An angel was whizzing across the branches of the Emerald Tree like a fairy. If only his wings weren't feathery and grand and instead thin and magical, then he truly might have become one with his flight.
Athelei had blurred half of his face, turning his features into a grey fog and leaving only his eyes exposed. He enjoyed the feeling of being under pressure as he collected a full extra dozen Emerald-Essence Peaches.
The fruits near the upper portions of the Emerald Tree had become his, and now he was competing with the other beasts. Short skirmishes occurred between him and groups of beasts, but his flight coupled with his ability to steal brought him a few advantages.
Advantages he was heavily exploiting.
And this allowed Athelei to confirm more things regarding the Tier I Skill, Shop.
'This should confirm it,' he thought to himself as the latest Emerald-Essence Peach disappeared into his [Invisible] Cosmic Interface. 'There's a significant difference between stealing things with my fog wisps versus stealing things with my main body.'
Athelei felt the much larger discrepancy between buffer times. If he used his wisps, he could only take things when they were well and truly separated from any conscious beings. Any trace of foreign ownership would impede his possession of the desired item.
If he grabbed hold of something though, he could near-instantly 'own' the item and push it into his Cosmic Interface.
These were the facts.
'But I have no idea why this is...' Athelei inwardly grumbled as he jumped off of a branch and entered free fall.
'Is it because of the way other people recognise ownership? Is it decided based on how much control we have over an item? Or could it be proximity to a Nebula Gem, where in my case, should be centred around my main body..?'
And it was as Athelei fell that he noticed a familiar Orcish face.
Hilvar had fought his way through all the beasts that stood in his way. With an enchanted great axe and his powerful physique, many of the beasts fell to his blade. He did not even have to kill most of them.
All he had to do was utilize the shockwaves born from his attacks to shove his enemies off of the rather narrow branches. The beasts would fall, screaming and flailing about.
They would then be caught by the bloody hill of carcasses that had already piled up to sickening heights.
As such, Hilvar now held an Emerald-Essence Peach in his hands.
Athelei watched as the powerful Orc took three hefty bites and devoured the entire peach in the blink of an eye.
Inspect was then executed, and Athelei was going to keep it going over the course of Hilvar's evolution. And as the angel triggered his Analysis Skill, Hilvar's gaze instantly arrived upon his body.
A featureless face that only displayed eyes of obsidian gazed into the Orc's orange irises.
Athelei giggled as he thought, 'It seems like anyone who is targetted by Analysis Skills is able to feel it... Even monsters. Perhaps those with lower intelligence just end up ignoring it.'
Hilvar, however, felt a sense of deja vu as he saw the winged being in front of him. His thoughts became muddled because of it. But, his body had already begun to change.
He had to focus on his evolution.
Turbulent streams of [Energy] coursed through his body. A great heat emanated from him, causing the surrounding beasts to quiver—their instincts were screaming at them to steer clear of the danger they had found themselves in the presence of.
Several other heat signatures exploded as well, and Athelei looked around to find the army of Orcs devouring what they could.
They took bites out of half-eaten Emerald-Essence Peaches when they had to. Others had slashed a portion for themselves, while some had even retrieved a few bites of the fruit from the beasts they just killed.
They shoved their hands into their carcasses and retrieved a mushy material that was most likely the Emerald-Essence Peaches. Some had to pull the mush out of the beasts' stomachs, while some were luckier and only had to rip apart the beasts' jaws open.
But because of the efforts they put in, they were now evolving.
Athelei monitored the four Orcs Inspect allowed him to. He watched as their base attributes grew and the [Energy] in their body get immensely supplemented.
All of them had their [Energy] limits be overcome, but as if that was all a dream, their numbers dropped sharply. An immense energy outflow bathed their bodies in a beautiful emerald-green light and modified the essence of what they were.
Hilvar though revealed the greatest amount of growth.
The light that exuded from his body had the most splendour, blinding the many beasts in the trees. Even the Royal Lizards who had been aloof and busy trying to grab as many fruits as they could, all turned towards the Orc.
Athelei saw the abstract image writing on his Cosmic Interface blur and change.
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
Hilvar
Health: 28/28 -> 30/30
Mana: 3/3 -> 6/6
Energy: 43/44 -> 13/49
=o=o=o=o=
Strength: 59 -> 68
Defence: 54 -> 60
Dexterity: 56 -> 59
- Race: Orc -> High Orc (35% Crystalline, 65% Orc)
[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]
When Athelei saw this, he found himself mocking his own stats with a laugh, 'If I did not have the ability to turn incorporeal, all Hilvar has to do is pinch my head and I would be dead.'
His [Defence] was a puny 5. Hilvar had a [Strength] value of 68.
When such a relationship between attributes is simplified, we could use Bedrock Worms as a way to visualize things. They have [Defence] attributes that hovered close to the value of 50. With actual rock as their bodies, 50 [Strength] was the reliable amount required to even damage their sturdy skin.
Whether it was through a mechanical translation of strength through weapons like flails or even tools like pickaxes, as long as something exerts force worth 50 [Strength], then there would be an effect.
As such, a [Strength] value of 68 meant that Hilvar's bare fists were literal wrecking balls on their own. Capable of busting through the solid rock that founded mountains.
If he was then given a sufficiently durable weapon, then he could create even greater damage.
Furthermore, with [Strength]'s synergy with [Dexterity], breaking the sound barrier with his hands and fingers wouldn't be difficult at all.
A bit of time passed.
When the lights all began to die down, Athelei had finally earned concrete findings on the difference between an Evolver's evolution versus a racial evolution. In essence, Evolvers evolved when their [Energy] broke a threshold to raise their attributes while racial evolution was an increase in innate talent, capabilities, and base attributes.
Athelei himself had experienced the latter type of racial evolution that also ended up bringing him into a pseudo-Evolver evolution to reach the realm of Rank 0.
Following a similar pattern, Hilvar was now on the brink of an Evolver evolution after becoming a High Orc.
'Just a little bit more, and he might just make it to Rank 4,' thought Athelei as he looked around.
The moment Hilvar's evolution was completed, the stunned beasts no longer continued to rampage in a frenzy. The dimming of the lights produced by his new High Orc body signified the gradual end of chaos.
All one hundred Emerald-Essence Peaches had found their way into the bellies of different organisms. The mythical tree's branches were now bare.
Many beasts were now fleeing from the auras of the High Orcs and Royal Lizards. They scampered away, no longer manic because of the fragrance of every peach.
With their returned rationality and instincts, they knew better than to stay for long.
So were the beasts who had consumed the fruit. Changes were already occurring to their body, and they wished for a safe place to allow such changes to run their course.
Likewise, the Royal Lizards had regained their senses and were now scattering. They all hurried to their own dens to process the energy inside them.
As for the Orcs and High Orcs, Hilvar had commanded a hasty withdrawal, as this side trip of theirs had cost them quite a large amount of time and derailed their schedules. Luckily, they were now both stronger and faster since a huge portion of the army had been able to take the bite they needed to evolve.
It left Athelei alone at the tree. Hilvar had given him a wary glance before leaping down to the carcass hill below.
The angel was going to follow after the High Orc army, but there was something he discovered that was keeping him back at the moment.
Inspect had been executed on the Emerald Tree itself, and what he found was absolutely exhilarating.
'So the fruit wasn't Ai'sklr's target...' Athelei gulped as he rubbed the giant-horned ram tattoo on his wrist. The [Invisible] Cosmic Interface hovered before his face, gleaming in a tri-coloured light.
He couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath as he whispered to no one but himself,
"Oh, how wonderfully ambitious..."