trouble that followed would not end until one side was gone.
This was precisely why Michael had decided months ago that even if he had an Elven undead, he would exercise caution about bringing it out anywhere in the real world. The Land of Origin was a different matter. But in the open world, the risk was genuine.
The same logic applied to the Drakeblood.
However, in practical terms, the Drakeblood realm and Aurora were so distant from each other that the immediate danger was limited. The concern existed in principle. It was not something Michael needed to lose sleep over right now.
Still, he noted it.
Looking at his two undead, Michael felt a growing satisfaction settling in his chest.
But it was exactly as people said. The moment someone had something, they found themselves wanting more.
Michael had initially planned that after reviving these two he would head to the Land of Origin immediately and focus on Beginning and Lily. That had been the intent going in.
Then he turned to look at the Rank 4 demonic supernatural and noticed something.
This person had been an ordinary human in life.
Ordinary human. Two words that carried an entirely different weight for Michael than they did for anyone else, and the reason for that came down to one thing. His talent. Infinite Evolution did not treat all starting points equally. An ordinary human was not a ceiling. It was a foundation, and foundations could be built upon.
In other words, despite how strong this undead already was, it could be stronger.
Michael’s eyes moved over the figure standing before him, white-eyed and still.
Level 85. Peak early-stage Rank 4. And yet still an ordinary human underneath all of it.
The thought that followed arrived quietly and then refused to leave.
What would happen if Michael evolved it to High Human?
A Rank 4 High Human.
The implications of that alone were enough to make his mind move in directions he hadn’t planned for. A Rank 4 undead with the baseline of an ordinary human evolved upward into something higher. The multiplier that came with High Human applied to a foundation already operating at that level.
The best part was the cost. One hundred evolution points. That was all it would take.
Michael looked at the demonic supernatural for a long moment.
He had originally planned to leave immediately.
He reconsidered that plan.