Endless Evolution As A Skeleton In A Game-Like World

The acid rain lasted all through the night, and it was only when morning came that Ark was able to leave the safety of the cave.

Of course, in this place it was difficult to tell night from day. No matter what time it was, the region was bright orange because of the volcano, and the cloud was permanently ashen.

But Ark was able to estimate the time by guessing how long his meditation had lasted, as well as the time it took before Olivia woke up.

She often slept for five hours before springing up like she had been doused in water, then going back to sleep again...

”Where are we going next?” Olivia yawned as they got out of the cave.

They were immediately assaulted by the sweltering heat and her face hardened with discomfort. ”This place irks me...”

Just standing was draining her mana, and there was so little oxygen in the air that she almost constantly felt light-headed, worse when they were fighting...

”Don’t be a baby, it’s just a little heat, it’s not like you’re literally on fire,” Ark said as he summoned his system map.

”It’s easy for you to say, you’re not affected by status changes like heat and cold. I’m literally dying from the inside!”

She was right, although he could be affected by fire, feel pain and even die from being burned alive, his body would not slow down due to heat stress, nor would he feel any mental stress.

He could walk right through the Sahara desert for days without needing a drop of water or running mad from heat-induced mental stress.

But that was not the same for other people.

And now, he even had a heat resistance trait to boot...

”It has absolutely nothing to do with my constitution, you’re just lazy.”

Ark stared at the holographic map that had appeared in front of him. The region they were in was apparently called the Ashen Sea...

”L-lazy?” Olivia’s mouth dropped open. ”Did you just call me lazy?!”

He could see the point where they stood on the map, illuminated by a pointer. And as for his Summons...

Ark closed his eyes and tried to sense their location. No matter how far they were, there was always a faint link that remained between them.

”Hey, are you even listening to me?!”

”Here...” Ark pointed at a certain point on the map. From what he could sense, they were likely at that point.

”Let’s go...”

Olivia stamped her foot on the floor in rage, while Ark chuckled internally as they left the cave and moved in the direction he had highlighted on the map.

”How long do you think we are going to stay here?” Thalia asked with an aloof expression on her face, as she stared down.

They were currently walking on a ledge by the side of a mountain, and below them was a bubbling pit of magma.

Olivia had tried to fly over it, but the air here was low, and worse, the gravity threatened to pull her into the pit, so she had no choice but to walk with them.

Ark shrugged. ”Maybe a week? Maybe a little more, I don’t know for sure.”

Their goal was to beat the obsidian giant, but it was not as easy as just sprinting right through the terrain and fighting the monster.

The road to the monster was treacherous, and worst of all, Ark had no idea why, but the monster had been steadily moving deeper into the center of the region, towards the volcano...

”A week works...” Thalia nodded. ”You and Olivia should have leveled up sufficiently by the end of the week.”

They also didn’t have to worry about food because they had more than enough leftover meat.

And even if they somehow ran out of meat, they could simply hunt more.

Crack—!

Just as Ark took the next step, part of the floor crumbled underneath his feet, broken chunks of earth fell down into the magma, and a hiss of ash gushed out shortly after.

Vwwwosh!

A monster that looked like some sort of lava alligator suddenly sprang out of the flaming river, its maw wide open and it soared through the air, right towards them.

Ark immediately summoned his weapon in the form of an axe and flung it right at the monster.

The axe dug into its head, cracking its skull open like a coconut, and just as the monster was about to fall back in, an even larger monster sprang out of the lake and swallowed it whole...

Ark summoned the blade back into his inventory.

”...”

He was silent for a few seconds, and then he continued talking like it had never happened. ”That was exactly what I was thinking...”

”W-what about you Thalia~?” Olivia kept her eye locked on the river of fire below. ”You can’t level up, can you?”

Thalia shook her head. ”Not until I complete the ascension trial.”

All her experience points would simply pile up until then...

”When do you plan on taking it?”

”Well...” Thalia seemed to give it some thought. ”Initially I didn’t care about growing stronger than I was, so I ignored it...”

She paused briefly.

”But now that I am part of a guild, I have decided to take the trial after our dungeon run.”

Olivia smiled. ”I know you’ll clear it effortlessly! Make sure you keep to your word, or Ark and I will catch up with you before you know it!”

Thalia laughed. ”Sure thing...”

Ark got to the other side of the hill first, and then he helped Olivia and Thalia to cross.

They walked for a few more minutes before they finally got to the area his summons were.

When they arrived, Ark was pleasantly surprised by what was waiting for him.

”Awww, did you guys leave this gift for me? You guys are the cutest!” He laughed.

Without waiting for his command, his summons had gone out of their way to skin the monsters and neatly arrange their hide by the side.

The hide of the obsidian wolves was useless, but the hide of the basilisks would sell for a really high price!

He jogged up to his summons and patted them on the head one by one.

Sumo gave no reaction, Mountain seemed pleased, Inquisitor seemed very proud of himself, while Jenna bashfully swayed from side to side.

”Cute, really?” Olivia asked in awe as she stared at the mountain of corpses.

The monsters had been mercilessly slaughtered in their homes, skinned and then stacked up like dominoes...

Olivia shook her head. ”His craziness has rubbed off on his summons.”

Ark moved from body to body, extracting the Basilisks one by one. Unlike the obsidian wolves, the stats he obtained from the basilisks were a little more diverse...

Four points to strength, two points to agility and one point to defence.

Sadly, there was still nothing for his mana. But he had also obtained a skill, although... Ark stared at the tab skeptically.

[Harvest successful! You have successfully received D-Rank trait, Beast Tongue!]

’What am I going to do with this? Commune with the basilisks?’ He sighed as he closed the tab.

After he had placed all the useful materials in his inventory, he glanced at Olivia and Thalia, then asked in a smug tone.

”Do you guys want to see something cool?”

Olivia frowned. ”What?”

”You’ll see...”

Ark’s summons organized themselves in front of him in a straight line. Inquisitor and Sumo wrestled for who would be in front, and only settled down after Jenna shot them a fiery glare.

’System...’ Ark said internally, already feeling giddy inside.

’I would like to use the Elemental Gacha.’

[•••]

[Four eligible summons detected]

[What summon will be the target of the gacha?]

”All of them.”

The moment the words left his mouth, something slipped out from the system tab in front of him.

It was a thin stream of elemental energy, a little wisp of white light that swirled around, just before it flew forward, to the area behind his summons.

Ark had expected the light to fly right into one of them, but instead—

It expanded.

The little stream of light grew larger and brighter, and then its form shifted from the formless mass into the shape of a god-like entity.

Now behind them stood a near-transparent man with chiselled features and an imposing aura.

His eyes were made of fire, his hair cascaded down like an endless stream of water, light and darkness coursed through his veins, his feet carried the blessings of wind, floating just above the surface of the floor...

And when he spoke, not only did the earth tremble in reverence, his voice resounded like thunder.

”I am Euros, Lord of elementals. Who dares call upon my name?”