Ascension: Rune Evolution System

”Ehem.” Frost cleared his throat, suddenly finding the silence rather uncomfortable. ”Not particularly... It’s just that I thought the creature’s name was quite fitting, is all.”

All fifteen people, including the white-haired woman, stared at him with incredulous looks.

It was now Jennifer’s turn to clear her throat.

”Don’t mind him, Miss Syrn. He’s not very good at reading the room.”

Frost’s jaw dropped at the jab, but he said nothing in his defence.

Syrn nodded lightly.

”I can see... And you can just call me Syrn. Hearing someone my age calling me ’Miss’ makes me uncomfortable. I already get enough of that at home.”

None of them knew what she meant by that.

”Before we head back, please excuse me for a moment.” Syrn shifted her gaze toward the gruesome, bleeding corpse lying in the forest below. ”I have to harvest the corpse for materials and the core.”

As she tilted her head slightly to the side, Frost noticed something about the woman that he hadn’t been able to see before.

’Wait a minute... Did I just imagine it, or are her ears pointed at the ends!?’

He wondered inwardly, but he never got the chance to take a closer look.

Syrn suddenly turned into a blur, shooting downward toward the corpse in the forest below at terrifying speed.

The sight of her sudden descent left the entire group staring after her in stunned silence.

”...Did she just...”

”How does she fly that fast!?”

”She’s insane...” The murmurs quickly spread through the group, but Frost barely heard them.

His gaze remained fixed on the distant figure rapidly descending through the air.

’Is she... an elf?’

There was no other explanation for those ears.

At least, not one that made sense.

Frost had spent enough time reading fantasy novels and playing games to recognize the stereotypical beautiful, fair features of an elf, and pointed ears were practically mandatory.

’So she isn’t an Angel then...Then again, apparently, we’re in another fucking world now.’ He glanced at the system panel that was still floating before his eyes.

[Evolution System]

The words were still there, as were the strange attributes he had yet to understand.

’If elves are real, then what else is real?’

Dragons?

Vampires?

Dwarves?

Magic?

The thought sent a strange shiver through him.

Until now, everything that had happened had been too overwhelming for him to properly process.

He had gone from sitting in a classroom one moment to being teleported into another world, nearly eaten by a giant eldritch octopus, nearly slaughtered by magical wolves, and then rescued by a beautiful woman who could casually fly through the sky and annihilate a monster the size of a mountain.

Yet somehow, the possibility that magic might actually exist was what made everything feel truly real.

And in truth, the possibility excited him!

A soft voice suddenly snapped Frost out of his thoughts.

”So... what exactly are we supposed to do now?”

No one answered; everyone simply looked at one another. They had survived, somehow. But surviving had only created another problem.

What happened now?

They were stranded in another world.

They had no idea where they were, no idea how they had gotten here, with no idea whether they would ever see Earth again.

Frost looked down toward the forest.

Syrn had already reached the corpse.

Even from this height, he could see her standing atop the massive body of the Centikraken Eldritch.

She raised one hand and a faint glow appeared around her fingers.

Frost narrowed his eyes as she studied her actions.

’What is she doing?’

A moment later, something incredible happened. A faint rumble echoed as the enormous corpse began to shrink.

It was as though the very substance of the creature was being compressed, its gigantic body rapidly collapsing inward without leaving behind so much as a drop of blood.

Within seconds, the corpse had shrunk to a fraction of its original size.

Frost’s jaw dropped.

”What the hell...?” Syrn reached down and placed her hand against the creature’s body.

A faint light flashed, and then the entire corpse disappeared.

Frost blinked.

’Did she just... put that thing somewhere?’

He had no idea what he had just witnessed. A few moments later, Syrn shot back into the sky.

She came to a stop in front of them as casually as though she had done nothing impressive.

”Alright.” She looked around at the group. ”I’ve finished harvesting it.”

Frost stared at her.

’Harvesting?’ He glanced toward the empty forest below. ’She just harvested a fucking eldritch monster. But what does that even mean!?’

Everyone else was just as stupefied as he was.

Syrn looked toward the distant horizon.

”We should leave before another creature is attracted by the disturbance.”

”Another creature!?” someone exclaimed.

Syrn looked at them with a puzzled expression.

”Yes.” She tilted her head slightly. ”Did you think this forest was safe? That centrikraken is only one of many in this region.”

”!!!”

Frost felt a chill run down his spine.

”Have you all awakened your Evolution Systems?” Syrn asked.

”Yes!”

Jason quickly took the opportunity to chime in.

The guy looked shaken, much like everyone else, but perhaps he was starting to feel left out, hence the sudden outburst.

”But what is this Evolution System!?”

’Well, at least he’s asking something useful.’

Frost chuckled inwardly.

He didn’t like the guy, but wishing death upon someone just because of a couple of grievances wasn’t his style, even though he did think it was kind of unfortunate how the less insufferable people seemed to have died within the last thirty minutes or so.

That was just his intrusive thoughts speaking.

Right now, everyone was running on adrenaline and little else, but once they finally got a chance to settle down, their classmates’ deaths would no doubt come back to haunt them.

It wouldn’t be surprising if more than a few people broke down.

They had just watched their friends get devoured by an eldritch horror, while others had been ripped apart by magical frost wolves.

Most of them here were just young, weak minds after all, who had yet to even experience all the great difficulties of life as an adult in their own world, much less this new savage world.

Syrn gave Jason one look before immediately frowning when she noticed that the guy’s eyes were shamelessly wandering over her figure. Though, to be fair, she could also see that he was trying not to be too obvious about it.

The same could be said for nearly every other guy there.

Most of them had simply been stunned into silence, which was why Jennifer had been the only one speaking up until now.