Translator: Simple MTL Editor: Simple MTL
As the notifications continued to refresh, the speed at which Bates devoured the slime became faster and faster.
After suffering multiple attacks, the slime finally took notice. It stopped devouring ants and focused on Bates instead, trying to wrap itself around him, using its acidic mucus to dissolve him.
But it was too late!
After evolving, Bates’ strength had already surpassed that of the slime, and with just a slight struggle, he broke free from the slime and continued to eat it!
The time passed slowly as Bates ate more and more of the slime’s meat, and it became smaller and smaller. Finally, half an hour later, the last piece of slime meat was swallowed!
The biggest enemy this ant nest would encounter had completely disappeared from this world.
However, Bates’ exterior looked extremely compromised. More than half of his armor had become dull due to the corrosion of the slime’s mucus. There were also parts of his armor that had broken, revealing the body fluid and muscle tissue underneath.
In spite of all that, when Bates saw his attributes panel he knew it was all worth it. His heart filled with joy, despite the constant pain that he ran throughout his body.
[ gene points ] : 20 slime gene, 10 rat gene, 7 frog gene, 9 cricket gene
[ evolution points ] : 17
[ skill fragment ] : poison resistance 10/10
After consuming this slime, not only did Bates receive 20 slime gene points, but he also received a total of 8 evolution points and 10 skill fragments. All of them could be directly combined into one skill!
‘Ding! You have obtained 10 skill fragments. Do you wish to fuse them into a skill?’
“Fuse!” Bates chose without hesitation.
Then, a brand new skill appeared on his stats panel.
[ poison resistance: passive skill, beginner. You have been corroded by the poisonous mucus for a long time, therefore you have acquired the [ adaptability ] talent and gained resistance to poison. With this skill, you can greatly reduce the damage of beginner poison, moderately reduce the damage of intermediate poison, and slightly reduce the damage of advanced poison. ]
Poison resistance! Another powerful passive skill!
Even Bates knew, from when he was human, the importance of resistance to a character. As long as he had basic poison resistance, the damage of most poison-type monsters and spells on him would be greatly reduced.
Further still, since the [ adaptability ] talent granted him basic poison resistance, he wondered if could happen for fire or ice resistance too. He could only imagine how strong he’d be with all the resistances.
Bates suppressed his joy, and looked at the evolution points.
The appearance of poison resistance was such an unexpected surprise! Clearly, the key to his second evolution was killing that slime!
If he evolved now, Bates could pass the lowest level and become a real level 1 monster!
Following Bates’ actions, a familiar voice sounded once again.
“Evolution points satisfied. Do you wish to proceed with the second evolution?”
“Begin evolution!”
“Please choose the method of evolution: main body evolution or mutation?”
Following the voice, the virtual images of more than a dozen creatures appeared in front of Bates. Apart from the insects that had appeared before, there were also the frog, the rat, and the slime.
The slime’s virtual image was completely lit up! This meant that, if Bates chose to, he could completely abandon the ant race and choose to become a slime!
Main body evolution or mutation?
Bates thought long and hard.
A slime was indeed much stronger than an ant. After being reborn as an ant, he had relied on his three great talents and had worked hard to evolve to a strength similar to that of a slime. If he had been reborn as a slime from the start, he would have already evolved into an elite monster or even a Lord Monster by now!
However, the advantage of starting from an ant was having four powerful passive skills at such a low level in the game.
After a long time, Bates finally made his decision.
“I’ll choose the main body evolution! I’ll invest all my gene points into this evolution to strengthen it!”
He had stuck with main body evolution. It wasn’t that the slime was not powerful enough, he just knew how powerful his devouring evolution talent was, it allowed even the weakest insect to have unlimited possibilities!
“Selection complete.”
“This evolution will last for twenty minutes. Please ensure the safety of the surrounding environment.”
“Evolution begins…”
With the voice in his head, Bates crawled back into his nest and lost consciousness.
Twenty minutes later, Bates woke up.
He opened his attribute panel, he saw the data had undergone a huge change!
[ name ] : Bates
[ race ] : Overlord Ant
[ template ] : Basic attribute template
[ level ] : Level 1
[ status ] : Health 18, Mana 25
[ attributes ] : Strength 1.5, Agility 1.2, Energy 1.8, Spirit 2.5
[ talent ] : Soul Bonus (soul talent), Devour Evolution (unique talent), Adaptability (race talent)
[ skills ] : Enhanced fangs, Enhanced armor, Heal, Elementary poison resistance
[ gene points ] : 0
[ evolution points ] : 0
[ skill fragment ] : none
Bates’ gaze swept across the attribute panel as information filled his mind. He had a rough understanding of his current state.
First of all, the ‘class’ column had completely disappeared, and had turned into ‘template’.
The attribute template that he had changed to, was the basic class. It was the class for players that hadn’t reached level 10 yet and were in the beginner village.
After a monster’s basic attribute template, was the advanced attribute template. In other words, the player’s class corresponded to the player’s level between 10 to 20.
The difference was that the player only needed to level up, and then after completing the Advancement Quest, they could raise their own class.
The Monster’s class advancement required killing! Killing players, killing other monsters, and taking their attribute templates!
Only this way could a monster continuously raise their own class and level, from the basic attribute template, to the advanced attribute template, then to the elite attribute template, the warrior attribute template…
As a monster, the only thing in Bates’ future was fighting! Constantly fighting until he was exhausted!
Of course, Bates knew would never let himself be killed, but to finally become a life worth living!
To become the king of this world!