Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

[Shadow Leap] Lv3 → Lv4 Upgrade Successful!

New Trait: Round-Trip Return

(Round-Trip Return: After using the Shadow Jumping Skill, a faint afterimage will be briefly left at the original position as a spatial anchor. The Spellcaster can then return to it with pinpoint accuracy within one second.)

Traits Enhanced: Leap Distance, Casting Efficiency, Shadow Recognition

...

[Shadow Leap] (Lv4): The Spellcaster can leap to any dark place or faintly shadowed area. Maximum range: 65 meters.

Upgrade Requirements: Shadow Leap Runes 0/8, Spiritual Dust Sand 0/3

’The leap distance has doubled.’

As Su Chen reveled in his excitement, he also noticed the new Round-Trip Return trait.

The ability was excellent.

You could instantly get in an enemy’s face, land a sneak attack, and then immediately leap away.

Just like what happened next...

His gaze shifted, locking onto a large porcupine slowly approaching through the distant woods. It was the first time he had encountered this new species.

With a mere thought, his figure vanished. In the next instant, he reappeared in the shadow of a tree three meters behind the porcupine. He was so close he could see the mycelia wriggling on its back.

A Flying Knife, wreathed in blazing True Flame, shot from his right hand.

BOOM!

The Flame Burst Flying Knife pierced the side of the porcupine’s neck, and intense flames instantly engulfed its body. The creature let out a bloodcurdling shriek. As a final, desperate act, it instinctively shot out all its quills like crossbow bolts.

However, the moment the Flying Knife left his hand, Su Chen had already returned to his original spot. His body flowed backward like a receding tide, leaving only an afterimage to be pierced by the quills.

’This porcupine is pretty tough.’

Su Chen had held back some of the Flame Burst’s power and hadn’t used a Telekinesis combo, but even at seventy percent strength, he still hadn’t managed to kill it instantly.

But once his Dark Red True Flame, with its Soul Burning ability, made contact, it latched on like maggots to a bone, burning straight into the creature’s Sea of Consciousness.

With half its head blown off, the massive porcupine thrashed and rolled on the ground, trying to smother the flames with dirt. But after a little over ten seconds, it collapsed in the middle of the scorched earth. Only the lingering mycelia inside its body still attempted to twitch its hind legs.

After retrieving an unknown Lv4 Gold Element Rune and a portion of Spiritual Dust Sand, Su Chen unleashed a Strong Thought Burst that instantly engulfed and incinerated the corpse.

With that, a whole lineup of his Runes was ready for an upgrade.

His Flying Skill Rune reached Lv4.

His flight duration increased to twelve minutes, and he gained more refined control over the Wind Fluff in the air, allowing the Spellcaster to navigate the skies with even greater ease.

Considering he had traded for a batch of Light Element Rune Essence in the meeting hall, his Water Mirror Refraction Rune was now just one portion of Spiritual Materials away from being upgraded to Lv4.

’Just have to be patient. It won’t be long now.’

Over the next hour or two, the internal chaos and a neglected defense line created a large, uncontested territory, giving Su Chen the perfect space to operate freely.

One pleasant surprise was that after Xiaoye evolved into a Soul-devouring Dog, the duration of its two Phantom Clones had not only increased to eight minutes, but they could also instinctively use the Invisibility Skill. This was on top of inheriting 80% of the main body’s Basic Attributes.

This Invisibility ability was a weaker version of the Stealth Skill, and while it was almost useless against units with Dark Vision, most species didn’t possess such powerful night-vision capabilities.

Because of this, to prevent Xiaoye from getting too close and ingesting spores, he decided to just let its two Phantom Clones charge forward to attack.

With such a high percentage of inherited Basic Attributes, most Parasite Bodies truly couldn’t withstand a single burst of their close-range attacks.

Once this tactic proved successful, Su Chen could relax. He stayed back, taking a completely hands-off approach and letting the two Soul Dog clones rip and tear through their enemies.

During this time, whenever he encountered tougher enemies like the large porcupines or giant-horned moose, he would also test out a long-range Telekinesis Spear.

Spear-throwing was on his to-learn list.

With the acquisition of the Telekinesis Construction trait, not to mention the ability to simply detonate things from a distance, throwing physical Flying Knives was slowly being phased out of his skillset.

If there was one thing he still needed to master, it was ultra-long-range spear throwing.

With Telekinesis Construction, the spear had a stable structure. Once solidified, it didn’t need to be readjusted every time. The key was a matter of ’feel’; the invisible Mage’s hand was like a third arm for Su Chen.

Since he wasn’t touching it with physical fingertips or coordinating his body’s muscles, his accuracy across multiple attempts was only about thirty percent.

Fortunately, he could easily accelerate the telekinetic spear as he threw it. After getting a better feel for it, his accuracy gradually improved.

It was at least up to fifty percent.

For the past two hours, aside from putting his new skills to the test, he had also been observing the Parasite Bodies.

He had come to a few conclusions.

’The fungal parasites can’t just do whatever they want to every species in the forest.’

This was perhaps similar to the situation in Earth’s forests, where zombie ants are identified and expelled by their colonies, and the nests in turn evolve to create environments unsuitable for fungal propagation.

’The immune systems of megafauna should mostly be able to fight it off.’

So far, he hadn’t seen any megafauna parasites like giant bears. The fungus also seemed to dislike aquatic environments; at least, there wasn’t much activity coming from the body of water down the eastern slope from the base camp.

To be honest, if the humans hadn’t been foolish enough to ingest the Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in the first place, none of this internal chaos would have happened.

However, humanity as an unstable variable certainly made future developments unpredictable.

The fact that the Parasite Bodies had previously seemed capable of reading the brain’s language center and using mycelia to manipulate vocal cords was not a good sign.

But beyond the hidden dangers, there were also plenty of benefits.

Normally, when a Night Tiger was on the prowl, no other magical beasts would be around; its aura alone would scare off most prey. For so many parasitic magical beasts to charge forward in unison like this was, ironically, a breathtaking scene of harmony.

By the time more people began to appear and competition for the dwindling monsters grew fierce, Su Chen’s haul was already substantial.

His Water Mirror Refraction Rune was upgraded to Lv4. He also obtained a Lv4 Healing Skill Rune from a moose. After absorbing it, the number of Runes housed in his Sea of Consciousness reached ten.

Now, he was only missing a Rune for the unobtainable Ice Element and the Holy Light Rune from the Light Element.

Aside from the Gold Attribute’s ’Critical Hit’ Rune, which was still at Lv3, all his other Runes were Lv4 or higher. This laid a solid foundation for a potential hidden class advancement tomorrow.

Among his other loot, he had also set aside two portions of Spiritual Dust Sand.

After using many useful Rune Essences as upgrade materials, he was still left with a large batch of 27 miscellaneous Rune Essences of various types that he couldn’t absorb.

He couldn’t be called a one-man army.

But his efficiency far surpassed that of a small team.

’The good times are over.’

He wasn’t sure if the spores’ transmission had been curbed or what, but the momentum of the parasitic beasts’ assault had lessened considerably. Su Chen couldn’t tell if there was some kind of hive-mind consciousness directing things from behind the scenes.