Mythical Monster Evolution
Chapter 57: An Old Man

Chapter 57: An Old Man

Kai received a message from his sister and wasn’t sure what to think.

He didn’t even know that you could send messages inside the game. Still, one of her friends wanted to play with him?

Did she tell her friend about her identity?

Kai didn’t believe so. Still, there was a main problem when it came to playing with her sister’s friends: his identity, if he were to play with them three days from now.

Kai had to fix something very important: his appearance. He needed to find a way to get a humanoid appearance—elf, human, dwarf, whatever was possible.

Kai knew taking on a human form would take far too long. He would have to try to change his appearance into that of an elf, if anything.

’Once I come out, there will be a bunch of them waiting for me. I could just deal with them then,’ Kai thought.

He wasn’t sure what would happen once he came out of this trial.

Would he come back out the same way he entered, or had Varkul planned something special?

Kai had no idea.

Kai shook his head.

There was no time to think about such things right now. It was much better to focus on the current situation. He needed to figure out this Godly skill before time ran out.

He had made progress over the past hour.

The system even told him about it.

[Percentage of the skill grasped: 5%]

It had appeared a few minutes after he had injected his monster energy into the stone.

Kai was now trying to mimic and understand the order in which the God had made the markings. He was following with his shadow claws behind what the God had made.

He thought that it might help him understand the movements needed.

However, Kai had a strong feeling that the movements weren’t the key. It was that bloody energy and the moonlight.

But Kai had shadow energy. He had never obtained blood energy; he didn’t know how to use it. His current evolution also didn’t allow him to do such a thing.

"Hm... you’re still here?"

Suddenly, a mutter came from behind him, from the small wooden cabin that was behind the stone.

A man came out of it, an old man walking with a cane. He had a long white beard and long white hair. He looked tired but also mystical as his glance locked with Kai’s.

’I wasn’t alone?’ Kai thought with a frown, as he hadn’t really looked at anything except the stone before him.

"Oh. You’ve made some progress. That’s already better than most," the man muttered with a smile. "They all usually give up within a few hours. But you didn’t. Congrats."

His tone was neutral as he said his congratulations. It almost seemed insincere.

"Who are you?" Kai asked, looking at the man.

"Someone who was tasked to help you."

"By who?"

The man shrugged. "Does that even matter? It’s been so long. I’m stuck here with the sole order to help those wandering."

Kai wanted to continue to press for information, as he was almost certain that it was Varkul who had trapped this man here. However, he knew from a glance that this old man wouldn’t say a word about it.

"Can I at least know your name?"

"Hm... Ricker. You can call me Ricker."

"Now, you already awakened the stone with your monster energy. As I said, that’s much better than most. However, you’ve been stuck for the past hour, unable to figure out anything about those strange markings, right?"

"Yes. Nothing makes sense. There’s no pattern; there’s nothing."

The man sighed. "That’s because there isn’t one. This technique doesn’t have a pattern to learn from. You need to understand the roots of the technique. You need to understand what cannot be seen. You need to look further than the stone."

"What do you mean?"

The man looked up into the sky as night settled in. Beautiful moonlight appeared above, falling onto the stone.

"Pay attention. I will not show you twice."

The man closed his eyes, letting go of his cane.

He let the moonlight light up his body. It looked strange; the moonlight slowly began to be absorbed by the man.

His wrinkles disappeared.

His white hair and beard began changing colors.

The appearance of the old man underwent a transformation. It was as if he became young again. Within seconds, the man looked like he was barely twenty.

Kai could only watch with his mouth wide open.

’How... how is this possible?’

The man finally opened his eyes with a slight smirk.

"That’s only one of the powers from the skill etched onto the stone. The moonlight is filled with strength. You simply need to understand how to use it."

"What about the claw marks? Can you show me?"

Ricker shook his head. "That... even I never managed to figure it out. And... I’ve been here for thousands of years."

"Then how did you absorb the moonlight energy?"

"I didn’t absorb it," he said with a smirk. "It was similar, but not the same."

Kai just stood there, his mind racing in all kinds of directions at those words. He wasn’t sure what to think of this situation.

The man walked in Kai’s direction, patted his back, and said, "I’ll let you ponder a little bit more. However, if I were you, I would stop obsessing over the stone. Look at your surroundings, the energies surrounding you. There’s a lot more to comprehend that way—the moon, the sun. All of them can be used to enhance your powers."

A few seconds later, the man became old again as he returned inside the wooden cabin.

"If you ever need to find me, you know where to find me. I’ll go take a nap now..."

The man grabbed his cane from the ground and returned inside his cabin.

"It was nice meeting you, chosen one."

Kai didn’t hear that last sentence as he was already looking toward the moon, trying to mimic the movements of the man.