Chapter 671: Evolving

Moon turned his attention to the notification hovering at the edge of his vision, and a small, subtle smile crossed his face.

[You have leveled up!]

He pulled up his full status.

[Name: Moon]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Classless]

[Level: 42] [4%]

[Lives: 421,519] [Super Lives: 0]

[Strength: 170] [Agility: 230] [Constitution: 262] [Mana: 284] (+20 to all stats)

[ Talent: Grim Reaper ]

[ Class Skills: Class Slot {0/1}, Life Burn]

[Beast Souls: Fire and Nature]

His eyes settled on the Lives counter.

Four hundred twenty-one thousand. The frozen wasteland had been generous with its rewards. Between the Frost Stalkers, the Snow Creeper, and the Arctic Grizzlers, his pool had swelled well past where it had sat when he entered the gate.

That was more than enough to make some upgrades.

He glanced at the white spire in the distance, then back at his status, weighing his options. He looked at his skills, there were a few skills he could evolve, but they were all low rank. He had already evolved his most powerful skills.

Moon’s Classless slot had reset.

He could finally copy a class again, and there was only one figure he had eyes for.

Elsa.

The elemental archer sat catching her breath in the snow, her bow across her knees, and Moon didn’t hesitate. He activated his skill.

The transfer completed cleanly.

[Class Slot {1/1}]

[Class: Elemental Archer]

[Skills: Cryomancy, Water Affinity, Ice-Assimilation, Archery]

[Duration: 24 hours]

Moon read through the four skills, and was immediately satisfied.

He had found exactly what he came for. Ice-Assimilation.

She didn’t have a multi-element assimilation skill, unfortunately. A single technique that worked across all elements would have been a massive prize, giving him the structural key to every element at once. But it made sense that she didn’t.

Her class was narrow and deep rather than broad. She had no flashy, spectacular skills. What she had instead was complete, refined control over everything her discipline offered.

He checked through the skills one at a time.

[Water Affinity]

[Rank: Rare]

[Proficiency: 0%]

[Details: You possess a high affinity for the water element, improving control, potency, and mana efficiency of all water-based techniques.]

Useful, but not why he was here. He set it aside.

[Cryomancy]

[Rank: Epic]

[Level: MAX]

[Details:...]

Moon stared at the entry, surprised.

For the first time ever, he had copied a class that contained a skill he already possessed, not a variant. What made it surprising was the fact that Moon had not copied his Cryomancy skill from Elsa, it was from another fighter, which made it much more interesting.

That’s actually kind of cool.

There was nothing for him to learn from it. It was already his, maxed, and the system simply reflected his own version back at him, showing Cryomancy at full level rather than at zero proficiency the way a new skill would appear.

He couldn’t relearn what he already owned. Still, seeing it there, confirming that Elsa walked the same elemental road he did in terms of Cryomancy, carried a strange sense of satisfaction.

[Archery]

[Rank: Rare]

[Proficiency: 0%]

[Details: Grants high mastery of the bow, improving draw, aim, and release.]

Moon glanced at Archery and moved past it. The skill was redundant, like the dagger skills before it.

He focused on the one that mattered.

[Ice-Assimilation]

[Rank: Epic]

[Proficiency: 0%]

[Details: You can assimilate the ice element into objects. Assimilated items carry the full force of the element from release to impact. The technique integrates ice at the physical level, temporarily transforming the object itself into a conduit of the element.]

This was it.

This was the exact principle Sierra had demonstrated at her estate with wind, the technique she had told him would take a long time to learn without class support. Now it sat in his kit, an Epic-rank skill at zero proficiency, waiting to be trained. And more than that, it was the key to understanding how elements assimilated. It would teach him the underlying mechanism, the thing his labored solo practice had only crept toward.

He had a twenty-four hour window to learn everything he could from it.

And once he understood assimilation for ice, extending it to his other elements, especially lightning, would come far faster than fighting the fundamentals blind.

Moon closed the status screen and flexed his fingers, already itching to test it. Still, to evolve the skill would need him to fully understand it, something he didn’t have just yet.

So, Moon decided to evolve something he could do now.

[Beast Soul: Fire and Nature]

[Rank: D] [Evolve]

[Potential: S]

[Details: Summon a powerful spirit that can control fire and nature elements to a mid degree. The Spirit is loyal to its owner, and is subject to injury, and death.]

[Beast Soul: Fire and Nature]

[Rank: D → C]

[Cost: 200,000 Lives]

Although it would only reach 4-star ranking, it would still be of help, and eventually if he got enough lives, it could also reach 5-star ranking soon.

Moon did not hesitate.

[Beast Soul: Fire and Nature]

[Rank: C] [Evolve]

[Potential: S]

[Details: Summon a powerful spirit that can control fire and nature elements to a high degree. The Spirit is loyal to its owner, and is subject to injury, and death. Fire and Nature could now focus its power on one element rather than being split between two.]

Reading through the new details of his beast soul, Moon smiled.

’Perfect.’

As eager as he was to trying it out, Moon did not do anything rash. His team were still recovering.

After half an hour of resting, Moon stood up from the ground.

"We need to move again, before the commander notices anything. The longer we delay, the higher the chances of failure are."

Vela nodded her head, "Yeah, let’s go."

"We will do the same thing... but this time, rather than giving them a dead bait, we will give them a lively one."

"You mean..."

Moon nodded his head, "Yes, the Arctic Fire-Prowler will be our bait."