Chapter 137: Lucy’s Breakthrough!

After eighteen months of stagnation, Lucy got her breakthrough!

Before, the bond she had with her beast was thin and limited, so there was a separation and no connection between the summoner and the summon. Thus, they never felt integrated spiritually as a master and a beast should.

But now that separation between Lucy and her beast, the Malefic Spider, was not there anymore.

This must be the feeling of breakthrough, Lucy thought!

Clear as day and as lucid as a nightmare!

Her soul was jumping, too exuberant to accommodate, so it came out in the form of aura—the sign of the breakthrough. Now that distance she once had with her beast was slim, and from slim to nothing. Her soul finally entertained the spirit of the Malefic Spider through and through.

Lilith also felt the breakthrough, but from her perspective as the beast.

After the breakthrough, the spider now sees Lucy under a new light. Lucy is recognized as "an extension of her own primordial existence whose heartbeat echoed her own."

Compared to what the Malefic Spider thought Lucy used to be, this was a big upgrade for Lucy.

Because the spider used to think Lucy was just a Pet Shop mistress, and their contract was just systematic. But now the beast thought the opposite as it felt the breakthrough.

〖Congratulations! You have established 10% Beast Evolution Nascent!〗

〖Congratulations! You have extracted 1 Unit of Primordial Vinegar!〗

The system’s transparent interface appeared with notifications confirming Lucy’s breakthrough, but she was confused by the new variables. Lucy didn’t know what they meant, but she would remember them later.

The next notifications that followed were better understood and left no doubt about what she accomplished.

〖Congratulations! Your Malefic Spider has grown in Fortitude!〗

〖Congratulations! You have acquired the skill: Spirit Link!〗

〖Breakthrough! You have comprehended Supreme State!〗

〖Breakthrough! Your Malefic Spider has comprehended Age!〗

At an unknown time, Lucy got a headache because of the rapid improvements.

Surge after surge put pressure on her soul—the same soul that had been dormant for a long time. It’s the same as water flowing through a dry dam.

She closed her eyes to absorb the ache until the breakthrough stabilized; even Lilith took her time too. But while Lucy’s eyes were closed, she couldn’t help but be excited that her curse had been lifted, so she allowed herself some tears of joy.

Meanwhile, while Lucy was dealing with her breakthrough, Derek must take care of his own situation.

After using his summon, the Abomination Slime, to unlock the altar, he rendered it weak and unable to fight. But after a while, the Abomination Slime recovered so fast that it even surprised Derek.

"It must be the fragment I gave you to devour. The absorption is complete," Derek said as he watched his slime restore itself to a better version.

Mordred’s appearance changed because of what he absorbed. Currently, red glyphs were on the body of the slime, glowing eerily as a stranger aura travelled through its body in no specific direction.

〖Congratulations! Your summon has successfully become a Conduit of the Unkindly.〗

Derek was awestruck because he didn’t think this would happen when he gave his slime the seventh fragment to devour. He thought Mordred would just get more Aeon, more vitality, and maybe more spiritual life force, so this wasn’t part of his plan.

The fight with the Unkindly Cockatrice was still going on, so Derek kept himself out of sight to understand what was happening.

After a few seconds, he believed he understood what Mordred had become, even though he had never encountered such a situation before. According to him, the Abomination Slime just added another meaning to its very existence, not only absorbing the fragment’s attributes.

To accomplish what he had in mind, Derek took Mordred to the Unkindly Altar, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Guardian.

At the altar was the special reward.

A red diamond, crystalline with suspended matter, and, as expected, a lot of Aeon circulating inside it.

〖Unkindly Diamond〗

Derek wasn’t surprised by the name. The Unkindly Fragment was followed by an Unkindly Altar, so there was nothing unusual about an Unkindly Diamond being inside the same Unkindly Altar.

What mattered was what the item could do. The Unkindly Diamond was a mid-tier enhancement that strengthens a summoner’s beast; that’s why it was in a Yellow-ranked zone.

But since Derek used his Abomination Slime to rouse and unlock the altar, he also increased the potency of this item to a higher tier, although there is no named tier.

Simply: Mordred’s taboo identity interfered with everything in the altar—from the guardian to the special reward.

So, this meant that the Unkindly Diamond will give about 10x more than it’s supposed to give, the same way the Guardian was buffed to be 10x stronger.

Derek had accidentally turned an ordinary mid-tier enhancement into something far more valuable.

After a while of silence with himself, he contemplated whether it was wrong to take the reward. The other students were dead because of the disaster he had caused, and now he had the opportunity to make his own beast stronger at the cost of their lives.

"Yes, I will," he said seconds later, his face grim and serious.

There was no remorse in his voice as he picked up the Diamond.

"Mordred, devour the Unkindly Diamond!"

SHROOM!

The red crystal disappeared into the Abomination Slime, and a flash of red swallowed the altar!

〖Congratulations! Your beast has evolved to—〗

Back to Lucy and the Guardian, Lucy was happy with her breakthrough, and she understood now that she could do so many things as other summoners could do without being handicapped. Maybe even more because her breakthrough came with unique variables, unprecedented. Did this mean her beast’s development from now on might not follow the same path as other beasts?

Lucy didn’t want to get ahead of herself, so she focused on the things she had now that she didn’t have before.

One of them was activating Supreme State.

Supreme State is a temporary state where you can ask your beast to enter an instance where it can push its power beyond its limits. Most of the time, Supreme State is how strong the beast would be if it were in the next plane or two planes higher; that’s why it’s a cheat code.

A Greater-grade beast in Supreme State definitely stands a chance to kill an Ancient-grade beast at base.

This is because that Greater-grade beast is under different cultivation laws. It might be using 15x more Aeon in its attacks; it could be 15x faster and have many qualities that outclass the other beast.

So anytime a summoner is activating Supreme State, that is the same as borrowing 2nd plane or 3rd plane potential for a couple of seconds!